Oooh, boy, is this an exciting day. Not only do we have more news from the big gear-industry tradeshow NAMM, but we’ve also got lineups for Ultra Music Fest and Coachella in today’s wrap-up. See who makes the cut after the jump.
Gearing up for its third year in the rockies, SnowBall Music Festival is set to bring the heat to Winter Park, Colorado this March 8,9, and 10. With a lineup featuring local, national, and international acts, SnowBall easily rivals some of the world’s storied weekenders and is as good a reason as ever to kick off another Friday early and head up to the mountains if you’re one of the lucky ones that calls Colorado home. We caught up with Latane Hughes, one of the talent buyers for the festival, to get the 411 on the history of SnowBall, what to expect this year, and who will dominate Winter Park that first wondrous weekend of March.
Folks, there’s been a lot of chatter about this Friday’s Mayan predictions. Whatever those prophecies may hold, we know one thing—we might as well go out with a party, right? So, in that spirit, we asked a bunch of DJs to tell us what they’d play for their last song on earth. Here’s what they came up with.
2012 has yielded an incredible amount of top-shelf albums from the electronic music world, and we’re happy to offer them to you for $6.99 for the next two days only. In addition, we’re offering select top compilations from 2012 for half off, including huge releases from Toolroom, Musical Freedom, Get Physical, Defected, Drumcode, and more.
Today, and for just today, November 26th, we’re happy to announce that we’re offering 25% off everything in the Beatport store, plus grab selected Sounds packs at a huge discount.
That means, for these 24 hours, take 25% off all purchases at Beatport.com and download a host of select Beatport Sounds sample packs for just $4.99, including Victor Calderone & Mike Frade Tech House 1, Progressive Electro Essentials, Future Sound of Swedish House, and tons more.
It’s undeniable that electronic music and fashion are constantly interacting. When rave culture blew up in the late 1980s, party-goers helped push fashion into adopting a more relaxed, loose style that was comfortable enough to dance in well into the early hours of the morning. With the help of the punk and grunge movements around the same time, fashion inevitably picked up on the trends that musicians and music fans alike were favoring; since, the worlds of fashion and dance music have been inescapably intertwined, and today, everything from ready-to-wear to high-fashion is taking cues from the electronic music, not only as the soundtrack to the industry’s top runway shows but as inspirations, campaign faces, and muses. Here are our picks for the 10 best fashion and music collaborations of all time.
It’s been 10 years since Gildas Loaëc and Masaya Kuroki founded Kitsuné, the Parisian record label and fashion house, after visiting Japan and observing the natural intersection between music and style. Since then they’ve built a small empire, and helped kick off the careers of many with their Kitsuné Maison compilations, of which artists like Hot Chip, Two Door Cinema Club, Digitalism, and Simian Mobile Disco have all benefited.
With this huge milestone moment in mind—not to mention their latest compilation just released—we chatted with Loaëc about Kitsuné’s past success and new possibilities for the future.
We’re not gonna end the day by telling you young whippersnappers a “when I was your age” tale, but some of us olds on the Beatport staff (that’s pretty much anyone over 30, if you’re counting) remember with vivid detail the first time we heard Daft Punk’s now-classic “Around the World” track back in 1997—and damn, it was a joyous occasion. So suffice it to say that dudes like myself are pretty stoked (do you kids say “dudes” or “stoked” anymore?) that the tracks that first turned our ears toward electronic music have, as of today, been given a huge new push from EMI’s Mixed Repertoire label in the form of some amazing lost remixes from the vaults. First up, for me personally, is that iconic Daft Punk track remixed by none other than the equally legendary Masters At Work.
It’s always a blast to take a look back in time at dance music’s formative years. And last week, after an interview with New Order’s legendary bass player Peter Hook, on his new compilation celebrating 30 years of the equally legendary Manchester club, the Hacienda, we thought it appropriate to examine a bit more of the back-story—particularly how the Hacienda (sadly now an apartment complex) and the greater Madchester scene influenced rave culture at large. So, for your Monday viewing pleasure, here are five Hacienda and Madchester documentaries you must peep now.
Davey Havok and Jade Puget might be known first and foremost as members of alt-punk band AFI, but as Blaqk Audio, the pair make a completely different brand of electro-infused synth rock. A couple weeks back, they released their second album under that moniker, Bright Black Heaven, on Superball, and since its release, the guys have been rolling out some track-by-track discussions of the album.
