Beat-breaking sounds: Electronic music in the Burg

Friday, September, 19, 2008; 12:00 AM | 7 | | Print

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TOPICS: electronic music champs drum-n-bass

"If you like dancing to it and you like it that much, you might as well learn how to play it and kind of turn other people on to it," Jarmuth said. He has played all over Blacksburg from the former Nerve to the classic house party and enjoys the opportunity to give back to a scene that, although it is rarely known, thrives all the same and has nurtured his appreciation for the music.

"You start to see the same faces out and that's really cool," Fitzgerald said. "You just start to meet people you might not have met before and everybody's really friendly. They're good fun people -- I like the scene."

Unfortunately, because of its collegiate setting, the electronic scene in Blacksburg ebbs and flows.

"The problem to keep a scene and grow it here is that it's a college town so there's a four-year cycle," Miller said. "So it doesn't have the scene that, like, a lot of big cities have."

Still, the scene has seen more life in recent years, and its notoriety has been growing quickly as more electronic musicians come down to play Blacksburg, such as D.C.-based group Headhunterz who came down last year. This is largely because of the effort put forth by Massive Sound.

"It's really cool because, even today," Jarmuth said, "they (Headhunterz) are still like, 'Any time you want us to come to Blacksburg, we're down.'"

Many find a Saturday night electronic show in Blacksburg a perfect way to take the edge off of a long week.

"It's a great release," Fitzgerald said, who holds a job bartending at the Inn at Virginia Tech while taking class at the university and attending Blue Ridge School of Massage and Yoga. A frequent attendee of Champs shows, Fitzgerald has grown to love the scene and its constituents.

 "Drum-n-bass people just love to get down and love to have a good time," she said.

For Fitzgerald, she enjoys the respite found in the Massive Sound shows and relishes a certain particular moment.

"The moment that when you get there," she said. "And you kind of start to get into the music, and you're just dancing and you're getting down, and you stop and you look around and you see everybody smiling and everyone having a great time."

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Open your Eyes and your Ears! | # September 19, 2008 @ 10:58 PM — Flag Comment

A story about local electronic music without even one mention of the Boogieburg crew. Poor research man!

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Drum n Bass in yo Face. | # September 20, 2008 @ 1:23 PM — Flag Comment

Poor research or a selection process? lol.

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EDM fan | # September 20, 2008 @ 2:24 PM — Flag Comment

The article is about electronic dance music. Anyone who has a clue what encompassed by this genre would understand that it doesn't include the club remixes heard in bars on a regular basis.

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Dancing to a 4 beat | # September 22, 2008 @ 4:39 PM — Flag Comment

there are 4 EDM crews in Blacksburg at the moment, massive sound are simply the best. Massive Sound (good ol dirty beats) Boogieburg (funky breaks and progressive funky house) Astral Planes (psytrance, psybreaks, ambient/downtempo) Evolation (Vocal trance and electro)

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Steve Morris (aka Class-A) | # September 23, 2008 @ 11:36 AM — Flag Comment

Just so ya all know we have a party down at champs again this saturday (Sept 27th). Should be pretty sweet if you all enjoyed the last one!! As far as boogieburg not being mentioned, its probably because they play more commecial EDM / top 40 remixes as opposed to pure EDM.

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edm fan | # November 18, 2009 @ 3:13 PM — Flag Comment

As far as I've noticed, Boogieburg has consistently had the best crowds, best parties, best music, and fewest party-goers on drugs. Very good for the local party scene in my opinion. They play the most dancefloor friendly electronic dance music and the girls at their parties are always super cute!

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vohgren | # October 22, 2008 @ 11:10 PM — Flag Comment

this article is about one group of a kids, that play a certain style of music. no one else needs to be mentioned. there are other articles on other groups, people like different things and it's a good thing that multiple genres are available to the community, and an even better thing that they can be successful and coexist.

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