JOYnight

DJs, Events, Nightclubs

Electric Daisy Carnival

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Electric Daisy Carnival 2013

It’s a bit of an effort to describe to someone who hasn’t been there. No matter how incredible the words, no matter how many stories you tell, no matter how many outfits and costumes you show them pictures of, no matter how bright you tell them the lights were, no matter how loud you say the music was…it simply doesn’t convey the sheer magnitude of the sensory overload someone experiences at Electric Daisy Carnival(EDC).  This is it.  This is the biggest, loudest, most beautiful, shiniest party in the world.

For the three days over the weekend of June 21-23, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, all 1,200 or so acres of it, will be transformed into an electronic music wonderland, a separate reality where the outside world simply does not matter anymore.  Three hundred thousand-plus dedicated party people in every sort of outfit and every color of neon wig, kicking up a cloud of glitter & rainbows as they descend on Vegas for what promises, once again, to be an epic event.  It promises the sort of transcendental experience that manages to reaffirm your faith that the world isn’t a bad place.

Far from being complacent, and relying prior years’ successes to satisfy the crowds this year, Pasquale Rotella, the owner of Insomniac, has promised and paid for an even more ridiculous weekend:

“It’s a $35 million show and the largest percentage of that money goes toward the production. We’re stepping it up and presenting things that you’ve never seen before.  We’re creating an environment along the lines of what you see at a theme park — but on an even larger scale.”

As with last year, you can expect the over the top spectacle of hundreds of art installations, pyrotechnics shows, and carnival rides, games, performers and diversions.  And music.  A serious number of amazing sets from the biggest and best in the world:  Tiësto, Avicii, Calvin Harris, and Armin Van Buuren are headlining, supported by Empire of the Sun, Skrillex, Major Lazer, Afrojack, Boys Noize, A-Trak, Rusko, Booka Shade, La Roux, AraabMUZIK, Richie Hawtin, Carl Cox, Knife Party, The Bloody Beetroots, Kaskade, Sasha, Steve Angello, Dillon Francis, Zeds Dead, Benny Benassi, Hardwell, Eric Prydz, Baauer, Wolfgang Gartner, Above & Beyond, Sander Van Doorn, Fedde Le Grand, Porter Robinson, Crookers, 12th Planet, Thomas Gold, Just Blaze, Flosstradamus…I can go on, but you get the point.  Just about everybody you could want to see in 2013 is going to be there.

As incredible as the festival itself is, everything surrounding EDC has become an event of its own, with Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman pronouncing June 18-24 to be Electric Daisy Carnival Week.  The parties, events, and spectacle of EDC will be running full power the whole seven days.

One of the more anticipated events is Bassrush’s invasion of Sin City. On June 20, they’ll be taking over Beachlife! At the Hard Rock Café & Casino for what will be a first: a drum & bass and dubstep day party leading up to the Bassrush Massive with headliner Andy C that night at the Orleans Arena.  Consider it a heavy warm up for the weekend’s main event.

Another outstanding feature will be the three-day EDMbiz conference at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.  Kicking off Tuesday night with a networking party, and continuing the next two days with industry and artist panels, the EDMbiz conference is a must-attend for anyone interested in the business and culture of EDM.

In addition, well, Vegas is still Vegas.  The city will be crawling with people who couldn’t get in, people recharging away from the main event, and people who just figured it would be fun to be there while all this was going on.

Expect to find big names and legendary acts popping up in the best clubs in the city.  With that much talent in town, there are going to be some unbelievable shows going down.  Crazy happens, like Knife Party and Afrojack deciding to join the Bingo Players on stage at Surrender last year, which as you might imagine, led to a energetic, amazing night for everyone lucky enough to be there.

And that’s EDC in a nutshell.  Everything you love, every song you obsess over, every neon-lit dreamland of music & dancing, when you plug into the crowd and you’re all connected in that same incredible moment.

~~Keith Ancker

©2013MWFC

Profile: DJ Quik

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David Marvin Blake aka DJ Quik is an actor, producer and an American rapper. He was born on 18th January, 1970 in Compton, California. DJ Quik has remixed, produced and written many songs for different artists along with performing in several ones. Roger Troutman, George Clinton are his inspirations with many others funk and soul artists. David started to get the liking for music when he was just 2 mostly because his mother had a huge music collection. When 12, David was already good at playing instruments and at the age of 21, he became the platinum selling artist.

The Red Tape, which became popular in 1987 was a compilation of his songs and these tapes were developed at home after which he started his career as a DJ. He started doing shows from Southern California. At 11 years of age, David dropped out of school for a term of 3 years because his mother lost her home. He said that his family has boosted after his success in the music worlds.

His homemade tapes were later recognized by renowned labels like Profile and Ruthless records. Later on, David switched from Profile over to the Eazy-E because they offered him $1 million in advance. Profile records were left with no other choice but to sent a letter of desist to the Ruthless records. He later signed a contract with the Profile records in summer 1990 and released his first album “Quik is the name” in 1991. This album was placed at 10th position with the success of two top R&B singles, “Tonite” and “Born and raised in Compton”. Although his other albums haven’t gained popularity like the debut version, they were admired by many.

His second album which is “Way 2 fonky” came out in 1992 containing two hit singles “Way 2 fonky” and “Jus Lyke Compton”. In the same year, Quik produced the debut album by Penthouse Players Clique titled as “Paid the Cost”. For his third album, he collaborated with Suge Knight of Kapital Records and was released in 1994 named as “Safe+Sound” which reached #14 on the billboard top 200.

In 1997, Quik produced a single track for the album House of Music by Tony!Toni!Tone’! which was highly appreciated by the listeners. This single track which is “Let’s get down” made the album sell over a million copies. Rhythm-al-ism is his fourth album featuring Snoop Dogg, AMG, Sugar Free and Nate Dogg as guest appearance.

Quik partnered with Arista Records to produce his fifth album which only had a sales record of just  400,000. Arista records took over Profile and dropped Quik after the lack of sales for his fifth album. This was nothing as compared to another of his album titled “Under the Influence” which sold only  200,000 records.

DJ Quik has released around 8 albums in all with only the first one to be a success. When asked, he exclaimed that he simply couldn’t back out from the contract that’s the reason for his continuous release of album after album. After all the critical responses, DJ Quik hasn’t released his own produced album but has worked closely with several artists.

Profile: DJ Willem Rebergen aka Headhunterz

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Willem Rebergen is a DJ/Producer who is known for his hard style Dutch music and remixes. He was previously known as Nasty D-Tuners which was later modified to Headhunterz. Scantraxx Reloaded is his own label which itself is a sub label of Scrantaxx, a Dutch record which was incepted in 2006. His career started from character voice over which he still enjoys doing so.

When he was just 9 years old, Rebergen participated in children’s choir in which he also sang along. As a voice over actor, he started it at age 10 for which he was appreciated and started to excel in career life. His life as a DJ started when he was discovered by The Prophet (also a DJ/Producer) at a hard style music event which was held in the Netherlands.

This was the start of his successful career as a DJ and since then, Headhunterz has performed at many hard style events included The Defqon.1 Festival which is a biggest music event. The Qlimax, Q-Base,  In control, Decibel are some hard style music events for which he has performed but mostly is seen in the Defqon.1 Festival. His live performance at Qlimax was highly admired by the audience in the years 2006-11. Rebergen has also produced special Anthem for events like the 2007 Qlimax event and for the Defqon.1 Festival in 2009 which was the infamous “Scrap Attack” and “Save Your Scrap For Victory” in 2010 for the same event held in Australia. He collaborated with the Wildstylez and Noisecontrollers to produce an Anthem for the Defqon.1 Festival in the year 2012.

His first album under his own label that is The Scantraxx Reloaded was released in 2008 in alliance with Wildstylez which was titled as “Project 1”. This album was highly appreciated by the audience for its outstanding features in the hard style music. He became renowned worldwide after this particular album and tour across Netherland was also arranged for its success.

His ranking a DJ climbed as mentioned in the DJ magazine. Headhunterz got on 37th position out of top 100 yearly DJ’s in 2010 for which he is the pioneer as hard style has never been in top 100 before. His competitors namely D-block & S-te-Fan, Noise controllers and Showtek got 73rd, 90th and 91st position respectively making DJ Headhunterz the #1 in hard style music.

With the passing years, his performance got better and better and he was placed at #17 in 2011   and at #11 in 2012 among the top 100 DJ’s of the year. Headhunterz started to air his own podcast with the title “Hard with Style” over his own YouTube channel which is released monthly.

Headhunterz has also performed his showcasing event at the Ziggo Dome built in Amsterdam. This was his second showcasing event which was hosted by Q-Dance. Recently, Headhunterz signed dance music album under the label Ultra Music alongside launching his hard dance music label with the name “Hard with Style”. Headhunterz has performed with various artists and have released several remixes since the beginning of his DJ career. Some of the famous movies for which he has performed the voice over include;

  • The Land before Time.
  • High School Musical.
  • Rocket Power.
  • Harry Potter.
  • The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

An Interview with DJ Rocco

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A Short Biography

French national, Rocco started his career as a DJ almost 20 years  ago from one of the largest clubs located in North of Germany only a few miles from the Hamburg. His initial projects were released under the labels such as the EDM and KONTOR. His career as a producer boosted with his partnership with Bass-T and Pulsedriver in early 2000.

Rocco’s first release, Back In Town Again was a hit that rocked the dance floors of Germany but it was nothing as compared to his second release. Everybody which was his second release raised the German sales charts to maximum in March 2002 with 130,000 sales just in Germany and Austria. Rocco was positioned at #9 and is known worldwide after the  success of his second single release. Drop The Bass was his third single release which again was a  chartbuster placing Rocco at #5.

During an interview with a team of a particular website, DJ Rocco was asked several questions to which he responded very calmly. Several questions which were asked are stated below along with the answers;

1.    How’s your year been so far?

He answered that his year has been great because he met a lot of new people from all over the world. He also quoted that he did a lot of remixes  that year but haven’t produced his own music for which he’s now working.

2.    Along with Dmitri, who’re some other artists which you admire?

He claimed that Dmitiri is his inspiration in the DJ world which provoked the musician inside him. Bob Marley, the SOS Band, the Gap, Kool and the Gang, D’Train, Carlos Santana and James Brown are some of his inspirations.

3.    What makes your show special for you?

Rocco said that for a DJ or any other musician, the greatest achievement is the packed dance floor along with applause, cheering and excitement of the crowd which motivate to perform even better. He stated that he saw people actually cried at some of his songs which touch the soul and make the audience move along with the tune and groove.

4.    What is the important aspect of a DJ’s party, atmosphere or sound?

For this question he cited that both are important in their own ways but for him, sound system is more vital. He claimed that music should be played accordingly to the audience which when gets along with the tune, results in a party or concert being a hit.

5.    What have you been working for recently?

DJ Rocco has been working on different remixes and original songs. He has been closely working with various people like Akrem who sang the song “Each & every year”, trumpeter Kafele Bandale and jazz composer and producer Vusi Mahiasela. He has also released several remixes collaborating with his friends, The Torre’ Brothers.

6.    Anything else you would like to share with your fans?

He smiled at this question and apologized his fans and listeners for his French and English mix up language and accent.

Album Review: Random Access Memories by Daft Punk

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Daft Punk is known to revolutionize the music industry with technological background music with superb electronic guitar and keyboard sound. Random Access Memories will be the fourth album of Daft Punk after their last album which was released in 2005 which titled “Human After All”. The album received a huge applause and feedback and fans had to pre-book the concert tickets months before their concert. They have a huge fan following list from all over the world who expect this album to be better than the last one.

“Discovery”, which was their first album, received billions of dollars and a huge fan following after it was launched and the tracks also featured short Japanese cartoon stories. Although, this album will be released after 8 years, Daft Punk has been performing in different concerts and their most famous show down was in the hit movie of 2010, Disney’s TRON: Legacy.

This album will be released in UK on 20th May, 2013 and will feature music a bit similar to that in the movie TRON. Study has revealed that the album has a total number of 13 songs and below is the detail of each track.

  1. The first track will be of 4 minutes and 34 seconds with guests appearing in the song are Nile Rodgers and Paul Jackson junior on guitar.
  2. Second track will be instrumental similar to that of “Aerodynamic” in their first album “Discovery”. This will be of 5 minutes and 21 seconds.
  3. The third track is the lengthiest song in this album which is of 9 minutes and 4 seconds featuring Giorgio Moroder.
  4. Their master keyboard artist Gonzales will be seen performing on the Piano and the song duration is 3 minutes and 48 seconds.
  5. This song will be performed by all time favorite Daft Punk singer, Julian Casablancas as a vocalist. Song duration is 5 minutes and 37 seconds.
  6. This particular song has its name leaked out which is titled as “Loose yourself to dance” which will be of 5 minutes and 53 seconds featuring Nile Rodgers on the guitar and Pharrel Williams as a vocalist.
  7. This song is written and performed by Paul Williams and track duration is of 8 minutes and 18 seconds making it second lengthy song in the album.
  8. This track is performed by Pharrel Williams as a vocalist and Nile Rodgers as a guitarist. Duration is 6 minutes and 7 seconds.
  9. Not much is revealed about this song except for the lyrics which are written by Paul Williams. Track timings are 4 minutes and 50 seconds.
  10. This is the second instrumental track with outclass music featuring a techno guitar and piano. Duration is 5 minutes and 41 seconds.
  11. This track is performed by Todd Edwards, a vocalist. Track duration is 4 minutes and 39 seconds.
  12. Noah Benjamin Lennox has performed this particular song which is of 4 minutes and 11 seconds.
  13. Last song of this album is of 6 minutes and 21 seconds. Other details of this track are unrevealed.

Daft Punk fans have waited a long time for this album and are expecting it to be a blast after all these years. According to different reviews, this album is a step forward in the music world of Daft Punk and contains music far better than other previous albums.

SFX Entertainment Acquires Beatport

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With Beatport seeing exponential growth over the last few years, it was just a matter of time before the dance music giant was purchased by an even larger entertainment company. As of Thursday, we can make it official, as SFX Entertainment acquired Beatport for slightly more than $50 million, according to NPR.

Being one of the most popular online retailers of electronic music, Beatport is certainly a major addition to SFX. By its own account, the site attracts approximately 40 million users per year, many of whom have become loyal customers and huge supporters of the site.

“[With this purchase] you now have a great one stop shop for customers of dance music,” said SFX Entertainment CMO Chris Stephenson.

Even with its recent growth, we can still understand why Beatport would want to sell, as it reported a $2 million loss last year, despite generating an estimated $15-$18 million in revenue.

The sale is good news in many ways for EDM fans, who now know that their beloved Beatport is in the hands of a capable and profitable parent company. SFX has actually become more heavily involved in the dance music industry in recent years, as it also acquired popular promoter Disco Donnie Presents, a company that puts on more than 100 of the biggest concerts and festivals in EDM each year, including the Electric Daisy Carnival.

And SFX, which also owns Life in Color, plans to continue expanding in dance music, as its founder Robert F.X. Sillerman announced plans to invest a billion dollars in the electronic music industry.

“We have some of the best festival brands in the world and now we have the number one digital destination for fans of this music,” said Stephenson.

There is no word on how or if Beatport will change, but SFX has plenty of reasons to keep Beatport’s already large and faithful following happy. The site’s top 100 list, its popular blog and its massive collection of available downloads keep EDM fans at the center of the scene, but just because the site has “sold out”, the acquisition shouldn’t affect how we find and buy our favorite EDM tunes online. At least, let’s hope not.

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