Merry Christmau5

In the season of giving, nothing is better than getting free mp3s to replace any of those old Christmas tunes that get overplayed to death.
Gorillaz are releasing a Christmas album for free on the 25th.
Kanye, Beach House, Coldplay, Mayer Hawthorne and Los Campesinos! all did tracks as well.

deadmau5 agreed 'tis the season and provided this new trancey monster called "Limit Break."
In typical prog-house fashion he infiltrates the synapses and raises the tension throughout but never quite releases it, making for a good filler in a DJ set and an interesting look at a style he has moved away from in recent material.

[Download: deadmau5 - Limit Break]

Bonus Christmas magic from Sufjy:
"Christmas In The Room"
[Download - Sufjan Stevens - Christmas In The Room]

ROCKTOBER Episode III : Livemau5 @ Congress Theater, Chicago

Back again. Hope everyone had an amazing weekend. 


The premise of this latest in the Rocktober series is simple: deadmau5 was playing. I was close enough to go see him. After being one of the lucky witnesses of "the Cube" debut at his Coachella 2010 set, there really wasn't much to consider in throwing down a nominal fee for a Megabus ticket and heading out for another epic night at the Congress Theater.

^ mau5chella

What became apparent to me when I arrived at the show was this: deadmau5 is one of electronic music's true superstars. While it is nearly impossible for anyone to reach the fabled Daft Punk hype level and production value, deadmau5 comes pretty damn close. The wide appeal of Joel Zimmerman's brand of hau5 music was evident at the mixture of people who showed up: everyone from high school girls wearing the neon bare-minimum to 40-something former ravers still wanting a piece of the action. It was the first sold-out show at the Congress I've ever attended, and only some pics/vids can do justice to how crazy this place really was.

MOAR REVIEWS N STUFF AFTER TEH JUMP

Scooby-Dooby-Doo, VMA Review

The VMAs were great this year. That is, great compared to last year when I tuned in to the wrong program. Let me tell you right now, the Video Music Awards show is much more enjoyable than one called Virgin Man Anus. That’s the last time I ever watch HBO after midnight.

But, I digress…and I should point out that the real VMAs weren’t COMPLETELY terrible. I enjoyed Chelsea Handler’s hosting. I’ve always thought an “in-your-nuts, I don’t give a flying hoot” attitude is refreshing to see from a female comedian, and there’s just something about her that makes me go vroom vroom (she’s a cougar, I tell ya).

Me-ow!

Now that I have weirded out the internet, allow me to rattle off some more highlights from Hollywood’s 3^rd best award show:

-I was preparing to shove hot skewers into my eyeballs from J.Bieb’s performance when he hit a snag, flinging his drumstick into the crowd (avg. age 11). Baby, baby, baby! Let that girl develop forearm muscles before you let her go crazy on a drumset!

-My imagination went CrAzY when I saw Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry presenting Best Male Video (imagine Perry’s magumbos with Minaj’s buzunga…now stop drooling). It was a nice moment until they spoke

-Seeing half of the Jersey Shore cast in a hot tub on stage was great because, well, when ISN’T it nice to see those little macaronis? A’capisce?

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi

Before I continue, let me make it clear that I only tuned in to the VMA’s to see Deadmau5 do his thing. Unfortunately, being house DJ at a goofy awards show means that you have to cram your “thing” into the 20 second slot before and after commercials. Rats. I had no choice but to watch most of the show, but all in all it was worth it. Hearing the Mau5man’s funkadelic b34t5 made me forget about all the dumb scripted segues and shoddy performances. He dropped Ghosts ’n’ Stuff (duhhhh) and brought the hau5 down with performances feat. Jason Derulo (Jason DeWHOlo?), Travie McCoy (Travie McWHO?), and P!nk understudy Robyn (oh right, her). IMHO, Robmau5 was the best collab, pairing the sweet, sultry croons of Robyn whats-her-face with a nasty dub5teppy drop from everyone’s favorite rodent. Here's a clip (sorry about the advert):

2010 MTV Video Music Awards - More VMA Video

Everyone pretty much got what they expected out of this year's VMAs: two hours of poopy sprinkled with a few specks of gold. We can only hope that the uneducated masses were paying attention when Deadmau5 was bumping.

Probably not.

Oh well, at least we tried.

Over one billion served,

McCharlie

Album of the Week: deadmau5 - Random Album Title // New: Deadmau5 ft. Wolfgang Gartner - Animal Rights

Time to get wobbly. The ever-impressive beat machine known as deadmau5 has dropped yet another track that will bang the clubs all over the world (or rather, in Europe and LA mostly, since no one else in America seems to know house music exists.) This time he teamed up with another piping-hot producer, Wolfgang Gartner. 


Hailing from Austin, Texas, Wolfgang has taken the blogosphere and the electro scene by storm over the past year or so, consummated by his appearances at Coachella and several other festivals this season. His take on Beethoven's 5th Symphony is always a crowd-pleaser, and in general his take on Electro House draws comparisons to Justice. (For the Justice haters, sorry you are too old and washed up to have fun. Let the children techno.) Gartner also just scored a number one club hit with his new track "Coscindo", so the timing of this collaboration could not be any better.


The beauty of this new track is that it represents a genuine middle ground between their two contrasting styles to form a beautiful harmony of a filthy, funky hook and the trance-y bass mastery that only deadmau5 can equal.





You're welcome.


NEXT UP! ALBUM OF THE WEEK


and the winner is....... deadmau5. Again. 
Next week, deadmau5 will serve as the House Act (lolz fitting since he plays house music) for the MTV VMA's on Sunday, September 12th. It is definitely the most irrelevant award session that somehow I watch with giddy anticipation every year. Never fails. Anyway, now that deadmau5 has been tapped and every douchey frat boy and tween Twilight fan will know his name by next week, you owe it to yourselves to at least know why he deserves this fame. 

Released in 2008, Random Album Title remains deadmau5's finest album. While it doesn't pack the poppy punch of "Ghosts N' Stuff", as a whole it showcases his true style and unique take on house music. Random Album Title blurs the lines between trance and house, with each song slinking along different beats, building slowly and teasing big drops throughout. Such a technique is one that deadmau5 has mastered live, slowly raising the energy bit by bit until the room is ready to explode. There really is a mental journey taken from the beginning of "Sometimes Things Get, Whatever" to the dreamland in which the album concludes. If you take the time to listen to this one all at once, by the time you hear the glimmering vocals of "I Remember" and the climax of "Arguru", you will be in a world of swirling dance magic. 


Take the time to let the beats build and infect your brain, where they will stay for a long while, and try not to be too hard on the man for taking his shot at the big time. After all, if it gets more people dancing, what better artist to show everyone where to start? (I'm looking at you, Daft Punk. Get to it.)

HARD Summer Tour @ The Congress, Chicago

Wow. What a weekend. I am finally home from the Phishing trip, which Vito will hopefully describe at some point. This post, however, is concerning one event on that trip, namely the concert I witnessed last Friday night, August 13th. (Sorry for the delay. DJ Hero/school planning HARD is a series of parties and concerts promoting electronic music and was created in LA by one of the featured DJ's at the event. He played under the name Destructo and along with the HARD Summer Tour organizes some of the biggest electronic music events of the year in New York, LA, and other major cities. You can view the full list of events and the lineup for the upcoming HARD shows here. Over the years events like HARD Haunted Mansion have housed the hottest and most talented electronic acts for some truly amazing performances, like this video of deadmau5 that represented one of his finest moments. 

(IMO the crowd did not react the way they would if that show happened only yesterday, but just for the setting it was a special event for sure.)

When I realized I had the chance to sneak in a stop in Chicago and see some great dance music, I jumped at the opportunity. Only later did I realize that this was one of the handful of appearances in the United States for the Brazilian disco-house geniuses known as The Twelves. To see their influence on the current indie dance scene, look no further than their abundance on the hype machine. While popularity on the hype machine search engine does not always equate to quality, in this case it definitely does. The Twelves are one of the most talked about groups to emerge on the scene due to their unrivaled skill in turning many already-good songs into truly euphoric funky disco jams. For instance, check out this remix of the song "Seven" by Fever Ray >> 

For a song that was originally dark and haunting, The Twelves somehow managed to make the vocals seem more like they were created solely for a house clubbing experience, along with bouncing snares and cymbals and a bass/synth/strings combination straight out of Saturday Night Fever. (At least, I think it would be. Never seen it.)

The full line-up at the Congress for the evening, as well as the set times, was tweeted by Rusko before the show:
 

Seeing that The Twelves grabbed a 9 PM slot and that Rusko was closing the night was one of the most beautiful sights that day, (aside from the people I went to the show with.)
By the time I arrived, Midnight Conspiracy was already halfway through their set of mostly average-sounding electro, with the high points being some Proxy tracks that always get the crowd going (Raven, his Home Zone remix) For a small Chicago act they did a serviceable job of warming up the crowd for Destructo, which is not an enviable job when most of the audience is truly the most excited to see Crystal Castles over all of the other acts. More on that later.


Destructo proceeded to play a mostly fun and forgettable set but clearly had the stage presence and respect of the audience to get the crowd moving and the energy level up for The Twelves.

They proceeded to play the best set of the night overall by having superior track selection, mixing ability, and overall energy and smoothness. The crowd may not have been jumping the entire time but that is not the purpose of house music. The purpose is to shake your ass, and I did that like my life depended on it to a set that included their versions of songs by Ratatat ("Wildcat"), Phoenix ("Lizstomania", "Fences"), The Virgins ("Rich Girls"), Empire of the Sun ("We are the People", "Walking on a Dream"), Two Door Cinema Club ("Something Good Can Work"), a Justice and Michael Jackson mash-up of "Stress" and "Thriller" (AMAZING), "Funky Town", and their classic remixes of Fever Ray ("Seven"), Black Kids ("Not Gonna Teach"), and a truly magical rendition of "Reckoner" off of Radiohead's In Rainbows. Go find all of those remixes and their BBC Radio 1 Essential mix to get a better grip on why these guys are the most exciting thing in indie house music in a while.


After The Twelves blew my mind, Sinden hopped on the decks for at the time was my most unanticipated set simply because I was not familiar with him before this event. Destructo repeatedly called him "London's Best" and while he was not even the best DJ from London on the bill that night (Rusko), he still managed to put down a set of mostly electro-house with a dark and heavy sound that bled with the London imprint. It was refreshing and had the crowd hyped for nearly the entire set, with countless big drops and beats with more of a hip-hop influence than any of the previous DJs. A high point of the set was the inclusion of the sure-fire banger from Swedish House Mafia called "One." This track has been making the round in clubs around the world and will continue to be stuck in my head just the way "Satisfaction" is permanently embedded. 

Alas, the night was still raging after I had danced my way through about 3 1/2 hours of material. Next up was Crystal Castles. I enjoy their albums and think they are one of the unique acts in electro these days, bringing in a punk/thrash element. However, they have taken that aspect way too far for me to enjoy their live shows anymore. As soon as Alice Glass came on stage to "sing" the first song, I knew I was not truly a Crystal Castles fan. The strobe lights, screaming, moshing and thrash metal riffs were things I never want to see involved with house music again. I can imagine this is also what the new Bloody Beetroots live tour is like. Most of the crowd, and I mean literally about 80 to 90 percent, loved all of these things I just described, and put up with Alice's exorcism screaming to hear the entire show, which still boasted many of the catchy beats Crystal Castles possess on their albums. And they didn't even play "Vanished", their most mellow/uncharacteristic/catchy song from their first album. Probably because it is only a remix of another band's song. Those youtube comments can be really educational!


Finally, after an hour of having to sit in the hallway to avoid bleeding ears, Crystal Castles finished their set and it was Rusko time. Most of the crowd exited the theater, apparently being there purely for Crystal Castles and having no interest in one of the hottest dubstep acts in the world. More room for me! I nabbed a spot 5 feet from the railing and proceeded to have my nerve endings wobbled into submission for an hour. Rusko's set was heavy on material from his new album O.M.G.! which is a good thing considering he played bangers like "Woo Boost" and the Subskrpt remix of that track. He also played some of his previous popular singles like "Mr. Chips" and the more recent "Da Cali Anthem", which samples Tupac's "California Love."
The thing that made Rusko's set so amazing was his incomparable energy while spinning. He jumped nearly the entire set, got the crowd to do so at will, and dropped huge beats continuously. One of the other fun parts was that he mixed in his favorite remixes of his tracks after playing the drops of the original versions. Even when told he had three minutes left before the 1:30 AM curfew, he managed to sneak in the drops from about four more tracks.



Overall, the highlights of the night were Rusko's unparalleled energy in DJing dubstep and The Twelves' incomparable skill in producing their sound. Honorable mention goes to Sinden. Here are some of the songs worth checking out.

HNW's Picks: HARD Summer Tour '10

Reckoner (The Twelves Remix) - Radiohead 

Not Gonna Teach (The Twevles Remix) - Black Kids

Rich Girls (The Twelves Remix) - The Virgins

Seven (The Twelves Remix) - Fever Ray

Swagga - Excision & Datsik

Bruk Out (Buraka Som Sistema Remix) - Major Lazer 

Hold On ft. Amber Coffman (12th Planet Remix) - Rusko 

Raven (Live Edit) - Proxy 

Home Zone (Proxy Remix) - Digitalism

Babylon - Congorock