Armin van Buuren posted on Facebook Saturday that he will be traveling to space in 2014, thanks to SXC. As one of the “Founder Astronauts,” this is a huge honor for Armin. Only 100 people have the priviledge to be part of this program, and founders will make the very first flights into space. van Buuren will partake in multiple training sessions to prepare him for his adventure, and hopefully we’ll see “A State of Space” broadcast next year on SiriusXM.
On Saturday, June 22nd rage in the Hamptons withAN21 where he will be headlining South Pointe Nightclub. The red hot younger brother of Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello is most famous for his remix of Pendulum’s “The Island,” which he remixed with Steve Angello and Max Vangeli. The track was dubbed ‘Hottest Track in the World’ by Radio One’s Zane Lowe.
There are many characteristics that come to mind when I think about EDC Las Vegas, including: the hottest names in EDM, glittery outfits, hippie headbands, carnival rides, and the desert. We are only a few days from one of the biggest productions and invasions of electronic dance music that Vegas has ever seen. Between the $35 million being put into the festival and the constant delivery of entertainment, EDC-goers are in for a treat. As I prepare to embark on the same adventure as many of you this upcoming weekend, there is some advice I would like to bestow to you.
With Camp Bisco less than a month away, we’ve officially hit crunch time to prepare for this 3-day premiere Electronic Music Festival. In anticipation of the marvelous festival in upstate New York, Mixify will be hosting the official Camp Bisco Digital Pre-Festival with MCP Presents and ThisSongIsSick on Wednesday, June 19th. If this is anything like Mixify’s past few digital events, we highly recommend listening in. This 1-day event will feature sets from some of the hottest DJs in the industry, including Tommy Trash and Congorock alongside some rising stars and veteran Mixify favorites. The free digital pre-festival will be hosted on Mixify.com and is open to electronic music fans worldwide. Not only will listeners have the opportunity to listen in for free, the first 50 to purchase Camp Bisco 3-day General Admission passes through Mixify will get a Free US Airbag Freefall Xperience. Be sure to tune in this Wednesday for the pre-festival!
The first time I saw Kaskade live was at Identity Festival in 2011, at Jiffy Lube Live (Bristow, VA). In fact, this was the first music festival I had ever attended, period. At the time I didn’t know much about EDM. It was cool and all, but I didn’t quite understand it. Nor did I know how I would survive an entire day of running around festival grounds. However, I vividly remember him playing ‘Raining,’ a track that he produced with Adam K and Sunsun in 2010, and the amazing lightshow that reacted to the beats. Fittingly, it might have even been raining as he played the song. And if it wasn’t, I can promise that it did at least rain at one point during Identity.
ID&T, the company that brought Sensation to America last year, will also be bringing Mysteryland and Q-dance to us in 2014. It has been announced that Mysteryland, which originated in the Netherlands, will take place at an ‘historic’ site in the New York area. In fact, 2013 is the year it will celebrate its 20th anniversary, with headliners including Steve Aoki, Steve Angello, Fedde le Grand, and Headhunterz.
This DJ started out as the lead singer of post-hardcore band From First to Last. After breaking out on his own, he eventually found himself at the turntables. I’m talking about the one and only Sonny Moore, who most of you know as Skrillex. His insane performances and floor-shaking tracks leave no question as to why he is one of the best known DJs today. When he’s not winning Grammy Awards, Skrillex can most recently be seen on the stages of the biggest music festivals with Boys Noize as the two form Dog Blood. Skrillex and Boys Noize teamed up last year and have been setting EDM on fire ever since. Even when he's not working on his most recent project Dog Blood, Skrillex finds a way to wow us all.
Olle Corneer and Stefan Engblom aka Dada Life have popularized the banana and its meaning years ago, and recently the two have been pressing on making Dada Land a real place. Apparently, this year “Dada Life declared Dada Land a sovereign nation” and “they wrote letters to the major governments of the world on March 6th.” Protests were held all over the world, from London to Sydney to New York. These protests, as you can probably expect, were filled with insane Dada Life fans either dressed in banana costumes or running around with signs promoting “freedom” for Dada Land. Check out the website they made for Dada Land just to see how serious they really were.
Topher Jones headlines at Stage 48 this Friday, June 14th, while continuing his Hello North America Tour. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Topher used to be a resident DJ at Space, Miami. Currently, signed to a major deal with Ultra Records, Topher has released both original productions and remixes on labels such as OWSLA, Garuda, and Spinnin’.
Trance legend Gareth Emery refers to Jones’ single, "Brohammer," as a ‘beast of a track’ and was featured on his Best of 2012 Mix. Additionally, the track reached the Top 10 overall on Beatport, and received much acclaim from DJs all over the world. To date, Topher’s music has been played by DJs like Tiesto, Skrillex, Armin van Buuren, Knife Party, and Deadmu5. His records “seamlessly cross musical boundaries as they dip and dive between big room house, dirty basslines, and carefully crafted melodies.” As both a songwriter and producer, Topher entered the scene with a bang and won’t be leaving anytime soon.
No matter how much music has evolved over its immense history or how many people that have different opinions about this field, one thing will always remain the same, the music industry always will be one of the hardest markets to pursue. This business is flooded with performers that are trying to be the next big thing, while battling numerous of others that share the same exact ambitions and dreams. Some people actually make it, while others have to sadly watch as their aspirations pass them by. Either way, the only way to get out there and try to be something is by actually sacrificing time and putting a great deal of hard work into projects that could presumably get an aspiring artist from riding on the bus to driving a Porsche. This is why record label Dim Mak and Beatport Play is hosting a competition to give a dedicated music producer the chance not many people can receive.