Thievery Corporation at Electric Forest 2017: Stealing Silence for Salaam

T-Corp is directing the sonic bliss they’ve been cultivating for more than 20 years toward Michigan in June, making yet another highly anticipated appearance at the ever-growing Electric Forest—an event that has grown to cover two weekends of zen-funk-folk-EDM fun.

While you are there—you fans of Four Tet, Ocote Soul Sounds, and Boozoo Bajou—you might well remember that your favorite current alchemists might not have the recipes for the sweet dub-jazz, trip-hopped, bossa nova electro-bliss they’re using to cook their sounds to perfection if Thievery Corporation (and associated alchemists like Jazzanova, Rockers Hi-Fi, and DJ Krush) hadn’t written the book in the ‘90s.

If you want to taste the source at its dubbed-out apex, Insomniac has quite a picnic basket for you. This month: Thievery Corporation under the thick, wooded canopy of Electric Forest, where their come-correct zen will curl its tendrils among the boughs of some of the oldest woodlands in North America.

They’re ramping up to the performance with a quick interview with Insomniac, aimed squarely at your third eye.

TC put the flame to their rocket in 1996, dropping singles “Shaolin Satellite” and “The Foundation” on their lauded, Washington D.C.–based 18th Street Lounge label. Inarguably, the sound has been growing tighter and more distinct ever since. And although their sound is identifiable to the point of literally being trademark-able, there has rarely been less of a consensus on a major band as to what “type” of music they’re playing. The needle has settled somewhere around the dub lounge/bossa nova/Eastern electro/acid jazz mark.

More accurately: the Thievery Corporation zone.

Their most recent joint began with a phone call to Rob Garza from cofounder Eric Hilton. “He was down there on holiday,” recalls Garza. “He called me up and said, ‘Hey, how do you feel about coming down and doing some tracking down in Jamaica?’

“‘Jamaica, eh? Let’s do it.’”

And so it began—the fitting together, recording and mastering of their on-location, dub-heavy, 10-out-of-10er Temple of I & I. “We brought down the rhythm section of our live band, and we fit ourselves in to be part of the culture, the environment,” says Garza. “Mornings on the beach, evenings in the studio.”

Like many duos who have collaborated over long periods, there’s a real friendship, which makes it easy for the two to expand and contract the nucleus of the group as need be. They have played cargo-heavy of late, populating the stage with 20+ members. But regardless of what they’re doing now, it’s been more about how and their ability to adapt.

There is always a “now” in any stream of art, and according to Garza, the now of electronic and that of their 1996 origins are two very distinct animals.

“It’s definitely a very different scene. Electronic music has reached the mainstream, and it’s just a new feeling. When we started out, it was still quite underground, and you really had to seek out and search for it,” Garza observes. “All music at this point is electronic music. You could record a country album on your computer using ProTools these days and have it be accepted as such. It used to be considered an electronic album if you recorded it on your computer. Definitions are changing all the time.”

So have festivals. Thievery Corp have been playing Insomniac events since the jump. “We played EDC in L.A. right before they switched it to Vegas, and that was insane. A madhouse. A spectacle. I remember all of us being blown away by the whole event. Nobody had the idea that it would explode to become the thing that it has. Even at that time, however, you could tell that something was brewing.”

They weren’t wrong.

And yes: They’ll return this year to Insomniac’s Michigan camp-fest, Electric Forest. The band that has had no major label involvement and no smash hit, but has managed to hypnotize and chillax countless areas and living rooms alike. “We love playing Insomniac events, by the way,” Garza adds. “I remember one year playing EDC and being amazed at the vibrancy, right alongside the craziness of Vegas. And we love playing Electric Forest, of course; that’s a totally different energy. But out in nature as it is, in some ways, it’s even more alive.