Markus Schulz at Stereo - A night I won't soon forget

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This is hardly an event review because there are almost no words to explain the experience I had at Stereo last Friday night in Montreal when Markus Schulz delivered an EPIC 7+ hour set. I knew coming in that this was a special event simply because it was held at the Stereo Nightclub and when you mix a world class club with the sounds of Markus Schulz you know magic happens. This show was sold out well over a month ago so the anticipation for this event was through the roof well before Markus even stepped off the plane.

Markus Schulz blew my expectations out of the window as he absolutely played his heart out with a relentless set that had a little something for everybody. There were some vocal tracks and uplifting trance beats here and there but the core of his set was heavy with dark progressive trance that electrified the dance floor. When Markus Schulz unleashed his 'Dakota' style that's when he truly connected with the crowd and the dancing reached its highest of highs.

Most of the night was spent in the dark as the light effects were kept at a minimal on purpose. You won't see any flashy lighting effects or huge LED screens at Stereo because what's truly important is the pristine sound quality, the music, and the people on the dance floor.

There were around 10 glow kids in the middle of the dance floor waving around their light gloves and giving everyone a mini light show. Each one of them were showing so much love for Markus for the entire 7 hours.

The rest of the crowd showed their appreciation for Markus by chanting his name numerous times throughout the night. There were a lot of moments during the set that were goosebump worthy.

Can you believe that Markus actually took the time to take pictures and give autographs to his fans after the show? By this time it's already past 11 am and he hasn't sat down in over 7 hours and yet you still see him smiling and being personable to his fans like nothing happened. What a champ.

Afterwards Markus had this to say:

Local Montreal trance duo DJ Offset had this to say about Markus' performance:

I can state without hesitation that was the best live set that I've ever experienced in my life so far. Thanks so much to Stereo and Markus Schulz for a very memorable night and I hope to do it again next year!

Beatport gives a way for all bedroom DJs to sell your mixes legitimately

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I wonder if this new service will be a success. I personally get all of my mixes for free via iTunes podcasts at the moment and I hope they remain free for a long time to come. If this article is true and services like Soundcloud are starting to receive legal troubles then this might pose a big problem for all up and coming DJs who uses these free services to promote themselves.

(Source: DJ TechTools, Via Trance Addict)

Set Times for Porter Robinson/Mat Zo/The M Machine + Mister Parker tonight

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Here are the set times for tonight courtesy of DNA Presents: 

Porter Robinson - 1:00 am - 2:30 am

Mat Zo - 12:00 am - 1:00 am

The M Machine - 10:45 pm - 11:45 pm

Mister Parker - 10:00 pm - 10:45 pm

For those that still don't have your tickets you can check out the link below.

Location: Barrymore's, 232 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON, K2P 1X9

Tickets: $25 + $4.25 Service Charge for Advance Tickets.

Here's a link to my article about this event.

Show some love for local DJs by voting in the Earmilk/Escapade contest!

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This Earmilk contest will mean a lot to whoever wins as the winning DJ will be receive a coveted opening set time slot at the upcoming Escapade Music Festival! Here are the rules: vote for the best mix of your choice by 11:59 EST on June 21st so your favourite DJ can be one of ten finalists that will be in the running for the Escapade timeslot.

This is a pretty massive opportunity for whoever gets chosen so without further ado here's a short list of local DJ talents that I recognized from the list (+ 1 that hit me up via email):

Cristangelo

I've already featured this young producer on this site back in April and it seems like he hasn't slowed down judging from this solid progressive house mix:

Ernie Sega

Here's the local DJ that hit me up via email and I'm more than happy to oblige because I enjoyed his mix that celebrates a lot of the music from some of the DJs that will be playing at Escapade including Eric Prydz, Sander Van Doorn and Avicii.

Lowpass

Lowpass aka Ryan King has just landed a DJ gig at the legendary Zaphods Beeblebrox (hit me up with the deets dude!) which is a real coup for EDM as Zaphods has been well known to host mostly indie bands. This is another really solid set that offers up something for everybody:

Danya D

Danya D has been a steady opening act for Bass Machines and JC Boom so I'm more than happy to include her in the mix of Ottawa talent:

The poll ends at 11:59 pm EST on June 21st so don't forget to cast your VOTE.

 

$1 billion in royalties from digital streams and rising

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From the New York Times:

SoundExchange, a nonprofit group that processes payments for online streams, will announce that it has paid $1 billion to artists and record companies since its founding in 2000, and that this year its quarterly payments exceeded $100 million.

This is definitely good news for EDM artists that produce great music but don't get as many live gigs as the big acts. This money will hopefully keep them in the game and help them continue producing great tracks.

(Source: New York Times)

Read this story about Markus Schulz wild EDC experience

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I highly recommend this article from Las Vegas Weekly written by a reporter who was taken behind the scenes to follow Markus Schulz during EDC. It's a great read because the reporter was in the right place at the right time being able to detail to the reader of what occured when a strong wind storm effectively shut down EDC in the middle of Markus' set.

The interesting part comes later when Markus and the reporter are huddled in Armin's ASOT trailer still broadcasting in a live stream to the world when an event organizer asked Markus if he would like to finish off his set in a small alternative stage set up for the die hard fans who refused to leave despite the weather. The result was epic:

Schulz rocks the boat and the crowd. The monitors, chandelier, sail and anything else that can possibly move are swaying - both from the wind and his dancing around to his own selections. It's after 4 a.m. at this point, and we should have been long gone and home on the Strip by now.

What a class act. There is a perfect example of why Markus Schulz is one of the best in the business.

(Source: Las Vegas Weekly)

 

Escapade Music Festival changes locations

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This morning on Twitter I heard that the Escapade Music Festival had changed venues to the Ottawa Stadium (old baseball stadium) on Conventry Road. According to the Ottawa Citizen article the reasoning for this move was for security and accessibility to the site.

I think this is venue change is a plus for the fans because the venue is now much closer to the highway and bus transitway. Hopefully the festival goers will have access to the stadium bleachers as well. Let's hope that DNA Presents can pull this off without a flaw as this is quite a change of venue and show time is less than 2 weeks away.

Link: Read the official press release from the organizers here.

(Source: Ottawa Citizen)