Days leading up to Coachella, DJ’s begin to fly into Los Angeles and with them, they bring new music. Before heading out to the desert DJ’s use their time in the city to test out new music at popup events.
At 10 am on Monday via Instagram Salute a Manchester based DJ announced his “Pretty People” popup show at Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in Koreatown. Tickets were free and distributed via Dice event app. I was lucky to get in line around 6pm with only eight people ahead of me. That all changed around 7pm when the line was down the block. Doors opened promptly at 8pm and the night began.
Before Salute took the stage, a DJ by the name Luke J Fono opened the set up with plenty of house mixes and got the people ready for a night full of dancing. Around 9:30pm Salute and their back to back DJ partner, Hudson Mohawke took the stage.
Salute and Hudson Mohawke performed a back to back set that was filled with mixes of popular songs and even premiered new music. They premiered two unreleased tracks: one with musician Ema Sakura and “She’s Gone, Dance On” with Disclosure. If you happen to be on the house music side of Tik Tok you’ll know that, “She’s Gone, Dance On” has gone viral with a clip of DJ Seinfeld performing it for the first time at his Boiler Room set a month ago in Sydney. The two also performed a mixed version of Ariana Grande’s recent hit single, “Yes, And?”
Since I was there early enough, I had a prime dancing spot in the front by the DJ booth. The night was filled with hints of techno, UK bass, and French house. I had to leave around 10:30 and was surprised to find that there was still a line waiting to get in.
Salute is signed with the label Ninja Tune, who also represent artists like Jayda G, Peggy Gou, and TSHA. The Manchester based artist has had their most popular Spotify song, “Joy” featured in an episode of Love Island U.K.
He is set to play Coachella today at 8pm in the Do Lab, a popular stage for rising and surprise DJ sets. The stage is popular for hosting up and coming stars who eventually become household names in the EDM world. For example, the stage has hosted names like Fred Again, John Summit, and Odesza just when they were starting out.
Listen to some of Salute’s top songs like System, Peach, and Joy to get a feel for yourself!
