New York’s underground party brand Verboten has quite the summer in store for the New York dance music faithful. Kicking things off on the Fourth of July, they plan to throw a festival style event on the waterfront of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, with the opening event to feature Sasha, Maya Jane Coles, Davide Squillace and Bill Patrick. The second event will take place on July 27th and will host Luciano, Carl Craig, and Moodymann. These names are some of the biggest and best in the underground world, and we can’t wait to see what else Verboten has in store for the duration of festival season.
Davide Squillace is one of Italy’s finest electronic music assets. His production catalog so vast it can be dizzying and as a DJ, he possesses the keen ability to keep any dance floor moving. His set from last year’s Time Warp in particular is worth a thorough listen. He teases with percussive flares and jazzy chord sequences — adding thrusting basslines to create a perfect rhythm. It’s impossible to stand still during one of his sets — his music is made to for the dance floor. Skip the coffee this morning and opt for this mix — Squillace will make you wish it was the weekend from the sound of the first bar.
As the popularity of electronic dance music has grown, long time fans of the genre have seen an upsurge in sounds and scenes they don’t consider representative of the crème de la crème of what the genre has to offer. Although the deep/tech house niche is burgeoning in New York City (and elsewhere), with listeners rapidly converting, it’s still eclipsed by bottle service clubs and events headlined by mainstream artists. Fans of the underground are passionate that their umbrella genres — tech, techno, and deep house for the most part — are not only the future of dance music but amongst its best outputs. When the glitz and glamour surrounding electronic pop music dissipates, they believe that the light bulbs illuminating the underground will remain lit.
Friends who had already made the switch — or at least stood with one foot firmly planted on either side — were relentless about its high class quality and in some cases, “sophisticated superiority.” Their claims weren’t solely about the music itself but the scene and its vibe as well. Despite their persistence, my attempts at understanding the underground were unsuccessful and so, I remained apathetic. I’ve never needed huge builds and drops to satisfy my preferences — not that I didn’t and don’t still enjoy them — but I was a member of the camp that found the underground boring.
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Over the course of Pete Tong’s BBC Radio 1 residency, the famed Essential Mix has been a way for artists to transcribe their musical tastes and abilities in a two-hour recorded segment.
Last Friday saw the debut of Italy’s Davide Squillace — one of the leading faces behind the infamous Circo Loco parties at DC-10 in Ibiza. On the production front, Squillace has released a wide array of house and techno tracks on labels like Sci+Tec, Roselote, and more recently, his own This and That imprint. Enjoy this 120 minute mix which dives deep into the Balearic sounds that this revered underground talent has come to represent.
Full track list after the break. (more…)
At Electric Zoo 2010, Martin Buttrich, Matthias Tanzmann, and Davide Squillace came together to put on an exclusive back-to-back set in the Sunday School Grove. Before we knew it, a fun project between friends gave way to Better Lost Than Stupid. The three curate some of the biggest labels on the underground scene and maintain residencies at some of the world’s most famous clubs. In terms of house and techno, where one lacks, the other flourishes. They all bring a unique attribute to the table; and talks of the trio producing tracks together have us on edge for their return to New York.
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