Music festivals have come to be about a lot of things. Individuality, acceptance, showmanship, love, and the list could go on for pages. But one thing that stands out, is the creativity. People love to dress up and be seen. So when it comes to Halloween, that means it is really time to step it up a notch and go all out. The perfect festival for that, is Escape. Escape fully encompasses that need to be in full makeup and costume to bring your favorite creature or being to life. And the perfect music for that setting? We’d say dark and heavy and intense. It just so happens Escape has got that going for them too. An artist who also fully encompasses himself in his work, pushing tirelessly to perfect his craft and gain as much knowledge about it as possible. That artist, is Blackgummy.
The Los Angeles based Iman Marouf, AKA Blackgummy, has an obsessive fascination for music production and sound design. He’s known to routinely spend 15 hours a day, tweaking and researching and fine tuning his music. He can move seamlessly through a sound field of dark industrial techno, to uplifting progressive all in one dance enforcing set. Iman began his journey in studios, either physically building them, or creating music inside of them. He then attended the Icon Collective music production school in Burbank, California, which is where things really started to break ground for the gummy-bear man. Through the mentorship program, he met Steve Duda. If you’re unfamiliar with Steve, just know that he is a big name in the dance music industry, and has many accomplishments (Serum VST, credit for a lot of Deadmau5 tracks, and many awards and titles) within it. Steve took him under his wing and helped him to hone his sound design and engineering skills. Blackgummy also beta tested the Serum VST, and along with Deadmau5, has his name within the credits.
In 2015, Mau5trap discovered Blackgummy and his incredible ear and work ethic. Later that year, Mau5trap released his first original track, ‘Lullaby’ on their We Are Your Friends album compilation. He then released his debut EP Singularity, inspired by the concept of technological singularity. Next, 2016 brought on his EP, Impactor, inspired by the KT Impactor asteroid that wiped out all of the dinosaurs. Finally this year we were introduced to his EP Monolith. With a few releases in between, this was Blackgummy’s 7th release on Mau5trap. And all came with high praise and critical acclaim. Below we’ve featured some of our favorite tracks, and his exclusive mix he did for Escape 2016, because well, it’s that good.
All of these accomplishments and obsessive working has taken him on tours across the US and Canada, further propelling him, the bear, and the music into the limelight. And for the second year in a row, he is bringing his dirty techno and progressive sound to Escape. You can catch Blackgummy Saturday, day 2 of the fest on the Ghoul’s Graveyard stage. 2-day and single-day tickets are still available here. Get your masks, costumes and makeup ready, because this weekend is sure to be scary good.
Connect with Escape Psycho Circus:
https://facebook.com/EscapeHalloween
https://twitter.com/escapehalloween
https://instagram.com/escapehalloween
http://escapehalloween.com
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