I’m down for breaking records. Not smashing my record collection (although it is quite smashing), but absolutely tearing about the expectations of the past with fresh goals, new levels of standard and freakishly potent ambition. One time, I won three consecutive races in what my friends and I like to call the Suburban Shopping Cart Downhill Finals. I am legally obligated to tell you that the police were eventually called and we returned every single tooth that we could find to the man of whom they once belonged (or so he claimed). But there are also those glorious aspirations that we can all appreciate (not just a gaggle of neighbors and your local police force), like when a young label-turned-collective by the name of Exchange Bureau decides to slam 18 of their musicians and artists into an hour and perform it all live on the Red Bull Music Academy stage.

“It’s the festival within a festival,” explains Joshua Adams, owner of Exchange Bureau Music and one of the many performers who graced the stage. “We were initially going to do it as a band, but instead of pulling off that, we thought it’d be a lot better to give love to everyone on the label.” Exchange Bureau’s set included the legendary turntable stylings of DJ Godfather, the dapper hip-hop sophistication of Frankie Banks and Nick Speed, the R&B “tease me if you love me” seduction of Billy Love, the freakish finger work of Jeremy Ellis, the Ella Fitzgerald-esque, jazz-meets-electronic charm of Perilelle and much more. While one could quickly pass off the performance as spontaneous, the entire set flowed with a rhythm that wasn’t necessarily obvious but still very much so present — the sound of musicians working together, many of whom had never met before. One performer that particularly caught my eye was Vancouver’s Rob Anhofer, otherwise known as Blacktop. Not only was his live MPC work a certified crowd pleaser, but his face looked awfully familiar … perhaps a participant in 2004’s Red Bull Music Academy held in Rome, Italy?

“Obviously, one of the craziest … two weeks of my life,” laughs Anhofer, who dished on his journeys via the Red Bull Music Academy after the Exchange Bureau set. “Rome, as you can imagine, would have been my top choice for many of the cities the [Red Bull Music Academies] have been held in … and I will always have friends and people I’ve worked with musically from that trip. You hit it on the nail when you said culture, because that is exactly what the [Red Bull Music Academy] is about … and I don’t think it’s over. Just three or four months ago, I was in Lisbon with cats I met there — still making music, still working together, still talking about our memories. I’ve taken away a lot of great things, but most importantly is great people, you know? The people are what make the music.” And Exchange Bureau is what made me ask myself what else the Red Bull Music Academy stage has in store for me this weekend…

Words by Ryan Patrick Hooper, photos by Joe Gall

Photo Gallery by Joe Gall