Deep House, Electronic | Huxley – Inkwell EP
Posted by mimada on December 10, 2013
Guest post from Swedish house maniac, Rebecca.
December started out pretty dope. The new Stockholm-based one day festival, ”November Lights” on the 30th of November welcomed December with a pyrotechnical masterpiece – namely Tiesto’s 2.5 hour set. There were of course other DJs playing that night, but they faded away in the shadows of the highly financed, visually grand performance. I had troubles getting up from bed for a week after from my poor, sore body.; the indicator for a good rave and my bad physique.
As most people now tune in on the ready-made Christmas playlists, I can’t really face it yet. There are still a couple of days left until Christmas hits with maximal power, and I try to enjoy every moment left before it’s time to travel back home to my family and loop Michael Bublé’s velvet soft version of ”It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”.
So, today I filled my ”Super Soft” playlist with a super soft package: the brand new EP release from Huxley. Inkwell is my favorite, and I match it with a cozy bed and fluffy duvet. Dive in below.
HUXLEY
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Deep House | Lissat & Voltaxx, Marc Fisher – Groovejet (Andrey Exx & Fomichev Remix)
Posted by mimada on November 22, 2013
Today our guest writer Rebecca was bed ridden and hungover. You know what that means? Endless hours to explore music on the Internet! Here she brings us one of her favorite findings.
The year was 2000 and I was bouncing around the playground in my red, fake suede platform sandals with a golden Chinese symbol on each foot (mum thought the even taller, more Spice Girls-esque, glittery ones were not age appropriate), my white baggy capri pants made some unidentified crisp material, my printed bright colored mesh t-shirt and my hair in two buns on the head, held up by fluffy scrunchies.
If there would be a soundtrack to this scenery, it would be “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) – Radio Edit,” by the Italian DJ Spiller. I remember listening to that song in our cool 90’s Volvo, on my cool CD-player, at the cool discos in elementary school serving soda and potato chips. I thought at that time the track was by Kylie Minouge; she was my goddess so all cool stuff just had to have something to do with her, it was pure logic.
In 2000, I’d never heard about the genre “house.” Everything to me was pop, including “Groovejet,” but as it turns out, I actually was a little house lover already back then. Man, now I wished my parents had shipped me to Ibiza during the late 90’s, when the legends were all young and fresh, the lip gloss was too glossy and the sunglasses too tinted. I would take it all in, subconsciously as a 5-year-old, and be imprinted. This would naturally make me a DJ genius today. It’s just psychology and wishful thinking.
It took 13 years before someone brought the nostalgic house hit into the light again and made a remix of it that is EVEN better than the original. Lissat & Voltaxx, Marc Fisher – Groovejet (Andrey Exx & Fomichev Remix) made it to an honorable 3rd place on the Beatport top 10 list, and it’s no. 1 of the list in my neon coloured, hollographic 90’s kid heart.
FOMICHEV
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Electronic, Progressive House | Pryda – LYCKA
Posted by mimada on November 21, 2013
Collab post from your favorite Swedish partners in crime, Mimada & Rebecca.
”Anyone who listens to this show regularly or knows me personally, will know how I feel about Pryda”, was one of the comments from Zane Lowe on Eric Prydz’s booming hit, “Power Drive.” Tong has never been quiet with his worship of Prydz, and nor have we. This latest release, “LYCKA,” uploaded yesterday for the crowd to indulge in, gives us 100 more reasons to go on about the man and his almighty talents. In fact, Zane Lowe and BBC Radio 1 have already deemed this the “Hottest Record In The World.”
The title LYCKA, which is ”Happiness” in Swedish, fits the track like a glove, as Prydz now has opened the shutters to his dark (but oh so lovely) California studio. Pryda describes to Lowe his inspiration for the track in a brief interview below, claiming he was simply in a “good place” when he produced this project. And boy do the good vibes radiate through this sound. LYCKA is light, uplifting, just pure bliss, which is much needed in this pitch-black Swedish winter. This guy always knows how to provide listeners with what they need to warm their hearts.
Stick around to catch the interview at the end of this journey of a track, because you will be listening to the friendly voice of the most modest, down to earth DJ in the world. Enjoy his epic work below.
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Trap | HEDEGAARD – Still Animals (Mashup/Remix)
Posted by mimada on November 13, 2013
She’s baaaaaack…. another guest post from our Scandinavian sweetheart, Rebecca.
Just as we all started to feel that ”Animals” should be deleted (or at least reduced to one play per night) from the playlists in mainstream night clubs, Martin Garrix dropped his latest track, ”Wizard”. Yes, we all loved ”Animals;” I personally discovered it with great ecstacy, but creating a drop that sounds like the ”Animals” drop played backwards and adding a slightly different melody to it, doesn’t make a new world hit.
Sticking to a personal sound is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. Garrix did more than well with the ”Project T” remix. He sealed it with the big G without spelling out the whole name. But Wizard just feels like the easiest way out, using already proven tricks. If it wasn’t for him to be such a damn cute Dutch prodigy (Is it possible for a 20 year old to adopt a 17 year old? Anyone?) I would be much more disappointed. He has already shown that he has what it takes, so I’ll just look past this little ”Wizard” mishap.
If you for some reason still can’t get enough of ”Animals”, but feel like you need to move on (I mean it’s been 4 months since the official release. It’s been ”Animals” everyday. Everywhere. For 4 months), I suggest the Rasmus Hedegaard remix/mashup ”Still Animals”. This trap producing Dane knows his mixes (Had to make a little room for my Scandinavian neighbors in my post, it’s just a tiny bridge between my home town and Denmark – fun facts). Daring enough to take on the world’s most loved tracks, he played matchmaker between Garrix and Dr. Dre, and I believe they make a beautiful couple. Listen below and see what I mean.
RASMUS HEDEGAARD
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FREE DOWNLOAD: HEDEGAARD – Still Animals
Electro-House | Lars Allertz – Make You Mine
Posted by mimada on November 5, 2013
Presenting you another guest post from our Swedish sweetheart, Rebecca!
”Everyone can do what I do,” said Avicii in an interview with the Swedish men’s magainze Café, which the publication happened to showcase on the cover of last month’s issue. The outspoken young man has had a lot to say about the industry lately; of course everyone else apart from the artistic genius himself are in the business only for making money. Touring Vegas, having an abnormal obsession with including Ralph Lauren in all aspects of your career, and attacking the States with an album of American country sounds is all about being freely creative, right? But for once, this Avicii quote actually makes sense.
Like some ”guru of EDM,” Avicii has doomed the future of EDM (perhaps because he realized what his own front page quote really means…) and especially progressive and electro house. I am just waiting for Avicii to go full folklore. There must be money to make from the Amish music scene!
His prophecy may come to light but not before a certain newcomer’s career fully blossoms. Introducing someone else who does it, and does it more than well: Lars Allertz. The upcoming, new Avicii-before-he-became-whatever-he-is-now, is making his way through the DJ-booths in Sweden and London. The Stockholm-based 21-year-old just released the song that has every quality to be his big breakthrough. Already last year he was recognized for his early works by DJs such as Tiesto, but has yet to reach the audience. ”Make you mine” has it. Pay attention to the finely-tuned vocals and the Latino strings that put Allertz’s own mark to the, according to a specific DJ’s general opinions (no names mentioned…), “soulless electro house beat” (that means to general ears: a well-created melody with a powerful drop). Left your own territory because you’re frightened of the competition, Tim?
As in typical Swedish fashion, the full version of “Make You Mine” is available on Spotify but check out the preview below and purchase the track via iTunes if it makes you feel that type of way.
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Electronic | Drop Out Orchestra – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Remix) feat. a Swedish Introduction
Posted by mimada on October 28, 2013
My time in Sweden has not only presented me with an abundance of new music, but also quite a handful of musically inclined individuals! Today I introduce to you our newest guest writer, the Swedish vixen that is Rebecca. Check out her very first contribution below, and expect to see more in the future!
As born and raised in one of the most EDM productive countries in Europe (split with the fabulous Dutchmen), my passion for electronic music developed with the Big Swedes’ earliest breakthroughs. Avicii’s “Penguins,” then with added vocals and sadly renamed and made famous as “Fade Into Darkness,” (I mean, keep it cute and original and let the birdlike mammal have its place in the industry) was my first encounter with electronic music, and with that the start of the radical transformation from the teenage rocker I was, to the grown-up raver I became. I was 16 when it started, now I’m 20, and with the obsession like an Asperger’s kid, I have no plans on stopping. I’m still listening to and keeping up with the development of everything from trance to dirty Dutch, progressive house to hardstyle, but my heart has landed in the emotional, dreamy fields of the “original” house and deep house, and the land of the mind-blowing drops of the electro house. As I’m admiring the work of my wonderful friend, party-shaker-in-crime and talented music knower Mimada, I jumped for joy when she offered a spot as a guest blogger. I feel it to be my mission to give you the input of the Swedish EDM scene beyond Swedish House Mafia and the songs your radio station killed the day they were released. I’m giving you the new and the upcoming, from a Swedes state of mind.
On to the track! Being not 17, not in sweatshirts and flipped caps, the gentlemen of the southern-based Swedish nu disco/deep house duo Drop Out Orchestra bring “maturity” back to the DJ scene. Having a couple a years behind them may be the best of qualities when it comes to making 70’s disco influential house, as they were actually there when it happened for real. After “Be Free With Your Love” scored the billboard dance chart this year, and their remix of ”Get Lucky” was recognized during an interview with Daft Punk during the one and only Pete Tong’s BBC 1 show, the duo takes on Joy Division and manages to retouch the, sorry for stepping on some people’s toes here, old and gray melody like a facial works its magic on a post-festival face. Eric Prydz, the master of putting the magic back into songs the last decades forgotten (read: repressed), should approve with this Drop Out Orchestra rework.
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FREE DOWNLOAD: Drop Out Orchestra – “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Remix)
House | Kaskade – Turn It Down
Posted by Middy on September 14, 2011
Kaskade is back again with his second single “Turn It Down” off of his upcoming CD “Eyes” set to release this fall. It is the melodic, euphoric sound we expect from Kaskade and with amazing vocals from Rebecca and Fiona. You all heard his amazing essential mix, so you will want this song. Support Kaskade and America and buy this on Beatport.
DOWNLOAD: Kaskade – Turn It Down feat. Rebecca feat. Fiona – Extended Mix