British electronic DJ duo Snakehips, proves once again that they can do no wrong, with their downright funky “Forever (Part II)” and its quite interesting, accompanying video.
Teaming up once again with vocalist Kaleem Taylor, the very funk / R&B vibes beginning as soon as the song starts cascade into a smooth, irresistible house rhythm with rich sultry vocals to match. Check out some of Snakehips other sultry tunes below:
Another simply epic track out of the collective EDM group MVNGCSTL (Moving Castle), future house (or as described on a Youtube comment: advanced epic) hit “Make Out” by EDM artists Ba-kuura and Objectives. This smooth, chilled-out dance, R&B, house smasher samples Alicia Keys’ “Unthinkable (I’m Ready).” Many in the EDM community may recognize this sample from another smash house hit, “Stay” by Henry Krinkle or one of its many remixes.
[Previous article on Moving Castle’s artist VICES, “Wanna Luv U” sampling Robin Thicke]
Next up is trap banger “Soundclash” from two trap gods themselves’, Flosstradamus and TroyBoi. This collabo works particularly well here producing a spacey, trap banger incorporating trappy snares & hi-hats and some well known samples (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 DO IT! & the robotic letter vocals at the end). Both artists are well established in their own right; Flosstradamus being one of the artists that pioneered EDM trap music, and TroyBoi, a burgeoning British trap DJ on the come up in the EDM scene (one of his tracks was recently featured on the hit TV show Empire!)
More trap hits from both continued below:
Flosstradamus and TroyBoi latest release, teaming up again for this Waka Flocka remix.
Make sure you do not sleep on these two standout tracks from two of the hottest producers in the music game right now. The first “Gorilla,” comes to us from EDM/chillwave/hip-hop producer Clams Casino, who gained much recognition after producing several songs for Lil’ B and A$AP Rocky (Lil B’s “I’m God and A$AP’s “Wassup”) as well as Mac Miller’s “Angel.” Clams is well known in the hip-hop and electronic community and his beats are revered as being very unique, different, often hauntingly good. His self-released instrumental EP, Rainforest, was very well-received. Featuring original beats and instrumental versions of his tracks artists have rapped over, his instrumental tapes became a series (Instrumentals) which is available fore free from his website.
Our second highlighted producer is a god in the indie music community and is celebrated as one of the most prolific and youngest electronic producer to date. “DMT” is one of XXYYXX’s more atmospheric, entrancing and aurally euphoric instrumentals from his popular sophomore album. XXYYXX first gained popularity following the release of his first album Still Sound and his very successful, influential self-titled EP, XXYYXX in 2012. One of the standout singles “About You” (see below) was extremely popular with its calming yet repeating, expounding beat. The song was so popular that a remix featuring rapper 2 Chainz surfaced shortly after the originals’ release.
I present to you the first DJ mix I have released in awhile “Mood: Daze in a Trance.” For this mix I chose to use trance songs, a few house tracks and other dance songs. Although I have more of a penchant for trap music, grime, bass, deep house but I felt a need to get back to my roots in dance music (continued after the jump/tracklist) or at least do one throwback mix like this.
Tracklist:
[0:00] The Unknown – White Water
[2:50] I Found Peace (Matt Loopy RMX) – DJ Luka
[4:39] Dark Side of the Moon (Radio Cut) – Bastian & Ernesto
[6:37] Holding On to Nothing (Alex Gold 7″ Edit)[Alex Gold 7″ Edit] – Agnelli & Nelson
[10:05] Holding On (Above & Beyond Remix) – Ferry Corsten
[12:28] Must Be the Love (Dannic Remix) – Arty feat. Nadia Ali & BT
[17:20] Sleepyhead (Neo Tokyo Remix) – Passion Pit
[19:20] Turn It Gold (Ido Z Remix) – Hesta Prynn
[21:47] To U (feat. AlunaGeorge) – Jack U
(cont.) I wanted to do a mix that highlighted some of the electronic dance music (EDM) I grew up on or at least reflect some of its sound and spirit. Artists like BT, DJ Tiesto, ATB, Röyksopp, Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten, iiO (Nadia Ali), Scooter, Vincent De Moor, Junkie XL, Paul Oakenfold and Eiffel 65 to name a few, or rather a lot were some of the artists that ushered me into the world of dance music. These artists paved the way for the musicians that you now find on iTunes Top 20 Dance/EDM or whatever the top charts for that are today.
I remember this era (the late 90s and early-mid 00s) as a time when EDM was still very much a “European” thing and dance, house and trance music (while popular in some outlets like Detroit, San Francisco, Chicago) were still more like fringe movements. Today, a much smaller portion of electronic fans still follow trance releases (and some of the other off-shoots of EDM like eurotrance, eurodance, techno, happy hardcore, drum N’ bass etc.) as the mainstream mainly knows and wants to hear trap, house, dubstep, rap/rock/pop remixes or whatever is the hot sh*t advertisers and marketers are telling their brands to jump on NOW because rave culture is HOT! *rolls eyes (you ever notice/count all the dubstep and electronic in commercials, movies and TV shows in the past two years or so?)
Some of these artists I grew up on do still stay true to their original sound, but many have changed it while some expanded upon it (take DJ Tiesto for example). He has broken away from making the trance and “techno” that he first got famous from (“Traffic,” “Love Comes Again,” Ayla) and has transitioned more into dubstep, bass or more electronic style. Do not get me wrong I love all these genres and love the scape of dance music today; we needed EDM’s history to go down like this for us to get to the point where we are now. Where the US is now a major producer of dance music and, while we didn’t create dubstep (that was our neighbors “across the pond”), we definitely had a big hand in its growth, as an abundance of American DJs began spinning and creating it around 2009-2013, resulting in rarely ever a shortage of “generic” clubs playing the most played out of these songs to attract people wanting to “rave” the night away.
Featuring one of my favorite electronic acts, British singer/DJ duo Alunageorge, comes “To Ü,” arguably one the best songs off of Skrillex and Diplo’s new album Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü. AlunaGeorge is comprised of British singer/DJ Duo Aluna Francis and George Reid.
The group experienced a rise in popularity following the release of their first single “You Know You Like It” from their 2013 album, Body Music. This single became even more popular, as did the group themselves after rising superstar DJ Snake made a massive remix of the song in 2013. The remix was featured in a continuous megamix by dubstep DJ duo Adventure Club (Superheroes Anonymous Vol. 3) and by 2014, had become popular enough to warrant receiving its own music video.
Check out more sounds from Jack Ü here.
Credits to Et Musique Pour Tous for this deep house cut of Shawn Mendes‘ “Never Be Alone” coming to us from DJs Invoker and Rex Buchanan. The whistling melody throughout makes for a smooth, chill song with a sort of “cowboy riding off into the sunset” sound mixed with an absolutely groovy baseline. Enjoy.
LUMiNOUS Musings 