It’s been a while.
While the electronic dance music scene has been pumping out hundreds
of club bangers, this blog has been gathering dust in a quiet corner of the
internet. But rather than make excuses about work schedules and personal
commitments, let’s take a look back at what’s been tearing up clubland over the
past few months, and have a think about where dance music might be headed next.
And what better way to do this than by picking out a few album releases which
have been the defining moments of the year?
(Don’t answer that, because I’m going to do it anyway.)
Arguably, the first major release of the year came at the
end of January, with Moguai’s second album, entitled Mpire. This German
producer’s classic progressive sound saw some changes, with a movement towards
electro house, evident on the album’s title track, jammed with big build-ups
and buzzing synths. While the album had its high points, with the airy synths
of ‘Smyles’, the gorgeous vocals of ‘Invisible’ and the trancey ‘Out of
Nowhere’, many of its tracks fell down on simply not having enough to make them
memorable, fading reasonably pleasantly into the background. Unfortunately, for
many of the releases in progressive house in recent months, this has been the
norm, with rather Avicii-inspired breakdowns and synth sections, perhaps topped
off with some piano samples. Amid the explosive proliferation of new genres in
2012, progressive house seems to have fared worst of all.
But, while Moguai’s album was something of a disappointment,
barely a week later, a surprise came in the form of ‘Feed Me’s Escape From
Electric Mountain’. Not content with dominating electro house and dubstep, the
ever-talented Jon Gooch delivered a slice of drum and bass, in the form of his
fist-pumping collaboration with Hadouken, entitled ‘Trapdoor’. Not content with
that, he also took the tempo down with the
explosive 110bpm ‘One Click Headshot’, featuring the vocal talents of
the YouTube phenomenon FPS Doug. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all was
the stunning progressive banger, ‘Relocation’, whose haunting synths and
spine-tingling drop lead to the very real possibility of this becoming one of
the greatest tracks of the year.
While progressive house seems to have hit something of a
dead end, there is plenty of innovation in the electro house scene. Fresh
talent such as Porter Robinson and Zedd, as well as veteran producers like
Wolfgang Gartner are unleashing a steady stream of new tracks. There is still
plenty of room for new blood, however, as demonstrated by the relatively
unknown James Egbert, and his innovative ‘In The Beginning’ EP, featuring 6 new
electro house monsters, jammed with drum rollouts, glitched-out vocals,
razor-sharp synths and contorted basslines. Falling somewhere between Klaypex
and Mord Fustang, this young producer is one to watch out for.
Meanwhile, dubstep has been taking over. Of course, the
endless Skrillex debates rage on, taking over the comments on what seems to be
every single EDM track on YouTube. These aren’t likely to stop any time soon
either, with the rumoured ‘Voltage’ EP in the works. For the rest of us though,
who long since realised the best course of action is to shut up and enjoy the
music, dubstep seems to be where the real excitement is, with assimilation of
aspects of just about every other genre known to mankind. A perfect example of
the changes in the heavy dubstep scene is ‘Vitamin D’, the debut album of
Canadian basshead DatsiK. Theis album veers recklessly off into drum and bass
with the strings-laden ‘Syndrome’, old-school turntablism with Z-Trip on
‘Double Trouble’, 110bpm on ‘Light The Fuse’ and full-blown heavy metal on
‘Evilution’ which features the talents of
KoRn and Infected Mushroom. Vitamin D demonstrates how many artists are
no longer limiting themselves to a particular sub-genre, and instead applying
their talents elsewhere. Of course, while Dim Mak and Rottun records have, as
ever, been delivering on form, it would be an oversight to neglect to mention
the immense talents of the Never Say Die crew. Their recent showcase,
distributed by UKF, brings together the best of international talent at the
noble art of dancefloor demolition. Compiled by the insanely-talented Brit
himself, SKisM, this album includes the ‘Belgian prodigy’, Eptic, the maniacal
Zomboy, and the acclaimed Skeptiks among others, the compilation perfectly
epitomises the gleeful mayhem of heavy dubstep, brostep, or however you want to
classify it. What we can all agree on is that it’s here, it’s big, and it’s
definitely going to let anyone ignore it any time soon.
One of this year’s albums which has prompted the most discussion
is the full-length second album by dubstep pioneer, Rusko. Most articles
recently about this 27-year old producer have focussed on his ‘beef’ with
deadmau5. As is typical of Mixmag in particular, this seems to have been blown
out of all proportion. What they seem to have ignored is that Rusko has
delivered one of the freshest pieces of electronica in months. Rusko’s
signature style is all over this album, most likely some function of his
remarkable drug and alcohol intake of late. But, the album doesn’t suffer as a
result – it features fiendishly catchy bangers, such as ‘Skanker’ and the
glitzy commercial tracks ‘Pressure’ and ‘Dirty Sexy’, the latter of which could
easily be mistaken as featuring the vocal talents of none other than Rihanna.
The album rounds off with the piano-laden ‘M357’, which brings everything to a
close on a mellower note. But ‘Songs’ does not limit itself to tracks such as
these, however, with Rusko riding another of the upcoming dubstep trends,
namely that of reggae. While purists will perhaps take objection to Skrillex
and Damian Marley’s controversial ‘Make It Bun Dem’, there’s far less to
dislike here, with the chill vibe of the phenomenal ‘Love No More’ and ‘Mek
More Green’. Expect to see more tracks
like this as the year goes on – the irresistible groove of reggae-influenced
tracks is likely to appeal to a good few more dubstep producers yet.
Of course, a mention has to be given to EDM’s biggest names
of all, where things have generally been a bit quieter of late. Mixmag’s number
one DJ of all time, Tiesto, has released some new material on the
eagerly-anticipated second instalment of his Club Life collection. In places,
this compilation has notes of sheer brilliance, with the sparkling ‘Chasing
Summers’ and the heavily remixed collaboration with Wolfgang Gartner, ‘We Own
the Night’. But, in others, tracks which have been done to death let the side
down somewhat, such as Tiesto’s own played-out ‘Maximal Crazy’, the predictable
Axwell mix of ‘In My Mind’ and the remix of Coldplay’s rather nauseating track
‘Paradise’. Meanwhile, deadmau5 has been gradually releasing singles and
Soundcloud demos, with some remix work on ‘Cthulhu Sleeps’, a space-inspired
piece ‘Closer’, and the newly-released ‘There Might Be Coffee’. Of course, it
just wouldn’t be right for us to go a few months without a deadmau5 release
dominating the top of the Beatport charts, and sure enough, ‘The Veldt’ did
just that, and will likely find its way onto an album soon. One of the more
unusual projects this year was the ‘mau5hax’ project in March, which sought to
hunt down some of the best undiscovered talent in the scene. While ‘Fractals’
and ‘Titty Sprinkles’ sunk without a trace, mau5trap has sought to make the
most of their findings with the ‘We Are Friends’ compilation, featuring 9 new
tracks. There are generally more hits than misses, with James Nije’s intricate
electro banger ‘Room Modes’, and Born Freak’s mellow ‘Cocktail Bar’. Sadly, a
few tracks seem to lack originality. I wonder if deadmau5 noticed that
‘Buddygirrl’ has more or less handed him his own tune ‘Jaded’ back in the form
of the progressive ‘Fly’? And of course, a nod has to be given to Skrillex and
friends on OWSLA Records, which has been graced with more chart monsters
courtesy of Zedd, Nick Thayer’s ‘Like
Boom’ EP, and Dillon Francis’ three-track ‘Something, Something, Awesome’, and
its bizarrely joyful downtempo
moombahton. OWSLA also generously gave out the aptly-entitled ‘Free Treats Vol.
II’, which had something to keep everyone happy, from the thunderous electro
house of ‘Brohammer’ and ‘Shot of Bruschotti’ right through to the dark,
Magnetic Man-esque ‘Alone Time’ and ‘Chess Fight’. This innovative label are
still a force to be reckoned with, picking out the cream of the crop when it comes
to electronica, having just released the staggering ‘Careless’ EP by Jack
Beats, which brings in Dillon Francis, Takura, Diplo & Example, reason
enough in itself to give it a try.
So there we have it. 2012 has already been quite a year for
music, and is showing no signs of slowing. With DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs poll
nearing its close, and plenty of new albums on the horizon, we are at an
exciting time in dance music. As the distinctions between genres seem to become
ever-more blurred, and influences become wider, EDM seems to be going in a
direction none of us really can predict. One thing’s for sure though – we’re in
for one hell of a ride.
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