While we were glad that we didn’t have to endure a second year SXSW cancellations, we were admittedly skeptical about how the music portion of SXSW would translate into a digital setting. These 15 showcases helped to prove us wrong.
Though our fingers are crossed that come SXSW 2022 we’ll be sitting on an Austin patio, a Tito’s Handmade Vodka in one hand and a taco in the other, SXSW Online was an exercise in how the best forms of creativity aren’t held back by constraints – they flourish in them.
Sinead O’Brien at the British Music Embassy Presents Showcase
British Music Embassy Presents
New British music has long had a good home at the SXSW British Music Embassy, and 2021 was no exception. After SXSW 2020’s cancellation, the British Music Embassy team recorded half hour sets with the artists who were slated to perform at the year’s event. “That laid the blueprint for what we did this year,” shares Phil Patterson from the Department for International Trade UK. “This time around, with a little more than the week we had last year to plan, we managed to film and record 35 artists who delivered some great performances.”
Of all showcase presenters, the British Music Embassy had by far the largest presence at the festival, and the quality of their talent and production shone through. With their excellent camera work, unique stage set-up, and stellar lighting, the British Music Embassy was the closest thing I felt to an actual concert during the festival.
With 35 artists in attendance, it’s tough to choose just a few standouts, but we especially loved the flamboyant glam rock of Walt Disco, Onipa’s fusion of afrobeats and rock, Sinead O’Brien’s transfixing rock poetry, and porij’s danceable genre-mashing. lau.ra’s feel good beats, Olivia Dean’s soulful pop, and Baby Queen’s glitchy alt-pop were the most fun we’ve ever had at 6am. And of course, there was a plethora of excellent post-punk courtesy of Black Country New Road, Do Nothing, and Squid.
The showcase also had a home in the virtual world, with a VR Chat recreation of the Cedar Street Courtyard serving as the showcase’s virtual home.
Noya Rao at the Jazz re:Freshed Outernational showcase
Jazz re:Freshed Outernational
With their jazz fusion offerings, Jazz re:Freshed offers a value proposition unlike anything else at SXSW. Filmed at the famous Abbey Road Studios, the showcase was a well-needed mental cleanse after staring at a computer screen all day.
“Jazz re:freshed are determined to continue to be a beacon for UK Jazz globally, and so finding ways to still get the music out to the world was our mission,” said Yvette Griffith, Co-Chief Exec & Executive Director. “We have moved our annual one day festival, our weekly showcase event, and now our international showcase at SXSW all online, and are getting the music even further afield than before.”
Some highlights included a performance from tubist Theon Cross that traversed the lines of jazz, funk, dubstep, grime, and hip-hop, and a soulful electro-jazz set from Noya Rao.
Beauty Sleep at the Output Belfast showcase
Output Belfast
What better way to celebrate St Patrick’s Day than with some Irish music? The showcase, which featured four artists of diverse genres, kicked off with a well-timed St Patty’s toast from Beauty Sleep frontwoman Cheylene Murphy.
Other highlights included Enola Gay’s electric, politically charged punk, Lilla Vargen’s heartfelt balladry and Ryan McMullan charming singer-songwriter performance.
“Creating an online showcase (in association with British Music Embassy) for this year’s SXSW was definitely new territory for us,” Output Belfast told us, “but we had a fantastic crew from Northern Ireland putting together the production, including Ciara McMullan who directed, and Forfey whose studio we recorded in. Plus we had four incredibly talented artists who were a dream to work with. We feel extremely proud of how it turned out and can’t wait for next year’s event.”
Baker Boy at the Close Up: A Sounds Australia Showcase
Close Up: A Sounds Australia Showcase
Sounds Australia is another longstanding presence at SXSW. Throughout their several evenings of programming, hosted by the lovably pun-filled Glenny G (a.k.a Sounds Australia Export Music Producer Glenn Dickie), artists performed from their “backyards”. A special shoutout needs to go to the Sounds Australia team for moderating a lively live chat during each showcase, including tidbits of artist information throughout, and live chat cameos from performing artists and their management – all despite the 15 hour time difference separating Australia from Austin.
We especially loved the Yolngu hip-hop of Baker Boy, the psychedelic sounds of The Lazy Eyes, Death by Denim’s Arctic Monkeys meets Tame Impala swagger, and Sycco’s indie pop gems. Kota Banks & Ninajirachi’s electro-pop performance made a convert out of us, and the inimitable Jaguar Jonze made us miss concerts more than ever with a rocking performance filmed live at a show in Australia – where concerts are once again active.
Rachael Lavelle at the Music From Ireland Official Showcase
Music From Ireland Official Showcase
The Music From Ireland showcase featured what was hands down THE best concert production of SXSW Online 2021. Throughout the festival, we captured and edited the screenshot photography you can see within this writeup – but this showcase almost felt like cheating because it was so beautifully lit! With their dramatic camera angles and artistic lighting, the Music From Ireland showcase was a treat both for the eyes and ears.
We especially loved Rachael Lavelle’s witchy spoken word and Pillow Queen’s anthemic, expansive rock.
Joven Dionosio at the Brazillian Bio.Sound showcase
Brazillian Bio.Sound
Admission: we knew very, very little about Brazilian pop music before doing my research for SXSW. Fortunately, the team at Flow.ers Agency created a stellar event that showcased not only great Brazilian music, but also its ecological diversity.
Our favourite Brazilian musical discoveries of the festival included the upbeat indie pop of Dingo Bells, the bossa nova tinged tropical dream pop of Jovem Dionisio, and Tuyo’s harmonic indie rock.
“The initiative is inspired by a journey between the biomes of Brazil, with delicious mixes of flavors, landscapes and colors,” shared Wal Flor, CEO of Flow.ers Agency. “We want people to experience and preserve the diversity of new Brazilian music. We prepared a showcase that shows this diverse Brazil in its color, its people, its music and that the whole world loves. It is a musical initiative linked to our mega biodiversity.” They’ve also created a crowdfunding campaign that you can see here.
Enno Cheng at the Taiwan Beats showcase
Taiwan Beats
Taking place amongst the mountains, within a busy industrial factory, amongst a leisurely indoor shrimp farm, and inside a colourful temple, the Taiwan Beats event was a clever way of showcasing both Taiwan’s music as well as its economic, social, and environmental characteristics. In doing so, they created a tourism clip much more effective than anything I’ve ever seen.
“Taiwan Beats Showcase combines a lot of natural scenery and local culture of Taiwan,” says Cha Cha Chen, Founder of Young Team Productions. “In this epidemic era where we cannot travel and perform abroad, we try to use a new perspective to discover once again that everyday scenery is the most beautiful stage, the place where our music grows.“
We especially loved the heartfelt performance of indie-songwriter and actor Enno Cheng, set perfectly against the mountains on the east coastline of Taiwan, and NekoJam’s upbeat pop.
Sorry at the The Close Encounter Club showcase
The Close Encounter Club
The Close Encounters Club showcase did something I hadn’t encountered elsewhere during the festival: they changed the size of their screen. Sure, this is a small, possibly negligible change, but coupled with their otherworldly space-themed sounds and visuals and old school camera effects, they managed to create a production that differentiated itself from the others while remaining grounded to the brand’s core identity.
We especially loved Sorry’s moody synthesis of jazz, trip-hop, grunge, and post-punk influences, and Weird Milk’s mellow yet upbeat britpop.
Antti Paalanen at the Genelec & Music Finland showcase
Genelec & Music Finland present THE SHOWCASE MUST GO ON
There’s performing in front of a green screen, and then there’s performing in front of a green screen the way the team at Music Finland have done it. This showcase really took advantage of the digital, online nature of SXSW Online 2021 by creating CGI environments that perfectly highlighted the performing artists. Whether it was the moody electro/folk metal accordion (yes, this is a thing, and it is wonderful) of Antti Paalanen, the spirited joy of ALMA’s pop bangers, or the bright exuberance of Yotto EDM set, the Music Finland team made the most of their green screen technology.
Kalpee at the Island Stage showcase
Therapy Presents: The Island Stage
For the first time, the music of the Caribbean has a proper home at SXSW. Showcase founder, Kalpee – himself a musician and performer at the event, was inspired by the opportunities he has had by being able to travel internationally throughout his musical career.
“Through my travels, I came to understand that what is lacking in the West Indies is structure and resources into the creative arts, for us to compete with the rest of the world,” Kalpee told us. “This is how ‘The Island Stage’ came to be, as I realised that by coming together to represent Caribbean music with my peers we can showcase our heritage, musical genres and individuality.”
With its warm, tropical vibes, the Island Stage brought some well needed sunshine to our SXSW Online 2021 experience
millennium parade at the Tokyo Sessions showcase
Tokyo Sessions
Live Nation Japan produced the Tokyo Sessions showcase, and you can tell that the money was put to very good use. Each individual set played like a music video, from the atmospheric lighting of D.A.N. to the dance crew that performed alongside rapper Awich.
The standout performance of the event was millennium parade, the multidisciplinary creative collective project of King Gnu frontman, Daiki Tsuneta. With frenetic camera work, incredible visuals (masked dancing babies anyone?), and enough musicians on stage to comfortably form a soccer team, millennium parade’s genre-bending creative prowess was put on full display during their SXSW set.
Mercury KX
The Mercury KX afternoon showcase became the soundtrack to our afternoon meditations. These beautifully filmed showcases displayed artists who are traversing the borders between electronic, ambient, classical, alternative, and modern music.
“It’s been wonderful to connect with our audiences, albeit online.” shares Hildur Maral, Co-Label Manager and Head of Marketing. “The label was meant to do our showcase last year in Texas, but just before flying out the pandemic hit. It felt great to finally be able to share our music with SXSW.”
All of these Mercury KX sets were incredibly moving, but Luke Howard’s piano performance proved to be downright therapeutic during the final day of the festival.
Ozas at the Northern Expo showcase
Northern Expo
The best showcases at SXSW Online 2021 were the ones that took the prospect of presenting sets online and perceived it not as a constraint, but as an opportunity. No showcases achieved this more capably than the Northern Expo.
Set in Tromso, Norway, the showcase featured four artists exploring the city through a continuing narrative: traditional Sami yoikers trio Ozas performing in the city centre, rapper Oter onboard a taxi, float pop trio I See Rivers upon a funicular, and finally metal band Heave Blood & Die atop a mountain.
“From when we got the green light from SXSW, to when we finished video production was only a week + a few days,” shares Fredrik Frossman. “The director, Carl Christian Lein Størmer came up with the idea of four acts in four locations connected as a musical journey. We then made a short list of acts we believe are export ready, and it became quite obvious which artist to put in each location.”
This was a beautifully produced, filmed, edited, and performed concept that allowed the audience to experience Norwegian culture in a much more immersive manner than sampling lutefisk while listening to tunes in the backyard of an Austin concert venue (although we do love and miss that too.)
DUCKWRTH at the NPR Tiny Desk showcase
NPR Tiny Desk Meets SXSW
Every SXSW, the NPR Tiny Desk is a must-see showcase, featuring a secret lineup specially curated by Bob Boilen and the Tiny Desk team. Often, based on performers already in attendance that week, festival-goers can predict who might show up. This year’s Tiny Desk was especially fun because the team was able to draw from talent who were, literally, anywhere – a truly secret lineup.
We loved the dreamy indie pop of Steady Holiday, as well as her creative living room “stage” set up – complete with a backing band safely social-distanced outside her window, and a printer that conveniently chose their setlist. However, the absolute standout was experimental hip hop trio clipping., consisting of William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes and Hamilton breakout star Daveed Diggs. In addition to delivering a powerful performance, the group took the Tiny Desk name to heart by performing on tiny “instruments” – another clever use of the digital medium, as this ploy would not have worked quite as well in an in-person setting.
Haru Nemuri at the Sound Talent Group showcase
Sound Talent Group
The final showcase of SXSW is always a bittersweet occurrence. The running joke is that SXSW is exactly the perfect length… and then there are three more days. While this year’s online festival didn’t come served with quite the same level of physical exhaustion, after five days of nonstop screen-staring, we were eager to rest. Still, it’s always sad to say goodbye to SX – and this was especially true for this year’s online event. Though by Day 5 we were tired, we had by then perfected our dual screen setups, figured out the best times to grab a snack or bathroom break, and found a group of friends (yes, friends were made in an online festival!) in the live chat.
Fortunately, the Sound Talent Group showcase was an excellent way to bid SXSW Online 2021 a fond farewell. “Poetry rapper” Haru Nemuri’s electric performance closed out the festival with a set that morphed from a soft indie pop tune into a frenetic rock performance, her screams apparently reverberating from the rooftop where they filmed.
“Everyone at STG is a big fan of SXSW, and we can’t wait to attend concerts with everyone safely!” John Pantle, an agent at Sound Talent Group, told us. “We’re excited that so many people saw the production, and we’re glad that our artists were able to entertain everyone.”
