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Well I am not really sure what the massive conglomerate the Potato Will Eat You has in store for us tonight, but according to their Youtube channel live streaming of the #WeirdestNightEver will begin in less than 30 minutes! Now with the little information I have been able to find this appears to be some sort of listening party in celebration of Major Lazer’s new album Free the Universe.I have no clue what Diplo, Skrillex, and A-trak have in store for us but I can only imagine it will be a great hour of tunes followed by some sort of karaoke??? I don’t know what these three are up to tonight, but if your just sitting on the couch you might as well turn off MTV and actually listen to some music. Find a couple of my favorites from the new Major Lazer album below as well, be sure to check out the whole Free the Universe Album here.
Here are some things you don’t typically think about in the same context: Skrillex + deep, funky, and 80s-esque House music. Well guess what, the OWSLA label owner manages to surprise and delight yet again. I’m constantly impressed by the plethora of different sounds coming from Skrillex’s label, whether it’s Dubstep, Trap, Downtempo, House, or anything else – what remains consistent is how high the quality of music is.
New-comer Durante, a Florida native, describes this four-song release that dropped yesterday on The Nest:
“hey guys, i’m Durante, and i intern for OWSLA. i’ve made this ep to showcase the different sounds i’ve been listening to lately. i was really trying not to fall into any one genre, because at the end of the day music is just that: music. with that being said, the main focus was to have lots and lots of BASS. so make sure you listen to the tracks of Challenger with a loud subwoofer, and if you don’t have one, find a friend that does and play it on their system. you won’t be disappointed. “
Although the Deep House track “Take a Look” is my early favorite from the EP, each tune is good in its own way. I highly wish I could put my finger on the sample from “Radio”, as it’s one we’ve all heard at a festival before, but unfortunately it’s escaping me. Regardless, it goes pretty damn hard. “Challenger” is quite the funky track with horn and guitar licks that make me want to slap da bass, while “Crash” is a softer tune that I could wind my night down with.
If you like what you hear, make sure to show Durante some love!
There have been rumors being spread around about what “Potato Will Eat You” was all about. We saw huge names, such as Diplo, A-Trak, and 6 times Grammy winner Skrillex tweeting and instagraming pictures trying to hype it up. A lot of us thought this was going to be some sort of formation of a super group between the 3, and as much as we would have love to have seen that, the official word is out! Potato is a new YouTube channel that will host a plethora of material from different artists on Mad Decent, Fools Gold, and Owsla. The channel will have music videos, music videos premiers, audio premiers, and different types of weekly episodes including Diplo’s “Blow Your Head” series and Skrillex and Boys Noize’s “BANG!” a mini series documenting their Dog Blood collaboration. makes sure to subscribe to their channel and take a look at the first episode of “BANG!” below.
The latest craze to come out of France coincidentally does not produce French House music a la guys like Justice, Gesaffelstein, Brodinski, etc. The foursome who go by Birdy Nam Nam are classified on various websites like Beatport and Wikipedia as Electronica producers, which is almost like saying they’re Electronic Music producers (yes, it’s very vague). Personally I’d label them as falling somewhere between Dubstep, Trap, and Glitch-Hop with a grimy sound that has plenty of bounce to it. When Skrillex discovered Crazy B, DJ Pone, DJ Need and Little Mike last year, signing them to his OWSLA label, they were instantly on the up-and-up and in the faces of dance music fans. Check out our post on Birdy’s remix of Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen” for some added background on the group and check out their SoundCloud page and Facebook page for added musical selections.
The Defiant Order EP features only one song by Birdy Nam Nam: you guessed it, “Defiant Order”. It then features four remixes by the likes of Breakbot, Craze, ƱZ, and Block Beattaz – the last of which managed to turn this track into a Hip-Hop tune (I can’t say I’ve heard an EDM remixed into a Hip-Hop song before). Just like I loved ƱZ’s remix of “Rave Weapon“, I love his remix of “Defiant Order”. Maybe it’s the extreme amount of 808 hi-hat rolls he uses, but it just grabs me the right way. Craze’s remix is pretty…well, crazy…and very upbeat with some nice bounce to it. Breakbot’s remix is more chilled out and features some unique sounds, even some slap bass. Over-all the release is very different for EDM these days and OWSLA has truly done it again.
Major Lazer kicked things off right and really got the boat moving
If you want to see more spectacular shots like the one above, check out Rukes.com for all three days of madness
Over the past couple weeks I’ve repeatedly been asked “How was Holy Ship?” or “How was the cruise?” – and because I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I returned – I figured I’d reflect upon the three days I spent aboard the MSC Poesia from January 4-7. Let me just say right up front that in my 25 years of existence, I had never had an experience quite like this…. and I can’t wait to do it again. I have now been on 50% of all Holy Ship!! voyages.
My experience with Holy Ship!! dates back to last year. No, I was not a passenger aboard the maiden voyage (these people are now referred to OGs as I quickly learned), but rather I was kicking myself for not going. I had known all about the impending trip, never pulled the trigger, and instead ended up in Puerto Rico for my winter vacation – only to come back and hear endless stories from Holy Ship!! as well as watch the official video countless times. That video, by the way, was definitely a reason so many people wound up going this year (I can attest to that after speaking with people I met on the boat). Anyways, the demand was through the roof for 2013 and my friends and I once again didn’t end up booking anything. A few months ago, however, my friend and Boston-area DJ DRitch asked if I wanted to replace the third member of his cabin. Without hesitation I said yes and the countdown was on.
Click through for the full run-down with highlights, pictures, and music!
Welcome to our fourth edition of Shuffle Sundays and the first of 2013! For those just tuning in, this is a song drop of relatively older songs from my massive library of tunes that I may have forgotten about over the past several months or years. I simply hit “shuffle” in my iTunes library and came up with some tracks for you to check out. In case you missed them you can visit Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three at any time. Also make sure to check out our Best of 2012 posts which you can get to on the right panel.
First up today is a song by Signal Path called “Is It Real”. Signal Path are an electronic trio that have spliced technology with raw instrumentalism and the group is comprised of Ryan Burnett: Guitar/Production, Damon Metzner: Acoustic Drums, and Matt Schumacher: Bass. They saw their start in the mountains of Montana in 2001 and now call Denver their home. I first learned of them in college and loved what I heard, as I was just getting into the sounds of similar guys in STS9 and Pretty Lights. While I’m not completely up to date with Signal Path’s current catalogue, I was a huge fan of their LP Clash which “Is It Real” comes from. It reminds me a lot of old school Bassnectar, with a Hip-Hop beat and some glitchy electro effects.
Next up is perhaps one of my favorite electronic songs of all time off easily one of my favorite electronic albums of all time: The Prodigy‘s “Narayan” off 1997′s The Fat of the Land. This album was the third effort by the trio and as of 2012 it has sold over 10 million copies world-wide. You know how certain songs can bring you back to a time and place? Well “Narayan” is one of those tracks, bringing me back to my days in middle school when I would carry a discman around with me. Having received The Fat of the Land as a birthday present during the fifth or sixth grade and hearing The Prodigy all over Boston rock radio, it was easy for me to keep the album on heavy rotation during my down time at school (often in the computer lab). This Break Beats song clocks in just under 10 minutes yet still manages to hold my attention the entire time. If only artists still made tracks like this today…
Also, check out how crazy it was for them to produce one of their greatest hits “Smack My Bitch Up” with this YouTube video.
On the deeper and funkier side of things is Russ Yallop‘s “Crossroads”, remixed by Fur Coat. I am by no means an expert in Deep House and this song was originally recommended to me by a friend who considers it her favorite genre these days. Russ Yallop is a British underground House producer and Fur Coat are a Venezuelan production/DJ duo of the same sort. Having given the “Crossroads” original mix a listen, I can tell Fur Coat spruced it up, giving it a cleaner and more upbeat sound while managing to keep the vocals ever-present (which I thought was an essential element of the original). I’m really into the bass line of this tune and if this is the first you’re hearing of the song or the two artists involved, I’d recommend you explore deeper (no pun intended).
Ever heard of Skrillex? Wait, who? Oh yeah, this guy. Well you probably know a lot about Sonny Moore and you probably either love or hate his music. And you may have heard his most recent EP,The Leaving EP. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites was Skrillex’s 2010 release and while it was his second studio effort, it was a huge reason he has reached superstar status. Bare Noize are a London-based Dubstep duo that remixed Skrillex’s Electro-House/Dubstep track “Kill Everybody” and made it a true hard-hitting Dubstep track that still sounds very much like Skrillex may have produced it himself. Being a drummer for most of my life, I’m a big fan of how the drums came out in this track, complete with double bass kick drum hits and plenty of cymbals. And of course we get to hear the famous pitched-up Skrillex vocal samples.
Last up is one of my favorite Jack Beats productions called “Get Down”, which I had the pleasure of hearing live during Holy Ship (although only Beni G was present from the duo). Released back in 2009, this track is an Electro-House/Fidget-House gem with the sounds of Jack Beats that made them stick out in a crowd of many many House music producers: WOBBLES. If you checked out our post on The Careless EP you’d know exactly what I’m talking about (or if you’ve heard any of the other Jack Beats productions out there). These guys do something different and if that’s what you’re looking for I’d highly recommend digging into their collections.
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