III Points 2022 Day Two: Rosalía Stuns, Orbital Raves, and Despacio Slows Things Down

The second day of III Points was magical in many ways. It featured stunning performances by Orbital, A.G. Cook, Flume, and Moscoman. At the same time, Despacio, the nightclub within the festival, reintroduced the concept of dancing to music instead of merely facing a stage.

The highlight of the evening, however, was Rosalía appearance as the night's headliner. The festival was abuzz with her performance, which served as the final U.S. date of her Motomami World Tour. Combining contemporary dance, minimal production, and creative use of videography, Rosalía pushed the boundaries of what a live performance can be. People still talk about Beychella and Daft Punk's Alive 2007 Tour — the Motomami Tour should be held in equal regard. (You can read our stand-alone review of Rosalía performance here.)

Beyond the Spanish singer's turn on the Mind Melt stage, here's what New Times witnessed on day two of III Points:

Phoenix James

The fun of attending a music festival full of names you don't know is the spontaneity of finding something cool. Tucked away at Sector 3 before sunset was 19-year-old Miami vocalist Phoenix James, backed by a band of deft instrumentalists and background singers. James' wispy alt-R&B balladry of "Heart Attack" made for a fresh, compelling first impression, but boxing her into a single genre would be a mistake. "Speedracer" is a brisk joyride of drum 'n' bass that featured rap verses from James and collaborator ILikeBloo, a local artist who was singing along to every song in the crowd with friends just moments before popping on stage. The atmosphere had all the makings of a family affair. James' comfort and composure were that of an artist who exceeds her years, and she was super quick to consolidate and acclimate her crowd across 30 minutes. Olivier Lafontant

Joji

Across both days, the Mind Melt stage played host to mind-bending visuals, transcendent orchestration, and pure artistic conviction from acts committed to high-octane execution. With that in mind, you'd expect something tight from the hourlong set at 8:15 on day two on the main stage. Not too long into Joji's set, it became kinda obvious that a performance of that standard wasn't in the cards. That'd be straight if the vocals or stage presence felt half-inspired, but Joji was more content with lip-syncing and cracking jokes with his DJ, who spammed memes on the soundboard — hearing the "Bruh!" sound effect that often in a real-life setting should be illegal. In all seriousness, celebrated cuts like "Yeah Right" and "Will He" sounded OK. The supporting guitarist and pianist on stage did their thing over the backtracks. By the time Joji ran off stage to pee mid-set, there wasn't much worth waiting for. Olivier Lafontant

Orbital

I can't say the Hartnoll brothers took me to a different time and place, considering the phones and cafecito cart feet away — but, boy, it was that close. During the hourlong set, the legendary duo enthralled the crowd with music fit for lost raves, complementing Main Frame's concrete structure. "We got an hour, which is good because of the improvisational nature of what we do," Orbital's Paul Hartnoll told New Times before the set. "We thought it would be more fun to play more tracks quicker — not faster — and go through and make them into neat, little versions." Making use of the time, the two went straight to the heart with UK garage chopped with a sample from Mark Blair's "This Is Acid, Man." Of course, the brothers dropped classics like 1991's "Belfast" for euphoria-dousing and 1992's "Halcyon On and On" to rally up the "older" audience. Granted, some youngsters were in attendance and received a primer of bonafide UK rave music.
But as good as the nostalgia hits, Orbital is back with its tenth album, Optical Delusion, set for release in February 2023 on London Records. The duo debuted its first single off the album, "Dirty Rat," coproduced with Sleaford Mods — a heavy hitter and political diatribe to the sordid state of UK politics. Nothing was off-limits, and everything had meaning with each track played.

The pair felt back home after a decade-long hiatus from the Sunshine State. There was nothing quite like those juicy drums' n' bass ballads or fortified techno, but Orbital knew when to use silence and ambient to gain the upper hand and take the crowd on the journey. They also want you to live in the now and appreciate their legacy with what is coming in the future — they have plenty of bussing to do. "I love playing now, 2022," Phil Hartnoll said. "Back then, we thought we would last a year. We live in the now and love it." Grant Albert

Flume

Revving up day two's seemingly doubled-in-size crowd, Flume ushered in the masses with a performance of deep-bass hits and remixes of tracks like Disclosure's "You & Me." As the performance began at 9:45 pm and stretched till 11, the Mind Melt viewing area burst at the seams, with attendees seeking the familiarity of reworked and stylized songs. Very little was said by Flume, aside from an initial greeting at the beginning, and as the set continued, the red race-car driver suit he wore while flanked on both sides by a sound system and revving the ambiance up was replaced by a simple white shirt. The very simplicity of his stage presence can't collide with the deep-chest instrumental drops assisted by a cast of vocalists. Entering through a makeshift geometric archway at the back center of the stage, English-born Austrian singer Kučka, pigtailed and redhead, broke the ice, along with Laurel. The latter brought the house down with a performance of Flume's own creation, "Never Be Like You." In a way, the crowd's energy and aesthetic mimicked the stereotype of electronic dance music culture and festivalgoers, one filled with the basic recipe of neon accessories, suffocating space, and happy-go-lucky disconcert for anything else but the present moment. Isabella Marie Garcia

Yellow Days

Showing up 20 minutes late to perform would've been a problem in most other settings, but you expect that sort of thing around here. Yellow Days was a firecracker with instrumentation full of explosive intricacies and powerful vocals marked by dynamic idiosyncrasies. Manchester-born frontman George van den Broek made the stage his sandbox, whooping and squealing into the mic as he and his crew crafted palatial walls of sound with guitar, bass, and drums. The surfy repose of "The Way Things Change" was stirring and uplifting, and with the swoon of "Your Hand Holding Mine," van den Broek held the starry-eyed gazes of every spectator. His penchant for calculated bursts, yelps, and adlibs felt derivative of Prince, and a sonic overlap of classic R&B and soul with '70s post-punk made for a fine showing after sunset. Olivier Lafontant

A.G. Cook

British DJ/producer A.G. Cook was given the unfortunate set time at the Main Frame stage that overlapped with Rosalía's stellar performance at Mind Melt. However, those who witnessed the PC Music leader's set were certainly not disappointed. Launching straight into "Xcxo Me What," a mash-up of his tracks "Xcxoplex" and "Show Me What," Cook was essentially warning the crowd of the energy level to expect during the entirety of his set. A prolific producer and artist in his own right, Cook has a wealth of material to pick from, whether it was Hannah Diamond's cover of Gareth Emery's "Concrete Angel" (which he produced) or a chopped-up version of Charli XCX's "Lipgloss" (which he coproduced alongside Sophie and Life Sim). The set felt like an Easter egg hunt, trying to pick out all the pieces he was blending together. It all added up to further proof that Cook continues to be one of the most exciting producers out there, pushing the envelope of what dance and pop music can be. Jose D. Duran

Rawayana

Competing with the evening's headliner, Venezuelan "trippy-pop" band Rawayana continued its #RAWATOUR at the Sector 3 stage. As the band performed songs off its 2021 album, Cuando los Acéfalos Predominan for an intimate crowd, the energy on the lawn was diametrically opposed to the mingling of techno, EDM, and drum 'n' bass swirling around it. What is "trippy pop"? Baptized by the decade-long musical union, trippy pop is a disconnect into the psychedelic euphoria through sidestep beats and vocals that don't initially sound like they are about the trauma-informed lens of Venezuelans suffering from the socioeconomic and political consequences of the past 20 years. Those who stood before Rawayana as the intermission between grand acts were noticeably of a generation experiencing the displacement and temperamental disconnect of the immigrant experience. In the foreground of everyone's minds, the band's 45-minute-long auditory disconnect summarized the importance of live music as a space to stifle worry and concern in place of ephemeral joy and it-is-what-it-is resignation for an established past, lived present, and unknown future. Isabella Marie Garcia

DJ Harvey

Isotropic has to be quarantined off from the rest of the festival, considering the highly contagious disco fever DJ Harvey brought with him. Few can spin like the British producer, whose roots originated in the early hip-hop days while visiting New York City in the early 1980s. From that point, he took influence from disco, funk, soul, and early house music and became known for his marathon sets. Unfortunately, his set was restricted to two hours, yet, he turned the grassy dance floor into a velvet carpet. There were no drops or buildups; instead, it stepped into the disco club as DJ Harvey managed to spin off four CDJs and used a stick headphone, an old-school, one-ear headphone that looks like a telephone from the '70s. Sexy rhythms and fat basslines suitable for Miami Vice swayed the foliage and the audience. Bongo rifts and guitar chord progressions married each other when DJ Harvey dropped Findlay Brown's "Stallion's Suite." Collectively, heads peaked to the sky when he transitioned to Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr's "Shine On Silver Moon," all while DJ Harvey danced to his own creations. Grant Albert

Moscoman

The type of mystic, spiritual electronic music spurred by the like of Israel's Moscoman is what helped put III Points on the map. The hypotonic blend between discernible beats and avant-garde combines perfectly with the industrial grit of the festival layout — even with massive LED screens behind the DJ. During his set, Moscoman's brought decadent drum patterns (à la the Pioneer DJ RMX-1000) and bone-deep rhythms that kept the entire crowd in lockstep with each other. Near the end, he dropped "Stoned Immaculate" by the Doors' Jim Morrison before transitioning to more palpable pulses with "U" by Catz' N Dogz. Moscoman, who will be playing Hocus Pocus next week, neither went too bizarre to make the crowd scratch their heads or stick to a yawn-inducing melodic formal. He had a blueprint in his hand, but where to build was on his terms. Grant Albert

Despacio

The underdog of the two nights and very much a word-of-mouth experience was the all-surround sound system installation by LCD Soundsystem formulator James Murphy and sibling duo 2manydjs/Soulwax was technically mind-blowing to witness as it encircles one onto the dance floor and allows you to slow down your own go-go-go pace at III Points. Hi-fi and drawn out in groove, the actual space of Despacio was a dark, steamy room that allowed one to quite literally breathe as Saturday's crowds and performance floors grew in attendance. Rather than being crushed together and unable to escape the sticky, sweaty flesh around you, Despacio gave enough space to those seeking a proper and minimal field to close their eyes and escape into the spinning vinyl of the 1970s and liminal spaces jiving with balm-soothing funk and soul. Its creators explain the actual technical elements better as the multiple towering McIntosh speaker systems and vintage monitors positioned throughout the space remind one of the early days of boomboxes and bulky home theater setups. It's bittersweet to believe that the Despacio experience is transient and limited to two days in Miami, one that also services the beauty of the installation and experiences made in there being present with yourself and with strangers close and friends nearby. Aptly named, slow living and music-listening never sounded better. Isabella Marie Garcia