Fool's Gold Radio - November 2012 Mix

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Electric Zoo 2012 Live Sets Day 1

Electric Zoo Live Sets Day 1 (8.31.2012)

Day 1 of electric zoo had many thrills.  Here are all the electric zoo 2012 live sets from day 1.  Some of our favorites are: nadastrom, above and beyond, A-trak, and Dillon Francis.  Definitely be sure to download these sets and hear the live energy they were able to build.  We will have in depth reviews coming later in the week on electric zoo 2012 live sets from day 1,2, and 3.  So stay tuned as the footage rolls out!

Adrian Lux

Tracklist:
01. Adrian Lux – Weekend Heroes (Bauer & Lanford Remix) [ULTRA]
02. Hard Rock Sofa & Swanky Tunes – Here We Go [AXTONE]
03. Pryda – Allein [VIRGIN UK]
04. Swedish House Mafia – Greyhound [VIRGIN UK]
05. Adrian Lux feat. Lune – Angels (Ken Loi Remix) [ULTRA]
06. Adrian Lux – Teenage Crime (Axwell & Henrik B Remode) [AXTONE]
07. M83 – Midnight City (Eric Prydz Private Remix) [MUTE]
08. Adrian Lux feat. Lune – Fire (R3hab Bigroom Remix) [ULTRA]
09. Alesso & Sebastian Ingrosso – Calling [REFUNE]
10. Steve Aoki feat. Wynter Gordon – Ladi Dadi (Tommy Trash Instrumental Remix) [ULTRA]
11. Adrian Lux feat. Dante – Burning (Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl Remix) [ULTRA]
12. Sander Van Doorn & Adrian Lux vs. Inpetto – No More Serious Eagles (MYNC Edit) [DOORN (SPINNIN)/CR2]

Hardwell

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A-Trak's Ghosts N' Stuff Routine

Following last month's "Money Makin" routine, A-Trak is back with his monthly edition of "Short Cuts."

Watch Trizzy tackle Deadmau5's "Ghosts N' Stuff" all while introducing a few new characters..

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A-track Article - Don't Push My Buttons

(huffingtonpost) There's a new buzz-word in the world of DJing: "Button Pushers." As the DJ moves from club booths to festival stages, the equipment has become increasingly varied. And as the lines continue to blur between a DJ who mixes and a producer who presses play, questions of authenticity have been raised. I should mention that I am a DJ myself. I won five world DJ championships (yes, there is such a thing) at a young age, and this has been my career for 15 years, so I feel a certain responsibility to weigh in on the subject.

Traditionally, a DJ spun vinyl records on turntables and would change his set every night. So what about guys who play on laptops? Those who spend more time raising their hands than mixing? Or those whose presence is lost behind intricate light shows? Esteemed electronic producer deadmau5, who recently graced the cover of rock bible Rolling Stone wearing his namesake, robo-rodent mask, decided to blow the whistle himself with a refreshingly frank tumblr post entitled "We All Hit Play." Explaining how his pre-planned stage show works, he admits that the term "live" is an overstatement. But his tone is strangely defensive and he unjustly lumps DJs into the argument, reducing their craft to mindless beat-matching: "I had that skill down when I was 3."

Coincidentally, the same week the DJ world was set a-twitter (literally) by SNL-worthy videos of Paris Hilton's inaugural DJ set. In fact, this DJ-as-Milli-Vanilli debate started simmering last summer with the emergence of a YouTube clip entitled "Steve Angello -- How To Fake Your Fans." It showed the Swedish House Mafia DJ playing 15 minutes of a pre-recorded set from a single CD deck. He later explained that this was the finale of a show where fireworks, pyro and CO2 were timed with certain cues and that it was impossible to perform this segment while mixing live. Having seen Steve mix in front of me many times I can attest to his (actually remarkable) DJ skills. But let's back up a bit: fireworks, pyro and CO2 with house music? Something new is going on here...

A large part of the attention that DJs are getting at the moment is due to the Electronic Dance Music explosion. There's another buzzword for you: EDM. For better or worse, this rising genre is dominated by laptop production whizzes who do not play live instruments. Thus, there are inherent challenges to what an EDM performance can be. Look no further than this year's Grammy Awards: the way David Guetta and deadmau5 were lumped with Chris Brown and the Foo Fighters seemed like an awkward foreign exchange, didn't it? But Guetta and Mr. Mau5's music is catchy and hugely successful. Fans want to experience it in large venues, so there is a need to build a show around it.

Festivals started spending millions equipping their stages with the biggest LED panels and brightest lights, competing with rivals all in the name of this "experience." Now we are in the middle of an arms race where every DJ tries to out-do the next one with shock and awe. As the performance aspect becomes predominant, a paradigm shift is underway. Crowds used to come see DJs for a musical journey. Now they expect to hear specific songs and furthermore, they want to see a show. I can attest to this myself: the craziest crowd response that I get in my sets is when I play my own tracks, and I built a huge, illuminated A-shaped structure that I bring to my biggest gigs. But one has to wonder, when so much emphasis is put on hit records and mise-en-scène: is there still room for DJ skills?

I come from the most technical tradition of hip hop DJing, known as turntablism. I practiced daily for years with monastic discipline, learning and creating intricate patterns of scratching, beat juggling and trick mixing. To me there is a certain romance to this arcane craft. To me this is DJing, an art that fascinates because it's a subversive way of playing music. In any genre -- whether it be hip hop or electronic music -- DJing is equal parts technique and selection. A good set is like a convincing speech: the message is as important as the delivery. The magic happens when the tracks are assembled in front of (and in reaction to) a given crowd. When a DJ mixes, his creative effort takes place on the spot. In contrast, for a performer like deadmau5, the creative tour de force takes place ahead of time, in the conceptual stages of his show, and he is then able to execute it like a theatre play. Good theatre is entertaining, it is moving and certainly has value. This is a classic dispute of apples and oranges, and deadmau5's only mistake in his tumblr post is trying to compare the two. I happen to know him; he's a smart guy and he can take a joke. I also think he doesn't fully understand -- or care for -- what DJing is at the core, but that doesn't take away from his talent.

Recently there was a very cogent editorial post on the EDM blog Dancing Astronaut entitled "Dance Music Has Gone Mainstream But It Doesn't Have To Sell Out." It accused EDM DJs of becoming complacent in their selection. The writer states: "What worries me is not that DJs are simply 'pressing play', but that they're pressing play on the same tracks in the same order night after night after night." This is very true and might be the source of deadmau5's confusion. For the DJs who bounce from venue to venue, playing the same set without the redeeming quality of a personalized stage production, there is no excuse. This laziness is actually giving "live" performances more value! After any big EDM festival, look up the DJ playlists. They're frighteningly similar. This scene is turning into a caricature. Explosions, private jets, standing on tables (I plead guilty to the latter), and now carbon copy playlists... The hair metal soap opera of EDM risks devaluing a culture that has waited for its big break for 30 years.

Real DJing lives when you witness someone play for hours and take risks, reading the crowd and surprising them at the same time. On festival stages, it makes sense to use fool-proof equipment and put together a spectacular show. In today's context, wouldn't it be fair to say that the holy grail is a live performance that has the flexibility to integrate true improvisation? That is the ultimate win-win. To the DJs who choose to bypass the LED screen arms race and stick to their decks, I respect that too. Just make sure you give your audience something new every night. If you want to play David to deadmau5's Goliath, earn it. Challenge yourself to challenge the crowd. And to all the new fans just discovering this genre, come to the shows with an open mind. Don't just wait to hear the songs you already know. There's a reason you're not watching a band. DJing is still at the cutting edge of new music. Let yourself be surprised.

 

Follow A-Trak on Twitter: www.twitter.com/atrak

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A-Trak - Money Makin' Routine

DMC Champion DJ, A-trak, lays down a little beat juggle for his new track "Money Making".  In the video we also get to meet a few of his alter ego's

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Justice, “New Lands (A-Trak Remix)”

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Fool's Gold Radio - June 2012 Mix

Tracklist after the jump: 

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A-Trak & Dillon Francis - 'Money Makin' (Official Video)

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A-Trak & Dillon Francis - Money Makin' [Preview]

It's always fun when...

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Vintage Swedish House Mafia Footage of House in Ibiza

During 2008 A-trackTV(pre-A-trak beard) shot some special footage of himself visiting swedish house mafia's rental house in Ibiza.  Let's just say its a lot better then your average vacation rental.

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A-Track Mourning MySpace

(huffingtonpost.com) We're often quick to declare a social network "dead." Sure, plenty of them have come and gone in recent years, but few have had such a massive fall from grace as MySpace, which has come to be known as "DeadSpace." The unpronounceable "My____" logo rebranding did not help. Now it's rumored to be at the dawn of a complete overhaul, but this article isn't about that. It's about the hole that MySpace has left specifically in the music community.

MySpace was the first social network that I joined. I snubbed Friendster previously. I would riff about how odd it was to try to make friends online and how checking out your friends' friends encouraged leeches, moochers and social-climbing. But I caved into MySpace because it had some useful features for musicians. The first one that drew me in was simply the events listing. The year was 2006 and I was about to embark on my first extensive headlining tour. Here was a way for me to not only announce the dates but also post the flyer art and blast out updates if we decided to change venues or add more cities.

As I delved into its functionality, I found a complete set of features to serve the DIY artist. One that was surprisingly meaningful was the option of customizing your page's layout and background. The same way that producers were suddenly able to make their own music at home on affordable software, artists were more than ever in control of their image and branding. Before branding was even a buzzword, we were all recruiting our friends to help us learn basic HTML to design our MySpace pages.

Continue after the jump

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A-track Grey Goose Commercial

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A-track Cut Shesh on Holy Ship & features the Fools Gold Team!

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A-Track Radio Show - Fool's Gold February 2012 Mix || EDMBoston podcasts

Tracklist:

1. A-Trak & Zinc – Stingray (A-Trak Intro Edit)
2. Monkey Safari – Fat Papa (Country Club Remix)
3. NT89 – Voices
4. Kwanzaa Posse – Musika (Ralph Falcon and Oscar Gaetan Murk Miami Mix)
5. Samuel Dan – Let Me See You
6. Claptone – Cream
7. NTFO & Rhadow – Don’t Stop
8. Machinedrum – DDD
9. Hoshina Anniversary – Chicago
10. Wax Motif & Neoteric – Das Machines
11. Zeds Dead – Rumble In The Jungle
12. Kill Frenzy – Booty Clap
13. Epworth – Ain’t Hard
14. Djedjotronic – Walk With Me
15. Rihanna & Calvin Harris – We Found Love (Solidisco Remix)
16. Treasure Fingers & Malente – Crusaders
17. Alec Carlsson – Paris Fried Chicken (J Paul Ghetto Remix)
18. Oliver Twizt – Love Trip (David Jones Remix)
19. Martin Solveig – The Night Out (A-Trak Remix)
20. Laidback Luke, Arno Cost & Norman Doray – Trilogy
21. Boys Noize & Erol Alkan – Lemonade (Gesaffelstein Remix)
22. WhoMadeWho – Inside World (Digitalism Remix)

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A-Track New Music: The Night Out (A-Trak remix)

Martin SOlveig just dropped A-tracks newest remix on his soundcloud. The Night out atrack remix has a nice rock beat to open up things. A-track then synths out the drums before bringing them back for a build up to the drop. The night Out then goes, dare i say it, very dirty dutch, with a knocking bass and grimey whirls that will leave you tripping for days.  The night out is a great combination of indie-rick and dance.

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A-Trak at Madison Square Garden

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Laidback Luke & Sander van Doorn "Who's Wearing The Cap" A-Trak Remix

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Laidback Luke and Sander van Doorn - Who's Wearing The Cap (A-Trak Remix)

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