I have had the opportunity to go to BUKU two years in a row on behalf of KLSU and this year I can confidently say was better by a decent margin than last year. There were more acts I actually really wanted to see this time and I had a better understanding of the music I liked going into it. Here’s a total review of what happened and what I thought about it. It’s girthy. Take your time.
Day 1:
People I saw:
Lido:
I actually had no idea that Lido played parts of his music live. He had a whole standing keyboard and electronic drum set up that seems to be getting increasingly popular as electronic artists discover more about what helps the crowd get more into a show revolving around a single producer. He looked like he was having an absolute blast up there. He played stuff off his I Love You EP which was great both in recording and live.
Car Seat Headrest:
I walked into this not really knowing anything other than their name and I actually kind of enjoyed myself there. For an electronic music fan at a festival for electronic music, seeing a full on band was surprisingly refreshing. They fit a kind of vibe for me like a nostalgia for something that I’ve never actually experienced before. I still don’t really know that much about them but I do plan on doing some research into them to see what they are all about. I’m usually not into the type of music they play but I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of their performance. 
Opiuo:
*old man wheeze* I remember back in my day I listened to Opiuo on the bus ride to high school as a junior. The Australian native had done something to my music hungry ears way back when (2012ish) and I was amazed with the way he made is sound so….wet. As weird as that sounds. Give him a listen and I think you’ll understand. When I look back at what music I had in junior year, it was pretty much entirely dominated by glitch hop. Tipper, Koan Sound, zyani and Opiuo were my go-tos for that heavily bass ridden funk music. It was an interesting time for me and I’m not really all that sure it translated over to this setting. I think the same thing happened last year when I saw Datsik at BUKU. It was kind of a fulfillment of past me’s dreams but current me just wasn’t feeling it. Opiuo had two laptops connected to what seemed to be a mashine, a mixer and some drum pads. He was slamming some samples down on top of some tracks with the drumpads to give it more of a live feel. It was interesting but the production tricks he pulled out stopped at the stuff I had already become accustomed to in his previous work so it lost me and I went out the ballroom to go find something else to see.
African Bass Harp:
This was probably the most oddball group I’ve ever seen. Drummer, bass, saxophone, and an African bass harp. You’ll see it in this picture. What was ultimately interesting to me about this group is that they didn’t seem to go after some sort of heady vibe with that kind of arrangement. They played some jammin stuff that really had me impressed. Interesting notes about this group: the drummer, I swear, was playing for at least 4 hours yesterday. Every time I passed by, he was holding it down supremely. Their bass player looked a bit like Grampa Bluth who knew how to pull out some bass slaps. They played for a good bit before New Thousand came over to play some songs of their own. 
New Thousand
A group from Columbus Ohio. This is their second time playing Buku as a side act in the tent outside the ballroom. I actually sat down with them last year for an interview over at the homie JT’s house and they told me a lot about their sound and where it came from. Their ensemble is a keyboard player, a mashine drum player, a hang drum player, and a violin frontman. As odd as that sounds, they kill it every time. In transitioning sets, they played a few crossover songs with the African bass harp group and that was doubly amazing. If you’ve never heard a violin jam connected to a wah pedal in an almost trap group, you’re missing out and you need to look up New Thousand.
Sophie
Sophie’s show was an indescribable experience. Usually when I see shows, it’s a bit of a battle between me and the DJ to see who knows the most music. I lost the whole time. I think I knew maybe 4 or 5 songs in total for that show and it was incredible. I’m never really sure how to describe Sophie and I even have a hard time understanding his music. It seems to be hanging off the edge of a cliff representing what good music is and where that bridges into experimental. I think having a brief look at the show from the echoplex would be your best bet as to what Sophie sounds like live. I honestly wish I had the proper words to convey that show but I really don’t and as I’m writing this the morning after, I still have my ears ringing and I’m 90% sure that’s still there from that Sophie show. One of the most impressive moments was a few minutes where he took a disco song and let us jam out to it and then proceeded to replace all the elements with more Sophie sounding ones and after undergoing 3 or 4 iterations of the same song, we were left with what ultimately sounded like a regular Sophie song but everyone was able to make that connection melodically back to the original. Then he cut in and out of the Sohpie’d version  and the original and that moment was pretty magical. It was a step by step on how to make a Sophie track that still no one would be able to replicate. He literally laid it out in front of us and dared us to try.
Juvenile:
In a crazy turn of events, Young Thug had some sort of personal emergency and couldn’t make it to his set. So they called up Juvenile to save the day. It felt so good to be walking up to the main stage hearing “Project Bitch” at a million dB. When I heard it, I didn’t realize that I wanted to hear that song in that very moment and it was amazing. They then proceeded to do half the set acapella. The DJ sat in the back beatboxing while Juvenile did his thing and it was everything I had hoped for.
Day2
People I saw:
Sfam
The first act I saw on day 2. This duo based out of New Orleans have been working to craft their sound for a few years and they showed off their most recent work on the Back Alley stage. They mostly make hybrid trap type stuff that has roots in hard hitting dubstep and a super loud and energetic trap. They were definitely the most energetic act I saw that day before I got to suicide boys which was on an entirely different level. In an interview we had with sfam, they explained they wanted to make sure that people knew this was a special moment for them. “If we’re going to be doing it, we might as well go all in”. They also unveiled a new song they made with KNTRL. If you listen to it right now, you’ll hear some influence from a producer named ATIK who (to my knowledge) was one of the first people to use the types of stabs you hear in pretty much every one of his songs. I asked them about this in our interview and they explained they actually have an EP in the works with him so that should be pretty awesome in the coming months. We have yet to see an album from these two and I think it would be nice to have that rather than a whole bunch of EPs and some remixes here and there, but what do I know. They are clearly still blowing the faces off crowds around the country.
Rezz:
Dare I say I’ve been sleeping on Rezz. I found out about her about halfway through last year and she blew me away with the way she approached a seemingly stale genre. I’m not exactly sure what I would call what she makes. I think it’s stuck somewhere between psytrance and house. It’s a low tempo bounce that rattles you for hours on end. Also, I really need to stress how refreshing it is to see a girl in the game producing her own music that really fills a nice hole in my music library. Alison Wonderland has been around for a bit and it’s nice to see something fresh and in a different genre. Let’s also not forget how cool her branding is. I think it’s absolutely genius the way all it takes is a hat and some light up glasses to make (in my opinion) the coolest DJ look in recent memory. It’s as if she’s always looking right into the souls of the audience. It’s perfect.
Vince staples:
I’m not really sure what I thought going into Vince Staples but he still managed to beat all my expectations. It’s just him on stage. No DJ, no backing band. He’s standing in the center of the stage microphone on a stand and a single light on him from above. Behind him on the screen is a swarm of sharks as he slowly and directly said all of his perfect words. It was incredible and was probably one of my favorite acts of the day.
AF the Naysayer:
We actually had the chance to talk to AF before he took to the Back Alley stage. We had a chance to talk about his most recent moves in New Orleans including his appearance in the final day of the Boiler Room NOLA trilogy. He also talked about his new EP “PARTS, Act 1” which is set to release sometime soon. If you haven’t heard his sounds I recommend it highly. He’s getting into some good territory with this new EP and his percussion game is honestly top tier.  He also performs with an SP404 taking after people like Jonwayne who use it’s sampling ability and capacity for strange effects to flow songs together without the traditional mixer. Also if you haven’t experienced one of his Dolo Jazz Suites, PLEASE attempt to make it to one. You won’t regret it and you’ll be seeing talent that I can pretty much guarantee has not come close to your radar.
Cashmere Cat:
I felt like this was a bit of redemption for missing his B2B with Trippy Turtle last year. I’ve never seen a Cashmere cat show but I was really blown away with the atmosphere he can set up. I think the only color I saw in the visuals was the bright orange jacket he was wearing. Everything else was white and I really liked that. I don’t know if that’s a common thing for him to do but It suited him very well. Of course he played Waves. Duh. Why would you not. If you had crafted that beauty, you would too. He also played Raptor by Rustie and it seems that song never fails to get me and the rest of the crowd going crazy.
Suicide Boys:
Last show I saw of BUKU was probably the most high energy performance of both days. I’ve never seen them live and the only times I heard them in a recording I actually didn’t understand what they were all about. I think I get it now. They brought out a whole bunch of people on stage who I assume to be the homies who just stood there feeding off the energy of the crowd and also giving extra energy to the rappers. It was amazing. Not to mention the fact that this was their first show back in their hometown. That’s insane to me. Get famous everywhere else and go on tours all over the place and the first time you play in your hometown is at BUKU. What a moment. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle myself.
Overall, this was a fantastically successful BUKU. I actually enjoyed it more than last year. There seemed to be more of a focus on locally oriented acts this year and that was a huge plus in my book. I liked that a lot about this year. I’d say without a doubt my favorite act was Sophie. Everything else was competing for second. 8/10. Still haven’t seen Mr. Carmack or Tennyson. Either of those would have blown everything else out the water.
You did great BUKU. See you next year.