Tag: "EDM"

After becoming a fan favorite through various live sets, Diplo‘s trap-collab with DJ Fresh has found its way online ahead of a planned Summer release.

“Earthquake” is the kind of track that stands out from the rest of EDM like the redheaded stepchild in a family portrait. It’s intoxicating, hypnotizing, and completely alien in comparison to everything you have likely heard – yet you cannot walk away from its almost surreal appeal. The track will debut for sale somewhere over the Summe, but for now you can click here and stream it in all its glory.

Diplo has been making a lot of headlines for his hilariously negative thoughts on the new Daft Punk album. Click here to read a collection of his best tweets.

EDM has overtaken pop culture to a point where it almost seems pointless to recap its rise over the last few years. Everyone is aware electronic music is here to stay, and now more than ever there is a demand for events featuring the artists and subgenres that make this music community so vibrant. Answering that demand is THROWED, a Boston-based promotions company that has spent the last half decade making a name for themselves as New England’s largest dance party. We caught up with owners Mike Krilivsky and Eric Marcelino on the eve of their five-year anniversary to discuss their rise in the world of EDM and what advice they have for developing artists. You can read their response below.

Throwed parties have become the “must attend” events for EDM fans in New England. How did you get your started with electronic music, and how did that interest develop into the company you now run?

Eric: I started putting on electronic several years ago under the name Paper, and in within a few weeks were packing clubs on a weekly basis. I parted ways with that group because I wanted to bring my favorite bigger DJs to the city and started Throwed. Continue reading ‘EXCLUSIVE Q&A: The Masterminds Behind Throwed’

We love Twitter as much as the next person, but with the recent story of Kat Von D and Joel Zimmerman, AKA Deadmau5‘s Twitter engagement, it’s hard not to be shocked. For starters, last we knew the couple had called it quits.

However, this past weekend Deadmau5 tweeted a photo of a diamond ring, complete with two skulls on either side of the stone, saying:

“I can’t wait for Christmas so…. Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?”

Kat Von D quickly replied with a “YES!” before changing her own status to a series of exclamation points, and thanking fans.

“Mi corazon!!! Thank you all for the lovely congratulations!” Kat wrote. “Please excuse me while I go squeeze the hell out of my fiance!”

What do you think of the couple’s engagement? Too soon? Let us know in the comments.

If you like Deadmau5 check out OurStage artist Circuit Assassins.

More like this:

• Electropolis: It’s All About The Production – Skrillex, Rusko, and Deadmau5
• Computer Geeks Turned Rock Stars

Greetings OurStagers. We have some exciting news for the producers and EDM-ers among you. For the first time ever we have expanded our Electronic channels to include the following genres; House, Electro, Dubstep, and Downtempo. EDM has gone through a major facelift since its last time in the spotlight during the 90s and we think our channel selections reflect that. The channel definitions are as follows, and be sure to check out the examples of the type of music appropriate.

House – House music is a subset of EDM that must be built off of a 4×4 drumbeat. Slick productions and euphoric feelings should be primary elements of the music submitted here. Everything from Avicii style progressive-house to Richie Hawtin style tech-house is appropriate.

Electro – Unlike our House Channel, there is no required drumbeat for Electro (but keep your 2×4 productions in the Dubstep Channel). Electro submissions should be more aggressive in both style and substance than their House counterparts. Due to the ever-changing landscape of EDM, most upstart genres like moombahton and trap will be appropriate here. Think artists like Justice, Zedd, and Dillon Francis.

Dubstep – Dubstep has morphed and changed drastically over the years, so submit any of your tracks that follow the half-time rhythmic pattern that has become the universal constant of the genre. Whether your music focuses on the deep sub-bass sounds of London or the machine-like sounds of the U.S., Dubstep is the channel for you. Anything from Skream to Skrillex would be appropriate here.

Downtempo – This channel is for any and all electronic music that falls below the intensity level and tempo of club music. Whether you produce chilled-out lounge beats or minimal deep house, your submissions are welcomed here. Artists such as Chris Page, Gramatik, and Daniel Portman would definitely come hang out in our Downtempo Channel.

Enter now!

We hope to expand even further as we grow our EDM community. Please give us any feedback at community@ourstage.com.

The Pulse is a new, weekly blog dedicated to all things EDM. Join us as we keep our fingers on the pulse of the ever-changing landscape of Electronic Dance Music.

To kick off this new edition to the OurStage magazine, we’ve collected some of the biggest tunes to hit dance floors over the past few months, highlighting some of the new genre break-offs that have emerged while still giving due credit to the styles that proceeded them.

It’s rare to see an artist go from piano lessons to party rocking, but Eva Simons is not your typical pop star. The 28-year-old Dutch singer-songwriter found her musical passions at an early age. Simons was classically trained pianist who graduated from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Her monster dance hit with Afrojack, “Take Over Control,” which she also co-wrote, topped the iTunes dance charts globally, and has sold nearly a million downloads in the U.S. alone, while the video has racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube. Having already collaborated with big stars like will.i.am and Chris Brown, Simons is ready to introduce herself to the American pop scene at the perfect time, as electronic dance music continues to take the world by storm. We caught up with Simons to talk about staying true to herself, being on the Identity Tour with LMFAO, and her ideas for the future of her career. Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Eva Simons Talks Honesty, Touring With LMFAO, And Crazy Collaborations’

In addition to scoring Wreck–It Ralph, Disney’s new computer animated movie about the lives of arcade video game characters, Skrillex will also reportedly portray himself in an animated cameo role within the film. The former screamo frontman–turned–EDM megastar is slated to appear as a DJ at a party in the video game world. While Skrillex has stated that there will not be any “dancefloor bangers” on the soundtrack, we can’t help but hope that his DJ cameo lets some of the film’s video game characters get their “whomp” on.

Wreck–It Ralph depicts the existential career crisis of an arcade video game villain who tires of his unappreciated work as a digital bad guy. Similarly, Skrillex probably got sick of people making fun of him for fronting a post–hardcore band that wrote songs about designer jeans. Watch the trailer below.

More like this:

• A Muse For Muse: New Album Inspired By Skrillex
• Electropolis: It’s All About The Production – Skrillex, Rusko, and Deadmau5

Hanging with buds, falling in love, partying all night — that’s what teenage dreams are made of. Take The Day, out of New Berlin, Wis., has dedicated their talent to providing a killer soundtrack for youth. Their songs are high-adrenaline, hooky dance rockers, inspired in equal measure by Top 40 pop and EDM. “Freaks” gets the blood pumping with big synth blooms, pitch-shifted beats, and grungy guitars. Although Take The Day is clearly influenced by artists like Skrillex, they like their rock, as the gnarly guitar solos of “Look Who’s Laughing Now” prove. But it’s “Celebrities” that epitomizes what the band is all about. “Gimme the fame so everybody knows my name,” demands singer Adam Devlin, “I want to party every day.” If you think this band is settling for anything less than supreme rock stardom, you got another thing coming.

Last year, Owl City was riding a huge wave of success, buoyed by a multi-album major label deal and collaborations with GRAMMY award–winning producers.  It was hard to imagine that Adam Young’s star could rise any higher. Leave it to him to prove us wrong. Since we last spoke to the singer-songwriter, his electropop project has gotten even bigger. He recently teamed up with pop queen of the moment Carly Rae Jepsen to record “Good Time,” a chart–topping summer smash, and released his fourth studio album, The Midsummer Station in August. We caught up with Young to chat about the collaborative process with Jepsen, his love of Dutch DJs, and his literary inspirations.

OS: “Good Time” was a huge hit this past summer. Did you go into the studio with that goal in mind, and how did the process of collaboration work?

AY: I definitely didn’t expect the reception the song has been getting. It is an honor when you see and hear such positive feedback. Carly was an absolute pleasure to work with. It turned out she was a fan of my music and our managers knew each other, so I asked her to be on the song, sent her the stems, and within a day she sent her parts back to me.

OS: “Good Time” has the lyric “What’s up with this Prince song inside my head?” Which song are you referring to? As a fellow Minnesotan, are you a Prince fan?

AY: “Purple Rain” and yes, massive fan. Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Owl City Talks EDM, Touring, and Purple Rain’

Though many current synth pop artists attempt to recapture the vintage electronic sounds of the ’80s, OurStage act Go Periscope aims straight for the future and never looks back. With their new album Wasted Youth, Go Periscope’s Florin Merano and Joshua Frazier have released a dark and pulsating collection of songs that sound like the 21st century. While Go Periscope’s music does contain clear references to the ’80s synth sounds that inspired its members, the songs are more than just conduits for indulgent electro-nostalgia. In fact, Wasted Youth is unabashedly contemporary, with its obvious debts to EDM and dubstep on tracks like “Black Light Masquerade” and “Break Free.” The synth tones are expansive and thick, layering on top of each other to create rippling waves of sound that undergird Merano and Frazier’s heavily filtered vocals.

Yet, for all of its shine and polish, Wasted Youth speaks to the dark and increasingly unstable world around it. For a work that so heavily revolves around artificially engineered sounds, the album contains a significant number of lyrical references to nature. Fire, water, gold, and horses all appear as damaged or endangered elements in the wake of technology, which electronically manipulates the natural world described in the lyrics. Vocal lines are often sliced, rearranged, and panned until they sound like the inhuman sputterings of a dying computer. Clean vocals intertwine with computerized, bit-crunched harmonies that suggest the integration of human and machine to the point of indistinguishability. In the face of the mechanized depletion of the natural world around them, humans can only choose to “live in fantasy,” as the track “Make Believers” sadly emphasizes through the repeated line: “It was only a dream / But it was just like Heaven.” Ultimately, technology doesn’t just enable these escapist fantasies; it makes them necessary in the first place. At a time when people can’t let go of their smartphones and the world is becoming unyieldingly digitized, Go Periscope is making pop music for an uncertain future. Until then, the dance anthems on Wasted Youth implore listeners to party like it’s the end of the world.

You can buy Wasted Youth now at Go Periscope’s Bandcamp page!

More like this:

• Needle In The Haystack Artist Takeover: Go Periscope, Staying Afloat In A Sea Of Unsigned Bands
• Exclusive Q&A: Owl City’s Imagination Takes Flight