Tag Archives: Seven Lions

Monday Music: Seven Lions, Jazzinuf & Keeno, What So Not, GRMM & MUTO

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In case you hadn’t heard, it’s Monday, so here’s the Music! New hotness from Seven Lions & Keeno, chilled vibes from Jazzinuf, liquid D&B from Keeno and two surprises from down under, so let’s get into it!

Seven Lions is back! He brought it back to his roots, with this trancey, dubby delight for ASOT 755. This remix of Illenium ft. Joni Fatora is exactly what made Seven Lions one of my favorite emerging artists in 2013. Thise
Old school representation with this chilled out funky gem is Jazzinuf. I stumbled on this artist on a sprawling playlist that someone put together years ago. I don’t know who you are Kev Ken Shibayama, but blessing to you for this 443 song playlist.

Coming at you with a full hour of liquid drum & bass delights, Charlie Tee featured Keeno, one of the superstars of Med School Records. Cinematic, Symphonic, liquid gold is what he’s bringing you. No stupid MCs, no dubstep, just perfect fast slow & funky vocal work when there’s even words at all. Glide away on it.

What So Not came out of nowhere on this one. Innerbloom, the well-received single by RUFUS has earned its share of remixes, but I can’t say I expected the Flume compatriot to be anywhere near this. The re-work has a bit of that Aussie Chill Trap feel to it. Spacey instrumentals, stuttering bass, and a dollop of syncopation gives the tune a decidedly off-kilter feel. Great work from What So Not as usual, and can’t wait to see this style of production sink into LA & NYC so peeps like Louis The Child & others can get better bookings/more ticket sales.

Last but not least, a stunner from GRMM & MUTO on Of Leisure. This forward-looking electronica label from Sydney is launching a new compilation called Game Set, Match Vol 1: An Of Leisure, and using this single to promote it. A leisurely stroll it is, but produced correctly, to whet my appetite & peak my interest when it comes to this new label. New tracks coming soon & you can sign up for a free DL here if you’re so moved.

Midweek Music: Seven Lions, Kasbo, REZZ, Wax Motif & Louis Futon

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summerAugust is almost done! Have you done all the brunch into day drinking & Sunday night partying you needed to get done before September arrives? Never try and put Seven Lions in a box again. After many blogs have tried to pigeonhole him as a dubstep or hard edged DJ, he pushes out shimmering sunshine melodic house for your patio drinking pleasure. Off Casablanca Records, this tune must have Vitamin C in it, with Lights lending her stellar vocal stylings to the track. Great little gem for your midweek slump.
Wax Motif has been making waves slowly, burbling up from the depths of Soundcloud & YouTube music channels. This is his debut release on Mad Decent, so you know that it’s going to be a massive banger. The R&B infused beats fuse with the Mad Decent party vibe really well on this, so I hope someone takes notice and starts booking this cinematic trap sound out into more festivals. I think it could do quite well with a greater audience, so let me know if you agree in the comments of course. (via This Song Is Sick)
KASBO is a name you should know by now, as I’ve mentioned him more than once around these parts.  The urgent progressive vibe combined with the future style we’ve grown to love from him works perfectly here. Out on Monstercat, the track shines & deserves your actual cash. (Via Stoney Roads) REZZ is back! The heir apparent to Gesaffelstein, there are very few doing techno the way she is, and I couldn’t be more proud of her earning a Nest HQ release. Getting a single on Skrillex’s label is big, and she should be very proud of herself. We certainly are! This techno is not your friend. Though REZZ might be, if you ask nicely.
I freaking love Louis Futon. I think he’s got the perfect vibe for this era. Like, his soothing, but anthemic future sound probably couldn’t have worked in 2010, or even 2013. But right now, it’s exactly what I need in my remix work. He’s killing it out there these days, and his skills are in full effect 3min in. This is my midweek jam right here, and it’ll be yours by the time the track is over.

Electric Zoo Cancelled! Third Day Shuttered Due To 30min Thunderstorm.

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Electric Zoo Attendees Stranded
Electric Zoo just can’t seem to catch a break this year. After the huge controversy over Camelbaks, the last day of the Zoo was cancelled after a brief rain delay. Your phone has probably blown up with flash flood warnings at least once today if you’ve been in the area, which shook the leadership of Made Event enough to shut it down. While the storm didn’t last very long, it was severe enough to scare the organizers. The attendees huddled in the tents to keep away from the thunderstorm, but there, it didn’t take long for the crowd to start to get agitated.

By around 5/530, with the rain seeming to taper off, Electric Zoo was cancelled. Kaskade, Netsky, Seven Lions, Skrillex/Diplo’s Jack U, Alesso, & Dash Berlin were slated to perform, with Myon & Shane 54 interrupted 25min into the set. The kids were greeted with a seriously disorganized departure plan from Electric Zoo, with shoeless ravers walking across the RFK Bridge to get home. While the ravers lamented the overall disappointing experience of the weekend, artists were struggling to either lift moods or find alternative gigs. While we’re not sure what’s going on this evening, it seems that most venues are going to be mobbed with eager ravers trying to make up for the lost day.

Even before the rain, there were reports of attendees passing out in line before even entering, with people waiting anywhere between 30min to over an hour to get in. Overall, with the reports of abuse by the NYPD streaming in & the terrible way the attendees, press and locals were treated, I’m going to be hard pressed to recommend EZoo as a destination. While we can all be thankful no one died this year, the way this has gone down will seriously damage the relationship Made Event has with its fans here in the tri-state area.

Midnight Music: Seven Lions – Worlds Apart EP

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Stop what you’re doing and listen. Ellie Goulding, Myon & Shane 54, Kerli & Tove Lo provide backup. This is massive epicstep with a dash of the fantastical. I’m so glad there’s more Seven Lions, and that he’s obviously been training for this moment. If you haven’t heard of this guy before, educate yourself. Right freaking now.

New Seven Lions EP April 29th!!

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I really could not be more excited. In case you don’t know why, check out my interview with him back in 2012, that is now cited on his Wikipedia page (Primary Source Bitches!). Ellie Goulding shows up to provide support, so now that I’ve got the LA pop music heads’ attention, get into it. Just in case you needed an excuse to re-acquaint yourself, hit up this mix he threw out a year ago on OWSLA. And yes, that EP was phat, I bought it, and this next one is getting bought too. (via EDMTunes)

Mix of the Week: Group Therapy 43 ft. Seven Lions

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Last week, Above & Beyond really turned it up when it came to song choice, overall vibe and guest mix choice. I cannot emphasize enough how impressed I am with this. I’ve only caught the new weekly that Above & Beyond did after changing the name to Group Therapy almost a year ago, and it seems I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. The mixing is tight, the tracks are some of the best I’ve heard from the genre as of late, and the energy keeps building.

I’m a big fan of the structure of the show,  starting kind of sparkly, but then getting strong quickly. The amount of talking is minimal, and well done when it happens.  The section switch over at the hour mark is fantastic, and allows for the mixes to remain a manageable size. Especially for those of us who listen on the go, allowing me to listen in segments makes it much more likely I’ll listen to all of it. Highlights of the first hour include Mord Fustang’s Something Right Meow off Plasmapool, BT & Fractal’s City Life and a gorgeous instrumental mix of Armin’s new track Beautiful Life.

Push The Button allows some fan to turn up the energy on the mix. It’s a great crowd builder and I’d love to be able to choose one track for a mix of one of my favorite groups. Especially one as competent as Above & Beyond. The Madeon track that follows is triumphant and by 8min in there’s this massive feel to the mix, before it pulls wonderfully back into Way You Know by Matt Lange. And before you know it, Seven Lions has arrived. And there was much rejoicing.

Not only does he start out with his remix of Above & Beyond’s “On My Way To Heaven” but he follows it up with stellar track after stellar track. This 30min set has both his most recent track “Strangers” but even drops a few non-SL tracks down which make for a sweet round out to the mix. Listen to it loud.

This is Terry Gotham, see you on the dance floor.

Seven Lions & Porter Robinson Melt a Frozen NYC with Epic Bass.

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There he was.

SL

I could have probably hit him with my shoe or the plastic cup in my hand if I wanted to, but that would have been in poor form as he was absolutely obliterating the crowd at Roseland Ballroom. Seven Lions, my absolute favorite aural discovery of 2012, had the crowd in the palm of his hand and he was barely halfway into his third track. The space shook with every beat drop and chilled out with every vocal sample. I’d had an inkling of how badly he was going to kill it but I couldn’t quite picture the enormity of the space rocking out to his entire discography. The stage was ringed with staff to prevent the throbbing mass of 21st century club kid, braver (bro-raver), hipsters, skaters and cornucopia of tri-state area stereotypes from tumbling past the safe area and sweeping through the performance space like a tidal wave of flesh and excitement.

SL Crowd

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Ten Questions with Terry Gotham: Seven Lions

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1. How would you define the genre Seven Lions currently occupies? Because “A giant made of clouds” is kind of confusing when I tell my friends about you.
That’s actually really tough because I don’t like to just do one genre. So, I mean, I can say where I come from. Like, I like trance a lot, I like industrial a lot. I didn’t like dubstep too much at first and then I slowly got into it. I like a little bit of everything to be honest, so I try and make a little bit of everything, if that makes sense. I try and keep my style on what I want to do, so I have dubstep songs, glitch-hop, electro, trance.

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12 Tracks you Missed in 2012

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So, instead of jerking around with the words best or top, I’ve decided to collect 12 pretty excellent tracks that meant something to me in 2012. Quality tunes I’m not sure got out into the greater internets but definitely deserved to, and Soundcloud gave me access to all of them. So, here they are, in no particular order.

Pacific Air – Float (TheFatRat Remix)

This is what I hope all pop music sounds like eventually. I’ll just leave it at that. TheFatRat is what I hope all of Z100 sounds like by 2014.

Flux Pavilion feat. Example – Daydreamer

Example is one of the artists that my general adoration for all things Flux Pavillion has led me to. A fantastic vocalist that links up with all of the right bass-related minds across the pond, this collab with Flux is a cadanced march of awesome. The triumphant wobble of Flux with the strongly accented & attituded vocals makes for a righteously good time,  amplified by the excellent drum work throughout, especially two minutes in when it explodes into further sweetness.

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Mix of the Week – Seven Lions

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I would like to say that I’ve been able to listen to dozens of mixes and tunes in the last few weeks, but since a young fella from New Jersey dropped a mix of his favorite Seven Lions tracks, it has been on exceptionally heavy rotation. Seven Lions is probably one of the most unique sounding musical acts I have heard in years. The brain behind it, Jeff Montalvo, started as a drummer and, after going to his first rave in 2007, immediately began percolating on how his sound would change. Seven Lions first break out hit, a remix of “You Got To Go” by Above & Beyond, was a stunning success, sitting at #2 (under Skrillex of course) for weeks on the Beatport charts. The track features prominently in the mix, sliding into your awareness at 4:40ish in, giving you a healthy dose of trancey dub.

I want to emphasize that Trance + Dubstep isn’t a combination I’ve ever heard before, anywhere. There are only a handful of domestic artists that are producing trance non-ironically these days. To ask one of them to also be competent when it comes to the wobble that the kids are listening to these days seems almost selfish. But, Seven Lions proves capable in both of these domains. His remixes of “Still With Me” (by Tritonal featuring the wonderful vocal stylings of Cristina Soto) & “On My Way to Heaven” (another transcendent tune by Above & Beyond) add a layer of massive & ethereal beats and chords to already insanely popular tracks. At about 15:45 into the mix, one of Seven Lions’ signature breakdowns explodes into your mind, producing this absurdly good beat pushing you to get off your ass and move.

It is so bizarre to feel the “must dance” feeling one gets from uplifting trance in the middle of a dubstep breakdown. I could yammer on for paragraphs about how each track was chosen carefully, the transitions are fluid and the emotion/energy is maintained throughout, but that would be you reading and not listening to it. So get over to Synovia Futurism‘s page, put the mix into your ears and then go whore yourself out to make sure you’ve got the money to buy Seven Lions’ EP here. I certainly did.

This is Terry Gotham, see you on the dance floor.