RJD2, STS & Khari Mateen: “See You Leave” (Insane Warrior Remix)
As end of the year lists continue to roll out from all over the internet, I have yet to see RJD2's More Is Than Isn't LP pop up on many people's favorites of 2013. Perhaps it was that this was the year I finally caught RJ do his thing live, but with each listen, his latest offering seems to hook me in more and more. Since the projects release in October, there have been a steady stream of off-shoots, one-offs and remixes. Today, Okayplayer premiered RJD2's collaboration remix with STS and Khair Mateen for the track "See You Leave". The track bears RJD2's alter-ego, "Insane Warrior" for the gritty intro that can leave your ears shaking while frequent collaborators STS and Mateen prove they know where the other will be heading with any track as they add their own unique elements to make the re-done version come together in full. Check out the track below, with upcoming tour dates, and cop More Is Than Isn't available now on iTunes.
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Tour Dates:
Wed. Dec. 4 Miami, FL @ Bardot Miami
Thu. Dec. 12 San Francisco, CA @ 1015 Folsom
Fri. Dec. 13 Santa Cruz, C @ The Catalyst Club
Fri. Jan. 31 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Fri. Feb. 21 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sun. Feb. 23 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club – DNA
REACT Presents Announces Spring Awakening Dates
REACT Presents has been making a name for itself for awhile now as the premier Dance Music show promotor/organizer in the Midwest. Having brought Kaskade to Chicago's Navy Pier, Danny Brown and GRiZ to Chicago and Detroit for Halloween, as well as a smattering of shows across Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, all alongside the flagship events of the year: Spring Awakening, North Coast and Summer Set Music & Camping Festival.
The team at REACT recently dropped the official dates for this year's Spring Awakening Festival, which is set to take place June 14, 15 and 16th of next year at its annual home of Soldier Field. SAMF is unlike any other EDM/Dance Music-based festival in the country. With an urban backdrop of Chicago and the amenities of holding the festival at the home of the Bears, the fest is consistently buzzing with energy from the the beginning of the first day through to the last act on Day 3.
At noon on December 2, Early Bird 3-Day passes went on sale for $99 and were gobbled up in a matter of minutes. Keep it posted to RH and React for more details on tickets and head over to their website for perfect holiday gifts for that EDM love child in your life, here. Also, as a way to warm up from this December cold, check out the recap video of this year's SAMF.
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[Album] Trillwave: "Trap Godz Vol. 3"
Trillwave, the dance music DJ duo of Michael "Twerkle" Cutrone and Brooks "TrapLee Jones" Jones have been making a name for themselves since hitting this year's SXSW hard and gaining the attention of listeners with their trap-heavy production and turned up live shows. The pair began working together in early 2012 with a shared passion for cross-genre tinkering and, on the strength of their performances in Austin, have established themselves as one of the premier dance music acts to emerge from the growing Chicago and Midwestern scenes that are beginning to re-discover dance elements after creating the genre a generation ago.
Their latest release, Trap Godz Vol. 3 is the latest installment in Trillwave's continuing "Trap God" series that has paced Cutrone and Jones as they work on their upcoming full-length project, due out in the Summer of 2014. It is a continuation of earlier work, that is for sure, but with unique tweaks and renderings that explore cosmically different atmospheres than earlier releases. The project was held back two months due to finagling and tinkering and the result may be one of the strongest to come from Trillwave to this point. Catch Trillwave coming through your city sometime soon, or at their monthly residency at SoundBar in Chicago's Loop.
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[Album] Pretty Lights: "A Color Map Of The Sun Remixes"
Earlier this year, 32 year old electronic dance music artist Pretty Lights released his first full-length studio album comprised fully of his own self-produced tracks. The project, which was released on July 2, charted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its debut and solidifying the DJ as a real artist to be dealt with amongst the greater music landscape. Never one to be finished with anything, given the intrinsically infinite amount of options available to DJs today to distort sounds, Pretty Lights decided to remix his entire album with the help of some friends.
EDM high-flyer GRiZ takes a spin on a few tracks, most notably adding his unique, soulful horns and crafty mixing to "Vibe Vendetta", which is the perfect complement to the original. Pretty Lights also taps EDM big names such as Datsik, Opiuo and heRobust to round out the re-worked music. All in all, the second take on the project is an impressive building on earlier work and progresses each track to a sonically different area than they originally occupied. Check out the preview stream of the project below and be sure to scoop the full release, due out December 10.
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[Video] Gianni Blu: "Bounce" (Feat. Sasha Go Hard)
Gianni Blu has been lacing some pretty impressive cross-over tracks, utilizing hip-hop artists to blend his signature style of unique production. On his latest release, Blu teams up with frequent collaborator Sasha Go Hard for a song that is a step up for both artists. For her part, Sasha's flow seems to improve on every single and she is grittier than ever on "Bounce" with a changing rhyme scheme that has yet to be seen in much of her work. On the production side, Gianni pick up where Diplo left off on his "Damn" track from Sasha's album Round 3, released earlier this year. Mixing in traditional hip-hop aesthetics with a thumping, bouncing electronic flair, Gianni Blu crafts a track that is as ready to bop to as anything that has hit the airwaves lately. D Gainz handles the video, shot at an indoor skatepark complete with BMX riders and a slew of back up dancers. Check out the latest from Gianni Blu & Sasha Go Hard below.
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[Video] Krewella & HeadHunterz: "United Kids of the World"
Dance music acts Krewella and HeadHunterz teamed up recently for the uplifting track, "United Kids of the World", a song celebrating individuality and condemning bullying both on and off the internet. It's an anti-bullying message for a new crop of Millenials who have grown up with a screen almost always stuck to the tip of their nose and realized, as their parents and elders did around the time the AOL guy was still running across our screens, that it is much easier to passive-aggressively put others down using the World Wide Web.
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In talking about the motivation to do the track, HeadHunterz had this to say: “Social media is a safe haven to say anything that comes to mind, but what we do with this freedom is our own choice. We can use it as a weapon or as a self-defense mechanism. 'United Kids of The World,' with Krewella, was not written to point fingers at anyone, but to spread a compassionate message. All three of us have experienced being bullied in our youth, and the only thing that was causing that was a lack of self-awareness. That is where bullying starts. So world, dear reader, listener, it is time to become aware of your role in this, your actions and their consequences.”
There have been several national stories in the news as of late dealing with young teen suicides as a result of bullying on the Internet, one of the most publicized being the Missouri mother, Lori Drew, who bullied a girl on Myspace for her daughter that led to 13-year-old Megan Meier taking her own life just before her 14th birthday. Stories like this, and the number of shootings and suicides that have plagues our communities because kids these days spend too much time behind a screen, saying things without being held accountable.
With the proliferation of young adults gravitating toward EDM and the larger-than-life DJs that make up the artist side of things, along with the fact that the genre essentially lives on the Internet where the bullying is taking place; Krewella and HeadHunterz release could possibly have a decent impact. I'm never one top put much into these "uplifting anthems" because I don't believe music necessarily spurs action all the time in these situations, but it is refreshing to see artists on top of their game taking some time to do something a little extra. Krewella and HeadHunterz teamed up with DoSomething.org, where you can buy the song, "United Kids of the World," here.
[Album] Pleasure: "Winter Warmth Mix"
Winter is quickly becoming anything but pleasurable this time of the year for most of America not spoiled by year-round sun and warm weather. To help aid the transition to frozen sidewalks and hunched-over-walking-with-pained-facial-expressions, Dance Music DJ Pleasure offered up his Winter Warmth Mix to save listeners from the frigid temperatures and dropping thermometers with an eclectic mix of unreleased original and remix tracks that will keep you moving through the worst this time of year has to toss at you. The project dropped today on The Untz and is available for free download here. Get up, move around and turn on Pleasure's Winter Warmth Mix for a quick getaway from the cold. Catch Pleasure, playing with GRiZ in St. Louis on 11/30 and 1/17 in Springfield, IL.
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Tracklist
Intro Existential Bummer -Jason Silva
1 Change Your Program- Pleasure
2 No Quarter( Pleasure Remix)- Led Zeppelin
3 In The Waiting Line (Pleasure is still waiting Remix) -Zero 7
4 Dreamscapes- Pleasure
5 Miriam's Revenge (Pleasure Remix)- Zombass
6 TKK 5- Pleasure
7 4URLUV- Pleasure
8 It's The- Pleasure
9 3:16 AM (Pleasure $wAG Remix)- Jhene Aiko
10 The Distance of Space- Pleasure
11 Kisses of Lunar Light- Pleasure
12 Enchanted Stars- Pleasure
13 The Writer ( Pleasure Help You Remix)- Ellie Goulding
14 Yeah Boy- Pleasure
15 The Music - Pleasure
16 Even At All- Pleasure
17 I Know- Pleasure
18 $ Mak1n B1tch3$ ( Money Making Bitches)- Pleasure
19 Aurora Explosion- Pleasure
20 Love Me Again- Pleasure
22 Words Write the Tale VIP- Pleasure
23 Fuck You All The time (Pleasure Multiple Os Remix)- Jeremiah
24 Together ( Pleasure Remix)- The XX
25 Team Supreme 82- Pleasure
26 Me and You (Pleasure Remix)- Cassie
27 TKK8- Pleasure
28 Want Your Body- Pleasure
29 Sensual Seduction (Pleasure and Richie August F like Porn Stars Remix) Snoop Dogg
30 Emotionally Intertwined- Pleasure
31 Climbing to Climax- Pleasure
32 Traveling to Wonder- Pleasure
33 How I Feel 4 U- Pleasure
34 Bella Twerk- Pleasure
35 Morning Remains- Pleasure
36 You Do It To Me- Pleasure
37 Hakuna Matata- Pleasure
Tritonal: "Now Or Never" Feat. Phoebe Ryan (Pierce Fulton Remix)
Dance music duo Tritonal first caught my attention earlier this year as I was slogging through a soggy and overcast Electric Daisy Carnival Chicago in Joliet. The pair's uptempo production, exciting breaks and actual stage presence kept things going strong through the rain during one of the more precarious sets of the weekend. Their ability to stick it out won me over and today they got a remix of their track "Now or Never" featuring Phoebe Ryan from Pierce Fulton. Fulton holds on to Ryan's memorable vocals while adding a gritty, funk-filled electronic resonance as well. Check out the track below for yourself.
LoudPvck, Branchez, Gent & Jawns, and Manic Focus have been announced as tour openers.
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