GLOWfest to fill sky with Pretty Lights

Electronic music’s meteoric rise as a viable form of live entertainment is as evident in Bloomington’s local scene as anywhere. This year’s GLOWfest, at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Bell Tower Fields behind Phi Kappa Psi on Jordan Avenue, feeds that trend by bringing acclaimed electronic artist Pretty Lights to town as its headliner.

The first edition of the outdoor music festival, headlined by party-hop duo LMFAO, was during last year’s Little 500 weekend. This year’s bill will also bring rapper George Watsky, electronic trio Mansions on the Moon and alternative hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang. Local artists Brice Fox and Daniel Weber — better known as “the ‘This Is Indiana’ guys” — and The Main Squeeze are also scheduled to perform.

But the main attraction, and rightly so, is the headliner. A one-man act named for a tagline on an old Pink Floyd poster, Pretty Lights is the creative outlet for electronics-obsessed Denver native Derek Vincent Smith. Having released five EPs and three full-lengths under the Pretty Lights moniker since 2006, Smith ranks among the most prolific young artists in the electronic scene.

He made his most recent EP available to download for free earlier this year. The collection of previously unreleased remixes has garnered considerable critical acclaim for the artist. It sees Smith remixing tracks from acts as diverse as the Alan Parsons Project, Kanye West, Steve Miller Band, Jay-Z and, perhaps most bizarrely, the music used when the Chicago Bulls starting lineups are introduced at United Center. Smith puts his own unique electronic twist on songs like “Empire State of Mind” and “Fly Like an Eagle” that have become so ingrained in the collective unconscious that the points where they deviate feel refreshingly new.

With a discography filled with cuts ranging from pulsating and upbeat to hypnotic and entrancing, the DJ promises to bring starkly contrasting tunes to his live show, certain to alternately induce frenetic dancing and drowsy head-nodding.

Of course, Smith will have plenty of help making his concert compelling. GLOWfest is so named for its advanced light system that its website promises will “light up the night sky.”

It’s fitting, then, that an act calling itself Pretty Lights will grace the stage of the festival when that night sky is at its darkest.