Author Archive
Major Lazer Making Major Moves in 2012
by PhillyP on Jun.05, 2012, under DUBBYfresh Beats
Major Lazer has been a hot act to see since the explosion of dance music, and is only continuing to create DUBBYfresh beats. Consisting originally of well known producer/DJ Wesley Pentz aka Diplo aka White Lazer, as well as DJ Dave Taylor better known as DJ Switch who has since changed his stage name to Jillionaire. This group, with Diplo as the main contributor/producer is putting out music bridging the gap between genres and truly pushing the envelope for every one making dance music today.
Recently, on April 16, 2012, Major Lazer released a collaboration with vocalist Amber Coffman from Dirty Projectors called “Get Free” that truly pushes for furthering dance music by giving it a calm reggae feel layered with some of the most fitting vocals anyone could have imagined. Diplo was completely successful on the maiden voyage of Holy Ship 2012 earning Major Lazer a spot on upcoming Holy Ship 2013, which is a highly desired gig for any dance music act right now.
If you haven’t heard this track, and even if you have… Enjoy one of my favorite track choices for Summer 2012.
DEMF Hustles Harder: DAY TWO
by PhillyP on Jun.01, 2012, under Live Music Review
In the first installment of DUBBYstep’s experience of DEMF we primarily covered the Dirtybird after-party, as we did not attend the actual Movement Festival during the day. However, day two began with butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of a lineup on Sunday ranging from new age dubstep sensation Zeds Dead , all the way to old school hip hop and rap legends Public Enemy, and back to Detroit local talent and artistic director as well as former co-creator of DEMF Carl Craig. Sunday’s lineup for Movement was no doubt stacked at every one of the five stages creating some difficult decisions and sacrifices to make.
Upon arrival we were wisely informed to go to the Beatport Stage for DJ Heidi, who was raised in Windsor, Ontario, just across the bridge and in close proximity of Detroit techno and Chicago house, she truly soaked up those vibes growing up. Her set was funky and sexy yet filled with fun energy all the way until she had the crowd go nuts for a Snoop Dogg track toward the end of her set. We had to skip out on part of Heidi to catch the secretive duo Tiger & Woods, who spun some disco house funky hybrid sound that had everyone moving and smiling the way everyone at a daytime festival should be. Keep an eye out for this duo in 2012.
Brace yourself for a lot of names as a result of way too much amazing music going on in too small of a time. Being from Chicago I felt it only appropriate to go pay our respect and dance our asses off for DJ Sneak!! Forced to either skip a lot or bounce around, we made rounds: Maya Jane Coles killed her DEMF debut with excellent style, Wolf + Lamb which was short lived for us but had a great vibe and received stellar fan reviews, Maceo Plex pumped the crowd up with some deep future funky bass hybrid and comical sampling at one point from a Cheech and Chong skit, legend Josh Wink lit up the Main Stage ending with a tribute to Beastie Boys he played Brass Monkey, Hot Natured (Jamie Jones and Lee Foss) if you haven’t seen them SEE THEM, Marco Carola bringing in the big techno sound to set up for the amazing tech house master Loco Dice who was welcomed to the stage by Ice-T and wife Coco, and we finished off the night with another amazing set by Claude Vonstroke dropping that new Justin Martin – Don’t Go (Leroy Peppers remix) which turned out to be the talk of the town after his set.
Having to go home on Monday morning instead of getting to stay for the final day of Movement hurt my heart more than my legs and feet could ever hurt, but my body was not complaining about getting to lay down. After it all I have to admit, Detroit does not mess around.
Ice-T and Coco introducing Loco Dice at Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival!
DEMF Hustles Harder: DAY ONE
by PhillyP on May.30, 2012, under Live Music Review, News
Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival is a staple on the EDM community, specifically to house and techno music which were born in Chicago and Detroit respectively. The Detroit based festival began in 2000 and has over-come management changes as well as other controversy to become a successful 3 day mecca for dance music fans and artists alike. Staying true to the original concept of featuring the progressive and underground dance acts along side the veterans of the craft, Paxahau’s Movement should be a bucket list item that any dance music fan should experience.
DUBBYstep’s weekend in Detroit was short, but packed with amazing music and stories. Arriving Saturday in Detroit, as DEMF is always over Memorial Day weekend running from Saturday to Monday, we attended the Dirtybird Records after party held at the legendary Leland Hotel City Club thanks to label head and long time Detroit local, Claude Vonstroke, pulling some strings. Every act on that lineup (Justin Jay, WORTHY, JPhlip, Eats Everything, Justin Martin, Claude Vonstroke, and Christian Martin in that order) was flawless in getting the crowd built up to the point of dripping sweat yet still jumping out of their shoes until 6 AM! There is no doubt in anyone’s mind who made it to the end that Christian Martin aka Leroy Peppers unveiling his new remix of “Don’t Go” for brother Justin Martin was the highlight of the night. A true “life moment” for the Martin brother’s and die hard Dirtybird fans alike… Justin Martin screams out in the video, “You are witnessing history!!! You are witnessing f***ing history!!!” as his brother concludes playing his “surprise present”.
Video from DUBBYstep provided below, and keep an eye out for DAY TWO of DEMF from your very own DUBBYstep.com…
Don’t Miss Justin Martin’s “Ghettos and Gardens”!
by PhillyP on May.02, 2012, under DUBBYfresh Beats, News
Out now on San Francisco based Dirtybird Records are Justin Martin’s first two singles off his up and coming debut artist album “Ghettos and Gardens”, The two tracks are, ‘Hood Rich,’ and the title track, ‘Ghettos and Gardens.’ Leading the way for Dirtybird to have a massive year is Justin Martin with this full length album; in addition to the Hatched Spring World Tour already banging beautiful bass lines from city to city across the globe. Justin’s productions and DJ sets are commonly a juxtaposition of soft melodic sounds that one would want to listen to on a beach during a sunset immediately dropping into some of the biggest, most grimey, out of this world bass-lines in the game right now.
With a scheduled release date of May 21st, it has already been one of the most anticipated releases of 2012. Check out, https://drip.fm/dirtybird for a monthly membership to get exclusive early dirtybird releases as well as a lot of “exclusive to drip members” releases that never make it to the public.
Instead of providing the title track, “Ghettos and Gardens” I decided to include the second single, “Hood Rich” because it so accurately states, “We gonna hit the spot, we gonna drop the jams, and every booty gonna drop like DAMN!”
Winter Music Conference 2012 Day One
by PhillyP on Apr.17, 2012, under Live Music Review
Shortly after our plane landed and we were checked in to the hotel we arrived at what looks like a Miami mansion turned into an event site at Villa 221; the smell from the grill of the Dirtybird Record Label BBQ and rumble of groovy bass-lines coming from the outdoor courtyard set the perfect mood for a Miami day party. We were welcomed by Catz n Dogz dropping some mellow feel good tracks and a crowd of people sprawled out all over the astro turf courtyard bobbing their heads sporting new, free for the first 300 people, custom Dirtybird Stunner Shades (stunnerofthemonth.com).
Next came opening sets by Ardalan, who co-produced with Justin Martin on “Mr.Spock” & “LEZGO” and Breach, who both built the vibes up nicely for official Dirtybird member, J.Phlip. J.Phlip is my favorite female DJ/producer, so you can imagine how happy I was, and she delivered beautifully never losing her perfectly synchronated bounce to the beat (pictured above). Christian Martin under new alias Leroy Peppers then cranked up the mood as well as the volume, but when he was asked by security to turn it down he kindly abided for about ten seconds and then laughed as he turned the volume back up and then some. A true highlight of Leroy Peppers’ set had to be his funky rework of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (video below).
The bass was beginning to rumble Villa 221, and it was time for Claude Vonstroke, the Dirtybird Label head, to take the stage. His set was a sleazy journey of spacey sounds, a highlight being when he spun a version of his well known “Who’s Afraid of Detroit”. Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest made a special guest appearance playing some songs to a warm welcoming from the crowd. Justin Martin closed off the outdoor part of the evening after the sun went down with an array of, signature to his style, fun loving yet grimy bass bombs, and even some tracks off his up and coming debut artist LP, “Ghettos and Gardens” to make everyone’s heads bob and bodies wobble to the pounding bass. WORTHY and Eats Everything spun sets inside to small intimate rooms filled with people dancing their way in from outside to close the night. Serve video below with heavy bass and on some quality speakers/headphones, and you’ll understand what kind of day it was and night it became with WORTHY and Eats Everything’s-” Tric Trac”
Switching gears from the Dirtybird BBQ we attended the Smog vs. Bass-head event at Mekka Nightclub later that night. The lineup included dub-step favorites 12th Planet, Zeds Dead, 16 bit, Dirtyphonics, as well as drum and bass legend Goldie, Drop the Lime, and a number of other solid names. Amongst the headliners that I was truly there to see was Pendulum. At a dub-step/drum and bass show I figured Pendulum would be playing as Knife Party, except for the fact that Knife Party was playing Ultra Music Festival. So Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen put Pendulum on the ticket but everyone in the crowd knew it was a “Knife Party” in Mekka Thursday night. Awesome.
Wavefront Music Festival breaks on Montrose Beach
by PhillyP on Apr.17, 2012, under News
Chicago’s already stacked season of music festivals (i.e. Spring Awakening, Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, Northcoast) adds another to the list with Wavefront making its debut on Montrose Beach. This will be another festival dedicated to electronic music in Chicago, which will take place on June 30th and July 1st. Headline artists Eric Morillo and Duck Sauce go along with EDM favorites such as BoysNoize, Chris Lake, Matthew Dear, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Nick Fanciulli, and John Dahlback. Local nightlife guru, Brandon Carone, as well as Dino Gardiakos from SpyBar nightclub are the two men to thank for another weekend of EDM, but this time it comes with sand between your toes!
The entire phase 1 lineup and ticket information can be found on Wavefront’s website below…
http://www.wavefrontmusicfestival.com/
And here is a little treat from headlining artist Eric Morillo to get you in the mood to dance on the beach…
Dirtybird Records has “Hatched”
by PhillyP on Mar.14, 2012, under DUBBYfresh Beats, DUBBYstep Emerging Artists
I feel the urge to post an unreleased song I first discovered from Justin Martin on HOLY SHIP! now that the rumor has come and gone that Daft Punk will be headlining the Spring Awakening Festival in Chicago this June.
The track that Martin introduced me to is French Fries’ 2011 remix of Thomas Bangalter’s, “What To Do.” The original track was created by Bangalter in 1995 and the remix is now rumored to be getting an official release on Dirtybird Records. For those of you confused about the correlation right now, Thomas Bangalter is one half of French electronic duo, Daft Punk, and French Fries is a young producer/DJ who also hails from France. This is a different genre of dance music than traditional Daft Punk songs, but it definitely is fun to shake your ass to live!
French Fries’ EP “Yo Vogue” features remixes by Claude Vonstroke (on the line-up for Chicago’s Spring Awakening 2012) and Leroy Peppers aka Christian Martin. However, ‘What To Do’ is not part of it. ‘Yo Vogue’ is the most recent release on Dirtybird Records and can be found over at beatport.com. Posted below is Claude Vonstroke’s remix of French Fries’ ‘Yo Vogue’ for a small taste of the heavy bass we can expect from his Spring Awakening set.
http://youtu.be/mHQ-eMWpf64
