The Steezoid Broadcasts #8 - "808s and Hard Breaks" (the trap mix)

2013 has been the year of trap. This is my 30 tracks mixtape of my personal trap favorites of 2013. Please enjoy and share.

Please find the track list on the Soundcloud.

Miami Music Week Top 10

Miami Music Week 2013 is now well over and now is the time for a little follow up on the mega trends and jet streams of EDM as of today.

This year, MMW was dominated by the current trend in progressive house with epic multi layered buildups and huge minimalistic drops heavily influenced by the hardstyle genre. Five out of ten on this list fits that description. Last year, it was more melodic and vocal tracks that dominated the sets. A single trap track made the list to honor the current EDM fad (no DJ set without a 10 minute trap segment these days) along with the recent big room superhit from Nicky Romero and Avicii, the remix of the melancholic Lana Del Rey track by local Miami boy Cedric Gervais and a very high placement for our young Danish producer Mikkas for his remix of Rewind by Emma Hewitt that gained massive support by the likes of Knife Party (the track is now an integral part of their set - I saw them three times the last 10 days) as well as from Hardwell, Thomas Gold and many others.

So here it is, my perception of the current trends as displayed in Miami at several parties and at UMF by numerous DJs (I saw over 60 acts during 7 days in Miami!).

1. Chuckie, Junxterjack - Make Some Noise (Original Mix)

2. Bingo Players - Rattle (Original Mix)

3. Tony Romera - Pandor (Original Mix)

4. Emma Hewitt - Rewind (Mikkas remix)

5. Showtek, Justin Prime - Cannonball (Original Mix)

6. Quintino, Sandro Silva - Epic (Original Mix)

7. Benny Benassi - Satisfaction (RL Grime remix)

8. Basto - Stormchaser (Original Mix)

9. Nicky Romero, Avicii - I Could Be The One (Original Mix)

10. Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais remix)

May Madness

My beloved hometown of Copenhagen offered a handful of truly world class EDM artist in just 6 days. Here's a walk-through of the four concerts I attended in that insane first week of May.

 
Feed Me - Sunday April 29th

We casually walked in to the old steam driven pump station from 1858, now resurrected as a mid-size venue, when the young mau5keteer Feed Me from London played his slamming One Click Headshot from the new smaller stage on the first floor. He had obviously started early, as it was a school day the day after, so we missed the first half hour. We probably were about 200 dubstep lovers that had made it to the old water works building in central Copenhagen that Sunday evening. None the less, people were going nuts to the hard electro and dubsteppy tunes from Feed Me. I even saw people surfing the small crowd. Feed Me was clearly impressed by our late Sunday enthusiasm and twetted : "Shows like that are what DJing is all about. Copenhagen out of nowhere, it's turned into messiness".

He played a lot of his own stuff like Whiskers, One Click Headshot, Trichitillomania from his latest EP as well as his old hit Cloudburn and a lot of other good stuff including quite a few moobahton tracks, that seems to be the new black among EDM DJ's.

I wrote about Feed Me back in February where you can also check out his latest EP. Below you can enjoy his banger One Click Headshot from that EP.

Feed Me - One Click Headshot


Flux Pavilion - Sunday April 29th

While Feed Me moved to the left of the stage to enjoy a bottle of Jack D with his entourage, Flux Pavilion teared the place apart with his bass heavy UK style dubstep. People went absolutely nuts and security had to get on the stage to keep the crowd of it.

He'd also play a few moombah tracks but kept it pretty dubstep in general playing his own tracks like Hold Me Close, I Can't Stop, the Superbad track with his Circus buddy Doctor P and of course Bass Cannon the made the place crumble in bass related spasms. Flux Pavilion truly rocked the spot and was a notch over Feed Me in crowd control and performance.

Bass Cannon kill it that Sunday, see it in the video and check out some of his other great tracks below.



Flux Pavilion

Flux Pavilion and Feed Me at Pumpehuset gets 4 out of 6 stars.


Porter Robinson - Thursday May 3rd

OK, first show of the crazy first weekend of May, with young gun Porter Robinson at the place called Rust in the multicultural borough of Copenhagen called Nørrebro. Rust was originally created in the 80's as a campaign headquarter and café by some anti nuclear power activists and has later served as a nightclub and urban music venue. The place was pretty packed at the main floor and I would guess there were around 300 guests that night. The 20 year old American, now signed on the Skrillex label OWSLA, started out pretty hard and kept the tempo up playing great electro house-, some moombah- and a few dubstep tracks. The small dancefloor in front of the low and small stage was packed and security had to step in to prevent people from getting hurt in the chaos.

He played a couple of his own tracks, like Unison, as well as the Knife Party remix, both making the crowd very exited. He did a very cool set with high energy and variation and the crowd loved him, and so did I.

Porter Robinson gets 5 out of 6 stars.

Check out the video below from when he played the Unison remix by Knife Party and his latest track Language.



Porter Robinson - Language


Avicii - Friday May 4th

Around 8000 people turned up at historic Forum, the large exhibition and concert hall, that was actually blown up during the German occupation back in 1943, to see the sensation from our blue and yellow neighbors to the east. They sure had a hell of a party on the large Forum indoor floor. Warm up was from local DJ's Kongsted and the duo TooManyLeftHands. Personally I enjoyed the first half the most, where he played a handful og my favorites like Ingrosso and Alesso's Calling, In My Mind by Ivan Gough and Feenixpawl, a really nice mashup of Antidote and Greyhound by SHM and of course the neoclassic Levels mixed with that horrible Gotye song to keep it "fresh" I guess. Never the less, Avicii blew up the spot once again since WW2, with his monster hit Levels that made people scream and go absolutely insane. The VIP section turned me down quite a bit, there wasn't really anything VIP or Deluxe about it and it was filled with steroid pumped and heavily tattooed drug dealer types, that made it a bit hard to enjoy the show.

Avicii (and the sloppy production) gets 3 out of 6 stars.

I've included a video from the show and his latest unreleased collab with Nicky Romero below.



Avicii - Fuck School (feat. Nicky Romero)


Skrillex - Saturday May 5th

9000 people of all ages and subcultures had shown up, from tweens and business school graduates to parents with children and old fucks like myself. Skrillex has a broad appeal it seems. Warmup was some nice drum n' bass from Netsky but it was clear that everybody just waited to get to see the LA freakshow.

Most of his set was identical with what he played at UMF Miami in March, but there was, for me, one major difference. He played maybe five or six Knife Party tracks! He didn't in Miami, probably because Knife Party played the next day on the same stage, but it made all the difference for me as I both got to enjoy Skrillex own tracks and remixes as well as the greatest tracks from my beloved Knife Party. Of course he also played all his own stuff like Breakn' A Sweat, Devils Den, Ruffneck, First of the Year, Kill Everybody and the new Make It Bun Dem and several of his great remixes like his In for the Kill remix, the Promises remix, the Levels remix and of course the outstanding Cinema remix.

I found it one of the best concerts I've attended in Copenhagen maybe ever and would not hesitate to give it top marks, if it wasn't for the effective but somewhat aggressive security guys plowing through the crowd scouting for sinners to "arrest".

Skrillex gets 5 out of 6 stars.

Below you'll find a video of when he closed hos set playing Cinema in front of a sea of lighters and cell phones and his latest track with Damian Marley "Make It Bun Dem".



Skrillex & Damian Marley - MAKE IT BUN DEM

The Sound of Miami

Miami Music Week was the center of the universe for this one warm and sunny week in late March. Everybody who works with or share the same passion as I for electronic dance music, were in Miami that week. Everywhere you went on South Beach, there were parties on the beaches, on the roof tops, at the pools, in the bars, in the hotels, on the yachts, in the marinas and of course several festivals like Nikki Beach, SHM's Masquerade Motel and the monster; the Ultra Music Festival, at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. House music filled my ears, heart and soul from dusk till dawn no matter where I went. The beautiful people, the sun, the art deco buildings, the convertible car and the pastels served as a fairytale-like backdrop. It was almost surreal and I loved every minute of it. In just under one week, I got to experience live performances from 90% of all the artist I love and listen to everyday, except maybe SHM and Nero.

We arrived Wednesday and started out, directly from the airport, with Axwell and his Axtone friends Thomas Gold, NO_ID and Jacques Lu Cont, in the cram packed mega-club Amnesia. What a fantastic way to kick off the 5 day party stretch. Axwell was worth the 1-hour long wait (as a ticket holder - wtf?!), he tore the place apart displaying excellent taste and skills.

Thursday, we went to a roof top pool party at the Dream Hotel on Collins Avenue, the Arti Deco strip on South Beach, with danish superstar DJ Morten Breum, Tristan Garner, Tim Mason, Jus Jack, my Russian darlings Hard Rock Sofa and several more DJ's. Nice relaxed Miami vibe by the roof top pool, overlooking South Beach, you could see parties on all the other roof tops with people dancing to house music and having fun in the sun.

Friday was UMF day 1. Over 150.000 people in party mode was ready in Bayfront park, downtown Miami, on the waterfront with the high risers and the monorail as backdrop. 7 stages from the small stage at eco-village playing niche stuff for people chilling in hammocks under the palm trees, over the insanely lit ASOT/Carl Cox arena to the massive Main Stage that was to host the biggest names in the business over the next three days.

The place was crawling with girls in very skimpy neon colored outfits, pig tails and baby pacifiers, and sweaty topless frat boys with glow stick, glowing necklaces, glowing hoola hoops, glowing fingertips etc. At first I thought it was a kind of childish or "retro" as we in Europe are way past that phase. But I finally got it, I understood what it was all about, when I saw several spontaneous "Molly-camps" popping up everywhere some guy was waving glow-gadgets in the air, the younglings settled down and tripped out on Molly (a form of ecstasy).

We started out with Nicky Romero in one of the "smaller" tents, he was OK but nothing special, followed by Tommy Trash on the Main Stage, he was really good; long hair, high energy and crazy mixes. Martin Solveig took over for Tommy and surprised me with great skills on the decks and an interesting mix of genres. Then it was time for veteran and local hero Benny Benassi, who was a bit disappointing in my opinion, but Afrojack soon brought a smile to my face with his dirty dutch sound, that seems to be catching on in Miami/USA, a great warm-up for Skrillex that entered the stage on a podium made as a spaceship that took of during the show.



Skrillex was insane, 100.000+ people were going mental. He played all the good stuff including a new wicked remix of Damian Marleys "Welcome to Jamrock" (now a real track called "Make It Bun Dem"), he finished of with his Cinema remix in front of a sea of lighters (and glow sticks). We finished the night of with Dada Life having a happy drunk party with banana beach balloons and a vocal mix of Gwen Stefani "The shit is bananas, B.A.N.A.N.A.S" over the Antidote instrumental and a good dose of pure electro madness from Wolgang Gartner after the Swedish nutcases in the same tent.



Saturday, Ultra day 2 included both Zedd and Mord Fustang, two of my very favorite electro artists. Mord Fustang played early in the park amphitheater named the Live Stage and despite some technical difficulties, he was absolutely amazing, maybe one of the best sets of the entire festival, even though we were just a couple of hundred rocking to his distinctive electro sound, in the middle of the day. Then our German friend Zedd went on the Main Stage and rocked the place, premiering his new brand new "dutch inspired" electro track "Shotgun". Good stuff!

Afterwards we went to the "dubstep tent" where 12th planet was playing with his fellow LA resident and surprise guest Skrillex. They played and awesome back-2-back set and it was clear to see, that Skrillex loved playing the smaller stage, connecting more closely with the wobble and bass drop hungering masses. The relatively large tent and a perimeter of maybe a 100 meters was packed with people having severe seizures. There was some serious heavy weight bro-stepping going on that night. Flux Pavilion and Doctor P continued and ripped the place apart. Though they played nicely, it was hard to enjoy, if you're not really that into sweaty frat boys armpits.
Pendulum took over with a DJ set that really rocked, as they of course played some of their tracks from their side project (my favorite) Knife Party.



We moved to a smaller stage to enjoy a world class moombahton set by Dillon Francis, including my moombah favorite "Kitchen" by Angger Dimas, while Duck Sauce and Fatboy Slim entertained on the Main Stage. Dillon Francis was excellent, the small stage right by the water, the chilled out vibe and the slower 110 bpm moombah was a nice break from the hardcore dubstep and the uptempo progressive house.



Before we left the festival that day, we stopped by Avicii at the Main Stage, with the now famous guest appearance by Madonna, who couldn't seem to find her friend "Molly". Of course the anthem "Levels" brought instant insanity to the massive crowd. Great second UMF day.

Sunday, last day of UMF and the MMW. People were hung over from Saturday nights partying and the festival had kind of a lazy start. We went to see Big Gigantic Live, dubstep played with a live band, a very positive surprise and a nice change to all the DJ's weve been seeing all week. Then the post-dubstep artist SBTRKT went on, he seems to be lost in space and/or on LSD, it was way out there and too trippy for our state of mind that morning, so we went over to the main stage to see Steve Aoki with hypeman Lil' John.
It was very disappointing that he used more time on goofing around, throwing his signature cakes in the faces of the crowd, instead of actually playing music. I guess his silly personality is now the main attraction rather than his actual DJ'ing skills. The real reason for moving to the main stage was to see my all times favorites Knife Party, but somehow they didn't really work on that huge stage and I was let down when they finished without playing the dubstep banger "Fire Hive". Anyway, the main stage finished strong with Fedde le Grand, American DJ hero Kaskade and closed with trance legend Armin van Buuren, who also played the ASOT550 arena the day before.

We finished the UMF with a seriously nice show by British dubstep veterans Chase and Status, complete with double decks, hypeman and guest singers. Very nice, I would recommend anybody to catch their show somewhere.

Finally, and last show of my personal UMF experience, was the Canadian Lazy Rich, rocking one of the smaller stages, the BAO Dome, with a hardcore electro mix for the party people that preferred this over popular "DJ" David Guetta - people like me.


After a shower and a change of clothes, we attended the mau5trap party at Amnesia and it was truly a fantastic way to finish and amazing week. Kill the Noise, Foreign Beggars live, Moguai, Steve Duda, and of course protégé Feed Me and the legend himself: deadmau5. His highness had some beef with UMF, which he played in 2011 as a headliner, due to his discontent with the high prices and the exclusiveness clause UMF insists on having for the top names, he seems to have boycotted the UMF and hosted his own party instead.

A nice surprise was the introduction of a new sign-on to the Mau5trap label, danish dubstep artist Frederik Olufsen, now aka The Frederik. The party was off the hook, it was beyond amazing to party in a nightclub very close to these fantastic artist, and not in front of a mega stage, several hundred meters from the artist. How often do you go to a night club and deadmau5 is there spinning his favorite tunes for a couple of hours? Only in Miami.


To include a single track or video from the many artist I've seen would be too extensive. Instead I've included some of the tracks that forever will remind me of that one euphoric week in the sun. These tracks were played all over Miami. Also check out the mix below from my Russian darlings Hard Rock Sofa, that has managed to capture the true essence of Miami Music Week in a 1-hour mix of all the Miami hit tracks.

All pictures above is my own, taken on my iPhone or with a pocket camera. To see more professional pictures from the UMF, please visit their Facebook page.


Qulinez - Troll (Original Mix)
 
Third Party Vs. Cicada - Feel

Jack Back ft. David Guetta Nicky Romero and Sia - Wild One Two (Original Mix) 

Nari & Milani - Atom (Original Mix)

Marco V - Analogital (Hard Rock Sofa Remix) - Preview

Hard Rock Sofa - Miami 2012 Podcast 

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)

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

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: