An underground electric musical sensation has started to take hold of Baton Rouge.

The rave known only as “Frequency” has had posters appear scattered around campus advertising its music that the posters describe as “hardcore electro jungle acid techno,” but what does this mean and what is Frequency?

Frequency is a group of six people who met through KLSU and decided to form a group that would play electronic music locally. The six DJ masterminds behind Frequency are Joe Shlabotnik, Buktooth, Malice of Macedon, DJ Cool Math Games and Joseph Brooks.

Additionally, Sofia Dupre does graphic designs, printing and animated visuals that play at the shows.

“Frequency is the best place around to hear dance music that’s cool, fun and weird,” Buktooth said.

“For me personally, it is the best part of the week,” Malice added.  

Each member has a unique style and influences that they bring to Frequency’s raves.

“We all play good dance music. I’m a big acid house guy but I’ve been leaning into jungle, gabber and hard house because everyone wants it faster and punchier,” Shlabotnik said. “Lots of ’90s obscura.”

Acid House is a style developed in the 1980s in Chicago that is inspired by psychedelic music, hence the name’s reference to the psychedelic drug acid. It consists of house music driven by a minimalist bassline while exploring less traditional electronically produced squelching sounds.

Jungle is a genre that appeared in the 1990s out of the UK rave scene and consists of fast, heavy drum loops, synth effects and deep pounding basslines.

Gabber is also known as hardcore house and is a fast relentless beat with distorted noises mixed in. 

Frequency’s artists don’t want to be pushed into one genre and maintain a large amount of influences that make their music unique.

“I never like to box myself into one genre so I’m usually playing a range of things. House, jersey club and juke are my favorite stuff,” Buktooth said. “It’s either really groovy or some fast-paced bouncing off the wall type stuff.”

House music is a type of electronic rhythmic dance music popularized in Chicago in the 1980s. Jersey club is another style that became popular in New Jersey in the 2000s and combines house with hip-hop.

Juke is a subgenre that is also known as footwork which also uses elements of hip-hop, but often has rapid rhythms and samples from rap and pop. 

For the artists in Frequency, self-expression is one of the most important parts of their music. They do not take requests and play music based on their expertise.

“I play Drum n’ bass, trance, dark techno, acid techno, electro, house, electrohouse,” Malice said. “Whatever I’m feeling really.”

Drum n’ Bass is characterized by its fast beats and, naturally, heavy bass and drums.

Trance comes from the British 1990s new-age scene and is characterized by an attempt to emulate the feeling of a trance by using repeated melodies.

Dark techno and Acid techno are forms of electronic dance music that take inspiration from dark melodies and vibes for the first and psychedelic influences for the ladder.

Furthermore, Frequency doesn’t let genres hold it back and often reaches past the labels and definitions.

“The set is everything but the kitchen sink, and then ripping out the kitchen sink, the flooring, the cabinets, the walls, ceiling and the rest of the house. As long as it fills the floor, it has my ok,” DJ Cool Math Games said.

Frequency is constantly changing and evolving musically as its members grow in their music taste.

“I started out primarily DJing acid techno, but have since expanded into house, street soul, early drum and bass and dub reggae,” Brooks said.

Shlabotnik had gone to Europe and attended electronic festivals where he was inspired to create his own version back home in Baton Rouge.

“My first experience with an active dance music scene was out in Vienna last summer. It was going to this little festival called Walden that convinced me we could do it here,” Shlabotnik explained. “You got everyone behind the decks from art students to Berlin institutions with crates of African rarities. Nothing fancy, just good music played by interesting people. I wrote to friends immediately ‘hey, let’s get ready to do this, I know you want to.’” 

It was from this moment that Frequency was born and the other members began to prepare their music for the show.

“I used to do KLSU’s electronic music show. Me and a few others at the station dreamed of doing this sort of warehouse rave for all of our friends,” Malice of Macedon said. “I got a postcard in the mail from Amsterdam a few weeks later and Joe was wanting to recruit me to this ‘vaguely defined electronic music thing.’ He ended it with ‘prepare yourself,’ so I began sharpening my sword so-to-speak.” 

The group’s music is influenced by a rich worldwide culture of electronic music with each member being able to bring their own personal style in a Frequency show.

While the idea of a rave may seem new and out of place in Baton Rouge, electronic music is popular worldwide and Louisiana used to have a respectable scene.

“This sort of thing might be new-ish to Baton Rouge, but not to most places where there have been underground rave and electronic scenes for decades,” Malice said.

While electronic music has underground scenes across the world, Baton Rouge lost most of its scene when the RAVE act was passed.

The RAVE act threatened commercial enterprises with a large fine for knowingly leasing, renting, using or profiting from a space where illicit drugs are being stored, manufactured, distributed or used.

Areas where raves are held could be liable just for attendees having or doing drugs on the property. This act shut down many music scenes.

“There used to be a big scene in Louisiana too, one of the biggest in the country,” Shlabotnik said. 

This means Frequency is the only opportunity to hear this kind of music and experience dance music in Baton Rouge for years.

As for what Frequency is and what it brings to Baton Rouge, it is an artistic endeavor that brings a unique type of music that Baton Rouge has been missing for years, according to the group.

“As for who’s behind Frequency, it’s all of us really. We all contribute and bring something to the table,” Malice said. “It is as much an art project as it is a music project.”

With each artist bringing unique perspective to Frequency, the goal is to bring something Baton Rouge desperately needs: unique fun.

“Dance is an act of release, and it is the best feeling to be able to be a part of something where through it people free themselves from the throes of their day-to-day,” DJ Cool Math Games said.

The goal of Frequency is to provide good music for people to enjoy and dance to while having a good time in a safe environment with a tight-knit community.  

“Frequency feels like my family and that extends to everyone who comes to the shows,” Buktooth said. “Everyone plays an important part in keeping scenes like this alive.”