The up-and-coming artist known as DJ Snoopadelic.
Electric Zoo
Randall's Island
Sunday, September 4

Better than: Did someone already reference the Labor Day shootings? Eesh.

Electric Zoo—the dance music festival that's parts techno, house, trance, disco, bass, "electro," and any other somewhat popular genre of music with a beat—is something that you have to mentally prepare for. The crowds make up one of the mental barricades, if only because an island rave called "Electric Zoo" makes real the thought of being sandwiched between thousands of furry boots and glowing fingernails clawing euphorically at the air or, even worse, your hair. But if there's one thing that was made clear from our time there, it's that your pre-festival meditation routines aren't necessary. While it certainly is a spectacle, Electric Zoo was probably the happiest place on earth last weekend.

A still from Andy Warhol's Blow Job

The Thursday night opening ceremonies for the Polish Unsound Festival at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center confused and delighted an audience of both Upper West Side neighborhood folk and deep electronic music fans. Finnish electronic producer Vladislav Delay abstracted electronic splashes alongside Berliner VJ Lillevan's projections before producer Sebastian Meissner and Polish avant-garde classic quartet Kwartludium re-imagined Cali hardcore punk label SST as mesmeric classical music. No mosh pit broke out.