Reporting back from my first-ever Twisted Frequency experience.
Simply put, it was fucking MEAN and CRACK UP.
But really. What a festival. What a community. What a gem! Now knowing such a superior way of living exists, how do we wait out the other 360 days of the year?? SOS, CANNOT DETWIST!
From Soundcloud:
My first ever Twisted Frequency – a truly EPIC experience!! Phone recording of my set in The Chillery – a central tent stage furnished with rugs and towers of sofas, deep in the midst of a gorgeous green valley. I played at 9-10pm on NYE so wanted to imbue a kind of reflective, contemplative mood, as well as a bit of a psych up for the night to come. It was so inspiring to absorb all the buzzy sound and visions happening 24/7 around the festival and channel that energy into my set. Felt so good to play some new material out on this phat ass soundsystem to an absolutely litty crowd!!!
Huge thanks to Twisted for chucking me in the cauldron this year, and special thanks to Jed from Grains for the guitar, Clayton and the crew on the Chillery soundsystem, my South Island bb Reme for driving us round the motu in a gangsta hi-top van, & all you cooked Marges in the pit. Bless up.
Recording is ruff and ready. Sent from my iPhone, no filters, woke up like this (/did I even sleep). Cover image by Reme ❤
Nestled in a remote valley at the top of the South Island, Twisted felt more like a pilgrimage than a music festival. It’s not easy to get to, and that’s a core part of the experience. While the faithful return early every year, others queued patiently for hours on the one-way road before reaching the entrance. Indeed, it’s all worth it when you’re parking up for five days of good ol’ fashioned knees-up in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, surrounded by awesome humans, killer soundsystems and otherworldly visual spectacles designed by some of the best in the game.
Music ran 24 hours across four unique stages: Te Pouākai (colloquially referred to on-site as ‘up top’ or ‘main’), The Chillery, Beat Bach and the Dojo, serving up some of the most-far out, challenging electronic music you’re likely to hear in the Southern Hemisphere. I loved opening the schedule on arrival and not knowing most of the artists, let alone their genres – ‘Isolationism’, ‘Deep Forest’, ‘Beach Hop’, ‘Slutbass’ to name a few – providing a Twisted treasure map to explore and decode right from the get-go.
As the name suggests, the beats at Twisted Frequency are not for the faint-hearted. Pumping hard at all hours, Te Pouākai served a meticulous program of psychedelic genres that often sounded like the kick was on the 1-2-3 and 4, played at 300bpm, thrown in a blender then thrown in a larger blender full of decimated blenders. Truly demonic. (Call me basic, but I was clinging to the deep house played during the changeover before Raw Collective on the Beat Bach lol).
By testing the limits of sound and vision, Twisted pushes the human capacities of body, mind, and soul to reach a collective state of euphoria. Getting pummeled by rollercoastering freak-uencies and twisted aural assaults (or when lying down, a purring massage through the whenua), leads us to those untouchable heights.
This festival was held in tandem with Papatūānuku. The native bush, hills, crystal clear awa… was as much of a headliner as any of the international DJs, and boy did she come to the party. The weather conditions were sometimes challenging – four seasons in one day from pelting rain to scorching sunshine – but the mud party raged on.
Dancing on this beautiful land we call home, the deep bass vibrations activated a deep somatic memory that I hadn’t felt since One Love at the Velodrome in the mid-2000s. The music rattled my ribcage and touched my skin, it flowed directly to my inner sanctum. It’s no wonder we were hugging the speakers all week, they literally moved something inside of us. It was HUNJ (derived from hundy, the official spelling is now like DUNJ, it’s just so right.)
I simply cannot put into words the depths of this experience – the music, humans, humour, sights, sounds, smells, so will revert to bulletpoints to get some key vibes down. (One of my dancefloor epiphanies was to create, finish and publish work more frequently. Writing is one of those things where I often have an intention but rarely a follow through.)
Artists I saw and loved (not limited to / these are the ones I could identify):
Splinter
Texture
Mani Festo
Tansy
Al Wootton
Azu Tiwaline
I.C.Y
Tom Plum
Stacy Lee
Thys
Sam Binga
Bahns & Infordin
Doughboy
NET
Bin Day
Fvkvshima
Beastwars
Olive Drab B2B Tecta
DUNJ Crew
Spirit Level
Raw Collective
Kōroto and Kahamāia
&
Dusty Comedy Kick Ons
Twisted Cabaret
Things I did (not limited to lol):
– performed in The Chillery!!!
– entered a raffle to win a flaming katana (later won by someone called Jayden)
– distributed a white guy’s cut-off dreads into the crowd
– swam naked in the river
– followed a jellyfish totem into the night
– met an 18-year-old porn star at the skate ramp
– got indigestion from scoffing an entire focaccia in my tent lol
– sword fight with literal armour and weaponry
– melted my mind
Overheard at Twisted (anonymous to protect remaining dregs of mana)
– “Hi, I’m here about the dr*g testing, I just need the dr*gs.”
– “Marlon Williams is over there in a k-hole, don’t worry, he’ll be there all day.”
– “Must be one of those bejeweled beards, fucking mean!”
– “I’m a mermaid, flap flap flap!”
– “Blood vessels come and go.”
– “The only thing I’m lifting today is a spliff to my face.”
– “Sometimes psy care means buckies, and that’s okay.”
– “FREE FECAL TESTS!”
– “Do you have a schedule?”
– “Yup -” *looks around for a bit*
– “Jokes, I was holding it in the rain last night and got all wet and turned into mulch then my friend said it looked like porridge and ate it.”
One of my favourite things about Twisted was how uniquely Antipodean the whole event was. I felt so proud to be from Aotearoa and attend such a sick festival in our neck of the woods. Never have I seen South Islanders, North Islanders and Australians get along so harmoniously, bonding over our shared humour, boganisms and rich heritage of getting fucked up in the outdoors. I appreciated the gags and how people didn’t take themselves too seriously on and off stage.
I simply loved being around all the amazing wahine, genderqueer and trans whānau doing dope shit all over the festival!! Badass chicks who know about diesel engines and Class-2 vehicles and jumper cables, skate barefoot in the halfpipe, smash the drums, and rock the mic like no one’s business. Truly inspiring. Tautoko all the mad fam out doing their thang.
As a lil Asian hot mess from the city, the safety and zen I felt while flying around the whenua and stomping around in the dark is not lost on me. CHURRR to all the crew for all their incredible ongoing mahi to ‘hold space’ for all us folx to get down and dirtttty together.
Indeed, one of the key things that makes Twisted so special is the kaupapa – Respect Yourself, Respect Each Other, Respect Papatūānuku. The tino rangatiratanga flag flew proudly in the center of the campsite, flanked by flags of Australian Aboriginal, Palestine, West Papua and LGBTQIA+.
The Info Centre was a place to get informed and make submissions on the Treaty Principals Bill. There were no corporate advertisements anywhere in the festival. Rubbish and recycling were meticulously sorted by both punters and crew. No one had signal and there were no phones on the dancefloor as no one had battery. True Bliss.
If I have one gripe, it was the loud talking at the front of the pits. Yeh we all having a great time and I don’t wanna yuck anyone’s yum, but if you at the front, you here to dance, sweety. Why try yelling at your cooked mate over the top of the DJ on a sick soundsystem? Earplugs were essential and great for blocking out random rolling chatter, but my tweaky brain found it a bit grating at times. I wonder if that’s Covid’s legacy – unspoken dancefloor etiquette that got lost on its way to the next generation. Am I being a Karen? Watch this space.
Thank you to all the organisers, crew, kaitiaki, psy care, medics, foodies, builders, skaters, fire people, circus people, vollies, chatty kathys, comics, performers, DJs, VJs, artists, and buzzy barnyard animals getting goddamn DOWN on the dancefloor. Without mincing words, y’all are fukn CRACK UP!!! 😂😂😂
Happy 10 Year Anniversary to Twisted Frequency. It was my absolute pleasure to party with y’all in the valley. Twisted 2025 will resonate with me forever! The visions I’ve seen just from one edition, I can’t even begin to think about the shit you guys have seen hahahaha.
See you next year,
MUCH LOVE
xoxoxoxox
KIWESE 