TOURIST
Tourist is the sound of colorful kites on the wind,
or firework silhouettes.
Tourist is the sound of joy and melancholy, hopelessly entangled.
William Phillips crafts highly emotive electronic anthems under the moniker Tourist, a project dating back to 2009 London. Phillips infuses driving house music with coruscating, atmospheric vocals and uplifting synth melodies, effortlessly arranged in patterns that shift like rainbows in mist. Tourist songs are always beautiful and sometimes teeth-clenchingly heavy.
I was first introduced to such electronic anthems as We Stayed Up All Night and Run during research on the 2017 lineup of the Oregon music festival What The Festival, which I still hold as the Best Lineup Of Any Small Festival Ever. Headliners Bonobo and Thievery Corporation were joined by many of my favorite acts today. FKJ, Masego, Darius, G Jones, Claude Vonstroke, Kasbo, Louis the Child and Shades all deserve their own write-ups here, and to think back on a meager 5,000 person gathering that hosted all of them still gives me chills. To include Tourist in their midst is absolutely overkill, and I am eternally grateful for that sunset I spent staring alternately at the energetic young producer on stage and the crimson peak of Mount Hood in the background.
Holocene, while lacking such a paradisiacal view, does offer a level of intimacy that lends itself to the music. I arrived early to ensure proximity to the magic I knew would take place, and was treated to the unexpected pleasure in of an opening set by Swim Mountain, traveling support and Tourist’s best friend we would later learn. The singer-songwriter controlled lush, disco-influenced beats through a mixer resting on a stool and laced the air with atmospheric guitar work and a great voice.
There in the front row of the cozy upper dancefloor, sub-bass pulled at us like a syrupy riptide while angelic voices mingled above our heads. Tourist let his hair fall into his eyes as he flitted from one mixer to another, pulsing in time with the groove. An infectious urgency in the way he moved infused the crowd, which echoed his head-down-eyes-closed energy.
Tourist released two albums in 2019 - Wild and Everyday - and played a selection from both LPs. Through the resplendent choral march of Someone Else and kinetic, mechanical breakdown of Wild the mood retained its hold on us, emotion and music entwined. We kept moving as Elixir breathed warmth and longing over a thrumming baseline and as Kin threw inverted waterfalls of arpeggios into the thick air. Tourist never stopped moving, seemingly lost in effervescent transition after transition as he worked in classics from nearly 10 years ago, playing Run, Placid Acid and We Stayed Up All Night to rapturous screams from us in the audience.
Time dilates under the finger of a masterful DJ, and as the ambience of the mix poured into itself again I found myself attempting to account for the sweat on my brow and the strain in my legs. Entirely lost in the experience, we had all danced the set through without pause - in a delicate lull, Tourist brought things down to announce one final track and we met by a confluence of cheers and cries for more. A sincere smile escaped a curtain of bangs as the young producer launched into Appolo, one of the first singles of his latest record and my personal favorite. Undulating waves of synth, glitched vocals and nearly-human pads rolled through the small space as colored fog swirled, celebratory, lacquering the evening with a sheen of eternity for a few more perfect minutes.
More great things are on the vibrant horizon cast by this rising talent, I’m sure. Follow Tourist on all the things and keep your eyes peeled for his next tour. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with someone who needs to sound of colorful kites today.
Cheers!
Zach