First off lets start with KayJay. Just today I was wondering what he was up to since he hadn't released anything in a while. Boom he releases a Moombahsoul EP. He keeps it constant with very chill Moombahsoul songs. It honestly one of the better EP's I've listened to so take some time and listen through "Bad Love Songs" trust me this is some great Mooombahsoul music. I imagine that some of leaders of this genre will gain some serious respect for KayJay production after hearing this.
Following that EP is hard but I think I got the perfect song to do it. Torro Torro released a song called "Country Club" Its straight Moombahton gold. The Moombahton hits so hard when it drops just take a listen. The sounds coming out of that mans computer should be illegal. Its that good.
This Guy Will Bailey is new to me. I was searching through my sound cloud when his track "Lizard" popped up. I gave it a listen and became a fan. Its a very busy and all over the place but literally is a perfect song to put in fun moombahton sets.
I found this song awhile back via mad decent. When I saw it was a Soulja Boy song, I was a little bit skeptical especially since I hadn't heard of Jay Fay. Let me tell you this remix redefines a moombahton drop. His use of the snares at the drop has my head jammin out in all different ways.
This is an interesting remix of Physics by Equinox. EklekTec does however do a good job of changing the style to make it his own and its worth a serious listen. The drop is very progressive though but when it does drop its fun and will make you jump about.
These tunes will really get things kicked off nicely at your weekend functions.
Promise Land released a huge remix today. Keep moving will blow your mind just as they delivered with you found me they follow up with this. These Roman DJ's will blow your mind the entire length of the song. After 2.26 it gets wild. Big base needed please.
Tiesto's remix of "Here Come The Lights" is taking the internet by storm. A very highly anticipated track already it delivers and is a must have for electro house ravers. A very progressive build up till you hit about 2.06 when the drop kicks in.
Okay so this new Skrillex song I don't know how to classify this genre. Its made at a slow 113 BPM which puts it dead on for a moombahton track. However it sounds like a dubstep track. Anyway its a great track for any moombahton DJ. Still quality production coming from Skrillex.
To finish off everything how about some new Laidback Luke. This track is a huge feel good song. Crazyiness I havent heard a track from Laidback quite like this take a listen.
By now you should know my love for Brainfeeder Records knows no bounds. Lapalux is no exception. Hailing from Essex, this young man is the most recent producer to be signed to Brainfeeder. Fittingly, he matches their sound including all the usual suspects: muted beats, spaced out percussion, nonsensical voices, ethereal noises, and in general, highly experimental. A good comparison would be Shlohmo, who I posted about a while back. Lapalux's Many Faces Out of Focus came out earlier this year, as well as a host of awesome remixes. My immediate worry after listening to some of his material was "Isn't this more of the same for Brainfeeder?" However, after listening to Faces a few times I realized Lapalux rounds out the label, incorporating similar styles, and I think falling somewhere in between Flylo and Tokimonsta. And now that he is signed, I can't wait to see how he develops his style with his first official releases.
On a non-Brainfeeder note, Mad Decent's dubstep duo, Zeds Dead recently released a preview to their new EP, Rumble in the Jungle, out October 4. It goes hard, sounding like some underground shit or something you would hear at the Sunday School Grove tent at Electric Zoo. They also infuse some drum n' bass vibes and collaborate with Jamaican MC Mavado on the EP.
Lets start off with something epic. Beta the latest production from Hardwell and Nicky Romero has created quite the stir in the electro world. Its dubbed to be one of the anthems of the fall and winter season.This track is huge we'll be hearing a lot more of it during the weeks to come.
Its been awhile since ive put Bassjackers on here. They released a new remix of Marcel Woods "Inside of Me". Marcel's voice is entrancing over this tune. This track you have here will do great things for Bassjackers as I think it surpasses Mush Mush.
This is the first time im writing about Marcus Schossow. From what I understand he has been a DJ since 2004 and has been primarily based in Sweeden, no surprise. Anyway about this song, huge Electro tune, nothing but the beat which is just how I like it. Huge uplifting beat as well.
This is a great bootleg by Rohit Bangera to really keep your set bumping. Honestly, who doesn't love some usher? Anyway take the time to listen to this bootleg.
Okay, I usually don't post links to none 320 bit songs but you have to hear this preview. It's by Spencer & Hill featuring the incredible voice of Nadia Ali(same person that did ''Pressure"). Honestly ill let the preview speak for itself.
On this day, 20 years ago Nirvana released Nevermind, the album that catapulted the band from Aberdeen, Washington to mainstream success. Feel old yet? Of course this is a mostly EDM blog, but we have to celebrate our musical roots and how electronic artists can take quintessential 90s rock hits to a another dimension. For me, rock music, specifically the genres of the early and mid-nineties, grunge and alternative, personified my musical experience growing up due to the heavy influence of my older siblings. They were really in the thick of it, exploring their adolescent age and sporting Doc Martens, oversized plaid shirts, and unruly hair (sound familiar?). Nirvana definitely shaped this burgeoning era of new rock music and styles, and Nevermind was no exception. Kurt Cobain's writing was never prized as the most complex or most sophisticated or most poetic, but he, along with Krist Novoselic and eventually Dave Grohl created a genre all their own, made of catchy riffs, heavy distortion, and angst-riddled lyrics. Predictions for sales of the record were around 100,000 in the first week which it surpassed, and by January of 1992, over 300,000 copies of Nevermind were flying off the US shelves every week. Out of Nevermind came the songs that every child of the 90s (and even 80s) still know the words to, such as Lithium, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Come As You Are. Below you can enjoy some of the better remixes done by acts like DJ's from Mars and Pretty Lights. Some of these tracks weren't on the record but hey, it's Nirvana, I'll take what remixes of their work I can get. Enjoy.
Graeme Sinden was already a UK icon for his one of a kind radio station, Kiss FM, flawless bass fueled productions, and DJ sets that make the most inhibited individuals get up and dance. Despite these numerous claims to fame, it wasn't enough for Sinden and he opted to start his own record label, Grizzly. Sinden's collaborations with artist of the summer SBTRKT have been just one of the label's already memorable releases. When we heard a US tour was bringing the label boss to U Street Music Hall, I'm sure you can imagine our level of excitement. A couple e-mails later, Sinden kindly agreed to answer a number of our questions. Here is what he had to say:
--
[Electric Squeeze] What age did you decide you wanted to DJ? How did you go about doing it?
Sinden: When I got my first turntables at University, it was my friend that sold me his for £50. Crap things with one of the pitch controls faulty. It was a good start out though and I definitely got the bug after that.
[Electric Squeeze] Your Radio show is huge, what motivated you to start it?
Sinden: I've always wanted to present a show. I had the opportunity to pitch the idea to the producers at radio. It was pretty timely as there were a few windows for new specialist shows. The idea of my show was fresh for the station, I was introducing new music that wasn't represented and at the same time tying a lot of the content on the electro, rap, dubstep shows together.
[Electric Squeeze] Out of all your guests, who were you most excited to have on your show?
Sinden: Probably interviewing Horsepower Productions or Coldcut. Those guys are legends in my eyes and have really informed modern electronic music. When you get to interview some of the originators of Dubstep or the Ninja Tune founders you have to come really correct.
[Electric Squeeze] For those who don't know could you tell us about your label grizzly and any big projects that you guys are working on?
[Electric Squeeze] How do you feel about EDM being mainstream? Did you see it coming or was it a complete surprise?
Sinden: A little bit surprised in America but not so much outside the US. I think its refreshing although i'm no fan of Guetta its helping push some new sounds out to a wider audience especially in North America, the landscape is changing. Merging rap and house was something I pushed a lot when I started making music. I was a dream for it to happen.
[Electric Squeeze] How has Mad Decent helped you along the road?
Sinden: Mad Decent are the US family. They've been archiving my radio shows for a long time now.I'm definitely going to work with them on some releases. It's good for music that labels like MD exist - more risk taking and putting out what they believe in.
[Electric Squeeze] Whose your favorite producer to work with or who would you like to work with?
Sinden: I enjoy working with SBTRKT always and Switch who I've worked with for the longest. Herve (The Count) and me together made so much music so definitely him. I'd love to do some work with Green Velvet. In the rap world I want to do a track with Project Pat or Juicy J.
[Electric Squeeze] Whats your most memorable experience on the road? Funnist memory?
Sinden: Too many really but i think the ones where you tour as a unit are the best. The bus tour i did with Rusko and Crystal Castles in North America was amazing and touring with M.I.A as her DJ one Summer was mad. We supported Bjork in a colosseum and go backstage and she was jamming Switch and my remix of Santigold.
[Electric Squeeze] Where's the best place youve played thus far?
Sinden: I played at a Japanese festival on a mountain. You could see the ice capped Mount Fuiji shining like in the background. Thats one of the places you definitely feel a lot of love from.
---
Thanks again to Mr. Sinden and much love from D.C., keep doing what you do.
Brand New Dada Life remix of little bad girl by David Guetta. It hits hard on all cylinders honestly, the build up is phenomenally while the drop blows you away.
Laidback Luke's new track is one of my favorites as of recently. The amount of dirty dutch in this drop should be illegal. The vocals by Anjulie are on point as well, providing that key component that makes this track massive.
Well at this point the "Otherside" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers might be the most remixed song of all time, but Third Party really does incredible things to this song. Its very uplifting almost Avicii like. This is definitely going to be a huge song and receive massive support when it drops.
Lets jump right into some new music Alesso remix of Jasper Forks "River Flows In You". Alesso is just making hit after hit this year with "Pressure" and "Calling" being his most successful tracks. However this song is very different than what we've seen of Alesso. This a purely electro song with only one significant drop towards the end.
I know It's been out for awhile, but this song is almost impossible to find. "Epic" by Sandro Silva and Quintino has one of the best drops I've heard all year. This needs to be listened to with the loudest of speakers to fully appreciate the drop.
Swedish House Mafia took over for Pete Tong last friday and dropped an array of new tunes. Each member got their own time slot to play on the show. Axwell, Angelo and Ingrosso all dropped new tunes as well as a new Swedish House Mafia song which is a collaboration with knife party called "Antidote" and has hints of dubstep at some points.
I'm always a fan of Gregori Klosman. Gregori is a french DJ who just makes phenomenal deep house music. Honestly, just press play its a great song to just jam out to. His new production is just a great listen.
This Estonian knows how to make music. Mord Fustang shows us his own version of LMFAO's "Sexy and I know It". Honestly, this is the first time I'm posting about him and I have no idea why. His soundcloud is like a mecca of good music. Anyway this song is phenomenal.
Spitfire dropped last week and in 24 hours crashed beatport. First, Porter Robinson is 20 years old...Its crazy that his EP did that to the most prestigious download site for EDM. Anyway if you haven't gotten it yet, do yourself a favor and download it. This track is my favorite off the EP. It's called "The State". It's dubstep prepare yourself.
Benny just knows how to do it right. In this song he diverts his attention to making Labrinth's hit song "Earthquake" even better? Is that possible? Besides the house feel he adds a great dirty dutch drop to it.
Wolfgang Gartner came on to my radar about a year and a half ago. Which is completely unacceptable for me to miss this kind of talent. What I like about his new track "Cognitive Dissonance" is that he really sticks to the same synths but at the same time does it in a way which is not monotonous...Anyway it's just fun.
This new Boyz Noize production is really something else. In this track called "Adonis" they keep it tech. Its really good chill deep tech house music. It would also go really well with any progressive mix regardlesss its an enjoyable for everyone.
Alesso dropped his remix of "Good Love" by DEVolution feauturing Amy Pearson earlier this week. Relax to Amy's melodic voice its truly will give you goosebumps. Really good production from Alesso, he's really getting his name out there and I hope to see many more productions like this in the future.
Nicky Romero has been doing work in the studio as of lately. This is the second song he's released this week and its pretty damn good. "Camorra" is a strictly electro beat that has some dirty dutch influenced infused inside of the drop. None the less great track from Nicky.
Trinidad! This immedately stood out to me because I spends a massive amount of time there. So I let it play and let me tell you I was really impressed. I hadn't really heard of RouLand Doors before this, I knew who Michael Mendoza was though.. Anyway this is a great track to put in a big room set.
I Know this song is like a month old but its still amazing. Fedde Le Grand has been a phenomenal dj for about ten years. He first bust onto my radar back when he put out "Put Your Hands Up For Detriot" that was I was first getting into this fantastic genre though. Last month though he released this massive anthem "Never Will Be Mine" orginally by Rye Rye featuring Robyn. Favorite Track Right Now.
SBTRKT just did a mix for Mary Anna Hobbes' radio show. Check it out below and many of the other awesome mixes several big names did on her Mixcloud. On another note, look out for James Blake's debut on Pete Tong's radio 1 show this Saturday as he performs his Essential Mix! So stoked!
Lets Start the new week with some quality jams that the music world has graced us with.
Porter Robinson new EP Spitfire blows me away, do yourself a favor and listen to this ear candy here. Let the whole thing play you will be blown away. This is Porter's year and this EP should bump him way up the list on DJ mags top 100 DJ's. Not one song is bad.
Nicky Romero keeps bringing everything he has to the table with his latest production. Take his new remix of "Without You" originally by David Guetta featuring Usher. He starts out with a nice buildup and combines some of Usher's vocals and makes this track nothing short than excellent.
Pick Your Poison By Diplo and Datsik has been out for awhile, sorry I really dropped the ball on this but for those of you that havent heard it, its a very intreasting collaboration between the two artists. It plays at 127 BPM which means it can be mixed into any house or electro set, but it's still a dubstep track.
Skrillex always bring something intreasting to the table, so I was very interested when I came across this song while, I was surfing my blogs when I found this, A skrillex remix of SebastiAn's Love in Motion. For those of you that dont know SebastiAn is a phenomenal Deep house producer. Anyway the result is a soft core dubstep song that sounds really nice and easy.
J-tricks been present on the blog for a while now, and has produced some quality Moombahton hits. It really makes me excited to see him get on a track with David Heartbreak, a Moombahton super producer. Peep the song!
Alive was already an incredible track so I was very interested in what Tommy Trash could do to it. The drop is very different and hits harder then the original. Alas, Its only a preview, but it still should excite you for the release.
Last night, Kaskade graced Pete Tong with an amazing essential mix. This is by far one of the best essential mix's this year and in my opinion might be up for the best of the year award.
I honestly have sat here for about 20 minutes trying to put words to this track. I finally just gave up and decided to just post it. Song is all over the place and will make you dance. Listen to this with loud speakers!!
Well, it was that time of year again. I'm talking about New York's own, major electronic music festival, the EDC of the East: Electric Zoo. Yes, it took me this long to finally get around to writing about it because I've been recovering. Let's just say three days is a long time to be raging, and I barely made it through. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, my Days 2 and 3 were cut short, therefore this write-up isn't exactly complete, as in honest to who, in my opinion were the best performers simply because I could not see nearly all of them. From what I did see however, EZOO was back, bigger, and better than ever. From the organization of the actual event (remember those terrible bus lines last year?), to the actual acts, the Zoo fucking brought it. My Day 1 started off strong, arriving just in time to catch some of Bart B More's set. This Dutch kid didn't care that his was spinning for a meager crowd, he still gave us plenty of bass to soak up. He dropped his popular tunes like Listen to This with Harvard Bass and also featured some of his new tracks off of his and Harvard Bass' upcoming EP, The Ones, out next week. Check out a mixtape he did this summer below to get a sense of what his set was like.
Next, I was excited to see Feed Me, but after a few minutes I grew bored and headed over to the Main Stage to catch Rusko. Rusko churned out much of the same that he did for IDentity Festival last month, but I still enjoyed it. Afterwards I mulled around the crowds and grass areas, enjoying watching all drugged out ravers and bridge and tunnel bros dance like retards (not saying I wasn't either, the dancing part I mean). I thought I'd check out SebastiAn since I am in love with his remix of the Kills' Cheep & Cheerful. Unfortunately, he mostly just stood there with a cigarette in his mouth and doing some weird shit with one of his arms in the air. No SebastiAn, I will not bow down or salute you unless you deserve it. I then went "set surfing" as I like to call it because so many acts I wanted to see were playing at the same time. As the sun set, I headed once again back to the main stage to see electronic super legend, Moby. Wow is all I gotta say. I had no idea Moby went that hard. Let's be real, when I picture Moby all I see is his calm facial expression, his lack of any facial hair, and those glasses; oh and also Porcelain is playing in my head. But then when you think about, Moby has been making electronic music since I was born; changing, improving, and adapting his style to current tastes and such. I didn't really recognize any of the songs, but he did play tracks by some today's big names like Avicii, AC Slater, Tommy Trash, and Afrojack. Grab his whole live set below, courtesy of Sirius Radio...thanks Internet. I was sad to leave his set early, but the festival must go on.
I scurried off to MSTRKRFT next, oh my god, they popped shit off. Although I can't really tell you what the fuck they played, I can assure you it was banging in there. The lights and visuals inside Hilltop Arena were insane, like for much the festival, and they were as much of a part of the experience as the acts themselves. After that, I headed over to the Red Bull Riverside tent, where Martin Solveig was scheduled to play, but he was ill so Dirty South picked up slack. I dunno if I can say that I was happy or upset about this because quite frankly I don't know if Martin could have thrown down as hard as Dirty South did. Anyways, at this rate I'll be going on for pages, so I'll skip ahead to Tiesto. Here's the deal, I don't really like Tiesto very much as of recently, but I think he just renewed my faith in him after his set. He just kept bringing it, with really unique song choices, like one of my favorites of the night, Futurecop!'s remix of The Naked and Famous' Young Blood and opening with the awesome Las Vegas and an Imogen Heap remix (see below).
Then there was Saturday...I got there at around 12 pm and left around 3 pm. That's all I can say. Disappointing and unimaginable I know, but it is what it is. After the fact, I was really only upset that I missed my boy, Skrillex. In those three hours I managed to catch SBTRKT, and Daedelus. I was really excited for SBTRKT and disappointed at the amount of love, or lack thereof the early-bird crowd was giving him. His set was really British, pretty funky, and of course he was rocking the tribal mask. Afterwards, I went to Daedelus which was dead. I mean, I love Daedelus, but not midday when I'm trying to rage.
Finally, Day 3, I was back and ready to make up for what I had I missed the day before. I'll just give you the quick minutes, because this has already been more extensive that I had planned. Calvin Harris was the first act I was really excited for, but to be honest he's not the best technical DJ, so I was really just excited to hear him play his own songs. The act that was on right before me was the one that impressed me, John Dahlback. The part that didn't impress me is that he ran 15 minutes over time and Calvin himself had to give him the signal. DJ Snoopadelic aka Snoop Dogg was a real surprise. His DJing skills are obviously non-existent but his set of hip-hop and rap classics were a nice break from the heavy electronic music of the day. The other acts I enjoyed that day included Fake Blood and Jack Beats, who played my favorite La Roux remix of I'm Not Your Toy. Infected Mushroom looked awesome from afar, as I had to sit out most the nighttime acts because I was just incredibly beat.
Overall, Electric Zoo's third year was a success. I feel like they are still finding their feet as New York's premier EDM music festival, but I'm excited for what the future holds. I feel like next year they'll have a l0t of unique names like the ones I saw this year. Here's to booking some of my experimental favorites like James Blake, Hudson Mohawke, Nosaj Thing!
Over the three days, the songs that I heard the most were Avicii's Levels, James Blake's Limit to Your Love, weirdly, Benny Benassi's old-ish remix of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Otherside, and Martin Solveig's summer anthem, Hello (nothing can beat Swedish House Mafia's One though, that's a fact).
If you went, what did you think? Who was your favorite?
