Took my first trip up to Randall’s Island this past Sunday to wade through the Electric Zoo, the three-day electronic music festival that featured artists such as Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Diplo, Moby and Chromeo. Although I was only there for a few hours in the afternoon, I experienced a lot – outrageous neon costumes, persistent public nudity, people staring at the grass, fist-pumping, Dougie-ing 300 lb. security guards, and a delicious dumpling truck, to name a few.

Musically though, I was there to witness hip-hop-infused electronic duo Big Gigantic, who were a bit of an outlier at the Zoo due to their use live instrumentation (Dominic Lalli on sax/laptop and Jeremy Salken on drums). Once the tunes started though, the crowd flocked to their tent and never left. The Boulder, CO gents, who are releasing their new album ‘Nocturnal’ this October, tore through a handful of their frenetic numbers, weaving in remixed recent hip-hop hits like Kanye West’s “POWER” and Aloe Blacc’s “I Need a Dollar” (fan-shot video below). The band and crowd were completely on fire, and I’m not sure that they, or I, had ever seen music performed like that.