Bassnectar brings heavy metal worthy beats

Lorin Ashton grew up in the Bay Area, the breadbasket of American thrash metal.

This may seem like mere trivia considering that Ashton is a electronic dance music DJ-producer who performs under the name Bassnectar.

It’s not: The way he slings body-bruising rhythms around seems to suggest that he has the mosh pit in mind as much as the dance floor.

The dude even headbangs with vertigo-inducing vehemence in the DJ booth.

But even when Ashton’s not coming hard with remixes of tunes from the likes of bro punks Pennywise and city mates Metallica, his performances have a hard rock edge to them, visually aggressive and highly adrenalized.

There’s an art to all this aplomb, however.

Case in point: At the Electric Daisy Carnival in June, Ashton’s Sunday set was sandwiched in between Dillon Francis and Zedd’s Dead, two acts whose performances were as banal as they were bass-heavy.

Ashton stood out in this context, proving to have a better ear at mixing familiar hits with more progressive flourishes.

In other words, his payload contained its share of smart bombs.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow on Twitter @JasonBracelin.