Unbound

Jimmy Van M and Sean Cusick at their best as Freelance Icebreakers.  It's "Unbound" and it's so fucking badass:

Absolutely Massive Waves

This track by Diego Poblets is massive (Matias Chilano on the remix) and I'd die to be on a dancefloor with an amazing sound system when it's played out.  Holy shit.

Diego Poblets - Waves (Matias Chilano Mix)

Yamil Colucci's Mix of Sasha's "Bloodlock"

Yamil Colucci has a New Year's Eve remix Sasha's "Bloodlock" and is offering it as a free download on SoundCloud.  Download it here.

Two Guys, All In

I gave a listen to Guy Mantzur's guest mix on John Digweed's Transitions (#485:  Dec 13, 2013) today and there was a badass track right after the break in the middle that caught my attention.  It's titled "All In" by Guy Mantzur and Guy J and it's available for a crazy $.69 right now on the US iTunes Store.  Beatport is listing it for a $1.99 so get it:

Guy Mantzur & Guy J - "All In" [iTunes Store]

#1 Track of 2013

In like fashion to last year, I'm here to provide my thoughts on my favorite track of the year for 2013.  Last year's winner from my vantage point was DAVI's excellent "Labyrinth" (Club Mix).  I'm still enjoying this one as it's a definite barnstormer of a track that would certainly light the dancefloor on a fire on any given night and, in my opinion, was overlooked by many DJs.

For this year, I shift gears a bit from the 100% non-vocal tracks I usually prefer and focus on one of the most outstanding vocal progressive house tracks I've heard in a really long time.  The music stems from the artist Jake Fairley under his Fairmont moniker on the track titled "Last Dance" and the remix comes from the always stellar Ewan Pearson handling the mix controls.  Vocals and progressive house really don't historically go well together and it's often the case that if the track has vocals they are limited and almost incoherent as to not distract from the mainline established by the rhythm of the music.  So when a track comes by that has more than a few vocals that are clearly enunciated, an amazingly danceable baseline and actually tells a story, it's definitely of interest to me on whether or not the execution has been pulled off successfully.  

And, I can tell you without hesitation that the execution of Faimont's "Last Dance" along with Ewan Pearson's remix is absolutely stunning.  Ewan Pearson's rendition sits at what mind be considered a lengthy ten minutes but the development of the track with it's initial melancholy synths and Echomen-like storytelling vocals is outstanding as the music segues into a spiraling barrage of sounds that twist and turn amongst the backdrop of a guitar riff that elicits images of a truly emotional last dance.  This track is the most apt encore of the year and the combination of Pearson and Fairmont has proven so incredibly successful that I sincerely hope there's more to come.  The Ewan Pearson remix of Fairmont's "Last Dance" is available on iTunes.

Frisky Radio: Set of the Year [2013]

I bought a monthly subscription to Frisky Radio about two years ago and I'm still really enjoying it as it's my main medium for new electronic music in the form of 60 minute or 120 minute sets that are mostly centered on the progressive house micro-genre but can vary to progressive tribal and even techno/trance depending on your personal taste.  Every month or so you get a true gem of a set that can be commensurate to an album release.  One that is so well put together you shake your head that it was included in your subscription.

For the calendar year 2013, I have to go all the way back to March to highlight my personal favorite Frisky Set of the year.  It's Marcelo Vasami's 2 hour set from March 2013 and it garners my perfect 10/10 rating.  The set doesn't go too far out of range of the progressive house mainline that Marcelo is known for in his Inception series but the incremental build-up is absolutely fantastic.  The peak time track, which I still don't know the artist/title, follows three or four tracks that perfectly set the stage so the listener isn't surprised and the transition is mellifluous leading up to the insanity of this peaker.  One of the transition tracks leading up to the peak time track is the absolutely smooth sounds of "Still Here" (Oscar Vazquez Unofficial Mix) by Ziger.  This track has an oscillating (almost hypnotic) progressive synth accompanied by an incoherent male vocal that is more than apt.  It's the kind of music you lose yourself in while dancing or running and just when you lose yourself in this track a few tracks later comes the peak which absolutely sets your feet on fire.  It's at the 1 hr 40 minute mark and any trainspotters out there that know the title I'd love to know the artist and track title as it's one of my favorites of the year.  All in all, this Inception set by Marcelo Vasami is stellar and deserves my set of the year honors.

Digweed [SF]

My man John Digweed will be in San Francisco this Friday night and I'll be there.  Hear's hoping we hear the new Guy J VS remix of "Heaven Scent"...

The World as Hawtin sees it...

Richie Hawtin traveling the speed of sound.

iTunes Radio

iTunes Radio went live yesterday, here's my electrophobic station, just for you...enjoy:

electrophobic on iTunes Radio

Grey Clouds

This track is badass.

Ozgur Ozkan - "Grey Clouds" (Suffused Mix)

JVM and Bedrock, back at it again

New Order - "Blue Monday" (Digweed/Muir 30 Year Tribute Mix)

John Digweed and Nick Muir's 30 year tribute mix of New Order's "Blue Monday".  Absolutely lush.

New Martin Garcia Show on Frisky Radio

Frisky Radio announced today a new quarterly show by Martin Garcia called Cabin Pressure.  If you've heard the past sets that Martin has put together for Frisky Radio you'll know why I'm super excited.  3 more days until the debut show...

NYE: Darin Epsilon's White Winterland

If you're going clubbing on New Year's Eve, this is the kind of music you want to listen to...incredible, non-stop, high-energy house music from Darin Epsilon at the White Winterland party in Los Angeles.  My trained ear spotted mashups and mixes of such classics as Cafe Del Mar's "Energy 52", Underworld's "Dark and Long" and Sasha and Emerson's "Scorchio" while there's an array of absolutely fantastic peak-time bangers mixed in at the end.  The set is an exemplary display of how a DJ can dash into many types of house music in a single set and make it all seemlessly work.  Listen to this set below using the SoundCloud link.

Darin Epsilon - Live at White Winterland Party (NYE 2012)

#1 Track of 2012

It takes too much time to give you my top ten tracks from 2012 and you really only care about #1 so I'll give you my absolute favorite.  It's the Club Mix of DAVI's "Labyrinth" on Perspectives Digital.  "Labyrinth" (Club Mix) is a killer that ingeniously combines a disco moving, roller-coaster barrage of beats with the journalistic synths of late 90's progressive breaks to cast an absolutely ass moving peak-time piece of music.  There's more than a few subtleties to the track that make it purely magnificent but none is better than the tight disco loop that oscillates in and out throughout the track to match the greatest of disco loops like Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" (Howells Mix of course).  This track is extremely well thought out and 100% invigorating.  Well done DAVI, you permanently made my radar in 2012 and at the same time destroyed the dance-floor.

Chris Fortier - Live at Ashtar Mexico (1999)

This set is an absolutely insane set from Chris Fortier.  I just found it in iTunes and put it on and it instantly takes me back to what it meant to destroy the dancefloor during the peak hours of the night!  Enjoy it here:

http://www.mixcloud.com/ChunkysMixTapes/19990910-chris-fortier-live-ashtar-monterrey-mexico/

This is amazing

Tell me you don't want to be at this party...

A4 (Oct 2012)

My A4 playlist for October 2012:

1. Kurtz & Bomber - "Never Sleepin"
2. Robert Babicz - "Eastside"
3. Stanisha - "Hitchhiker"
4. Guy J - "Mish Mash"
5. Maxime Dangles - "Unsteady Curve"
6. Electric Rescue - "Stucked Ship"
7. John Digweed and Nick Muir - "Raise" (Electric Rescue Mix)
8. Victor Calderone & Nicole Moudaber - "The Journey Begins" (Original Mix)
9. Sound Process - "Traitor's Gate" (Tash Mix)
10. Matteo Monero - "Greek Fire" (Etnia Mix)
11. DAVI - "Labyrinth" (Club Mix)

N-Tchbl (September 2012)

It's been awhile since I've had anything worth writing about but I'm back to tell you that N-Tchbl's September 2012 Frisky Radio set is absolutely killer.  From beginning to end, you will hear a journalistic tour of progressive house and tribal with the last three tracks absolutely destroying your sound system.

The third to last track is the Piyush Awasthi mix of Marcelo Vasami's "Everynight" that sounds as if it's been bitten by Black Pearl's "Barracuda".  It's an evil evil track that is absolutely mind numbing.  Following "Everynight", the pace slows down just a notch for the Sasha Le Monnier mix of DJ Noor & Stefan Addo's "Distances".  This track is an image evoking piece of music with it's cresendo of piano synths leading perfectly up to the finale of the set which is an absolutely perfect peak time track.  It's called "Greek Fire" by Matteo Monero (Etnia Mix) and it reminds me of a very hard to find track titled "Blast" by Marc Auerbach and Goetz (off of Lucien Foort's "Singularity 2").  The Etnia mix of "Greek Fire" is outstandingly arranged with dissipating beats leading into singing piano riffs that build to a peak with guitar-like synths echoing against a killer bassline.  It's the kind of track that breathes on the dancefloor and would make any crowd absolutely bounce.

Download N-Tchbl's September 2012 here.

February 23, 2001

February 23, 2001, one of the best nights of my entire life.  Digweed played for almost 12 hours...at Twilo.