It’s a quarter past 2 a.m. on a Sunday in New Paltz, N.Y. and the night is at its peak. Cabaloosa’s reached capacity more than three hours ago but the line to enter is still stretching along the sidewalk of Main Street. The queue extends from the club’s doors to the entrance of Rock Da Pasta. The people waiting for entry want to dance, which is why they’re waiting to get into one of the places in town where disc jockeys spin dubstep, house, electro, techno and trance tracks.
The popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) has grown immensely and New Paltz has caught on to the trend. The music is characterized by synthesized sounds, heavy bass and drum machine beats. EDM is notorious at nightclubs, ragers and raves, where a DJ plays tracks in a continuous set. The music is essentially meant to be danced to in a freestyle manner although any arrangement of arm flailing or foot stomping will suffice.
Melissa Gundersen, fourth-year geology major, said she goes to EDM events because the unique beat makes dancing feel good and the energy levels are always high.
“I think [EDM] has become so popular in New Paltz because of the freedom and creativity within it. People get to dress freely, wear body paint, wear glow sticks, let loose and go crazy without any judgement,” she said. “New Paltz is a very expressive place and I believe that dubstep allows individuals to go out and express themselves within their dancing.”
Crown and Anchor, a bass organization composed of DJ Bloom, DJ Rodan, DJ Saho and MC Drhu, has built a reputation within the dubstep scene of New Paltz. In the past year, DJ Far East and Brother Suarez have begun their own EDM-based events at Cabaloosa’s and have established an enormous fan base.
Their reign started with their Bootily Fluids and ELECTRO:LYSIS shows and they began hosting JunGALA soon after, the most recent of which occurred on Saturday, Oct. 23. Tracks spun included Douster – King of Africa VIP and Congorock – Babylon and Kingdom – Matt Bira Kvinnor Weed Remix.
Victor Urgelles, third-year theatre performance major, has always loved to dance but when he started going to the events that involved electronic, house and dubstep music he realized exactly what it was about dancing that appealed to him.
Urgelles said he believes this type of music is completely different from what past generations have experienced.
“When we go to these events we can actually feel the music,” he said. “Bass is the one frequency we can actually feel and it makes us move in ways we didn’t even know we could. There’s no structured way to dance to this music, really. There is nothing causing anyone to feel uncomfortable about the way they are dancing because they might be doing it wrong.”
If you haven’t joined the masses of bassheads already hyped about EDM, it’s not too late to put on your bass face and womp the night away. Crown and Anchor Dub is hosting a Halloween themed Watchtower Wobble featuring Dub Wars New York City at Cabaloosa’s on Friday, Oct. 29. BASS!MINT will also be taking place at Cabaloosa’s on Friday, Nov. 12 with DJ Far East, MC Drhu and others.