As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't make it to many shows in August, however I was fortunate enough to get to both days of NYC's second annual Electric Zoo Festival. This year pre-festival, the Zoo was receiving a lot of criticism for the lineup. While the line-up did not sport as many (arguable) "headliners" as it had in 2009, it was clear Made Event's purpose was to go for a more diversified line-up, giving avid electronic music listeners a chance to see DJs they may not normally see. I did my best to bop around and get to see as many DJs as possible, however whenever you have that many good DJs in just two days, you're bound to miss some good ones.
First, a note on the festival as a whole. The venue is amazing, Randall's Island offered a wide-open park which gives attendees the ability to easily escape the crowd and find a spot to relax on the lawn. Additionally, it was not difficult to find friends because the major landmarks around the festival (large christmas light sculpture, school buses, etc) served as perfect meeting places away from the crowd. Furthermore, I found that it was particularly easy to get drinks because of the ample amount of vendors around the venue, and the fact that you could refill your water bottles was key. The electro gods were certainly on our side, as the weather was picture perfect. One thing I will say though, is I think that the wristband situation is a bit flawed. Honestly, for as crazy as the festival gets (and the nights out after the festival), it becomes fairly easy to lose a wristband. Perhaps separate tickets for each day would have been more successful from an operational standpoint, but the festival on the whole in my opinion, was a huge success.
One thing you guys should know about me from here on in is that under the umbrella of electronic music I am biased towards house and trance, so any feedback you can add on the more electro/dubstep/DnB end would be greatly appreciated.
My top three from day one of the zoo would have to be Chuckie, Benny, and Axwell. Chuckie as usual put on a straight-up fun performance - crowd interaction, to me, is awesome and Chuckie is one of the few who can do it. Benny, even though it was clear he was having equipment issues on the main stage, had great track selection. And as a Swedish House Mafia fan, I have to say that Axwell closed the night impeccably. After listening to Dirty South's set recorded from the Zoo, I am very upset I didn't get to see him - his intro of just the vocals of Sweet Disposition on top of One is absolutely chilling, and the throwback of Pjanoo half way thru his set is perfect. I missed my beloved Afrojack due to umm - extenuating circumstances - earlier in the day, but heard he absolutely killed it. Caught a glimpse of the Kaskade set, and was relatively unimpressed as it droned on almost identically to his EDC set. Heard nothing but good things about Pretty Lights, but also heard mostly negative things about Major Lazer.
To sum up day 1:
biggest disappointment: Major Lazer
mind-blower of the day: Pretty Lights
my favorite set: Axwell
I enjoyed day two of the zoo more than day one. My favorite sets for the day were Laidback Luke, Diplo, and Fedde Le Grande. Luke's set was very typical, but was executed flawlessly and track selection was perfect. Diplo's set disappointed me at first, but his diversity in genres kept me interested. I'm happy I stayed, because I saw this half of Major Lazer smash rock, rap, dubstep and house into one of the craziest sets I've ever heard. Going into Fedde's set knowing just a few of his songs and remixes, I left with my mind blown. In my opinion more-so than track selection, the key to Fedde's set was his mixing abilities and track progression, each track getting wilder than the previous. Mr. van Buuren's set received a lot of flack, and many think he shouldn't have closed the festival - however I think that one of the most important factors in a good set is how a DJ closes it - and to end with cirez D's "on off" vs. his own "in and out of love" and coming back with an encore of "one" is enough to make me ecstatic. Catching only a glimpse of Moby's set, I must say I was a bit shocked and thoroughly impressed, same with Boys Noize. The only DJ I really heard anything negative about was Avicii, and the complaints were not even so bad - heard he was good, just left a little to be desired (I didn't see him, so this is based solely on the feedback I received from some of my friends).
To sum up day 2:
biggest disappointment: Avicii (and not even so much!)
mind-blower of the day: Moby
my favorite set: Fedde Le Grande
A few weeks later, voting for the annual Top 100 DJ's by DJMag closed for 2010. This is perhaps the most highly respected list in terms of DJ rankings, as DJMag is one of the most highly respected sources for such information (they also rank the best clubs and best VJs in the world). One reason for the legitimacy of the list is that it is entirely based on fan's votes. Essentially, anyone could vote (one submission per I.P. address) for their top 5, which get calculated into the entire top 100. Some feel the ranking of DJs is, well, stupid, because DJing is an art-form and should not be ranked. I understand that point of view, however I think competition is the best thing in terms of DJs judging themselves and making themselves better. I think a good example of this is when Tiesto was ranked #1 for three consecutive years, he became complacent with his work, and actually turned out absolute garbage for a few years. Armin van Buuren stole the top spot in 2007, and had been there ever since (new rankings come out next month!), hence tying Tiesto for three consecutive years in the top spot. Just before voting opened in 2009 (the year AvB would tie Tiesto for most years at #1), Tiesto rushed to release Kaleidoscope, a new sound that the trance legend wasn't quite ready to embrace. This was clear , because I saw him debut the Kaleidoscope world tour in NYC in September of 2009, and it was obvious he himself was not comfortable with his new sound during the performance, and that the rushed album release was nothing more than a quick attempt to steal the top spot back from AvB. Months later, after seeing Tiesto at UMF in March 2010, and in New Jersey during July of 2010, Tiesto figured out how to lace his new sound and old sound perfectly, adding the trance flavor of "epic-ness" to the house-y synths and vocals of Kaleidoscope. Moral of the story, these rankings do mean a lot to the DJs and the industry as a whole, whether you choose to recognize it or not. I also think that when voting you need to take into consideration two major points: the first is to vote for what you know - don't vote for a DJ because you like a few of his/her songs, if you haven't seen them live or don't know enough about them, and you're voting based on what other people have told you - consider voting for someone you personally know more about. The second, and the most important, is to vote for who you think has had the best YEAR (september to september), not career overall. Those are the points I took into consideration, and here is the top 5 I came up with.
#5. Chuckie - for being the first to really actually bring the Dutch sound (under Guetta's promotion) to house music internationally, and having an awesome stage presence. Chuckie can get any crowd hyped, and plays a good diversification of popular house and the dirtier tracks.
#4. Afrojack - for perpetuating Chuckie's work ten-fold and smashing the industry with the Dirty Dutch sound. While his track selection is way less diverse than Chuckie's during live sets, Afrojack offers the industry a more voluminous array of his own tracks and remixes.
#3. Laidback Luke - can you say Dirty Talk? Luke has had a monstrous year. Before the break of 2010, many only knew Luke as the DJ who created "My G.O.D." and remixed Guetta's "Delirious". In less than a year Luke has come out with more tracks, remixes, and collaborations than I could count, and also started and promoted the hell out of Mixmash Records (which boasts a team of DJs including Steve Angello, Avicii, A-Track, Sonic-C, Gregor Salto, Max Vangeli, and more). Furthermore the introduction of his "party-brand" called Super You and Me is an awesome step from the business perspective, giving himself a brand, logo, and theme to be associated with, much like Guetta's F*** Me I'm Famous.
#2. Tiesto - I think it speaks volumes when you can release an album that sounds nothing like the tracks which made you the DJ you are, and eventually make it work perfectly. Additionally I think it was huge of him to release Magik Journey in early 2010, which contained most of classics (as re-release) and remixes (solid ones) to those epic tracks. Furthermore, his re-release of Kaleidoscope later in 2010 as a remix album was also a step in the right direction. Both albums feature remixes by a really diverse line up of DJs, which again does nothing but make his tracks more diverse, giving them the ability to be played in a number of environments.
#1. David Guetta - I don't think there is one DJ who has done more from Sept 2009-Sept 2010 than David Guetta (I also don't think anyone could miss my bias for Mr. Guetta). Aside from introducing the world to the cross-over album One Love just before last year's rankings, the man has produced quality tracks by various artists (many of which are r&b vocalists), has collaborated with a number of DJ's, and has essentially brought up the entire group of Dirty Dutch DJs into the international house music scene. Furthermore, the guy appears at most music festivals, and is constantly touring all over. It's fair to say this man doesn't sleep, and his live shows (not his festival sets, his full out shows) are nothing short of unpredictable - the only thing predictable is that he will shock and amaze.
Here is a link to the top 100 of last year and years past.
Two weeks ago I attended a party at a relatively new venue call Good Units in the basement of the Hudson Hotel. The space is clean and boasts a sick light show. In terms of the sound system, I would venture to say it can certainly compete with Cielo's. I would very much recommend checking out Good Units in the future.
This past weekend I attended the first ever DayGlow party in NYC, hosted by an over-sold Webster Hall. Even though the party was shut down by the fire marshalls early in the night, the energy was awesome and the music was great for the time I was there. The bill boasted up-and-coming David Berrie and DayGlow star, the Devil of Alcapuco. While the Devil did not get a chance to perform, David Berrie's set was pretty cool, and the environment as a whole was wild. Essentially everyone wears all white, and the night is filled with neon acrobats and performers, and neon paint is blasted over the crowd. Certainly not everyone's scene, but hey - I had a great time. Here's a video of what went on before the place got shut down. I would absolutely recommend attending DayGlow if it ever comes back to NYC. A really interesting flavor to the house music scene.
My recommendation of shows worth seeing this month (October) in NYC:
Webster Hall: 10/8 - Hot Chip and LMFAO, 10/15 - Bloody Beatroots, 10/22 - Designer Drugs, 10/29 Boys Noize & Rusko
Pacha: 10/16 - Bob Sinclai, 10/22 - Avicii
Cielo: 10/8 Sleepy & Boo, 10/26 - Carl Cox, 10/28 - Gareth Emery
Santos Party House: 10/16 Brad Miller
Roseland - Deadmau5 oct 28 (with Busta Rhymes), oct 29 (with AFROJACK****) and oct 30 (with calvin harris, sleepy & boo, pete tong)
In the distant future, we see Pacha hosting Dirty South, Webster hosting Crookers and SHM's Axwell, and Roseland throwing a NYE party starring SHM's Steve Angello. Additionally, I personally want to check out one of NYC's newest clubs called Lavo NYC, a club with franchises in Vegas and Miami, which has been hosting some pretty decent DJs since it opened just a few weeks back. I also am highly anticipating the opening of Sankey's NYC in early 2011. Sankey's is ranked the #1 club in the world based in Manchester, UK, and is opening its FIRST franchise here in NYC. The NYC club scene is coming back ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing history. Finally, the end of October/early November should see pre-sale tickets for the Ultra Music Festival going on sale, which as many know will for the first time be a 3-day festival in 2011.
I want to hear your feedback on shows, sets, and your votes/reasons for your top 5 of the top 100 djs.
Electric Zoo the past two years definitely deserves kudos for being able to pull off an event of such large scale so well right off the bat. Granted I have yet to attend a WMF or Ultra festival, but after having attended the last two ezoos it seems to be very clear that the people involved in the planning and execution of electric zoo are electronic music lovers themselves and are quite familiar with New York City to have chosen Randall's Island. Randall's Island is easily accessible for all New York City's residents (unless you're from Staten Island- kill yourself) and those living within the metropolitan tri-state area. Being right smack in the middle of this great city you can take all forms of public transportation, hell you can even walk there!
ReplyDeleteStrictly speaking in terms of execution
The Good:
There was an ample amount of vendors that provided a good selection of food, beverages, alcohol, and souvenirs at pretty reasonable prices. The food was pretty decent- you had your standard burger and fried, your not-so standard crab and other various seafood, and even more surprising you had an all vegan food vendor for all the peta loving morons from Brooklyn who just so happen to listen to electronic music.
I did not bother to check their wine and liquor selection but as far as beer went you had your college bar staples in full force:
Coors Lite, Bud Light, Bud heavy, Miller Lite, PBR, Blue Moon, and Stella.
The Bad:
There were definitely not enough ATMs at Electric Zoo for how many thousands of people were in attendance, and given that there was a $9 service fee per transaction there could have been a dozen more of those machines scattered around. Whatever company that provided those ATMs that day must be sitting real pretty right about now.
Made Events or whatever city agency responsible for the events held on Randall's Island needs to invest in a cell phone tower or two. Throughout the weekend if you were lucky enough to have a call go through the call was more than likely dropped within the first 10 seconds and text messages took 10-15 minutes to actually be sent and received.
The overly aggressive security staff at the entrances to Electric Zoo coupled with the lack of an actual line made getting a troubling task; on average it took each one of my friends a good 20 minutes if they were lucky to gain entry. I understand that were like 35,000+ people on a given day of ezoo but a couple well positioned rails that could funnel and divide the mob of fesitval-goers, making getting in more difficult than I believe it should have been. Not mention every single one of the security staff had a horrible attitude and clearly hated their jobs. It honestly seemed like a ploy to promote the sail of VIP tickets for the "luxurious" private entry way that consisted of a sectioned off line with a plastic tarp that read: VIP.
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ReplyDeleteThe Ugly:
ReplyDeleteThe bracelet system this year was a complete and utter letdown. Issuing only one ticket for 2-Day festival goers and requiring that they wear the same bracelet to gain entry the second day was probably the worst idea since the show "The Marriage Ref". Not everyone wants to have to wear the same bracelet for 24 hours and accidents happen. Such as: many night clubs won't let you in if you have another bracelet on, tickets get lost, bracelets break, and/or you want to give or sell your ticket the following day. Furthermore, the idiots working the ticket resolution booths seemed to be paid only to continue to repeat the phrase and I quote, "I'm sorry, you have to buy a new ticket". Whatever, they were all fat and stuck in a trailer while Electric Zoo was 20 yards behind them so I guess I would be just as irritable as they were in that same situation..
While I loved the fact there seemed to be an endless supply of porta-potties, the conditions of those said porta-portties were very unsanitary- even for Electric Zoo. It did not look like they were serviced for days, or even at all for the second day. I guess there wasn't much to be done given the circumstances but I still have nightmares from gazing into the ghastly depths of an ezoo porta-potty.
Lastly, children and I don't mean teenagers (they still suck too though), I'm talking about infants crawling around an environment where music and bass made conversation impossible unless you were shouting and there were several thousand people raging their faces off. I question the long term affects of ground shaking bass on my brain and could only imagine the detrimental effects that it could have on children, I can only imagine the tumors that must be forming on their still developing brains. If you can't find someone to watch your kid with an entire year warning, you have more important things to deal with than going to see The Chemical Brothers.