Watcha doin' between July 27-29th? I'll most likely be sitting on my butt all weekend watching this free Tomorrowland broadcast as I try to stay cool with my AC unit. If you didn't get a chance to go to Tomorrowland this year then this is the next best thing as Youtube will be streaming the festival live 7 hours a day. My hope is that they will offer 3 live feed channels as they did with Coachella this year so I can quickly switch to my preferred DJ. I doubt that will happen but one can hope!
Axwell stated in a recent interview with the Daily Record that he would prefer to focus on new talent rather than work with R&B artists that have jumped on the EDM bandwagon:
He said: “The big names are not the future. There are more American R&B artists wanting to meet people like us and wanting to learn our world. They want to come to our world and that is all fine but, for me, that’s not what I’m chasing.
“I’m introducing what is new and what new producers and completely unknown singers we have. I’m interested in the new Adele, the new Gotye. Who is the next guy? That is really the future. Just meeting big name people for the sake of it is not what I’m looking for.”
Out of the three members of the Swedish House Mafia I will be following Axwell the closest as I believe he has the most potential to give us something new and fresh to listen to.
Deadmau5 admitted that he only had a handful of 'A' list DJs in mind when he criticized the EDM scene with his 'We all hit play' tumblr post.
He was asked about the whole 'I can teach anyone in an hour how to DJ like me in the cube' and he re-emphasized that you have to know ableton and midi first. By the way my guitarist/indie/rock friend used both arguments above yesterday to basically dismiss the whole EDM scene which ultimately escalated into a 40 minute debate. Thanks Joel.
He didn't back down with his remarks on Madonna. Good!
Admitted that he 'sold out' when he produced his singular dubstep track as he flirted with jumping on the trend bandwagon. Hi Gareth.
He <3 Hans Zimmer and strongly hinted that he'd like to do something in his sphere one day.
Joel finishes off the interview by actually answering his mobile live on radio, lol.
When did you realize that the music you were making was part of a movement? It was underground when I first started, especially bass music. In L.A., no more than 200 people came to local dubstep shows – this was around 2006, 2007. At Smog in LA, it was a big night if 150 people came. I feel like it started out without any major marketing promotion, singles, pop songs or anything.
If I was a young producer/DJ I would get a lot of inspiration from that answer. Do not be afraid to find your own sound and create a small scene around it that might someday catch on to a wider audience.
"I'm making no money on this tour," claims Skrillex — born Sonny Moore — in an exclusive national interview. "I'm losing money to do it. I'm doing it because it's just a fun thing to do.
The Full Flex Express train also has a special studio car:
"We have a studio car. And we're all musicians. So we're just going to be jamming and listening to music, getting to know one another, connecting and building the community of the Full Flex Express... I wish we had a bigger train. That's next year. If we do well, we can get a bigger train, and expand and do stuff. But for now we're punk-rocking it, you know.”
I hope Skrillex creates a special video tour diary because it sounds like one of the best train trips ever. It will be pretty amazing if this cross Canada train ride creates some amazing music collaborations as well.
The more stuff I read about Skrillex the more I realize that money isn't really an important factor for him as artistic integrity and independence. I saw that first hand when Skrillex was as enthusiastic to play infront of 200ish people at Ritual as he was pulling the much bigger dollars doing the same thing earlier in the night infront of tens of thousands.
It's hard to put into words how much of a good time I had last night as Skrillex put on a mind-blowing show and really gave his all to please the crowd. Skrillex' energy was infectious as it appeared that the entire Bluefest crowd was giving just as much energy and love back to him in a high powered set that surpasses the energy level of most if not all major DJs I've seen. Skrillex is really a maestro out there as he commanded total control of the crowd from his spaceship DJ cockpit reminiscent of an old Star Wars film which later levitated 10-20ft above the stage.
The night was filled with almost everything Skrillex as he played tracks from his Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites and Bangarang albums. He also exhibited flawless mixing without the use of his former Ableton Live/laptop setup from last year. Is he proving to everyone that he isn't just pressing play? Well if he is then he proved it beyond all doubt on Saturday as Skrillex was rocking it out with 2 USB sticks, 2 CDJs, headphones and a mixer. My personal set highlight was when he played his Kill Everybody track and mashed it up with Knife Party's Internet Friends drop that just messed me up in a very good way. What also worked well was the use of all his moombathon tracks such asMake it Bum Dem track collab with Damian "JR. Gong" Marley. If it couldn't get any better Skrillex actually played my all time number one Beastie Boys track Sabotage that had me singing to the top of my lungs.
Unfortunately I decided that I needed to duck out 25 minutes early in order to hightail it over to the Ritual Nightclub so I could be one of the 100 Bluesfest band holders that got free entry into Skrillex' official after party later that night. It was almost physically painful to leave such an electric atmosphere but luckily my gamble paid off as I managed to be one of the last few to get in for free. I had no idea what to expect from the second part of the night; will Skrillex only show up for a few minutes and play a couple tracks or will he give us rabid fans a proper set? Well the answer came around 12:30 am as Skrillex suddenly showed up totally amped up and ready to take over from Koan Sound who played a fun and eclectic set. The difference of seeing Skrillex so far away at the Bluesfest stage to having him perform in such an intimate venue like at Ritual was massive. At Bluesfest you were confronted with an assault of the senses as the whole stage setup took you on visual journey into Skrillex' music; at Ritual I felt like I was treated with a special performance between himself and a few hundred of his friends. Skrillex completely immersed himself in his set that had everyone jumping up and down in excitement. I'm not quite sure how else to explain it because you really needed to be there to understand how great Ritual was that night. I'm a big fan of Skrillex' video tour of South America so when he dropped Dream - This isn't House at Ritual I went nuts.
The next day Skrillex complimented Ottawa and its fans in absolutely one of the best ways possible:
Ottawa last night could go down in my top 5 crowds ever...so amazing thanks to all you comin out! Montreal today... Gettin off this train !
There's way too many references to Skrillex contained in the article but otherwise it was a really good read. The way a lot of people have dismissed EDM is actually following a long history of knee-jerk denunciations of other genres that eventually blew up like Jazz and Rock N' Roll.
After playing a very memorable set a few weeks ago at Barrymore's as part of the Language Tour, The M Machine have been active on the interwebs starting with this interview by Purevolume.
I think there is always going to be a lot of producers just trying to do what's "in" at the moment, mimicking the top dudes, which is obviously not very conducive to making a name for yourself. That said, there are a lot of producers right now that absolutely have created something unique. Just to name a few: gesaffelstein, koan sound, siriusmo, and bingo players all have their own unique sound. We try to create music that we feel is honest and musical. We put a lot of emphasis on melody and harmony, and basically writing a song, not just another club track that will be forgotten in 3 months.
They say a lot more so check it out over at Reddit.
It's been a while since I did this but at least I've saved it until there were a few worthy tunes to showcase like these below:
Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford - On My Way To Heaven (Official Music Video). This is my favourite A&B tune that I've heard from them in a while.
Leon Bolier - US. After releasing tracks "You" and "Me", "US" is the final release from the triology. Leon Bolier is a monster behind the decks and this track just helps to fuel the fire. Can't wait to see him again whenever he lands in this part of the world.
Sunny Lax - Hattori Hanzo (Original Mix). First heard this on Tydi's Global Soundsystem podcast and it really blew my socks off. It's deep, got a strong beat, and takes me on a journey. Big fan of this one.
John O'Callaghan - Earth2Self (Original Mix). What can I say that hasn't already been said about JOC? He's just one of my favourite DJs and this track is just another great tune to add under his belt. This track is guarranteed to be a favourite on the dance floor when he drops it live this August at Circus in Montreal.
Sean Tyas & Giuseppe Ottaviani - Arcobaleno (Original Mix). Fast forward to 0:59 and start enjoying that thumping bass that I love so much. I recently checked out a live set of Ottaviani thanks to be-at.tv when he played at Ministry of Sound and it really impressed me. He's one of those DJs that I'd go on a road trip to check out live.
Gareth Emery's management team has decided to pull Gareth Emery out of the upcoming Global Gathering festival in the UK due to a billing conflict. Apparently the conflict was between Global Gathering and Ferry Corsten/Gareth Emery as to who would receive second billing on the 'Godskitchen' stage. When the compromised solution was not agreed upon it was Gareth Emery's team that decided to pull out Gareth from the festival entirely when their demands were not met.
What makes this a public relations problem for Gareth is because Ferry Corsten's team was also affected by the same billing issue but according to Global Gathering they were willing to compromise in the interest of the fans:
We would also like to further point out that the same billing issue was also true of Ferry Corsten's management, who have acted completely professionally throughout this problem and have offered up solutions in the interest of his fans.
Note: I checked both the Ottawa Sun and the Ottawa Citizen for their impressions of Bluesfest last Thursday and was disappointed that neither of them mentioned Paul Oakenfold at all. Thankfully I was there to cover it and many of the true EDM fans were in attendance for that special evening.
