Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Sound of Summer

It has been an incredible summer with tons of great musical adventures and loads of brilliant music. This is a recap of some of the events I have been attending during June and July and a selection of a few of the tracks that has made it into my personal summer soundtrack.



Swedish House Mafia @ Milton Keynes Bowl, UK


Once upon a time, three skilled DJ's from Stockholm, started playing together. Someone named them, as a joke I guess, the Swedish House Mafia, as they have Italian sounding names and of course began to rule the house scene. The name got stuck and soon they would rise to the biggest band in house music, playing hundreds of concerts around the globe for massive crowds at the largest festivals in the US and Europe, at Madison Square Garden in NYC, at their own festival Masquerade Motel at both Miami and Ibiza and lately, the 65.000 people strong Milton Keynes Bowl north of London.

SHM announced their last tour together this summer, finishing of with triple stadium shows in Stockholm in November, which sold out 3x100.000 tickets in 3x1 hour. So Milton Keynes was the final chance for me and my GoLive party companions to experience SHM at their last ever show in UK.

Milton Keynes Bowl was wet an muddy, as it had rained for days before the big day. It was a regular mudfest complete with wellies, extremely drunk ginger "broke-steppers", Liverpool Lads and Manchester Mamas. In comparison Miami raver chicks dress funny and cute, (many) British raver chicks just look slutty and unattractive. Where as the US kids are tripping on Molly and glow sticks, British youth are just getting drunk beyond recognition and throwing themselves in the mud. We opted for the VIP package, which was nice, as we didn't have to stand in the endless queues for drinks or toilet facilities, not to mention a great after party in the VIP area after the main event had closed.

Anyway, at Milton Keynes, SHM where supported by local Example, french wonder kid Madeon, rising star and Ingrosso protegé Alesso, superstar Calvin Harris and legendary Pete Tong from BBC Radio 1. Quite a strong lineup. I've collected a few tracks in relation to this below:

Calvin Harris & Example - We'll Be Coming Back (R3hab EDC NYC Remix)

Madeon - Icarus (Original Mix) 

Alesso feat. Matthew Koma - Years (Original Vocal Mix)

Even though they are breaking up, their name will still have some sense to it going forward, as the trio each have their own labels (Axwell has Axtone, Ingrosso has Refune and Angello has Size), promoting new producers and bands. You might recognize Alesso, Deniz Koyu, Dirty South, Otto Knows (Refune), Hard Rock Sofa, Thomas Gold, Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl, Michael Calfan (Axtone), AN21, Qulinez, Max Vangeli, Third Party, Tim Mason (Size Records). The trio will probably continue to spit our monster hits individually like they did with "In My Mind" and "Quasar" on Axtone, "Calling" and "Resurrection" on Refune, and "Troll" and "Feel" on Size, and keep on dominating the progressive charts for years to come.


Albin Myers @ Babel Malmoe, Sweden


Early June, I went to the club Babel in Malmoe, Sweden, to check out Stockholm house talent Albin Myers. I've said it before, and I'm happy to say it again, I LOVE THAT PLACE, it's the only place in the Oresund region with a very unique electro and progressive house profile (thanks to dedicated people like Pierre Zalas of the Matchstick Men). They are able to attract quite a few of my favorite EDM acts (like Tommy Trash). In comparison, Copenhagen nightlife is very dominated by deep and tech house, which is nice to chill out and lounge to once in a while, but for a truly insane and mind blowing dance party, I need electro or progressive house, and Babel delivers every time!

Albin Myers - The Beast (Original Mix)

Albin Myers - Hells Bells (Original Mix) 

Albin Myers - Bumbaclot (Original Mix) 


Dirtyloud @ Rust Copenhagen, Denmark


On a summer Thursday in July, when everybody had escaped the rain in Sourhern Europe, Brazilian Dirtyloud came to town and played a small but enthusiastic crowd at Rust. It was pure electro madness, switching back and forth from moombah and electro house to drum n' bass and dubstep. Beautiful!

  Dirtyloud - Needle feat. Sirreal (Original Mix
 
Porter Robinson feat. Amba Shepherd - Vandalism (Dirtyloud Remix)