#ShoutOut to all the readers!

Hey everyone.  I know the audience is small thus far, but I want to thank everyone and anyone who has ever checked out the SF Tremor.  Anybody have friends who follow electronic music in the bay area?  Spread the word.  I will start putting up more local news to be more of an information super highway for anybody who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (along with my usual blabber, humor, and commentary).  And while you're at it...click one of the ads on the side or under each blog post.  I promise they won't break your computer and a lot of times it has some cool info.  Anyways..that aside, let's keep 2011 rolling with a bang.  Looking forward to hearing all the new music that will be released in the coming months. 

Cheers to all,

Mark

Skrillex: Sonny Moore back from the dead with new life

Now while I may not be the biggest aficionado of dubstep, glitch, or any of that other somewhat obscure stuff, I can indeed point out talent and give credit where it's due.  In this case, with the absolutely DRAMATIC rise in the popularity of dubstep, one of the genre's rising stars is Skrillex.  I'm sure even if you don't dig dubstep you've heard the name.  He's even managed to get on an episode of Gareth Emery's podcast.  That's a pretty big testament to his popularity despite being labeled to a particular genre.  It certainly doesn't hurt to be endorsed and signed to mau5trap records by one of the biggest names in electronic music today: Deadmau5.  However, looking at Skrillex's picture, I couldn't help but notice something familiar.  The awful hair, the pale skin, the piercings, the kind of blank stare...he reminded me of...noooo it couldn't be....oh but IT IS!  After some wikipedia investigation, my guess was correct.  He is the closely forgotten Sonny Moore formerly of the band From First To Last.  Anybody that had their emo phase (as I did), FFTL was one of the bands you expected to jump to popularity next.  Unfortunately, they never did.  And Sonny left the band to pursue solo music and let his vocal chords heal as the screaming was bad for his health and actually required surgery.  Little did we know, in that sabbatical, Sonny would undergo a transformation, immerse himself in the world of synthesizers, and resurrect himself in the form of Skrillex.  Take a listen to one of his tracks:

Rock N' Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain):



Glad to see my man is doing well.  His hair however, remained a lost cause.

~Mark

#NowPlaying: Markus Schulz "The New World (Barnes & Heatcliff Remix)" HOLY $H!T

So I hope you all have started listening to (if not finished by now) the San Francisco World Tour New Years episode of Global DJ Broadcast.  I certainly have had that bad boy on repeat and have certainly found my favorite track off of that entire episode.  "The New World (Original Mix)" was great on its own...but this remix by Barnes & Heatcliff is just...wow.  Take a listen for yourself.  I can tell I'll get burned out of this one real quick by having it on repeat so much.  I don't think it's available yet for purchase, but use your resources.  I'm sure it's around somewhere.

"The New World (Barnes & Heatcliff Remix)"




~M

Global DJ Broadcast: Live from San Francisco on New Years Eve!

Hey everyone!  Hope everyone is having a great 2011 thus far.  Can't say I can complain very much about mine.  I've been living it up, as I hope all of you have as well.  However, if you're still feeling after effects of your New Years Eve, beside from probably going to the doctor, you should check out the newest episode of Global DJ Broadcast if you've still got your party hat on.  For anyone that was present at this show...I can imagine it was nothing less than epic.  This 2 hour excerpt of Markus Schulz's 5 1/2 hour set from that night showcases the madness that went on at Ruby Skye that night.  So hear it is...for your listening and downloading pleasure (complete with tracklist and track location):

Markus Schulz (Recorded Live From Ruby Skye in San Francisco - December 31st 2010)

Download Link

[00:00]  01. U2 - New Year's Day (Markus Schulz Intro Mix)
[03:37]  02. Markus Schulz - Future Cities
[07:27]  03. Tiesto - Lethal Industry (Remix) ***
[11:00]  04. Genix - Zzubb *
[13:55]  05. Rex Mundi - Opera of Northern Ocean (Phynn Remix / Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction) **
[19:30]  06. ID
[24:00]  07. Ashley Wallbridge vs. Markus Schulz & Ana Criado - Surreal Smoke (Markus Schulz Mashup)
[28:45]  08. Randy Katana - In Silence (Setrise Remix) ***
[31:57]  09. ID (Track 07 from Homecoming Space Miami Set)
[35:17]  10. Mr. Pit - Sky Traffic
[40:00]  11. Wippenberg - Phoenix [Forthcoming on Prague '11] **
[45:25]  12. ID
[50:25]  13. La Roux - In for the Kill (Michael Woods Remix) **
[55:50]  14. Cosmic Gate - Fire Wire (Cosmic Gate's Back 2 the Future Dub)
[59:15]  15. Miki Litvak - Pollinator (Gary Beck Remix / Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction) **

[1:02:00]  16. Push - Universal Nation (Remix)
[1:06:40]  17. Pobsky - Dark Cloud (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
[1:11:50]  18. Marc Vision vs. Markus Schulz vs. Wippenberg - Chakalaka's New World Gate (Markus Schulz Mashup) ***
[1:21:00]  19. Markus Schulz - The New World (Barnes & Heatcliff Remix) ****
[1:25:00]  20. Pfirter - The Dub Track (Len Faki Remix / Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
[1:29:35]  21. Markus Schulz Featuring Sir Adrian - Away (Cosmic Gate Remix) **
[1:34:40]  22. Eye Wall vs. Nic Chagall - Bad Moment (Markus Schulz Mashup)
[1:38:00]  23. U2 - New Year's Day (Ferry Corsten Remix / Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction) **
[1:46:50]  24. Orjan Nilsen - Go Fast! ***
[1:54:40]  25. Rank 1 - Breathing (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Remix)

Cheers!

~Mark

Happy New Year! and Gareth Emery's 2010 Mix

Well I had to do this sooner or later...HAPPY NEW YEAR from the SF Tremor!!  This is the first post of the year, and as such, I'd like to dedicate this post to the great year in music that was 2010.  I would kill myself trying to put into a list my favorite tracks of 2010, but I know a man who did a pretty good job of summing the year up himself....and that would be Gareth Emery.  If you haven't taken a gander at his last podcast of 2010 (#114), definitely take 4 hours out of your day and take a listen to it.  A 4 hour mix you say?? Yes, that was not a typo.  4 hours of pure awesome-ness.  50 of his favorite tunes from the last year, and I have to say I agree with many of them.  Sit down, lay back (or whatever), and enjoy the year that was 2010 in this amazing podcast mix.  Cheers to you 2010!  Now onto 2011!  Oh what craziness may lie ahead...

TGEP Podcast Episode 114

~Mark

Save The Rave: A call for action within the California EDM community

     As 2011 looms, and I'm sitting here writing this blog on the eve of New Years, I realize 2010 has been a great year for electronic dance music.  This year has graced us with some amazing events, huge festivals, and stellar tracks from our favorite artists.  As the year comes to a close and I reflect on the great times and experiences of the year, I realize we could not ask for much better.  However, as 2011 looms, the outlook is not entirely positive.  While 2010 was memorable, it was also infamous for many tragedies that have happened at EDM events.  The tragedies that stick out in my mind are the well publicized local deaths that occurred during POP in San Francisco and Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles.  POP in SF resulted with 2 deaths and 5 hospitalizations, while EDC in LA resulted in dozens of hospitalizations and the death of a 15 year old teenage girl.  I was present at these events and I had a feeling at the time that these unfortunate occurrences would not go without action from state committees...and I was right.
     I'm sure all of you who read this from California are aware of the infamous proposed bill AB 74 by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma from San Francisco, which harbors the potential to prohibit electronic dance events to occur on public property if passed.  It also would ban such events to occur on private property unless a business owner provided a license.  To be specific, the details mentioned in the bill targets unlicensed nighttime events that "include prerecorded music and last more than three and a half hours".  In Assemblywoman Ma's own words: ""Raves foster an environment that threatens the health and safety of our youth. [This] is the first step toward eliminating these dangerous events."
      As hard as it is for me to admit, Fiona Ma's opinion on electronic dance events does not come entirely without foundation.  Long has the culture of the "rave" been associated with underground assemblies of teenagers and young adults doing drugs and dancing from the early hours of the night into the early hours of the morning.  She has cited a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that teenagers who attend raves use club drugs like ecstasy, ghb, methamphetamine, and LSD.  Let's not kid ourselves here...this study is not inaccurate.  A big culprit of this is the fact that most raves do not harbor an age limit on attendance.  Younger generations are always searching for methods of self identity, rebellion, and feeling like part of something.  Raves can offer this.  While any teenager under the age of 18 cannot drink or smoke legally, they could still attend a rave and any drug dealer could exploit this.  This is part of the reason why I don't like the term "rave" and never really have.  I think if you ask any stranger in the United States who is not familiar with the music or culture of the electronic dance scene, a "rave" to them means going to a club, warehouse, or underground location to dance the night away to light shows doing drugs to "techno music".  I know this, because I admit this was my opinion of the rave scene years ago before I really became involved.  This particular demographic, including Fiona Ma, create their opinions based on poor generalization of the community, out-dated principles, and have not taken a look at the bigger picture of what electronic dance music really represents and what it has become.
     If you take a look around at the trends in music on a global scale (or even just here in the United States), it is undeniable that electronic dance music is on the rise both in popularity and acceptance.  Mainstream artists such as Lady Gaga, Pitbull, Black Eyed Peas, Three 6 Mafia, Kesha, and Deadmau5, for better or worse, are spreading the taste of "rave" music to the masses.  Huge events like LA's Electric Daisy Carnival that push attendance numbers to the 200,000 mark and have the capability of filling out huge venues like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum would not be possible without this upsurge in dance music enthusiasm.  It is not strange to hear a name like "Deadmau5", "Kaskade", or "Tiesto" in any conversation about music from any regular household anymore.  MTV in the USA now covers events like EDC and interviews artists like Armin van Buuren and Swedish House Mafia.  The music is out of the shadows and no longer limited to just "ravers" and this is why I believe the old opinions on what it is to be a "raver" should be a thing of the past.  While you could still find your typical underground rave in any major city, the music has moved on to bigger sanctioned events and has begun to attract a wider audience.  While Fiona Ma has gone on to call these bigger events "simply unmanageable," I do not believe that this is the truth.  While management of bigger events could use a few fine tweaks, I believe the solution lies in further education to the masses as to what electronic dance music is and what it truly represents.
     If one digs deeper into the world of electronic dance music and the culture involved, an educated mind on the matter could see that the positives that world brings greatly trump the negatives:

• Cultural Acceptance:  Electronic dance music has been popular on a global scale for decades.  The byproduct of such a wide audience of this music is that producers and DJ's from all over the world are creating their own brand of the music.  They are also touring all over the world.  French DJ's touring in America, German DJ's touring in Russia, British DJ's touring in India, etc etc. all while building loyal fanbases.  The walls of prejudice and judgment have been broken down within the dance community and could prove to be a great stepping stone for the rest of the world to follow in hopes to settle disputes and conflicts.  There are no disputes over religion, race, and culture within dance music.
• Global Networking:  The internet and social networking have made it possible to communicate and network with people all over the world within the blink of an eye, and electronic artists have mastered this more than most.  Whether it be a business conversation, sharing of music, or simply connecting with fans, electronic artists have become highly efficient at communication on a global scale to other fellow artists and their fanbase.  This global networking yields infinite possibilities.  An aspiring producer from Australia or any other isolated region of the world is no longer facing such an uphill battle.
• Musical Expansion:  As I mentioned before, the musical influences of electronic dance music can be heard in the mainstream now.  This means genres have begun to cross and more musical exploration is a result.  Electro-pop, Synth Pop, Synth Rock, Indie-electro, Trip-Hop, you name it....new music has only begun to scratch the surface of its possibilities with embracing the concepts and tools that electronic dance music has provided. 
• Mutual Respect:  In my years of attending electronic music events (or "raves" if you will), I have not seen one single fight or conflict that was not easily settled with a small conversation.  People do not attend these events with the intent to start conflict.  On the contrary, they are there to appreciate the music they know and love with other like-minded individuals.  You can always make a new friend at a dance event, and it is all because of mutual respect for one another. 
• Unity through the Community:  Unity happens through one common goal or common appreciation for something.  In our case, the music brings us together.  This has happened so well in fact, that "families" have been created within genres of electronic music.  Ever heard of the #TranceFamily or #HouseNation?  That's called unity right there.  Feeling like part of something, no matter how far away members live away from each other.  Great things have happened through this unity.  Some things that stick out in my mind just within my own local community is the San Francisco #TranceFamily (#TranceFamilySF) creating drives to donate clothes for the homeless and a small foundation for donations for a family member who suffered a horrible event.  People are reaching out to one another to help each other....these kind of things leave me speechless.  This is not seen within any other style of music (that I know of).  Not only are these group of relative strangers helping each other like trusted friends, they truly care about their communities as well.
• Technological Advancement:  DJ's and Producers constantly push the envelope of computer hardware and software in search of new ideas and tools to identify their music and shape their craft more uniquely.  The searching of this endless frontier drives the development of new software programs, hardware technology, and DJ tools that are infinitely useful not only within the electronic dance community, but music producers of any genre. 

      If the proposed bill AB 74 were to pass, it would mark a huge loss for the electronic dance community, and would create much more of a negative result than it would hope to create.  As Jason "Dyloot" Sperling of Deep Voices (respected Producer/DJ from San Francisco and promoter of Skills DJ Workshop) mentioned in a statement to the LA Times: "If electronic music is criminalized, our government will succeed in alienating a generation of Californians and simply drive dance parties underground — a less regulated, less safe, less sane situation than we have today."  This could not be more true.  The alienation is as clear as black and white: "The bill is not intended to impact traditional music concerts and sporting events," said Fiona Ma in her statement. "AB 74 is about cracking down on raves that harbor drug use and lead to teenage deaths."  Not only is this isolation and targeting a violation of the 1st Amendment (particularly Freedom of Expression), I believe it sends a bad message to the youth that have recently discovered the forward direction that electronic dance music is heading into.  This would, as Dyloot so eloquently put, send dance parties in California to a more unsafe and miseducated direction.  I feel like the passing of this bill would single handedly succeed in the creation of more "raves" that are not regulated and encourage drug use among younger generations (harmful to their own cause) instead of encouraging sanctioned, accepted "electronic music events" that promote all the positive aspects that electronic music represents with the involvement of the law.  Poor involvement from the law can create horrible tragedies like the events of Love Parade 2010 in Duisburg, Germany which resulted in the deaths of almost two dozen people.  The music we know and love so much is heading in a great direction all over the world, it would be such a shame for California to be robbed of this form of expression in a time where the world needs all the positivity it can get.
      I'll close this out with saying one simple thing: Get Involved!  Reach out to the movements at SaveTheRave.org and TranceFamilySF.com to help try and save our form of expression and the electronic dance music culture here in our great state of California.  We can only do this together, and we certainly need each other to accomplish the goals that we want.  The main goal that I hope to achieve through our own local networking is educating California residents and California lawmakers on what electronic music really is and what it represents around the world (so we can allow it do the same thing in California).  I'd like to wash away the negative image that the term "rave" used to mean in the past and move forward in the future with a new generation of electronic music enthusiasts and a new image that we are indeed a family and we want equality for all.  Let us write Fiona Ma at

San Francisco District Offices:
455 Golden Gate Ave.,
Suite 14600
San Francisco, CA 94102

and educate her on the great things that electronic dance music has done globally and within our community.  Let her know the positive experiences you've had at dance events and how it has changed things for the better.  This is also a call to action to promote a drug-free environment at electronic dance events, because after all, it was always about the music and not about the drugs.

Thanks everyone for reading....I hope for a happy 2011 for all and Happy New Years Eve.  Please be safe.  Long live electronic music.

~Mark

Sources:
The LA Times
Guardian.co.uk
Save The Rave

#ThrowbackThursday: Thomas Bronzwaer "Shadow World"

Around the year 2007 is around the time where my interest in electronic music and trance in particular really hit a peak for me.  I had been listening to acts like The Prodigy and Daft Punk since way in the past, but I guess you can kind of call that my renaissance year because once I embraced the lifestyle and genius behind trance, it changed my tastes forever.  I owe it all to that month of October (and the specific events of Lovefest in San Francisco and Monster Massive in Los Angeles).  Around that time I caught wind of this little gem from dutch producer Thomas Bronzwaer.  Quintessential trance at its best.  This track really takes you on a roller coaster.  The production is as perfect as the ear can pick up.  The effects are crispy clear and perfectly placed.  The main riff, while simple, leaves an incredibly lasting impression.  What more can I say?  It became one of my favorite tunes at the time and still has high repeat value when listening to it 3 years later.  I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.  For your listening pleasure:



~Mark