Edererer (Joe Ederer) organized the Jan. 4 Spirit Valley Spins event at the Jade Fountain. Photo by Connor Cahill. 

Since Jade Fountain’s reopening under Kai Soderberg’s ownership in August 2020, local musicians have seen a fresh space to get their community dancing. Enter four young disc jockeys from Minnesota’s own DIY electronic music scene, who got fans on the dance floor this past Saturday, Jan. 4, with punched-up party hits, avant-garde techno beats and everything in between. 

The night opened with Alili on at 9 pm playing to a glowing audience that pulsed with an energy that can only be described as “raring to go,” and Alili did not disappoint. As she spun techno shuffles punctuated by freshly remixed party girl hits, each addition to Alili’s setlist had hands in the air and bodies buzzing on the dance floor. Near the end of her set, Alili played one of the most memorable mixes of the night, laying down dark and heavy break drums that were soon embellished and balanced with lush, twinkly treble.

As Alili wound down her set around 10 pm, she was followed closely by Bob Villain (whose moniker is, of course, inspired by a certain local legend recently played by Timothee Chalamet). Once he was bestowed control of the dance floor, Bob Villain played hit after hit of future bass numbers, a balanced setlist of fresh house music hits and their nostalgic 2014 counterparts, and a particularly noteworthy version of “Summertime Sadness” by Lana Del Rey. “Kiss me hard before you go,” lamented partygoers as they broke it down on the dance floor.

The third set of the night was YOUMS, the company’s resident drum and bass expert. YOUMS played the longest set of the night, clocking in at one hour and15 minutes, and had the crowd jumping for every minute of it. As she folded new layers into each mix, she methodically built each composition to a rewarding beat drop that never failed to send dancers into the throes of their filthiest moves.

The final entry on the ticket is none other than the event’s organizer, Edererer (that’s three “er”s, by the way – stylized in all lowercase, of course). To finish off the night, Edererer began his set with some cutting-edge mixes that combined heavy trap beats with industrial influences before transitioning into a bout of hardstyle, and, as is custom for every Ederererer performance, was sure to include at least one uptempo house remix of a Frank Ocean classic.

Though Edererer, also known as Joe Ederer, booked and organized the gig himself, he mentioned post-show how integral his community of Duluth creatives were in making Spirit Valley Spins happen. 
“A lot fell into place,” Ederer shared when asked how the event came together. According to him, while Jade Fountain hosted the perfect location for the show, the mixing console, sound setup and audio engineering were all done by members of the lineup or close collaborators in their circle. 
He also thanked Jade Fountain for creating a space for electronic dance music that many other clubs in town don’t. 
“A lot of places in town have DJs playing in an open format, you know, where you get a lot of college kids and you might hear the radio edit of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone’,” Ederer reflected. “It was so cool to have a space for locals to play for locals whose goal is to get out and dance.” 
Though Jade Fountain was absolutely brimming with energy and talent, Spirit Valley Spins was only a 2025 kickoff for Edererer and friends. As the year rolls on, keep an eye out for other lineups featuring members of the DIY electronic music scene in Duluth – a space Joe Ederer beamingly refers to as “blossoming.”