Burning Man has come and gone for another year and with it more and more stories as the burners and artists return to civilisation and re-connect to reality. After finding out Australian natives Yolanda Be Cool had made the journey out to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada we had to ask them what really went down over those five wet and dusty days.

So….it’s pretty hard to know where to begin when talking about Burning Man. There really is TOO much to talk about and TOO much to see, and in reality, words don’t really do it justice. I was trying to describe the place to a Brazilian friend and I told her to imagine Carnivale combined with Mardi Gras combined with the Sleaze Ball combined with Ibiza hosted by a lunatic asylum. But in stark contrast there are elements of peace and beauty and spirituality. Its the combination of all of these things together that form the magic of burning man. But I don’t even think that comes close.

Fortunately, my brief here is to just talk a little about the music. Which is easier. First of all, it needs to be said, music is EVERYWHERE at Burning Man. There are parties going on (from tiny bars with just the dj and bartender, to HUGE outdoor raves with a few thousand people and Funktion One Soundsystems) ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT. It really is crazy. U can leave a party at 8am in the morning on your bike a few KMs out in the middle of nowhere, riding home thinking surely everyone else must be sleeping…..and you get back into “town” so to speak and there’s literally parties going on everywhere. And people partying, everywhere.

So…(musical) highlights. We were lucky enough to play at the Music Savages Camp – which is a sound camp put on by these awesome guys from LA called Matt and Cam who do parties at the Standard Downtown as Music Savages and regularly host really cool underground acts. They said they recorded our set so looking forward to hearing it (memory slightly hazy) but it was a really fun vibe. We closed the party and opened with this little gem which has been doing lots of damage in our sets lately

The beauty of Burning Man is people are pretty open to whatever so we got to play a few tunes that wouldn’t normally fit in a YBC set. For example,

and this

and pretty much everything by German Brigante but this was a def standout

The below pic is with our buddy Johnny Denver on top of a stage at the Music Savages camp

The next night, Music Savages hosted Lee Foss, Jamie Jones, Dyed Soundorom and Laura Jones so we definitely felt like we were in good company.

Our other gig was on the night of the Burn. We played right before the Burn so the tension was amazing. It was in the middle of a dust storm so conditions were tough but playing tunes on top of a huge art car over looking the whole playa was a very special moment that i think we will cherish forever. The art car was owned by some festival owners from Arizona and they had created what they called the Peace Train where they had the huge art car but then it had lots of little off shoots which formed a circle and made room for a nice and cosy dancefloor in the middle.

Us mid set right before the Burn.

Stand out tunes from that set were definitely this

and this

and special mention to one of our own that def felt right at the time.

As for other (musical) highlights, Disco Knights one morning where Johnny White from Art Department and Greg from Thugfucker went back to back playing slow mo house and nu-disco was definitely dope and hearing the Mano Le Tough remix of Caribou – Can’t Do Without You deep playa at robot Heart – definitely had a moment to that one.

Oh..and Disco Knights – one night – we were just dancing away saying how the dj was killing it and as it turned out…it was our buddy Worthy who we have known since our first ever gig in San Fran 4 years ago. We ended up partying together with him til sunrise when, with around 10 of his mates all gathered round…we were there to witness him propose to his beautiful girlfriend as the sun rose and skydivers dropped from the sky. Emotional!

Us with Worthy before he popped the question.

Distrikt is another party that deserves special mention. It’s a San Fran day party with a very mixed crowd and pretty much the creme de la creme of San Fran’s underground djs…..no-one “famous” but all as good if not better than some of the more well known compadres…Hearing Maceo Plex’s remix of Gus Gus -Cross Fade there -as the sun set – that was epic.

Here’s Distrikt looking and being awesome!

Anyways….enough waffle….the music there is awesome. And it’s seriously only one component in the mix of what makes the place next level amazing.

There you have it, enough fomo to get you packing your bag in preparation for next year. Also be sure to dive into Tycho’s two hour sunrise set just prior to the burn of the embrace statue.