For today’s GMM we’re rewinding to Major Lazer‘s inception, when the production output was made up of Diplo and Switch. At the time, the pair had just released Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do and structured the mix with one hour from Diplo followed by another from Switch. Mixing in classic reggae sounds and future classic Major Lazer productions, the two producers gave listeners insight into the origins of the rasta-inspired beats Diplo has now championed for the last 3 years. With everything from slow, airy productions to harder hitting tropically-infused outputs, Diplo and Switch treated listeners to the emerging sounds of electronic reggae making for another effortless genre cross-over for the Mad Decent label.
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Once again, Major Lazer announced they will delay the release of their sophomore album Free the Universe. The album was originally set for a November release, but last fall was postponed to February 26th. Now with the second release date quickly approaching, the trio confessed they are not ready to unveil their highly anticipated project just yet — taking to Facebook to apologize to fans.
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As one of the many producers of Santi White’s debut album Santogold, Diplo also had the distinct pleasure at trying his hand at a remixes for the memorable album in the form of the Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub mixtape. You now know Santogold as Santigold and you now know Diplo as part of Major Lazer, Mad Decent head man, and a Grammy-nominated producer. Times were simpler for these two three years ago, but that didn’t stop Diplo from unleashing a completely haunting dub of “Starstruck” among many other gems on the mixtape. The rework doesn’t stray too far from the original, but somehow it manages to feel so much more powerful. A sign of things to come.
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 Tiesto, Major Lazer, Steve Angello, and more.
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The Coachella 2013 lineup has officially been announced, but sadly Daft Punk is not on the bill. As it turns out those leaks were just as we suspected – more rumors. Despite our disappointment, we are still blown away by this year’s lineup. There’s Bassnectar, Infected Mushroom and Dog Blood, Nicky Romero, Wolfgang Gartner, Tommy Trash and Thomas Gold, Luciano, Seth Troxler, and Jamie XX and more – oh yeah, that’s just Friday. Coachella’s entire electronic music lineup is all killer no filler – even the groundbreaking duo out of Britain, Disclosure, is making an appearance.
For those of us who came up listening to the mellow electronica of Ben Gibbard and DNTEL’s side project The Postal Service – you’ll be happy to see that they are re-uniting for the first time since their hit album as well.
Editor’s Note: The last time that Daft Punk performed live was to close out Phoenix’s Madison Square Garden show in 2010 – could there still be a chance that the duo may make a surprise appearance at Coachella? Probably not, but I’m still holding out hope.
The Major Lazer crew took to Facebook and Twitter to share the artwork (above) and track list for their forthcoming album Free The Universe out February 19. The tracks and cover art follow the release of an album teaser video, which appeared on Youtube Tuesday. The trio continue to heighten anticipation for Free The Universe, even though we still have two months of waiting. So we can only hope for another single like “Jah No Partial” from the star-studded track list.
Click below the break to check out the laundry list of collaborations as well as the 50-second teaser video.
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Major Lazer have released a music video for their latest single “Ja No Partial.” The track, which is a collaboration with UK dubstepper Flux Pavilion, features a reggae sample from Rasta legend Johnny Osbourne, who opens the music video. After Osbourne’s tributing intro the video jumps into live footage from the Mad Decent Block Party in Philadelphia, Notting Hill Carnival in London, and Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium.
The cameras capture the essence of the Major Lazer style, whose high energy performances incited massive parties throughout their tour. The music video features the wild shows the trio deliver, complete with Jamaican flags flying, half-naked girls daggering, and as always the giant inflatable ball for Diplo-certified crowd surfing.
Click below the break to watch.
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No matter how cold it gets outside, Major Lazer, with their reggae-infused remixes, always manage to transport us back to the warmth of summer. On their latest remix, doo-wop crooner, Bruno Mars receives the Major Lazer treatment on his radio-friendly hit “Locked Out of Heaven.” Bruno’s silky smooth vocals are complimented by Major Lazer‘s trademark Caribbean vibe, framed by steel drums, horn sections, and a feel good, carefree aesthetic. The simple synthwork and a delicate stutter transform the original into a charming summer jam without too drastically transforming Bruno’s modern-day classic.
This weekend at the Stereosonic Music Festival in Melbourne, Australia, Tiesto and a number of other big name dance music acts will be performing in celebration and honor of World AIDS Day and in collaboration with (RED) and the continued attempt to raise awareness for the transmission, treatment, and elimination of HIV around the world. Click below for a live stream of the event.
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Upon joining Major Lazer, Walshy Fire has lent both his MC’ing and DJ’ing abilities to the versatile project. Teaming up with reggae adept Chronixx, the two have released “Start a Fyah Mixtape” under the official Major Lazer heading. The mixtape is strictly dancehall/reggae, with Chronixx providing continuous verbal output. While we gave a glimpse into Jamaica’s dancehall phenomenon with Diplo‘s Kingston diaries, “Start a Fyah Mixtape” is further education into the flourishing dancehall culture. The mellow, dub-driven mix is available for free download below.
Free Download
