This week finally saw AN21 & Max Vangali’s debut album, People of the Night, drop. This highly-anticipated release, with 15 tracks and several guest appearances, came out on Size Records. Also anticipated, the remixes for “Silhouettes,” Avicii’s follow-up to “Levels,” came out. Lending their talents are Estonian DJ Syn Cole, Lazy Rich, and EDX.
For upcoming releases, David Guetta is re-releasing Nothing But The Beat digitally, with even more tracks. Deadmau5, meanwhile, was added to the FIFA Soccer 13 album, which also includes Flo Rida featuring Lil Wayne, Bloc Party, Kasabian, Two Door Cinema Club, Matisyahu, Metric, Santigold, Passion Pit, The Chevin, Hadouken!, Wretch 32, and Band Of Horses.
At the end of last week, Details magazine appointed Las Vegas the “new” Ibiza. Although such a distinction is moderately accurate but debatable, the Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub is leading with an Ibiza-like lineup of scheduled performers. Its fall schedule was announced this week, and for September and October, Kaskade, Benny Benassi & Martin Solveig, Hardwell, Chuckie, Dash Berlin, Fedde Le Grand, Avicii, A-Track, Alesso, Armin Van Buuren, Erick Morillo, Zedd, Dirty South, and ATB, among others, are playing day or night shows.
Avicii, meanwhile, was announced as the opener for Madonna’s Yankee Stadium shows this week, including yesterday and Saturday. If you can recall, Madonna joined him on stage at 2012’s Ultra Music Festival, but do you think Avicii will ask the audience if they’ve “seen Molly”?
Aside from this, recent festivals announced include Audio Circus in Utah, which has Infected Mushroom and Pretty Lights headlining. For Creamfields Abu Dhabi, David Guetta and Armin Van Buuren were just announced as headliners.
As far as videos are concerned, UltraTV put out Benny Benassi at the Snake Pit at the Indy 500, but considering this song is nearly a decade old, isn’t it time Benassi became known for another hit? The snooze-fest known as “Cinema” and the cheesiness of “Spaceship” don’t match up. For a more notable feat, Calvin Harris won the first VMA award for Best Electronic Music Video. But, when his “Feel So Close” won over Avicii’s “Levels” and offerings from Duck Sauce, Martin Solveig, and Skrillex, do you think Harris was the best choice for this award?
Not everyone is getting on the EDM bandwagon, and Green Day, with its new video “Kill the DJ”, isn’t afraid to show their distaste. But, didn’t The Smiths already express this sentiment back in 1984? There are only so many times you can say “Hang the DJ” before it becomes a cliché.
Even if Green Day can’t feel the beat, however, Hollywood certainly is. A piece in the New York Times detailed EDM producers’ forays into film scores. While Skrillex and Daft Punk, in modern memory, are the best known, M83 and Kaskade are also trying it out. As to why EDM is gravitating toward soundtracks, John Houlihan, a film music supervisor, said: “An E.D.M. artist like Skrillex is pushing frequencies and using new instrumentation that is so intense, his music has the potential to drive a modern action scene more effectively than a traditional Hollywood orchestra.” Do you agree?
