Finally, it’s FRIDAY; hands down, one of my top five favorite F-words – quite possibly even in my top three. As the weather solemnly shifts from a hot, dry Summer to a delightfully crisp, slightly less warm Fall in Los Angeles – I’ve been more willing to toss on my neon running shoes and hit the pavement in the morning. In fact, in an unprecedented move – I’ve managed to get my booty out the door 5 of the last 7 days! Not to say that I run the entire 3-4 miles – I skip a bit, definitely do a few mini tribals when the music is too good and I’ve been known to take a walk and or stretch break every now and again. But, I’ve also gotten in a 9 minute mile and 3 miles in under 30 minutes – so, I don’t hesitate to call that a success.
My favorite part of my morning runs is plugging into some new music and letting the basslines ripple down my spine like an electric current is bringing me to life. To say that music is my life is an absolute understatement; I eat, sleep, breathe, run, laugh and cry in tonalities, seductive synths and delicately layered harmonies. I dabble in all genres of music, and though I’ve found myself deep in the rabbit hole of EDM – I’ve found that my favorite producers and DJs of late truly incorporate and fuse live instrumentation and vocals for more than your traditional experience; and of the ones that deliver the untz and whompage that’s typically associated with the genre – they do it right, with complex layers and heavy basslines that leave you craving more.
This week’s discoveries include the latest from Dillon Francis a delicious Electro House collaboration with Martin Garrix that’ll make you forget he ever produced Animals, a few tracks from UK duo Gorgon City with some of my favorite female vocalists (Katy B and Jennifer Hudson), PhaseOne’s remix of Xilent‘s Symphony, SLOWOLF’s phenomenal remix of a _MØ_ track that I can’t find an original for and last, but certainly not least, a deliriously haunting and equally beautiful track from up and coming star Sweater Beats. Rave it up, rock it out and have a wonderful weekend!
Looking back at my posts from the last year, one that stands out the most to be is my 2012 Year in Musical Review. Partially, because it’s catalyzed my writing career on multiple fronts – but mostly because music, especially kickass live music, is something I truly care about to my core. Music influences our moods, our personalities and even our daily interactions. Unless there’s something highly important and technical that I have a deadline for, I’m literally submersed in music 24/7 – from the time my alarm and I wake up, to my morning runs, to the drive to work, you get the picture: I more or less have provided myself with a soundtrack to my life. With my attention span as short as it is (…squirrel!…), I constantly refresh my collection of original jams, remixes and singles and try to take in as much live music as I can.
I’ve been leafing through the ticket stubs and reminiscing about the excellent year in music that I just had. From attempting to co-start a music forum site and to with The DJ List, my daily extra-curricular activities have always circled around new music, fresh artists and the latest and greatest they have to offer. Somehow, even though I’ve managed to be busier than I’ve ever been I’ve definitely managed to fit in some quality R&R (Rave & Relaxation) into the mix. So, without further ado – here are my musical musings for 2013; enjoy!
Truth be told, I’m sitting here trying my hardest to even place Cosmic Gate in second place because Above & Beyond’s sunset at Avila Beach was just so spectacular! It was a small crowd with unexpected surprises in store for everyone in my friend group – we each found someone at the event from out of town (LA, Riverside and SF) that we didn’t know was in attendance and were all simply wowed by the musical prowess the group possesses. But Cosmic Gate is not a team to be underestimated, during the live show they brought out my favorite pixie blonde vocalist, Emma Hewitt, and Jonathan Mendelson who gave a phenomenal first live vocal performance during Nic Chagall’s ‘This Moment’.
Best D&B show: Modestep at the Nokia Club, High Contrast w. Camo & Krooked at Dim Mak Studios
Best Deep / Tech House Show: Kaskade @ Focus OC’s 10 Year Anniversary
Best Progressive House Show:Eric Prydz / Pryda / Cirez D @ Create
Best Electro House Show: Gareth Emery @ XIV
Best Festival: Lightning in a Bottle
For the last six or seven years I’ve been a self-professed seasoned festival go-er and have a host of Insomniac, HARD and GoVentures events under my EDM belt (almost 40 if you want to get specific), but truth be told last year I only attended three festivals, one of them being Sea of Dreams on NYE. For as much as the lineup to HARD Summer thrilled my pants off, the event didn’t…however, Lightning in a Bottle and Sea of Dreams surely did. Each was musically right in their own right but on a more personal level, I truly felt bonded to the community that LIB and Burning Man cultivates and have actively been seeking out similar events ever since.
Best Festival Set:Keys n Krates, Dillon Francis, Alex Metric ((HARD Summer)) HeRObust, Pumpkin, Rusko, The Polish Ambassador, Odeza, Andreilien ((LIB)), LowRIDERz, A-Trak, Thievery Corporation ((Sea of Dreams))
Best Venue: Sea of Dreams @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium | NYE was one of the most amazing musical experiences I’ve ever had, everything about the night was golden and a lot of that is due to the venue and soundsystem that came with it; top notch.
Weird but Rad Venue: Lightning in a Bottle @ Lake Skinner, Temecula, CA | I was tempted to give LIB the gold star for ‘Best Venue’ but after the all of the shenanigans with the county and residents of Riverside, I’ll wait until next year to grant the festival that award. Basically, I want to see it shine in all of its glory; not just in my personal experiences but for the greater community in attendance as well.
Best Pool Party: Daylight
Best Party:Sea of Dreams
Best Up and Coming Venue:Sound in Hollywood
Favorite Reopened Venue: Create (previously, known as Vanguard)
Best Crowd: DoLab shows –Avalon | If you only remember one thing about the music scene in LA, let it be this: the Do Lab will always do you right. I always look forward to the art infused musical events they throw. Whether they’re at the Nokia Club, King King or out in the middle of nowhere Riverside – they make sure to cater to all of your senses and the people who show up are some of the nicest friends you hadn’t met you.
Douche-iest Crowd: XIV by Hyde, Greystone Manor, Sutra | I still hold by last year’s statement about Sutra, but now that I’ve finally attended events at Greystone and XIV I can easily bump those two to the top of the list. Maybe it goes hand-in-hand with my appetite for all things Do Lab and underground, but I can’t wrap my head around wearing 3″+ heals to a club and cozy-ing up to people just snag an extra drink (or five). I prefer the let-your-freak-flag-fly mentality of other events and prefer stomping around in flats to trying to maintain a proper demeanor in an outfit that’s definitely not meant for dancing.
Best Lasers:Create and Exchange have most definitely stepped their laser game up in the last year, far surpassing anything that Avalon has ever done (sorry guys – not knocking the place (it’s still rad!) but it’s true).
Ferry Corsten @ Exchange Hit us with those laser beams *pew pew pew*
Artists
Favorite Set/Act of 2013: Above & Beyond in Avila Beach
Best Surprise of 2013: Crywolf, Mitis, Kill Paris, Disclosure, Keys n Krates, Flume
So Glad I (Re-)Discovered: Bonobo, Emancipator, Shpongle, The Magician,
Remixes So Nicely: SubFocus, Flume
Best Remix-er: Boy Noize, Dillon Francis, Cazzette
Favorite Vocalists: Jonathan Mendelson, Alex Clare, Annabel Englund, MNEK, Chet Faker, Florence Welch, Emma Hewitt
Most Disappointing: Daft Punk everything; maybe because it was directly juxtaposed to Keys’n’Krates with their live instruments, but Duke Dumont was also pretty underwhelming live and looked like he was just pressing a button; last but not least, Cedric Gervais did absolutely nothing for me.
Vocalists Who Shouldn’t Perform Live with DJs: Danny Brown
People Who Should Be Reminded They’re Not DJs: Will.i.Am, Paris Hilton
Songs:
My Top 10 Songs of the Year
Depeche Mode – Soothe My Soul (Steve Angello + Jaques Lu Cont Remix)
Darkside – Papertrails
Oliver – Night is On My Mind (Dillon Francis Remix)
Disclosure – You & Me (Baauer Remix)
Seven Lions + Myon & Shane 54 – Strangers
Minnesota – Stardust Redux (Crywolf Remix)
Maya Jane Coles ft Karin Park – Everything
Thomas Jack – Booka Shake
Flume ft Freddie Gibbs – Holdin’ On (LKids Remix)
Lane 8 – Be Mine
Mat Zo – Lucid Dreams – (M Machine Remix) [runner up]
Enjoying the festivities around the corner from my apartment at The Grove =)
When the holidays approach, there’s essentially one thing on every Audiofile’s mind: New Years Eve! And then, of course, there are the quintessential questions that go along with it – what city to venture off to, what festival to attend, who to go with and last but most definitely not least, which sets to listen to and which you’re okay missing.
Whether you want to admit it or not, there’s a ton of planning that goes into celebrating the beginning of the New Year and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed a new-found appreciation for it because for my first three years in Los Angeles, my NYE plans were non-existent and I was more or less okay with being a recluse. Which, after two years of going to Together As One and several years of simultaneously celebrating my best friend’s birthday with the coming of the New Year, was definitely not in my character – but neither were the circumstances in my life
Thankfully, 2011 was a year of change and evolution for me and I haven’t looked back since. The year before, I dove into Together As One head first and without a safety net – I’m guessing that sounds slightly strange for those of you that have been following my adventures and incredibly bizarre for those of you that know me personally, but if you will – hear me out. After going through four crazy months of reconciling an ex’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder I was on the hunt for myself again and New Years Eve gave birth to a version of myself that I’ve been waiting for.
Next Tuesday from 9pm to 4am, Sea of Dreams will take over Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for an evening of positive energy, creativity, vibrancy and connection. Created by the creative geniuses at AnonEvents and thrown by the good people at Sunset Productions and Another Planet Entertainment, Sea of Dreams is now in it’s 11th year in the San Francisco Bay Area. The event itself is a menagerie of high end performance art, stunning live musical acts, an extravagant ambiance and breathtaking decorations fit for Burning Man. And to top it off, the community surrounding the event is as rich and vibrant as the festivities themselves.
Photo: MKGraph
In the past, headlining acts have included crowd-favorites like Bassnectar, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Ghostland Observatory, Beats Antique, Adam Freeland, Tipper and FreqNasty – just to name a few; and this year’s lineup is definitely one to compete with! In the past, the musical talent has fallen more on the experimental side – as you can see above; but, as times are a changing – so are the musical acts and the community around them, and it shows just how big the event has gotten with the unexpected addition of mainstream EDM acts like A-Trak and Dillon Francis. Now, don’t get it twisted – I love them; I just didn’t expect to see them sitting on a line-up next to Emancipator and LowRIDERz. There’s nothing quite like getting myself musically ready for the event, so I’m pleased to announce this year’s lineup along with some required listening for the night’s festivities – enjoy, because I know I will!
Thievery Corporation
Hailing from DC, Thievery Corporation have been expertly meshing the musical elements of reggae, dub and acid jazz with Indian, Middle Eastern and Brazilian sounds to produce some of the best downtempo electronic music around since ’95. I don’t know how it took me so long to appreciate their stylistic differences, but they’re refreshing to listen to – especially with all of the redundant EDM on the scene these days.
Little Dragon
Though they were formed in ’96, it wasn’t until the past year that Little Dragon migrated from an indie-electro, trip-hop Swedish trifecta into a hat-trick of musical geniuses appreciated the world over.
Photo: MK Graphy
Shpongle
A-Trak
When he’s not spinning next to Armand van Helden in Duck Sauce or getting into some family values with his brother, who just happens to be half of the indie-electro band Chromeo, A-Trak is handing out hit after hit on his Fools Gold Record Label. His style sits delightfully between bouncy Eletro-house beats and bass heavy Hip-Hop and after becoming the first DJ to win three major DJ competition titles (DMC, ITF and Vestax) as well as the first DJ to win five World Championships, he’s definitely one to be reckoned with.
Dillon Francis
Hailed as the creator of Moombhaton (The BPM of Dubstep, but cut in half) – Dillon Francis has etched a permanent position as the class clown of EDM. But don’t let his affinity of cats, Taco Bell or his alter-ego DJ Hanzel fool you, Dillon Francis knows how to throw a party and in the past two years of seeing him perform, he has yet to disappoint. To boot, he stands as one of the few DJs and Producers that I’m simply itching to be best friends and have kitty play-dates with.
Emancipator
Hands down, there’s nothing quite like the atmosphere that Emancipator creates with his music. Originally from Portland, Oregon – Emancipator submerses the listener in a musical experience rich with live instruments and pulsing harmonies.
LowRIDERz (Laura Low & An-Ten-Nae)
Rob Garza (of Thievery Corp.)
Minnesota
Photo: MKGraph
We have three members of Claude VonStroke’s DirtyBird crew coming through –
J.Phlip
Worthy
Christian Martin
Thriftworks
And rounding out the lineup are SambaDrop, Nolan Gray, Jocelyn, Dax Lee. With only five days left in 2013, do you know where you’ll be when the ball drops??
Over the course of my time in Los Angeles, I’ve become a firm believer that if you don’t push the boundaries of your comfort zone – you’ll never truly understand how far it goes.
Retrospectively, this can all be traced back to my mystical, magical, eye opening experiences at Electric Daisy Carnival in 2006 and I’ve simply refused to look back ever since. Over the course of the last eight years, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the following epically amazing festivals – Monster Massive (back when it was still a collaboration between GoVentures and Insomniac, mind you), HARD Haunted, Together As One, The Love Festival, How Sweet It Is, Nocturnal Wonderland, HARD Summer, Beyond Wonderland, HARD 13 and Coachella. Suffice it to say, the folks over at The Do Lab, Insomniac Events and HARD Presents know what the hell they’re doing. But, after enough time the events, lineups and people watching blurs together until they’re more or less indecipherable – and that’s how I knew it was time for a change.
The Do LaB started throwing the event as a private birthday bash back in 2000 – it wasn’t until 2004 that they transitioned the evening from a private event into a festival open to the public. Though they’ve taken a few hiatuses, The Do LaB brought Lightning in a Bottle to the Live Oak Campgrounds in Santa Barbara in ’06 and ’08 while I was still in college. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I still wish I’d have known about this amazing community of tremendous artists and beautiful souls back then, but I know for a fact that my current appreciation for both runs deeper now that it possibly could have then.
In the strangest sense, LIB has always been my unicorn – my unattainable vision of the real life Venn Diagram where beauty, music and nature intersect. In 2010, I had a ticket but couldn’t go due to extenuating health issues; 2011 was my Best Friend’s bachelorette party and last year I’d simply given up on the notion that I wanted to go. In 2012, the EDM community watched as our brand exploded into the mainstream – at first, it was liberating: the masses were dancing to our beat! But after a few months, if you weren’t hit over the head with redundant, blase and boring festival lineups then I’d love to know what rock you were hiding under and if there’s space for me. No joke, you could essentially predict the Progressive House, Trap and Dubstep lineups at each and every festival. So we got to thinking, if you don’t like your scene – chance it and change it; so we slowly began looking into other opportunities to grow and thrive – low and behold, Lightning in a Bottle popped back onto our radar. By late February, Early Bird tickets were released at a price that my friends and I couldn’t refuse and without a lineup to catch us, we took a leap of faith.
Accuse me of being an urban hippie all you’d like, but one of the reasons that I’ve been gravitating towards Lightning in a Bottle is that simply put: it’s much more than a festival. Lightning in a Bottle boasts a community of people that want to leave the world a better place and a group of artists willing to gather the collective unconscious and proudly put it on display. Beyond simply being about music, camping and the friendships you form – Lightning in a Bottle is a personal exploration into your psyche, ego and superego; you have to set aside your propensity to be focused on the material possessions at your finger tips for a desire to be connected to the metaphysical world around you. There are there are ways to better every aspect of your life with workshops on yoga, meditation, artistic expression, sustainability and more. My friends that have gone before say it’s like a miniature Burning Man, and if so – I’m sure I’m in for the ride of my lifetime.
There’s a little something to get off my chest about LIB – I haven’t been camping since I was 5. So when I realized that I’ll be camping for fives days in the middle of Temecula, I got a tad nervous…but when the lineup was finally released, my heart skipped at least three beats – so many amazing artists that I have the honor of seeing! I’ve gathered some of the best podcasts and mixes from around the web to get in the mood for the festival; for the next few months I’ll be posting, raving and getting myself mentally, physically and spiritually prepared for one of the most exciting journeys of my 20’s.
One of the unfortunately side effects of a stellar weekend – or in my case, past week – is something I like to call “Hot Mess Mondays”: your brain might be functioning, you might’ve had enough sleep; but chances are that it’s not, you didn’t and you’re currently paying for it handsomely. Though the weather wasn’t as stellar as we would like, we realize that living in LA beggars certainly can’t be choosers; and spoiled weather brats can’t expect it to be sunny all the time! There’s a great quote that says that you can’t get a rainbow without a little rain and I more than ascribe to that train of thought. This past weekend turned into a typical, friend fueled, debauchery filled weekend for me and just for y’all, I’ll let the kitten out of the bag – I’m definitely having one of those days!
On Tuesday night I cruised down to Orange County to hang with my good friends and Beatnet co-founders and hit up some Dusky action at Focus.
For a Tuesday night in the OC that little place can get pretty rockin’!
Apparently Dusky is two guys? The more you know! Lol.
Dusky’s Essential Mix:
The best thing about the Dusky show was that I took Wednesday off so I could enjoy the show in it’s entirety – and a week later found out that one of my closest and dearest friends and her home crew from Portland were flying into San Diego that same week and had a few days free; serendipity, indeed! Every time I kick it with these kids I have the absolute time of my life, and Wednesday was no different. We drank, frolicked, caught up and got weird: success!
My bitch =)
Breakfast of champions 😉
A-Team.
And that was just the mid-week festivities: over the weekend, there was definitely some bottomless brunching and boozing going down during the day, Blond:ish that night and Culrpit’s Season Opener at the Standard yesterday with Miguel Campbell. So yeah, I’m wiped out!
#SweatbandSaturday We don’t fuck around.
The lovely Blond:ish
Blond:ish from Playa Del Carmen:
And yesterday, we braved some rain at the Standard to kick off the Culprit Pool Parties – the weather was beyond lame but we tried to make the best of it! Popped some bottles, caught up with some friendly and familiar faces and made some new cabana friends!
A little mix from the main man of the day, Miguel Campbell:
Making it rain > rain.
Even though my taste in music is pretty diverse, over the past month I’ve had more than my share of Deep, Tech and Minimal house shows – which are great for enjoying the atmosphere and breathing in the music, but going out to Exchange to see Ferry Corsten and Dim Mak studios for some Drum & Bass Hospital Records style I realized how much I miss the thumping bass, sick drops and the electric energy coming from the dance floor.
What do you get when you put three of the top Trance DJs and Producers in the world in one room? You get Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten, New World Punx at Armin van Buuren’s ASOT 600 in Madison Square Garden. Their name, which is a play on Schulz’s “New World” and Corsten’s “Punk’d” is like a 3 on the scale of 1 to awesome DJ names but that’s besides the point; I watched a bit of the live stream and was hooked immediately.
SubFocus rocking the stage at Ultra:
This new track from Boys Noise is hauntingly gorgeous:
Swedish House Mafia might be done for* but that doesn’t mean they’re done individually; Steve Angello graced the BBC Radio 1 decks this past week with an epic essential mix:
Duke Dumont is one of my favorite new Deep House producers (yeah, I tried being over the genre but some stuff it just stays with you…) and his last two hits “The Giver” and “Need U 100%” are phenomenally produced and expertly mastered. This remix is no different:
Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy Radio is a surefire way to get me through my Fridays, and this past week they had the House legend Sasha as their guest:
After being in the Electronic Dance scene for the better part of the last decade, I have one small confession to make: though we get epic onslaughts of DJs, Festivals and all night dance-a-thons in Los Angeles, there’s just something about going to Miami for Winter Music Conference and Ultra that I just have to do. I’ve had friends go for the past three years and tell me that it was the time of their life – problem is, living in LA, the mecca of most things EDM in America it’s incredibly hard to justify spending all that money for a weekend in Miami. But, One of my best friends went with her boyfriend and I had the pleasure of living vicariously through them and their friends all weekend; and I have to say, I’m insanely jealous! Now that I’ve gone through the live streams, the sets, the Instagram feeds and through Facebook I feel the need to take part in this epic debauchery; thank goodness there’s always next year!
There are a few great blogs that capture the moment and the music of festivals in an A+ fashion – specifically, Dancing Astronaut – and they definitely didn’t disappoint when it came to Miami Music Week – here are some of my favorite sets from this past weekend; they’re doing a proper job of getting me through my day so hopefully they’ll do the same for y’all.
Enjoy! ♥
P.S. Looks like dates are already set for Ultra next year – March 28-30; you can bet your bottom bassline I’ll be thre!
Could you imagine if your whole week was essentially made of out Mondays?! That sounds like one of Dante’s seven layers of hell to me! The one great about Mondays – when they’re over, they’re over! The unfortunate part of this is that it’s not quite over for us West Coast-Best Coast’ers. But conveniently – we have a few more hours to go until that 5 o’clock happy hour starts and I have a few hours of my favorite sultry and savory deep house tracks to share.
I hope they’re as good for y’all as they are for me; enjoy!
Tracklist:
Infinity Ink – Infinity (Claude VonStroke Remix)
Jade – Monday (Finnebassen Remix)
Russ Yallop – I Can’t Wait
Maceo Plex – Frisky
Odd Parents – Fame (Catz n Dogz & Martin Dawson Sweet Saturday Remix)
Audiofly ft Fiora – 6 Degrees (Tale of Us remix)
Disclosure ft Sam Smith – Latch
Maya Jane Coles – Easier to Hide
Maxxi Soundsystem ft Name One – Regrets We Have No Use For
Lee Foss & MK – Electricity
HNOQ – We Do It
Kolombo – Dancing On The Floor
Oxia ft Miss Kitten – Housewife (Miss Kitten’s Wipeout Mix)
Solomun – Living On
Betoko – Not Alone (Climbers Grey Sky Remix)
Climbers – Equal Responsibility (Betoko Remix)
Karmon – When Dark Becomes Light
Art Department ft Soul Clap & Osunlade – We Call love
The Bouncy Kitty 
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