Beatportal Feed

12 March, 2010 | 12.32PM

Beatport WMC Customer Panel

Written by: BeatportLaura
Filed under: Music News:

This March the Beatport team will be invading Miami’s annual Winter Music Conference, and we want to meet you! Last year’s customer panel brought forth some very inspiring conversations, and was such a success that we are doing it again this year.

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12 March, 2010 | 1.00AM

Feminine Pressure: Bye-Bye Boys’ Club Part 1

Written by: Philip Sherburne
Filed under: Music News: anja schneider dance disorder hannah holland j. phlip kate simko next girl dj

It’s no secret that the world of electronic dance music can sometimes feel like a boys’ club. Only one woman, Lisa Lashes, cracked DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list last year, down from two in 2008. Fortunately, things aren’t quite so uneven in the underground, where artists like Ellen Allien and DJ Heather have been calling the shots since some of today’s superstar DJs were still in short pants.

The Next Girl DJ competition, which we introduced last month, aims to remedy that, providing a platform for girls and women to be noticed outside the usual networks.

With a host of new talents on the rise, from house and techno to dubstep and beyond, we thought it was time to salute the women making dance clubs more equal—not to mention more fun—for everyone. With help from the women behind We Make the Tea and Next Girl DJ’s Ashley Douglas, we asked a number of musicians, both old hands and up-and-comers, to share their thoughts on gender and dance music. The questions must have struck a nerve, because we got back more responses than we could print in a single sitting.

Read on to see what Anja Schneider, J. Phlip, Baby G (of Dance Disorder), Hannah Holland, and Kate Simko have to say on the subject, and in the coming days, we’ll be publishing more responses from Bloody Mary, Camea, Chloe, Cio D’or, Maayan Nidam (aka Miss Fitz), Dasha Rush, and more.

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12 March, 2010 | 12.01AM

Album of the Week: GonjaSufi ‘A Sufi and a Killer’

Written by: Philip Sherburne
Filed under: Music News: flying lotus gonjasufi the gaslamp killer warp records

Sufism is a mystical sect within Islam, dedicated to the purification of the soul in pursuit of divinity. Stillness lies at its heart—a stillness embodied by the religion’s Whirling Dervishes, or semazens, who spin in place in trance-like worship. (If you’ve ever seen the film ‘Baraka’, you’ve seen them in action.)

The same stillness permeates the core of ‘A Sufi and a Killer’, the debut album from the San Diego-raised rapper GonjaSufi. Produced mainly by the Gaslamp Killer and Mainframe, and featuring one track by Flying Lotus, it’s a collection of hazy, psychedelic beats, mined from progressive rock and world music, that cradle Gonjasufi’s voice like a nest of moss and sticks.

GonjaSufi—aka Sumach Valentine—came up rapping with San Diego’s Masters of the Universe, but he doesn’t necessarily sound like a rapper on the record. He’s got a reedy singing voice that slips and cracks, grinding against the music like sandpaper—a bluesy, broken yawl somewhere between Jack White and a desiccated D’Angelo. But you can tell he’s a rapper from the way he uses his voice. Even in conversation, he’s performing—it’s not a showoffy thing, but a means of playing with identities, characters, putting meat on ideas, making words flesh. A surfer and a student of yoga, he channels stillness with every syllable.

10 March, 2010 | 3.55PM

Strictly Rhythm remix contest winner announced

Written by: Beatportal
Filed under: Music News: armand van helden remix contest

We’ve got a winner!

Back in December, Strictly Rhythm celebrated 20 years of label history by offering fans a chance to remix Armand Van Helden’s ‘Witch Doktor’, a classic slab of darkside house music. Now, the votes have been tallied and Strictly Rhythm have chosen their favorite from the 20 finalists.

10 March, 2010 | 7.12AM

Interview: Motor City Drum Ensemble

Written by: pollylavine
Filed under: Music News: faces records motor city drum ensemble rebirth

It is February in Dublin. Danilo Plessow, a skinny white 24-year-old DJ from Stuttgart, spins vinyl to a tightly packed dancefloor in the Crawdaddy section of the Pod nightclub in Harcourt Street.

Now known as Motor City Drum Ensemble, Plessow has worked under several aliases including Hypster Wonkaz, Aphro Pzyko, and Inverse Cinematics (previously his most successful project and a joint creation with Joachim Tobias), before he launched MCDE last year.

Through a number of high profile remixes and a standout series of EPs called ‘Raw Cuts’, Motor City Drum Ensemble hit all the right notes in 2009.

Both deep house master Moodymann, and Detroit pioneer Kenny Larkin, publicly praised Plessow for taking the classic Detroit sound and turning it into something new.

10 March, 2010 | 4.35AM

Noisia’s Full Metal Racket

Written by: Philip Sherburne
Filed under: Videos: amon tobin, noisia, spor

We should warn you at the outset that this video is totally NSFM—not safe for mealtime, that is.

The Dutch heavyweights of drum’n’bass and electro, Noisia, test your gag reflex with their video for ‘Machine Gun’, which begins as a clever collage of abstract imagery and commences in a bloody orgy of mangled flesh and raw meat.

9 March, 2010 | 7.12AM

Inside the mind of Wolfgang Gartner

Written by: Kirsty Kane
Filed under: Music News: inside the mind of wolfgang gartner

Is there any producer with a keener eye for detail than Wolfgang Gartner? The meticulousness of the electro house producer from Austin, Texas, has made him a huge star within the genre, and helped him net eight Beatport No.1 records.

Whilst most electro house producers opt for simplicity - a big bassline and a simple house loop will do, won’t it? - Wolfgang Gartner throws layers of synths and FX into the mix, resulting in tracks that offer a multitude of build ups, bass holes, and hand-raising moments.

His latest single ‘Undertaker’ sees Wolfgang return to what he does best - microscopically precise heavy house grooves mixed with an instantly recognisable epic melody. No doubt, it will be one of the hits of Miami’s WMC 2010 in a little over two weeks.

But what don’t we know about Wolfgang Gartner? We decided to fire a series of personal questions at the producer and DJ to find out more about the man behind those killer electro house grooves (and yes, that is Wolfgang Gartner when he was a kid).

8 March, 2010 | 6.32AM

Interview: Crosstown Rebel Damian Lazarus

Written by: pollylavine
Filed under: Music News: crosstown rebels damian lazarus wmc 2010

Party animal Damian Lazarus recently launched a two month musical pilgrimage across the Americas, under his Rebel Rave banner.

With techno trouble-makers like Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler in support, the Rebel Rave tour will soon touch down in Guadalajara, El Paso, Houston, Montanita, and Miami, where it finally come to a sticky end at the Electric Pickle club during the annual Winter Music Conference at the end of this month.

The Rebel Rave tour coincides with a recent deal with Comcast (one of America’s biggest cable TV providers), to broadcast Lazarus’ Rebel Rave TV series on Comcast’s A&R channel.

To find out more about that deal, and the mammoth tour, we caught up with the Crosstown Rebels boss as he prepared for another week of manic touring.

6 March, 2010 | 6.09AM

Villalobos, Luciano and Carl Craig on one release? Yep

Written by: Zack Rico
Filed under: Music News: cadenza carl craig luciano mirko loco ricardo villalobos

Cadenza’s new release ‘SeventyNine Remixes’ is a techno fans wet dream - Chilean masters Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano have contributed remixes of ‘Tahktok’, taken from Mirko Loco’s recent album. Detroit legend Carl Craig has penned a remix of ‘Love Harmonic’.

Ricardo’s 20 minute minimal take of ‘Tahktok’ is suitably epic, with scatty layers of machine funk and broken beats layered beneath the vocals of children singing.

Luciano’s remix is more uptempo, reworking the vocal into a hypnotic chant that’s driven forward by aggressive bleeps and minimal drums, that notably lack any of the Cadenza bosses trademark bongo loops.

Carl Craig’s Soundscape Remix of ‘Love Harmonic’ sees the techno master return to organic drum patterns, that contrast beautifully with the trance-like sounds of the main riff. Anticipation in a can.

5 March, 2010 | 5.09AM

Album of the Week: Andrew Thomas ‘Between Buildings & Trees’

Written by: Philip Sherburne
Filed under: Music News: ambient andrew thomas kompakt

From the cover art (see below, after the jump), you might guess that Andrew Thomas’ new album, ‘Between Buildings & Trees’, was a release on ECM, the iconic jazz and classical label, home to the likes of Keith Jarrett and Arvo Pärt. From the minimalist graphics to the moody, black-and-white landscape photography, the sleeve is a dead ringer for the imagery favored by the Munich-based institution, which has established one of contemporary music’s most clearly defined aesthetics in its 40 years of operation.

Actually, the album comes out on a different German label, but one that, in its own way, is just as iconic: Cologne’s Kompakt. Thomas is a mainstay of the label’s annual Pop Ambient series, having featured on the compilation every year since 2004. This is his third album for the label, and it’s a gorgeous, easygoing, highly approachable example of Thomas’ contemplative electro-acoustic collage work.

5 March, 2010 | 3.00AM

The Murky World of Artist Pseudonyms

Written by: Philip Sherburne
Filed under: Music News:

In the beginning there was Jack—except that probably wasn’t his real name.

Since the days of disco, aliases and pseudonyms have played an integral role in dance-music culture.

Often adopted for practical reasons—for instance, to allow artists under contract to one label to record elsewhere under a different name—they quickly became key factors in the ways that electronic-music culture makes meaning.

4 March, 2010 | 4.49PM

Beatport Beach Party Line-up: WMC 2010

Written by: Beatportal
Filed under: Music News:

Once again Beatport makes its annual pilgrimage to Miami to bring you one of the most sought out events during the Winter Music Conference. “The Beatport Beach Party”, presented by Beatport, Pioneer and Armani Exchange takes place at Gansevoort Hotel’s beautiful private beach and will feature over 25 of the world’s best DJs, with no cover.

To ensure a memorable experience for all attendees Beatport has teamed up with Insomniac Events of Los Angeles and the Opium Group of Miami to showcase bigger and better production, visuals, and sound. This is the WMC event you don’t want to miss.

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4 March, 2010 | 9.56AM

Minus Makes Contakt

Written by: Kornel Koch
Filed under: Music News:

Richie Hawtin’s Minus label goes under the microscope with Making Contakt, a 90-minute documentary following the crew across 2008’s Contakt tour. Celebrating the label’s first 10 years of existence, the tour represented Minus’ most ambitious undertaking to date, a dazzling (and daunting) fusion of minimal techno and state-of-the-art multimedia technology.

Hitting Detroit, Amsterdam, Rome, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and more, the effort also proved an unprecedented challenge, and Making Contakt, directed by Ali Demirel and edited by Niamh Guckian, captures it all, from the high anxiety of the pre-show hurdles to the high spirits of the crowds as it all comes together.

Out this week, the soundtrack to Making Contakt spans lithe, housey grooves, peak-time grinders, and everything in between, featuring cuts and remixes from Heartthrob, Cybersonic, JPLS, Marc Houle, Bryan Zentz, Click Box, Monkey B, Fabrizio Maurizi, Barem, Marco Carola, the Selph, Alex Under, and Hawtin himself. Check out a preview of the film, and get the soundtrack from the Beatport player below.

4 March, 2010 | 7.45AM

Next Generation DJ Winner Announced

Written by: Kornel Koch
Filed under: Music News: ngdj

Next Generation DJ, the global DJ talent search, has announced its first-place winner: the sister duo Maya Vanya.

The Croatian-born, New Zealand-based pair beat out over 3500 competitors for the top slot in the contest, an initiative by Pioneer DJ, Beatport and DJ Mag, and hosted on the music and social networking platform Letsmix.com.

With more than 350,000 votes cast by over 190,000 people, the NGDJ jury—Deadmau5 manager Dean Wilson, Ultra Records’ David Waxman, Sebastian Ingrosso, Beatport founder Jonas Tempel, DJ Mag editor in chief Ben Murphy, and Pioneer DJ’s Mark Grotefeld—had their work cut out for them when it came to whittling down the finalists. But the sister act handily rose to the forefront thanks to a mixture of sultry Caribbean rhythms, punchy 4/4 grooves, and the DJs’ own exclusive edits.

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Become a Next Generation DJ with Beatport

4 March, 2010 | 6.39AM

Weekend Weapons…Satoshi Tomiie

Written by: Zack Rico
Filed under: Music News: satoshi tomiie saw recordings weekend weapons

Saw Recordings’ boss Satoshi Tomiie has contributed to house music in many ways, but without a doubt, it was his groundbreaking releases such as ‘Love In Traffic’, ‘Tears’, and ‘Solar Wind’ that made him an American house music hero.

It is Satoshi’s commitment and consistency to the darker side of house music, that has earned him a ever-growing army of fans. His recent <h4>mix of Mes ‘Back To Basics’ is a prime example of the kind of deep electronic house he has made and played since the 1990s.

But he isn’t stuck in the past either, as this group of future leaning Weekend Weapons prove.