“Everyone listens to everything now,” L.A. Record editor Chris Ziegler said recently in an interview about the Los Angeles music scene. I’ll paraphrase the rest. He goes on to state that from that fact comes a fear of limits—and yet, how inspiring for others. I witnessed the personification of this idea Wednesday at the Echoplex. First, exemplified by Bersa Discos’ most spaced out sounding experimental cumbias. Using these tactics, the duo seemed intent on getting everyone to dance. Next, Rainbow Arabia’s drippy African sounding rhythms translated into sheer ecstatic joy. R.A. is the combination of water and sand at the beach sticking to your skin as it glimmers in the sun. On “Holiday in Congo,” wild sounding keyboards magically open up into a wonderful blissed jam.  A perfect introduction for The Very Best, made up of Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and UK’s Radioclit. Serious uplifting music. When Mwamwaya took the stage, it was almost as if the universe itself showed up simply to sing to us and smile back. Mwamwaya was accompanied by two female counterparts, one dancer and a backup singer supplying the show with enough vivaciousness to keep that shit popin’. The whole thing felt like an old school block party, just in time for summer—with dancing in the streets. The music sampled bits of tracks, such as on “Chalo,” which uses Van Halen’s “Jump,” looped to form a whole new beat, and creating a frenzy every time. What followed seemed to be an eruption for the duration of the show. Jumping, hands raised in the air, asses shaking beyond control. And before everyone knew it, the group had brought the majority of the audience on stage and was passing out drinks from backstage.

—Gab Chabran