Sunday, January 29, 2012

Next Danish EDM Superstar

I've spoken about the massive Swedish influence on house music before, with Swedish House Mafia and Avicii as the largest names in house music at the moment. Our neighbours to the east are doing something right, but when will we see a danish EDM artists get the same success as the Swedes?

Granted, the Swedish population is roughly 50% larger than the Danish, so statistically they should produce 1,5 superstar when we in Denmark produce 1 (which is is not the case by far). The Swedes has also had a long tradition for popular music, superior to the Danish one. But in this electronic genre, where anyone with a laptop is an aspiring dj/producer, it should be any mans/womans game.

Looking at the danish scene, only a couple of names comes to mind, if they are to have the superstar potential of their Swedish counterparts. Don't get me wrong, we have TONS of local danish talent, but in search for the next superstar in spe, only Morten Breum, Rune RK and maybe Trentemøller pops up.

The latter has been around for quite a while, and has an impressive discografi with lots of releases and remixes of Röyksopp, Moby and Pet Shop Boys i.e. Though Trentemøller is well respected and very popular in his minimal subgenre, he seems to lack the mass appeal needed. Rune RK (aka Kölsch aka Enur) is one of my personal favorites, both as dj and producer. You might remember the mega hit Calabria from 2003 with the very reconizable sax-riff. Recently he has taken steps toward the mainstream audience with a more pop/dance like sound in his latest productions (under the name Rune RK) with singer Clara Sofie. Productions under the Kolsch alias are still kept "underground".

The closest one to a major breakthrough of superstar Avicii-like dimensions, has to be Morten Breum. He has the sound, the attitude, the connections and the looks. From a more progressive/electro type style, he has also diversed into the popular big room sound (like "Never Surrender" and the yet unreleased ID "Larva", I heard it the first in a very rough mix in his November Recovery Mix from 2011) and the equally popular dubstep genre ("Ingen Anden Drøm"). Last summer, he moved permanently to LA and has since played major clubs like Pacha NYC and LIV Miami. I predict, that his newest ID (aka Larva) will rocket him from his LA base into EDM stardom.

Fortunately, I secured tickets for his first show back since here moved "over there" back here in Copenhagen in april. I look forward to welcome our Danish superstar at that time.




Rune RK and Databoy - Memorize me (Club Edit)

Röyksopp - What Else is There (Trentemøller Remix)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Swedish Era

These days, the Swedes seems to have come up with the most effective and successful recipe for progressive house tracks with mass appeal.

Swedish House Mafia and Avicii/Tim Berg (no introduction needed) are among the current superstars, playing their monster hits for crampacked stadiums around the world. SHM sold out Madison Square Garden in under 10 minutes(!). A new generation is one the rise though, with names like Dada Life, Alesso, AN21, Adrian Lux, John Dahlbäck ready to join the game.

This summer, I'm going with GoLive Travel (who else?), to the 2-day festival Summerburst in beautiful Stockholm, besides Axwell and Ingrosso (from SHM), I´m looking forward to see Alesso and hopefully more of the young swedish EDM talent.

Check out two of my swedish favorites for the moment below:

Dada Life - Kick Out The Epic Motherfucker (Instrumental) 
 
Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso - Calling (Original Instrumental Mix)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Big Room Bromance

Got tickets today for Swedish big room superstar Avicii aka Tim Berg aka Tim Bergling in May in Forum, Copenhagen, one of the largest (non stadium) venues in CPH. First 1000 presale tickets sold out in 50 minutes last monday, the remaining 5000 will probably sell out within today.

I guess you all know Levels and Seek Bromance by now, so here's some other stuff from our Swedish friend including a sneak peak of the remix by danish top dj/producer Morten Breum (get it here for free - it's sick!) and a semi-new collab with dutch youngster Nicky Romero, currently hitting the Beatport chart with his track Toulouse).


Sneak Peak: AVICII - Levels (Morten Breum ReBootMix)

Avicii - Silhouettes

Avicii ft. Nicky Romero - Fuck School

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Ultra Music Festival in Miami

Late march, I'm travelling across the pond for a week in Miami. The gigantic EDM festival Ultra Music Festival, drew in 150.000 guest last year, making it the largest of it's kind in the world. This is the main attraction for me. Despite of the outragious pricing, UMF sold out 2 months before the event. Solid.

The UMF lineup is overwhelming and unsurpassed. I've never seen anything like this before on just one flyer. Most of my favorite house and dubstep artists will be playing at this 3-day festival. If this lineup is missing someone to be absolutely perfect, it would be Swedish House Mafia, who even plays their own competing mini-festival Masquerade Motel on the friday UMF opens, as well as british dubstep act Nero and maybe deadmau5 who played last year, but is now criticizing the festival for greedy pricing instead. But who am I to complain, when I'm during these three days, in the beautiful Florida sun, will experience::

Kraftwerk, Knife Party (YAY!), Skrillex, Avicii, Kaskade, Afrojack, Porter Robinson, Zedd, Mord Fustang, Flux Pavillion, Dada life, Hardell, Nicky Romero, Fedde le Grand, Skream, Benga, Magnetic Man, Camo & Krooked, 12th planet and lots more, and oh yeah, a couple of mainstream djs like Tiesto og David Guetta will also be playing.

The festival will take place at Bayfront Park during the Miami Music Week, spred out over two weekends, crampacked with events, parties, cruises, award show, workshops and thousans of happy EDM loving beautiful people . We're going to this pool-afterparty (H50) on the rooftop of Hotel Viceroi in Club50, on the 50th floor, with a fantastic view over south beach and the sea. Legend Paul Oakenfold and talented Lazy Rich will play at this party. That'll be fun! :)

Check the lineup here:



Watch the teaser here:



Brostep, right or wrong?

Lately there's been a lot of talk about Skrillex type music is not "real" dubstep, that he's sucking out the marrow of the genre to capitalize and finally killing the music as an underground genre taking it mainstream to the EDM hungry American youth (that still seem to be stuck on glow sticks and neon tank tops btw).

Personally, I'm not getting in to that right/wrong US vs UK dubstep discussion, I like music for what it is and what it does to me.

Yes, Skrillex is full on, it's 200% on all the dubstep nobs, it's raw energy, and it hits me in all the right spots. The good thing is, that I myself can control when I want that fix, maybe not everyday but occasionally it fits the purpose.

Here's a couple of my Skrillex favorites:

Nero - Promises (Skrillex) 

Benny Bennassi - Cinema (Skrillex Remix)

Check out this wicked Skrillex video for "First of the Year (Equinox)"

Deadmau5 electro evilness

Remake/follow up to the original from the 4x4=12 album, now even more dark and gloomy. Love the long melancholic Giorgio Moroder buildup in the intro, gives me the same vibe as certain scenes from Scarface.

Please, dear deadest of mau5es, release it NOW!

Cthulhu2

Monday, January 2, 2012

Mastering Sauce Bearnaise

As a guy, I've always loved the classic steak frites with sauce bearnaise, that thick, fat and sharp French sauce the gourmet gods made for us guys. So one day, I decided to learn how to do my own, not the powder stuff but the real thing, made from scratch.

First try was a disaster, the taste was OK, but the texture was way off. It was thin and splitting, and just no good in my perfectionist mind. But my dear friend was so very kind and said he enjoyed it anyway. I didn't buy that though, and spend hours studying the Internet for the perfect recipe and MO. I thought I had cracked the theoretics of the process (I didn't whisk the eggs yolk in the essence enough) and I was ready for the next try with this in mind.

I was hosting the NYE party 2012 at my house, and it was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate my new gourmet skills within classic French sauces to my closest friends. So I got cracking, making the perfect essence of shallots, tarragon, sherry vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisking in the eggs and then the butter, gently but persistent. And then disaster struck! While juggling the rare steaks, triple cooking the fries and whisking the sauce, the sauce got overheated, and that's a complete no go with an egg emulsion sauce like bearnaise (or hollandaise for that sake). The sauce split like a banana, I was devastated.

Again my lovely friends were very kind and said comforting stuff I didn't really hear, I couldn't get my mind off what went wrong. So the next day, January 1st, I studied even harder, watching superstar chefs making their take on the sauce and I got my theoretical epiphany; whisk persistently (like a crazy person) and control the heat (just take it off the heat), the basis for my two last failures. So that evening, the very first day of the year, with the leftover ingredients from the NYE party, I finally made the perfect sauce bearnaise. Thick, sharp and not split. Immediately, I emailed a picture to all the guests from last night, to prove to them that I could indeed do it.

And I was happy :)


Top tips for the DIY guy:
  1. Use only fresh and organic ingredients, it's just shallots, vinegar, tarragon (for the essence) and egg yolks and clarified butter for the texture and to balance the acidity of the essence
  2. Use 100 g butter for each egg yolk per person
  3. The essence should not be too hot (or the egg yolks will coagulate like scrambled eggs)
  4. Whisk very persistently (and thicken the yolks well before gently adding the butter) and don't stop during the extend of the process