The Steezoid Broadcasts #6 - Endless summer

This is a mix dedicated to the summer we all wish would never end, with 20 neo-classic progressive house hits from the last couple of years, intended to make you want to dance through those warm summer nights until the sun rises on a cloud of happiness.



Tracklist is on the Soundcloud page, just click the link.

Summerburst Gothenburg 2013

 After the great experience with Summerburst in Stockholm we had last year, the GoLive party crew and I decided to go for the Gothenburg one this year in mid June. The 2-day festival was held at the Nya Ullevi stadium with room for 25.000 ravers. The weather was excellent both days, so we got to party in the sun for to whole days.

We started out with some nice electro tunes from Russian Arty, followed by Steve Angello's baby brother AN21 with lots of great progressive tracks. Afterwards, fellow Swedes Cazzette took the stage followed by the usual antics from "DJ" Steve Aoki and topped of with pop DJ David Guetta. The energy at the stadium was high, everybody was in a good mood and love was in the air. I gotta say, neither Steve Aoki or Guetta are among my favorites. Aoki seems to use valuable set time to fool around with cakes and inflatable boats while a prerecorded mix plays in the background. I would prefer him to skip all that and focus on the music. Guetta is just to stupid looking to be taken seriously and he just plays all the safe popular tracks, many of which is his own featuring a variety of pop artist. The highlight of the day had to be Arty, Cazzette and AN21. Don't get me wrong, we had an amazing day with plenty of Rosé Champagne, bootleg vodka and redbull and plenty of soon, but the headliners was a bit forgettable. More was to come though as day 2 came...

We arrived at the stadium around 3 PM, just in time to order more Champagne and Redbull for our nutsack smuggled vodka (hard liqueur is not legal in that kind of venues in Sweden) and to catch one of my electro favorites, Swedish Albin Myers take the stage. He's always great, very energetic, lost of movement and gestures besides the usual "index-finger in the air" or the "both hands in the air" moves. Another Swede took over the decks (they have plenty of talent over there), Otto Knows delivered a great high energy progressive house set topped of with his summer anthem from last year Million Voices - imminent goosebumps!

Young dutch superstar Hardwell was up next, he had a gig in Copenhagen the same night, so I guess that's why he played so early, as he should have had a later slot amongst the headliners. Hardwell absolutely ripped Nya Ullevi apart with hardcore dutch electro house combined with his own melodic sing along tracks, not to forget the mega hit Spaceman - more goosebumps! The rather ungrateful task to follow Hardwell was left with W&W, former trance dudes gone house, surprised very positively, sending us all into outer space with their latest trancy/progressive hits "Lift Off!" and "Thunder".

Time for a breather - and a stage change, Swedish Galavant played a short in between half hour show with some live singing, but we did really pay attention as we went to re-energize in the food court area. We got back as German super talent Zedd took over with more great electro and melodic bangers, including his own hits Spectrum and Clarity - I even think I saw someone shed a tear during Clarity whilst I was busy having goosebumps again. But our euphoria could get even higher. Yet another Swedish rising star was on decks. Alesso lifted us even higher into the stratosphere with plenty of feel good "scream along" prog house hits, including the monster "Calling" he did with Jedi master Ingrosso - just when I thought I was done having goosebumps... Great warm up for The King - Axwell.

I've seen him a couple of times now, and he never seems to stop amazing me. We a surgeons precision, who played carefully selected and very effective tracks to take us on our 1 ½ hour final ride into Nirvana. His set included quite a few SHM tracks like Greyhound and the not yet released Axwell/Ingrosso collab "We Come, We Rave, We Love" featured on the Final SHM world tour, the new one "Center of the Universe" as well as old tunes like "Heart Is King" and and "Leave The World Behind" in yet another mashup. I think I finally lost my mind when he dropped "In My Mind", my very top house summer anthem. All hail - Axwell is King!

What an amazing weekend in Gothenburg - we all left the lovely city the next day feeling very fulfilled and ready for more Summerburst next year.

Summerburst in Stockholm

My GoLive VIP party crew and I went to Stockholm for the Summerburst Festival last weekend, with headliners like Tiesto, David Guetta, Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso as well as Calvin Harris, Alesso, Nicky Romero and plenty of other house-hold names.

Summerburst day 1

We arrived at the old Olympic stadium from 1912 in the northern part of Stockholm. Plenty of people both inside and outside the main arena were already having a ball. There was a second stage with smaller/more niche names and a silent disco (which will never ever catch on if you ask me). The two VIP areas were at the sides of the arena, and we were on the one right from the stage, the Blue VIP.

Thomas Gold from Munich was playing the main stage as we entered. I really love his newest track Sing2me on Axtone, check it out in this funky remix below(couldn't find a clean version).

Kaskade vs Thomas Gold - Sing2me in the Rain

It was all good and soon after, dutch hope Nicky Romero took over.


Nicky Romero
Last time I saw him, was when he had the doubtful honor of opening one of the stages at UMF day 1 back in March in Miami. Meanwhile, he did an amazing 2-hour Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 for Pete Tong, so expectations was high, and he delivered a good strong set, which he started of with the Avicii collab track "Fuck School". Below you'll find some of his best and latest tracks for you to enjoy.

Nicky Romero - Toulouse (Tommy Trash Remix)

Nicky Romero & ZROQ - WTF?!

David Guetta & Nicky Romero - Metropolis

Alesso
Next up was local boy and Ingrosso protegé, Alesso. He's been schooled by the House Don Ingrosse himself and he did not disappoint us. Check out the video and a couple of tracks below.



Keane - Silenced By The Night (Alesso Remix)

Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso - Calling 'Lose My Mind'


Albin Myers
We went outside outside the stadium area to have a little breather and visit the smaller second stage, where Albin Myers was playing. He canceled my otherwise much needed rest as I couldn't stop moving to his excellent "Hells Bells".

Albin Myers - HELLS BELLS EP - Mini Mix


Axwell
As we went back to the VIP area in front of the main stage, people were getting ready for Axwell. Personally I had very high expectations for this set, since he blew my mind at the Axtone party at Amnesia Miami during the MMW. He mostly played "family-tracks", as a true House Don, i.e. tracks from his own Axtone label (like Hard Rock Sofa, Henrik B, Michael Calfan and Thomas Gold), SHM tracks and other house banger and great mashups like the ever so popular Swedish House Mafia "One" with the lyrics from the normally very annoying Gotye song "Somebody That I Use To Know". My hopes and expectations was fulfilled and he delivered and truly great set.

Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl ft. Georgi Kay - In My Mind (Axwell Mix)

Axwell - Heart Is King

SHM and Laidback Luke - Leave The World Behind (Original Mix)

We did not really care for Tiesto, so we left the venue after a long but great day.

Summerburst day 2

We forced ourselves out of bed and of to the festival in the pouring rain, to see our own Danish DJ hero Morten Breum playing as one of the first in the afternoon.We had to show our support of course, and we made it through central Stockholm without getting completely soaked.

Morten Breum
In front of the main stage, there were a select crowd of maybe a 100 loyal (probably all Danish) fans, complete with wellies and sponsor-raincovers dancing in the rain and supporting Morten Breum. We hung out on the covered stands on the right to the stage, trying to keep dry as we enjoyed Breums moderate set. It must have been hard to give it your all under those circumstances but he gave it a brave shot.

Morten Breum - On It (Original Mix)


Nause
Locals Nause went on afterwards and the local swedes seemed to love them. I haven't really digged them before, but hats of for their high energy performance around 4 PM while it was still drizzling.

We left to get some non festival food at a nearby pizzeria that also served cocktails (?!), so we fueled up with plenty of both and went back to see Calvin Harris.

Nause - Mellow (Original Mix)

Calvin Harris
The sympathetic Scotsman Calvin Harris, was making sure all 24.000 understood that he was indeed not British, as the Swedish national football team lost to England that very same evening. He played a really nice set, including his super hits like Bounce feat. Kelis, Feel so Close and We Found Love with Rihanna, which all clearly states his recent entry into super stardom.

Rihanna & Calvin Harris - We Found Love (R3hab's XS Remix)
 
Calvin Harris Feat. Ne-Yo - Let's Go (Calvin Harris Remix)

Sebastian Ingrosso
He must have played the best set I've ever heard anyone play anywhere, that was simply legendary! A perfect blend of family-tracks from Refune (his own label), Axtone (Axwell's label), Size (Steve Angello's label) and SHM (Virgin), intertwined with mashups, remixes and some of the best recent progressive house tracks (like Walking Alone and Bong - see below) and of course, a strong finish (along with Axwell, who came on stage) with the anthem Save the World all mashed up with the groundbreaking Knife Party remix. Check out the complete set list here. It looks pretty darn close to his set from EDC New York a month ago, and you can listen back  to it in it's entirety or download it on Soundcloud right here. DO IT!



Dirty South and Those Usual Suspects feat. Erik Hecht - Walking Alone

Deniz Koyu - Bong (Original Mix)

We left just after Ingrosso's epic set, as we preferred to go change and get early to the afterparty at Ambassadeur, instead of hanging out to the end and be tortured by the so-called worlds best DJ David Guetta. Day 2 was excellent despite a bit of rain in the afternoon, even more brilliant than day 1.

If you want to see (much) more from the festival, check out this 3-hour long broadcast by the Swedish national TV network SVT here.


The afterparty

The afterparty at Ambassadeur with Morten Breum was absolutely amazing. Danish superstar DJ Breum played one of his best sets (that I have ever witnessed) and the surroundings in the high end nightclub was excellent, sporting a quality sound system, nice lights, beautiful and happy people, the notorious long Stockholm queues outside, lounges and VIP sections and of course lots of (very expensive) alcohol in the 50 foot long bar served in classic Swedish 6 cl. triple drinks. Breum finished strong with his new banger "86 degrees" that got everybody moving (as Larva did for that matter) - so go get it here - NOW!

As we left the club, we bumped into Morten Breum and his manager Nima K and had a little chat as we strolled towards our respective downtown hotels. Check out all the official pics from the party here.


Despite my usual practice on this blog, I've chosen to complement this one with some pictures and video courtesy of stureplan.se and SVT, as my shitty and shaken iPhone shots just doesn't always cut it.

The Russians are coming!

The Russians are coming, and the spearhead of the Russian Invasion is made up by Hard Rock Sofa and Swanky Tunes, both from Smolensk Russia, releasing progressive house banger together and individually and remixing almost everybody else. Praised by superstar DJ's like Tiesto, David Guetta, Sandern Van Doorn and Swedish House Mafia, the success of the red EDM army seems to be inevitable.


Recently, Hard Rock Sofa released "Quasar" on Axtone, the label of Axwell from SHM. Swanky Tunes has released a couple of tunes on Sebastian Ingrosso's (also SHM) label Refune. The red blitz attack seems to be helped along by their Swedish friends.

I've includes some nice tracks from the Russians below, and the video of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" Swanky Tunes & Hard Rock Sofa did together, a cover version of Iggy Pop and the Stooges original, including mesmerizing guitar riffs samples, frantic synths and UK style "train-spotting-like-drug-addict" vocals. Sick video also, see below.

Bonus info: Hard Rock Sofa does a very nice monthly podcast mix with all the greatest progressive house tracks from that month. Follow this link to check out the latest February 2012 mix





Hard Rock Sofa - Quasar (Radio Edit)

R3hab & Swanky Tunes - Sending My Love (Hard Rock Sofa Remix)

Swanky Tunes, Matisse & Sadko - The Legend (Original Mix)

Swanky Tunes - Their law (Original Mix

Ultra High Expectations

Next month, I'll be going with GoLive Travel to sunny Florida for the Miami Music Week with the Ultra Music Festival as the main event, I've written about UMF before, but I wanted to share some of my expectations to this epic all week EDM event. Even though the UMF lineup features super star names like Tiesto, David Guetta, Miike Snow, Justice and Fatboy Slim, it's actually some of the many other "smaller" names I look forward to the most, names like Zedd, Hard Rock Sofa and Alvin Risk.

There's literally hundreds of parties, festivals, concerts, showcases, workshops, rooftop, poolside and yacht raves and unfortunately, I can't be at them all at the same time, so my travel partner and I, have tried to schedule our way through the Miami party jungle, guided by our taste in music. Below you'll find a musical walk through of our overall schedule during Miami Music Week.

Admitted, this is also just an excuse to showcase some of the many greats tracks from different genres, that is out right now and present you for some artists that you might not know yet.

Wednesday march 21n

Axwell, from Swedish House Mafia, and his label Axtone hosts a showcase with some of the other artists on the label, like Thomas Gold, No_ID and Jacques Lu Cont at the huge nightclub Amnesia Miami. We'll be going directly from the airport to this party so it'll be our first night in Miami. What a start to the 5-day long party!

I guess Axwell has been pretty busy with SHM, but he's managed to do some utterly great remixes lately though, like the remix of "Resurrection" by Michael Calfan and the track below, currently topping the Beatport top 10).


Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl feat. Georgi Kay - In My Mind (Axwell Radio Mix)

Thomas Gold - Marsch Marsch (Willdo Club Edit)

 
Friday march 23rd
UMF kicks of with it's epic line up. Besides Tiësto, Kraftwerk, Skrillex and Miike Snow, great names like Kaskade, Benny Benassi, Afrojack, Tommy Trash, Wolfgang Gartner, Porter Robinson, Dada Life, Alvin Risk, Dirty South, Nicky Romero and Camo & Krooked to name a few, will also perform and I have to see them all.


Wolfgang Gartner - Undertaker
 
Dirty South and Those Usual Suspects feat. Erik Hecht - Walking Alone

Kaskade - Eyes (Alvin Risk Remix)

When the first day of the Ultra Festival closes around midnight, we plan to attend the H50 Rooftop Pool Party on the top of Viceroy Hotel featuring legendary DJ Paul Oakenfold, Lazy Rich, Alex Kenji and a couple of handfuls of other DJ's. Partying poolside on the 50th floor roof when the sun sets, with outstanding view over the Miami Bay, should be fun.

Lazy Rich - Better Wipe That Up


Saturday march 24th
This second day of the UMF holds several great European house artists like two of my electro favorites Mord Fustang from Estonia and Zedd from Germany, Hardwell from the Netherlands as well as UK (based) dubstep artists like Flux Pavilion and Doctor P, Skream and Benga, Pendulum (playing a DJ set, not from but based in UK). I also hope to catch Northamericans Datsik (Canada), Zeds Dead (Canada), 12th planet (LA), Dillon Francis (LA) and the Swedish electronica band Little Dragon.

Hardwell - Spaceman (Original Mix)

Skrillex & The Doors - Breakn' A Sweat (Zedd Remix)

Dillon Francis - Falling Up
 

Sunday march 25th

What could be better for closing the UMF and the MMW than a live performance from my favorite band Knife Party (2/3 of Pendulum btw)? In my mind, they are the ones I look forward to the most, but this last day of the festival will also include performances from Magnetic Man (UK), Lazy Rich (Canada), Hard Rock Sofa (Russia) and SBTRKT (UK), the so-called "post-step" band.

Labrinth - Last Time (Knife Party Remix) 

Hard Rock Sofa - Quasar (Radio Edit)

SBTRKT - Wildfire

This is going to be a week packed with music and partying like nothing I have ever experienced before. I guess a couple of days at the Hyatt in Key West afterwards will do me well.