With the summer festival season fast approaching, Hard Summer has just announced the first artists scheduled to perform at the West Coast event. Ed Banger Records will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary with a world tour, stopping on August 3rd and 4th in Los Angeles’ LA State Historic Park, bringing along Justice, Busy P, Breakbot, Feadz, Mr. Oizo and more along for the ride. If you are looking for heavily filtered french house from some of the most cutting edge producers in electronica than look no further, the Ed Banger imprint has been host to some of the most unique producers in dance music since its inception. This will be their first and only stop in the states, so don’t miss the opportunity.
Uploaded by none other than Jay-Z as part of the rapper’s “The Blueprint” series, Life + Times gives an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look into renowned French duo Justice’s live setup. Just what goes into the making of Justice’s live, electronic-rock opera is explained in engrossing detail by everyone from their audio engineers and lighting technicians, to Xavier and Gaspard themselves. From taking their Marshall amps and lighting rigs on tour, to the precise coordination between the entire Justice team during live shows, the nine minute video is a must-watch for anybody with the slightest sense of admiration for the legendary duo.
Boys Noize‘s latest EP, Out of the Black, saw the iconic electro producer dive into new territory. Still intact, however, were his feverishly unrelenting bass lines and a warehouse aesthetic that was as thrilling as it was haunting. To celebrate the 100th release on the BNR imprint, Boys Noize has commissioned two of electronic music’s most-inspired production duos, The Chemical Brothers and Justice, to remix two cuts from his recent Out of the Black EP. Remixing “XTC” and “Ich R U” respectively, the pairings treat Alex Ridha’s creations with care, using their studiotime to build on the tracks’ already flawless foundations.
Like some sort of electronica fever dream, Justice and The Chemical Brothers have signed up for remixing duties on “Ich R U” and “XTC.” To commemorate BNR’s 100th release, both legendary duos take two of Out of the Black’s standout tracks head on – assimilating Boys Noize‘s gritty techno into their unique sonic imprints. On “XTC,” The Chemical Brothers show us a flash of their ability to create intricate soundscapes before allowing the original’s blaring breaks to shatter the airy calm. Justice takes a cue from 2007′s Cross and delivers an anthemic rock-opera iteration of “Ich R U,” complete with the heavily distorted chordplay their productions are most well known for.
Both tracks will be available on March 18th via BNR.
HARD Events’ second annual voyage of the electronic music cruise Holy Ship!! took place this past January, sailing on a luxury liner from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Nassau, Bahamas and casually stopping along the way for a beach rave on a private island. On top of an announcement for 2014′s Holy Ship!!! (notice the extra exclamation points), they’ve also released a seven minute recap video of this year’s event — capturing the best of sets from Diplo, the dirtybird crew, Skrillex, Justice, A-Trak, Skream & Benga, Knife Party, Tommy Trash, and countless more. There’s nothing that doesn’t look ridiculously fun about this boat rave — let’s all go next year. Pre-booking opens March 5 at 12pm EST (with preference to those who’ve sailed on previous voyages). Read more here.
Holy smokes — Gesaffelstein has done it again! If there’s one person who hasn’t succumbed to any type of EDM standard, it’s this guy. With each and every one of his releases, he continues to defy all odds with his brooding and unforgiving breed of techno. His remix to Justice’s “Helix” has been on our radar since it popped up on live videos throughout YouTube — and today, we are finally treated to a decent quality preview ripped from French radio. (more…)
Hot Natured, the supergroup composed of Jamie Jones, Lee Foss, Luca C, and vocalist Ali Love, finally release “Benediction” today on the Hot Creations label. Although “Benediction” was first previewed only as far back as August, it quickly became the song of the white isle of Ibiza. Jamie Jones spun the track all of August and September at his DC10 Paradise parties and if you weren’t already convinced this was of the highest quality deep house, tastemaker extraordinaire Pete Tong crowned “Benediction” as his Essential tune of the summer during his last Balearic broadcast at the end of September. The track manages to be brooding and lush, but also uplifting and simple. Ali Love’s signature vocals (see also: Infinity Ink’s “Infinity” and Justice’s “Civilization“) tie Hot Natured’s otherworldly production into what might just be the perfect underground anthem.
Best of Instagram is a feature from Dancing Astronaut that showcases our favorite pictures from our favorite DJs on Instragram each week. This week, we’ve got gems from Alesso, Sander van Doorn, Steve Aoki, and more.
Do you want to have your photos included in our Best of Instagram feature? All you have to do to be eligible is use the hashtag “#astrogram” in your photo entry on Instagram. Keep your photos DA or dance music-related, and we’ll choose one user-submitted photo to include each week. Scroll down to see this week’s #astrogram contest winner.
With our brand new Weekend Rewind series, Dancing Astronaut’s editors share some of our favorite tracks from the past.
Few tracks sum up the electro house explosion of the late 2000′s better than the Boys Noize remix of Justice’s “Phantom Pt.II”. In an era when the likes of Justice, MSTRKRFT, the Bloody Beetroots and Danger reigned supreme with their gritty electro, Boys Noize took it to the next level with this simply superb remix. All the elements of the remix work together perfectly to craft what can only be described as an absolute monster of a track. Check it out below, and if you like the sound of it make sure you read our review of Boys Noize’s recently released album.
Justice – Phantom Pt. II (Boys Noize Remix)
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Best of the Rest is a daily feature from Dancing Astronaut that recaps the most important posts of the day as well as the stuff we didn’t get to. With the rapidity that dance music news and releases come out it’s difficult for us to hit everything — we hope BOTR serves as a catch-all. Make sure to check it out at the end of each day to ensure you don’t miss anything!
