Events, Review | Zedd & Porter Robinson Poseidon Tour Makes Waves in NYC
Posted by Middy on October 7, 2012
The concept of this tour was unique to begin with. Back to Back sets seem to be a dying art as many DJs are given their set time, play it and let the next guy step up and do their thing. It is planned this way and there is little room for flexibility. There is always the surprise guest who hops on for a little, which may be more frequent in Ibiza or during events like WMC or ADE, but in general B2B is not too common, especially for a prolonged tour. I saw a B2B2B in Toulouse in January with Michael Calfan, Adrian Lux and Jesse Voorn where there as a relatively fluid change from one artist to but you could still tell the difference between each of them. With Zedd & Porter, they had the chemistry on stage of a duo who had been together for several years. They didn’t really play a traditional B2B, taking turns on the decks, instead they acted more as duo, both working the decks simultaneously. Porter seemed to be the dominant force choosing the majority of the songs, which made sense since Porter is a very skilled DJ, but Zedd still had his say throughout the night.
The night started with a good opening set from DJ Gian that gave way to OWSLA man Nick Thayer. Nick Thayer brought a eclectic array of different genres from trap to dubstep to electro and straight hip hop. He made the most of his 1:30, keeping tracks for only a minute or two before mixing into another, keeping the crowd on their toes. He started with a bang with the discovery remix of the year by Torro Torro of “Go Deep” that also saw a play later from Zedd & Porter and then moved through a heavy list of eclectic electro and dubstep. Towards the end of his set he played a trio of “Empire State of Mind”, much to the delight of the crowd, the classic “Party Up” from DMX and even “Baby Got Back”.
Albums, Review | Zedd – Clarity (Album Review)
Posted by Middy on October 2, 2012
German Anton Zaslavski, better known to the music world as Zedd has started off this October flush with album releases with his debut 10 track album “Clarity”. Zedd has been hailed as one the big innovators of complextro and creating his own unique niche within the EDM scene. With this album we see him depart from that a bit and move to what we had seen in the infallible June release “Spectrum” with Matthew Koma. The album features two tracks that we are already familiar with, “Spectrum” and “Shave It”, which we will see its grinding synth line in other tracks on the album including, fittingly “Stache”, “Epos” and vaguely in the opening track “Hourglass”. Artist albums recently have become a place to showcase new and old singles with additional tracks that have a tendency to not be as good as the singles. Zedd breaks that trend and keeps keeps much of his best work for the grand finale with 80% of the album being totally new and only “Shave It” being “old”.
The album is ripe with high profile vocalists from One Reupblic’s Ryan Tedder, known in the Dance Music community for his work on “Calling (Lose My Mind)”, Ellie Goulding (no doubt Skrillex hooked that up), Heather Bright who has worked with Laidback Luke and Savoy. The high proportion of vocalists is a marked and welcome change in Zedd’s sound, as it gives some of the more melodic tracks on the album more texture and a more balanced sound. “Lost At Sea” with Ryan Tedder combines Daft Punk influences with an infectious, uplifting melody and a euphoric topline, carried by Ryan Tedder and aided by a rising piano motif. The next track “Clarity” featuring the Foxes on vocals and Porter Robinson & Matthew Koma aiding in the writing, fits perfectly as the title track, taking the gorgeous melody and layering it over a subtle grinding synth line gives us the hint of we have always known from Zedd. Look for these two to become hits.
Events, Review | Electric Zoo 2012 Recap
Posted by Middy on September 13, 2012
We showed you Electric Zoo in images and gave you the sounds of each day. We’ve even given you a video recap that will bring all of your favorite moments of the weekend to the forefront of your mind. Now, we will try to capture the spirit of this great festival through words. Because even as Labor Day fades into the distance, the memories of the weekend live on. The three days of Electric Zoo constituted a blurry, messy, and ultimately wonderful check mark on the great bucket list of life, and while it’s a tall order to try to sum up all three days in one post, we’re going to pick out a few moments that stood out for us during the weekend. To put it another way, we’re talking about the small anecdotes that you and your friends will be laughing about for the next six months — the moments that reflect the atmosphere of the festival as a whole.
Events, Review, Trance | Ferry Corsten Brings Full On To The US
Posted by Middy on September 8, 2012
The inaugural Full On on this side of the Atlantic capped the first night of the 4th edition of Electric Zoo with a resounding bang. Full On was first started in 2007 back in Ferry Corsten’s home country of the Netherlands and has turned into one of the biggest trance events in the world. The night was full of back-to-back sets and great individual performances.
Roseland Ballroom set the perfect scene for the night, as tired festival goers began streaming in between 11:30 and midnight to catch the tail-end of rising American trance asset Audien, who has been tagged by super trio Above & Beyond as a name to watch. Full On started at 11pm with Audien, which was definitely a small thing I would have changed since Electric Zoo did not end until 11 pm and the inevitable backup of getting tens of thousands of people off of an island caused many people to be very late for Audien’s set. Next year I would advise Made Event to start the afterparties at 11:30, with doors at 11, to give people at Electric Zoo enough time to get down to the afterparty they paid a decent amount of money for.
Once Audien was done getting the crowd going, British DJ/trance-turned-progressive-house producer Michael Woods hit the decks. His style was not totally out of place in the night, though it was different from the overall tenor of the trance theme. His high energy progressive tracks excited the crowd, and he launched salvo after salvo of hard hitting songs from his expansive discography that has seen many stellar additions recently. Michael Woods was joined by Polina who sang the track “Goodbye,” which became a theme of the evening — live vocalists. He was then joined by Ferry Corsten, the man of the evening, for some intriguing back-to-back that combined some of the more progressive tracks in Ferry’s arsenal. With this as a starting point, there was a clear progression in Ferry Corsten’s sound during the night. Continue on to see how the rest of the night went.
Dubstep, Electro-House, Review | Zomboy – The Dead Symphonic EP
Posted by Mach on September 3, 2012
Zomboy has outdone himself, something that to my own disappointment in myself, I thought was not possible. To honor this great masterpiece, I REFUSE TO RELATE ZOMBOY TO SKRILLEX. Ah, feels good to get that out there. As similar as their styles are, Zomboy produces significantly different than the Dubstep tycoon. Zomboy actually has gone much heavier in his productions, something that Sev and I thoroughly enjoy. I have so much to say about this EP, but I know the last thing anyone wants to do is read for hours. My top three tracks from the EP are “Nuclear,” “Vancouver Beatdown,” and “Gorilla March.”
“Nuclear” is a wild Reggae/Drumstep track. The vibes that follow with this filthy track make you glad it wasn’t a short listen. “Vancouver Beatdown” is one of the heavier dance tunes that I am actually able to enjoy. A lot of producers just think that because they added in heavy synths and bass that people will love it. Sadly people will, because that style distracts people from the fact that the track has no creativity. Thankfully that isn’t the case for this sweet Electro-House tune. Lastly, “Gorilla March,” oh my god. This track makes you want to start moshing hardcore, turn this heater up as high as you can and throw down like never before. My three favorites in no way reflect how massive of a release this truly is. Zomboy is officially a god for this EP, he has set an incredible standard.
CLICK HERE TO BUY LIMITED EDITION PACKS OF THE EP
Events, Featured, Interviews, Review | Hook N Sling Interview + Lavo NYC Recap
Posted by Middy on August 17, 2012
The Australian producer / DJ Hook N Sling has really made a name for himself since his start back in the early 2000s where he was struggling to get by still working in his dad’s graphic design and working in the breaks genre with his radio show ibreaks.co.uk. He has garnered support for his tunes since the his first big hit in 2007, “The Bump” and his career has shot off from there with hits like “Diamonds In The Sky” with fellow Aussie TV Rock, his remix of Nervo’s “We’re All No One”, his remix of Calvin Harris – I Am Not Alone, and many more. He has upcoming tracks on Axtone, Stealth Records (the below remix of Mozaik) and Wall Records. The future is very bright for this young Australian producer who has shown that success does not come over night and that if you work hard and are patient, good things will come to you.
We caught up with him in his hotel room before his set at Lavo NY to ask him about his upcoming records, his move to the US, his favorite place to vacation, the reason why “Reason” release date was delayed, his history of singing and more. His set at Lavo was superb, bringing his flavor from down under to the upper crust of New York. Lavo NY has some decent openers, but they do like to sprinkle a few too many Beatport top 40 tracks when those should be left up to the headliner to use as crowd pleasers.
Hook N Sling stepped on around 1 and got the party going with a mixture of his own hit tracks such as his recent single “Evermore”, his remix of We’re All No One”, which got a good reaction from the crowd and “Diamonds In The Sky”. He played recent songs from others like fellow Aussie producer Walden’s remix of “In My Mind”, which was fitting as the young producer stopped by for a short time that night. He played a good blend of progressive as well as some lesser known house tracks that worked very well in the set, displaying Hook N Sling’s ability as a DJ and his intelligence behind the decks. He finished around 3, leaving the nearly full crowd still wanting more. Looking forward at Lavo, Dash Berlin will be there next week the 23rd. Tickets are sold out, but if you are a regular, get to the show. Below is the start of the interview and the rest is after the jump.
FNT: You recently moved from Sydney (Bondi Beach to be exact) to LA — was that tough for you, anything you miss from Australia?
Hook N Sling: It was tough setting up a whole new life. I had to sell my car back home, kind of pack everything up and think about stuff I really love and and don’t give a shit about anymore and sold the stuff I hated. It was like boiling your life down to bare essentials and then picking up and leaving. In that part leaving home was the hard part, getting over here doing stuff like Social Security, drivers license, which I still don’t have and I hope I don’t get pulled over until I get one. All that kind of stuff has just been a big deal, but as I was just saying to someone the other day, it wouldn’t bother me if the shows are doing well, I am busy, so I don’t really think about it, but it was awfully stressful coming over.
FNT: DJs are known for never sleeping or rarely sleeping, how do you deal with that?
Hook N Sling: I slept 9 hours last night. But I needed that because the night before was like 4 hours. It’s ok, I can deal with it, the alarm goes off, I know I am going to get out of bed otherwise I am going to miss my flight and I kind of hate dealing with airports so I like to get it over and done with as easy as possible. It’s alright, the more you think about it, the more you hate it. So I don’t think about it.
FNT: Since you were in a choir as a kid (Hook N Sling laughs), would you ever do vocals for one of your songs like Calvin Harris?
Hook N Sling: I knew I shouldn’t have said that in an interview haha. I do, I have done a couple of vocal parts, but nothing I do makes it to the final record. I would put down an idea and I would give it someone else and go “what do you think” and can you make this sound better and put some words to it, I am obviously not to good with that stuff, but yeah, I have been known to step in front of a microphone.
More of the interview after the jump
Albums, House, Review, Trance | Jaytech – Multiverse (Album Review)
Posted by Middy on August 15, 2012
Jaytech is a producer whose sound is always unique and fresh. He is in the class of producers who take aspects of trance, house, progressive, tech and mix them into a unique blend that becomes their own individual sound. After releasing his first artist album “Everything Is Ok” back on 2008 on Anjunadeep, Jaytech takes his talents to the flagship label of Above & Beyond and gets his new album “Multiverse” released on Anjunabeats, showing not only his growth as an artist, but also the growth and inclusiveness of different styles of the label as well.
The title of this album is really perfect because it is “Multiversal” in sound and style from song to song, always keeping the listener on their toes with his funky grooves, techy baselines, trancy top lines and emotive vocals. The album starts with a housey track “Everglade” with Seranade on the vocals that gets Jaytech’s second album effort started with a bang. It commences right of the bat with a chugging bass line, while introducing the vocal bits, smooth strings and subtle synth chords giving this track groovy, yet melodic properties. “New Vibe” is the only previously released track on the album and while I think he could have included “Echo” from the two track EP including both songs, “New Vibe” is superb choice showing the prowess of Jaytech with the more trance side of his productions. Click the jump to read more and then start listening if you haven’t already.