A-Trak & Armand Van Helden need to be purchased Chinese food for the rest of our lives. Every time these two hang out, the catchiest, funkiest shit in the universe comes out. Duck Sauce originally broke with the MRSA-level infectious “Barbra Streisand” and seems they’ve struck gold again. Honestly, this casual, mini-offering is groovy, stupendously well produced, sourced like a fine wine. Both of these guys get better with age and I can’t wait to see them hang out in NYC.
Because Duck Sauce:
http://www.bassaware.com/products/the-holster-aka-the-drop
The surprisingly awesome bassAware system (named “The Drop”) that I wrote about being Kickstarted (is it a proper verb? I feel old) a while back has arrived for retail sale! It’s coming in at approximately the same price as the kickstarter, a little less if you were late to the game. Just in case you thought I was kidding, it’s totally bass on your body. From the item description:
The device uses a tactile transducer placed on your upper back – this is a special type of audio driver creating vibration rather than sound. These sensations travel through your body to the inner ear where your nervous system translates these felt vibrations into “heard” sounds. The result is an immersive bass experience that no one but you can hear or feel.
One of the points that the inventor brings up that I think is important to note, is its utility for touring DJs. There’s very poor monitoring in the vast majority of venues, and the bass/sub-bass is even worse. Using this, a DJ can get a sense of what’s coming out of his outputs, without obliterating their hearing or lugging studio monitors on the road.
Strife II is one of my absolute favorite liquid Drum & Bass producers in the UK and the world over actually. There’s a quiet beauty to his symphonic, intensely well produced tracks. I can’t wait for someone at Hospital Records to stumble upon this sound and shove him into a room with Etherwood, Camo & Krooked and High Contrast. The drum & bass world will thank you Tony, make it happen.
(This is my New Year’s Eve review, done for Electronic Night Life. Hit up the original post here & show the blog some love for giving me some sweet access.)
I’d always assumed Savant would be less of a baller in real life, but it seems I was wrong.While a million people were partying less than half a block away from the theater, inside & down one escalator, we found ourselves ensconced within a bubble filled with ravers, club kids, New Year’s revelers & a heaping serving of psychedelic trance, dubstep & banging electro. They were able to create a party inside of the pocket dimension next to Times Square, where if I didn’t know better, I would assume it was just a regular night outside, and not be playing second (or third) fiddle to one of the biggest parties of the year.
By the time we’d negotiated New Year’s checkpoint after checkpoint, my companion & I were granted access to Best Buy Theater to see Infected Mushroom, Astrix & Savant. This massive performance was going to be Infected Mushroom’s first since August & Astrix’s first in years. Savant was doing excellent work when it came to revving up the crowd as he transitioned from Beatport Top 50 tracks to his symphonic but bassy self-produced tunes. The GA was eating it up, so after dealing with the New Year’s-amplified drink prices, we settled in for a long night of amazing beats & psy-focused music just as he was finishing his massive set. The set must have got the attention of hundreds of attendees who are hopefully downloading his new CD, “Orakel,” at a rapid pace in thanks for such an attentive & non-prerecorded experience. 
We’d gotten the ok from security to start photographing right as the Fungusamungus stations began powering up. These spheres, the centerpiece of the Fungusamungus tour, were truly a sight to behold. 2 professional-grade projectors bathed the stage in what seemed like millions of colors, mapping complex images, shapes and color gradients to every surface on the spheres. Dudev & Erez were hidden inside, pushing the signature Infected Mushroom sound out into the theater, while the crowd got more and more excited. I’ve definitely seen Infected Mushroom perform without any of these new fangled toys, and it was a sight to behold then. This pushed past anything I’ve seen outside of Amon Tobin’s tour. Incidentally, I was informed at the show that the same group that did Tobin’s insane new set-up, did Fungusamungus. So there’s that. 
The set did not disappoint. I’ve seen these guys perform for years, but not since they added their latest round of Friends on Mushrooms compilations, and a show of psychedelic rock-drenched trance was given a delightful topping of massive dubstep, electro and the odd classic that everyone seemingly knew the words to. To hear younglings chant all the words to Cities of the Future brings a tear to this old chestnut’s eye. Becoming Insane, Vicious Delicious & tracks from the later offerings including their track with Savant, kept the crowd moving.
As they finished, we began to make preparations to get a drink in between the set change, but roadies just came out, dropped decks & laptops down, then the two Israeli champions of psy-trance came out and straight DJ’d for the next half an hour, back-to-back. They hadn’t had enough so they kept doing work with the insane 3d projection work going on behind them. We got comfy and watched them slowly transition into Astrix. Who, not to be taken lightly, exploded out of the gate with some seriously stompy full-on psy-trance.
The crowd, that was clearly going to be there until the floodlights came on, whipped themselves into an even greater fury than they’d been maintaining previously. The GA spread out, people gave each other room, and the sizable remainder really began to cut loose. Everyone was amazingly happy to be there, to share the night and to get the chance to enjoy some crowd favorites until as late as they’d let us play. Enjoy my favorite track that Dudev & Erez obliterated the dance floor with below:
Great night, great way to ring in 2014, great job Best Buy Theater for handling the event with such finesse. This is Terry Gotham, see you on the dance floor.
Nothing to see here obviously. Except old random dudes that just happen to be Daft Punk playing champagne pong out of flutes at the Sony Music offices. Move it along 😉
Tonight, I wanted to celebrate a rather delicious track that I totally forgot existed. In 2010, Tiesto hung out with Kaskade long enough for the two of them to create one of the better, but under-received hits of that year. Kaskade’s smooth atmospheric house came together with Tiesto’s ever progressing signature sound. It was trance-y, but not too far out away from the euphoria the masses crave. It’s a great listen, and definitely a pick me up when you need one. Welcome to tomorrow!
While some of us had the good sense to not miss their debut performance at A State of Trance 600 (reported on here), the rest of the dance music world got their first taste of the New World Punx, the new mega-collab between Ferry Corsten & Markus Schulz, at either Roseland in NYC or Palladium in LA. The act is harder, more in your face and definitely way less ethereal and smooth than an act like Above & Beyond or something of the like. However, this is by design, as the two mega stars relayed to Billboard last week.
Romper is an intense, stompy track that infuses a serious amount of “you’re two steps from hardstyle” energy into the dance floor. They are acutely aware of the stagnation of mainstage dance music these days, and as Billboard reports, they’re down to drop the drop as it were. Keep the energy up throughout the set, and not wait for the same build/drop/blowout formula that caught trance, electro, house and is slowly entangling trap within its unimaginative tentacles.
A former steel factory in Colonial Williamsburg at 319 Frost Street is going to become The Brooklyn Classic. The Gothamist, via The New York Daily News reports a liquor license has been purchased for the building under the name of a former president of the NY division of Live Nation, who now rocks out with Bowery Presents, yes, of That Bowery Ballroom. To put this in perspective, Output has a capacity of 450. If this manages to jump through all of the legal hullabaloo that accompanies the creation of a new venue in Gotham, we’re going to see a massive new home for insane parties.
(Image by Tanay Warerkar of NY Daily News)
This was sitting in my feed this morning, and I had to make sure you all saw this. Apparently, a bridal practice, this Japanese bride-to-be pushes out some amazing acid house & techno on a 707, 303 & a few pieces of other super old school gear. There’s even a kitty which she jams out with, around 3 minutes in. I’d say more, but then you wouldn’t be watching/listening to the minimal action & most polite techno creation ever. (via Stoney Roads)
Just in case you thought they were gone for good, The Crystal Method pulled a Beyonce on us two weeks ago. I’d not gotten around to listening to it yet, but on the advice of a number of trusted friends with ears, I gave it a spin. Boy was I glad I did. I don’t know what happened, but boy are they back! There’s a hard, metal-esque, dubby punch to these beats and a pile of featured artists that do some great work. It does have the signature, edgy sound of The Crystal Method, but remixed in a totally new way. (via This Song Is Sick) Check it out here: http://hypem.com/premiere-embed/the+crystal+method & Pre-Order here!
Terry Gotham 