Diplo’sBlow Your Head debuted a month back on the large-scale media project Potato as a cultural biography series documenting the experiences of forward-thinking artists. While previous episodes have featured 3BallMTY, MikeQ, and Rusty Lazer, this week delves into the life of New York’s Luca Venezia, or Drop the Lime. The Trouble & Bass founder discusses his early inspirations for the label, his plans of expansion, as well as his love for the Big Apple. There is a romantic outlook inherent in Venezia’s words that evokes the deeper dimension to the Blow Your Head series as Diplo’s project continues to showcase the diversity of the EDM world.
As New York gets back into working order after the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy there are still thousands of people along NY and NJ’s coastlines, from Staten Island to Sea Isle City, who have been displaced from their homes – or left with no home to go back to at all.
This Monday at the Gramercy Theatre, “EDM For Sandy Relief,” plans to raise funds for those of us outside of Manhattan, who lost more than just power and convenient subway lines. Headlined by the Crystal Method, Tommie Sunshine, Drop the Lime and more, the event plans to donate all proceeds to the American Red Cross and will also be holding a canned and non-perishable Thanksgiving food drive as a well as a silent auction held by the shows sponsors. Come out and show your support.
Fresh from New York’s Trouble & Bass label, the folks who bring you releases from the likes of Drop The Lime, AC Slater, Plastician, and others, is a new EP from Estonian producer Bert on Beats. The three track EP, Modern Vampires, offers quite the range of bass heavy style. The EP isn’t easily constrained into a genre; we hear bouncy bass lines and stuttered vocal loops on the title track, a crazy dramatic flute melody on “Flute Thing,” and Diplo-like drum kick on “Get Your Freak On.” It’s not dubstep, it’s not moombahton, it’s not electro house, it’s just heavy bass and it’s well-designed for the dance floor.
Bart B More, Drop the Lime, and AC Slater team up to bring you a bass heavy, 2 track EP. Leave your earbuds at the door because these two tracks need to be listened to on a serious system. Both songs have Bart’s signature, gritty synth bass lines – the kind that hit hard enough that you can feel your ribcage rattle.
Drop the Lime adds his own spirited groove to the title track on the EP and it shows. The vocals here are also incredibly addicting, this one is going to get some serious time on the decks of any DJ worthy of the name.
The second track is a bit harder to swallow, it lacks the infectious vocals and the disco groove. Instead it goes straight for the jugular and hits you with heavy tribal beats and a sweeping synth breakdown.
The Aussies who were half responsible for one of the biggest hits of 2010, “We No Speak Americano,” have done a little re-working of Drop the Lime’s next hit “Hot as Hell.” This remix, though, almost sounds like more of edit as they keep many of the hallmarks of the original track including the harmonica drop. Still, it’s a great track. Be on the look out for the full remix package for “Hot as Hell” out on January 30th and featuring remixes from Nouveau Yourican, Will Bailey, Canblaster and Para One.
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