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.
The Prodigy, the hard-electro innovators who produced the legendary album The Fat of the Land in 1997, celebrate its 15th anniversary with a reissue. This time the originals will be accompanied by remixes from some of 2012′s biggest names and the latest are from Zeds Dead and Noisia.
In anticipation of the rerelease, XL Records released an EP with a sneak-peek into the remixes. Noisia starts off the 2-part compilation with a remix of the long-lived “Smack My Bitch Up,” giving the track a sharper drum & bass edge. Zeds Dead rework “Breathe” another one of The Prodigy‘s biggest tunes, deconstructing the track entirely to recreate a dark vibrating electro beat. Keeping the original instrumental hook and a vocal sample, ZD remix “Breathe” into a club banger without losing its original eerie vibes.
The reissue of The Fat of the Land is due December 3 and will also include remixes from the likes of Major Lazer, Alvin Risk and Baauer.
I must be dreaming… Skrillex produces a track for a Disney movie? Then drum and bass masterminds Noisia remix it? Is this a parallel universe where gritty synthesizers and guttural wobbles is a suitable soundtrack for a kid’s movie? To be honest, who knows and who cares – the track rocks. Released on Atlantic Records, Noisia‘s remix of “Bug Hunt” is bursting at the seams with high energy, disco-driven synthesis. Mutating Skrillex‘s signature wobbles into a sort of drum and bass, dubstep, nu-disco nightmare, juxtaposing it’s own grit with flighty disco flairs.
Guttural wobbles galore, “Undertaker” is a ferocious DnB cut from the New Zealand duo The Upbeats. The combination of breakneck drum and bass with dubstep elements serves to create an aggressive and unrelenting production from the NOISIA imprint newcomers. Industrial grit and screaming sawtooth synthesizers develop the atmosphere of madness that is so often associated with heavy-hitting DnB. Grab this one for free via the duo’s SoundCloud, but we warned – it’s not for the faint of heart.
Looking for a serious kick in the bass? Maybe some music to piss off your neighbors in Apartment 3c? (The ones’ with that obnoxious dog that barks in the middle of the night,) Then look no further then Caspa’s release of Dubstep Sessions 2012 – a collection of the hardest hitting tracks of 2012. From the moment you press play the bass is absolutely relentless, growling and groaning through some of the biggest dubstep tracks of 2012 from 12th Planet, Sub Focus, Skrillex, Trolley Snatcha, Nero, Noisia and more. Don’t miss “War,” Caspa’s collaboration with The Prodigy’s Keith Flint or the screaming remix of Buraka Som Sisterna’s “Hangover.” For any bass heads in our audience, this one is a must grab.
Pick up the entire collection today on iTunes. Tracklist after the break.
Noisia are 3 dutch producers Nik Roos, Martijn, van Sonderen, and Thijs de Vlieger (pronounced Tice) who’s forte is hard-hitting drum n’ bass, electro, and dubstep. It’s not every day that Deadmau5 shows affection towards other artists, but Noisia is one of those lucky groups that Deadmau5 actually supports and believes acquire superior talent. “Tommy’s Theme” released on Mautrap, starts out as a haunted and angelic drum n bass track. Beware however, because with a little bit of tweaking (and by little we mean a lot), those haunted and angelic sounds come to life in surges of rhythmic and throbbing dubstep beats. Although everyone’s attention is on dubstep icons like Skrillex, 12th Planet, Rusko, and Nero, Noisa definitely has the originality, skill, and manpower to accumulate plenty of fame in the dubstep and drum n bass genres.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
