Measuring the San Francisco Bay Area's Pulse in Bars & Beats. Your home for all things related to Electronic Music. Member of the @TranceFamilySF and @Trance_Mafia
What's up everyone? Welcome to another late entry into the rehab clinic blog. Hope everyone is having a good week so far. It's getting to the close of summer and sadly that means back to school for a lot of people out there and colder weather slowly throughout the coming weeks though. Indeed a depressing time for everyone unless they completely love the fall season. Honestly, anyone that actually prefers fall season to summer must be a sad, lonely person. All that aside however, I've had some thoughts brewing in my head lately in the world of music. I haven't put a random thoughts posting in quite a bit. I've been thinking too much about long columns and important pieces to come up with that I have forgot to update with simple ramblings. So let's get down to it...
There's a lot of talk right now about the much anticipated (and dreaded for some of you) MTV Video Music Awards. Oh man...a lot can be said about these awards and MTV as a whole, but let's just say that these are the 2nd biggest awards in music behind the grammys. Many, like myself, could argue that the MTV VMA's are just a horrible waste of time and production money to hand out fake awards to payola artists who everyone already knew was going to win anyway. All that aside, we still watch them anyway. Ratings keep things on tv so we're all guilty for this one. I plan on writing a full piece in anticipation for the VMA's to look out for that one. But right now I have just have one thought I want to share on this...DEADMAU5 IS THE HOUSE ARTIST?? It has been announced that one of my favorites, Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmau5, is going to be the house artist for the VMA's this year. This is a shocking but yet awesome announcement. Good and bad things can come out of this, but it certainly means that the electronic scene is alive, well, and on the come up. I'll drop another piece on how electronic music becoming popular is also a double edged sword. In the meantime...I just send out my congratulations for deadmau5. He has been a hard worker.
Once again music heads, welcome one and all to the most important day of the week for many people in the working world...FRIDAY! Everyone loves Friday. I'm not even working right now and I love Friday. Not really too sure what it is about today, but Fridays usually just radiate positive vibes, good energy, and all around good times considering most of the working world knows their work week is coming to a close and they can enjoy doing the things they actually want to do for the next couple of days in the weekend. What does that include for most people? Cutting loose, putting on some good tracks, enjoying a nice strong drink, and dancing the night away. And if that's not what you enjoy doing on a Friday night, well you should probably re-evaluate your extracurricular activities.
On another note...this day brings me to a more important topic. It has come now to that time of year where once again (drumroll please) the TOP 100 DJ POLL HAS BEEN RE-OPENED!! That's right ladies and gentlemen. For those that haven't been up to speed in the DJ world, this is the most prestigious and recognized ranking system for DJ's around the world to showcase who remains on top, who is having a great year, who is making a breakthrough, and who is generally relevant in the electronic music community. Put on by www.djmag.com and voting through www.top100djs.net, the system runs from now until September for music lovers to vote for their top 5 DJ's of this year. The system has a very legitimate way of verifying voting so there is as little spamming as possible, and usually the results come out around October to announce the full 100 lineup in voted order to show who has really made an impact this year. As you can imagine, my voting has already come full circle and I've cast my choices. Do you want to hear about them? Of course you do. These are my top 5 choices that I've cast in rank order.
A few things to remember:
-This is in no way an opinion on who I think are the BEST 5 DJ's in the world. I'm sure some of my choices could be considered inferior to some bigger names that have had a few years head start. This is mainly my voting on who I feel deserve the votes because they have impacted my music listening in 2010 in some way, shape, or form. Somehow these have been special. So don't take it personal if I didn't pick your favorite.
-Only 5 are allowed to go on your cast ballot. If 10 were allowed or 20 were allowed, I could include more of the DJ's I hold near and dear to myself. However, I can't, so only 5 can do.
-This is not simply a countdown on who is a good "DJ". This is an all inclusive list that incorporates their productions, live shows, DJing skills, and ability to maintain their fanbase.
Now journey with me...
5. Tritonal
The ever so energetic DJ duo from Austin, Texas has my vote for number five because of the amazing breakthrough they have accomplished and great year they have had so far. They haven't really come on my radar in the past, but I felt they deserved a vote this year because of the countless shoutouts they have been receiving from huge name trance DJ's on radio shows, compilations, and remixes. Their podcast "Air Up There" has also been gaining a great amount of steam with great cuts picked out on the regular. These Texas boys have good taste. Not to mention, how often do you hear of trance DJ's coming out of Texas?? That's almost unheard of to me. Very remarkable. There is some definite USA pride coming with this vote and I think they deserve it. They work hard. And from what I have heard, their shows showcase a great amount of energy as well.
Check out:
4. Ashley Wallbridge
Perhaps my favorite producer of 2009-2010, Ashley Wallbridge from the UK never ceases to impress me. His productions are flawless. I don't think I have listened to one of his tracks or remixes yet without being stricken with awe. I really don't think this man has made a bad or boring track yet (knock on wood). He deserves this vote because this has certainly been his year on the rise. He has become a work machine, pumping out track after track while still maintaining a hectic touring schedule all over the world and maintaining his podcast. You could say, he's kind of like an Armin van Buuren Jr., but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. I've witnessed some live footage of him on youtube and from what I can see, the man certainly does not disappoint in his live shows either. Perhaps my biggest regret of 2010 will be the fact that I missed his show in San Francisco at Ruby Skye. Oh well. If he continues on this path of success, I am sure it will be only a matter of time before he comes back.
Check out:
3. Dada Life
These party boy Swedes most definitely have amazed me this year. I had the pleasure of seeing them twice at the same event! Seeing their name on the lineup for Electric Daisy Carnival had me do some investigation on their tracks and where they are from. Considering this has been a huge year for house, Dada Life has enjoyed some success in 2010 stemming from their big releases, remixes, and guest DJ remixes of their own track for maximum exposure. I really dig their style of producing. Whether they lean on the more electro or progressive side of things, their tracks always have a groove that immediately has your head bobbing to the beat. What really makes them stand out however, is their live show. Their set at EDC completely rocked me because of the insane amount of energy these two have live. Most importantly for me, they rock it because they honestly look like they are having fun while they are spinning the records they love! I think this is important because a sour DJ will never have the crowd in their pocket. These two are incredible fun and always bring out surprises at their shows (inflatable bananas and champagne bottles anyone?). Their sense of humor has also been able to crack up their follow DJ's with the likes of twitter. I can see big things coming for Dada Life. Do the DaDa!
Check out:
2. Benny Benassi
The Italian Stallion himself, Benny Benassi certainly belongs on this countdown for me because of the amazing year he has been having so far. We all have known him ever since his smash hit "Satisfaction" in 2003, however what has made him relevant ever since then and this year especially, is his ability to re-invent himself to once again bring something new to the fold. When a DJ has a big single like "Satisfaction", that sort of success can either make or break you. In the latter case, many DJ's like Darude and Dirty Vegas have scored a one hit wonder and fizzled out with time due to their lack of a follow up hit and inability to translate that style into momentum. Benny Benassi has kept up as a work-a-holic with countless remixes, releases, and compilations to prove to the masses that his staying power is without question. Switching up the style in 2010 to include hip hop artists and R&B singers, he has still been able to be considered a purist by many because of his producing style having the ability to evolve and bring something new while being able to snag the attention of newcomers to house music. Simply put, he can do it all. On a small side note...his live shows are simply amazing. His set at Electric Daisy Carnival this year proved to me that Benny Benassi will be a name that might never be rid of in the house music world. His transitions, song choices, stage theatrics, guest apperances, and overall show flow made him one of my favorites at EDC without a doubt. Bow down to the Italian Stallion.
Check out:
1. Armin van Buuren
The man, the legend, the already 3 time top 100 #1 DJ winner once again is a candidate for #1 for me without question. Armin van Buuren is THE icon of trance in today's electronic music scene. How has he been able to do it? We all know the reasons why: his globally popular "A State of Trance" radio show, his incredible live shows, his amazing ability to connect with fans, and powerful productions & remixes. But I think the main reason why I think that Armin has been able to remain on top while others like Tiesto and Paul van Dyk have slowly decreased in rank is because the man is a complete and utter work-a-holic. He's a machine. Ever since I began following him in 2007, I'm not sure he has ever really taken time for himself. The radio show alone and global touring schedule is enough to be considered a 200% full time job, but he still manages to consistently crank out full artist albums that rock the trance community. I could honestly write a whole column on Armin van Buuren and why he is the best (which I think I will do someday), but for now let's just say that the man has been and most likely will be #1 for a reason. He knows what he's doing and he's remained humble all throughout. He has a way of connecting to people that I don't think any other DJ can do at this particular moment in time. I should also mention he has a new album due out in September called "Mirage". Some more classics to turn up on there I am sure. Cheers mate, you earned this one again. 4 times the king!
Check out:
...and that's it boys and girls! What do you think? Do you agree with these 5 choices? Do you disagree with these choices? What would your choices be? I think these are 5 solid candidates that deserve all the props they get for their hard work and expect to see great things come out of each and every one of them throughout the rest of the year; especially in competing for that grand prize of being crowned as the #1 DJ of the world. I'm certainly excited to see how the polls turn out. Let the games begin! GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!!!!
Hey what's going on everyone? Hope all is well. Gotta check in to share one of the best tracks that Deadmau5 has ever done. Is this new? No. Is this a throwback? No. Is it damn good? Absolutely. I've been backtracking through some of Morgan Page's podcasts and found one from around mid year last year and "Strobe" came on from Deadmau5's album "For Lack Of A Better Name". Why is this track so special and important? I really think it's because of the way it control's the listeners emotions. This is progressive house that is seriously borderlining on being a trance track. Simply put: it's hard to categorize. I'm hearing this on Morgan Page's podcast, which is full on house, yet i've also heard it on Armin van Buuren's "A State of Trance" radio show. There's a reason why everyone loves it. It builds up perfect, it takes it's time, it keeps you anticipating, and drops the beat at the absolute right time. It kind of reminds me of Paul van Dyk's "Crush" that I also wrote about. I figure if anyone needs a 101 on how to make an amazing track that will rule the dance floor...look no further than this one. Wow
Hey what's going on world, music lovers, and beat heads alike. Your homeboy Dr. M is back after a little bit of a hiatus this summer from the world of blogging. Not necessarily that I've lost interest in it or have been listening to less music....if anything its been the discovery of new music and just other things that have been going on this summer that have been slowing down the pace of things going on here at the music rehab clinic. Rest assured, I will still continue to blog. I've been getting wrapped up into a lot of things and have put my dearly beloved blog on the backburner for a little bit while I was handling other things. With that being said, in that time I have also been thinking about a new direction I could possibly take the music rehab clinic. Right now they are just ideas, nothing set in stone necessarily, but ideas nonetheless that I think could help launch this thing just a little bit in the coming future. In any particular event, my loudmouth nature knows no halt so let's just run with that thought shall we...let's welcome this thing back.
Music Monday...ahh music monday. I don't really know it if means anything besides just a regular twitter hashtag thing for anyone else, but instead of a list that I've been doing before maybe I will just blog about some kind of music that I'm down with instead of taking the time to go through lists that have probably been done a lot better before. Yes, that will do. Let's go with that idea. On that note, let me talk about a DJ act that deserves their props...Cosmic Gate!
I had the opportunity and pleasure of seeing Cosmic Gate live with Martin Roth opening at Ruby Skye in San Francisco. For those that aren't too fairly acquainted with the electronic music scene in the bay area, your best bet of catching awesome live acts and the biggest names to come through our side of the USA will be Ruby Skye in SF. That said, make sure to buy your tickets in advance and I urge you to NOT BUY WILL CALL OR GUEST LIST. Be smart and just get your tickets printed in advance. I cannot urge you the headache you will avoid by doing this simple step, considering I paid for my tickets as well and simply because it was will call...I had to wait in line with the guest listers for an hour (and this is me even cutting half of the line sadly). However, that was the only inconvenience of the night. On to the music...
I didn't get in early enough to really catch a whole lot of Martin Roth, but the name is not new to me. He is the perfect person to open up a show for the trance veterans Cosmic Gate. German born just like the headliners, he played some great cuts that showed me just why he has been a name to be remembered and a personal favorite of trance radio shows and DJ's alike. However, when Cosmic Gate hit the stage..there was no denying that presence and demand. The crowd was certainly there for one reason; and that reason was to see Nic Chagall & Bossi in the flesh to tear the stage up for 2 hours straight. The certainly did that. What an amazing mix they did from start to finish, even dropping in hits like "I See You (Cosmic Gate remix)", "Barra", and of course their hit "London Rain". Quite the show to really get me back in the groove of seeing all the live acts that I possibly can this summer.
Considering that the bulk of electronic music events that I have attended in recent memory have all had house music as the majority of what has been spun, this is a nice breath of fresh air to really get into the euphoria that only trance can provide. I'll cheers a Das Boot to the German homeboys that came through. In Cosmic Gate's own words: "California knows how to party."
Fireworks. Pyrotechnic shows. A flame thrower rigged arena. Confetti. State of the art lit up carnival rides. Circus midgets. Fog. and LIL JON! ...Just a few of the spectacles that filled the weekend in Los Angeles at the Electric Daisy Carnival that I had the invaluable pleasure of attending. I have been to some amazing electronic music events in my life...namely being LoveFest of San Francisco, POP of San Francisco, and Monster Massive of Los Angeles, but after going to Electric Daisy Carnival for the first time, I can undeniably concur that this is the grand daddy of them all. Considering that I can't separate myself into 5 and couldn't catch all 5 stages and every set, there is a good recap that MTV news did here. Some of the best moments? Spin did a great job of recapping that here.
Day 1 sets I was able to catch:
Chuckie
Steve Aoki
Dada Life
Swedish House Mafia
Kaskade
Deadmau5
Day 2 sets I was able to catch:
Dada Life
Afrojack
Sound of Stereo
Laidback Luke
Benny Benassi
Above & Beyond
Armin van Buuren
I really can't put into words the experience that I had with this event. But here...
Breakdown:
Crowd - The crowd was insane. Probably too insane. The energy levels were so high and people were so desperate to get on the field they even jumped the fences. With everyone so hype, the DJ's knew they had to bring it and responded well. Production - On a scale from 1 to 10, EDC gets an 11. This production was absolutely insane. The stages were set up and let incredibly well, especially the main stage. Huge wall of LED lights the size of a building and all the pyrotechnic stuff that went down was really incredible. Rigging the entire coliseum with fire torches, state of the art light shows, confetti shooters, fireworks behind the stage, the trampoline jumpers, acrobats, marionettes, and the circus midgets! Insanity! Plus the rides were rigged with great lighting as well. Added an great sense of carnival theme to it all. Organization - All things considered with the almost 200,000 in attendance, the event was organized rather well. The stages were separated well, the bathrooms were plentiful, and crowd control was handled decently. Props to Insomniac events for the plentiful staff. The only thing I didn't like was the expensive beer and garbage for food. Lineup - You will never find a more exciting and big name filled line up at any other electronic music event other than Electric Daisy Carnival. Stellar. Amazing. What else can I say? Plus the celebrity appearances...holy moly.
Rating: This event really smacked me in the face big time and showed me indeed how mainstream electronic music is getting here in the United States. I couldn't believe the world class DJ's and all the surprise celebrity appearances saying that this was the greatest massive they have been to. If anything is for sure, it's that dance and electronic music is here. And it's here to stay. ***** (5 stars).
Scale:
***** - Perfect night. Legendary show
**** - Great night. Very enjoyable
*** - Decent night. Some things were hit or miss but overall fine.
** - Boring night. Not too many enjoyable things at this show.
* - Terrible night. Everything went wrong with this one. Where's the booze?
Hey everyone. Considering #MusicMonday is almost over, might as well make this one short and sweet. Typically I have a lot of musical thoughts going through my head and thinking of a lot of different ideas, but at this moment only one thing is on my mind: Electric Daisy Carnival. Even though Drake's album has come out recently and Eminem dropped Recovery today, EDC is my main focus. For those who have no idea about events that go on within the dance/electronic music scene, Electric Daisy Carnival is the biggest event to happen on the west coast. 2 days long, 12 hours each day, and jam packed full of the filthiest beats of house/trance/electro/drum&bass you can imagine. Also did I mention they have carnival rides? Yeah...it has carnival in the name; makes sense. My journey will take me to the heart of LA to witness the craziest spectacle that I will probably experience in the electronic scene unless I fly to Ibiza or go to one of the European festivals like Love Parade or Dance Valley in the Netherlands. Anyways, here are the DJ's that I am thoroughly stoked to see:
Steve Aoki
Deadmau5 (as usual)
Kaskade
Dirty South
Chuckie
Dada Life
Sean Tyas
Afrojack
Benny Benassi
Fedde Le Grand
Gareth Emery
Laidback Luke
Boys Noize
Above & Beyond
Sasha
ATB
Armin van Buuren (the man!)
If you weren't drooling over that then you just don't know whats going on. Did I also mention Spain plays Chile the same Friday that all this mayhem goes down? Brain overload!! Here's to me surviving the next week...
I've been doing this Throwback thing for a while now and I honestly believed my concept of "Throwback Thursday" was completely original and unique. I was thinking about getting the trademark and everything. Now I come to realize not only is it not original, it already has it's own trending topic. Epic #fail. Oh well, serves me right for thinking I came up with anything before someone else. Anyway...onto this week's Throwback. Being the huge electronic music lover that I am, I'm really excited to take part in next weekend's big festival Electric Daisy Carnival. Considering how it's the biggest electronic music festival to hit the west coast, all the big power house names flood the line up. However, I am sad I missed last year's because this year my man Paul van Dyk is not making an appearance. And this got me thinking...what a perfect subject for my Throwback this week...
This week: "Crush" by Paul van Dyk
Without a shadow of a doubt my favorite trance song to date. Not only is it my favorite, it is the first trance song I have ever heard. I can't remember exactly what year it was when I first heard this, but I know for sure I was still in high school. I was enlightened to the ways of electronic music by that point, but not anything like this. All my knowledge was strictly to the commercial that hit the airwaves and MTV like Daft Punk and The Prodigy. Seldom I got into things like The Crystal Method but it wasn't until I heard this song that it completely blew my mind on the possibilities of what electronic music could do or sound like. I didn't even know trance was a genre. And when I did think of music like this being played in clubs, it struck me as something I would never like. However, when my friend sent me this song it all made sense. This was electronic music with a story. It has unbelievable build ups, break downs, and feeling. It's almost like the "Stairway to Haven" of trance music for me. I get filled with emotion when I hear this. Talk about a track that's a total crowd controller. When Paul plays this in arenas (which I have had the pleasure of seeing Paul van Dyk live), I know the audience feels it too. Here's to the song that got me hooked on trance for the rest of my life probably.
Take a listen...let your mind be blown. Keep your speakers on high and brains on melt.
I plan on writing a full piece in anticipation for the VMA's to look out for that one. But right now I have just have one thought I want to share on this...DEADMAU5 IS THE HOUSE ARTIST?? It has been announced that one of my favorites, Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmau5, is going to be the house artist for the VMA's this year. This is a shocking but yet awesome announcement. Good and bad things can come out of this, but it certainly means that the electronic scene is alive, well, and on the come up. I'll drop another piece on how electronic music becoming popular is also a double edged sword. In the meantime...I just send out my congratulations for deadmau5. He has been a hard worker.
