The Z-Dar: 'In Time' Peace Treaty Remix Contest

Whatup denizens of the Internet. It's Z here and its contest time again. Beatport has a contest up in collaboration with Steve Aoki's DIM MAK Records and Peace Treaty for Peace Treaty's awesome song "In Time" that came out last July. Like clockwork, EDM artists/producers from all over the world started taking the stems they made available to bring a ton of remixes to the net for the contest and for everyone's enjoyment. Events like these are what keep the scene alive and fresh as you can get a lot of content out in a short time and you can really see what makes a musician shine with a good remix to contrast them from others. New faces to keep on the radar is also a great plus too with lots of originality and flare to bring to the table in the ever increasing fields of electronic music.

Today at EGP I feel I should give some airtime to the artists and their respected remixes that caught my eye for this contest. I took some time to head over to the Beatport contest page and listened to an ear numbing amount of remixes, picked out a bunch I liked the best that I feel deserve to win the contest. Keep in mind as with any other contest article that this is all my own opinion, I tried to do this with variety in mind so if anything you know that if you don't like any of the individuals up here you can figure that there's sure to be a bunch out there that you most definitely will like. Keep in mind these are in no specific order at all.

PEACETREATY - IN TIME - (WALI FINKBEINER REMIX) [LINK TO VOTE IN THE DESCRIPTION!!!] by Wali Finkbeiner

This first one up is an impressive Progressive House remix by Wali Finkbeiner. It's light and airy, one of those songs that just make you feel right with the intense highs. The production on this song is awesome as well and keeps the original feel intact while building on its original emotional content. (VOTE for Wali HERE)

PeaceTreaty-In Time(Kundo Remix) by KundO

This next one up is a dope Drumstep remix by Kundo. It screams catchy and its upbeat stylings are gonna make it a mainstay on my playlist for a while. One of my favorites for this contest in particular. (VOTE for KundO HERE)

PeaceTreaty - In Time ft. Anabel Englund (Exige Remix) ~ Vote on Beatport! by Eхige

This one here is from the Australian native Exige. This one has that extra flair to it, keeping a more whimsical style of Electro House to the contest. It's good and my first listen from this artist. Definitely gonna check the back catalog on this one. (VOTE for Exige HERE)

PeaceTreaty feat. Anabel Englund - In Time (Kynaze Remix) by Kynaze

This one is an interesting one from Kynaze. Its very Electro House, but it has a bassier vibe and structured  like a Dubstep track. It's ear catching and I love it, the vocal effects are awesome and this song out of all I post here, this one is the party banger. (VOTE for Kynaze HERE)

Peacetreaty - In Time (Third Culture Remix) by Third Culture Official

This one is probably the most melodic entry on this article, this cool one up by Third Culture is an amazingly light and airy Progressive House that instantly caught my body in one of emotional overloads you get from a good progressive song. (VOTE for Third Culture HERE)

PeaceTreaty - In Time (Singularity Remix) by Singularity

This last one here is by none other than Singularity. It's a very trance-esque take on Dubstep, its nice with tight production that Singularity is known for. It's an excellent song to chill out to and probably my favorite of this list. (VOTE for Singularity HERE)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

These next two I liked a lot but for whatever reason I feel like they didn't beat the rest in the limit I made for myself, so I decided to throw em up here at the end for honors sake. I really do enjoy them though so let this be a sort of shout out to the artists under here.

Volie Joight - REMIX! (Dubstep)
Josh Vega - REMIX! (House)

So that wraps it up this time for my entries on this current contest. If any of you have a Beatport account you can go out and vote on any of these tracks or any others you might find by using their respected Beatport links provided. Hopefully I showed someone something they really enjoy today, and upstarts should really look into these contests they are amazing for anyone looking to get their names out. The winner will be announced on December 11th 2012.

Love & Light
Z

Yo, Shut Up and Dance!

There's a lot of excitement teeming in the air. Everybody is getting pumped for what's going to be the biggest event yet for 2012. As we continue moving forward into this year, Epic Entertainment is bringing a party that will have you dancing throughout the night and the whole following week. Get ready to Shut Up and Dance!

Afrika Bambaataa Live By: Blackout Hiphop

I've been looking forward to this event for two months now. Why? There has so much hype with this party, and with very good reason. For starters, how about the killer, legendary, insane lineup?

Afrika Bambaataa: "The Grandfather" of Universal Hip-Hop Culture and Electro Funk
DJ RAP: First Queen of Jungle-Spinning Old School Drum&Bass
DJ Lady Faith: USA's #1 Hardstyle Diva
Dave Gee & Trigon w/ Diggadee MC: Brooklyn's Dark Room Crew
Jen Mas: NYC's Queen of Hardcore
Chris Love, Nick Jagger, AB Logic: Love Sound Project
DJ Dank: NYC Electro Bad Boy
Knowledge: An Underground Dance Circuit Forefather
Empress: NY Native International Club Smasher:
Dose The Alien: Unworldly Mixer
John Bas: Brooklyn Hardstyle
DJ Soappy & DJ Keither: Tights Crews!
Atom C // Daddy Noomz // Gaby Noodle: Digital Distortion!

Afrika Bambaataa Will Move You By: Che Kothari

DJ RAP shot for 'Synthesis' By Larissa Underwood

Afrika Bambaataa?!? YES! He set the stage for so much to happen. You may not recognize the name, but you would totally recognize his music. This may ring a bell:

All these different genres coming together in what will be perfect harmony is one thing everybody is going to be looking forward to... but wait, there's more! So go hand in hand with this amazing lineup you have an equally amazing venue... this event is being housed in the Amazura Lounge! This spot is so big, it holds 4,000 people in 20,000 square feet with two floors of sound. Speaking of sound...it's unbelievable. You will literally have shivers sent down your spine if you've never walked in here before. In front of the main stage there are two HUGE stacks, one on each side. In the back, mirror image of the front. What do you get? Awesomesauce. Amazura also has it's own fantastic lighting system with some of the coolest lasers I've seen, there's so many of them!

A View From the Main Stage Amazura By: Sam Freund

Having a Blast! By: Reptar Photography

Then you have the people that come in to bring entertainment and enhance your experience at this prime location. You have an amazing internationally known VJ coming in to blow your mind... none other than Morgan Freeman (bluecrash). He's going to have one hell of a playground to do his thing in, there are so many screens in this huge room! You have two crews of dancers coming in, Pretty Girl Productions and Peek A Boo Girls! To enhance your experience in more physical ways, you have Batman coming in with the massage table, or you can also head over to the California Dreaming table for some UV body painting. 

Batman and Deblette By: Reptar Photography

Skills! By: Reptar Photography

Hypnotized in Wonderland By: Paus3

Shocking Double By: Paus3

Yours Truly (Paus3) By: Ronnie C.

Then there's the one thing I've been waiting to witness since I heard anything about it... Utopia will be hosting a glovers competition!! Now, I don't know how they run it, but there will be A LOT of talent there. The NYC Glovers are all hyped about this, it's a chance to not only do what they love, but have a little fun and compete. The majority of the time, glovers here are not competing. They are constantly learning and growing as friends. So it's a good time to turn up the heat a little and have a good time! And since it is a competition, there are prizes! First place receives a FREE trip of their choice to either, Cancun, Jamaica, or Bahamas. Second Place receives $50 Gift Certificate to Utopia!


Other attractions include a moon bounce, cotton candy machine, pop corn machine, bead table, and fresh fruit.... do I need to give you any more incentive to come to this event?! You better free up your night on Friday, and come to Shut Up and Dance!

There is a lot of info you can get from heading over to these links, including hotels, transportation, and directions.


::Tickets & Info::
::Facebook Invite::

See you there!!

Dive Into The Deep End

The parties never really stop here in NY. There is something pretty much every night, but the weekends is really when the parties begin to rage. This past Friday, I had the chance to enjoy two sides of the events going on, beginning at The Pictograph, and ending at Chaos.

Helping Hands Makes Helping Hands By: Paus3

Welcome to the Spot By: Paus3

Nice Settings By: Paus3

Both events were being put together by members of the raving community, but had two very different feels and purposes. My first stop was The Pictograph at the Hi-5 Bar. It's a nice spot, two floors with a full bar upstairs and a lounge area downstairs. The DJ booth is also upstairs overlooking the floor. There were a bunch of really awesome DJs spinning over here, included in which was DJ Epic Cloud Strife, who's featured on this weeks 'Mix I'm Listening to', go ahead and click play! But this event wasn't all about the music and raging out, this was actually more about the artistic side of the scene, more specifically the photographers.

Enjoy Yourselves By: Paus3

Some of the Best Raving Moments By: Paus3

Reptar and Sam By: Paus3

That Guy By: Paus3

On display throughout the entire venue were different shots that some of the scene's most prominent photographers put up, and were also offering for sale. You had Rob Grigonis, Janet Gonzalez, Sam Freund, and Taylor Flash. They had their works up on the walls, but included in the mix was also Ronnie C. and Tiffany Reptar. People were spinning poi, throwing lights, making kandi, and just having a great time enjoying everyone's company. Another cool addition was Pixel doing some really cool things with paint, he basically made a self contained environment with it! It was cameras everywhere, and people loving the art. I did see a bunch of photos sold which is always a great thing. They do so much for the scene, and we need to do whatever we can to support them.

Don't Swallow this Kandi By: Paus3

Dennis and his Sweet Set By: Paus3

Legion By: Paus3

Gan Dalf Creating Life By: Paus3

Pixel's Environment By: Paus3

Speaking of which, at last weeks AMAZING show at Amazura Lounge, someone smacked Taylor's flash out of his hands, and it shattered. So if you have a minute, donate something to help him get a new flash. It could be a dollar, it could be a hundred, just give a little something to say thank you for all he's done in the treacherous environment in order to take pictures of you. The donate button is through the facebook page HERE.

Taylor is Happy You Want to Help By: Ronnie C.

Now it's about midnight, and Chaos had started an hour before, and being a Kingzly party, well we knew it was definitely already popping. It was time to head on over there and see what was going down. Reptar and I made it over there together, and we were both going in to shoot some photos for the party. Security was super uber tight here. Not a bad thing at all, in fact, it keeps the spot safe. But on the photographers side, or maybe a DJ, lighting crew, anyone working background who wants to get their job done as much as security does, needs to get in smoothly.

Peace By: Ronnie C.

Jumpstyle By: Ronnie C.

This is How We Do 'Round Here By: Ronnie C.

 That being said, we got in no problem and stepped into a crazy party. Once again, two floors, but this time three rooms! Downstairs were mostly the raving crowd because all the EDM was being spun here. We're talking hardstyle, trance, dubstep, all your favorites. This is not to say it was only the raver crowd either, all different types of people were chilling to the music. It was also significantly darker down here, awesome for lights shows! Upstairs had the main floor which was pretty big. They were playing club mixes with some dubstep in there as well. There was a little room off the the side where they had reggae spinning all night. The music didn't stop the ravers from coming up and raging with everyone, The main floor was off the hook, everybody was having a good time dancing to the music, and dancing in the cage. Yes I said cage! Hanging from the ceiling with a pole in the center and sometimes having three girls inside, it was a sexy addition for sure.

I Don't Know How To Be Scared By: Ronnie C.

Lightshow Photobomb! By: Ronnie C.

The Cage! By: Ronnie C.

Drinks were well priced, the ambiance of the rooms was awesome (thank you Powertrip Lighting) and there was a great mix of people. Ravers, clubbers, and just regular party goers all came to one spot to party it up. That's one thing about Kingzly's parties you have to respect. He is bringing together different groups of people under a common love of music and partying. I did not see any brawls or even hear of things going negatively (other than security being really tight). Major props to that, I can't wait for his next banger!




PHOTOS:

The Pros:

Ronnie C: The Pictograph COMING SOON // Chaos
Taylor Flash: The Pictograph (portraits!)//Chaos
Reptar: COMING SOON
Sam Freund: The Pictrograph
Paus3: The Pictograph

Check Kingzly's next FREE party! Also this coming Friday, Fairytale Massacre!!

For more art shows at Hi-5, you have one a month!
February 3rd - Comic/Cartoons
March 2nd - UV/Blacklight Sensitive
April 6th - "Touch Me" Exhibit!

See you guys out on the scene!

The DJ's That Stole Christmas

Kingzly. Nuff Said BY: Morgan Freeman (Blue Crash)

With Christmas here, parties were rocking out all weekend. I was planning originally on staying in and enjoying the comfort of my bed and some Skyrim, but the call came in saying I needed to come check out this event that was going to be split between club scene and rave scene. I thought I had experienced this before with Revival, but I was in for a sick surprise...

Go DJ! BY: Ronnie C. Photography

Divine GoGo! BY: Divine GoGo (Paus3)

The DJ's That Stole Christmas taking place in the infamous Electric Warehouse. This event was put together by CJ Milan & Kingzly's Parties, and they did a great job with it! You had the two floors open for people to rock out, along with the outside smoking section. Before I drove over there, I was checking out the event listing on Facebook, and it said that you should "prepare yourself for a new rave experience." Naturally I felt that I've experienced raves and how is this going to be different from others. After all, Revival was a mix of some club stuff, but mostly variations of harder styles.

DJ Dirty Dan Pumping up the room BY: Morgan Freeman (Blue Crash)

This rave was an even mix between club music (trance, house, with hip-hop and other top 40 stuff), and more techno stuff (harder trance, dubstep, hardstyle, moombah). The main floor was the more rave music, and upstairs was the club scene. The DJ's were mixing it up and both rooms had people hanging out.


Being Christmas Eve, it was surprising that so many came out to dance and have a good time. At the peak there must have been about 300 people having a blast. It was so nice to see the scene's mix, it's easy to tell with fashion who is a regular patron to these scenes, but when all together, everyone was experiencing the PLUR, it was a beautiful thing. The light shows were popping, with projectors on the walls, lasers, and even a foam machine!

Dancing in the Foam BY: Ronnie C. Photography

My night was interesting from the start. I helped out with setup a bit, and then I had the Divine GoGo camera taking pictures of the night. Somewhere around 11pm I ran into Tiffany Reptar, and she took some shots of myself and KinkiKitty giving shows. We were talking a bunch, and she really wanted to glove, so we made a trade; My gloves for her camera. This is where things got really interesting.

Yours Truly Giving Reptar a Show BY: Ronnie C. Photography

For the first time ever, I got to experience what it's like being an event photographer. Taking pictures of the energy, people having a good time, light shows!! It was sick, and Reptar was killing it with her shows! She is an extremely talented person, and just like many of the glovers I look up to, she interprets gloving into her own style. Props to you Reptar, and welcome to Team [OWL]!

DJ X-Dream Spinning BY: Ronnie C. Photography

Another couple awesome encounters I had were with Morgan Freeman and DJ X-Dream. Both of them were awesome. Morgan was controlling almost all the visuals and X-Dream was headlining in the main room. They both did an amazing job, EVERYONE was on the floor for X-Dream going wild and Morgan has some trippy-cool visuals. Check out their sites and make sure to catch them doing their thing at another event. I suggest HOLIDAY MADNESS and GREENHILL ZONE.



PHOTOS:

The Pros:
Reptar Photography: PHOTOS
Ronnie C. Photography: PHOTOS
Epic Image WRM: PHOTOS
Taylor Seven-Divine Flash: PHOTOS
Morgan Freeman: PHOTOS

The Others:
Divine GoGo: PHOTOS

Look forward to some awesome interviews coming up!! And don't forget to check out the new mix I'm listening to!

Sensation is Coming to America 2012!!

One of the most popular Electronic Dance events overseas is officially (and finally) making it's way to America 2012... Get ready for Sensation!

Brought to you by ID&T, This party was started in Amsterdam back in 2000. It was heavily promoted, but at the time, just as any new event (or business, or technology, or anything) did not sell out. Not to say it was small pickings, over 20,000 people did come to Sensation, and then in 2001 all 45,000 tickets sold out in advance pretty quickly and in some cases, a matter of hours.

You may take notice that in the video everyone is wearing white. This is actually a mandatory dress code for Sensation. Sensation is the official name for the party, but people sometimes tack on 'white' to differentiate this event from it's sister event, Black, where everyone is required to dress in black.

The atmosphere at this event looks unbelievable. From the sets, to the lights, pyrotechnics, live dancers and their costumes...it looks almost overwhellming. It kind of reminds me of Cirque Du Soleil, but even more interactive. As mentioned before, this will be the 12 year of this event running, they know how to throw this together by now, and every year will probably be great and more massive than the last.

Sensation UK 2011 BY Sensation

Take a moment here to understand what has been happening in this movement. Electronic Dance Music. Some people think it's just techno as a whole, big misconception. Those who listen and love the music know that is not the case at all. EDM is compiled of many different styles, and Sensation focuses on house music (started with trance as well, but now it's all house). Black is all about hard-style and hardcore. The genres are so huge with their followings and such different styles that there is pretty much no way to combine the two in a one day event, there would be rioting!

Insane Jelly Fish Lady Sensation Poland 2008 BY: Sensation

 Black is not as popular as White, although both events do sell out. Not that it's not popular, it's just as big as Sensation, but it takes a few days if not the day of Black for it to sell out. I would be interested to see how quickly Black would sell out in America... only time will tell eh?

Sensation has been around the world, and it's about time that it comes here, it's going to be huge. There have been no announcements for when, where, or who...but in the end we all want to be there.

Check out official PHOTOS from past events around the world.