Motion Potion | |
---|---|
Birth name | Robbie Kowal |
Also known as | MoPo |
Born | August 1973 (age 48) Boston, Massachusetts |
Genres | Funk, breakbeat , disco , remix |
Occupation(s) | DJ, producer, concert organizer, founder and partner of Sunset Promotions |
Instruments | Turntables, Ableton, Pioneer CDJ-2000 |
Years active | 1995–present |
Website |
Robbie Kowal (born August 1973), also known by his professional names Motion Potion or MoPo, [1] is an American DJ, record producer, and concert promoter. [2] Known for blending electronic music with the genres of funk, hip hop, and psychedelic rock, [3] he first started mixing live in 1995.
Kowal was born in Boston, Massachusetts. After moving to his current base of San Francisco in 1997, he co-founded the concert promotion company Sunset Promotions or SunsetSF in 2001, which became known for producing festivals such as the SF Funk Fest and North Beach Jazz. Since then he has helped found and/or produce festivals and concert nights such as All Shook Down Music Festival, Sea of Dreams NYE, Ghost Ship Halloween, Loveboat Halloween, North Beach Jazz, Festival of the Golden Gate and Mojito Café. [4] According to the Los Angeles Times , in 2006 MoPo was the first DJ to play a silent disco in the United States, [5] and since then he has founded Silent Frisco, a headphone dance concert production company. [6] In 2015, Silent Frisco and SunsetSF merged to become HUSHconcerts, an event production company that now contributes to more than 1000 events per year.
Motion Potion tours frequently, and is best known for crafting intensively researched tribute sets, typically related to artists headlining a festival at which he performs. Among the themes he is best known for include Radiohead in Remix, Talking Heads Dance Party, Santana in Remix, Janet vs Michael, Beasties/Beatles/Beck, Prince's Purple Reign, and Metallica in Remix. This propensity for deep dives has seen him booked repeatedly at numerous festivals. From and from 2002 to 2004 was the first and only DJ at Bonnaroo. He is also the only DJ to have played every year of the Electric Forest Festival). The San Francisco Weekly has called MoPo "the godfather of the silent disco," [7] while SFist called him "one of the nation’s foremost purveyors of the 'Silent Disco' concept." [8] He periodically produces music, and in 2008 he released a series of three EPs titled Electric Nostalgia Vol. 1-3. [1] In 2017, MoPo released a Radiohead-tribute remix album entitled 'Subterranean Homemade Alchemy' to raise awareness for social causes championed by the band. [1]
The following is a list of selected notable appearances by Motion Potion as a DJ: [9]
Year | Album title | Release details |
---|---|---|
2008 | Electric Nostalgia Vol. 1 |
|
Electric Nostalgia Vol. 2 |
| |
Electric Nostalgia Vol. 3 |
| |
2015 | Subterranean Homemade Alchemy - AKA Subalchemy |
|
Year | Release title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2007 | Erectrofly'd | Produced CD in May 2007 [9] |
Wet in Sweat | Produced CD in May 2007 [9] | |
2008 | The History of Psychedelic Rock in Remix | Live mix CD |
A Decade of Kraak & Smaak | Live mix CD | |
Year | Single name | Compilation/album | Release details |
---|---|---|---|
2006 | "Break Yourself" (mashup by MoPo) | The Best Mashups In The World Ever Are From San Francisco 2 | BootieUSA (May 15, 2006) [1] |
2006 | Various tracks | Bonnaroo Bangers | Bonnaroo [1] |
Twilight Circus is the dub and reggae project of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Moore, former bassist and drummer of the Legendary Pink Dots. Twilight Circus is becoming increasingly popular and well known for Moore's work with artists such as Big Youth, Michael Rose of Black Uhuru and Ranking Joe. He originally started off producing dub albums, before recording vocalists for inclusion on his critically acclaimed Foundation Rockers album. In the classic tradition of reggae, Moore releases 10" vinyl record singles, often in limited edition.
SF Weekly was a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California, that was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, and sponsored the SF Weekly Music Awards.
The San Francisco International Film Festival, organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution. In 2009, it served around 82,000 patrons, with screenings held in San Francisco and Berkeley.
Stuart Langelaan, stage name Lange, is a British DJ and record producer.
Jason Moran is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator involved in multimedia art and theatrical installations.
Justin Boland, also known as J Boogie is a DJ, music producer, radio host, music director and music curator from San Francisco with over 25 years of experience in the music industry.
The I-Beam was a former popular nightclub and live music venue active from 1977 to 1994, and located in the Park Masonic Hall building on the second floor at 1748 Haight Street in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. The I-Beam served as one of San Francisco's earliest disco clubs, as well as serving as a "gay refuge".
A silent disco or silent rave is an event where people dance to music listened to on wireless headphones. Rather than using a speaker system, music is broadcast via a radio transmitter with the signal being picked up by wireless headphone receivers worn by the participants. Those without the headphones hear no music, giving the effect of a room full of people dancing to nothing.
DJ Garth is a House music DJ and recording artist who is largely credited with both defining and capturing the sound of San Francisco house music in the 1990s. He co-founded the Wicked Sound System and established a series of underground parties which were important in putting San Francisco on the club/rave map.
Fred Everything is a French-Canadian electronic musician and DJ, best known for his work in the deep house music genre.
Von Iva was an all-girl electro soul-punk group out of San Francisco.
Julian Waterfall Pollack / J3PO is an American pianist, keyboardist, composer, and producer associated with jazz, classical, and hip hop music.
Electric Forest is a four-day and one-weekend multi-genre event with a focus on electronic music and jam band genres. It is held in Rothbury, Michigan at the Double JJ Resort. The original event debuted in 2008, under the name Rothbury Festival, and focused on jam bands and rock bands. In 2017 and 2018, the festival expanded to two weekends back to back before switching back to one weekend for 2019. The event was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Electric Forest is co-produced by Madison House Presents and Insomniac Events. The 2015 event drew an estimated 45,000 attendees.
The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is a music festival held annually in San Francisco, California, at Golden Gate Park. The festival is produced by Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Presents, and Starr Hill Presents. It is the largest independently owned music festival in the US. In 2019, it was one of the world's highest grossing festivals with revenues of almost $30 million.
DJ Mog is a Northern Irish house DJ and producer of the single "Somewhere" which reached #1 on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart in America.
The 2011 Bonnaroo Music Festival was held June 9–12, in Manchester, Tennessee and marked the 10th time the festival has been held since its inception in 2002. This year also marked the first return of the SuperJam since 2008.
Caleb Cornett, better known by his stage name Amtrac, is an American DJ, electronic music producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Poolside is an American nu-disco and chillwave band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2011 by Jeffrey Paradise and Filip Nikolic. Following Nikolic's departure in 2017, the band currently consists of Jeffrey Paradise with additional members for live shows Vito Roccoforte, Mattie Safer, Brijean Murphy and Casey Butler (Pharaohs).
Alexandre Destrez is a French pianist, keyboardist, composer and musical arranger. He is particularly well known for his musical collaboration on the Tourist and Boulevard albums of St. Germain.
Rickey Vincent is an American author, historian, and radio host based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of Funk: The Music, the People and the Rhythm of The One, which encompasses the history of funk music, and won the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing in 1997.