It wasn't so long ago that a music fan might have had to choose between world fusion and electronica.
But just as the fine creators of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups found a way to merge two of the greatest things in the world, the minds behind Beats Antique beautifully wed the exotic strains of world music and the pulsing, blissful rhythms electronica.
And if you could distill equal parts Burning Man, belly dancing, an art-school video, that rave scene from “Matrix Reloaded” and every world music genre you can think of, the group you may come up with could be Beats Antique, an electronica act with a live show renowned for its spectacle.
And, as fortune would have it, that live spectacle is headed to the stage of Midtown Ballroom in Bend on Saturday, where Barcelona, Spain, electronic artist Filastine, billed as the “world's only luddite laptopist,” will open.
The San Francisco trio Beats Antique originally formed, according to www.allmusic .com, to drum up music for former Police manager and IRS Records' founder Miles Copeland's newer gig, Bellydance Superstars.
Each member of the Beats trio — Zoë Jakes, David Satori and Tommy Cappel — has a musical background that precipitated the Beats Antique, which formed in 2007.
Satori hails from Vermont, where he grew up playing guitar and explored Middle Eastern and gypsy music via violin, the site says. He eventually wound up in California, first in Los Angeles, and then San Francisco, where he put his talents to use in an Afro-beat group known as Aphrodesia, which once toured in Africa.
Keyboardist and drummer Cappel studied music in Boston before moving on to New York and then San Francisco, where he met Satori, who was dating Jakes. After securing Copeland's blessing, the three began work on Beats Antique's first album, “Tribal Derivations,” released in 2007. “Collide” followed the next year and found the group still picking up new musical influences to help keep people moving.
For those whose legs still function after hours of dancing, an 18 and older afterparty with plenty more music from G.A.M.M.A., Tyler Taste Maker and Weird Science starts at 1 a.m. Sunday next door at the Domino Room.
