By: Ali Van Houten
Dimond Saints hit Santa Barbara on Friday night, steaming through a 90-minute set at EOS Lounge in downtown Santa Barbara, CA. The project is the collaboration between Bay Area producers an-ten-nae and his creative partner ReLeece. Hailing from the Dimond District of Oakland, the duo definitely brought their hometown vibes to the normally ritzy Friday night club scene.
The San Francisco pair Sex Pixels primed the crowd nicely for the Saints’ set with their self-proclaimed “sextronika” sound, snowballing the crowd’s anticipation for the main act over the course of their set. The atmosphere took a distinct turn for the dancier as soon as the headliners took to the DJ booth, picking up the energy almost instantaneously. There’s a reason Dimond Saints came down to play in Santa Barbara, and the crowd knew what they were in for.
Dimond Saints displayed their penchant for remixing soulful female vocalists with a pair of remixes to kick things off before segueing into a dark, downtempo set full of original material. Everybody on the floor got down with their sick version of Lorde’s Tears for Fears cover “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and their ominous, bass-heavy remix of Florence and the Machine’s cover of “Addicted to Love” is something only they could pull it off.
Their latest single “Howler” is a prime example of their truly one-of-a-kind aesthetic, and they mixed it in along with tracks such as “Apex” from their recent Hunter’s Moon EP. Dimond Saints are masters of weaving together mysterious melodies with sexy futuristic bass and a slightly trappy feel at times. Their simmering energy was a refreshing change from the high-octane shows put on by many EDM acts.
In typical Dimond Saints fashion, they kept it down and dirty, hitting the low end hard with their signature warbly bass sound, and leaving the crowd panting for more as the lights came on around 1:30.