Pretty Lights "A Color Map of the Sun" Tour at Aragon Ballroom

Article Contributed by React Presents | Published on Thursday, August 1, 2013

Friday and Saturday, November 8th & 9th, React Presents and Silver Wrapper are proud to announce the electro funk/soul machine known as Pretty Lights, showcasing his critically acclaimed album A Color Map of the Sun, at the historic Aragon Ballroom.Tickets go on sale Friday, August 9th, at 10 AM through Clubtix.com. Exclusive presale tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday) at 10 AM to the Pretty Lights Music fan club here.Friday, November 8th features support from Blood Diamonds and Paul Basic. Get your tickets here.Saturday, November 9th features support from Supervision and more TBA. Get your tickets here.Pretty Lights, the musical project of the electro-soul hip-hop pioneer Derek Vincent Smith, sends his tour into a frenzy with his latest album A Color Map of the Sun. Rolling Stone praised A Color Map of the Sun as the “star’s uniquely crafted, groove-centric head trip” while Entertainment Weekly put the album on “The Must List,” hailing it as “a warm, funky riff on 21st-century cyber-soul.” VIBE called it a “masterpiece,” noting: “The electronic/soul/hip-hop pioneer, whose use of digital sampling and synthesis destroyed genre barriers before everyone was doing it, pushes the envelope of electronic music and challenges the dance music mainstream.”“Like Daft Punk, Pretty Lights' Derek Vincent Smith delves into analog electronica, but in a different way. Having created sampling sources by recording breaks with live musicians, he chops and reassembles them in ways that recall acid jazz, blues and vintage soul,” observed USA Today.Pretty Lights Music Creative Director, Krystle Blackburn, filmed the creation of this album over 2+ years. With the help of VICE and Thump the footage turned into a 26 minute documentary showing the very literally "never been done before" approach to how this album was made. The documentary can be seen here.Pretty Lights’ summer tour launched with a series of festival performances, including Bonnaroo, which  SPIN put on its daily  list of “The 10 Best Things We Saw.” A pair of hometown shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO will mark Pretty Lights’ fourth year in a row selling out the legendary venue. The new album’s lead single “Around the Block,” features Talib Kweli, recently topped USA Today’s Playlist. “The densely layered single combines elements of hip-hop, soul, dubstep, New Orleans jazz and 1990s big beat into a simmering, party-ready bouillabaisse," said NPR Music, which put the track on its list of “10 Songs Public Radio Can’t Stop Playing.”For a taste of what to expect from Pretty Lights' LIVE performance, check out this clip from Conan here.Tickets go on sale Friday, August 9th, at 10 AM through Clubtix.com for both shows. Exclusive presale tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday) at 10 AM to the Pretty Lights Music fan club here.If you would like to interview any of the artists involved, cover the show, or get involved with promotions, please contact Zach Partin at press@reactpresents.comFriday Tickets HERESaturday Flyer HERE Aragon Ballroom1106 West Lawerence AveChicago, IL 6064018+ | 7:30 PMwww.reactpresents.comwww.clubtix.com