Detroit’s Movement Festival, which takes place in Hart Plaza over Memorial Day weekend, has announced its third and final phase of its lineup for the event’s 2013 edition. And Squarepusher, Moby, Magda, and Dubfire are all among the new names that have been added to the already extensive list.
Who can refuse a cute baby pic of a world-famous DJ? Not us! But we’re not only about babies and puppies and cute overloads—check out some of dance-music’s most heated rivalries and a couple awesome sets to take you into and through the weekend in today’s roundup.
On Friday, February 22, Beatport Live presents UK techno talent Perc. Having gained early recognition for his hit “Up” on Kompakt, Perc went on to catch the ears of Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Chris Liebing, Slam, John Digweed, Green Velvet, Erol Alkan, Steve Lawler, and many more. That critical and peer acclaim led to him being signed to bona fide techno powerhouses like Ovum, Drumcode, and CLR. As well, his own label, Perc Trax, has become a force in itself.
That’s right, we’ve got the first phase of performers for this year’s absolutely huge Movement Festival in Detroit, so click on through to see every artist involved… and, as always, a whole lot more, in today’s Morning Roundup.
They’ve just settled into Mexico for Playa Del Carmen’s BPM Festival, but Glasgow’s Slam (aka Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle) are busy gearing up for a series of dates in the US this week, which will see them hit San Francisco tomorrow, with Denver, New York, and Chicago to follow.
“We’re really excited about all four cities we are getting to on this tour, which is our first for 10 years,” says McMillan. “We haven’t been to Denver before and we hear great things about the Roots parties and we also have a few days off there to get in the studio with H-Foundation—and that’s definitely appealing to us.”
We all know the feeling when an epic DJ set or live performance comes to an end, and how, when that last track is nailed, the experience can become something truly unforgettable—the moments when the dancefloor refuses to go home, when “One more tune!” turns into 10, or the whole crowd unifies into a singing frenzy. Everyone has their story to tell of those memorable closing moments that define for us what makes dance music so unique.
Darren Quail (aka Quail) is a resident DJ at one of Glasgow’s most respected underground techno parties, Animal Farm. Their events take place at the legendary Sub Club, and at them Quail has had the opportunity to play alongside such luminaries as Ben Klock, Luke Slater, Shifted, Skudge, and Rolando. Quail is a busy man, splitting his time between finishing his studies, working for Soma Records, producing music, and promoting the now seven-year-old Animal Farm party with friends Chris Lamb and Charles Turtle, and he’s soon to launch the Animal Farm label, whose first release comes from the emerging production talent Bleak. With all of that going on, we’re happy to say that he also recently offered up some views on the art of the warm-up.
Stockholm techno producer Bleak has been causing quite a stir with his excellent productions over the past year. His tracks have gained a resounding nod from such dancefloor dons as Ben Klock, Slam, Marcel Dettman, Norman Nodge, and Ryan Elliott. His debut EP landed on the London-based Sudden Drop label early last year, with more releases following on Deeply Rooted House and Jonas Kopp’s Traut Musik.
Tomorrow, September 1st, we’ll be providing you with another Beatport Live treat to enjoy. Ahead of their performance at Berghain, techno legends Slam will be popping in to play an exclusive set at Beatport’s Berlin office.
It’d be a fair statement to suggest that the Glasgow-based duo of Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle (a.k.a. Slam) have been an instrumental outfit in defining the sound of techno in Scotland. At the helm of the jointly ran Soma label, the two have brought to the world the sounds of Adam Beyer, Surgeon, Pan-Pot, and many more, while their own production career has only become more fruitful with time. Now, the pair has just unleashed a new release, the RTM Project, through their latest label endeavor, Paragraph, which contains two tracks full of deep-dish, heavy-handed grooves.
We asked the veteran duo to share a bit of their gear secrets in order to get some insight into just how they are able to conjure up such vivid sounds on each and every release. Read on to find out about three of Slam’s favorite machines.
