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.
Thursday I attended IDentity Festival in DC (actually in Bristow, VA) with JuliAn, and I thought I would share some highlights for you (in reverse chronological order). The biggest headliners, Rusko and Kaskade were great; but of course, I would expect nothing less. Although I enjoyed his set at Electric Zoo much more so, I loved the reggae and drum n' bass influence Rusko included this time around. He dropped some new tracks, but unfortunately I couldn't quite track them down. The best I can do for you right now is a BBC Radio 1 rip of the brand new "Somebody to Love". Kaskade also threw down from a DJ booth that towered above the crowd. His set was solid yet a bit bland at some points. His remix of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" did, however, blow the crowd up.
Three other acts really stood out to me: Avicii, Modeselektor, and Booka Shade. Some I expected more from, like DatSik; whose set I was looking forward to (finally some dubstep in the day I thought), but I quickly got bored of his DJing and left his set to immerse myself in the feel good vibes of Avicii. Unlike my colleagues here at Electric Squeeze, I'm not the biggest house fanatics, but I did not want Avicii's set to end.
Not surprisingly, many DJs dropped some version of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", this was Avicii's.
After that I scurried off to wait for Nero's performance and was surprised to find an insultingly small stage. Unfortunately, me and many others were left heartbroken when Nero never showed. The result was our departure and trip to the Main Stage where dubstep king, Rusko, was playing. It was later discovered that the promoter of the festival had bumped Nero off the line-up last minutes to accommodate Markus Schultz. I will keep my opinions on this matter private. Modeselektor brought the heavy, heavy electro beats to a modest crowd early in the day. I don't know about their matching jumpsuits, but they really got me excited for the crazy day ahead.
The first act we saw was German tech house duo, Booka Shade. Their set started off pretty chill, but built up quickly. I really liked their set up with live drums, which was a break from all the synthetic sounds of electronic music. Check out some of their tunes off of last year's More!
Finally, a really exciting part of the beginning of the day was that our very own DJ Rew!nd got a chance to perform at the Local Stage. Albeit in front of an early crowd, he threw down, blasting everything from SHM to Chuckie.
Overall the ten hours of music shot my ears for awhile, but was totally worth it. For DC's first major electronic music festival, a showing of 12,000 is far from bad. The festival could have been much more organized, as set times were posted minutes before the festival and the different stages were not clearly marked, but oh well. You still have to hand it to the organizers because when you think of the DC music scene electronic music is not the first thing that comes to mind, but you never know what the future holds.
Two of our Electric Squeeze staff, Mar and JuliAn, are currently attending the biggest electronic music festival I have ever seen in the greater DC area. The IDentity festival has caused quite a stir over the last couple of months and I am extremely disappointed that I will be missing what is sure to be a very memorable day. The artists featured include ES favorites like Avicii, Chuckie, Kaskade, Hercules and Love Affair, and even our resident Rew!nd's first ever festival performance. If you are going today then I am truly jealous but if not we have beats to distract you today and a review jam packed with the festival's biggest tracks very soon. However, I highly recommend not being a fool like me and getting tickets next time an event like this comes anywhere near.
When I began picking the tracks for this post, I was torn. I couldn't decide between whether I wanted to go in a deeper more relaxed direction featuring Joris Voorn or high energy hits that will make you want to get up and rave. One look at the day of the week (Thursday for you lost motherfuckers), let me know that it's time to squeeze our readers some party music and get back to the techno on Monday. What better way to start than Chuckie? The unofficial king of Dutch house music does it again, a style that has led him to worldwide fame. His performance is the one I'm most disappointed to be missing out on and this remix of Robbie Riviera certainly isn't helping anything.
Dada Life is known for their absolutely smashing bass which at times feels like it's going to force your eyes to pop out of their sockets. Although I have never had the opportunity to witness one of their supposedly epic DJ sets, it is becoming a necessity. I am keeping may fingers crossed that they are included in the ULTRA lineup. Either way, here, in signature Dada fashion, they approach a song with already smashing bass and add an entirely new element to it.
I guess history truly does repeat itself. Last year, after Duck Sauce previewed their smash hit 'Barbara Streisand' in various performances around the world, the masses began salivating so tremendously for the release that they made their own edits of it in order to sustain. The signature disco sounds and original sample selection are a signature of Duck Sauce and are obviously included in this new track. I think we should all collectively thank Bastille for making this edit to hold us over until Duck Sauce finally decides to release the real thing.
Another performer at today's festival, Kaskade recently released a free mash-up on his SoundCloud. Don't let the price fool you, the quality is as good as ever. I am utterly convinced that the woman singing in a nostalgic voice, the big room synths, and the amazingly progressive nature of the Chicago native's music will never get old.
Most of the time we see Treasure Fingers churn out very danceable disco remixes of the best artists in the genre. This time the Fool's Gold gem gets an electro makeover.
I was considering leaving this track off, but I have to admit I like the energy of this song. I first heard it in Martin Solveig's essential mix and it has since been one of my guilty pleasure.
Porter Robinson has long been one of my favorite electro house artists. Have you ever seen us post about him? I was shocked to see that the 19 year old had never been represented on my own music blog. Well here's your first taste of the recent high school graduate who can best be described as a crazy person.
So I've decided to add a new section to all my posts. Many of my favorite electronic tracks of all time have never been posted on the main body of this page because they were released well before the birth of Electric Squeeze. We are always committed to bringing you new music but it will be nice to look back every once in a while. Now I know this section seems inappropriately named since most of this music was release over the last 2-3 years but I feel as though you will really enjoy some of the tracks I place here. I'm excited to show you the tracks that led me down the slippery yet wonderful slope of EDM addiction. In the first edition of 'Back to the Classic', I have one of both me and JuliAn's favorite tracks. Here is a rave juggernaut that will never be replaceable in my mind.
SBTRKT, a London based producer, has released his new album which is subsequently named SBTRKT. The relaxing grooves which come from this release have taken over the electronic world over the last week. His single, 'Wildfire' garnered excitement, and the album did not disappoint. I cannot give you any information on his background due to his self maintained anonymity. Here are a couple of his tracks, if you like them I suggest purchasing the full album on Beatport.
I'll leave you with some other tracks from big names like Laidback Luke, Kaskade, A-Trak, and an Avicii mashup. Now, I'm not a fan of mash up's or even this one specifically but the continuing spike in the popularity of the EDM scene is starting to really becoming evident and this track in a way exemplifies that.
All these tracks are brand spanking new so lets start off with a bang....Gregori Klosman coming at you with more heat then Pat Riley. His new banger is called The Flavour..no that's not a typo....It futures a fucking heavy drop coming in at about 1 minute and 30 seconds.....then it gets funky....blast it..here it is without further adieu.
Next up we have some new tracks by Hardwell, whose been hard at work these past couple of months...Hes drop two bangers in quick succession. This ones called Passion Originally by Jake Shanahan and Sebestian Lintz... Drop takes about 2 minutes to kick in...and funny...I can hear the tiesto influence!!! Fuego... Second song is something I posted from sound cloud its now downloadable....so hit the download button!!!!
New Kaskade mix...its called "Call your Girlfriend" originally by Robyn... very smooth and funky House song with a major drop coming at 338.
I saved the VERY BEST for last with a Beatcue remix of Boy by Adrian Lux.
