David Tort is a Tech House DJ/producer from Spain that's really developed a distinguished sound. Unfortunately, as with most guys that push a certain style, their songs begin to sound the same, but that doesn't stop these tracks from being absolute bombs for your rave sets. Enjoy:
This is Procrastination speaking. I was graciously invited by the Apes with Barrels team to join with them in the noble quest of running this blog, to bring music to the masses, and more importantly, to get the masses dancing to some quality tracks. I make a little bit of music myself, which the AWB guys have been kind enough to post, but I'm gonna be focusing on bringing you all music that I like and think you should have.
Now this is primarily a house blog, and I do love house music, but I must say that when I really want to get down, I put on some Full-On Psytrance. Psytrance takes many forms, one of the more popular of which is Ambient Psytrance (played by artists such as Shpongle, Ott, and Younger Brother), but Full-On Psytrance is psychedelia taken to an insane, frenetic, glorious, 145 BPM height. So I'm gonna bring you one of my favorite Psytrance albums in this post.
Electro Sun is a producer from Israel (a place almost every Psytrance producer calls home) who makes some of the most exciting Psytrance out there. His melodies are meticulous and fast-paced, yet sweeping and epic, and most importantly, his builds are some of the most amazing in the business. Here's an album of his.
It's almost that time for me to go back to school, which is great because I managed to secure myself a gig the day after I get there (that would be a gig on the 3rd for any Wes kids reading this). This gig is especially exciting because I get to introduce myself in the very best way to all the incoming Freshman. I will also be joined by our friend Procrastination, who will not only be coming to Wes but will also be splitting the gig with me. For this very special occasion, I decided to make a brand new mix (also trying to keep up with the Just Gravy, No Pototoes crew that seem to churn out Mixtapes like Chinese Parents do children). Anyways, I hope you enjoy the mix, it runs about an hour long. I definitely focused more on track selection than mixing, picking a bunch of Epic Tracks to blow them Freshman away. This is also the first of our mixes to feature an original track, which I seriously can't wait to hear on big speakers come Thursday.
BONUS: Gold - Mustard Pimp This is a fantastic remix of the track I ended with. Enjoy.
OH, and in DJ news, looks like DJ AM died from overdose. I won't be the first to say that I was his biggest fan, but he somehow managed to borrow Thomas Bangalter's mask, and that is quite an achievement. Anyone who's got Daft Punk's approval definitely has mine. Just so weird since he literally JUST cheated death in that whole plane crash incident.
DJ DirtyDumbo, one of our friends from the Just Gravy, No Potatoes crew, just released a new mixtape called Get Dumb. This mix is jam packed full of face melting electro with splashes of Dutch House and Fidget to boot. What's great about this mix is that he made every effort to really work on mixing/mashing two songs together rather than just get from one song to the next. So be sure to grab the mix:
I got a pleasant surprise in the form of an email from Louis Fresco of The Disco Villains hooking me up with some new tracks. Anybody who reads this should be familiar with these guys as we interviewed them (HERE) as well as posted a ton of their tracks (HERE). Anyways, enjoy these new tracks, and go grab their EP from Beatport. And for other bloggers, be sure to send Louie an email (ghettochildlf45@hotmail.com) as he'll be more than happy to hook you up with free tracks as they come.
Yes, I'm definitely late on this one, but the reason I'm posting it now is because I was just listening to this wonderful mix by Just A Band while driving today and was reminded how awesome it is. I got this a while ago from Too Many Sebastians, listened to it once, liked it, but then forgot about it. We've posted about these guys before (HERE and HERE specifically), so I thought I knew what to expect but this mix actually surprised me (just look at some of the names in the tracklist). Enjoy:
Woodlington is the name of a French/Disco House producer (or rather his dog) from the UK who's actually been making music since 1998 after being inspired by all the big 90s dudes (aka Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, and Fatboy Slim). He's always been fascinated by the making of music using samples, making him a perfect fit for French House. I discovered this guy via his last.fm (HERE), and really liked his tracks. So after about a month of trying to contact him, I finally managed to track him down and grab some 320s. However, he didn't have a 320 of one of my favorites of his, so I've only got it in 128. I hope you enjoy these tracks, I'd be surprised if you managed to find them anywhere else.
-M
Dancing Stars - Woodlington So good. Great samples, great drums, great bass, lots of filters and phasers and such.
Inspired Initiative - Woodlington Nothing is funkier than a guitar riff that switches off between the root and flat seven (come on music nerds, I know you're out there!) Take It Higher - Woodlington The most relaxed of his tracks, it's really just a setup for a fantastic sample. Starshine - Woodlington Not as exciting as his other tracks, somebody like Louis La Roche should totally remix this track. Seems like a sample he'd do well with.
But I'd stop gawping over that lovely French girl any day for new Fake Blood tracks! This EP is awesome, still very much Fake Blood, but an entirely new direction. It's very French inspired, full of funky samples (almost like a less weird Oizo), which is a HUGE plus for me of course.
-M
*ALL EP LINKS REMOVED BY REQUEST (Bonus still fine)
Fix Your Accent - Fake Blood Good and funky.
The Dozens - Fake Blood More close to his 'Mars' sound. The second buildup is fantastic. It's even got an acid synth in the end.
I Think I Like It - Fake Blood The clear winner from this EP. This track is brilliant. This is definitely one of my favorites of all his tracks.
Noob is a Minimal Techno (definitely incorporates elements of House and Electro as well) producer from France. I love him. He's a lot like Popof but is really starting to come into his own style, he's not quite AS ravey. I think he's actually friends with Popof and his apprentice, I think I read that somewhere but please don't quote me. His releases keep getting better and better, thought it was time to feature him here. I'll always have such a soft spot for the Frenchies when it comes to this music.
-M Lyposuct (Noob Remix) - D.I.M. & TAI I don't compare this to the original anymore because its so amazing and entirely different. This would DESTROY a rave. Shoes (Noob Remix) - Tiga Such an unbelievably cool track. What's that sound? I love that sound. Petit Abricot - Noob Very different form his other tracks, it's just plain beautiful. Not a dance track, though I suppose it could be a fantastic end to a set. It just really shows off his talent as a producer. Noob Collection (All In One Zip)
Some say that few things in life are truly worth celebrating. If this is true, a new Wolfgang Gartner tracks is certainly one of them. But TWO new tracks? Now that's rapture, baby.
-M Fire Power (Original Mix) - Wolfgang Gartner More along the lines of his newer style ala Wolfgang's 5th Symphony. Quality SAYS 320, but sure doesn't sound like it...
Latin Fever (Original Mix) - Wolfgang Gartner This track's actually sounds a little more like his older stuff in the drums, just MUCH ravier.
If you want more tracks by this holy, holy man, just click on the tag with his name below, as we've posted every single one of his tracks up to this point.
BONUS: I got sent this promotion video for Above & Beyond asking for votes for the Top 100 DJ poll asking me to post it, and I thought it was pretty funny, so here it is:
So last Saturday was the ever so anticipated Love Festival. The lineup was nothing like EDC of course, as this event is MUCH smaller, but it was still big and exciting enough to get us excited as hell. It was also great to have this a week after the train wreck that was HARD Summer (read about that fuck up HERE). I'm going to do this review in the order that we saw the DJs. I will say this though, it was a night of bootlegs. I heard every DJ play some bootlegs, which I guess is ok but it's not really impressive since they're really not doing anything.
D.O.N.S. was playing when we arrived much to our delight. He was one of the people we were most excited to see, and we showed up in time to see the majority of his set. He played mostly Tech House with some Prog and a little Electro thrown in. This was J's favorite set of the night. Not much else to say except that he did a pretty good job. I will say though that his stage presence is lacking, partly do to just his appearance (I mean look at the guy, it's pretty hard to take him seriously). That said, he definitely got me dancing and jumping a few times. The highlight was when he played this bootleg: We Are Kidsos (ImanoS Bootleg) - Dirty South vs. Sebastian Ingrosso
You can also cop some of his tracks HERE and HERE.
After D.O.N.S. was finished, we decided to go check out the other stage to see what was up, and Julius Papp was playing. I know nothing about this dude, but his set was pretty cool. More relaxed, cool house stuff. I would have preferred somebody like Mark Farina, but he was definitely cool. Check out this video to get more of an idea.
We headed back up to the main stage and caught the last 30 minutes or so of Cedric Gervais. This dude fucked up a few times, and people noticed. It was pretty funny. He also looked like a complete tool on stage. I was just waiting for the next act to come on, really, but he did play this awesome bootleg:
Finally, Sharam came up and gave us the most epic intro ever by playing some fucking Ennio Morricone. Brilliant. This was my favorite set of the night for sure. He just dropped bomb after bomb of awesome Techno and Tech House. I was actually expecting a Prog House set, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He also had a live vocalist come and sing, which was really great. Here are some tracks:
Grab his album HERE (torrent, I'll try to upload it via mediafire eventually)
And here are some videos:
Not from the actual event, but I needed to find a video showing his intro
Next up was Steve Angello, the man we were most excited to see. I mean, he's in the goddam Swedish House Mafia. His set was great by all means, but it wasn't the best. He did remind me, however, how great Swedish House can be for raves (we've been very distracted with Dutch House for the past month or so). However, as J pointed out to me, he basically just played a really safe set of hits, which was a little disappointing. He was also big on the bootlegs, playing that same Yin For The Kill as well as some others, like:
We left before he was done because we were exhausted and really wanted to go home. Overall, great night, great sets, really fun event actually. It was a lot smaller than EDC which made it so much more manageable.
That may be one mean looking Tiger, but its got nothing on the up and coming producers from my lovely hometown Los Angeles by the name of gLAdiator. These guys stay true to their city too, mixing the worlds of Electro and Hip-hop to make music that's undeniably cool. They also run a great blog which everyone should check out HERE. While their sound is still developing, I have big expectations for them and know that what comes next will be even better.
-M
Arcade Riot - gLAdiator Fun, bouncy, Electro/Fidget Very video gamey, lots of fun. Should get your crowd jumping.
LoveGame (gLAdiator Remix) - Lady Gaga I have to admit about how reluctant I was to post anything related to the baby woman, but this remix is fresh as hell. Great kick drum.
Back Sally Up - gLAdiator TI vs. Moby. Not a dance track, just one of the best made mashups I've ever heard. Ever.
Funkagenda is a producer from the UK who's been (along with Mark Knight who he works with a lot) tearing shit up. Of course we all already know that the line between Tech house and Prog House is a small one in many senses. It really varies from song to song, but this stuff definitely has that tech feel, but every once in a while I'll catch a glimpse of that Prog shit. Somebody I've been listening to for quite a while and definitely deserves some attention.
Hey, don't forget to vote for DJ Mag's top 100 DJ poll (HERE)
Just got sent this mix from our friends over at Zaber Riders, and I must say I'm pretty damn impressed. Great selection of a bunch of different styles, with lots of Minimal, Jazzy, and just plain Weird tracks (but I'm getting the sense that they enjoy weird stuff, which is not a problem at all (love you Oizo!). Anyways, I don't know if they intended for me to post it, but I figured I'd share it with you anyways. Be sure to check their blog HERE.
Hotflash - Oliver $ Bailando (Riva Starr Remix) - Daniel Steinberg Lessons Part 1 - Dan M & James Braun Haarlem - Renaissance Man 4 My Recordz - Rene Bourgeois Why don't you - Gramophonedzie (We gave em this one) Pobum Coco - Daniel Haaksman Another Step - Oliver Twitz Mexer (Funkin Matt 5am Remix) - Gregor Salto Tekatek - Blind Minded Congaloid -Solo The Sixpack Anthem (Harvard Bass Remix) - Orgasmic, Tekitek (I've always loved this track) Chris James & Marc Spence - Keeper of the Flame Promise less do more, wachagonnado? (Supermario Mashup) - Whitest Boy Alive & Oliver $
BONUS: HUGE THANKS to Danger Danger! for posting a Bastille Remix! Check the post HERE.
But you gotta give it to the dude, Axwell is one hell of a House producer. He's basically the king of Sweden, and that's really saying a lot considering the other Swedes. Also funny fact, we met this random ass female French DJ at LAX and she was wearing that exact same shirt, the picture just made me think of that.
Dubfire is the king of Techno as far as I'm concered. Dubfire was the first minimal producer that I really loved, and definitely paved the way for me deciding to open up my music taste beyond the realm of Electro. He also was part of the duo Deep Dish along with Sharam and invented Progressive House. Heavy shit. Anyways, his solo tracks are so much better than anything he ever made with Deep Dish. Enjoy, every tracks is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
-M
I Found U (Dubfire Remix) - Axwell First track of his I ever heard, and boy do I love it. Still my favorite. You could probably get away with palying this at a college party actually, I might try it.
Once again, I would like to remind all readers that if we are to be shut down for any reason, we will be continuing our horrible piracy on apeswithbarrels.wordpress.com, which is our back up blog and contains all the posts this one's got.
J already did a post on this dude (HERE), but I decided it was time for round two. Abel Ramos is a Progressive House DJ/producer from Spain that makes some really awesome tracks (although they all do kind of sound the same, but that hasn't stopped me from raving about a producer before (love you Fred Falke!)). Anyways, all you House heads should definitely grab these tracks, you won't be disappointed:
Eric Prydz is one of the most amazing House producers to have ever lived. Ever since he top the charts with his mega hit Call On Me, he's been destroying every genre he's attempted. This post will focus on his productions under the alias Pryda. Each and every one of these tracks is an absolute bomb and they will all destroy your rave crowd. I really just wish he'd hire some great remixers for his tracks, I'd love to see what Deadmau5 or some other top name would do with these amazing tracks. Figured it was about time to put his stuff up here.
-M
Animal - Pryda Great mix of Electro and Progressive (ELECTROGRESSIVE!). I remember hearing one of the DJs at EDC dropping this at the main stage to great effect. What a fucking track.
Ironman - Pryda The track that really made me fall in love with him. Minimal Electro bomb.
Muranyi - Pryda Great Progressive track with some chip elements, sounds like a video game sample.
FUCK HARD. How the hell could they fuck everyone over like that with such an amazing lineup. I mean, come on! WE WERE GONNA SEE FUCKING SEBASTIAN FOR CHIRST'S SAKE! Fuckers. Well, here's what happened:
We finally get in at about 8:40 and see Busy P just destroying it. He's playing all sorts of great track, even my favorite Electro House anthem Get Off by Sharooz (get it HERE). Then Crystal Castles come up to the stage and make a mockery of themselves. I have seen them before in a club environment and they were incredible, but when they bring their punk act to the big stage at a rave, it just doesn't translate. AND the sound kept fucking up, so they had to pause while this awful feedback just screamed over the speakers for about 10 minutes straight. They ended their set early. Then Destructo played while they set up Chromeo. Unfortunately, they then announced that everyone needed to calm down to let the show continue. We sat there for 2 hours. Then riot cops showed up and we had to leave. Fuck HARD.
And to all of our Los Angeles readers, everyone should hit up Love Festival next week. Great lineup, and straight up House music is much better for raves in my opinion.
Just last week we played at Kitchen 24 on Cahuenga with the Just Gravy, No Potatoes crew. It was a great time, and I decided to record my mix from the night and post it. This one's a much more relaxed, jazzy house mix best enjoyed with cocktails and cigarettes. Hope you enjoy:
Tracklist: Rock With You (Frankie Knuckles Club Mix) - Michael Jackson Intro - Alan Braxe The Ghetto - Bob Sinclar Disco Cubizm (Daft Punk Remix) - I:Cube Catch Your Pain (Original Mix) - The Julia Set Why Don't You - Gramophonedzie Double Stacked - Joey Youngman
I think the bio on his Myspace, which is quite long I might add says a fair amount (this is only part of it):
Ironically, the free and easy days of early hip-hop disappeared, with Funkerman feeling creatively hemmed in by the rules and regulations that seemed to spring up around the sound. So it was that, in the early 90s, while spinning at Spock in Breda, the beats of Todd Terry, Derrick May, and Lil Louis that gradually worked their magic on the Dutchman. It was house music, and Funkerman was hooked.
Hooked swiftly turned to obsessed, as is the case in all true music success stories. Hobby became profession, a job in a record store introducing him to a wealth of new tracks and some of the people he would later collaborate and indeed go into business with. Hours spent not just listening to music but to other house fans raving on about tunes, he quickly began to understand the dimensions of what made one house anthem work and another disappear into the bargain section. Production was well and truly calling Funkerman.
Also MR. Funkerman, also works closely with Fedde. I decided not to do this post because of my extreme love for Funkerman, but because I feel there are many who would love everything that Funkerman does. I would try it instead of taking my word for anything.
Sun is Shining (Funkerman Remix) by Bob Marley, Amazing chords, but though I enjoy the drop something doesn't feel right. Still love it though. And this doesn't have super cheesy vocals because it's Bob Marley.
Speed Up (Original Mix) by Funkerman, this is definitely his most popular song. It has a cool lead synth sound, but it just doesn't cut it for me. bad vocals
Slide (Original Mix) by Funkerman, Kinda Catchy in a weird way, still not amazing. His seond most popular song. Cheesy Hip Hop vocals, I don't like em.
Umek is a Minimal Techno DJ/producer from Solvenia that I've been wanting to check out for a while and finally got the energy to do so. Now, I very much enjoy my Minimal Techno, but it's definitely not for everyone, and for those of you who are unfamiliar with guys like Dubfire and Richie Hawtin, you may not enjoy this at all. It's very much an acquired taste, but I love this shit, it's in the running for the best rave music out there. But, if you've been enjoying the more minimal sounds coming from the Dutch, then you should definitely give this a try. But where the Minimal House is funky/tribal, this stuff is cold/robotic.
Senderoff (Umek Remix) - Fergie Be careful driving after listening to this song, because I think it might affect your sobriety. And no, you're definitely thinking of the wrong Fergie, since this one also makes Minimal Techno and will be featured on here soon enough.
Collection Time! (10 Tracks). I was only able to find 10 tracks of him this time, but I'm sure there will be a catch up post on him eventually with some more tracks. Umek Collection (All In One Zip)
BONUS: Mirror Error (Das Glow Remix) - The Faint Woah, some weird shit. Jumpman will definitely flip a shit over this. Hope his first day of college was awesome. If we have any readers from Bard college, you should definitely go find him and say what up from us.
Felguk is an absolutely incredible Electro House duo from Brazil. If you enjoy Electro House, you MUST grab these tracks. While they have some very hard hitting tracks, some are just plain beautiful and melodic while still staying dancey as fuck. It's almost like a more playful Deadmau5 with some clear German electro influence (I mean, they even collaborated with the infamous Spencer & Hill). Been meaning to do this post for a long time, but I just have so many tracks of theirs that I've been dreading the upload, but it's finally time to put em out there. Enjoy: Oh yeah, and all tracks are 320, with the exception of ONE of the tracks in the collection at the bottom, which is actually 319...
Side By Side (Original Mix) - Felguk This track just kills too. So beautiful and yet so hard hitting at the same time. It's kind of like a mix between Progressive and Electro. Let's call it Electrogressive! Harder Better Faster Stronger (Felguk Remix) - Daft Punk Tired of playing the original, or perhaps the Deadmau5 remix? This is a FANTASTIC substitute. Will make your crowd go nuts for sure. Guess What (Original Mix) - Felguk Wow. There isn't much Electro House out there that sounds like this. Truly Unique. This track in particular is like a Progressive version of Fidget House, only way I can really describe it.
And, for those of you who are particularly enjoying what you're hearing, you can grab my entire Felguk collection below (24 Tracks, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).
That pictures just screams business, doesn't it? So this is I believe the fourth time we'll be featuring Procrastination, a young up and comer from the awesome city of San Francisco (I really wanted to make a roadtrip up there this summer but it doesn't look like that's gonna happened, especially with HARD Summer and Love Fest right around the corner). I have the two newest tracks for everyone.
Ok, so there's this genre called Hardstyle, which is basically really really hard Trance. We don't ever really post any type of Trance on this blog, so this is a rare chance to get your Trance fix. Enjoy these awesome tracks from 2003, regardless if you're laughing at em or moshing.
Gramophonedzie are a House duo from Serbia (gotta be the first and probably only producers from that country to appear on this blog) that make the coolest tracks with Jazz samples. Unfortunately, I could only find 2 tracks, but everyone needs to get up on these tracks.
-M
Why Dont You - Gramophonedzie Definitely my favorite track right now. Can't stop playing it. Cool isn't a good nough word to describe just how cool this track is, so I'll call it Shibby. Street Lady - Gramophonedzie Not QUITE as awesome as the above track, but still an awesome track.
