House | Avicii ft Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up
Posted by Middy on June 25, 2013
Rejoice, Avicii is making it cool for you to wear cowboy boots and your neon YOLO hat in the same outfit to your favorite mediocre local festival! First premiered on the Mainstage during his unpredictable set at Ultra Music Festival, Avicii‘s lead single “Wake Me Up” from his upcoming album “TRUE“, has finally hit stores worldwide. It has been released in Europe for a week now, but as of today it is available worldwide on Spotify and iTunes. It is exciting to this change in direction from Avicii and the possibilities of what he can bring in the future since he has inspired so many copycats in the past few years. Whether or not his fans will be supportive of his new sound 100% remains to be seen, but you can expect September 17th to be a landmark day for one of the titans in dance music.
iTunes: Avicii ft Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up
Albums | Avicii to Release Debut Album TRUE September 17th
Posted by Middy on June 21, 2013
You thought it might never happen, but barring no setbacks or delays, Avicii’s debut album #TRUE will be released on September 17th through PRMD Music and Island Records. The Swedish megastar shocked the world at Ultra Music Festival this past spring when he played many of the selections on the album live that had a very different direction than what people were used to hearing from Avicii. But it appears he is tired of just being associated with “Levels” and wants to go in a different direction and show his diversity as an artist.
Disruption is good when a scene is half stuck
His new single “Wake Me Up” with Aloe Blacc has hit stores in Europe and will go on sale and the radio in the States June 25th. I am really looking forward to hearing the finished product and the new direction he is taking with his sound with the whole host of collaborators he has on the album. The most interesting thing may be the fan reaction, which thus far has been very luke warm, but I think many will come around September 17th. The one downside is that the hashtag in the album name is a tad cheesy.
Update: There will be no hashtag in the name album title. Good call Avicii.
via Billboard
Electro-House | Walden – Machine Land EP
Posted by Middy on April 29, 2013
Aussie youngster, Walden has become a hot pick lately as an up and comer with several releases thus far this year on New York based Big Beat Records and already touring stateside, playing the esteemed Ultra Music Festival. This time he returns with three new originals (one is an 2013 update) to cultivate a three track EP, exploring new sounds and styles for the burgeoning talent from down under.
The EP starts with the title track “Machine Land”, which starts immediately with an onslaught of echoing, electro beats that pound at you until the very last second of the track. It is downloadable for free for the next 48 hours below. The next two tracks continue the trend of hard hitting electro with the new original “Only Invader” that starts with an ominous build and then cascades into a fast paced, pitched synth laden drop with a growling low end and then finishes with an update of his previously free single “Mono World”, tweaking the grungy track to fit the EP. Walden has been slowly creating his niche with euphoric, big room house tracks and with this EP, he flips the script completely and shows his capacity to create hard hitting electro tracks, much like others on his label. It is an interesting direction to see him and go and it will be worth watching in the future.
Free Download: Walden – Machine Land
Beatport: Walden – Machine Land EP
Progressive House, Videos | Hardwell Miami 2013 Aftermovie “Never Say Goodbye”
Posted by Middy on April 17, 2013
Hardwell had easily one of the standout sets at Ultra Music Festival with an awe inspiring set of largely unreleased tracks from himself and his label, putting the world on notice that Robbert van Corput is without a doubt one of the premier DJs in the world. He not only rocked the MainStage, but he also had his own Revealed Records showcase during the week and then took over the Worldwide stage the following weekend, all of which is documented in the video.
The video starts with his performance in 2012, which was as he described one his best ever and then takes it to 2013 and his set this year on the MainStage, showing the growth in just one year of this rising superstar. One of the many new songs premiered at Ultra, his collaboration with Revealed Record running mate, Dyro and Bright Lights on vocals, “Never Say Goodbye” is given a full preview in the video. The track will be out May 20th on Revealed Recordings.
Events | Ultra Music Festival 2013 — Weekend 2 Recap (Or, If I Never Hear “Clarity” Again, It Will Be Too Soon)
Posted by Spice on April 9, 2013
“You know, the mainstage doesn’t look that awesome this year. In fact, it kind of looks smaller than it did last year.”
I was sitting on a friend’s couch drinking a lukewarm Bud Light and watching Nicky Romero’s Weekend 1 set on a Macbook. We didn’t have the good speakers plugged in because someone was napping upstairs, so the sound was tinny and easy to talk over. The TV mounted to the wall was tuned to NCAA basketball with the volume off. It was early on Friday evening and I was in the process of getting over bronchitis. A bag of Doritos was making the rounds.
“Shit guys. This stage is bullshit.” I grabbed a fistful of Doritos and gestured at the computer. “Look at it. It’s just sitting there, being purple. God, the mainstage is going to effing suck this year.” My friends nodded sagely. I leaned back, satisfied that my point had hit home, and turned my attention to the basketball game.
Of all the things I’ve been wrong about in my life, this has got to be top three.
Events, Videos | Ultra Music Festival Weekend 2 Live Stream
Posted by Middy on March 22, 2013
Nearly a million people per day last weekend watched artists like Hardwell, Fatboy Slim, Porter Robinson and Armin van Buuren rip up various stages of Ultra Music Festival. This weekend should only be better with new visuals being rolled out for certain artists and an outrageous ASOT lineup taking over the megastructure on Sunday. The word is that the final SHM show will be broadcasted and also Avicii will be premiered a whole bunch of his new album on the main stage, so be sure to tune in to that. Look below for the streaming schedule and check back each day for updates.
Friday:
5:00 PM EST Swanky Tunes & Hard Rock Sofa (Main Stage)
5:55 PM EST R3hab (Main Stage)
6:25 PM EST UMEK (Worldwide Stage)
6:55 PM EST Martin Solveig (Main Stage)
7:25 PM EST Adam Beyer (Mega Structure)
7:50 PM EST Eric Prydz (Main Stage)
8:50 PM EST Carl Cox (Mega Structure)
9:35 PM EST Avicii (Main Stage)
10:30 PM EST Tiesto (Main Stage)
11:00 PM EST Luciano (Mega Structure)
Saturday:
4:00 PM EST Chuckie (Main Stage)
4:45 PM EST Laidback Luke (Main Stage)
5:30 PM EST Cirez D (Mega Structure)
6:00 PM EST Krewella (Worldwide Stage)
7:00 PM EST Fatboy Slim (Main Stage)
8:00 PM EST Calvin Harris (Main Stage)
8:40 PM EST Carl Cox (Mega Structure)
9:20 PM EST David Guetta (Main Stage)
10:20 PM EST Bassnectar (Worldwide Stage)
10:45 PM EST Deadmau5 (Main Stage)
Sunday:
3:00 PM EST Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano (Main Stage)
3:50 PM EST Modestep Live (Live Stage)
4:20 PM EST Dash Berlin (Mega Structure)
4:50 PM EST Azelia Banks?? (Live Stage)
5:10 PM EST Bingo Players (Main Stage)
5:55 PM EST Major Lazer (Live Stage)
6:20 PM EST Sander van Doorn (Main Stage)
7:00 PM EST Dirty South (Main Stage)
7:30 PM EST Armin van Buuren (Mega Structure)
8:15 PM EST Alesso (Main Stage)
9:00 PM EST Ferry Corsten (Mega Structure)
9:30 PM EST Swedish House Mafia for the last time 🙁 (Main Stage)
Electro-House | Afrojack – Air Guitar
Posted by Middy on March 12, 2013
After his rather poor attempt at remixing “Gangnam Style”, Afrojack makes up for it with a single “Air Guitar”, designated to be an anthem for this years Ultra Music Festival. Afrojack delivers on this intense track with powerful bursts of electro growls, distorted vocal samples and blistering bleeps with a small interlude to let you catch your breath before getting right back into it. On the heals of Tiesto, Quintino and Alvaro’s somewhat lackluster effort last week and Avicii’s contribution “UMF”, known to many as “ID2” or “Fire” or “Put Your Piano On”, coming next week, Ultra is pulling out all the stops, not only in terms of bookings, production, but also new songs for the two weekend, 15th edition of the world famous festival. With Afrojack’s debut album coming later this year, expect much more to come in 2013 from the towering Dutchman.