Every once in awhile, a video comes along that transforms the way in which one views the music production process. This inspiring documentary captures the process by which three disabled music fans built a dance music track using cutting-edge brainwave technology in collaboration with UK producer DJ Fresh. If the teaser piques your interest, the full documentary is well worth a watch. Don’t forget to support the song on iTunes here as well, all proceeds go directly to the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People.
Bromance captain Brodinski has never hidden his affinity for the burgeoning trap subgenre, in fact, he’s made a point of incorporating its tracks into his live sets from Boiler Room Berlin to Hard Miami. Now the French label owner is turning over his 10th EP’s stage to Montreal producer Kaytranada and Baton Rouge-based Suicideyear, allowing them to showcase their bass-heavy brilliance for the Bromance faithful.
London deep house darlings Dusky continue their strong musical showing in 2013 with a new EP release on Breach‘s Naked Naked imprint. Title track “Vanishing Point” is an infectiously deep song constructed around soulful male vocals and a warm ascending bass. Both the track and its included deeper mix truly shine in their minimal and effective breakdowns, where the duo complemented the vocals with high frequency melodies and pads alongside judicious application of echo effects. “Truth Capital T” comprises the release’s more brooding track, sporting a syncopated bass line beneath signature Dusky hi-hats and a compelling spoken word sample. While their Vanishing Point EP doesn’t exactly break new sonic ground, Dusky continue to define their sound and demonstrate their genuine deep house mastery with this latest offering.
Ludovika clearly can’t wait for summer to come. With this year’s festival season beginning to heat up, the Dutch progressive house producer unveiled a preview of his latest forthcoming release, an energetic electro-influenced track featuring the vocals of Danish singer Camille Jones. Escalating trance synths carry the track into an almost conversational vocal breakdown before building into an electro synth drop reminiscent of LMFAO, which is strategically punctuated by hefty dubstep wobbles above solid backing beats. With a scheduled June 10th release date, “Good Enough” is well-positioned to make a mark as the summer massives pick up steam during the season’s second half.
Italian minimal glitch artist Phonat continues to demonstrate why Skrillex declared him the most underrated producer in the world. With his Identity Theft EP slated for a June 4th release on OWSLA, the eclectic producer elected to give the world a preview of what’s in store.
“Ride the Prejudice” is about as clean as it gets production-wise, opening with a flurry of divergent samples while a warm synth throbs its way through a glitchy stuttered backbeat. The tracks kicks into another gear as a pitched up vocal sample appears alongside restrained video game bloops and schizophrenic hi-hats. If this track is any indication, Phonat’s laudable attention to sonic detail should elevate his forthcoming EP into rarified air.
As the 13th annual Movement Electronic Music Festival approaches, with a global techno fan base poised to descend upon Detroit, the Dancing Astronaut editors prepare for their own stint of techno tourism. For followers of techno, house, and other deeper genres in dance music, Movement’s lineup is quite certainly a dizzying opportunity to take on the finest talent on the scene right now in arguably one of the most culturally significant cities in the music’s history. There are five stages in total that’ll be bumping the bass in downtown Detroit’s Hart Plaza this Saturday May 25th through Memorial Day Monday. We’ll be on the ground covering the event produced by the hometown favorite Paxahau (as well as several of its afterparties), but in case you’ll be joining us, read on to hear some of our must-listen picks for the festival itself.
“I felt like I had found what I was searching for without even knowing I was searching for it,” Huvaere says of discovering Detroit’s underground techno scene in the early 90s. “There was something about the transparency, the randomness, the frequency range, the math, the lack of language, the futuristic feeling, and the kind of no end in sight. You kind of knew right away, there’s no end in sight. This could just grow and grow and grow. I was just sucked in like a tractor beam. It just changed my life.”
British producer Ant Brooks has teamed up with Hungarian hotshot Paul Strive on a groove-driven tech house tune that sounds well suited for the impending summer. Recently released on Cristian Varela‘s Pornographic Recordings imprint, “Destrukt” features a light layer of percussion over an undeniably danceable mid-bass progression, with sprinkled vocal samples and subtle effect splashes thrown in the mix for good measure. If this track conjures up images of Balearic beaches and summer sunlight for you, then you’re in good company.
Gesaffelstein has a way of taking dark songs and plunging them deeper into the shadows. On his latest remix release, the French producer strips Depeche Mode‘s latest single of its bluesy instrumentation and replaces it with a plodding industrial beat and minimal atmospheric flourishes. Gesaffelstein leaves his trademark in the thoughtful phased synthesizers that accentuate the impact of key vocal phrases. The overall effect transforms the track from a straightforward lament by singer Dave Gahan into something significantly more desperate and ominous in tone, perfectly complementing the desolate candor of the lyrics.
Now that Daft Punk have introduced him to a new generation of electronic music fans, Giorgio Moroder has decided to stay awhile. The legendary Italian producer today unveiled the first track he produced in partnership with Google’s Racer mobile experiment, immediately validating the faith that everyone’s favorite French robots showed in essentially dedicating a Random Access Memories track to him.
“Racer” conveys an immediate sense of movement by layering an instant classic analog synth line over a stomping throwback bass, navigating through a distant vocoded interlude to an infectiously melodic main progression. Perhaps most compelling is Moroder’s ability to immediately achieve a timeless feel on a track that could have no less than four different generations bobbing their heads to its energetic beat. This exemplary track sounds like the kind of well-seasoned but viscerally validating driving music that Kavinsky might make in a few decades’ time, which is no wonder as the undead Frenchman is a known Moroder adherent. Buy the ticket, take the ride with a free download courtesy of Google.
