DMb | Dance Music blog & Podcast

Well, another Schulz show has come and gone, and once again my fellow Schulz Army Cadets are left in post-Markus depression! When we first heard Markus would be in DC on October 15th, a 6-hour trip seemed like NOTHING for Schulz! Road trip from NYC was definitely in store!

I’ll start by saying, if you haven’t been to Fur Nightclub in DC, here’s the scoop. While definitely not as seedy and dark as your normal NYC nightclub…it definitely has its quirky yet unique characteristics. The club contains a layout with 4 areas to dance. Outside patio, salsa room (which I have yet to see), hip hop/pop area and of course the only room that makes this club…the main dance area on the lower level. If you’ve read any of my past reviews, you know I can’t resist to comment on the horrid cheesy pop/mainstream crap they play on the main level. It’s just poor planning to hear this garbage while there are epic trance events in the lower room. If you have the urge to escape for some fresh air on the back patio, you are forced to walk through garbage music while meddling through amateur crowds of mayhem. Not fun!

On to more relevant things…we arrived around 11:15pm and had an easy entry experience with no line. Nice! The opening DJ in the main room was…let me say…meh. While the crowd seemed to dig the vibe, this guy had way too much fun dropping cheesy mashups of various popular edm tracks. Might I also mention an observation early on in the night…the crowd seemed a little “off”, as if too many people simply strolled off the street just to go clubbing, not realizing there is an epic master DJ/producer about to take the stage. Nevertheless, we situated ourselves directly in the center of the crowd and awaited the entrance of our boss…Mr. Markus Schulz!

About 12:30am, Markus took over. It’s always impressive when a DJ is able to come out of the BS music of an opening DJ, into full blown Markus-mode! Instantly turned the mood around!!!

As always, Markus was consistent with his set, and never disappointing. Dropping remixed tracks like Perception, Saints, and of course, Sinners, the floor was rumbling and the sound system was banging! I must say, I’ve seen Schulz a lot, and I can honestly say, every show gets better with new remixes and fresh sounds that I’ve never heard live. He really took it to extreme levels that night with the non-vocal hard tracks and had the entire crowd on their feet. Tracks like Angular Momentum & The Plank Effect, kept the crowd at energy levels I have never experienced! I can’t forget to mention also how Markus so effortlessly changed the room energy with some melodic Gaia Stellar…Love! (more...)

ELECTRIC ZOO 2012 Early Bird Passes on Sale www.electriczoofestival.com

After the smash success of the third annual Electric Zoo, Made Event is pleased to announce that Early Bird passes for Electric Zoo 2012 go on sale today at 1 p.m. EDT. Buy your Early Bird pass at www.electriczoofestival.com. The supply is very limited, so don’t miss out! Electric Zoo 2012 will take place at Randall’s Island Park, NYC, on Labor Day Weekend, August 31 to September 2, 2012.

The Official Electric Zoo 2011 Recap Video has just been released! Recapture a glimpse of the magic that was Electric Zoo 2011 in this official post-festival recap video, just released today on our Youtube channel. Watch the video here: Youtube.com/ElectricZooNY.

Official Electric Zoo 2011 Recap Video 



Electric Zoo is also working with Music Unites, a 501(c)3 non-profit, to auction off a CDJ-2000 provided on behalf of Pioneer DJ and signed by Electric Zoo 2011 artists: 12th Planet, ATB, Beardyman, Benny Benassi, Big Gigantic, BT, Calvin Harris, Daedelus, Egyptrixx, Fake Blood, Felguk, Gabriel & Dresden, Gui Boratto, Guti, James Holden, Jaytech, Michael Woods, MiMOSA, Sander Van Doorn, Serge Devant, Sidney Samson, Steve Bug, Sub Focus, The M Machine, The Martinez Brothers, Tiga and TOKiMONSTA. In addition, the auction includes 2 general admission tickets to Electric Zoo 2012 (more...)

I honestly didn’t see it coming. David Guetta? I figured he would have topped out at number 2 but I guess working with lots of commercial rap/r&b/pop singers will get you more votes. I hope this doesn’t start a bigger trend of more commercial music that we already have in our massively expanding dance music scene. Well congrats to David Guetta and cheers to Armin van Buuren for a great run!

Some notable movers: AVICII (up 33), Swedish House Mafia (up 13), Skrillex (debut at #19!), Arty (up 53), Martin Solveig (up 26), Calvin Harris (up 60), Noisecontrollers (up 55), W&W (up 36), Pete tha Zouk (up 44), Dada Life (up 38), Steve Aoki (debut at #42), Lange (down 29), Joachim Garraud (down 32), Simon Patterson (down 48), Felguk (debut at #87), James Zabiela (down 45), and Marcel Woods (down 32).

The top 100 DJ’s of 2011:

01. David Guetta (up 1)
02. Armin van Buuren (down 1)
03. Tiësto (non-mover)
04. Deadmau5 (non-mover)
05. Above & Beyond (non-mover)
06. Avicii (up 33)
07. Afrojack (up 12)
08. Dash Berlin (up 7 )
09. Markus Schulz (down 1)
10. Swedish House Mafia (up 13)
11. Paul van Dyk (down 5)
12. Axwell (down 2)
13. Gareth Emery (down 6)
14. Fedde Le Grand (up 5)
15. ATB (down 4)
16. Sander van Doorn (down 4)
17. Headhunterz (up 17)
18. Ferry Corsten (down 9)
19. Skrillex (BEST new entry)
20. Laidback Luke (down 3)
21. Infected Mushroom (down 8 )
22. Aly & Fila (down 2)
23. Steve Angello (down 9)
24. Hardwell (new entry)
25. Arty (up 53)
26. Sebastian Ingrosso (down 10)
27. Benny Benassi (down 1)
28. Daft Punk (up 16)
29. Martin Solveig (up 26)
30. Kaskade (up 5)
31. Carl Cox (down 9)
32. Chuckie (up 5)
33. Bob Sinclar (up 5)
34. Calvin Harris (up 60)
35. Noisecontrollers (up 55)
36. W&W (up 36)
37. Pete tha Zouk (up 44)
38. Dada Life (up 38)
39. Angerfist (new entry)
40. D Block & S Te Fan (up 33)
41. Coone (new entry)
42. Steve Aoki (new entry)
43. Cosmic Gate (down 19)
44. Bobina (down 19)
45. Richie Hawtin (down 14)
46. Eric Prydz (down 16)
47. Zatox (new entry)
48. tyDi (up 8 )
49. Orjan Nilsen (new entry)
50. Andy Moor (down 18) (more…)

Record your own version of AVICII – Levels (street performance, children’s choir, flash mob etc) and upload to YouTube. Winners get to be a part of the official video for Levels. Contest ends November 1, 2011 so get moving.

Check out the full Info and Rules here.

United States Trance Movement in conjunction with LANGE RECORDINGS are giving away 2x signed Lange – Remixed Albums For your chance to win, just answer the question below and send in your answer, with full address details including country of residence, to contests@usatrancemovement.com. Please make the subject of your email: Lange Remixed What is the name of Lange’s Label? Winner will be chosen at rand

From the brilliant minds of international trance sensation, COSMIC GATE (aka NIC CHAGALL and BOSSI), come the act’s fifth studio album, WAKE YOUR MIND (Black Hole Recordings), released October 24th (Beatport), and October 31st, 2011 (iTunes and other digital retailers). WAKE YOUR MIND contains the epic singles and dancefloor bombs longtime COSMIC GATE fans live for, including “The Theme” and “Barra.” The

As someone who fell in love with the Universal Religion album series when I first heard UR4, I immediately had to get Armin’s fifth installment when it was released. Unsurprisingly, his latest two-disc mix did not disappoint. Universal Religion 5 is a two-disc compilation album recorded live at Club Space in Ibiza. The album features a soothing mix of house, progressive, and trance tracks with Armin’s

Can you ban a style of music? California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma learned the hard way that doing so might not be so easy when she tried to ban electronic rave music. “We found out later on that, Constitutionally, you can not ban a type of music,” said Ma. “Plus, I, like my opponents said, I didn’t really know what was going on.”

Despite the inability to ban rave music outright, Ma was able to squelch aspects of rave culture like LED gloves and pacifiers by keeping the pressure on event organizers with Assembly Bill 74 (formerly the “Anti-Raves Act” ), which became law on Oct. 9, 2011 when CA Governor Jerry Brown signed it. The Assemblywoman first became concerned with raves when a 15-year-old girl named Sasha Rodriguez died at the popular Los Angeles rave, The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC).

EDC, a giant festival of electronic music, dancing and lights, was held in Los Angeles for the past 13 years, attracting hundreds of thousands of participants and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the Los Angeles economy. When Rodriguez died of an apparent ecstasy overdose, the LA Coliseum banned the event, which subsequently moved to Las Vegas for its 2011 festival.

Much of the political backlash against raves began in 2002, when then-Senator Joe Biden proposed the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy, or RAVE Act, which he attached to popular bill targeting child abduction. Produced by Zach Weissmueller and Paul Detrick. Field produced by Alex Manning, Kyle Walker and Paul Feine.