Highs & Lows

Earlier this month I posted a commentary about trying to keep tabs on the releases of your favorite producers, which isn't one of the easier aspects of being a fan of electronic dance music.

Here's another thing though that's been on my mind though lately- the prices of tracks right after they're released on digital download stores.

For the rest of the music industry (not EDM), the long-standing rule has been that an album or individual songs are cheaper the week of their release, and then go up in price shortly thereafter.

Last week I was able to purchase Story Of The Year's new album, The Constant, for only $7.99 at Best Buy. Now if I went there it would run me $14.99 for the hard copy. AmazonMP3 also has been commonly pricing select full-length albums for only $2.99 on their release day for a special 24 hour period.

Why do these retailers do this? While I'm not a complete authority on the music industry, my guess is that all the reviews, hype, and airplay that a album will get during its release week will help push sales from casual listeners looking for new music at a discounted price. If someone was browsing Best Buy this week and saw that Story of the Year album for $14.99 and weren't a serious fan of the group, would they consider buying it? Probably not as much as the week before.

So here's where this all ties into dance music- this industry apparently operates on a digital model that's opposite of what everyone else does.

When a new track comes out on Beatport, it's going to cost either $1.99 or $2.49. While I've bought my fair share of Beatport downloads at the $1.49 pricepoint, which is a little high, the former two prices are pretty ridiculous.

I've heard the argument before that any price is worth it as long as the song is good- but really, $2.49 for a file?

Let's attempt to rationalize this:

"Maybe they do it because every other digital store does the same"

- Not really. Prices of tracks on Beatport, Trackitdown, Junodownload, and other stores are significantly higher than the likes of iTunes, AmazonMP3 and Rhapsody.

"It costs more overhead for a store like Beatport to store a file on their server than someone else"

- This could be it, but at the same time there are still countless indie and smaller digital music stores offering the same $.99 pricepoint as the big guns.

"They do it because DJ's will pay anything to be able to play the latest hot track in their set"

- This is the closest I could come up with, but at the same time it still doesn't make sense. There are more fans listening and dancing to the music who might want to purchase it than DJ's spinning in the booth.

So what's your take on this subject? 

DJNY #2: DJ Eco

An architect by day, a college student by night, and a DJ by even later night; it's never a dull moment for Marcello Pacheco (aka DJ Eco), a New Jersey native and one of electronic dance music's brightest up-and-coming producers.

His career has been rising to new levels in 2010 with his recent hits "And We Flew Away" and "Staring At The Sea" getting countless plays from some of the top DJ's around the globe.

On April 2 at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC, Eco will play alongside such trance legends as Armin Van Buuren and Rank 1 at his biggest show yet- A State Of Trance 450.

But what's the story behind all of his great tunes and club performances? Here's what he had to say...

In The Studio…

Binarysound: When did you get into the production game and what programs were you using when you first started out? 

DJ Eco: I started when I was about 14 using Fruity Loops and I was doing really, really basic stuff. The influences I had at the time were the local Webster Hall trance CD and some of the rave guys like DJ Micro and DJ Mind-X. I actually would make a good 20 or 25 tracks and put them on a CD and sell them for $5 to kids at my high school. I sold about 20-30 CD's that way.  

BSound: What did those tracks on those CD's sound like compared to your recent work? 

Eco: I was finding my way with different sounds on Fruity Loops and I was trying to emulate as much as possible the kind of early Tiesto stuff I was listening to. It was definitely ten steps down from what I'm capable of now, but I can see some resemblance. I was very interested in putting these intricate melodies together and that was the start and aim of my music.

I also was definitely interested in harder trance and hardstyle. A lot of my earlier productions were really intense- like 145bpm, which was similar to guys like Cosmic Gate, DJ Isaac, etc., early on. So my first stepping stones were with that. 

Bsound: With your current productions, how do you sit down and think 'this is the melody I'm going to write for this song'? 

Eco: I'm actually a lot different than most producers because I'm very busy- I have a job and I also go to school, so I have really little time. A lot of my writing is done on my laptop in a bus or subway going somewhere, so the basic barebones melody writing is done in those places.

So whatever happens or influences me at those moments I put it down to sound then I go back home and refine that later in the studio and put it all together in terms of making a coherent song. It's a little bit of everyday inspiration, and kind of cliché, but I write it them in weird places.  

Bsound: So New York City is an inspiration in your songwriting? 

Eco: Yea. You can hear that some songs are sadder and others are really happy depending on something I see that day, some place I'm at, or something I've overheard in a park. The different places where I put it together influence what comes out as far as putting the melodies on the computer. 

Bsound: Your released your latest production- "Staring At The Sea", under a 'Pacheco' moniker. What's the deal with this new name? 

Eco: It's another name I'm currently developing with Flashover Recordings. It's for releasing material on other labels for legal reasons but I'm also trying to do something different and push the boundaries a little bit more compared to some of my other work. 

You can notice, especially in "Staring At The Sea", that it's really weird, or at least that's some of the feedback I get from people who have heard it. Like people's first reactions to hearing it were "oh what are all these little sounds? I can't keep track of what's going on". I'm really trying with that song and another song called "Dancing Under Streetlights" that's coming out under that moniker to do something different, even though that's my general approach to songwriting. But I'm kind of pushing it further with Flashover since they're a label that, in my opinion, encourages that. 

BSound: I saw that you were producing a remix of "The Saltwater Room" by Owl City. It struck me as kind of odd for someone like you to remix this song. What kind of treatment are you giving this track and how did you get the idea to remix it? 

Eco: Before the success of Owl City's Fireflies album, Universal wasn't really expecting that to be so popular so they said they wanted to do a second wave of promotion with a remix album. I was one of the artists that were asked to be involved with the project, but the album is actually on hold. 

I finished the remix and they liked it a lot but as far as releasing it it's on hold until further notice. As for the style of the song, it's an ambient/chillout track that oddly enough sounds similar to the style of Kaleidoscope by Tiesto. It has really big pads, a lot of chord progression and treatment on the vocals, but overall it's slower than my usual stuff and more loungy.  

Bsound: Any chance that we'll ever see this track or if the album will come out? 

Eco: The album's not really going anywhere- but I might just release it for free, which is something I like to do every once in a while. 

Bsound: On your MySpace there's a banner ad for a mix album by you called "The Sound Of (You)th". Is that something coming out soon? 

Eco: It's something I put up there but I haven't finished yet. I'm always putting out promotional mixes and mix CD's that usually have some theme to them. So "The Sound Of (You)th" is one that I want to do as three or four part CD mix with the theme of it being the sound of my everyday life. For example, one CD would be a lot of the chillout and lounge stuff I listen to, and another would be heavy headliner trance. I want to make the mix transition like that but I haven't been able to finish it all of it yet. It's nothing official- I wouldn't be selling it, but it would be a free download to let people get an idea of what I'm listening to when I'm not producing or DJing- something a bit different from the norm. 

Bsound: What kind of feeling do you get when you hear someone else playing one of your tracks on a radio show or during a live set?

Eco: It's pretty incredible. I've gotten more and more used to it- at first I would go crazy and dance and my friends would go out of control. But now I kind of just stand there and see the audience's reactions and take in the details of people singing along or whistling to the melodies- whatever happens to be going on at that particular moment whether it's a live broadcast or performance.

Bsound: Out of all the songs you've made, which ones are your favorites? 

Eco: "Tonight Is Forever" and "Staring At The Sea". The melody from "Tonight Is Forever" seems to still surprise me even though I've heard it a few hundred times. For "Staring At The Sea", I put a lot of time and effort into the subtleties and the small sounds, and I'm very happy with how they all come together to make a song.

A State Of Trance 450… 

Bsound: What was your reaction when you first heard that you were going to play on April 2? Was this booking something you were expecting or did it just come out of the blue? 

Eco: I found out about it the day before the lineup was announced. The original email I was supposed to get was lost in the spam folder of my inbox so I never read it. Then Armin's manager contacted me and asked me if I could confirm if I was playing, and I said "of course I can confirm". After that I gave all my closest friends a call to tell them the news, as they have been waiting for that opportunity for a while, even longer than I have [laughs]. 

Bsound: What do you plan to do with the one hour timeslot you have at that show? 

Eco: Here in New York I've been doing a lot of opening sets for other guys and it's been an amazing opportunity where I try to explore different sounds. Opening for Marco V recently is one example and opening for Cosmic Gate is another. 

But as I'm on early that night I don't want people to assume that I'm going to play that way. I'm really going to go all out as far as introducing some new songs and picking out my favorite tracks from my favorite producers. I want to create an overall headliner feel for my set rather than the usual thing that the New York crowd is used to- which is me opening up for other guys. I'm trying to come out of my shell and hopefully give people something to talk about.

---------

Those who want to watch DJ Eco spin, but can't wait for A State Of Trance 450 in April, can catch him at Love on March 12, sponsored by Massive Event. Eco will be joined by locals Harji & Watson, Wayde Rafnel, MadRiverRai, Jay Kinard, Rob Stevens, and Brendan Bartels. 

[Image credit: Tianbek.net and Nightreveler.com]

Weekly shows update

Upcoming:

- Pacha has booked two of the bigger names in trance for upcoming shows- Markus Schulz on May 7, and Gareth Emery on April 16.

- Keeping up with Pacha, Russian DJ Bobina will be there on March 12, followed by the Desolat Bus Tour on March 20 featuring Loco Dice, Martin Buttrich, and others.

- DJ Eco will be at Love on March 12 with a bunch of local faces.

- Local DJ Zack Roth will be opening for ATB at the Nokia Theatre on March 19.


This week:

Tonight: David Guetta will be playing Pacha.

Thursday: D. Ramirez and Sleepy & Boo will be at Cielo.

Friday: Robbie Rivera will be hosting a party at M2, while Mark Knight will be celebrating his one year residency at Pacha.

Nitrous Oxide to come out with full-length album

On March 29, Nitrous Oxide will be releasing his first full-length album- "Dreamcatcher", on Anjunabeats. You can pre-order it now on their web site for £8.99 ($13.92 US before tax).

Tracklisting

1. Alderaan (click for sample)
2. North Pole (Album Edit)
3. Mirror's Edge
4. Follow You Feat. Aneym
5. Muriwai
6. Blurry Motion
7. Downforce
8. Come Into My World Feat. Sean Ryan
9. Dreamcatcher
10. Far Away Feat. Aneym
11. Endorphine
12. Supra
13. Amnesia (Chill Out Mix)

Similar to what they did with Anjunadeep Vol.2, the label will be adding track previews for "Dreamcatcher" every Monday and Friday on that SoundCloud link posted above for "Alderaan" and their Facebook page.

Speaking of "Alderaan", how cool is it that the opening track for this album is named after one of the most memorable planets in Star Wars?

I'm also glad that this will be a full-length album of original productions by Nitrous Oxide (a guy that represents what Anjunabeats is all about) and not a mix CD. It's great to have new songs out each month for your favorite artists, but original albums are always rare- and a treat to listen to.

[Imagecredit: Anjunabeats.com]

Who's coming to Electric Zoo this year?

Although no artists have been officially announced yet for the two-day festival, Made Event has a survey you can fill out with your requests for this year's event after you purchase early-bird tickets.

New NYC electro label launching next week

Royal Advisor Records, a new local electro-based label, will be launching next week with a free party at Home Sweet Home on 131 Chrystie Street in Manhattan.

The show will feature live performances from Samn, Sappho's Journey, label-founder Lorant Duzgan, and others. There will also be free CD giveaways throughout the night and an open vodka bar from 10:30-11:30pm.

You can hear individual songs from each of the performing artists at RAR's web site, and judging by the samples, this is going to be a pretty decent live event.

I really like the voice of Monique Renee, the soul singer that makes up Sappho's Journey. Their song "Venerate" is an interesting mix of drum patterns and electro tinges. It'll be interesting to see what other sounds she's paired up with in the coming months.

Lorant's single "Hunter" is also good- he manages to pack a ton of drum, electro, and synth effects/rhythms into a variety-filled six minutes.

[Image credit: Creative PR]

A State of Trance 450 timeslots announced

The official A State of Trance web site has now been updated with new graphics and timeslots for the upcoming episode 450 shows.

Here are the lineups with times for both NYC dates: 

Friday, April 2

09pm - 10pm - Cerf en Mitiska 
10pm - 11pm - DJ Eco 
11pm - 00am - Rank 1 
00am - 02am - Armin van Buuren 
02am - 03am - Menno de Jong 
03am - 04am - Roger Shah 
04am - 05am - MIKE

Saturday, April 3
 
09pm - 10pm - Breakfast 
10pm - 11pm - Lange 
11pm - 00am - Giuseppe Ottaviani 
00am - 02am - Armin van Buuren 
02am - 03am - John O' Callaghan 
03am - 04am - Filo & Peri 
04am - 05am - Alex M.O.R.P.H.

Both of these lineups are interesting as Armin will be playing during the middle of the show and not later on during the night.

On a side note- ticket prices for Friday night have also risen $10 to make them $60 total.

Olympic5

At 10:30 p.m. EST tonight, deadmau5 will be playing a concert at the one of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics medal ceremonies at Whistler mountain in British Columbia.

Of course they're not going to show his set in its entirety on TV, but if you plan on watching the Olympics anyway, this is a fun thing to look out for that might find its way onto a highlight reel of the day's events.

FSOE Recordings joins Armada

Future Sound Of Egypt recordings, the label run by trance-duo Aly & Fila, has now joined Armada Music. This makes them the 28th sublabel under the Armada umbrella.

While this merger probably gives Aly & Fila a greater financial backing, which means they have a better chance of touring the United States in the near future, I hoped they would remain operating on their own. It's not to say Armada's music is bad, but I would prefer a label like FSOE to remain independent and in complete control of their creative interests than to join a conglomerate. I saw FSOE becoming the next Anjunabeats with a couple more years of development.

Weekly shows update

Upcoming:

- If you missed Dubfire at Pacha last week, he'll be here again soon- this time on Long Island, on March 13 at Glo.

- Laidback Luke has been announced as the opener for Tiesto when he comes to Atlantic City on March 27. However, all tickets for the show have been sold out according to Tiesto's web site, so if you haven't bought yours yet- either look for them on eBay or wait until the day of the show to see if any more are released.

- Remember that post I made about an upcoming busy weekend in March? Here's another show (yet to be officially confirmed) to look out for- on Saturday, March 20, Loco Dice will be at Pacha.

- Lee Burridge will be back again at the Santos Party House on March 6. Sander Kleinenberg will be there a month later.

- Mark Knight, Pacha's resident DJ, is celebrating his one year anniversary with a five hour set on February 26.

This weekend:

Thursday: Brazilian Luciano Pardini is playing Cielo.

Friday: Local DJ Brad Miller is joining Sultan & Ned Shepard at Quo.

Saturday: Andy Moor will be playing with local DJ Zack Roth at the Santos Party House.

Poker Flat Recordings artists Mr. C, Adultnapper, Martin Landsky will be joined by Taimur + Fahad and Crazy Larry for a show at a secret location.  You can buy tickets for the show here. As for the secret location, RSVP info is on the flyer.

Check the sidebar to the right for ticket information on any of this weekend's shows mentioned above.

[Info/flyer credit: TranceAddict, PlexiPR, Bullitt Bookings]

DJNY #1: Brad Miller

This is the opening installment in a series of interviews and profiles of New York-based DJ's. My first guest is Brad Miller.
 

You may know Brad if you've been out and about in the Big Apple at least once over the past couple years, as he has played many of the top clubs in the city , including Pacha, Love, and Sullivan Room. His podcast, Push The Night, is among the top 25 most popular music shows on iTunes, with his latest episode showcasing his picks for the top 20 tracks of 2009.

Earlier this week I had a chance to talk to Brad about his beginnings as a DJ, his experiences playing in New York, and his thoughts on the industry...

Where it all began… 

Binarysound: Where did you develop an interest in music as a child?

Brad Miller: I was in high school when I really started to get into music. I went to a lot of rock concerts back then- probably almost every weekend, to a place called the Roseland in Portland, Oregon, where I grew up. I just saw a ton of bands there including New Found Glory, Coldplay, and others.

But when I was out there, one weekend there weren't any good bands in town and I remember my buddy telling me "there's this guy BT in town", and I said "who's that?" So we went and saw BT live, and that was pretty much it…

Bsound: So that concert was where you got exposed to electronic dance music?

BM: Yea, definitely. That show was followed up by all the big guys at the time - Crystal Method, Moby, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, etc.

Bsound: Getting the equipment to become a DJ isn't cheap. What were you doing six years ago when you picked up your first set of turntables and how did you get them?

BM: I actually got my first turntables for Christmas, so I have to thank my parents for starting that off and giving me some faith [laughs]. I got two Newmark turntables and a Newmark mixer and then went out and bought my first vinyls at Platinum Records in Portland. I picked up Underworld's Cowgirl/Rez EP and Sasha's Xpander.
 

It's funny because back then [vinyls] were the more expensive part. These days everybody's saying "the equipment is so expensive", but back then, vinyls cost $10-15. You'd spend $100 or something dollars on ten tracks, and that's where the money problem really was. Getting started these days isn't really as hard because you can do a lot of stuff digitally. You only need about three hundred bucks for equipment and you're in business.

But at that time, I worked every stereotypical job- I've been a pizza delivery boy, a Christmas-tree salesman, a lifeguard, a clerk at a record store...

Bsound: How long did you practice in the bedroom before you played your first show?

BM: I spent probably six months in the bedroom trying to learn how to do it. DJing is something you never really ever master- you only get better at it. There's never a certain point where you say "ok I'm done practicing and I'm ready for everything".

I think with any gig no matter whether you're starting out with ten people or a club with a hundred, you still have to step up your game. You've got practice as much along the lines as you do when you're trying to get your first gig.

Bsound: Where did you play your first show and how nervous were you?

BM: I'm always nervous. I'm nervous before I get to the club, when I'm driving to the gig or in the cab, and then minutes before I go on I'm a complete wreck. But when I get actually behind the decks I forget about all that. I don't know how that works exactly, but at some point you have to embrace it and realize that being nervous is a good thing because it means you're stepping up to a new level. Anytime you play a gig out of your comfort zone it means you're moving forward. 

My first gig I played was this college party in somebody's dorm room for about 20 people. It's tough when you play your first gig because you're playing for maybe 10 or 20 people and it's hard to get a room of that size to rock. The people in attendance might be there to dance or just to relax, but unless you play hip-hop or something that everybody is going to love, it's scary to come into a house party and drop underground tech-house [laughs].
 

For that reason I think it can be better to play more commercial stuff at first to get people into it. It's invaluable to play those small rooms to learn how to react to the crowd, because by the time you get to a bigger room, you'll know how to rock it.

Bsound: Can you talk about your experience playing some of the bigger clubs in the Northwest as your career progressed?

BM: I love the scene in Seattle and I really got into it in college. At the time they had a really strong progressive scene, but now it's turned into a more trancier crowd. It's got a real community feel to it- you see a lot of the same people, everybody knows each other, and everyone is pretty friendly over there. A lot of the club owners will go to the afterhours spots and have drinks together.

When I play there, it's always a little bit more of a party as opposed to anywhere else- people  just want to have a great time and listen to stuff they can rock to. And there's some great clubs out there- Last Supper Club usually brings in a lot more of the underground stuff, and Trinity is one of the bigger clubs in the city, but they do electronic stuff as well. They were key to helping me get started- I worked there first as one of the lighting guys then started playing there on the weekends which was a lot of fun.

Coming to New York…

Bsound: So how did you end up in New York City from the Northwest?

BM: If you want to be in the music industry, you pretty much have to move to Los Angeles, London, or New York. When I was graduated college, I wanted to break into it somehow, so I sent out no less than 100 resumes to every nightclub or record label in the world that I could get an address for. The only one I heard back from was Crobar in New York, who offered me an unpaid internship.

So I packed up my bags, threw them in the car, and drove off the next week and came into the city knowing absolutely nobody. I slept on the floor of my friends', roommates', uncles', cousins', brother or something like that [laughs]. I basically watched my bank account get to zero over the next six months, but in life, you've got to make those decisions. You can either play it safe and stay at home or chase after your dreams. It's cliché I know, but why not?

Bsound: How did you get your name out here locally when you first got arrived?

BM: It was a little bit of luck, a little bit knowing the right people, and a lot of hard work. At the time I was working with Crobar and I did get some good slots there from DJ's arriving late to shows and whatnot (so always keep your CD's with you at a nightclub [laughs]). But what really helped kick things off was the help I got from both flawless and Massive Event.  All of us had worked pretty close together at Crobar over the years, and towards the end as they started to branch out they helped get me my first gigs in the city. At the time the gigs were still on more of a here-and-these basis though, and I knew if I wanted to make an impact I would have to work hard to build my own fanbase outside of the club, which is when I started my podcast and email list.

You also have to have a crowd before you can play to get a crowd. It's always this chicken and egg problem. After those first few gigs I was really focusing on trying to build my network so I could come to them again and say "hey look I can bring you a lot of people that really like my sound, give me a shot in the main room". After I convinced them I was ready, flawless gave me an opening slot for BT and Massive gave me an opening spot for Randy Boyer and Breakfast which really set things in motion.

Bsound: Can you talk about some of the upcoming shows you have here?

BM: Right now I've got two shows coming up- one on February 19 with Sultan and Ned Shepard at Quo and one with Cosmic Gate and Richard Durand at Webster Hall on March 20. I'm also working to kick off the Push The Night parties this year as well, so definitely keep an eye out for them.

Bsound: Over the past year, local electronic dance music shows have been popping up at new venues such as the Nokia Theatre and Electric Zoo Festival on Randall's Island. How do you feel about the recent growth of the scene here?

BM: I think it's really exciting - I think we're finally starting to see dance music become much more accepted here in America as it has been in Europe. While I know there are some that are afraid of dance music becoming too big and losing it's underground roots - in the end I think it really benefits all of us. Now more than ever I've seen a lot more of the smaller underground DJs getting the chance to come play in America - some of which I never thought I'd see over here.

Any weekend out here in New York City you can go see a top-level DJ or an underground, left-field sound. You can pretty much can hear anything you want and I think a lot of times people forget that. You just don't get that in a lot of other cities.

Bsound: It seems like there are a million DJ's out there making free mix podcasts each week for listeners to download. What would you say is unique about your podcast, Push The Night, that makes it stand out from countless others?

BM: There are several key differences. One is that I don't crank out mixes every week on purpose. Push The Night is not about the last 10 tracks that came out this week. They come out when they're ready and are meant to be experienced more than once.

Each episode is also something I put a lot of time into personally, because almost every single track on them is a re-edit or has been changed in some way. I change the keys in a lot of the songs, I mash them up, I restructure them- every mix is really a collection of my favorite tracks put in the best possible order I can make. The episodes are meant to be more about the mix as a whole rather than just the songs by themselves. I mix different styles not as a gimmick, but because I like to explore other genres of electronic music. I think Push The Night is one of the very few podcasts you can listen to that explores new and familiar territories in different ways.

It comes down to music in the end, and every day I spend a lot of time looking for new songs. If I make one trance set a year there are probably thousands of trance tracks I listened to just to find 20 of them that I think are worthy. To me, less is more, and I think that's important because people have so many podcasts to pick from. You have A State of Trance each week, Trance Around the World, Dance Department, the Essential Mix- people have way too much to listen to. If you want to stand out these days it needs to come from the quality. 

[Image credit: Brad Miller]

Taking a quick look at the month ahead...

While I was doing some housekeeping on the events list on the righthand side of this page, I noticed this string of events coming up in March:

3/19 - Above & Beyond @ Pure [Buffalo, NY]
3/19 - ATB @ Nokia Theatre at Times Square [New York, NY]
3/19 - Benny Benassi @ Pacha [New York, NY]
3/20 - Cosmic Gate & Richard Durand w/Brad Miller @ Webster Hall [New York, NY]
3/20 - Eric Prydz & Sebastian Leger @ Nokia Theatre at Times Square [New York, NY]

Can you believe some of the names coming to New York over these two days? And all of the events for that weekend probably haven't been announced yet.

Electric Zoo early-bird tickets on sale now

Made Event now has ElectricZooFestival.com redirecting to their own web site, where you can purchase early-bird tickets for this year's event.

Two-day passes cost $107 each, but are paired with a steep $26.15 in service fees before shipping. So as of now, it's going to run $133 to attend the festival both days ($66.50 a day).

[Thanks to Vitamin-DLW for pointing this out on TranceAddict]

53 tracks for $5

Last week when I was trying save a couple pennies on purchasing the Gabriel Lukosz track which I reviewed here, I made an account on Audiojelly.com, which is one of several online dance music stores.

After I registered for an account, they sent this flyer to my email, which I pieced together below:



Tracks at Audiojelly cost on average a $1.70, so if you pick up three, you'll be able to get the free download voucher. This deal has been around since November so it's nothing new, but if you haven't done it yet and are looking for a bunch of new tracks, this is a really good offer.

I haven't gotten my 50 free tracks yet because personally I'm a bit behind on listening to my recent purchases, but with that many tracks, at least a dozen have to be keepers.

[Image credit: Audiojelly.com]

Weekly shows update: Jam-packed Valentine's Day weekend ahead

Last weekend was jam-packed with shows, but with Monday being President's Day and a lot of us will be off, there's even more stuff going on in the city the next couple days.

Tomorrow night, Roger Sanchez will be bringing his house sounds to Cielo as part of their Secret Soul Sessions show series.

After the Rebel Rave Tour visits Pacha on Friday, DJ Boris will be playing the venue on Saturday, followed by a Sunday evening show by Chus & Ceballos and Louie Vega & Anane.

Lastly, Friday is the first event of the trio of Nokia Theatre shows with Ferry Corsten playing, and Chris Lake will be at Cielo on Valentine's Day.

Check the sidebar on the right for more events/ticket information.

[Flyers credit: PlexiPR]

What's that music you listen to called again?

I had a few extra minutes to kill at my local mall last night, so I went into FYE to browse around. Then I saw this:


I think this picture pretty much explains itself.

Not to sidetrack, but isn't FYE the worst media/electronics store in the country? Lately they've been going out of business nationwide, but I'm surprised it took this long for that to happen.

Their prices storewide for anything are absurd:

$9.99 - Price of a used CD.
$11.99-14.99 - Prices of new CDs, on sale.
$39.99 and up - Price of any DVD box set. These normally cost $20-30 elsewhere at Best Buy or Wal-Mart.

But the worst though was something I saw last night- $34.99 for this Beatles two-disc album, printed in 1993. A nearly 17-year old album for a ridiculous price; only at FYE.

Anjunart

There's a new section on Anjunabeats' online store- posters.

If you click on the link, they're selling six 16 x 23" posters for $5.45 US each. The kicker? To ship them to the States, it costs $14.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of these end up on eBay soon for much cheaper prices. And if you live over the pond, this is a pretty good deal for some EDM-related art, something that's not made often in poster form.

[Image credit: Anjunabeats.com]

Track reviews: The spaced-out emo edition

Over the past week I've picked up a variety of songs- some vocal trance, a trance tune, and a prog-house tune which now shares the honor of being my highest rated track on this blog. And if you get emotional, grab a tissue for this one (or skip #2).

1. Talla 2XLC feat. Skysurfer - Terra Australis (Jorn Van Deynhoven Remix) [Addicted To Trance]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs


This song gets its name from a mythical European continent that supposedly enclosed the Indian Ocean, according to Aristotle (and Wikipedia). What it has to do with this song...I don't know.

Jorn Van Deynhoven builds his remix of "Terra Australis" around a melancholy-sounding pattern of scales descending in pitch, but it fails to lead anywhere. The ending of this song doesn't mix up the main melody enough, leaving you with a track that sounds like the same thing over and over for a good three minutes.

Jorn has a knack for making catchy trance remixes, but this song is his weakest one I've heard yet.

Rating: 6 out of 10 [Average]

2. Dash Berlin - Never Cry Again (Jorn Van Deynhoven Remix) [Aropa]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs


"When you come home, I'll stop this..."

[Stop what?]

"When you come home, I'll hide it good"

[Uh-oh. What are you hiding?]

"I'll never cry again, when you...come home...to me"



Ok. If you can get past the ridiculously emo and cheesy lyrics in "Never Cry Again", you'll find yet another decently remixed tune with an uplifting vibe by Jorn Van Deynhoven.

JVD's remix is better than the original for two reasons- it has less vocals, and the instrumentals-only part in the middle of the song is extended to two and a half minutes.

The synth melody in this track is an alternating pattern of middle and low pitches, accented with a few nicely-placed high notes.

Jorn loses a few marks though for recycling the same distortion lead-in effect heard in his remix of RAM's "Ramsterdam".

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 [Good]

3. Gabriel Lukosz - All The Usual Things (Niklas Grosswald Remix) [Infraprogressive]

@Beatport


No one has uploaded this track yet to YouTube, so if you decide to take the $1.99 plunge on Beatport and pick it up based on the sample alone, don't worry- it's worth every penny.

Niklas Grosswald's prog-house remix of this tune has one of my favorite melodies of the year so far. As the song progresses, Grosswald teases this spacey synth pattern with a reverb effect that sends its pitch all over the place.

Then later on in the song, an upbeat bassline joins the fray as the reverb pattern alternates between two octaves.

Grosswald's melody here varies it up enough to where it doesn't feel like you're hearing the same thing twice, something uncommon in EDM.

Rating: 9 out of 10 [Choon]

4. Vast Vision feat. Fisher - Everything (Aly & Fila Remix) [FSOE Recordings]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @Discogs


"I only want to be your everything,
If you let me,
Will you let me?
I want to be your every fantasy
Could you love me?
Like I love you?"

Yes, this song is just as bad lyrically in the cheese department as "Never Cry Again", but I'll give credit to Vast Vision for enlisting Fisher as his vocalist on this one. Out of all the female singers in dance music, Fisher has one of the only two voices (the other being Justine Suissa) that you can distinctly recognize when you're hearing a song with them. The rest just sound like generic female singer #568.

For this song, Fisher's low-key voice is a good fit for Aly & Fila's uplifting sounds, as it prevents the song from becoming too flowery.

This remix of "Everything" also contains a few piano touches and some orchestral elements in the breakdown. As a whole, it's a pretty decent vocal trance song, but nothing unforgettable.

Rating: 7 out of 10 [Good]

Teaching an old dog new tricks

What do you do when a song that's 14 years old has been remixed to no end?

You remix it again, of course, but outfit it with a shiny new style for 2010.

This is the basis for Solarstone's "Remodeled" EP series, where he plans to let new-age producers remix his old-school tunes.

According to Solarstone's web site, Vol.1 of the series was released last week on Lost Language recordings, although I can't find it anywhere online for purchase. The EP includes RAM's remix of Solarstone's timeless "The Calling", and a new version of "Solarcoaster" by Haris C.

Haris C's version of "Solarcoaster" sounds like the original on steroids, moving at a blistering pace while maintaining a club mix-vibe. But the "You're so cool" and other vocal bits seem out of place, and as a whole, the song is the weaker track of the two on the EP.

But RAM's remix of "The Calling". Man...this is a CHOON! His version removes the drum/breaks elements from the original and is rebuilt with an lively uplifting vibe. Everything seems to fall in place perfectly, and the main melody is emphasized greater.

See for yourself...

The original mix (released in 1996):


14 years later...

Weekly shows update

Six notable shows to inform you about this week.

On short notice, Pacha has booked techno act Dubfire for a show this Saturday. Next Friday, February 12, the Rebel Rave Tour 2010 will visit Pacha, with a lineup that includes Seth Troxler, Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones, Deniz Kurtel, and Taimur + Fahad.

Local DJ and producer Brad Miller will be playing with Sultan and Ned Shepard at Quo on February 19.

Cielo has booked Marcus Schössow for March 5 through Made Event, and Sander Van Doorn on April 8, according to Scoops on TranceAddict.

Lastly, if M2 is even open by then, Victor Calderone will be there on March 13.

Keeping up with the times

One of the aspects of electronic dance music that has fascinated me ever since I became addicted to it a couple years ago is how few producers release full-length albums.

Rather than releasing an album every 2-3 years like artists in other genres, they constantly pump out tracks every month to get playtime in clubs around the world. This sounds like a good idea- who likes waiting forever for an album to come out? Not many.

But this same aspect also makes dance music one of the hardest, if not the hardest, musical genres to keep up with. Producers release multiple tracks a year- sometimes several in the same month. So instead of memorizing one release date every couple years for an artist (like you would do with a full-length album), you're forced to memorize dozens per month for each track- if you can even find them.

One of Wikipedia's best, if least known features, is that it's a fantastic site for finding out album release dates. If there's a band you like- chances are that there's a fanboy out there who even likes them more to the point that they will update their Wikipedia page whenever a tidbit comes out about a future release.

But EDM is a genre that doesn't have that exposure that most of the musicians written about on Wikipedia have.

So where does one go if they want to keep up to date with the latest tracks being released by their favorite producers?

- Discogs lists what everyone has already released, but not what's coming down the pipes.

- Beatport always posts up new tracks for sale. But unless you're going to that site with a specific track in mind, it can be painful to casually browse.

- Internet radio stations usually only play what's popular, so most of the lesser known artists get snubbed.

The best place I've found for collecting all this information is actually Facebook and Twitter. Most labels have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts that they update often because these sites are some of the most popular on the internet. According to Alexa (an internet trafficking company), Facebook is the second most visited site on the internet, with Twitter ranking 13th.

So take a label or artist, give a search, subscribe or follow them, and let them bring the information to you, not vice versa.

Track from deadmau5's next album?

While browsing TranceAddict today, I noticed that a user posted up a link to an unreleased deadmau5 song - "October".



In the past, deadmau5 has released tracks long before they appear on his Ultra Records albums (such as Random Album Title and For Lack Of A Better Name).

I hope this one finds its way onto his next album, which rumors point to coming out around summertime. This version seems to be a spliced live recording, but it's quality stuff.