If you’ve been making the rounds through the New York City club scene—or regularly attend VIP velvet rope parties on either coast—you know who Jesse Marco is. The 22-year-old DJ has been hard at work in the studio putting the finishing touches on his new single, “Daddy Cool.”
Now in its fifth year as the premier winter getaway for electronic music lovers, The BPM Festival is proud to announce the second phase of its 2012 artist lineup, plus the day and night events schedule. From December 30, 2011 – January 8, 2012, the BPM Festival will host 200+ of the world’s top DJ talent among the beautiful beach backdrop of Playa del Carmen on the Riviera Maya, along with label showcases representing many of the defining labels of the moment, including: Akbal Music, Air London, Cecille Records, Cityfox, Crosstown Rebels, Culprit, Desolat, Digital Delight, Hed Kandi, Hot Creations, Life and Death, Minus, My Favorite Robot, No. 19 Music, Saved Records, Sci+Tec, Scissor & Thread, Toolroom Records, VIVa MUSiC, and Younan Music.
The Urban Nomad gets down with Dim Mak Records owner, producer, king re-mixer, DJ extraordinaire Steve Aoki. The two talk keeping it raw, keeping them on their toes, and what’s next for the musical Renaissance man. Watch the Interview after the jump.
One of the most anticipated shows at this year’s Culture Collide Festival was the performance by Norway’s disco Viking, Lindstrom. A legend in his hometown, Peter Lindstrom had a unique rise to what many refer to as the founder of “space disco.” In an interview with ChinaShop, Lindstrom discusses how he went from a young lad who grew up listening to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams in the oil fields of Norway to a notorious dance music producer and record label owner. He also jokes about how his one Los Angeles mission was to try a sip of java from Intelligentsia Coffee, which was recommended to him by the staff of his favorite caffeine house in Oslo.
Day Two of the HARD Haunted Mansion continued with the tradition of showcasing several breakthrough acts which are not as frequent in America. Goose, performing in America for only the second time, got the Main stage warmed up as people began trickling in from an exhausting day prior. The Harder Stage included a ménage à trios of sorts as Jackmaster, who rarely makes his way to America, played a set heavy on funky and UK-garage tunes which seem to be more popular in Europe than here, judging by the disappointing turnout. The Magician, formerly of Aeroplane, played one of the most surprising sets of the weekend. There’s something about disco that seems to make even the most shy of dancers, attempt to recreate the choreography they saw in LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” video. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, or T.E.E.D., seemed a surprising act to book, but quickly rounded out the threesome of stellar performances on the Harder stage with his live instrumentation and vocals.
If there wasn’t an age stipulation for going trick-or-treating, HARD Haunted Mansion might not have made it past the four-year mark. Having just completed a successful fourth installment to its steadily growing Halloween party, Los Angeles’ Shrine Exposition Hall played host to all the adults who want to satisfy their Halloween desires without risking the door-to-door candy gathering which would land them in jail. Look at it like this; HARD Haunted Mansion is like the house you always went to on Halloween who gave you full-sized candy bars from the big brands you actually liked.
If dance music lovers had a zodiac calendar, 2011 would be the year of the Fatboy. At the end of 2008, Brighton-based DJ and producer, Norman Cook, decided that he was potentially going to discontinue performing under his pseudonym, Fatboy Slim. After partnering with ex-Talking Heads member, David Byrne, they set out to record and eventually release an album under the name, The Brighton Port Authority. Lucky for us and bad for the music industry, music downloads surged and it had become increasingly difficult to survive as a successful studio musician. (Not to mention it isn’t anywhere near as fun as playing live in front of 250,000 of your closest friends, like he did in 2002.)
After the release of the BPA’s album, I Think We’re Going To Need A Bigger Boat in 2009, the Fatboy Slim moniker was revived to a ready and willing Australia. Touring sporadically around the world through 2010, including a two year run at Glastonbury, Norman Cook began picking up speed as a force to (still) be reckoned with. With over 70 shows slated for 2011 alone, this year is the most demanding touring schedule he has ever seen.
After kicking his drinking habit over two years ago, Fatboy Slim appears to be having the most fun of his career. Although his productions have slowed, his headlining slots have not. After returning to the United States earlier this year for the first time since 2008, Fatboy Slim headlined the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and this past weekend’s HARD Haunted Mansion. With the end of the year nearing, Norman Cook has achieved what very few could do. He came, he conquered, and he reignited a sense of nostalgia in hundreds of thousands of his loyal fans. Fatboy Slim reminds me a simpler time in dance music, a time where you could watch a music video of Christopher Walken defying gravity and walking on walls, and not have to worry about the media asking you how much drugs you’d have to take to enjoy it.
I was able to speak with Norman before his headlining slot over the weekend at the Los Angeles based, HARD Haunted Mansion and quickly learned that although he might take a break every now and then to satisfy other musical urges, he will always have an insatiable thirst for being Fatboy Slim.
Marquitos Garcia knows that it takes a special ear to appreciate an “obscure” genre like Afrobeat. While he welcomes a receptive audience, the Jersey-based one-man band, says he enjoys creating his groundbreaking Afrobeat/Afro-freestyle sound regardless of the crowd reaction. In an interview with ChinaShop, Garcia, aka Chico Mann jokes about not having time to gage audience reactions while he’s busy running the show on stage. He pokes fun at his alter ego, Chico Mann (Chico Maeng) and explains that he doesn’t take it too seriously. Garcia is all about the music, and thank goodness because he’s pretty damn good at it.
It has been ten years since Daft Punk released Discovery, an album that many highlight as being a key player in pushing electronic music into the mainstream. Now, the demand for electronic music is greater than ever. Electric Zoo, the premier electronic music festival now in its third year, invaded New York this past weekend looking to meet that demand. By addressing several issues from the record turnout last year and upping the length of the festival from two to three days, Electric Zoo seemed to be living up to the symbolic phrasing introduced by the iconic Daft Punk ten years prior, to be: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. At the end of the weekend, approximately 85,000 people passed through the concert gates to take part in one of the largest electronic music festivals to ever take place on the east coast.
If this year’s HARD Summer Festival theme had to be summed up in one word, it would have to be “naked.” On Saturday, the celebrated electronic music festival brought thousands of music lovers to Los Angeles’s Downtown Historic Park for the sold out music fest. Swarms of festival goers arrived in their rave-worthy best; dressed in the smallest amount of clothing they could get by in without earning them a police record.