M2 lounge to be shut down?

Apparently the club is in some heat with the city.

Huge weekend in store at Afterhours.fm

A couple weeks ago I wrote about why Afterhours.fm is the best online radio station for electronic music, and if you haven't checked it out already, this weekend is a good time to.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the site is hosting three special day-long events for listeners featuring some bright young talent in trance and progressive. Here's the rundown...

Friday: Egypt In The Mix

Who: Various DJ's from Egypt, a current hotbed of trance and uplifting trance.

When: Central European Time. For those on the east coast, subtract six hours from whatever set on the schedule to get the EST (ex. 9:00-10:00am on there is 3:00-4:00am here).

Notables:
Joe Shadows (11am-1pm EST)

Whenever I've heard Joe spin, he tends to pick trance and progressive songs that are 'off the beaten path'. It's not to say his selections aren't good, but it's stuff you might not have heard anywhere else (and always makes for an interesting show).

Aly & Fila (3pm-6pm EST)

Anyone who likes the Anjunabeats label or uplifting trance should check out powerhouse duo Aly & Fila, who always deliver and have three hours to showcase their talents in an exclusive mix.


Saturday: Infrasonic Day

Who: Infrasonic Recordings roster, including members from their brilliant Infraprogressive (prog-house) sublabel, such as Acute, Pulstate, Andrelli & Blue, DJ Eco, and Mike Sonar.

When: UK time (subtract five hours from set time- first show starts at 3am EST).

Notables:
DJ Eco (8-9am EST)

If you haven't heard of this NYC-based DJ/producer by now in EDM-land you're probably living under a rock. A good mix of trance and progressive house.

Jorn Van Deynhoven (Noon-1pm EST)

A new star in the arena-style sound of uplifting trance. He's churned out several quality remixes lately.


Sunday: Luminosity BTE Contest

Who: A 'battle of the DJ's' to see who gets a live spot at a pre-party for Trance Energy 2010 in the Netherlands, one of the biggest EDM events in the world.

When: Central European Time (subtract six hours from the set time- first show begins at 3am EST).

Notables:

I'll be honest- I haven't heard of or listened to any of the names on this list. But since one of these 23 DJ's will be getting a live spot at an upcoming event, you know they will go all out. And judging by some of the set tracklists posted up already on the show host's forum, things are looking pretty good.

Be sure to visit Afterhours.fm's forum to vote on who you thought was the best and to show these guys some support.

And if you're busy this weekend and can't catch someone's set, Afterhours will post up download links a couple days after the shows (just click those day name links).

A State Of Trance 450 Final Lineups

As announced today on Armin Van Buuren's A State Of Trance radio show.

[Thanks to di.fm posters and Euphoria on TranceAddict for compiling these]

Thursday, April 1 - The Guvernment @ Toronto, Canada

Armin van Buuren
Signum
Arnej
Blake Jarrell
Aly & Fila
Sean Tyas
Simon Patterson

Friday, April 2 - Roseland Ballroom @ New York, New York

Armin van Buuren
Menno de Jong
M.I.K.E. Push
Rank 1
Dj Eco
Roger Shah
Cerf & Mitiska

Saturday, April 3 - Roseland Ballroom @ New York, New York

Armin van Buuren
Breakfast
Lange
Giuseppe Ottaviani
John O'Callaghan
Alex M.O.R.P.H.
Filo And Peri

Friday, April 9 - EXPO Arena @ Bratislava, Slovakia

Armin van Buuren
Myon & Shane 54
W&W
Ashley Wallbridge
Dash Berlin
Gareth Emery
Marcus Schossow
Daniel Kandi

Saturday, April 10 - The Centennial Hall @ Wroclaw, Poland

Armin van Buuren
Markus Schulz
Cosmic Gate
Jorn van Deynhoven
Super8 & Tab
Sied van Riel
Mat Zo
Andy Moor
Nitrous Oxide

I think it goes without discussion that Poland has by far the best lineup, followed by Slovakia. As for the three North American dates, Toronto is the best, and Friday night's New York lineup is better than Saturday's in my opinion.

But either way, all of the shows are going to be streamed for free on the internet, and the two European shows will end up being during the daytime over here in the US. Therefore, you won't have to stay up late at night five times over a two week period to watch all the good stuff.

House and cherries

Some notable names have been announced to play New York City venues in the upcoming months.

Last week I skipped out on mentioning that Chris Lake is playing Cielo on Valentine's Day. Luciano Pardini, a popular name for Beatport downloaders, is scheduled to play at the same venue four days later.

Pacha has also booked the biggest name in house- David Guetta, for another show at the venue on Wednesday, February 24. The house vibes will continue at Pacha when Benny Benassi enters the booth on Friday, March 19.

Finally on Saturday, April 3, electro house DJ and producer Boyz Noize will pair up with Major Lazer for a show at Terminal 5.

Ticket ordering and event details can be accessed by clicking the links above.

Drifting away from reality...

School is back is session for some of us, and with it brings stress of getting into classes, finding your books, and settling in during that first week back.

A new web site for ambient/chillout listeners- Chillbase.org, can help alleviate that feeling.


The upstart community features interviews with artists of the genre, album reviews, listings of ambient shows, and news about future releases.

But the best part is that the site is also a showcase for artists to present their work through a variety of free EP and track downloads.

Be sure to pick up Lauge & Baba Gnohm's Monolith EP, which contains the standout track "Structures"- a spacey yet haunting mix of drum breaks, electro basslines, and xylophone patterns.

Track Reviews: Anjunabeats Grab Bag Edition

It took two days, a couple gigabytes of software updates, and installations of McAfee's security suite and some petty Windows anti-virus program for me to get back on the internet. My bane- a silly application wanting to scan my laptop to access to my campus internet (they think I might have a virus...right). Anyway, on to the good stuff:

1. Boom Jinx & Jaytech - Milano [Anjunadeep]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs


Boom Jinx & Jaytech's latest progressive house hit sounds like it fell through a time warp- it oozes this 70's disco vibe that makes you want to put on an afro wig and bob your head to the music.

Finger-snaps, bass distortion effects, and odd female vocalizations accompany the main melody, which is a tremendous amount of fun.

However, the song loses quite a bit of steam during a short breakdown where the duo can't seem to figure out what to do.

Rating: 8 out of 10 [Great]

2. Evbointh - One Wish (Daniel Kandi & Mark Andrez Remix) [Anjunabeats]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs


Polish 17-year-old Evbointh wrote "One Wish" in 2007, a pair of remixes in 2008, and another song in 2009 before vanishing off the radar. He isn't releasing material on another alias and I don't know why he's fallen out of the production game, but I wish he didn't.

Daniel Kandi and Mark Andrez's remake of his trance classic is nothing short of spectacular. The song gets off to a slow start (my pet peeve- boring, beatmatch-friendly intros), but once that epic melody comes out of the breakdown, Kandi and Andrez hold nothing back.

A warm-pitched, soft-edged synth blares through the back half of the song for an awesome few minutes of uplifting trance.

The end of the song is just as dull as the beginning, but the breakdown and minutes following it warrant the high score.

Rating: 9 out of 10 [Choon]

3. OceanLab - Sirens Of The Sea (Above & Beyond Club Mix) [Anjunabeats]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs


Everything you need to know about this song is in the title- it's a club mix of a song with lyrics containing imagery of the world's seas and oceans. Only in trance, folks:

"Out beyond the water's edge,
far out past the coral ledge,
underneath the diamond and sunlight.

Chase the world from far below,
silent, sleeping indigo,
drifting down into the endless light"

sings Justine Suissa, the vocalist of this Above & Beyond collaboration. Her voice floats effortlessly (no pun intended) over an atmospheric sound accented by subtle piano notes.

Outside of Solarstone's "Seven Cities", this is one of the better underwater-themed trance songs, and another OceanLab remix that sounds better than the original version.

Rating: 8 out of 10 [Great]

[Image credit: Junodownload.com]

DJing on YouTube...somewhat

A reader tipped the popular tech blog Gizmodo this morning about a new website that allows you to match and crossfade any two YouTube videos.

Unfortunately you can't easily record your mashups from the site, but it's a fun timewaster.

After spending a little time on the site this morning, I was able to create a neat little mashup of Jorn Van Deynhoven's remix of Chapter XJ's "Resurrection" and Paul Van Dyk's megahit "Home".


Click this link, slide the crossfader a quarter-length to the right, and start playing "Home" at 3:00 when "Resurrection" is at 3:47 for the good stuff.

Can you think of any good ones?

Classics sale at Beatport through Monday

Beatport has announced a $.99 sale on classic tracks through Monday.

To help you sample some of the old stuff, they've put together lists of ten songs in 14 different genres. Or you could nab anything in their Top 100 Classics chart for only a buck.

However, I searched for classic songs from artists that I listen to and besides the Top 100 chart and lists at the link above, it's slim pickings for the sale. Instead of having all tracks before a certain year at the discounted rate, it's completely random.

If there's a hit song that you liked from the early 2000's or before, it's probably in AmazonMP3's catalog for the same price (if not ten cents cheaper).

Beatport does have though, in my opinion, the best classic trance song of all time as part of this sale.

Horizons, part 2

Last night I put the finishing touches on a bunch of new content sections for this blog, as you can see on the righthand side of the page. Here's the rundown:

January Top 5: In this area I'll list my top 5 EDM tracks each month (whatever I'm listening to the most at the moment). Each song is hyperlinked to YouTube, so if you want to listen to one, it's only a click away.

Featured post of the month: A hyperlink to one of my feature-length posts each month. For January it's my picks for the top 10 EDM songs of 2009.

Upcoming NY area shows (updated weekly): Every Wednesday I'm going to update this column of upcoming events in the area, with a post telling you which ones are newly added. Most of them will be in New York City, but a few will be held elsewhere (see: Above & Beyond in Buffalo, Tiesto in Atlantic City).

Also, since there are a ton of events going on each weekend, the only shows I'm going to list are ones from somewhat notable names. So don't expect to see anything like "DJ Joe Mac @ Club Liquid [Farmtown, NY]" in there.

Any comments or feedback are greatly appreciated.

Track reviews: Arctic Moon's remixes of "Dream Way" and "Rock Guitar"

Over the weekend I picked up a pair of 2009 tracks from Arctic Moon, one of my favorite uplifting trance producers. Here are my thoughts on each:

1. Dereck Recay - Dream Way (Arctic Moon Remix) [Redux]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



One of Arctic Moon's talents is taking something that sounds simple and making it effective, whether it's in a melody or breakdown.

The chord progression in the back half of his remix of "Dream Way" really shines- it's only four notes moving upward in a scale, but it's incredibly catchy and it makes the song.

His main melody- a soft and warm synth pattern originating from the breakdown, eventually finds its way in between these scales for a fun two minutes before the track closes.

[The song title and the artist name also rhyme- Dereck Recay...Dream Way]

Why not a higher score? The beginning of the track is pretty standard and includes a simplified version of the main melody that fails to go anywhere.


Rating: 8 out of 10 [Great]

2. Corderoy - Rock Guitar (Arctic Moon Remix) [Insight]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



After hearing a sample of the breakdown on this song on Beatport, I decided to give this track a try.

I like when producers add instruments into their songs that aren't electronic (ex. piano, violin). Arctic Moon's remix of this song has an electric guitar solo going for it, plus a little bass and snare drum hits on a drum set.

But speaking of the guitar solo, which has that squealing 80's vibe, it's not complex or interesting enough to hold your attention for a long time. When I first heard it I thought it was pretty cool, but the more I listen to this track, the more I wish Arctic Moon took the original solo and spiced it up a bit.

Here's an example of a guitar solo in trance done right- "Liberate" by Robert Nickson and Daniel Kandi. If you took away everything from the song besides the solo, you would still have a solid melody. That's not the same story for "Rock Guitar", which is less rock and more trance.

However, the song as a whole is still pretty decent and is relaxing to the ears.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 [Good]

[Image credit: junodownload.com]

Tiesto coming to Atlantic City 3/27

Tiesto's website has recently added a few events to this tour page with an Atlantic City show at The Borgata scheduled for March 27.

Unofficial list for ASOT 450 shows

Armin Van Buuren is hosting three North American shows and two European shows for A State Of Trance 450 this coming April.

4/1 - Toronto
4/2 - NYC
4/3 - NYC
4/9 - Bratislava, Slovakia
4/10 - Wroclaw, Poland

During his ASOT 439 show today, he announced a list of special guest DJ's slated to perform at the upcoming shows.

Here's the unofficial list of who he mentioned that will be playing with him for those five nights, but not the location of each:

Alex M.O.R.P.H
Aly & Fila
Arnej
Ashely Wallbridge
Blake Jarell
Cosmic Gate
DJ Eco
Filo & Peri
Gareth Emery
Giuseppe Ottaviani
Markus Schulz
Myon & Shane 54
M.I.K.E
Nitrous Oxide
Sean Tyas
Sied Van Riel
Signum
Simon Patterson
Super8 & Tab
W&W
JOC

We do know however that the following names can't play the 4/3 NYC show since they're booked for Trance Energy in the Netherlands on the same night:

Markus Schulz
W&W
Super8 & Tab
Arnej
Gareth Emery
Sean Tyas
Cosmic Gate

Stay tuned for updates.

Nokia Theatre in Times Square: A New Home for Dance Music in NYC?

In case you haven't heard already, Made Event, one of New York City's premier booking/promotion groups for dance music, has booked a trio of shows for the Nokia Theatre in Times Square, sponsored by Armani Exchange:

[A recent Michael Jackson tribute at the venue, which normally doesn't host dance events. Image credit: thecouchsessions.com]

February 12 - Ferry Corsten & John Dahlback
March 19 - ATB
March 20 - Eric Prydz & Sebastian Leger

Although the biggest names in trance and house (Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Deadmau5, David Guetta, etc.) have always been coming to NYC to play in such venues as the Hammerstein Ballroom, Roseland Ballroom, and Pacha, the Nokia Theatre is beneficial to the local scene in three ways:

1) It accommodates a decent amount of people- 2,100, while being in the heart of Manhattan. Because the venue is large, it gives bigger DJ's another place to play at in NYC. More big venues + a greater selection of venues = potentially more big dance music shows in NYC.

2) It's a concert venue, so the age limits are lower than what you would expect at a club. Therefore, underage fans can still get in to see the acts, and younger, more casual fans can get exposed to the music.

3) Unlike a club, once you buy your ticket, you're good to go. No guest lists or waiting in line.

It'll be interesting to see the turnout for these three concerts, and if they do well, what Made Event and other promoters have in store for the venue in the coming months.

The best internet radio station for EDM

Since dance music in its conventional forms is rarely played on FM radio in the USA, you have to look online to get your fix. However, when you get online, where do you go? There are hundreds of streaming stations playing all forms of dance music, but is there one that is better than others?

Although I haven't listened to every stream available on the internet yet (and I probably never will), my favorite place to go to listen to EDM is Afterhours.fm, and for several reasons.


Unlike other sites where an endless playlist of tracks are running over the air, Afterhours schedules their programming in one-hour timeslots with shows from nearly 180 resident DJ's and special guests. The benefit for this format is that all the tracks are properly mixed by professionals during their sets, and if you like a particular DJ's style, you can enjoy it for a full hour rather than just a couple songs.

As for the talent, it's basically a list of who's who in trance and progressive, with names including Aly & Fila, Lange, Sean Tyas, Markus Schulz, Stoneface & Terminal, and my personal favorite- Manuel Le Saux. In addition to resident DJ's, the site also streams special day-long events, with an upcoming one showcasing only Egyptian DJ's and another highlighting Infrasonic's entire roster (DJ Eco, Jorn Van Deynhoven, etc.).

When listening to a set, you can click on the show name to open a forum topic for discussion with others where the DJ or a bot will post all the track ID's for easy downloading and purchasing later. Or you can re-visit the topic two days after the show and find a MegaUpload link to download the entire set.

Last but not least, Afterhours.fm doesn't screw us listeners by offering only low bitrate streams in the absence of a paid monthly subscription (*cough* di.fm *cough*). Streams come in 96k and 192k bitrates for WinAmp, iTunes, Quicktime, Realplayer, and Windows Media Player.

[Ok...I know...this post does sound like an ad, but the site is really that good- check it out]

Armin Van Buuren coming to NYC in early April

To celebrate the upcoming 450th episode of A State Of Trance, his popular weekly radio show, Armin Van Buuren is coming to New York City on April 2 and 3 for a pair of shows at the Roseland Ballroom.




Tickets cost $30 for the Friday night show and $37.50 for Saturday night.

Next week on ASOT, Armin will announce the "special guests" at both events. Since Trance Energy is going on over in the Netherlands the same weekend, you can already make a list of the people that won't be there- Gareth Emery, Markus Schulz, Daniel Kandi, Super8 & Tab, etc.

Personally, I think DJ Eco will be one of the special guests, as he is one of the biggest rising stars in EDM coming out of NYC and his tracks are well liked by Armin.

Anjunadeep Vol. 2 - February 15

Anjunabeats' progressive house sublabel, Anjunadeep, is releasing their second double-disc compilation album on February 15.

If you are fans of either label on Facebook, they have been posting a new track clip from the CDs each day. The track preview they posted today, "Lassoo" by Jody Wisternoff, is a nice representation of their signature sound that isn't trance, but isn't house either.

Enjoy:


Here's the tracklisting for the compilation in case you were wondering:

Disc One

1. Jaytech & James Grant - Moth
2. Hernan Cerbello - Reach Your Soul
3. Jody Wisternoff - Lassoo
4. Oliver Smith - Sunday
5. Paul Keeley - Disco Belle
6. Jamie Matrix - Rotation
7. Solarity - Diophantine
8. Michael Cassette - Kilimanjaro
9. 16 Bit Lolitas - Singularity
10.Daniel Portman - Elder (Peter Horrevorts Remix)
11. 16 Bit Lolitas - Re-Murdered
12. BT - Flaming June 2010 (Jaytech & James Grant Mix)
13. Monakhov & Que - Hola
14. Solarity - Red (Redder Mix)

Disc Two

1. 16 Bit Lolitas - Cold Energy
2. Paul Keeley - Cloud 9
3. Dave Horne - Q.E.D.
4. Boom Jinx & Andrew Bayer - By All Means
5. Marcus Schossow pres. 1985 - London
6. Jaytech - In The Jungle
7. Jamie Matrix - Gold Rush
8. Roddy Reynaert - Fellowcraft
9. Sergey Tkachev - Alien & Butterfly
10. Boom Jinx & Andrew Bayer - To The Six (Martin Roth Remix)
11. Hydroform - Shine (Andrew Bennett & Rico Soarez Mix)
12. Tom Fall - Cubic
13. Jaytech - Ozone
14. Solarity - DNA

If you go on anjunastore.com, you can preorder the compilation signed by Jaytech and James Grant. But you can only pay for it in pounds (go figure).

A blast from the past

Last night when I was watching Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (which came in from Netflix), some of the characters in the movie randomly sung Celine Dion's megahit "My Heart Will Go On" from the 1997 movie Titanic.

I immediately thought to myself- wouldn't this song sound great in a club mix?

After the movie was over, I went on YouTube to see what was available, but everything there sounded amateurish and unfitting.

So I then searched the only place where I knew I could find something legit- Beatport, and found a disco house remix of the song by Roy "Jazz" Grant appearing on a compilation called eVOLUTION by DJ Afrowax (some guy I never heard of).

For only a buck, the song is available on AmazonMP3, and after seeing the cool album art, I couldn't pass it up.

Fun listening.

Electric Zoo 2010 announced, no schedule/ticket prices yet

Made Event has confirmed that the Electric Zoo Festival will return this year at Randall's Island Park in New York City during Labor Day weekend.

Last year, the inaugural two-day festival drew 26,000 attendees to see some of the biggest names in electronic music. The nearly 60 performing artists included Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Deadmau5, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Kaskade, Benny Benassi, Danny Tenaglia, ATB, and Richie Hawtin.

Right now, Made Event hasn't announced any ticket prices for this year's event, but I'm assuming they will be similar to what it cost last year- $40 per day for the presale, and $70 each after that.

Dave Dresden (formerly of the duo Gabriel & Dresden) announced on his Facebook page last week that he will be performing at this year's festival. However, the official lineup has not been released yet, and I don't think it will until Made Event announces all their shows planned for the Winter Music Conference in Miami in March.

Deadmau5's NYE show intro mishap

Apparently Joel was going with the "from the rafters" entrance similar to a professional wrestling show or something.

Too bad it didn't go as planned (skip to around 2:09 for the funny stuff):

My top 10 EDM songs of 2009

Although 2010 has just started, it's not too late to get in one more of those "best of" lists. The following, in no order, are my picks for the top 10 EDM songs of 2009:

1. Neptune Project - Aztec (Aly & Fila Remix) [FSOE]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



Aly & Fila's remix of Neptune Project's "Aztec" was one of the biggest trance hits of the summer, most notably for the song's quicker tempo and greater emphasis on the female vocalizations that were the highlight of the original.

The duo, to me, are a younger version of Above & Beyond, and their label, Future Sound of Egypt, has been off to a great start by signing some of the best new producers in uplifting trance.

2. Solarity - Terminal 6 [Anjunadeep]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



When you look back at this song as a whole, it has no main build-up point or area of interest. But what makes it so great is how Solarity blends the sloppiness of house with the calm sounds of trance.

As the song progresses, you can hear a soft melody sneaking its way in between the heavily distorted background rhythms, which include notes that sound like sirens and cash registers opening. It sounds like a mess on paper, but it totally works.

3. Matt Skyer - Yearning [Emphase]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



Matt Skyer's "Yearning" makes the list as its one of the best uplifting trance songs in the last year.

When the warm piano sounds hit during the breakdown, foreshadowing the melodies about to be heard in the back half of the track, you know you're in for something special.

The entire song has this "feel good" aura to it- the best part of uplifting trance, and Matt has created that feeling perfectly in "Yearning".


4. SoundLift - Road To Revolution [Magic Island]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



If you put the soundtrack from the movie Saving Private Ryan and trance in a blender, you would get Road To Revolution.

I first heard this song on Manuel Le Saux's Extrema radio show on Afterhours.fm one afternoon, and the breakdown made me stop what I was doing and immediately download it.

The two minute breakdown, which contains samples of helicopter sounds and gunfire and moves along with an awesome drum roll/trumpet/orchestral melody, is the highlight of a fantastic song from Soundlift. The high-pitch main rhythm, played out with some stabby synth notes, is repeated just enough times to prevent the song from becoming monotonous.

5. Deadmau5 - Strobe [Ultra]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



Any single over ten minutes is fairly uncommon with EDM. Thankfully, instead of writing the typical boring intro with basic rhythms so a DJ can easily beatmatch, Deadmau5 keeps this song fresh by starting with a downtempo ambient mood. The introduction lays the groundwork for the song's main melody, but sounds reminiscent of a chillout track with violins and maracas in the background.

After enough buildup and anticipation, the drop finally comes, and not only is it one of the most catchiest melodies of 2009, but one of the most fun as well.

6. Arctic Moon - True Romance [Unreleased]

@YouTube

For some reason Arctic Moon's "True Romance" was never released as a single this year, despite him churning out nearly a dozen productions on various labels.

Outside of hearing this track in a random set, the link above is the only place you can hear this gem of a song- a formulaic, but effective uplifter featuring a wonderful breakdown with tribal drums and female vocalizations. This song is one of uplifting trance's best moments of 2009.

7. RAM - RAMsterdam (Jorn Van Deynhoven Remix) [Armada]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



Jorn Van Deynhoven's version of RAM's RAMsterdam is far from original, as the main melody sounds exactly like Lemon & Einor K's "Anticipation", released in 2008. However, Van Deynhoven does a better job at creating a memorable arena-like trance sound in his remix.

Subtle piano notes accompany the frantic main melody, which is built around upward progression of scales.

8. Daniel Kandi - Venice Beach [Anjunabeats]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



If you listened to Above & Beyond's Anjunabeats Vol. 7 compilation from start to finish without knowing any of the track names or producers, you could easily pick out Daniel Kandi's lone song.

"Venice Beach" contains all the staple elements of another Daniel Kandi classic- a warm uplifting melody, his traditional synth pitch tunings, and a decent outro.


9. Solarstone - Late Summer Fields (Forerunners Club Mix) [Solaris]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



This one is kind of a homer pick, as Solarstone's "Late Summer Fields" is one of my favorite trance tracks of all-time. This is also one of the only two vocal trance songs on this list.

Don't be fooled by the track's name- the Forerunners "club" mix is just as much club as the original versions, but the lyrics in the song are rearranged, and a new melody sneaks its way in the back half of the song. If you've never listened to Solarstone, this is one of their highlight tracks, and part of their excellent Rain Stars Eternal (2008) and Anthology One (2006) albums.

10. Dash Berlin ft. Emma Hewitt - Waiting [Aropa]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs



Dash Berlin's "Waiting" featuring Emma Hewitt was one of the most popular vocal trance songs of 2009 for one reason- it's incredibly fun.

Yes the lyrics are cheesy. Yes the melodies are basic. But isn't that what makes vocal trance great in the first place?

If you liked this version check out AROPA 004 - Dash Berlin ft. Emma Hewitt - The Remixes, with new versions by Sean Tyas, First State, and Dash Berlin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

So there you have it- my picks for the top 10 EDM songs of 2009. Was there anything on this list you liked in particular or didn't like? Also, what are your picks?

[Image credit: Junodownload.com]

Horizons...

Rather than write a blob of text for this blog's "grand opening", I'll provide a simple FAQ.

Q: "Why am I here? What is this?"

A: Binarysound is a new blog and my first one ever. On here, I plan to cover electronic dance music (EDM) from a New York perspective and abroad, including information about local upcoming shows, reviews of releases in 2010, and general news on the industry.

The name Binarysound is derived from two parts- binary code (1's and 0's) that make up data encoded on computers and are the tiny building blocks of the music being discussed here. Sound is noise, which is music. Put two and two together...

Q: "So...why are you starting a blog about techno when there are a million other things out there you could write about?"

A: Music is a passion of mine, and when you write about something you enjoy you can accomplish something without feeling like you have done work at all.

But EDM also holds another cool aspect- because fewer people listen to it in the US compared to other genres, you feel like you are in a secret club (no pun intended) when you discuss it. Any Joe can start a conversation about the latest Lil' Wayne single with his friends, but due to the niche element with EDM, you are either "in" or you are not.

"What did you think of the new Deadmau5 single released a couple weeks ago?"

Person A: Who is dead mouth?
Person B: Is that the song that was played on A State Of Trance this week?
(yes, Armin does play some house)

Q: "You do realize that this is the internet, and there are probably a zillion other sites about EDM, right?"

A: Yes, but how many times have you gone to a site only to read about an event happening 5,000 miles away, and tickets cost 462 rupees?

Unfortunately, EDM is a global genre of music, so many of our favorite artists often play at venues outside the US. This blog is more about stuff happening here, than there, with a little bit of sarcasm and humor mixed in.