Exclusive, Featured, Interviews | The Art of DJing, Beginnings, Living with Pasquale Rotella & more with Morten [FNT Exclusive]
Posted by Middy on August 14, 2013
Danish DJ / Producer Morten Breum, now Morten, because “it is easier”, has been around music all of his life. His father, a music teacher back in Denmark, put Morten in an environment where music was king, and this led Morten to enter DJ classes at his school at 13. From there he was hooked, soon playing gigs at local bars and soon local clubs, elevating himself to becoming the icon he has become in Denmark, scoring commercial endorsements with Pespi and Red Bull (and even his face on Pepsi bottles) and playing at a royal wedding, what up Armin. He moved to LA two years ago, where he has become much more anonymous and enjoyed the LA life.
We caught up with him on the tail-end of a busy week of meetings with labels, media and other people in New York, that was to finish off with a show at Lavo NYC that Thursday night. Later that day he was going to get an additional tattoo (he has A LOT of them) with Vice filming the whole thing. Seems a bit weird to watch someone get punctured with needles and ink, but hey, to each their own. His production “Look Closer” was supposed to come out on the 6th of August on PRMD, but it was not releasing in Denmark on that date because of territory restrictions, so Morten decided to put it off until Denmark could be put in the original release, to stay true to his original fans, and so it is coming in 5 days. Click the jump to catch our interview where we talk about ditching university for DJing, playing hits, crazy people in Vegas, living in Pasquale Rotella’s house and more.
Events | Five Things We Can’t Wait For At Electric Zoo 2013
Posted by Spice on August 8, 2013
Summer is flying by, which is bittersweet on one hand but totally amazing on the other. Why? Because it means that we’re getting closer and closer to Electric Zoo’s blowout fifth year. If you’re not up on your EZoo life, check out our official recap video from last year and see what you missed. Yeah — it was pretty killer. Fortunately, this year is already shaping up to be bigger and better than ever for many reasons, not least of which are:
1) Two mainstages (count ’em, TWO) and an expanded festival site on Randall’s Island. More on that later.
2) A new 18 and up policy. Sorry, youths (#YOUTHS) of the world — I’m too old for your shenanigans and look forward to mingling with an older and wiser crowd. *Wheezes; testily gestures for you to GET OFF MY LAWN.*
3) A totally killer lineup — which is par for the course by EZoo’s standards. There’s lots to be excited about here, but we’ve come up with five things that we’re especially stoked for. Check ’em out after the jump.
Techno | Gesaffelstein – Pursuit
Posted by Spice on June 19, 2013
The latest single from Gesaffelstein dropped earlier this week on OWSLA (OWSLA: continuing to kill it in 2013), and boy is it a dark one. Anyone with a flair for the sinister will immediately appreciate the accompanying video that the tech house maven released in tandem with the track — it deftly heightens the tension and uneasiness of the song itself. Not exactly what you’d consider standard summertime fare, but definitely a fascinating listen.
iTunes: Gesaffelstein – Pursuit
Progressive House | Sander Van Doorn & Mark Knight vs Underworld – Ten
Posted by Middy on March 5, 2013
A collab that came a bit out of left field, as previewed by Mark Knight & Sander van Doorn a little while ago, at first I was unsure what I was going to hear with how Sander’s sound has progressed in recent years, but this is a pleasant surprise. The track has all of the hallmarks of tech house leader Mark Knight’s sound, while turning back the clock with Sander van Doorn, turning up the tempo and borrowing some from his days of trance and mixing in some of his current big room melodic tendencies. Underworld’s soothing vocals mesh perfectly with the churning, techy, yet melodic instrumental.
Beatport: Sander Van Doorn & Mark Knight vs Underworld – Ten
House, Techno | Georgia Fair – My New Home (Talul Remix)
Posted by Mach on December 10, 2012
Tech-House rarely ever gets posted on FNT. This remix from Talul contains a little more of an experimental side. About 2 minutes in you are already feeling the remix and then the vocals finally break in. This just turned out to be an incredible, laid back track.
Albums | Deadmau5 – > album title goes here < (Review)
Posted by Spice on September 27, 2012
Deadmau5 dropped his much-anticipated sixth studio album on Tuesday, marking the culmination of what has been a long, fascinating-to-watch process that played out largely on Soundcloud and the mau5’s Ustream channel. While > album title goes here < is not as groundbreaking or explosive as some of Joel Zimmerman’s past efforts — in fact, it’s been handily derided by a number of critics for feeling “tired” and “stale” and like “a Sasha and John Digweed set from 1997” — it is in fact very much in keeping with Joel’s ethos as a musician and seems reflective of both his state of mind and his (occasionally prickly) attitude towards the music industry.
In many ways, > album title goes here < is classic mau5. The production is polished to an obsessive extent, with deceptively simple but pitch-perfect synths playing off of one another to create the multi-dimensional soundscapes he is known for. The majority of tracks fall in the six to nine minute range, and eschew big, heady drops for the slow-burn builds favored by the tech house denizens of yore. Though indie darling Imogen Heap and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way both have vocal credits, this is not a poppy album by any means — it is restrained, nuanced, and at times incredibly minimal, an album for the connoisseurs. There are moments when you’ll likely find yourself thinking of tech house and trance; ever the iconoclast, Joel is not one to do what people expect. He is, however, one for working through his creative highs and lows with his fans watching, meaning that you will probably recognize several of the tracks from their earlier stages (“Fn Pig,” “There Might Be Coffee,” “Superliminal” and “Closer” were all posted on Soundcloud long before they were finished). While some may be disappointed by the comparative “lack” of new material, there is nonetheless something fitting and decidedly mau5-ish about seeing these tracks in their final incarnation on the album.
Overall, > album title goes here < is something to listen to from start to finish, with each song contextualized against the next. It’s an album for a roadtrip, or your headphones, or a long evening at home. There’s no bombast here, but there’s an almost intellectual level of mastery on display; unlike much of today’s EDM, it just happens to lie in the subtleties.