Videos | Watch Porter Robinson’s Language Tour Mini-Documentary

Posted by Middy on June 5, 2013

Last year, following the release of our number one track of 2012, and his career breaking song, “Language”, Porter Robinson went on a 30 date bus tour across North America with Mat Zo and The M Machine. The 23 minute mini-doc shows how everything came together on the tour, from the artists, to the light guy, to the tour manager and the merch guy. We also see the beginnings of “Easy”, Mat Zo & Porter Robinson’s late-2012 smash single. It is worth watching all the way through and lets you get to know Porter better as a person, showing his story from a family side and managerial side or things, while also getting to know Mat Zo & The M Machine as well, who are prominently featured in this mini-doc.

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Electro-House, Progressive House | Empire of the Sun – Alive (Remixes)

Posted by Middy on May 28, 2013

Luke Steele & Nick Littlemore, better known as Empire of the Sun, have created enourmous buzz for their sophomore artist album “Ice On The Dune“, set for release June 18th, notably after the success of their 2008 album “Walking On A Dream”. The lead single “Alive“, has already been a huge hit for the duo and not surprisingly has been remixed by some of the best in dance music.

Fast rising stars, Zedd and Mat Zo take the daunting task of doing an official remix for Empire of the Sun and hit it out of the park. Mat Zo brings back his atmospheric synths of earlier productions, while adding his own quick synth progression, keeping an appropriate amount of the original and vocal for a nuanced approach to the track. Zedd adds his own touch to the song with a fidgety, gritty low end, growling synths and chopped vocals showing his ability to mold his electro sound to an indie-dance track like this. David Guetta and his production team bring “Alive” to the festival stage with an in your face drop of grinding synths and thumping bass. Fellow Australian, M4SONIC adds a glitchy twist to the track with his own blend of gritty synths and fast paced key play.

iTunes: Empire of the Sun – Alive (Remixes)

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House | Porter Robinson & Mat Zo – Easy (Remixes)

Posted by Middy on May 7, 2013

It was not only an eventful past few weeks for Mat Zo because of the release of the “Easy” remixes, deleting his twitter account, and also the widely publicized battering and stealing done to “Rebound” done by will.i.am and Chris Brown. He was known for not being afraid to speak his mind and saying controversial things, a welcome relief from the “OMG LAST NIGHT WAS AWESOME GUYS” tweets that riddle your newsfeed when you follow DJs, so he will be missed. The original has become an early year anthem and will stand the test of time as one of the great tracks from the two rising superstars. While the original will remain a favorite of mine for a very long time, the remixes assembled by Anjunabeats and Ministry of Sound are outstanding, calling on a wide variety of styles, from the drum n bass veteran Andy C, to the grungy electro remix of Botnek, and the smooth, techy “Bright as Day” remix from Modek. The last remix comes from Frenchman Lemaitre, a name that we have criminally neglected here at FNT (I am sorry), as his funky, french touch gives the track a whole new refreshing sound. Check both of them out on tour in North America at the following dates after the jump.

Beatport | iTunes

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DO SOMETHING

FYI | will.i.am Responds to “Rebound” Theft Accusations

Posted by Middy on April 27, 2013

After admitting to the theft on the radio a few days ago, will.i.scam has gone on camera with the Associated Press in an interview about the issue. He attempts to deflect blame of the whole thing from himself by saying Arty in an email was “excited” and that this is an issue for the Interscope legal team. This purported email directly contradicts Arty’s statement that he and Anjunabeats had never been contacted for clearance, so I would be interested to see proof of it. He never says it is Arty in the interview, but he mentioned Arty in the Kiss FM interview and as of now Arty is credited as a writer for the song (illegally according to Arty). Will.i.am continues on to claim ignorance that he did not know there was another guy (Mat Zo) and that it was Arty’s job to notify him of a collaborator on the song and not will.i.am’s job as an “artist” to actually know the music he was stealing. He also passes the blame onto legal and its long bureaucratic processes, because those things just can’t be changed.

I don’t get it. I have searched the web for a version of “Rebound” that is just labeled as Arty and it simply does not exist. To claim ignorance that the song is just an Arty track is thinking that he can fool the world and we will not fall for it. “Rebound” is as much a Mat Zo track, as it is an Arty track. Making that claim just diminishes his plummeting status as an artist anyway. Will.i.am is pulling a Shaggy right now and trying to say it wasn’t me even though IT CLEARLY WAS. We caught you in your studio Will, hope you didn’t leave any spare keys around.

via Associated Press

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FYI | Will.I.Am ft. Chris Brown “Let’s Go” Steals Mat Zo & Arty’s Rebound

Posted by Middy on April 16, 2013

I was seriously debating on giving this song any pub at all because it deserves to be relegated to bottom of the music totem pole without anybody noticing. But that is the problem, nobody notices and nobody cares that such a great song from two of the best up and coming producers was so wantonly stolen by will.I.am and his band of merry writers. But why this one, Pitbull “samples” songs all the time, Flo Rida the same, it is really nothing new in this climate of heavy sampling in modern pop music. But, when big money is tossed around to shut people up and the threat of big label lawyers coming down on a “small time” artist like Arty or Mat Zo, they are almost surely going to settle on this, instead of facing the reality of going after Interscope and all of their legal might.

Anjunabeats DID NOT clear the sample so there is a case against will if they want to fight him. Maybe it was another producer who snuck this one in there, but I really don’t see how a large sample like this could have snuck by everyone at such a large label on a release as big as this. They either felt they could get away with this, or thought they could bully Mat Zo and Arty out of their own music. It remains to be seen if that will happen, but as the day continues, it seems as though a fight is brewing and there may be some high powered lawyers joining the side of Arty & Mat Zo. I can see exactly why Mat Zo deleted his twitter account yesterday because would have gone apesh*t on will.i.am. Stream both tracks to hear the obvious theft and then after the jump hear ANOTHER theft of Sandro Silva & Quintino’s “Epic”, which is sadly kind of old news by now because it has been done so many times.

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DJ-Set, Progressive House, Trance | Weekend Mixes 3/9/13

Posted by Middy on March 9, 2013

It is that time again and you need these mixes to push through the weekend and to get you through spring break. We start off with Avicii’s much talked about Diplo & Friends mix that is more funk and old school than what you would expect from the Swedish superstar. In celebration of Anjunabeats Volume 10, The Drop has put together an all Anjunabeats episode with tracks old and new in the mix. Listen at 3pm on Tiesto Club Life’s channel on Siruis XM for their entry in the College Invasion radio contest. Next up we have the March edition of Hysteria Radio from the Bingo players that includes an exclusive first play of the Dada Life remix of “Out Of My Mind”. Forging on we have a mix from Cazzette for Liquified Radio and Magnetic Festival that includes a host of their own tracks from their recent three part “Eject” album. After the jump are more mixes from Walden, Avicii, Arty and Armin.

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DJ-Set | Mat Zo Essential Mix 2/8/13

Posted by Middy on February 10, 2013

Following up Eric Prydz’s legendary essential mix last week, Mat Zo had the unfortunate job of trying to follow up that otherworldly two hour mix. Mat Zo manages to mix 75 songs into the 2 hours given to him, making for some very quick transitions and interesting drops. The mix takes you on a journey of genre and style moving through not just trance or house, but through tech, nu-disco and even some drum n bass, as be used to make it himself under his MRZO alias. The mix is nothing like you would hear from a Mat Zo club set, but rather the eclectic taste of the artist and displaying his care free attitude for barriers in music. The mix features new tracks from his upcoming album, including the funky “Pyramid Scheme”, which we have heard in his sets for the past few months and also has some exclusive cuts from The M MAchine and fellow Anjunabeats label mates Andrew Bayer and Norin & Rad. Tracklist after the jump.