Paper Diamond Announces Tour with Trap Mix
Paper Diamond has big plans for the new year. Today, the Colorado-based DJ announced a 32-stop tour alongside the release of his 22 minute Trap mix, intended to get the party started before the tour even begins. A mainstay in the EDM world for a minute now, Paper Diamond entered the larger lexicon of listener's consciousness last year with the release of his EP, Paragon and continues to gain steam after a successful summer that saw him on several festival stages across the country including North Coast, Bonaroo and TomorrowWorld, as well as opening for Zeds Dead. PD will close out a successful 2013 campaign opening for Big Gigantic as they take their annual Chicago New Year's Eve show east to New York City. Always a party, and never repetitive, Paper Diamond puts on one hell of a party, check out the tour dates and accompanying mix here below for a slight preview.
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[Album] Nicky Romero & Krewella: "Legacy Remixes"
Nicky Romero and Krewella represent a young generation in dance music that is working with new aesthetics to take things beyond just pressing buttons onstage. Romero and the trio of Krewella teamed up for this remix project titled the "Legacy Remixes". The "Legacy" track that was produced/created by Krewella and Romero has since gone on to peak at No. 1 on the Beatport charts and spawn the myriad re-makes that pushed the release of a project like "The Legacy Remixes". Vicetone, Wildstylez, Don Diablo, and Candyland are all enlisted to craft the new feels. Overall, the brief project is a killer mix of takes on the Dutch DJ and Chicago EDM team. Check it out below and pick up the full release via iTunes.
[Video] Day In The Life: Gianni Blu & Sasha Go Hard
Gianni Blu and Sasha Go Hard have been hard at work in the studio lately and APJ Films was there to catch all the behind the scenes action as the pair prepped a track for Blu's upcoming EDM-inspired project, Bounce. For his part, APJ Films has been making moves in the city, with several videos hitting the web over the past couple months with increasing frequency. Take a look below as he captures two of the city's most talented young artists as they go to work at Classick Studios on Chicago's west side and keep an eye out for the accompanying video, shot by DGainz, anticipated for early November.
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[RH Interview] Borgore
To ask Borgore, nothing is too surprising anymore. Having spent a lifetime working in an aroudn music, the early prodigy (he earned a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley for music at 17) is having the time of his life making music that gets people moving. The Israel native joined Steve Aoki, Pharrell and Waka Flocka Flame for the Fall "Aokify America" tour, which started last Friday with a show at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion. Playing a set that skipped from one EDM subgenre to the next, Borgore had the young Chicago crowd fully hooked only a song into a set so full of energy one had to wonder if the packed see of neon and sparkle-clad fans would have anything left for the next three acts. At this point in his career, the 25-year-old artist is enjoying a steady climb up the music landscape and being on the road for what he calls "a field trip with friends". I had a chance to catch him backstage right after his set, read our interview below.
Jake: Alright, so at one point during your set, you chanted "girl is a nympho" and every girl in front of me went crazy and chanted it back, what's it like to have the power to dictate other's actions so easily?
Borgore: Check my Twitter. Twitter is where things get out of hand. Today I gave away six tickets to people who would go into a public place, do a headtand twerk and sing Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Close My Eyes" while twerking. We got like three or four submissions. This dude did it in McDonald's inside of a table. I have chicks doing it in Target or something but that dude took the cake.
Jake: In electronic dance music, more than any other genre, the focus is purely on one person to create a show, what is that like for you?
Borgore: It's fucking thousands of people watching you, they fucking paid a lot of money for me to give them the best time of their lives and you cannot fuck up. So half of me wants to say it is the greatest thing, the greatest pleasure and the other half of me wants to say it is the biggest stress ever. It's not easy.
Jake: I could imagine. So, first stop on the tour with one hell of a lineup, what's it been like so far.
Borgore: If this tour is going to look like this I'm so happy, dude. I came to Steve before he played his set tonight and I told him big ups on assembling such an eclectic and amazing tour. I think that if I was an 18 year old, I think it's only $30 in some markets, to come see this show, it's out of this world dude.
Jake: How excited are you to be spending time on the road with these guys?
Borgore: I worked with Steve and I worked with Waka so I know them well. You know what though man, it's a fucking field trip. I'm touring with my friends to begin with. It's a semi vacation, the whole year I'm busting my ass flying city to city by myself seeing people I don't know. I don't have a stable life at all, I haven't been in my house for longer than three days. For a month and a half, being on the bus, it's like a traveling house, dude I'm on fucking vacation right now.
Jake: So how did the collaboration with Waka come about?
Borgore: I remixed one of his songs about a year and a half ago and I did a deal with him. He offered me a bunch of money but I said keep your money and throw me like a verse or something that I can fuck with, you know? I have a lot of songs that are really big singles that I never put out because I;m too strict with myself about what I'm releasing. I didn't know whether I wanted to release this song or not and I met Waka in Spain and he came to me and said "man, this is amazing, I love it" and I was more scared than anything that Waka wouldn't like it, you know? So he loved it, so I went back to the project changed it because it was in moombahton which is not really relevant anymore, and made it house and that's where it is now.
Jake: That kind of leads me to my next question, how do you manage to stay aheado f the curve in such a fast-moving genre like dance music?
Borgore: I have been doing music all my life. All my life I was playing Jazz, Classical music, Punk, Metal, everything. I got a scholarship to Berkeley University when I was 17, I've been in music my whole life. Bring it on, bring on any genre. I'll take time but I'll learn it perfect, you know?
Jake: The last time I saw you was at Electric Daisy Carnival Chicago, how does a set like that compare to something like tonight?
Borgore: EDC Chicago was amazing for me, the crowd was great for me. The scene in Chicago is really nice to me. About a year ago my first big show here was at the Congress with Calvin Harris and the crowd wasn't really feeling me but it's never been the case since. Since then I've been here about three or four times and every time it's just amazing. There was a lot of reasons for the show with Calvin to not work. It was no one's fault but it just didn't work but I'm happy the sets since have gone good.
Jake: So what can we expect from you moving forward, what's on the horizon?
Borgore: Like I've said I've done music my whole life and I've always done it for me. I'm slowly rising, very slowly rising but it's happening the way it should. I have no secret cards about what is coming in the future, I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing so far.
Borgore: "Wild Out" (Feat. Waka Flocka Flame)
Later this Fall, Israeli-born EDM Producer/DJ Borgore will release his debut album, Wild Out on Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Records. For now, we get the lead single off the project, which shares the same name as the album and features the one and only Waka Flaka Flame. The track is an instant banger that got people moving at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion on the first night of the Aokify America tour, which had Waka and Borgore on the bill, as well as Pharrell and Aoki. Check out the track below and be sure to keep it posted to RH for an exclusive interview with Borgore, coming soon!
Major Lazer x Zed's Dead: "Turn Around" (Feat. Elephant Man)
Diplo's Major Lazer is just a huge moving party. The project has spawned it's dancehall offshoot of Moombahton and brought it to the collective consciousness of white girls in crop tops across the country and creating a "Twerk Wall" in honor of his "Bubble Butt" track. Anyway, they managed to squeeze the loaded production of EDM duo Zed's Dead alongside Major Lazer onto one track, with Elephant Man on there as well. It's always nice to Elephant Man getting work out there. Check out the track below:
Will Sparks: "Crazy"
Will Sparks celebrated Hump Day with a free download for his track "Crazy" today. The Australian-bred electronic DJ, featured a couple weeks ago on RH, is in the middle of his debut North American tour which has brought him to the west coast with a set at TomorrowWorld on the horizon. Give the song a listen and/or download below.
[Sunday Coffee Sipper] Drugs are taking over the party in EDM
So it finally happened. Two weeks ago in New York, drugs finally interrupted the dance party.
As dance music has risen over the past decade, repackaged as "EDM," short for electric dance music, the genre has gained traction through festivals where underage girls act like hardened street workers and neon-clad bros vibe to DJ after DJ as if in a trance. Things came to a head a couple weeks ago when two festival-goers died as a result of drug use at Electric Zoo Music Festival on Randall's Island in New York. Both appear to be from "molly" (MDMA). The New York Post reported 20-year-old New Hampshire University student Olivia Rotondo told emergency workers that [she "took six hits of molly"] before collapsing due to seizure.
Rotondo's death, along with the overdose death of fellow festival-goer Jeffrey Russ and several hospitalizations, shut the festival down before it reached day 3. Festival organizer, Made Event, is offering refunds to ticketholders for the third day.
To be sure, it was negligence at it's finest, but it gave MDMA a face, a public victim. It wasn't the first overdose of "molly," but it underscored a growing trend not only in the EDM world, but in festival culture at large.
In the 90s, as promoters fell off by the dozens, as did the fest culture. Today, you'd be hard-pressed to be able to put a number on the various festivals that seem to pop up almost daily across the country.
Festivals have become refuge, a lawless oasis in an over-policed world and EDM is largely pimped out as it's marquee event. There is a separation of cultures. As in any genre, there are those that truly embody the music without the aid of drugs. There are always a few that cause problems for many and in this case, the blame falls on the victims unfortunately.
Drugs and dance music are not a new revelation. Cocaine was rampant during disco and house music in the 70s and 80s and ecstasy was a staple of the 90s-era raves. The difference today is the culture within which molly, MDMA, ecstasy is used. We live in an instant-gratification society in which patience is a forgotten ideal. It's a generation that has grown up with high speed internet, touch screen cell phones and downloads at their fingertips. They've never had to wait, perhaps why someone like Rotondo would scarf down six hits of the stuff.
Next week is Nocturnal Wonderland in San Bernadino, the annual end of festival season.
Issues aside, the party will still go on.