GDD™ Morning Update: Rusko x Cypress Hill, Calvin Harris, PeaceTreaty, Miike Snow, Beatport Play, Sensation Chile, Nicolas Jaar
01 25 2012
Good morning! It’s time for your mid-week update featuring news on Rusko x Cypress Hill, Calvin Harris, PeaceTreaty, Miike Snow, Beatport Play, Sensation Chile ’12, and Nicolas Jaar. Please read on after the jump.
Rusko & Cypress Hill making joint dubstep EP
Barely one month into 2012, “We’re Making A Dubstep Record” looks set to remain popular music’s bumper sticker for the foreseeable future. The latest act to get in on the act is L.A. stoner crew Cypress Hill, who have recruited hyperactive bass star Rusko to help them make a new five-song EP that’s heavy on the wubbs. Cypress X Rusko is set for an early-April release, and you can check out a preview Roll It, Light It below.
“This is one of those styles that we felt doing with Rusko would be a great match,” the group’s mouthpiece B-Real has said in NME. “We’ve always been the type of group to take chances on doing something radically different than what people expect from us. So this carries with the tradition of us going out of the box. If it’s not something that we embrace then we don’t dare mess with it and this is something we fell right into the pocket of.”
(via inthemix)
Calvin Harris Calls ‘We Found Love’ The ‘Most Successful Thing’ He’s Ever Done
With Rihanna’s seemingly unstoppable “We Found Love” fist pumping its way through a seventh week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, MTV News is elated to bring you word from the usually publicity-shy producer of the runaway juggernaut, Scottish DJ/ beatsmith Calvin Harris.
Harris is among electronic dance music’s most popular fixtures, and over the years he has cooked up, and sung, some of the genre’s biggest anthems including “I’m Not Alone,” “Flashback” and “You Used to Hold Me.” Last year, his song “Awooga” was among the more popular songs at Miami Music Week. It was followed by a stellar collaboration with Kelis on “Bounce.”
Still, even Harris himself recognizes the sheer momentum of “We Found Love,” and how far the song has traveled, the world over.
” ‘We Found Love,’ is the most successful thing I’ve done ever,” Harris revealed just before his resident set at the famed XS Nightclub in Las Vegas. “It’s not strictly a song by me, obviously, it’s by Rihanna. She sings it.”
“It was great to work with her,” Harris continued. “No one could have taken it as far as she did. You can’t escape it here [in America]. I’ve heard it a lot. I’ve heard it probably more times today than I did when I was mixing it. Which is a good thing.”
Harris has launched into 2012 with his residency at XS, commenced work on new music and just finished a round of gigs in New York. Still, recording “Love” and touring with Ri-Ri last year is a time Harris recalls fondly.
“The tour with Rihanna was fun,” Harris said. “Most places, it was two gigs a night. I was doing after-shows as well. She was recording her album at the same time as being on tour, so she was setting up studios in the venues and hotel rooms. It was a crazy tour, three months. It’s a very long time to be on the road. But it was fun.”
So with the success of “Love,” have more pop acts come calling for collabos with Harris in the new year?
“Ever since the Rihanna song did well, a lot of people want to do some stuff, which is great,” Harris continued. “That’s what I enjoy doing. In terms of actual names, I’ve not done anything yet. I’d like to [talk about it] once it’s been done rather than suggest what might happen.”
In the meantime, U.S. EDM fans will be tickled to know they are going to see a whole lot more of Calvin Harris in the States in the future.
(via MTV)
PeaceTreaty @ Voyeur, SD
PeaceTreaty takes over Voyeur, San Diego and talks about their plans for 2012.
(via Le New Shit)
Miike Snow and Lykke Li: “Black Tin Box” + Tour Dates
Miike Snow – Black Tin Box (Feat. Lykke Li) by Ernestime
Miike Snow, the trio of superproducers Bloodshy & Avant (Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg) and Andrew Wyatt will release their new album Happy to You March 27 via Downtown/Universal Republic. It includes a guest appearance from fellow Swede Lykke Li on a track called “Black Tin Box”.In support of the new album, the duo will head out on a North American tour– the full schedule is below, following the album’s tracklist.
Happy to You:
01 Enter the Jokers Lair
02 The Wave
03 Devil’s Work
04 Vase
05 God Help This Divorce
06 Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)
07 Pretender
08 Archipelago
09 Black Tin Box [ft. Lykke Li]
10 Paddling Out
Miike Snow:
03-13 Austin, TX – SXSW
03-23 Miami, FL – Ultra Music Festival
04-10 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre *
04-11 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater *
04-12 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater *
04-14 Indio, CA – Coachella
04-21 Indio, CA – Coachella
04-24 New York, NY – Terminal 5 *
04-27 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory *
04-29 Boston, MA – House Of Blues *
05-01 Toronto, Ontario – Sound Academy *
05-02 Montreal, Quebec – Metropolis Theatre *
* with Penguin Prison
(via Pitchfork)
Beatport’s New Remix Contest Platform Inspires DJs and Producers to Play With Music
DENVER, Jan 24, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Today, Beatport ( http://www.beatport.com ), the world’s largest music store for DJs, announced the launch of Beatport Play, a new remix contest platform. Beatport Play makes it possible for DJs and producers of all experience levels to use remix parts from original tracks by some of Beatport’s biggest artists to enter contests or use in their own performances. For the first time, Beatport, in partnership with sponsors, will offer the remix parts for free.
Beatport has hosted more than 50 remix contests over the past two years with over 10,000 remix entries submitted. Beatport Play is the next generation platform creating more chances for DJs and producers to get their music heard.
Winning a Beatport remix contest has helped break the careers of numerous electronic music producers. As part of the prize packages, winners’ remixes are commercially released by the label hosting the contest. Since becoming a two-time contest winner, for example, 22-year-old DJ and producer Zedd has released tracks on some of the biggest labels and has collaborated with Skrillex, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Fatboy Slim, and P. Diddy. He’s also had five tracks in the Beatport Top Ten, with his most recent holding the number one spot for more than a week.
“I’ve created music my entire life but I had only dabbled with producing electronic music before I entered my first Beatport remix contest in 2010,” said Zedd. “I couldn’t have imagined that two years later I’d be topping Beatport’s charts and sharing the stage with Tiesto and Skrillex.”
Starting today, five contests kick-off at www.play.beatport.com . Launch sponsors include Pioneer, Ableton, Novation, Odyssey, and iZotope. In addition to having their winning remix released commercially, winners will receive prize packages including audio production gear and software. Remix contests launching today include:
– Beck & Charlotte Gainsbourg “Paradisco” (Because Music)
— Chuckie “What Happens In Vegas” (CR2/Big Beat)
— Steve Aoki “Ladi Dadi” (Ultra)
— Christian Smith “Indecent Exposure” (Tronic)
— Bingo Players “Rattle” (Hysteria)
“DJs and producers are always looking for new ways to push their sound forward and to reach new fans,” said Matthew Adell, CEO of Beatport. “I love playing with this music and hope these awesome tracks will inspire many more people to do the same.”
(via MarketWatch)
Trailer Sensation Chile ’12 Celebrate Life
Saturday April 14, 2012 is the date when Sensation returns to Santiago. Once again, thousands of excited people from all over Chile will gather to experience an unforgettable journey in the mythical Estación Mapocho.
Nico Jaar’s Five Hour Set “From Scratch”
Nicolas Jaar, whose ‘Space Is Only Noise’ was anointed Mixmag’s top album of 2011, will perform a five hour experimental piece called ‘From Scratch’ at New York’s MoMA PS1 on February 5.
The event is a collaboration between PS1, Pitchfork, and Jaar’s own Clown & Sunset Aesthetics. The five hour performance piece will feature contributions from Jaar collaborators Will Epstein, Dave Harrington, and Sasha Spielberg.
Also included in ‘From Scratch’ will be a movement piece and video art by one of Clown & Sunset’s filmmaker-in-residence, Ryan Staake.
Jarr has kept busy as of late with a series of shows for his Darkside side project with Dave Harrington. See pictures of Darkside’s debut performance in New York here.
(via Mixmag)
Tōks
Rusko and Cypress Hill announce collab EP
01 23 2012
London grime has met LA Rap with Rusko teaming sounds to Cypress Hill on a collaborative EP.
Titled simply Cypress x Rusko, the EP was recorded over 6 months in the States with B-ren of Cypress Hill musing; “We’ve always been the type of group to take chances on doing something radically different than what people expect from us. So this carries with the tradition of us going out of the box”
“If it’s not something that we embrace then we don’t dare mess with it and this is something we fell right into the pocket of.”
Rusko nerved the hardened rappers by bringing them out at a recent show to perform the material live although the reaction was “deafening and unanimously positive”. A blend of two greats.
Cypress x Rusko is due out early April, stream a 30 second tease below;
via FACT Mag
Rusko – Somebody to love
01 19 2012
A classic house feel with Rusko‘s dub step influence is a formula too good to pass up for posting!
Best known for his early work with in the scene, Rusko helped herald the way for a brand of high energy and some would say fun style of dubstep, quickly coining his own take on the genre that infected.
Sexy vocals, classic UK piano intro and as Skrillex fans would appreciate.. A dub step drop. Good listening for the fans of the genre in the Stoney house!
Rusko Announces US College Tour
12 07 2011
24 pumping college shows in 28 days. For most of us, that sounds a bit exhausting, but for Rusko it’s just another February at the office. With hype of his new album growing larger and larger every day, this tour seems to be the massive national showcase that Rusko will use to bestow his barrage of new originals to eager youngsters around the US. Personally, I am excited to see some cities on this list that I’m sure haven’t been inundated with dance music in the past. The scene keeps growing and growing and growing…
Head on over to Rusko’s website for tickets and more information.
Tour Dates:
Thu 2/2 KNOXVILLE, TN Valarium
Fri 2/3 NASHVILLE, TN Cannery Ballroom
Sat 2/4 MEMPHIS, TN Minglewood Hall
Mon 2/6 RICHMOND, VA The National
Tue 2/7 ATLANTIC CITY, NJ House Of Blues
Wed 2/8 PITTSBURGH, PA Club Zoo
Thu 2/9 WORCESTER, MA The Palladium
Fri 2/10 AMHERST, MA Mullins Center
Sat 2/11 ALBANY, NY Albany Armory
Sun 2/12 BURLINGTON, VT Memorial Auditorium
Tue 2/14 BUFFALO, NY Town Ballroom
Wed 2/15 KINGSTON, ON Stages
Thu 2/16 LONDON, ON London Music Hall
Fri 2/17 GUELPH, ON Guelph Concert Theater
Sat 2/18 COLUMBUS, OH The Bluestone
Mon 2/20 CLEVELAND, OH House Of Blues
Tue 2/21 COVINGTON, KY The Madison Theater
Wed 2/22 ANN ARBOR, MI Necto
Fri 2/24 MILWAUKEE, WI The Rave
Sat 2/25 MADISON, WI Orpheum Theater
Sun 2/26 CHAMPAIGN, IL Canopy Club
Mon 2/27 ST. LOUIS, MO Pageant
Tue 2/28 SPRINGFIELD, MO Gillioz Theatre
Wed 2/29 LAWRENCE, KS Liberty Hall
_______________
♥ jonahberry
GDD™ Morning Update: Above & Beyond, Jesse Rose, Depeche Mode, 12th Planet, Flux Pavilion
11 25 2011
I hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving and I hope your food comas have subsided after a night’s rest. Today’s news spans from trance to dubstep with Above & Beyond, Jesse Rose, Depeche Mode, 12th Planet, and Flux Pavilion. As always, catch the full GDD™ Morning Update after the jump.
Above & Beyond warn against “Very weak imitations” in dance music
As far as dance music success stories go, Above & Beyond’s career is a standout. With a string of artist albums, an ever-growing Anjunabeats empire and tireless world tours, their superstar status has been hard-earned. In an interview with Mixmag this week, Jono Grant has drawn on the trio’s experience to send a sagely message to aspiring producers (and established ones, too). The bottom line being: don’t shamelessly ape the formula of David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia and co.
“I’ve noticed that many smaller producers are seemingly feeling a bit lost in where to go with their direction, and are perhaps seeing artists like having mainstream commercial success and saying, ‘I want a piece of that!’,” muses Grant in the interview. “They are then diverting from their chosen flight path and heading towards that, which is of course fine if it’s where they genuinely want to be, as some do. But for a lot of producers, they dilute what they are about because they are not David Guetta and don’t do what he does best. That’s not experimenting in my eyes, it’s panic!”
He then goes on to single out a particular example that’s likely to resonate with Beatport-trawling ITMers.
“For example, over the last two years I’ve noticed Beatport has been littered with tracks trying to directly mimic the riff from Swedish House Mafia’s One, including some of the bigger names,” Grant continues. “Now the instrumental of One was a great groundbreaking track when it came out, but it just feels very weak, perhaps even cynical, for so many producers to try and copy this, and in 95-percent of cases creating very weak imitations. In the process of doing something like this you dilute your own identity.
“Dance music has always been about borrowing ideas, but at the same time it’s also been about moving the sound forward. I’ve always felt the key is to draw influences from multiple sources in order to make something fresh sounding. Fair enough if you take influences from the SHM, but throw something new in there.”
This weekend is set to be a big one for Above & Beyond, with the 400th episode of its Trance Around The World radio show. Naturally, there’s a mammoth party planned – Beirut is the lucky destination – accompanied by an eight-hour broadcast. The headliners will be joined by Jaytech, Mat Zo, Kyau & Albert and Gareth Emery, so fans will want to settle in.
(via inthemix)
Jesse Rose’s ‘Made For The Night’ Documentary
Mixmag recently took a trip to LA to catch up with fidget house originator turned global house superstar Jesse Rose. Find out what we got up to with Jesse right here and check out his brand new documentary, Made For The Night, above. It gives further insight into the life and work of one of the best DJs in the game right now.
(via Mixmag)
Depeche Mode Co-Founders Martin Gore and Vince Clarke Reunite After 30 Years
Depeche Mode co-founders Martin Gore and Vince Clarke have announced that they are working on music together for the first time since Clarke quit the band in 1981. (Clarke would go on to make synth-pop history with Erasure and Yazoo/Yaz.) The two have joined together to form a techno act called VCMG.
Gore said in a press release, “Out of the blue I got an e-mail from Vince just saying, ‘I’m interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?’ This was maybe a year ago. He said, ‘No pressure, no deadlines,’ so I said, ‘OK,’ and that’s what we’ve been doing the last six month.”
VCMG will release a yet-untitled album early next year, which has already been recorded. In the meantime, they’ll put out a series of EPs, beginning with a 5-track collection called Spock. That’ll be out on December 13 through Mute, and includes four remixes of the title track.
Spock:
01 Spock (Album version)
02 Spock (Edit Select remix)
03 Spock (Regis remix)
04 Spock (DVS1 Voyage Home remix)
05 Spock (XOQ remix)
(via Pitchfork)
DJ/producer 12th Planet picks five seminal dubstep tunes
It’s impossible to identify the first DJ to spin dubstep in Southern California, but for all practical purposes, it might as well have been 12th Planet. After being galvanized by the sounds gurgling out of London nightclub FWD and captured by Mary Anne Hobbs’ seminal “Dubstep Warz” special, the artist born John Dadzie became an apostle for the nascent sub-genre in early 2006.
Eschewing the drum-&-bass scene that had supported his touring lifestlye for the previous several years, Dadzie embraced the blistering wobble. One of the founders and the most prominent face of venerable bass-music promoters/record label SMOG, the L.A.-raised Dadzie is one of the city’s biggest dance-music success stories. He’s rocked festivals all over the world, toured with everyone from Daedelus to Skrillex and has officially remixed M.I.A. and John Legend (both will see forthcoming release). His own tunes have been remixed by fellow dubstep star Doctor P, and 12th has seen his videos played on MTV2. Moreover, he’s done it all independently.
Yet it’s as a live performer when 12th Planet is truly most in his element. He raises his fist and rallies crowds; he dances, raps and drops knowledge. He’s a whirlwind of energy capable of making audiences go as wild as Waka Flocka. In advance of SMOG’s fifth-year anniversary party in Santa Ana on Friday(headlined by dubstep legend Skream), Pop & Hiss asked 12th to select five of the songs that converted him to dubstep in the first place.
Wow, I remember hearing this song every night from 2006 to about 2008. This was one of the first Dubstep tracks I had heard with some serious attitude on the bass. It reminded me a lot of the late 90′s jump-up that Aphrodite was making.
Vex’d: “Bombardment of Saturn”
My friend Tech Itch was one of the first people to ever mention the word dubstep to me. He told me to check out this group Vex’d, and lo and behold this was one of the first songs I had ever grasped the concept of dubstep on.
This track is the beginning of all “bro-step.” Before this song, dubstep was made a certain way, and after “Hammertime,” everything changed.
I remember hearing this song for the first time at a [drum-&-bass] show in San Francisco. I thought to myself, this dubstep sounds kind of like hip-hop. It was then I realized my longtime friend Matt from Santa Cruz was the orchestrator behind the sound. This track was pivotal to me, because it was probably the first American-made dubstep that caught U.K. rotation.
In my opinion, this track was the platform for modern dubstep. The way the drums are programmed, and the two-note bassline, is basically what set the tone for conventional dubstep.
(via LA Times)
Flux Pavilion @ KOKO Video
Check out the footage of Flux Pavilion dropping ‘Superbad’, his latest track with Doctor P, at KOKO while supporting Skrillex. Rusko couldn’t have had a better opening at this year’s HARD Haunted Mansion with this track.
Toks
GDD™ Morning Update: Rusko, Kaskade, I Love Techno 2011, Zedd, Hard Haunted Mansion
11 02 2011
We made it through the first half of the week! By now, I hope all of you are fully recovered from the weekend and are eager read up on the stories of Rusko’s new album, Kaskade’s aiming to expand the world of dance music, I Love Techno 2011, Zedd’s new video, and coverage of HARD Haunted Mansion. I have a tune for you to jump start your day with, so check it out and read more after the jump.
Rusko Talks Up His Anti Bro-step Album
“Bro-step is sort of my fault,” said hyperactive bass fiend Rusko back in February, before proceeding to bemoan the current state-of-affairs within the scene. “Everybody’s taken it too far,” he told BBC 1. “It’s not about playing the hardest tracks for an hour and a half.”
Fast forward to this week, and the outspoken producer’s position remains unchanged. So much so that his upcoming album – scheduled for a January 2012 release – is set to be a direct reaction to the bro-step boom.
“I turned in my new album three days ago,” he told SPIN backstage at HARD Haunted Mansion in L.A. “It’s completely a reaction to the masculine, dance-floor orientated, distorted mess that is the current state of dubstep. I made 14 tracks with 14 vocalists – songs with choruses that you can sing along to, rather than for DJs to play. It’s the biggest statement I could make, really.”
While Rusko’s certainly dead-on when he mentions his part in championing dubstep’s bastard spawn, the album sounds intriguing. In a typical Tweet from a couple of weeks back, he mused: “Does every new dubstep producer have EXACTLY the same drum-kit and massive presets? Because it sure does sound like it.” Time to bring your A-game, Rusko…
(via inthemix, Photo: Cinesthetics)
Kaskade Aiming to Expand the World of Dance Music
Kaskade may be one of the leading DJs in dance music today – but he wants to be even bigger. ”I felt empowered by the fact the scene is so huge now and so many people are paying attention,” he tells Rolling Stone. “It made me feel like, ‘This is the time for me to try something new. I don’t have to collaborate with the Black Eyed Peas. I can do something that’s unique and special to my sound.’ I’ve always kind of gone on my own path and I don’t follow the trend right now.”
Last week, Kaskade (real name: Ryan Raddon) released a double CD, Fire and Ice, that he calls the culmination of his 10 years on the scene. “It was a big undertaking to do a double disc. I think that’s why I feel like, ‘Man, a decade later this is where I’m at,’” the 40-year-old says. “It’s been a wild ride. I feel like as an artist I’ve changed and grown over the last 10 years and doing the Fire and Ice concept gave me a lot more room as an artist to stretch out.”
As a result, he’s brought in some unexpected collaborators, like Neon Trees. “I dig what those guys were doing and I remixed ‘Animal’ a year and a half ago,” he says. Plus, it turns out they had a mutual connection: Bass player Branden Campbell is married to a college friend of Raddon’s. “We hung out, I got to meet Tyler [Glenn] and we had a lot of mutual friends, so it was cool. And I just wanted to be able to do something that was fun and unique and fit with their sound and my sound, but wasn’t as obvious.”
Another guest is current collaboration queen of the moment Skylar Grey, but Kaskade says her radio success with the likes of Eminem and Dr. Dre had nothing to do with why he wanted to work with her. “I immediately gravitated towards her voice and her writing style,” he says. “She could’ve been my neighbor and I would’ve been like, ‘Man, this girl’s got an amazing voice. I need to work with this person.”
The album hit Number Four on the iTunes albums chart last week. “I don’t want to make a record that can only be listened to at two a.m. I wanted it to say more, to be musical, to stand up on its own so somebody who might not know about dance music or might not listen to it all the time would still be able to put it on and be like, ‘Man, this whole thing is interesting.’”
(via Rolling Stone)
I Love Techno 2011
The I Love Techno festival returns to Ghent, Belgium on Saturday, November 12 for its 17th edition. As always, it promises to be an action-packed extravaganza featuring the finest in techno, electro, dubstep and drum ‘n’ bass: Boys Noize, Paul Kalkbrenner, Len Faki, Carl Craig (as 69), Laurent Garnier, Steve Aoki, Digitalism, Skream vs. Benga, Chase & Status, Cassius… the list goes on.
To celebrate, we asked nine of the festival’s heavy hitters to put together special I Love Techno top 10 charts for us. Read on to check out the goods from Cassius,Digitalism, Crookers, Drop The Lime, Steve Aoki, Gesaffelstein, Brodinski,Psycatron and Proxy.
(via Beatportal)
Watch Skrillex Signee Zedd’s New ‘Shave It’ Video
Three dudes in black wearing burlap masks break into a closed-door warehouse party. The bass burbles and burps. Inside they find themselves surrounded by a sea of ladies unlike any you’ve (read: we’ve) seen before. They are not there to socialize. Instead, they grab the bearded don in the corner and take him for a ride. The bass remains impolite, they’re all headed somewhere outside of town, it’s all a little unclear. So (sort of) goes the new visual for “Shave It”, a dubstep-ish cut from German electro-house producer (and recent Skrillex signee) Zedd.
(via SPIN)
HARD Haunted Mansion Photos + Videos
See more photos and videos here.