About a week ago, progressive house superstar Joel Zimmerman A.K.A. deadmau5 unveiled his new stage setup for live shows - a large, geodesic LED display encapsulating the DJ booth behind which he performs. A video of the performance made its rounds throughout the EDM blogosphere, but it clearly wasn't enough, as another one has now surfaced.
It was only a matter of months ago that Steve Aoki released his third studio album, Neon Future II, but the infamous DJ/producer apparently has something new in the works. In an interview with Spin, Aoki covered a multitude of topics - from his vocal cord surgery to his free festival, LAoki - and revealed that another full-length effort is on the way.
There's something to be said for a solid hit, and the latest from the Axwell /\ Ingrosso camp is exactly that. The Swedish duo has released "Sun Is Shining" along with an official music video, and we can only imagine it seeing worldwide success.
Another year, another hastily thrown-together list of influential figures in the EDM world. It seems like every festival season, another music publication takes a stab at declaring some handful of industry figures to be the movement's global tastemakers - InTheMix put together a decent one in 2013, but Rolling Stone demonstrated their complete lack of understanding of the dance music dynamic in 2014. We would expect a 2015 list compiled by Billboard to knock both out of the water since the publication has managed to keep its finger on the pulse of dance music, but they've managed to miss the mark as well.
With Las Vegas festival Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) less than a week out, if you’re not excited then you’re doing something wrong. You’d be hard pressed to find a celebration on the same scale as EDC with anywhere near the same open, welcoming vibe, which is why hundreds of thousands of people only half-jokingly declare that they’re coming home at this time every year.
When a festival is as big as the Boom, Belgium music gathering Tomorrowland, it feels like the whole world wants to be in on it. This isn't lost on the organizers, as they've just announced plans for UNITE - a live stream of the festival at venues in Mexico and India that will incorporate live elements of the actual experience.
It's not like I'm used to Steve Aoki knocking it out of the park or anything, but I at least expect his ghost writers to do the bare minimum for him. His pop/hip-hop/rock crossover tracks may not be anything that will define our musical era, but at the very least they could be the gateway drug by which less discerning music fans discover real music. That said, if the first piece of music I ever heard was "Get High With Me," his collaboration with Future, Waka Flocka Flame, DJ Whoo Kid and 808 Mafia, I'd probably have written off music altogether.
Another deadmau5 collaboration? Yes, please. I'm not even gonna go out of my way to try to conceal my musical man crush on the 'mau5 of late. It seems like while every other artist in the world is either worried about how they're going to sell records or how they're going to prove their street cred, he's resolved to make the same profound music he always has. Seeing as how his best recent material has taken the form of a couple big-name collaborations, adding a production powerhouse like Feed Me to the list is as good of a move for the progressive house superstar as any.
The latest expansion of world-renowned music festival Tomorrowland appears to have gone swimmingly - that is, if its official aftermovie is any indication. Tomorrowland Brasil saw its highly anticipated debut back in April, and while you could have live streamed many of its performances while it was happening, this recap makes for almost as good of a means of reliving the wonder.
