Here is just a quick recap of some of the events the took place this summer in NYC which I attended. This past June (Fordham's graduation weekend actually), Pacha hosted Steve Aoki and Benny Benassi on Friday night and Dirty Dutch superstar Chuckie made his NYC debut Saturday night. As usually, Benny sold out Pacha on Friday, so I only caught a glimpse of his set, and while it was peculiar to see Steve Aoki in a setting like Pacha (as opposed to his usual Webster Hall atmosphere), he put on a pretty awesome opening set. As usual, he popped champagne on the crowd, played Warp twice, and stage-dove for one of them. Though it was quite predictable, there was something fun about his set and he successfully amped up Pacha for Benny. Since I made my time at the "Dirty Dutch vs The World" party at Club Cameo during this year's WMC in Miami, I had been dying to see any of the Dirty Dutch DJs spin in NYC, thus I was very excited for Chuckie. Chuckie put on an awesome show - he spun for about three hours - his performance style (very Guetta-esque) is a good mix of typical house music and the more dirty dutch house music. This night he also dropped his brand new track for the first time "I Got My Eye on You". I forgot to mention that earlier in June, Santos Party House played host to another Dirty Dutch DJ, Afrojack, who absolutely tore it up. NYC nightlife promoter and DJ Ms. Roxy Cottontail opened for Afrojack, and their styles meshed perfectly (bounce little kitty? yup). That was my first time to Santos Party House, and I highly recommend checking out the venue if you haven't already done so - it has arguably one of the top 5 best sound systems in NYC, up there with Cielo, Pacha, and Club Love. Afrojack returned to NYC most recently for the Electric Zoo Festival and will be returning in October to open for Deadmau5 at Roseland Ballroom.
Moving into July, Pacha hosted MixMash superstar Laidback Luke as he threw his second "Super You and Me" party in the U.S. (first was at WMC 2010), where guests were encouraged to dress up like superheroes. Wolfgang Gartner opened for Luke, an interesting combination which wound up working out quite well. Luke has had a very exciting past two years, releasing songs like "Till Tonight" and "Blau" but also creating monster remixes to "Dirty Talk", "Heartbreaker", and "You Used to Hold Me". His collaborations cover a wide spectrum in the field of electronic music including Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Tiesto, and MSTRKRFT. The show itself was awesome, and honestly the only reason why I left as early as I did (3:30am) was because glowsticks from a nearby raver exploded on us, and the liquid was stinging our skin (took a few seconds to realize this). However Luke was still going strong, and had yet to drop arguebly his most popular single "My G.O.D." at that point in the night (or should I say morning?).
Moving a little bit later into July, I was lucky enough to see the world's most famous DJ, Tiesto in New Jersey (for my fourth time). After leaving previous Tiesto shows somewhat disappointed, I felt like I had finally got my money's worth. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it was the best DJ show I have ever been to. Tiesto, almost a year after releasing his album "Kaleidoscope", finally figured out how to mesh his classic trance hits with his new and very different sounding material. Tiesto even went as far as bringing in summer anthems like Pacha on Acid, Pursuit of Happiness, and Strobe. His lightshow and LED display were incredible, and the crowd had a great vibe. Anyone who has seen Tiesto in the past, knows that for some reason he often doesn't play his most legendary tracks. We were lucky enough to see him drop Love Comes Again, Silence, Lethal Industry, In the Dark, and the holy grail of electronic tracks - Adagio for Strings. While on the topic of Tiesto, it should be noted that trance superstar Richard Durand also came to NYC this July (I missed this show) to promote the fact that Tiesto himself appointed Mr. Durand to take over the famous "In Search of Sunrise" series.
My shows for July concluded with seeing Deadmau5 at the Wellmont Theatre in New Jersey. This was my third time seeing the Mau5, but my first time seeing all of his new "plugged" gear (full LED helmet and LED cube stage, both used at the MTV VMA's this year). While the show was good, I must say that since Mr. Zimmerman hasn't come out with much over the past year, his set was relatively similar to his sets at Ultra and Electric Zoo, which was expected but a bit disappointing. Additionally, since it was an all-ages venue and now it's "trendy" to like Deadmau5 (because despite all of his public efforts, he is, indeed "gimmicky"), the crowd was a bit immature and the venue itself didn't seem to suit the show. Perhaps these factors contribute to my leaving the show somewhat unfulfilled. The Mau5 will be returning to NYC at the end of October, putting on three shows at Roseland Ballroom (Oct 28, 29, and 30th). I honestly believe the most exciting part of this situation is that he is bringing along Busta Rhymes, Afrojack, Calvin Harris, Sleepy and Boo, Kaskade, and the legendary Pete Tong.
I didn't attend any shows in the month of August, however, Electric Zoo reviews and upcoming shows will be discussed more in my next post.
In terms of the music itself, the summer saw the explosion of Dirty Dutch music, with Hardwell, Sidney Samson, Afrojack, and Chuckie creating mind blowing tracks and remixes. My two favorite Dirty Dutch productions of the summer have to be Afrojack's Take Over Control and Sidney Samson's remix to David Guetta's own remix of Gettin Over. The Swedish House Mafia also have had an amazing 2010, producing the track One, which seemed to be the favorite track of many DJs at this years Electric Zoo festival, as it was sampled by everyone from Diplo to Armin van Buuren. Other electronic anthems this summer would have to include Congorock's Babylon, Albert Neve and DJ Obek's Atun con Pan, David Guetta and Kelly Rowland's Commander, and Tiesto and Diplo's C'mon.
That's all for now, hope I have recapped effectively. Let me know what you think so far, as I will continue to bring you up to date and look ahead into the future in my next post.
The electronic music scene in New York within the past two years has exploded; with the addition of the electric zoo festival, arguably the biggest electro event of the year in the North East and the surge of headliner djs frequenting the likes of Pacha, Terminal 5, Webster Hall, Roseland Ballroom, Hammerstein Ballroom, etc. This has without a doubt been an amazing summer to be an electronic music aficionado. For the most part every dj has put on an amazing performance and demonstrated the incredible continuing creativity and excitement behind the production of this genre of music.
ReplyDeleteWith the exception of Deadmau5..
Deadmau5 without a doubt has become something of an overnight sensation in the electronic music industry by producing a broad range of music that can offer something for almost any one, whether it is "Hi Friend" for the electro-rager or "I Remember" for the trance-easy listener. Yet, it seems thatDeadmau5 has two very big flaws; the first being the very musically "green" cult of pre-pubescent candy ravers who flock to his shows at alarming numbers, and Joel Zimmerman's inflated ego. I Love Deadmau5' music; however, I am not a fan of Deadmau5. I have gone to the past three performances he has put on in the tri-state area, I will go to his upcoming performance later this month, and I will more than likely continue to go to his shows in the future. You raise an excellent point in regards to his sets having not really changed all that much in the past year, this is especially disappointing due to Deadmau5'public criticisms of djs Tiesto and David Guetta respectively. Deadmau5' claim basically state that the previously named are continuing to recycle the same music consisting of heavy bass and brainless hooks/catch phrases marketed toward "juiced-out guidos", and therefore does not offer the same art/creativity that Deadmau5' music offers.
-Sorry Joel, you can only close a show with "Strobe" so many times for candy raver New Jersey jail-bait before 1:30 so that their liberal soccer moms can come pick them up in the family Mercury Villager.
To say Deadmau5 is untalented would be clearly be electro-blasphemy, but he has definitely found his gimmick and knows how to exploit it well, which has become blatantly obvious with his frequent MTV play time, his apperance on Gossip Girl, and performances at this past MTV VMAs. What I'm getting at is, Deadmau5 is targeting young inexperienced listeners who can't tell the difference between two different sets or let alone know the names of his songs. I mean, who actually watches MTV now, for music? Exactly.
-Mr. Zimmerman, before you criticize gimmicks like "F*** I'm Famous", come up with a new albulm (hopefully with a name that took more effort than pretending not to care)and more importantly drop this "hooked" and "unplugged" ass-hattery; I did not spend $70 to see a freakish mutant or to see said mutant pass out from "fatigue" on stage. I came to see: beats, lights, and a ridiculous mau5 head, hopefully for more than 75 minutes. For how dedicated Deadmau5 claims to be to his craft, his sets are surprisingly short, repetitive, and as of late seem to be upstaged by those that are opening for him.
Remedial Logic -
ReplyDeleteYou raise excellent points, all of which I agree with whole-heartedly. If it wasn't for some relatively smart member of his management agency deciding to book other huge names for the end of october shows, the mau5 would have a snowball's shot in hell of selling out Roseland (approx 3000ppl). Deadmau5 certainly puts of quality tracks - I personally think he should stay off the internet (twitter/facebook/etc) and get back to recording. It's been ages since we've heard anything fresh, his lack of amount of songs is directly reflected in his short, almost identical sets that stem back from electric zoo 2009, to what fans will be hearing this October - and Lord knows the mau5 won't drop many, if any, beats which aren't his. I look forward to your future posts