Global Dance Festival

Global is going to be epic.  The lineup has just recently been supplemented with a couple new names:

MORGAN PAGE Added to the Saturday lineup!  I like this guy a lot.  He has really good taste and puts together some top notch remixes.

SAVOY added to the Friday lineup!  Incredibly local, incredibly awesome group.  They played a show at the Aggie recently.

Electric Daisy Carnival

This one is gonna be awesome.  A more filled out lineup was finally posted.

ATB
Benny Benassi
Yogi
Caspa
Kill the Noise
Dirty Phonics
AC Slater
The 12th Planet
Original Sin
…and of course all the rest of your usual locals.

Matt Darey @ the Church

Yep!  Matt’s north American tour will bring him through the mile high city on Friday April 30th, 2010.  This guy runs one of the biggest EDM radio shows in the world, meaning this night will be huge.  The church might not be the most awesome venue, but it will definitely be hopping this Friday!

New Pendulum Album

Hard to believe how much much awesome news is in this one single post.  PENDULUM, the massive massive DnB fusion producers, is dropping a new album this coming May.  I got a chance to hear some of the new stuff and it sounds pretty damn cool.  It seems like they are trying to diversify their sound with this album while keeping to their reputation for epic tunes.  You’re gonna want to pick this one up as soon as you can.

Sub Focus

http://www.myspace.com/subfocus

Name: Nick Douwma aka Sub Focus
Hailing from: London England
Style:  Drum and Bass
Records: 1 – self-titled

Sub Focus is a newer guy on the scene.  He began his career circa 2003 DJing and remixing songs from artists like the Prodigy and Empire of the Sun.  Since then his reputation as a DnB kingpin has grown, and in 2009 he released his self-titled first album.

The album itself is a musical triumph.  It is full of stunning DnB tracks.  He also experimented with a couple other genres in the album.  Dirty electro comes into play, as well as some dubstep-style bass wobbles.

What I personally like so much about him is that he takes a generally dirty genre and cleans it up.  His clear and precise songs done in the fast hard DnB style really make him unique.  I suggest downloading this entire album.  It will keep you entertained from its explosive intro to the last chill out track.  The album really has some personality.  The way he crosses boundaries between styles might sound like a weird idea, but listening to the entire CD front to back feels perfectly natural.

Unfortunately no USA tour dates for this guy yet, but keep your fingers crossed.  These are my 3 favorite tracks off the new CD.  Worth listening, good sound quality!

The Electric Daisy Carnival is returning to Colorado at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds on Saturday June 12th 2010!

The EDC started in southern California in 1996, and since has grown to the largest dance music festival ever held outside of Europe, drawing crowds of up to 140,000 people.  The festival has since expanded and branched out, bringing the EDC to Texas, Puerto Rico, and of course Colorado.

I went to this last year and it was a blast.  This is the event that really kicks off the summer music scene in Colorado.  Arapahoe County Fairgrounds is a fantastic venue.  There will be 5 whole different stages with full lineups blasting music all night.  Three satellite stages will be outside around the grounds in tents.  There will be a larger stage inside one of the buildings.  The main stage will be in the big exposition hall in the middle of the grounds, which is a 16,000 square foot open warehouse type of building (makes for a massive dance floor).

The crowd should be awesome, the laser and light show was fantastic last year, and of course the music will be top notch!  Obviously I got my ticket already.  Right now it’s $35.00, but they go up to at least $45.00 later.  You can get your ticket here:

http://fla.vor.us/170963-Electric-Daisy-Carnival-Colora-tickets/Electric-Daisy-Carnival-Colora-Aurora-Arapahoe-County-Fairgrounds-June-12-2010.html?afflky=RUDP5Y

The Headliners

ATB

ATB is a German DJ/Producer who probably mostly falls into the category of progressive trance or ambient.  His softer style is more infused with feeling than most other artists.  Ranked as the #11 DJ in the world by DJ Magazine, and #4 in the world by The DJ List.

Benny Benassi

This guy probably doesn’t need much of an introduction.  Benny Benassi has been a huge name in EDM since 2003 when “Satisfaction” took over the world.  Electro lovers rejoice!

I discovered an epic gold mine of quality dance music this past week.

http://www.mattdarey.com/v3/index.php

“Nocturnal” is a podcast put together by Matt Darey, an EDM producer/DJ from the U.K.  Every week he showcases an hour worth of his favorite house, trance, progressive, tech, breaks, and electro releases.  The second hour of the show Matt usually has a guest DJ on to show off their own stuff.

I first heard Matt Darey at Skylab Colorado 2009 where he played a 2 hour set on one of the side stages.  I didn’t get to hear much of his set though, because i think he was playing at the same time as one of the big headliners, (BT or Rabbit in the Moon? I can’t remember,)  so I decided to look him up the other day.  Turns out he has been doing this Nocturnal radio show since April 2006, and he has archives full of it and another satellite radio show called “Nocturnal Sunshine” on his website.  Nocturnal episode 242 and Nocturnal Sunshine episode 96 are the most recent having come out in the last couple days.

The best part about this is that there are over 350 hours of the best dance music of the week for the last few years, and it’s all FREE!

http://www.mattdarey.com/v3/nocturnal.html

From that page you can download the most recent episodes or go to the archives for older shows.

If you listen to any of the recent few episodes, you might also notice that he talks about coming to Denver this month!  Matt Darey will be spinning a set at The Church nightclub downtown on Friday April 30, 2010.  I will most likely be checking this out as Matt is supposed to play some of the best sets around.  See you there!

Kaskade

I originally got into Kaskade after seeing him at HallowFreaknWeen this past October.  His style is trancy and ambient with really catchy purposeful melodies and vocals.  He is one of my personal favourite “pure” EDM producer/DJs

Pendulum

Bringing in some extremely high energy Drum and Bass is the Australian/British group Pendulum.  Their music is fast, heavy, and crazy addicting.  If you doubt me hit play… but don’t worry the fat guy isn’t in the band.

Needless to say these guys cannot be missed.  On a side note their new album drops in May, and from what I’ve heard it’s gonna be really good.

Deadmau5

If you haven’t heard of deadmau5 you are probably not an EDM fan.  This guy is probably the biggest name in dance music lately.  His deep and soft style is super easy on the eardrums and his technical style will get his songs stuck in your head for days at a time.  His songs are characterized by subtle but powerful builds and drops.  As an amateur producer myself, this guy is terribly inspiring.  He is so good in fact, that I’m gonna need to put up three videos.  Deadmau5 will probably be the highlight of this event.

Infected Mushroom

Kings of the old-school style, these guys basically helped get EDM into the air.  These guys have a pretty cool live show, incorporating some of the “regular” instruments from rock and roll.

I’ve seen these guys a few times before and it is always a great show.

the rest…

Friday:

• Deadmau5
• Infected Mushroom
• Pendulum
• Rusko
• Ana Sia
• Kraddy
• MC Dino
• Fury
• Manufactured Superstars
• Ishe

Saturday:

• Paul van Dyk
• Kaskade
• BT
• Steve Aoki
• LA Riots
• Kostas
• Dragon
• Trajikk
• Hycloud

Tickets go on sale this week, do not pass this one up!  Global Dance Festival routinely sells out, so get them early and get them cheap.  See you this summer!

I would generally define Chicane’s sound as pure European trance with ambient and melodic influences.  A free mp3 of his set from 2000 at Palladium, Germany is available on www.tranceaddict.com.  The link to the direct download is here.  This an amazing set, Chicane takes us through several pounding anthems spaced out between chilled flowing songs.

Chicane’s first dance album, “Far From the Madding Crowds,” was released in October 1997 and immediately established him as a trance-techno boss.  When his second album “Behind the Sun” debuted  in 2000 it hit top 50 on international charts in seven different countries.  Toward the later part of his career, Chicane had achieved legend status within the dance community.  In the late 2000′s he released a powerful single: “Stoned In Love” featuring Tom Jones.  The release of this single and the subsequent album “Somersault” rocketed Chicane back to the top of dance charts worldwide.  In this album and tracks he has produced since we have seen an evolution of his style to more structured “songlike” songs, but his roots in dance and trance in particular are still evident.

Chicane is still active in the scene today.  His co-producer just recently held an expo to show off how international collaboration is possible through production software like Ableton Live and Logic.  He is also scheduled to play upcoming shows at huge name venues like The Ministry of Sound in London, and The Showgrounds in Ireland.  For more information, clicking on his name at the beginning of this post will take you to his website.  Stay tuned for more artist spotlights.

Since I had to drive down from Fort Collins to the Denver Coliseum in practically a blizzard, I didn’t get there until something like 8:00 pm.  I grabbed my ticket at the will call window and got in line to get into the show.  After a rather intrusive security pat-down I emerged inside.  If you have never been to a large-scale high production rave, it is a pretty unreal experience.  There are all kinda of people running (or standing) around and there is nothing normal about any of them.  Hispanics with spiky hair a foot tall, girls in nothing but their undies, new age hippies, endless bizarre accessories, and I even saw a guy dressed completely up as the “Cat in the Hat” from Dr. Seuss.

Link to stage layout and artist lineup

Right inside the main entrance was the “Peace Stage”, so as soon as you walked in the door your eardrums were bombarded with beats.  The talent on this stage was minimal until later into the night, so the first place I went was into the arena where the main stage was.  From the portal where I went in I could see the whole dance floor from above.  It looked awesome, thousands of people dancing in the dark with every kind of glowing object imaginable.  I forgot my good camera, so I took a picture with my cell phone.  It definitely does not do justice to the scale of this event.

When I made it down to the floor DJ Hycloud was spinning.  His sets are good and he is a good DJ, but his style is not my favorite.  He played some dirty electro and some hard house, but nothing impressive.  I stayed for a few of his songs then headed out and downstairs to catch Technical Endeavor on the “Respect Stage.”

Technical Endeavor plays drum and bass, which, if you haven’t heard any, is a really fast and aggressive style of electronic dance music.  He started his set off with one of my favorite tracks by Pendulum, a staple drum and bass group.  He powered through his hour set and even threw one of his new original tracks into the mix.  His set was really enjoyable and if you are a fan of drum and bass and have a chance to see him play, I’d say to take it.  Here is another cell phone picture I took of him playing.

After watching Technical Endeavor’s set I headed back to the main stage to hear DJ Trajikk and DJ Shake play.  I usually like Trajikk’s song selection and style of mixing but tonight was a little different.  On the stage a live drummer was set up and the DJs spent a lot of time playing around with effects on the drumset.  It took a full 20 or 30 minutes before they were fully into the substance of their set.  I didn’t get to (or want to) hear much more of their set because at 11:00 pm DJ Soulshocker was scheduled to play up at one of the smaller stages.

Soulshocker is one of my favorite local DJs because his style of dynamics is so wide.  For example he will build a song up for a really long time and when he finally drops in the beat, it hits you harder than you expected, and even the most boring listeners will find themselves smiling and bobbing their heads.  Unfortunately when I got to the stage where he was supposed to be spinning they had apparently experienced some sort of technical difficulty and the stage was dark and quiet.  This put a little bit of a damper on the night because I had been real excited to hear him play.

Luckily though, this is where this rave finally hit its stride.  Back at the main stage my personal favorite local resident DJ Dragon and Shawn Astrom were about to start their set so I headed back there to listen.  Once I found a good spot in the crowd towards the front of the stage I stayed there.  Dragon and Shawn Astrom played a terrific set, hammering through an hour of pure club/house songs and getting 10,000 people dancing.  I took another couple of pictures at this point, because of the awesome light show and visuals on the stage.

After Dragon and Shawn Astrom, DJ Kostas took the tables.  Kostas is another one of my favorites because of his deep-driving afterhours vibe.  Most of the songs he plays are very deep, simple, and chill, but still have the drive and energy to keep you moving.  He played for an hour and he mixed in a lot of songs I really like, and a few songs that the crowd knew.  I really enjoyed his set, and when it was over I felt pretty bummed that the night was over.

When they turned on the lights I could really get a perspective on the amount of people that showed up, so I took another picture.

Overall I’m glad I went to this event.  It took a little longer than normal to hit its stride and become a really deep intense rave, but once it did it was a blast.  If you have never been to a rave before, I would definitely suggest trying one out (Global Dance Festival 2010 is going to be absolutely killer), but be careful.  Drugs and alcohol are everywhere at these things and if you choose to partake make sure it is controlled, fun, and safe!  Check out the link on the right to Triad Dragons’ myspace for more upcoming shows.

Don’t forget Morgan Page at Beta nightclub this Thursday Feb. 25th,  hope to see you there!

Morgan Page’s web site.

Morgan Page is easily one of my favorite producers and DJs in the mix these days (although I have a lot of those).  His music tends to fall into the club/house category, but he plays some hard electro and some trance stuff every once in a while.  I originally got into Morgan Page at a rave I went to this past October called HallowFreaknWeen, and he put down a pretty impressive set.  Since then I have been listening to his podcast and some of his album music.  He is one of those artists with great songs that are easily recognizable, and it feels natural to listen to his music over and over.

This event is going to be fantastic!  Beta has the absolute best sound system in the whole of North America, but don’t take my word for it, read this review on their setup.  As a serious dance music enthusiast, I inevitably end up frequenting the clubs.  I have to say that Beta has become my favorite place to hear the best that DJs can offer.  The best part, though, is that this show is only $10.00!  Cheapest club night in town.

This is my absolute favorite Morgan Page track, just to give you an idea of how he sounds.  Although this is a remix by Deadmau5 of his original song “Longest Road,” but it is still a good representation of his style.  (Once I figure out how to embed the video I will update this post with that.)

If this sounds like your cup of tea, you can buy tickets here.  Unfortunately they tack on a $2.00 charge for whatever reason.  I hope to see you there!  Questions or comments just leave it!