The Mile High Sound Movement Throws Down

Written by Michael Garfield Tuesday, 08 December 2009 02:15

Colorado is a lucky place to be for music lovers, but the unfortunate side-effect of so many good choices is that legions of super-talented artists go unnoticed. Case in point: every single member of The Mile High Sound Movement, a Denver-based music and arts collective spearheaded by Jerry Jay Jaramillo (aka Project Aspect) and Zach Karuzas (aka Kruza Kid).

Throwing down a veritable zoo of collaborations that play in the space somewhere between jam, electronic, and hip-hop – and sometimes all three at once – the Mile High Sound kids are without question the most inclusive, fun-loving, warm-hearted...and youngest crew of monster jammers I have met on the Front Range.

Average age, like the cast and crew of the first Star Wars movie, is somewhere around twenty two – but the wild variety of the line-up at their November 28th Cervantes show would have stood up to most other local concerts I've seen this year. I imagine that if there is any justice in the world, it won't be long before people know the names of acts like Unlimited Gravity, Earth Tones, and Jeff The Box – not to mention the excellent live painters and fire dancers who shine just as bright as members of what I hope and expect to be one of the Denver area's next big music families.

I was lucky enought to be invited by the crew to paint and play at this show, where I was greeted many times over by smiles and hugs and pulled into a hazy green room for pre-game briefing. As I waited around for my turn to soundcheck, I was treated to great conversation by up-and-coming live artist Rick Medina, whose vivid drips and blocks, dopey characters, and bold compositions are a perfect visual counterpart to the wild gangle of the evening's music. And then another painter showed up, and another...at some point I lost track.

All of a sudden the show was in full swing and I scrambled to my easel to do what I came to do. From then on, for multiple reasons, the show was a blur of heavy beats through Cervantes' delicious new sound system, sweeping circles of flame, and the kind of wild cheering you can only get from an all-ages crowd. The crowd was a little thinner than what I'm used to at Cervantes, but still thick enough to make me feel real home team pride for The Mile High Sound Movement and their hard-working word of mouth. Not to mention, enough people to regularly knock my camera stand askew, complicating efforts to film a new timelapse video of my live painting in progress.

Between the full-band-as-DJ crunk jams of Contraband (the umbrella project with Jaramillo on guitar and Karuzas on congas and MC duty, not to mention the rest of those precocious professionals), the stupidly awesome "mouth music" of Jeff The Box, and ultra-tasty DJ sets from an armload of other talented local peeps, the night came and went too quickly. But I imagine it won't be too long before you can treat yourself to an encore performance. Hopefully then, we'll all bear witness to the audience these guys deserve.

Rick Medina painting on stage with D. Ray. Rick's paintings, propped up on the DJ table, offered some colorful scenery above and beyond the crowded instrument-scape of the packed stage.

Contraband bumps it. Kruza kid paid quite a bit of lip time to the fact that he had an entire band backing him up instead of one guy on turntables – a bit too much, given that the "livetronica" thing is nothing new, nor are full bands with dedicated MC frontmen. Not the point of novelty I would have isolated as attention-worthy. But easy to forgive.

I was set up to paint right in front of the riser block where fire dancers were rocking people's socks off all night. When this kind of thing is going on right next to me, I find it extremely difficult to focus. At least, to focus on my own art, instead of being a moth with a camera.

I finished up the evening's first painting early (which never happens) and got to work on something dramatically new for most of the night – an ambigram nodding to the scene's fondness for ornate graffiti script and psychedelic weirdness. What Now? You can find out more about this painting and the rest of my work from that night, including timelapse photography of me at work, here.

Full line-up from the evening:

Music: Kruza Kid & The Contraband w/ Masterspect, Unlimited Gravity, JeffDubBox, Motion Montage, Earth Tones, D. Ray, Michael Garfield, ProJect Aspect

Dancers: Ysabel Blu, Shana Marie Valencia, Todd Jacko, Anthony Blake, Kristin Nowell

Painters: Michael Garfield, Mark Mitchell, Melissa Rogers, Ricky Medina, Ian Ruppert