Erika de Casier at Now or Never 2024
The finale of Now or Never’s Royal Exhibition Building programming took place on Sunday 25 August.
The lineup for the fourth and final gig at the Royal Exhibition Building for Now or Never 2024 includes the most pop-adjacent music of the series. The fact that none of its constituents would ordinarily be classified as “pop” speaks to the festival’s boldly experimental orientation.
There’s only a smallish crowd on-site when New York producer and DJ Anthony Naples gets things started in the late afternoon. In contrast to the audiovisual assault of previous evenings, natural light streams in through the building’s peacock train-shaped windows during Naples’ set.
Naples, a versatile producer and founder of the underground label, Incienso, eases us in with a bunch of ambient house and dub techno before ramping up with Latin club-inspired snare drum syncopation and a bit of harder, bassy techno.
READ: Now or Never adds Kia, Sleep D, Chuleo Club, Coki + more to 2025 program
Anthony Naples at Now or Never
One of the biggest drawcards on the Now or Never program is Danish neo-R&B artist Erika de Casier, and the hall fills out in time for her performance.
Across three solo LPs, de Casier’s music harks back to the late-90s and early-00s pop-R&B of Aaliyah, Ashanti and Cassie, while incorporating lithe beats borrowed from drum & bass, hip hop and the dancehall subgenre bubbling.
De Casier is joined onstage by drummer Jonathan Jull Ludvigsen, who thrashes around on a hybrid setup of digital and analogue percussion. Ludvigsen’s presence works to illuminate the contrast between de Casier’s sincere and emotive vocal register and her songs’ fleshy drum programming.
The setlist includes tracks from all three of de Casier’s albums, with special attention paid to this year’s Still. Song-of-the-year candidate “Ice” is a collaboration with puckish US hip hop duo They Hate Change, whose members, Vonne Parks and Dre Gainey, appear on the giant screens behind de Casier to deliver their verses. Shygirl does the same during the deconstructed club slow-burner “Ex-Girlfriend,” another Still highlight.
Ludvigsen is given a chance to solo, allowing him to show off his jazz and metal chops, and his efforts are met with enormous applause. He responds by holding heart hands up to the audience.
De Casier is left alone on-stage for the set’s final song, “Bikini,” a recent collaboration with Miami club experimentalist Nick León. There’s little doubt the crowd got what they came for, though the performance feels like it’s over too soon – an inevitable drawback of an ensemble lineup.
Erika de Casier at Now or Never
Fresh off a North American tour, local dance music heroes Sleep D bring the party to a close with a new live set. The visuals, which sync up with Sleep D’s bassy techno and rave sounds, are more immersive than they’ve been all weekend. The two giant rectangular screens retract and extend, swapping positions and assuming new shapes throughout the one-hour set.
They’re lit with swelling black and white orbs, geometric shapes in saturated hues of red and blue, and moments of rapid movement that resemble meteor showers and a blockbuster version of Atari’s Pong.
It’s 9.30 on a Sunday night, and while the atmosphere isn’t exactly crazed, the room is full of dancing bodies, all of whom seem stoked to have access to large-scale events that dare to make unorthodox programming decisions.
Sleep D at Now or Never
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