The Cyclical Allure of Submersion

The humble position to take would be that Submersion Festival is akin to its many contemporaries; a gathering of like-minds, hosted by like-minds, with the intention of furthering musical and artistic experiences in a space that makes us all feel at home with the event and its surroundings. The more modest position is that Submersion has achieved a standing in our wider community that is reflected in the circuitous return of fans, friends, and acts year on year. It’s no surprise that Paradise Lakes, when in the hands of capable operators, has seen more than its fair share of successful home-brewed festivals and concerts.

We’re far from the first to touch ground on that shoreline, but through consistent dedication to the service of inclusive fan-first programming, concert infrastructure, and a community-oriented perspective, the secret has long been out that the Pine Barrens are back in vogue. The returning fans alone shine a bright light on Submersion’s reach, particularly in an economic paradigm where excess funds are few and far between, and the relative costs of hosting these events have skyrocketed with tickets following suit. Return revelers are the financial cosign from the scene at large, making it clear that the juice is very much worth the squeeze, but they’re only half of the picture; Be it Justin Martin, the All.lo Records alumni, Kursa, Mickman, Daily Bread, Taiki Nulight or beyond, Submersion has consistently featured a rotating cast of returning acts year on year. Far from just a product of early offers or financial posturing, it’s the result of cultivating that very same community that we keep bringing up. These artists aren’t just some elevated caste in the social hierarchy, they’re the very same personalities that make Submersion so appealing in the first place. The throughlines in all of the promotional companies and entities involved in the production of this festival are the relationships fostered, and our social ideals held up to the light.

For 2025, the community is set to show up in force once again, bringing the same festive and familial energy that has made each installment since 2021 a beloved centerpiece for the lower Northeastern states. From the production crews to the vendors, from the workshop installations to the braintrust behind the precision audio/visual extravaganzas onstage, we’ve had the privilege as friends and cohorts to watch the as the cement hardens, binding this little pocket of experimental art together in a way that we could have only dreamed of at the start of this journey. With landfall set for this weekend, the winds certainly seem at our backs, and we can’t wait to show you the experience that Submersion has in store for its friends and family this time around. 

If you’re still on the fence, now’s the time to get serious. Tickets are running out, the doors open in three days’ time, and we’re hoping to see each and every one of you out in crowd for three days of sun, shoreline, and serendipity.

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Submersion Aftermath: Mark Farina

At its core, Submersion Festival has no defined “home sound”; there’s no singular lane or style that fully engulfs the breadth of the festival’s musical vision. Both as a part of its appeal, and as a result of the palettes that craft each successive lineup, a diversity of sound and presentation is the fundamental characteristic that carries the event from year to year. High on our own list of desired acts, and standing atop a three-decade career, was Mark Farina, the prolific DJ & producer who’s remained an invaluable staple across the domestic and international touring circuits. Graciously presenting a set of his widely-lauded Mushroom Jazz experience, fans and attendees took advantage of a late afternoon jaunt in the sun against the backdrop of Farina’s vivacious presence and undeniable groove at the Woods Stage. Even measured against the much more intense and weighty electronic music featured throughout the weekend, his impact and reputation cut through to the center of the collective attention span. A few days ahead of his appearance at Submersion, we had the opportunity to have a conversation covering a number of points that sat parallel to Mark Farina’s hour in the Saturday sun.

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[The excerpts from this conversation have been edited for brevity and grammar.]

In conversation with Mark prior to the Submersion weekend, it became clear that getting the full picture of his 30 year presence on and off the stage meant going back to a foundational epoch in Chicago’s House music scene. Coming from the same nest of greats such as Derrick Carter and Ron Hardy, Farina’s history is first and foremost a history steeped in House and steady-beat flavor. The meat of that scene starts with the selective and heralded hardware, from the renowned Technic-1200 turntable to tape-based samplers and a plethora of other analog gear. The barrier to entry was altogether higher than it is now, from the need to physically collect the music in question, to the specificity and expense of the equipment in circulation in the late 80s.

“I remember going to this club, a teen club, back towards the end of the 80s where we’d start to experience and see DJing and mixing from a dancefloor perspective. You start to hear the way a continuous blend can really get dialed in, and that’s sort of where the bug takes hold. [...] Then getting into it, I had some friends who had Technic 1200s, which is really all you would use at the time, and that’s how I’d start to get my head around mixing records, and going ‘oh ok these songs line up nicely with each other,’ and then figuring out things like BPM, beatmatching, tempo changes. You sort of build out a kit of routines and doubles and the knowledge of how to actually use the thing. [...] Around the same time, I started to understand sampling and its role in the music I was listening to, in the Chicago House scene, and from there how production with these physical machines and synthesizers really worked. Back then, the physical nature of the tools and the samplers was absolutely a part of how the music ultimately came out, the shape it would take.”

The liberatory rhythms and motifs of early House anthems made a palpable imprint on Farina’s tastes and career, but shortly thereafter in the mid 90s, his Mushroom Jazz mix series would find its genesis first in the dark chill-out rooms at various clubs in San Francisco. Taking cues, cuts, and the musical DNA of European acid jazz and early trip-hop progenitors, fused with the right percussion and manipulated with just enough finesse, he’d stumble into a style and genre that would proliferate into a now long-running series of near endless, laid-back mixes.

“The Mushroom Jazz thing really started not too long after I really started to play out at clubs and get some notoriety. I had moved to San Francisco, and in these side rooms, these chill-out rooms, I'd take like, European and particularly French acid jazz, and combine those tracks with drum rhythms and other things like acapellas, and really it just took on a life of its own. From there I eventually turned it into a dedicated mix that I would occasionally put out, which I still do through this Ibiza station called Openlab. It’s changed a bit over time, evolved to include more styles and tempos, but for me it’s really in its own lane.”

One of the more curious and adventurous aspects of catching Mushroom Jazz live in action was its placement amidst a fairly high-energy lineup for the Submersion weekend. Though far from the chill-out rooms where the style made its first foray through speaker cones, the Woods Stage provided ample ambiance, soft light, and crystalline sound particularly fit for a lightweight sonic serving in the afternoon. Its low rise and accessible placement puts both dancer and performer right in the action, giving him the space and opportunity to do the crowd and his time slot proper justice.

OpenLab Radio · Mushroom Jazz 16 - Mark Farina

“I come from the time where DJs were sort of off to the side, often in a room with a literal door, pretty separate from the crowd and the party. It can be a little daunting with the way things have changed, how stages have become so much larger and in front of everyone’s attention. It’s built out for a concert, you know? But the thing is, there’s something really powerful when you’re at the center of it, you know, right up with everyone where you can really read the room, get a feel for where everyone is at.”

While we mused about changing stage dynamics and the evolution of electronic music events, he was keen to touch on the music’s modern paradigms, and the sort of formulas that draw him to the selections he’s most interested in. Juggling the onslaught of contemporary releases with an immense collection of yesterday’s finest tracks, he’s got a veritable arsenal to choose from, and a tremendously vested career to back up those decisions.

“It’s really great to look back and realize that there’s 30 years of music history behind me, and so I sort of dig into that history to discover or sometimes rediscover records that have sort of been lost to time. I still have a collection of CDs, from maybe the 2001 to 2007-ish range, when promos were all on CD and there hadn’t yet been a big push into digital as a format. And of course there’s all my vinyl, I still have pretty much every record I’ve ever collected. Sometimes finding new tracks to play is as simple as finally putting on the B-side to a record and realizing there was something great there all along, maybe even better than the A-side. [...] I find that the speed of the music cycle is pretty fascinating today. Kids and younger guys will put out, you know, it feels like a track every two weeks on a different label. There’s so much of it, it gets disorienting pretty fast. I personally feel like, sometimes it’s like sifting through so much music that feels very ‘throw-away’ just to find the things that have the right ingredients. It can even be daunting finding music from labels or acts I know I like, especially if they have a quick output. For me, you know, it’s gotta have the right groove, a solid rhythm, the bass line needs some kick behind it, it’s like a sort of formula that feels right when I hear it.”

Of course, alongside the Dj fundamentals and ample selections, Mark has also been a producer for nearly as long, cutting his teeth on composition and programming in tandem with his development behind the decks. Coming from a youthful background as a drummer, it's no wonder he eventually found his way into percussion-driven genres and the hard-hitting, transient punch of electronic music.

“I’ve been dabbling and producing for almost as long as I’ve been DJing, and obviously I’ve been playing music for even longer, it’s always been there. I’m really a physical guy, in the sense that I do everything ‘out of the box’. I use drum machines and hardware samplers and keyboards and turntables all chained together. When it comes to including it in my own mixes, you know, it's really something I do first and foremost for myself because I enjoy it. A lot of times, I’ll feel like my friends are making better tracks, or just better music for whatever situation I’m in or thing I’m doing, so only so much of it really comes out or gets a real release. […] I’ve been considering making an all-original Mushroom Jazz mix, which is something I think can happen in the near future.”

Reflecting back on some of the major points in our conversation, it’s easy to understate the humility with which he describes himself, his career, and his skill set against the backdrop of his performance that Saturday afternoon at Paradise Lakes. The cool, effusive confidence and choice selection after choice selection reveals an artist that deserves to be called a real DJ’s DJ. The fast-changing dynamics of DJing as art, it’s inevitable crossover with our especially American brand of producer culture, and the evolving direction of electronic music as a global music pillar all feed into a gradually intensifying singularity, but so long as there’s space and appeal, the veterans that carved a path upward for all of us are staying firmly in the mix.

“I’m grateful that, you know, 30 years later, I still have this career, and can still play gigs. Like Derrick Carter, DJ Snake, a lot of those guys are some of my oldest friends and still have their careers, and it's good to see so many of the people from the Chicago scene are still in the mix all these years later. [...] I’ll keep on doing this and DJing and making mixes for as long as I have the opportunity, and probably still after that.”

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With the inevitable final notes of Submersion’s Mushroom Jazz experience, there’s a clarity to the role that such a niche, yet palatable kind of music plays in the wider festival and touring circuits. Flipping the script from the sunrise sets and extremely late night appearances, downtempo and laid back electronic music surely has a place in both the spotlight and the sunlight, priming appetites with digestible, sultry melodies and transitions for much heavier musical meals in settings like Submersion and beyond. While there’s no telling what’s in store yet for Submersion 2024, we surely haven’t seen the last of Mark Farina in the northeastern US, and with a career and future as bright as his, it’ll be impossible to miss his next foray in our quaint backyard.

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SPS 001 - The all:Lo Gentlemen

The Rust Music is incredibly excited to announce the next major project by our publication: The Submersion Podcast Series.

The Rust Music · SPS 001 - The all.Lo Gentlemen

In the wake of Submersion Festival 2022, we’ll be releasing monthly episodes throughout the rest of this year, including interviews conducted and recorded on-site at Submersion, as well as conversations recorded over the airwaves in its aftermath. For our very first episode of the Submersion Podcast Series, we’ve chosen to release our conversation between our staff and three of the principle all:Lo operators and artists; pheel., parkbreezy, and Thought Process.

Please enjoy the earnest dialogue and honest riffing between these incredibly talented and well-received producers, and be sure to stick around for the ending announcements, where we’ve left a few tasty breadcrumbs of incoming event information for our fans.

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Submersion Festival 2022: Discerning Sound for Discerning Soundheads

The Submersion logo against the backdrop of Paradise Lake during sunrise.

On October 6th, nestled in the verdant, bristly Pine Barrens, years of careful positioning came to fruition at the reimagined Submersion Festival. Hosted at the idyllic Paradise Lakes Campground, this year’s rendition came as an expansion from the single-day event that took place last year in Philadelphia. In addition to being three days long, the revelers at Paradise Lakes were also treated to two deliberately curated stages that showcased global and domestic producers and DJ’s across a panoply of disciplines, such as KOAN Sound, Emancipator, Luke Vibert (along with his Wagon Christ alias), Mike Wallis, Nu:Tone, Ultrasloth, and over 70 other acts. The weekend that ensued was a celebration of the dueling forces of sound system culture and electronic music that have dovetailed across the span of the last 20 years.  

Entering the grounds after turning off Route 206, attendees were treated to stunning views of autumnal pines draped in crisp auburn and bright green foliage. A single road runs from the entrance of the grounds to the camping section nestled in the rear, with the property’s waterfront extending throughout the length of the fairgrounds. On that warm, breezy afternoon, the fanfare of early arrivals, staff, and artists settling in the for the weekend was as evident as the apparent marathon at hand; with two insular stages running well until the morning sunrise on the focal nights of the weekend, and a seemingly endless rolodex of expectation-defying acts, there was a distinct flavor to the approaching fall air.

The view from above at the height of the weekend.

To the left of the main road upon first arrival was the Beach stage, which bolstered an impressive Danley Sound Labs BC218 rig, provided by the team at The Sound LIVE. Directly across from the Beach Stage was the vendor row, offering a range of cuisines catering to all dietary lifestyles, as well as a 24/7 cafe which provided hot caffeinated beverages essential to those late-night adventurers raging against their own circadian rhythms. Parallel to the Shakedown, the vibrant visual arts hub organized and overseen by Andrew Croz drew a consistent stream of onlookers and potential collectors, and felt right at home against the pristine backdrop of the lake’s meditative surface. Moving further down the main road, a quick 3 minute stroll would put you face-to-face with both the DanceSafe on-site hub and the One-Source Productions’ time-tested Funktion-one EVO7 rig at the Woods Stage. Just another quaint walk ahead, and you’d reach the natural boundaries of the festival, capped off with the chill-out zone often frequented and operated by TheLilyPad crew and attendees looking to shake off the adrenaline for a passing moment. The intimate size and layout of the event created a natural orbit between two adjacent, independent stages and the wider campgrounds, defeating any chance of sound bleed through careful zoning and placing all campers in close proximity to the action. 

Picturesque sunsets made appearances everyday as the light settled over the horizon, scattering the remaining sunshine throughout the now iridescent treeline. The road connecting the Beach and the Woods stages came to life in the night as colored lights and hidden lasers illuminated the canopy above. The general atmosphere of the grounds was like that of a playground; smiles and laughter were in fervent abundance, and with the festival’s modest patronage, you were seemingly one degree of separation from any single stranger around you. There’s a tangible, familial sort of glue at the center of earnest fandoms, and for The Rust Music and Aspire Higher, friends and fans are often one and the same. It’s that cultivated relationship between the organizers, their production teams, and their respective supporters that made the largest impact across the weekend.

The view from across Paradise Lake, showcasing the Beach Stage.

The community at large is the quintessential ingredient that makes these curated and personal experiences possible. The degree of comfort achievable when seasoned know-how, determined muscle, abundant moxie, and a heaping dash of luck collide is the goal of every professional and artistic endeavor as a business, but the cascading sea of bright eyes and brighter attitudes allows the paradigm to transcend business altogether. This year’s principle organizers, Jesse Boyer and Ryan Karolyi, put the duality of their friend-based following and industry experience on clear display. Like threading a needle, every aspect of site operations churned away with velvet smoothness, working in the background of an event designed to run front to back with minimal downtime for roughly 72 hours. That specificity and consistency directly translates back into the comfort at the center of any choice festival experience, smoothing over any potential snags in the road before you have the chance to trip.

Winding through a weekend of programming stuffed to the gills with heavy hitters and venerated songwriters can often feel arduous, deciding where you’re sacrificing time and for what gain. Submersion’s traversable design and meticulous stage curation was envisioned to help alleviate those decisions, placing like-minded groups of appreciators front and center with their preferred flavors of electronic production for extended blocks of time. The negligible distance and proper directional channeling made swapping the vibe seamless and inviting, providing a constant balance that kept the event swinging with pendular determination. The headlining acts of the weekend put on stellar displays of musical forte; Koan Sound rocked the house at the height of Saturday night, only to subsequently ring out the final notes of the weekend during a emulsified sunrise performance. The dnb legends Chase & Status and Nu:Tone brought deep dives through decades-spanning catalogs and rare cuts, contrasting with the effervescence of acts like Emancipator and Entangled Mind putting the focus on the interplay of melody and harmony. From the low-riding rhythms of Bogtrotter and DRRTYWULVZ via their BogDogg project, to the lunar serenades of MALAKAI and Lusine, to the Thought Process Gabagool Remix extravaganza, or any of the other salacious underground talent across the lineup, every palate eventually met its most succinct match, allowing Submersion to deliver on the promise of discerning sound for discerning soundheads, in an environment ripe for enjoyment and poised for audacious revelry.

An action shot from within the pit at the Woods Stage.

Writing about our own events is something we often eschew; our focus is traditionally on highlighting and chronicling the living history of this audio-social phenomenon we find ourselves mutually steeped in, and that often entails keeping our gaze outward in order to spotlight the lion’s share of our peers. Breaking away from tradition, we felt it necessary to chronicle this incredible weekend both in service of Submersion’s ongoing rise and evolution as an events series, but also as a thank you to the wonderful grip of fans, friends, artists, staff, volunteers, and world-wide wellwishers, without whom this would not have been possible. The magic of Submersion Festival is in the relationships that serve as its foundation, and those relationships include all of you, too. 

With just a few waning months left in 2022, planning has already spun up to full speed in designing the next iteration of Submersion Festival for 2023, and between now and then, there’s a slew of content under preparation for public consumption. If you’re looking to relive the bliss this stellar weekend, your fix is well on its way, and if you’re just tuning in and wondering what all the fuss is about, stay tuned for the various audio and visual recaps poised for steady release.

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