electronic dance music
The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, showing off the borough's talent and bringing artists from across the pond
"Every artist is connected to Brooklyn in some way," Longmyer said. Many of them—Nick Catchdubs, Lauren Flax and Mess Kid—are longtime Brooklynites or, like ShadowBox, recently moved to the borough. Trouble & Bass, Mixpak, and Fade to Mind are among the Brooklyn-based labels hosting stages or bringing their signed artists to the festival. "It's the opposite of stress," Drop the Lime (Luca Venezia), the native New York producer and D.J. who's playing BEMF for the first time his year, said. "I rarely get to play my hometown. It's a great energy and vibe because you've got your fans there but also you have your friends." More
Streets of Your Town: This week's concerts, with Florence & The Machine, the Beach Boys, the Avett Brothers, and more.
Streets of Your Town is a weekly selection of New York's live music offerings, from rock to jazz to folk and rap. In this week's lineup: Florence & The Machine, the Beach Boys, the Avett Brothers, and more More
Streets of Your Town: This week's concerts, with the Shins, Barry Manilow, Hugh Masekela, and more
Streets of Your Town is a weekly selection of New York's live music offerings, from rock to jazz to folk and rap. In this week's lineup: the Shins, Barry Manilow, Hugh Masekela, and more More
I Heard Your Single: A survey of the month's releases, featuring Jennifer Lopez, D.J. Khaled, Sepalcure, and more
At the end of each month I survey recent singles from local acts—selectively, not exhaustively. By “singles,” I mean everything from 7- and 12-inches to “focus tracks” (e.g. they gave the MP3 away two months before the album release, or made a video), and by “local” I mean they live in New York. (Remixes and guest appearances by New Yorkers on out-of-towners’ records also get looks in.) Suggestions are welcome to matoswk@gmail.com, no guarantees made. In April, I listened to the radio a little more than usual. More
Electronic music duo Modeselektor have multitasked their way to crossover success
Take Modeselektor, the Berlin duo of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary who played the Music Hall of Williamsburg last night and the Bowery Ballroom tonight. They have crossed over to the indie audience without altering what they do an audible whit. And they’ve done it the way most veteran electronic-dance acts do now: by multitasking. More
British electronic musician Bonobo celebrates his birthday with black balloons
Celebrating a birthday at Le Poisson Rouge is nice enough, but probably nothing to write home about; playing to a sell-out crowd, however, is more likely to be one for the scrapbook. Electronic musician Bonobo, Simon Green, took to the decks on Thursday night in the Bleecker Street venue, celebrating his 36th birthday and the launch of his latest remix album. More
I Heard Your Single: A survey of the month's releases, featuring Gorillaz, Sufjan Stevens, Mary J. Blige, and a whole mess of remixes
On the last Friday of each month I survey recent singles from local acts—selectively, not exhaustively. By “singles,” I mean everything from 7- and 12-inches to “focus tracks” (e.g. they gave the MP3 away two months before the album release, or made a video), and by “local” I mean they live in New York. (Remixes and guest appearances by New Yorkers on out-of-towners’ records also get looks in.) Suggestions are welcome to matoswk@gmail.com, no guarantees made. More
Streets of Your Town: This week's concerts, with Fiona Apple, Odd Future, the Wedding Present, and more
Streets of Your Town is a weekly index of live music offerings in New York. In this week's lineup: Fiona Apple, Odd Future, the Wedding Present, and more. More
Why the loved and hated 'now-noise' of Skrillex is really kind of punk
Skrillex’s music is the worst nightmare of electronic music aesthetes because he doesn’t give a shit about the carefully enforced micro-genres, cultural hierarchies, and bro/nerd distinctions that characterize producers, D.J.s, clubs, and every other facet of contemporary dance music life. It’s a sound built from electronic music’s detritus: bad synths, corny Jamaican sound and lyric references, Romantic piano melodies, chipmunk vocals, and blow-this-shirt-to-shreds action-film sound effects. But brave as such a stance might sound, Skrillex is not doing it for art. As he’s often said, he’s doing it for fun. And for that reason, Skrillex is pretty punk. More
A scene too big and undisciplined to be recognized as one, New York's electronic music had a great 2011 anyway
As with so much else in this city, there is simply too damn much going on in New York to make such shorthand reliable. No one sound or act or scene predominates—and that’s probably the healthiest and most exciting thing about it, particularly this year. New York in 2011 was the site of a lot of exciting electronic-dance activity, and if some of that is simply down to the city being a magnet for creativity in general, then so be it.
(3)Nicolas Jaar, child of the 'Franco Effect' generation, sells out (every show)
If Music Biz 2011 seems even more like a free-for-all than it has increasingly been for the past decade, that’s even more the case within electronic dance music. Suddenly, the post-rave diaspora, which had largely been left for dead in America, commercially speaking, doesn’t just have a new audience, but a bigger one than it’s had in a generation. Jaar has spent the year learning just how big. More
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