Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Prince Adam - Tomorrow
The beloved Jaymo & Andy George have a new release for their Moda Black label and it comes from an artist named Prince Adam (not sure if this is a He-Man reference). For me, its not the title track of the EP but rather the B-side that peaked my interest. A bit reminiscent of Telepopmusik! Check it out here:
Gary Beck - Bring a Friend
Gary Beck has released a new album on Soma Records called "Bring A Friend." The album marks Soma's 100th album release, so it is a pretty special recording.
My favorite track has to be Algoreal, but the whole album is pretty good. A techno & tech house treat!
AlunaGeorge - Your Drums, Your Love (Duke Dumont Remix)
Hot off his latest Turbo release http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/08/duke-dumont-giver.html Duke Dumont has given this AlunaGeorge joint the remix treatment and it is awesome!
I feel like AlunaGeorge are the next big thing, and can be lumped together with names like Disclosure, Julio Bashmore and Jessie Ware. Not to declare them a trend, because they definitely have their own unique sound. Aluna Francis and George Reid join forces as vocalist and producer to conquer the indie dance world. I call them indie dance cause their video is a little too artsy-#artsy for my liking. (I know, tough crowd!)
Friendly Fires, Lil Silva and The Prototypes round up with remixers for the tune, but the Duke Dumont version is by far my fav.
Another great collabo is one between AlunaGeorge and Rustie to give "After Light." This one is really cool, and I like the tempo a lot.
The track comes from the Glasgow producer's debut album, Glass Swords, which was released late last year and received high praise.
I feel like AlunaGeorge are the next big thing, and can be lumped together with names like Disclosure, Julio Bashmore and Jessie Ware. Not to declare them a trend, because they definitely have their own unique sound. Aluna Francis and George Reid join forces as vocalist and producer to conquer the indie dance world. I call them indie dance cause their video is a little too artsy-#artsy for my liking. (I know, tough crowd!)
Another great collabo is one between AlunaGeorge and Rustie to give "After Light." This one is really cool, and I like the tempo a lot.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Franco De Mulero - Still My Thing (Supernova Remix)
Italian duo Supernova, who are Emiliano Nencioni and Giacomo Godi, lend their remixing hands to Franco De Mulero's "Still My Thing" and have released the track on their label Lapsus. Something for your dark tech house mainroom!
ElectroBlog
With my blog being no exception, the emergence of people who believe they are in the know when it comes to dance music has become something of a caricature. I have said before that the reason I started is because I saw strange exchanges on social media and wanted to cover them, I wanted to vent frustrations, and if I actually had people reading my blog, then recommend music that I was currently enjoying.
Definitely this surge of new electronic music blogs comes from trying to socialize with DJs and producers, perhaps hoping to partake in the glamourous life that has become synonymous with the DJ lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, there are some quality blogs out there, but there are some bad ones too so beware!
While DJ tweefs and wars are pretty comical in themselves, what is even more sad is people who blog about DJs getting into wars too!
First I want to talk about EDM Snob. Once again, with my total lack of promptness in completing my posts when I want to, in the interim, this blog has somewhat disbanded. What I initially was going to address was the way this blog was going to reveal how DJ Mag was being paid to rank DJs higher in their poll. The best response to that was the last comment on this Resident Advisor post: http://www.residentadvisor.net/feed-item.aspx?id=50984 Yup! My sentiments exactly. After going through the blog's posts, I could tell this "anonymous" person behind the blog was young, because his knowledge of dance music was far too recent. But it irked me the way he wanted to hold DJ Mag in contempt, and try to discredit a long standing magazine that despite its perhaps nowadays meaningless poll contributed to the spread of dance music and knowledge to so many. A complete lack of respect for dance music as an institution and those who contributed to its success.
The Snob then claimed that he was going to reveal the dates of SHM's One Last Tour before they did. For one, it was a strange claim because the whole promotional campaign was showing exactly where they were going through posting landmarks on their website, and all you had to do was decipher that the Eiffel tower was in France, etc. Anyway, this highly aggravated SHM manager Amy Thompson, who expressed her displeasure on the SHM Facebook page. Oh the drama!
Well, fast-forward to this week, and the founder of the "EDM wikileaks" decided to reveal himself because people were supposedly losing their jobs because of him. All I can say is, these new kids on the block are way too self righteous and its disturbing. That whole "PLUR" catchphrase of dance music seems to have either skipped a generation or is lost on drugs. He even tried to pass off what he was doing as passion for the scene, but anyone with passion won't go and discredit people (ahem, DJ Sneak, ahem).
Side note: also funny, this week the "EDM Snob" declared Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs as the second coming, and that he said it first...really, I was in school full time 2 years ago and even I heard of T.E.E.D before yesterday. Yeesh, where does the credibility in the word snob come from?!
In the midst of trying to figure out who EDM Snob was, another blog, EDM insider, decided to do some investigative journalism and called out Biz Martinez, a talent buyer at mega-club LIV in Miami, as the EDM Snob http://www.edminsider.com/exclusive-edm-snob-exposed/. I was not totally convinced by the article for the simple reason that if you have been to LIV, it is one of the most self-appointed pretentious clubs in America, and so its actual snobbish ways could no way be linked to the faux-snob of Mr. Wikileaks. But seriously, how sad! This week, after the snob revealed himself, Martinez took to Twitter to state that anyone who thought it was him does not know how much work he put into the scene. Well, good for him I suppose. I still think LIV is pretty ridiculous, but that is a digression.
To add insult to injury, the "editor" of EDM Snob, Kat Bein, wrote an article in some Miami paper about EDM being the wimpiest youth movement, and then claimed it was satirical. What on earth is the point, and why aren't these kids in school? She since removed the article, probably because of the overwhelming response of kandi kids taking offence. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, and the "piece de resistance" is of course Dancing Astronaut, which I have expressed disdain for in the past http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/06/rant-on-part-2.html. I feel bad cause I know they do have some writers that actually try to do research and not come off as totally pompous, but when the face of the blog appears to 1) be completely arrogant and pompous 2) takes a lot of the credit even though its not his to take I just feel the need to show what I'm talking about.
Aside from writing that dumb editorial that he keeps referring to (the one about dance music going mainstream but not having to sell out), Jacob Schulman has taken on an arrogance that is beyond reproach. First off, he is the editor-in-chief, not founder (or CEO, though I don't get why a blog needs a CEO) of Dancing Astro. That title belongs to one Senthil Chidambaram.
Kia Makarechi of the Huffington Post interviewed Steve Angello, and Schulman along with another DA writer decided to call the article poorly written and presented their "interpretation" of the article. I mean, are you kidding me? MTV EDM journalist Adam Stewart saw this blatant display of ego and called Schulman out, saying not to get too tired from patting himself on the back. Ha!
Then the whole mess with EDM Snob and SHM came out. Schulman said on Twitter
Ew! What could be more sad than being a poor man's Dancing Astronaut? Then when EDM Snob has his "big reveal" he stated
Yes, I had to reach for a bag to yak in, cause I could not believe my eyes.
Well, fine. Some kid thinks Dancing Astro is the best. No one gets hurt. But seriously, what the heck? I've read different articles saying that it is America's fault for the EDM phenomenon, and that they are killing dance music. I don't agree with those statements but when this is the supposed biggest dance blog in America, I can understand people's frustrations.
Steve Angello played Pacha NYC after his SIZE in the Park gig, and decided he was going to spin more "underground" tracks. He apparently told people they weren't going to recognize the music, and then Schulman triumphantly stated he identified Tensnake's Coma Cat. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Coma Cat one of the biggest tracks of 2010?
I know why Beat My Day is not as popular: its based in Europe, tucked away from the EDM phenomenon. Its headed by a Swede named Anton, but gets submissions from other parts of the world. It has its share of EDM posts, but it also goes well beyond that too. I'm always so disheartened when I see Dancing Astro blatantly copy posts by Beat My Day literally minutes after they post and get the credit for it. Schulman and DA were named as the most influential EDM blog by Billboard. Ugh... Schulman was also invited to speak on panel that included Astralwerks and Junior Sanchez for an EDM roundtable. I mean, c'mon!
Most disturbing is how many DJs respect Schulman. Amy Thomspon even likes the kid, despite his scathing editorial being about SHM. Anyway, Schulman meleed himself into a conversation between Sebastian Ingrosso, Tommy Trash and Afrojack concerning SI & TT's new track Reload:
And then privately tweeted
I'm gonna call that borderline racist.
Chidambaram also weighed in
So I guess Beat My Day hit a nerve. Good thing too, considering they pretty much never intervene when DA steals their posts.
I added Senthil's other tweet in there to demonstrate that complete lack of knowledge this "dance music" blog has. Sure, trap music origins are from hip hop, but if you say guys like Hudson Mohawke, Lunice, Bauuer, Diplo etc are not making dance music then there is clearly something wrong.
If you need to write a disclaimer about yourself, then maybe its time you check yourself before you wreck yourself (always wanted to say that haha!)
I've been telling myself, don't start sounding like a hipster with the whole "I knew about this before it was cool" and I try hard to defend the likes of Guetta and SHM and whomever else has become commercial as a product of their underground success, but what I never anticipated was the brash generation of clubbers that emerged alongside them.
Maybe I just have a case of sour grapes. But believe me, trying to keep this blog going takes too much out of me, so this truly is not blog envy. I will never say that the once underground culture of electronic music gone commercial is a bad thing. I've seen so many of my heros make it big, I've seen the underbelly of producers working even harder, making quality music. But there needs to be less negativity. That is one part of dance music's success I'm still not used to. And I don't mean to be perpetuating more negativity by hating on these blogs. Just want them to take a step back and embrace the music, do the research, lose the egos, and embrace the people in the industry that make it all come together...too much to ask?
Definitely this surge of new electronic music blogs comes from trying to socialize with DJs and producers, perhaps hoping to partake in the glamourous life that has become synonymous with the DJ lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, there are some quality blogs out there, but there are some bad ones too so beware!
While DJ tweefs and wars are pretty comical in themselves, what is even more sad is people who blog about DJs getting into wars too!
First I want to talk about EDM Snob. Once again, with my total lack of promptness in completing my posts when I want to, in the interim, this blog has somewhat disbanded. What I initially was going to address was the way this blog was going to reveal how DJ Mag was being paid to rank DJs higher in their poll. The best response to that was the last comment on this Resident Advisor post: http://www.residentadvisor.net/feed-item.aspx?id=50984 Yup! My sentiments exactly. After going through the blog's posts, I could tell this "anonymous" person behind the blog was young, because his knowledge of dance music was far too recent. But it irked me the way he wanted to hold DJ Mag in contempt, and try to discredit a long standing magazine that despite its perhaps nowadays meaningless poll contributed to the spread of dance music and knowledge to so many. A complete lack of respect for dance music as an institution and those who contributed to its success.
The Snob then claimed that he was going to reveal the dates of SHM's One Last Tour before they did. For one, it was a strange claim because the whole promotional campaign was showing exactly where they were going through posting landmarks on their website, and all you had to do was decipher that the Eiffel tower was in France, etc. Anyway, this highly aggravated SHM manager Amy Thompson, who expressed her displeasure on the SHM Facebook page. Oh the drama!
Well, fast-forward to this week, and the founder of the "EDM wikileaks" decided to reveal himself because people were supposedly losing their jobs because of him. All I can say is, these new kids on the block are way too self righteous and its disturbing. That whole "PLUR" catchphrase of dance music seems to have either skipped a generation or is lost on drugs. He even tried to pass off what he was doing as passion for the scene, but anyone with passion won't go and discredit people (ahem, DJ Sneak, ahem).
Side note: also funny, this week the "EDM Snob" declared Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs as the second coming, and that he said it first...really, I was in school full time 2 years ago and even I heard of T.E.E.D before yesterday. Yeesh, where does the credibility in the word snob come from?!
In the midst of trying to figure out who EDM Snob was, another blog, EDM insider, decided to do some investigative journalism and called out Biz Martinez, a talent buyer at mega-club LIV in Miami, as the EDM Snob http://www.edminsider.com/exclusive-edm-snob-exposed/. I was not totally convinced by the article for the simple reason that if you have been to LIV, it is one of the most self-appointed pretentious clubs in America, and so its actual snobbish ways could no way be linked to the faux-snob of Mr. Wikileaks. But seriously, how sad! This week, after the snob revealed himself, Martinez took to Twitter to state that anyone who thought it was him does not know how much work he put into the scene. Well, good for him I suppose. I still think LIV is pretty ridiculous, but that is a digression.
To add insult to injury, the "editor" of EDM Snob, Kat Bein, wrote an article in some Miami paper about EDM being the wimpiest youth movement, and then claimed it was satirical. What on earth is the point, and why aren't these kids in school? She since removed the article, probably because of the overwhelming response of kandi kids taking offence. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, and the "piece de resistance" is of course Dancing Astronaut, which I have expressed disdain for in the past http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/06/rant-on-part-2.html. I feel bad cause I know they do have some writers that actually try to do research and not come off as totally pompous, but when the face of the blog appears to 1) be completely arrogant and pompous 2) takes a lot of the credit even though its not his to take I just feel the need to show what I'm talking about.
Aside from writing that dumb editorial that he keeps referring to (the one about dance music going mainstream but not having to sell out), Jacob Schulman has taken on an arrogance that is beyond reproach. First off, he is the editor-in-chief, not founder (or CEO, though I don't get why a blog needs a CEO) of Dancing Astro. That title belongs to one Senthil Chidambaram.
Kia Makarechi of the Huffington Post interviewed Steve Angello, and Schulman along with another DA writer decided to call the article poorly written and presented their "interpretation" of the article. I mean, are you kidding me? MTV EDM journalist Adam Stewart saw this blatant display of ego and called Schulman out, saying not to get too tired from patting himself on the back. Ha!
Then the whole mess with EDM Snob and SHM came out. Schulman said on Twitter
Well, fine. Some kid thinks Dancing Astro is the best. No one gets hurt. But seriously, what the heck? I've read different articles saying that it is America's fault for the EDM phenomenon, and that they are killing dance music. I don't agree with those statements but when this is the supposed biggest dance blog in America, I can understand people's frustrations.
Steve Angello played Pacha NYC after his SIZE in the Park gig, and decided he was going to spin more "underground" tracks. He apparently told people they weren't going to recognize the music, and then Schulman triumphantly stated he identified Tensnake's Coma Cat. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Coma Cat one of the biggest tracks of 2010?
Most disturbing is how many DJs respect Schulman. Amy Thomspon even likes the kid, despite his scathing editorial being about SHM. Anyway, Schulman meleed himself into a conversation between Sebastian Ingrosso, Tommy Trash and Afrojack concerning SI & TT's new track Reload:
And then privately tweeted
Chidambaram also weighed in
So I guess Beat My Day hit a nerve. Good thing too, considering they pretty much never intervene when DA steals their posts.
I added Senthil's other tweet in there to demonstrate that complete lack of knowledge this "dance music" blog has. Sure, trap music origins are from hip hop, but if you say guys like Hudson Mohawke, Lunice, Bauuer, Diplo etc are not making dance music then there is clearly something wrong.
If you need to write a disclaimer about yourself, then maybe its time you check yourself before you wreck yourself (always wanted to say that haha!)
I've been telling myself, don't start sounding like a hipster with the whole "I knew about this before it was cool" and I try hard to defend the likes of Guetta and SHM and whomever else has become commercial as a product of their underground success, but what I never anticipated was the brash generation of clubbers that emerged alongside them.
Maybe I just have a case of sour grapes. But believe me, trying to keep this blog going takes too much out of me, so this truly is not blog envy. I will never say that the once underground culture of electronic music gone commercial is a bad thing. I've seen so many of my heros make it big, I've seen the underbelly of producers working even harder, making quality music. But there needs to be less negativity. That is one part of dance music's success I'm still not used to. And I don't mean to be perpetuating more negativity by hating on these blogs. Just want them to take a step back and embrace the music, do the research, lose the egos, and embrace the people in the industry that make it all come together...too much to ask?
Swedish House Mafia - One Last Tour
The trio spoke to Rolling Stone magazine before their performance at the cancer benefit show held by iHeart Radio, and basically stated they just want to see what happens as separate entities. More power to them! http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/swedish-house-mafia-on-whats-next-20120922
Last week, the boys announced that they would reveal the dates for their last tour. I remember being so gutted that they were going to perform together at Madison Square Garden months after I had moved out of NYC and back to my hometown of Montreal, so I was nothing short of elated when it was announced they would be coming to our local entertainment venue. I got my ticket today, and now have to wait in anticipation of 5 months to see them in February.
DJ vs DJane: is this even a real word?
So I've been seeing this word more and more, and I thought I would address these articles that were sitting in my draft box at the same time: DJane. I know its not a new word, but I'm seeing more and more female DJs refer to themselves as DJanes and I thought it was weird. I feel its like calling a female lawyer a "lawyera" or something bizarro like that. Mostly, I find it divisive. In the field of engineering, especially in the 90s, men dominated the field, and it was thought that women were more "intimidated" by technology. In the last 3 decades, that has clearly changed, but I think the same thing can be said about DJing. A lot fewer females were in the game back in the day, but now more women are stepping up to the plate, learning the DJ tech gear and producing too. But why would you call yourself "DJane"? Unless there is something feminine about the way you are spinning, then I don't get why. I think that this is why I was so up in arms about Paris Hilton's (thankfully, failed) attempt at DJing http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/05/paris-hilton-as-dj.html and http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/06/rant-on-about-paris-hilton.html. It was quite obvious she wanted to use her feminine wiles to gain her notoriety in the electronic world. But it takes a certain amount of skill/knowledge to be successful and no image can change that. Influence it maybe, but if you can't beatmatch or even put together a decent pre-recorded set for entertainment value, then looking pretty won't save you from a crowd of boos.
I wrote about this earlier back in April http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/04/i-am-female-and-i-like-house-music.html but I found it interesting when last month these two separate articles emerged:
http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2012/08/16/sexism-female-djs-edm/54394/
Its an interesting article, with most of the participants stating that sexism does exist in the industry.
The Australian Pulse Radio took the opportunity to praise some of the female DJing elite in this article and get quotables.
http://pulseradio.net/articles/2012/08/that-s-what-she-said-female-djs-speak-up
In the article, Nina Kraviz complains about sexism. But then she recently posed nude for a Hugo Boss fahsion (or lack thereof!) campaign, with a title that read "sounds good looks good." She can definitely do what she wants but how do you rid of sexism in a male dominated industry by posing like that? http://www.hugoboss.com/de/en/blog/sounds-good-looks-good/?fb_action_ids=3245065584799&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%7B%223245065584799%22%3A146652928809828%7D&action_type_map=%7B%223245065584799%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map
I've never seen a male DJ naked in one of his promotional shots. Even DJ Tiesto has joined the fashion brigade of DJs, but he's not showing skin! http://www.guess.com/tiesto/
Maybe its unavoidable as a female, I dunno. I think you can be sexy and tasteful, but it won't change the quality of your music productions or music selections. But I think its an interesting topic, so I wanted to share the articles with you!
Bart B More - The Box/Glow EP
Dutchman Bart B More has a new EP coming out on his own label Secure Recordings. I am such a fan of the talented Bart van der Meer, but it does pain me that he also frequently collaborates with curmudgeon Tommie Sunshine (you can see his rants on his Twitter) along with Riptide to form the trio "Horsepower." Anyway, this electro EP is due October 1st, 2012, and sounds like it will literally bang up the place!
Buzz Buzz Bzzz: T. Williams - Can't Get Enough feat. Himal
Up and comer Tesfa Williams is creating a nice buzz. He's been making some smooth house tracks and recently released his Pain & Love EP on PMR Records.
PMR is the same label that houses UK darling Jessie Ware. Williams remixed "Wildest Moments" a few months back with equally awesome results:
He is definitely on the one to watch list!
PMR is the same label that houses UK darling Jessie Ware. Williams remixed "Wildest Moments" a few months back with equally awesome results:
He is definitely on the one to watch list!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Pete Tong feat S.Y.F. - Dawn
Ok I'm a little late with this one but I felt the need to mention it because I finally figured out who S.Y.F. was! Its "Starving Yet Full" whose real name is Cedric Gasaida from Azari & III. Makes total sense, as Pete is such a big fan of the group! Its out on Defected (I think every time there is a Defected release mentioned on my blog, I'm going to need to say somewhere "you're connected to Defected").
Hot Since 82 (Daley Padley) has been creating a nice little buzz around himself lately, and with good reason. He's been doing it by making great remixes like this one, and Russ Chimes' Back 2 You. He's also released "Knee Deep in Louise" off of Jaymo & Andy George's Moda Black label. He's definitely one to watch!
Update 08/11/12: Here is the full remix package from Defected for Dawn:
Hot Since 82 (Daley Padley) has been creating a nice little buzz around himself lately, and with good reason. He's been doing it by making great remixes like this one, and Russ Chimes' Back 2 You. He's also released "Knee Deep in Louise" off of Jaymo & Andy George's Moda Black label. He's definitely one to watch!
Update 08/11/12: Here is the full remix package from Defected for Dawn:
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