DMb | Dance Music blog & Podcast

Ferry Corsten has released the first App-only album ever to celebrate his 20 years as a producer.

The 20 year App contains a one hour long special mix created by the man himself, filled with 34 of his biggest hits up to date and a lot of unique pictures of Ferry’s face morphing through the years and his musical life. A must have for every fan of Ferry Corsten and dance music in general.

Key features in this App: - Unique 20 Years mix made by Ferry Corsten - Beautiful pictures of Ferry’s face morphing through the years, his musical life and dance events - An overview of his albums over the past 20 years, including track lists Check out the App on ferrycorsten.com

Ferry Corsten has become an icon in the trance and dance scene. He has released 6 artist albums since his rise to the top and a myriad of compilations. With his own record label, Flashover Recordings he releases his own music and the music of other great electronic DJ’s and producers.

His interactive radio show Corstens Countdown is currently broadcasted in more than 50 countries worldwide and annually nominated as one of the best dance radio shows in the world.

With Full on Ferry he treats his fans to a great night filled with back to back sets with himself and various artists. The show has it’s residency in Ibiza, Spain.

As part of a special video-cast, Markus Schulz – one of the 10 biggest DJs in the world – yesterday announced that it would be the sprawling electronic dancetropolis of Los Angeles that’s been selected for his 2012 city compilation! Speculation had been mounting on forums over the last week that the honours could well fall the city’s way, with it becoming the odds-on favourite among Schulz watchers in the final hours before the broadcast. And that was indeed the way the compass spun! As the video’s countdown reached zero (with the broadcast’s hosts uStream at near meltdown!), it revealed the iconic cityscape of the album’s cover and confirmation that the series would return to North America next year.

In unveiling LA as the city of choice, Markus said “electronic dance music has blown up huge in the United States this past year. One of the main reasons driving that is the scene in Los Angeles, where a new generation of clubbers are uniting with long-term fans and creating one of the most passionate scenes anywhere on the globe. I’ve played there many times in my career, at the Monster Massive festivals, the Electric Daisy Carnivals and for the last 3 years New Years Eves at Together As One, and they’ve all been so memorable in their own way.”

To mark the release of Markus’ city-celebrating Los Angeles 2012 mix-comp, Schulz will be playing not one, but two incredible gigs on consecutive nights at alegendary LA dance spot. Markus continues: “one of the clubs heavily featured in my Do You Dream DVD is Avalon. The fans there have always been amazing and as a result of the vibe and the response of the Avalon crowd I ended up playing over six hours, past 7am in the morning! It’s these types of environments where I really test my DJ sets and skills”. So on Presidents Day weekend in the States, it’ll be the West Hollywood club that will play host to two very special parties to celebrate the release of Los Angeles ’12. Saturday February 18th will be a 21+ event with Sunday the 19th being a 18s and over show. “It’s going to be an extended set from me alongside some very special guests and it’ll be the first time in my career that I’ve done two back-to-back shows in LA”, says Markus. “So get your plane tickets, booked, your hotel rooms reserved and your plans made – it’s going to be an incredible weekend!”

From here, over the next six weeks, Markus will be making his final preparations to musically decode the City of Angeles. The album promises to be two discs of the most upfront, cutting-edge, tip-of-the-spear electronic dance music out there, personifying exactly how LA clubs it!

We’ll be back to unveil its tracklist mid-Jan… so standby for that! More info on Markus Schulz from www.markusschulz.com and www.facebook.com/markusschulz

Featuring music from across the electronic dance range, including 31 tracks and remixes from W&W And Mark Sixma, Marco V, Orjan Nilsen, Jochen Miller, Marcel Woods, Alex M.O.R.P.H. and many more.

As this dance music year starts to draw to a close, High Contrast Recordings are ready to put 2011 through the sound barrier with their latest compilation expedition. The man tasked with compiling and mixing it is none other than genre-explorer extraordinaire, Ali Wilson.

Late last year, through the release of his ‘Phenomenon’ album, Ali established himself as one of the producers to watch throughout 2011. By the same stroke it sent his deck career into overdrive, with turntable duty being served at a many major worldwide events and festivals.

Now he’s been given the keys to a trove of the best current and forthcoming crop from High Contrast Recordings and beyond and he’s ready to deal the year some compilation justice!

Wilson instantly draws the listener in on Mix 1 with the Dyor Feat. Matthew Hall’s groovy-but-moody ‘On The Road’ and ‘I Die’, the moving, Sue McLaren-sung current single from Dennis Sheperd & Alan Morris. The album’s audio initially charts a chunky, proggy path, but don’t get too settled. Tectonic style shifts are afoot. True to his reputation, Ali refuses to hang in any genre locale long enough for the album to get pigeonholed. Erick Strong’s ‘Muffin’ puts it into a housey S.H.M. stride, before Aerofoil & E&G’s ‘Plank Effect’ and Marco V & Damian William’s ‘Essence’ re-point it down a churning, burning tech road.

Given that this is the man who gave us ‘Pandora’ – one of dance overlord Armin van Buuren’s top 10 tracks of 2010 – you better believe that some big room action isn’t far off. Norwegian sensation Orjan Nilsen sends the mercury rising with the pulsating ‘Atchoo’, while ‘Twist’ (in its arena-sized Rick Mitchells and Bas van Essen Remix form) catalyses with its attacking can’t-miss riff. (more...)

Arty at Vision Nightclub says the US is the top for Electronic Dance Music and reveals that he uses FL Studio to write his tracks and put down ideas when on the road.

After 30 years working on their respective ongoing music projects, Vince Clarke (Erasure / Yazoo / Depeche Mode) and Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode) come together for the first time since 1981 as VCMG to release a brand new album on Mute, preceded by a series of EPs.

VCMG is the fruit of initially tentative discussion and subsequent enthused collaboration where Vince and Martin, both influential as pioneers in electronic music, get to exercise their lifelong love of the genre as the techno inspired VCMG.

As Vince explains: “I’ve been getting into and listening to a lot of minimal dance music and I got really intrigued by all the sounds… I realised I needed a collaborator… so it occurred to me to talk to Martin.”

Says Gore: “Out of the blue I got an e-mail from Vince just saying, ‘I’m interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?’ This was maybe a year ago. He said, ‘No pressure, no deadlines,’ so I said, ‘OK’.”

The writing and recording of the album was done in a typically unique way with the pair working alone in their respective studios, communicating only via email, exchanging files until the album was ready. It was in May 2011 that the pair met for the first time to discuss the project when they both performed at Short Circuit presents Mute festival in London.

The album (title to be announced soon) was produced by Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore and mixed by the influential Californian electronic artist Überzone / Q and will be released in the spring of 2012.

The first release is an EP entitled Spock. EP1 / SPOCK will feature remixes from Edit-Select, aka Tony Scott, the UK DJ / producer and founder of EditSelect Records whose previous remix credits include Speedy J, Death In Vegas and Gary Beck; Regis, British techno musician Karl O’Connor, member of the Sandwell District collective and co-founder of Downwards Records); Zak aka DVS1, founder of Hush Records and one of the most prominent figures in US dance music counts techno innovator Derrick May amongst his biggest fans, with his second ever release on May’s own Transmat plus XOQ, the alter ego of Überzone / Q, who mixed the VCMG album.

EP1 / SPOCK will be available initially as a global exclusive on Beatport on 30 November, and then on all DSPs from 12 December with the 12″ release following on 19 December 2011.

EP1 / SPOCK TRACKLIST
Spock – Album Version
Spock – Edit Select Remix
Spock – Regis Remix
Spock – DVS1 Voyage Home Remix
Spock – XOQ Remix

Paul Oakenfold, a man who has been around since Trance began, has played a myriad of locations. His compilations thorough the ages have been notorious. He’s mixed film soundtracks into “Perfecto Fluoro” and selected his favorites from his performance of at the Great Wall of China (“Great Wall”). “The Goa Mix” is referred to one of the greatest Trance compilations of all time by many. That being said, I’ll be the first to admit Oakenfold has been lower on the radar in the last few years. Recently, though, he’s been releasing some serious singles and his last compilation ripped our faces off. “Never Mind the Bollocks” was full of heavy hitting, extreme Trance with a good balance of lighter tones. The only complaint across the board seemed to be that some of the tracks were a bit old by the time the compilation was released.

“We Are Planet Perfecto: Vol.1? is focused heavily on new material gunning Paul’s Perfecto label. What’s very special about this album is the sneaking suspicion that some of these tracks may be from Paul’s fabled album “Pop Killer,” which has been prolonged in release at least twice and into 2012. From the title of his collaboration’s title with Robert Vadney (that’s right — it finally happened) alone “Pop Star,” we’re seeing the newest sound. You’ll find it at the “pick-up” moment of Disk 1, along with his newest jam “Sleep” and a 2012 remix of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “My Otherside.” This version is extremely different, taking an intense progressive Trance sound rather than the previous house versions everyone has heard. This disk starts off with Juventa’s new song Ocean Sparkles, in the Eric Shaw Cinematic Mix. Oakenfold is a man who knows how important a first impression is, and through the years some of my favorite mix introductions have been carefully picked tunes for his compilations. There’s an intense consistency of winning tracks from the Otherside remix right until the end, a rework of PPK’s classic “Ressurection” by the Planet Perfecto Knights, remixed by Remy Le Duc vs. EC Twins. This is one of the craziest remixes ever done for this song, and leaves you wondering what the man intends to play on his second disk.

Disk 2 opens with USTM’s #3 track of November 2011: the original mix of Syna vs. Ayleon’s “Change.” This track is calming yet intense, instant pulling you into a mix we’ve all been waiting to hear for a long time. Right off the bat Oakenfold brings in his psytrance undertones with Liquid Stranger’s remix of “Ode Ao Sol” and the legendary Man With No Name with his newer tune “Sugar Rush” (Astrix Remix). Minutes later we’re hit with Robert Vadney’s remix of Paul’s song “Firefly” and things take a turn to the high-point of the compilation. Heatbeat’s remix of “This is New York” by Lange and Gareth Emery takes us over the new remix of Grace’s “Not Over Yet” we’ve all been loving, then into two brand classic remixes in a row: of Oakenfold’s “Faster Kill Pussycat” and “Southern Sun!” That’s all before some other noteworthy classics come in remixes and the mix ends with thumping Goa and Euphoric trance selections.

What I really like about this compilation is the skill Paul demonstrates in keeping the same vibe interesting through overtime, mixing each CD almost twenty minutes over the standard hour. The theme here is to demonstrate the new sound of Perfecto Records, and he’s willing to spend extra work in the mix to make sure you get the full picture. Once you realize it’s about time to wrap it up the pace changes again and you realize there’s no stopping this comeback. The sound of Perfecto has once again been solidified.

-Written by Tom Rogers

The 5 Year Anniversary of Massive Event with Simon Patterson, Roger Shah, & tyDi @ Highline Ballroom, NYC . For more info go to www.massiveevent.com

Simon Patterson Hi Simon, Massive Event will be celebrating its five years of event production in New York, and invited you back for the celebration along with Tydi & Roger Shah. You have been working with Massive Events for quite some time now. What is it about Massive that makes you continue to come back?

Simon Patterson: Well I have known Mike for the same amount of time and he’s a good friend. His parties have been amazing since day one and he was the first to bring me there so I have a tremendous amount of loyalty to him and the people that always go to his shows. I haven’t played at Massive for a while so this is going to be a great party!

Any new remixes or tracks you have been working on, that you’re looking to share for the anniversary?

Simmon Patterson: I have been working on a few things, but nothing’s quite finished yet. I’m just toying with sounds and new ideas and seeing what’s working and what’s not. There will be a few new vocal tracks coming from me soon.

What advice would you have for both Michael Brand and Matthew Felner in their continuing drive to push the boundaries of event production & promotion?

Simon Patterson: Just keep doing what you’re doing. You are keeping the NYC scene alive so keep it up! Any last words for your fans and New York?

Simon Patterson: Can’t wait to be back… see you there!!!

Roger Shah

Hi Roger! How are you doing? Massive Event will be celebrating its five years of event production in New York, and invited you back for the celebration along with Tydi & Simon Patterson. What are you looking forward to most of your return back to the Big Apple?

Roger Shah: The most i look forward to the incredible music lovers of nyc. i’m still in early steps to conquer the united states and my profile is still not on the level as i have in other countries where i even do solo concerts like a band, but for some reason i have a special connection to nyc which started when i played the a state of trance 450 with an unbelievable crowd reaction, this continued when i played for massive events earlier this year, so i can say that nyc is my favorite place in the usa to play and i’m very excited to be back even i have to admit that i had the hope to play a longer set is i usually do on my current openminded album tour.

Any new remixes or tracks you have been working on, that you’re looking to test out at the Anniversary party?

Roger Shah: always work on new stuff, recently i just finished a new single under my famous global experience alias, for which i had no time the past couple of years, i also did some new remixes for 3 drives – greece 2000 or loverush uk ft carla werner but i also will play all main tracks from my new album and of course some of my greatest hits as well.

Massive Event has been around for five years here in New York, and is bringing in new talent to the masses monthly. What advice would you have for both Michael Brand and Matthew Felner in their continuing drive to push the boundaries of event production & promotion?

Roger Shah: I think there is not really an advice to give to those guys since i think they do everything right, especially in a country where edm is still a small sub genre. i think it’s more to give a lot of respect than advices. just keep on doing what u doing for the love of edm music. from the production side i can say that my last show was really amazing, they brought in a lot of show elements and i also had one of my singers with me, so i think it was a great experience for the audience. we are in entertaining biz and the guys know what it needs.

Any last words for your fans and New York? See you there!

Roger Shah: I just wanna send a shout out to my fans in nyc with the note the i think that i will have the first set time, so make sure to be there early, not to miss anything, i will prepare a special live show and trying to play as many songs as i can in this 90 minutes of my set. can’t wait to be back and i love my fans there. see you soon

Tydi

Hello Tydi, How’s it going? Massive Event will be celebrating its five years of event production in New York, and invited you for the celebration along with Roger Shah & Simon Patterson. What are you looking forward to most, as this is your first time playing in New York, and will end your Tour with.

Tydi: Hey hey! There’s nothing more exciting than playing in a city for the first time! I’ve toured nearly everywhere around the world and all over the USA except for NYC, in fact it’s one of my last few major cities to visit. Saving the best for last I guess I hear the vibe in NY is crazy, and I’m already getting flooded with fan mail from people who are excited about my first visit, so that’s a great sign! I have no doubt that this show is going to be CRAZY! I can’t wait

Any new remixes or tracks you have been working on, that you’re looking to share

Tydi: I just released my brand new album ‘Shooting Stars’! It’s been topping the charts around the world and hit #4 on USA iTunes dance; you guys have really shown a lot of love for the album so I’ve prepared a whole bunch of exclusive remixes that you’ll only hear at my live performances. As this is part of my Shooting Stars tour you can expect my show to be built around the album.

Massive Event has been around for five years here in New York, and is bringing in new talent to the masses monthly. What advice would you have for both Michael Brand and Matthew Felner in their continuing drive to push the boundaries of event production & promotion?

Tydi: It sounds like they are going really well, five years is a long time to do well in suck a fickle industry – so I’m not sure I should be offering advice? They have it nailed! The advice I give to anyone out there is to keep up to date with the new sounds, the scene moves quickly so it’s important to keep up with who’s on top of their game, tomorrow it could be someone else!

Any last words for your fans and New York? See you there!

Tydi: I am SO excited to be performing in NYC for the first time! I know I’ve got a lot of supporters in your city and I’m sorry it’s taken me so damn long to get out to you! I promise this will be a night to remember, I’m gonna to bring the party

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Always wanting to be a dancer, Juliet Star enjoyed dancing to the beautiful sounds of Progressive House and Trance. The transition from just dancing to the music, and wanting to play it instead, was a slow one but eventually took hold and a love for DJing was born.

After joining #trancefamily and a trip to Holland Juliet found a home for herself among Trance lovers from all over the world. Currently residing in San Diego, California, Juliet Star can be found performing across the Southwest US with her take on Progressive and Trance with the occasional Breaks or House set.

Currently you can catch her live every Thursday at 6pm PST / 9pm EST on ProjectRadio.us for her show ‘The Mix Hour’ and ever Sunday 6pm PST / 9pm EST for 2 hours on ProjectRadio.us and JulietStar.com

Moving forward keep an eye open for some original Juliet Star productions and her contributions to the blog United States Trance Movement.

Juliet Star has put together a great collection of Trance tracks that showcases her programming and mixing skills. Download then head over to her podcast and subscribe.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:01:13 — 70.1MB)

Mix Info & Tracklisting (more…)