Zedd's New Album 'Clarity' is out now - Here are some initial reviews (Including mine)

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Zedd's new album 'Clarity' is now out in the US, you can pick it up from the iTunes music store here. ​Or you can wait until Oct 9th where it will be available to purchase from Amazon:

The EDM blogosphere was out in force giving Zedd's new album their full support: ​

After giving ​this album a good listen last night I must respectfully disagree with the reviews above. With the exception of two tracks I found the overall album generic and pop driven. Take the track 'Clarity' for example, how is this song any different from anything Katy Perry or other Top 40 artists have released recently? For somebody as respected as Zedd for being on the cutting edge of EDM, this track is as generic as it gets. Sadly, I essentially share the same thoughts for the tracks 'Follow you Down (Feat. Bright Lights)' and 'Lost At Sea (feat. Ryan Tedder)'.

Now for the tracks that I actually liked. I believe Zedd & Lucky Date's 'Fall Into the Sky' featuring the vocals of Ellie Goulding to be a beautiful track with an innovate drop that immediately sets it apart from the pack. As you hear Ellie Goulding's haunting vocals, 'Fall into the sky' slowly builds taking you on a journey that eventually crescendos into a powerful electro infused drop that leaves your body no choice but to jump up and down in joy and excitement. The other track of note is 'Codec,' which was one of the hardest hitting tracks of the non-vocal variety in the album, will be sure to please the fans looking hear something more raw from Zedd. 'Codec' in it's original form is already ready for the dance floor but I am looking forward to hearing some remixes that might give the track an even faster pace. 

It gives me no pleasure to write a negative review on an artist that I respect like Zedd, but given the overwhelming love for this album from the other blogs I felt it was important to give my two cents in rather than simply joining the chorus.  I'm not quite sure what I was expecting out of the 23 year old wunderkind, but 'Clarity' wasn't it.

P.S. I'm not including the tracks 'Shave It Up' and 'Spectrum' in my review because they have already released prior to this album.​ To give Zedd's album a listen please visit Dancing Astronaut for full track listing.

Big Shot State of DJ Culture 2012 Survey: 90 DJs Speak Out

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It's a long read but well worth it because it's always interesting to hear differing perspectives on the current state of the industry from the DJs themselves. ​

Here are some of my favourite responses:

​Where do you see DJ culture right now?
Kiss Sell out: "...It’s definitely exciting! The EDM explosion in the US is proof of that! Everyone’s making music now and the strict conventions of electronic music have been completely forgotten it seems. You can make a drum step triple time techno tune now and no one will bat an eyelid!"
​In your opinion, what is the most disturbing trend?
Johnny Pluse: "The refix, remix, mash up trend is getting a bit out of control. I’m very of guilty of this myself, but we need to push original music a bit more. People ripping tunes from YouTube and playing them out, that’s not putting anything back into the scene and the audio quality is muck."

In your opinion, what is the most disturbing trend?
Showtek: "Genres! We hate people who categorize shit. People sometimes have too much of an expectation of what you should do and if you don’t do what you used to do or normally do they don’t sometimes understand. The fact that we are artists means that we are sometimes also very experimental, like a painter. You don’t want to paint the same shit your whole life, you get inspired by other things in life and we translate that back in our music. The good thing is that there are enough people who are not narrow minded. So f*ck genres and let’s go crazy!"

These responses are just scratching the surface, check out the full article feature here.

(Source: (Via TA) Bigshot)​

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Swedish House Mafia won't rule out Reunion

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It's hard not to feel cynical about this whole One Last Tour after reading this article from the BBC.

The SHM are already booked to play until March 2013 so​ they won't be leaving any EDM news headlines anytime soon. Do you think these guys won't come up with some music while on the road? It's hard to believe that they won't all sit down at some point with their laptops and bang out a few new tunes.

There's too much money to be made with the SHM brand that it will be almost impossible to resist a reunion tour at some point in the future.

(Source: BBC)​