The Steezoid Broadcasts #3 - The Drumstep

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

Miami Madness part 1 - the parties

For most people, this has got to be an adventure of a lifetime. Nothing in the world compares to this experience. I love the music, the beach, the sun, the palm trees, the colorful drinks, the food, the amazing nightclubs, the beautiful people - I LOVE MIAMI!


During the course of my seven days in Miami, I witnessed over 60 DJ's and EDM acts at close hand, in nightclubs, to beach- and pool parties and at the epic Ultra festival. In this article though, I will only cover the parties, and then UMF in a later one, as it all can't fit in just one article.

NYC warm-up

As we couldn't fly directly from Copenhagen to Miami anyway, we started with a five day warm-up in NYC. Knife Party played Pacha NYC the day after we arrived, so we joined the party on the VIP mezzanine, to keep a safe distance from the Jersey crowd, where we also go to meet and greet with Gareth and Rob. Great night in a packed nightclub and a great beginning to the adventure we where about to embark on.

Knife Party - Power Glove

Tuesday - Miami Massive 

We arrived in Miami on the Tuesday in the middle of the Miami Music Week (now 10 days/over two weekends). The Miami Madness had already been going on since the previous Thursday, so we had already "missed" out on 5 days of potential day- and night partying. We went to shower and change from our winter clothes from NYC to the summer gear in our very well located apartment on Collins Ave, South Beach, conveniently placed within walking distance from all the SoBe parties, and then of to our first day-party, the Miami Massive at Nikki Beach. Directly on the beach, though closed for the public, we spent the afternoon grooving in the sand under the palm trees with the likes of David Lambert, Gregor Salto (very good!) and Tocadisco before the night settled and the party moved inside to the sounds of Plastik Funk, Firebeatz, Audien and our danish friend Morten Breum.

The non-danish attendees must have thought they missed out on something as the small group of Danes loyally supported Morten Breum, danced like crazy and sung along to the new vocal version of Larva. Even though it's tough to play that late (around 3 AM) when people have been dancing since 12 PM to many of the same tracks, he played a nice improvised and fun set. Thank you for a great night Morten!

Morten Breum - Larva (Far Away) (Pegboard Nerds Remix)

Wednesday - Haunted Mansion

We skipped the day party to have a stroll on SoBe instead, soak in the atmosphere and get ready for yet another Knife Party show. This time around, it was at the Mansion super club on SoBe with support from newcomer Walden, Candyland, Jordy Dazz, Kill the Noise and Tommy Trash. We quickly entered the VIP area, which was directly behind and surrounding the DJ booth.

This proved to be the best night during our stay in Miami, as some of our favorites DJ's played, we partied alongside and high fived the DJ's, drank with their managers and meet them all after they had played their sets. The Mansion Nightclub was an amazing place, complete with topless dancers hanging in chains from the ceiling, waitresses wearing nothing but underwear, female performers wrapped in tape with powertools, incredible Funktion One sound system and lighting and superior VIP service. What a night!

Check out all the official pictures here and see if you can spot me :)

Timeflies - Nothing At All (Candyland's Not Festival Remix)

Jordy Dazz & Dannic - Fuego

Thursday - Stacked and Hardwell at Mansion

Still buzzing from the amazing party at Mansion the night before, we pulled ourselves together at took a taxi to Finnegan's River in Downtown Miami to catch some of the Stacked day-party. The place was right at the river, under the high way going through downtown Miami. It was packed with the usual American brosteppers as expected for a dubstep event. Even though we came a bit late, we did catch Zomboy, Bro Safari, Andy C and Dirtyphonics.

We left the bro-swarm and headed back to SoBe to get ready for another party at Mansion. This time it was Hardwell with support from Dannic and Dyro.We went to the bar on the main floor and hung out the the tunes of one of the biggest names in house music at the moment.

Check out the official pictures from the party here.

Zomboy - Nuclear (Hands Up)

Hardwell - Spaceman (Carnage Festival Trap Remix) 

Friday -The Clevelander

After a full day at Ultra we continued our brave effort and went for the Showtek and friends pool/courtyard party with Lazy Rich, Jordy Dazz, TV Noise, Bassjackers and my darling R3hab at the Clevelander on Ocean Drive, SoBe. Showtek is really on the rise with their hardstyle inspired electro house sound trending big at the moment. Showtek has got to have some of the most played tracks during MMW. We ended up partying on stage while Stowtek and R3hab was playing. It was a fun night.


Showtek & Justin Prime - Cannonball (Original Mix)

David Guetta & Ne-Yo - Play Hard (R3hab Remix) by R3HAB

Saturday - Pacha Ibiza at Bamboo

Beat from another long day on our feet at UMF, we manned up, and headed to the Bamboo Lounge for the Pacha Ibiza party. We entered a large room almost completely stuffed with VIP lounge areas. This was a club fit for 90% VIP bottle service and 10% GA's - only in Miami!

As the party took off, dancers descended on stages that came down from the ceiling, "cryomen" with stilts and lazers on their fingerips and weird/evil circus performers roamed the floor - what a crazy, crazy atmosphere. We saw Showtek, Sidney Samson, Bassjackers, Sebastien Drums and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

Check the official pictures from the party here.

Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike & GTA ft. Wolfpack - Turn It Up (Original Mix)

Bassjackers & Dyro - Grid (original mix)



Stay tuned for part 2 covering the Ultra Music Festival with Baauer, Deadmau5 and last ever show from SHM.

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.

Distorted and Trashed

Another exciting week for electronic music lovers in Copenhagen has passed. It started off with the Electronic Carneval, kept going with Distortion and ended up in Malmø, the Swedish "suburb" to Copenhagen.


Distortion is a very unique and all free street festival that goes on in Copenhagen every May with over 300.000 people partying in the streets of Copenhagen during 5 days in different neighborhoods everyday and a massive final party/rave on the Saturday, and a chill out lounge thing on the Sunday for those who just can't get enough. Numerous names are playing during the festival, mostly electronic acts though, and several spontaneous and unofficial pop-up parties and flash raves everywhere around the city joins in along with the street host parties by local shops, bars etc. around the city. It truly is a special thing, I don't think there's anything else like this anywhere else on the planet.

Wednesday, I went to Vor Frue Plads in central Copenhagen right between the Cathedral and the University in the old Latin quarter of Copenhagen. Danish top DJ Rune RK was hosting the event, he played a very nice set himself, and got people moving, but he had brought in the legendary UK DJ Pete Tong, you might know from the BBC Radio 1 show the Essential Mix on Friday nights. He will also appear at the Swedish House Mafia one-day event at Milton Keynes Bowl north of London in July, which I'm also going to see. The two of them put on a hell of a show and got the couple of thousand party people moving constantly.


Niggaz in Paris - Rune RK Undercover Remix


ENUR - Calabria (feat. Natasja) (under his pseudonym ENUR = Rune backwards)

Thursday i went to check out Frederik Olufsen aka The Frederik, the local Danish newcomer on mau5trap, I saw him at the epic Mau5trap closing party at Amnesia during the Miami Music Week, along with Foreign Beggars, Moguai, Feed Me and the master himself, Deadmau5. This time he rocked the Skt. Hans square on the multicultural borough of Nørrebro in Copenhagen with hard hitting dubstep and electro sound. It was quite nice, but nothing like the party at Amnesia Miami, but then again, nothing really can compare to that. One thing is for sure, I'm going to keep a close eye on the young Mr. Olufsen in the future, which seems very promising for the young Danish dubstep producer.

The Frederik - Delirium

Morten Breum, the no. 1 danish superstar DJ, played on the second night at Distortion in front of maybe a thousand people, at a closed down gas station on outer Nørrebro. Among many great tracks, like his newest release Larva, he played the banger "Epic" by Sandro Silva and Quintino. What a sick tune! Btw, he's got a new one coming up on called 86 degrees, sounds very promising.


Sandro Silva & Quintino - Epic (Original Mix)

After the Morten Breum show we, went to the nearby after party, that included three stages, of which we firstly was impressed with a very high energy and high tempo ghetto house set by Chicago house legend DJ Funk. Afterwards, italien DJ/producer Davide Squillace hypnotized us from the second second, with his deep house set.

Even though Distortion was just getting started in Copenhagen, I decided not to follow the party masses to the next borough of Copenhagen, but instead, I went abroad on the Friday evening, to our neighboring baby sister city of Malmø in Sweden, to see Tommy Trash at Babel. I saw Tommy in Miami during Ultra Music Festival, and he really impressed me, so I was very excited to see him again, this time in my own back yard. 

Babel, the old church turned nightclub in central Malmø and the only place in the Øresund region (the water between Denmark and Sweden), with a very clear electro profile, had brought in headliner Tommy Trash, the Australian DJ and excellent remixer/producer, who came down to Malmø after his appearance at Summerburst Gothenburg. His performance was nothing short of excellent. Very good energy, throwing his signature long curly hair all around the place and mixing in both his on tracks, like Cascade below, and several of his amazing remixes. I was so fortunate that I got to greet and thank him for the show afterwards. Another amazing night at Babel and a spectacular week with tons of great music and lovely people!

Tommy Trash - Cascade (Original Mix)

Pnau – Unite Us (Tommy Trash Remix)

 
A final thought
For some reason, most of the (better) nightclubs in Copenhagen are playing deep house, and as you might have figured out already, that's really not my thing. I mean it's OK to chill out to, but it doesn't turn on my party mode like the progressive or electro stuff does. I really appreciate coming over there once in a while to experience the great names they are getting in. The good people around Babel are always taking good care of me and my party people, so a big thanks to Peffe (Babel), Mattias (Department of Music) and Pierre (Save a Lollipop and Matchstick Men). Thank you guys!

The Butterfly Effect

Morten Breum, the most popular Danish DJ with over 94.000 fans on Facebook, played a sold out Vega, one of my favorite venues i Copenhagen, with a capacity of 1500 on the floor and balcony in beautiful functionalist surroundings with mosaics, panels and tiles designed back in the 50's by world renowned danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen. This was the first show back in Denmark, since he and his manager Nima Kay from I AM CRE8TIONS moved to LA to pursue an international break through. He has since been working on some new tracks and playing major nightclubs around the US, like LIV Miami and Pacha NYC. At Miami Music Week he played a couple of pool parties and I actually attended one of them on top of the Dream Hotel on Collins, but I sadly just missed him, so I was really looking forward to catch this show in Copenhagen.

At Vega on April 21st, Breum displayed the excellent DJ skills, that has made him so popular in Denmark, he truly is a gifted DJ, but also a great choice of songs, with neoclassic hits like Atom by Nari & Milani, Greyhound by SHM, In My Mind by Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl, Toulouse by Nicky Romero, Calling by Ingrosso & Alesso and his new tracks Get Static and the epic Larva (get it NOW on Beatport, do it, seriously, do it). The 1500 guests sure loved it, going mental to the music. He also had a sweet stage setup with a 3D like beehive setting around the DJ booth with funky graphics being "projected" on the squares (or however they did it). Very impressive, can't wait to see him again at Summerburst in Stockholm this summer.

Back in January, I wrote about him and this new track Larva and predicted that this big room banger of Avicii-like proportions, will skyrocket him into international stardom. I still believe that. The Larva has turned into a beautiful Butterfly.

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)

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