The Cream brand has come a long way from the original club nights at Liverpool’s Nation. Today, Cream is synonymous with electronic excellence, its reputation built on a commitment to booking the biggest dance acts of the day. The Creamfields UK festival is overflowing with superstar DJs, and so are the Thursday night Cream parties at Amnesia in Ibiza. To celebrate the 2012 season on the White Isle, Cream has released a 2-CD compilation, mixed by Dancing Astronaut favorites Above & Beyond.
Amsterdam Dance Event, the world’s largest dance music conference, returns to the Dutch capital from October 17th to 21st. Now in its 17th edition, the sheer scale of the conference and accompanying nocturnal club festival is mind boggling — this year some 700 DJs, 3,000 panelists and 140,000 fans from 62 countries are expected to make the pilgrimage.
Today, some major dance heavyweights announced their parties, and if you’re a techno fan, you’ll be licking your lips. The Westergasfabriek venue looks like the place to be – On Wednesday, Fatboy Slim, Christian Varela, Nicole Moudaber, and Charlie Hedges will support Carl Cox at his Global 500 event there. On Thursday, Adam Beyer will present his Drumcode party, while on Friday, Richie Hawtin will bring Dubfire, Loco Dice, and others to realize his ENTER concept. Green Velvet and SHM-killer DJ Sneak will join British techno baron Dave Clarke at a separate venue, Melkweg, on Friday.
The official music video for “The Ocean,” Paul van Dyk and Arty’s almost-too-appropriately-titled collaboration, hit the Inter-webs today. The track, from the German trance superstar’s most recent album, Evolution, is a poignant bridge between trance’s past (PvD) and future (Arty). We first heard it when PvD asked us to review Evolution. Here’s what we had to say:
“(The Ocean is) a gorgeous, operatic trance banger that emphatically proves that beauty and bass can happily coexist. The best trance tracks makes you feel weightless. This is one of them.”
The music video, however, doesn’t provide us with that kind of narrative that usually accompanies a major trance track. We weren’t expecting a short film (which is basically what Dash Berlin have given us for some of their releases), but it would’ve been nice to see footage of PvD or Arty. Instead, we’re given some slightly confusing CGI sequences as well as several gratuitous shots of, well, the ocean. Perhaps this video would be more effective as a live visual display during a concert than it is as a YouTube clip.
Yes, we know it’s a popularity contest. Yes, we know that plenty of deserving CDJ technicians aren’t on this list. Yes, we know you could all put together better rankings in your sleep. But that doesn’t mean that the DJ Mag Top 100 isn’t important.
Not only does it reflect the state of dance music today — who’s got the largest fan base, who’s got the most devoted following, but it’s also a chance for us, the EDM intelligentsia, to step up and make our voices heard. Remember, the rankings do mean something to DJs looking to add legitimacy to their brands and ask higher prices of promoters. So if you want your favorite artist to be paid better, here’s your chance to make that happen.
So who’s in your top five? Head over to Facebook to let the kind folks at DJ Mag know. Then do us a favor and let us know your picks in the comments section.
Live Nation Entertainment, the American entertainment behemoth formed by the merger of concert promoter Live Nation and ticketing company Ticketmaster, has acquired HARD events, the Los Angeles-based promoter behind events such as HARD Summer, HARD Haunted Mansion, and Holy Ship!
Earlier this year, Live Nation purchased beloved British brand Cream Holdings, which runs superclubs in Liverpool and Ibiza and also puts on the legendary Creamfields festivals. The HARD purchase will add to that growing conglomerate. It’s the latest stream in a flood of cash flowing into the dance music industry . Earlier this year, media magnate Robert F.X. Sillerman announced a plan to spend $1 billion in the hopes of creating an EDM empire.
Gary Richards, HARD’s founder and C.E.O., said Tuesday that the decision would allow him to expand the brand. ““I’m always going to fight the good fight,” he told the New York Times. The reason I’m different from other festivals is that I bring the new thing, develop it and bring it to the masses. This will only be able to help, because now instead of just L.A. and New York, I will be able to do this in South Africa, South America. It’s only a good thing.”
In April, Richards, who also DJs under the stage name Destructo, expressed concern at the infusion of corporate money into the EDM world. “You can’t just franchise this like McDonald’s,” he told the Times. (more…)
The mammoth North American Group Therapy tour has come to an end. To commemorate its success, Above & Beyond has released “Small Moments Like These,” a new, free instrumental track which you can download here. “Small Moments Like These” is pure Above & Beyond, a delightfully introspective number carried by thoughtful piano chords that swell gradually before breaking into gentle arpeggios. In other words, it’s yet another reminder of the trio’s classical musicianship.
We could easily imagine A&B using the track as an intro for upcoming shows, or perhaps a forthcoming album, because it’s full of the same ethereal dreaminess that defined “Tokyo,” which opened Anjunabeats Vol. 9. They might, on the other hand, use it to replace the “On A Good Day” a capella with which they’ve been closing Group Therapy shows. Click past the break to hear both tracks. (more…)
Tomorrow night, a hundred thousand people will gather under the electric sky to celebrate the biggest dance party America has ever seen. As you might imagine, we’re pretty excited. Here are 99 things we’re looking forward to (feel free to add your o
1. Watching the orange Nevada sun climb slowly over the gigantic Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday morning. Trying to decide whether to see W&W bring out the shotgun, Steve Aoki team up with the Blue Man Group, Harvard Bass weave low-end magic, or Paco Osuna make things minimal.
2. Setting foot on the race track for the first time. Noticing how sloped it is.
3. Kinetic Field mayhem.
4. ENTER Stage and the enigma that is Richie Hawtin.
It’s official, folks. The set times for EDC Las Vegas are here. As we expected, there are plenty of excruciating choices to make (the most noteworthy being between Armin or Richie Hawtin on Saturday night). What we didn’t expect are some of the surprise sets — Steve Aoki, for example, will be performing twice (once with Afrojack and once with the Blue Man Group). We’ll also be getting a special guest on the dubstep stage.
You probably won’t be able to see every single minute of every single one of your favorite artists. But really, that isn’t a reason to be sad. Every single DJ at EDC is worth the price of admission, and there won’t be a bad set the entire weekend. This is the biggest dance festival in North American history, backed by Insomniac’s legendary production. This is where stars are born and legends make history. This will be a weekend you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
Click past the break for the full schedule. Let us know where you’ll be and which slot times you’re most conflicted about in the comments. See you all in Vegas!
Dutch trance stalwart Richard Durand teams up with American newcomer Huge Euge to bring us “Signs,” a big-room rumbler in the mould of W&W’s “Shotgun.” The track, which is out on Black Hole Recordings, was the winner in the U.S. edition of Durand’s “Richard Durand vs. The World” competition. It’s already cracked the Beatport Trance Top 100 and has received support from such luminaries as Paul Oakenfold, Jerome Isma-Ae, Giuseppe Ottaviani and Eddie Halliwell. “Signs” draws inspiration from the early 2000 synth sound popularized by Armin van Buuren, but it also features post-2010 electro influences and intricate high-end melodies. The break is pure, bone-rattling big-room trance.
Trails We Blaze, the debut solo artist album from British veteran Jody Wisternoff, is an exercise in maturity. This is dance music for seasoned ears, full of sophisticated, soulful grooves that feel engineered for dance fans who’ve outgrown their neon outfits and brashly-sloganed tank tops — unless you can fit “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Dreamily Exotic Deep House with a Tinge of Progressive Trance” on a tank.(more…)
