New Years Eve Coverage: Lights All Night

Hey guys, it’s Meghan, here to tell you about the three epic days I experienced at Lights All Night. Starting just two years ago in 2010, this EDM fest has tremendously expanded from one single New Years Eve night to three whole days of raging, brought to us by MCP Presents and Highland Entertainment. This year, the Dallas festival switched to a new venue at Fair Park in order to accommodate the massive list of artists. I think I need to begin by recognizing just how killer this lineup was. With a solid mix of mainstream and up and coming DJ’s, some of my favorites include Alvin Risk, Archnemesis, Bassnectar, Diplo, Zeds Dead, Nervo, Cookie Monsta, Griz, Feed Me, and oh so many more. The biggest struggle each day definitely was deciding which stage to attend.

Alvin Risk Photo by Calder Wilson Photography

After seeing a countless number of artists, I have to say the ones who stuck with me the most were Zeds Dead and Bassnectar. Playing back to back at the main stage on Day 2, these two DJ’s absolutely killed it and the light shows were out of this world. As for Bassnectar, his drops were spot on and his energy truly electrified through the crowd.

Photo by Calder Wilson Photography

Having been to my fair share of festivals, the layout of this one really impressed me. There were four stages, each in a large climate controlled tent, with plenty of space for professional dancers, vendors selling cool rave gear, and most importantly, for people to womp around. There were also porter potties in each of the tents (one tent even had a real bathroom) and bars with a lot of drink options and minimal lines. In between the four tents was a DJ car that continually bumped music so there was never a dull moment while walking between sets.

Break Science Photo by: Calder Wilson Photography

Photo by Live Edits Lab

Additionally, the crowd was stellar. Everyone was incredibly friendly and wore awesome rave attire despite the cold temperature. I’m talking colored wigs, spirit hoods, face paint, tutus, prism glasses, fur boots, some incredible hand-made kandi, and anything and everything else you can imagine. One girl in particular wore hand crafted go-go boots covered with flowers and had curly hair filled with flowers glued to bobby pins. She danced around placing the flowers from her hair to the heads of others as if a little fairy was flying around spreading her magic fairy dust.


There were also a lot of talented glovers at the scene with light shows going on everywhere which actually inspired me to get a pair of my own. I bought them on Day 1 allowing me the rest of the three days to learn some moves, make new friends, and give some trippy light shows of my own.


With each year topping the last, this festival is definitely one you don’t want to miss. Peace, love, unity, and respect everyone!

Z-Dar: Mr Bill - Cheyah Remix Contest Presented by Gravitas Recordings)

Whatsup everybody? It's Z here and I've been around the web a little bit lately and I caught wind of none other than Mr. Bill's very own remix contest he has got in collaboration with Gravitas Recordings for the awesome track Chyeah off the Neurovation Compilation. This remix contest in particular is especially interesting as the judges panel is an all star cast. The likes of which include Bil Bless, Gruff, Psymbionic, Great Scott, and Mr. Bill himself. It seems to me to be a more tight knit endeavor than the usual Beatport contest styles and I feel like a lot of awesome tracks will be popping up on account of this. So as per usual, I took some time to go through a bunch of tracks to show you the ones I personally like the most. I'll post links up to where you can find all these songs as well as the rest of the entries.


This one here Is by an artist that calls himself Xuno. It's a romantic bass infused remix that he calls Luxury. It's deep heavy and wet and I love it. Definitely one of the stand out remixes to me.

This next one up is by the California native Illustrated. This one is more on the high end oh things with simplicity without being too similar being its stronger points. the beat change in the end is nice.

This one here is by Hack the System out of Italy. I love this remix it has a very Moomba styled bounce that keeps the song flowing nice. It's very different for a Mr. Bill remix.

This gem is by Rynosaur, and it's a bassed Neurohop remix that doesn't spare on the bass manipulation. It twirls and grinds and it progresses and it's a good track to get things started.

This one here is by Thrilla coming out of the US. It's a simple Glitch Hop remix with enough added to give it a wholly different feel. I enjoy it a lot.

Another Glitch Hop remix coming your way by SugarBeats. It's got a lot more meat to it as far as these remixes go and I like it. I think I'm gonna keep this guy on the radar cause it seems like he's going to get a lot better.

I feel like this remix is totally gonna win. By none other than Haywyre we get the liquid smooth styles of his very well known smooth Dubstep and Jazz stylings with Mr. Bill brand Glitch to make a Glitch Hop outing that shines above the rest. I'm gonna be surprised if this one doesn't win.

As you can see this contest is getting crazy, Both a grand prize winner and a runner up will be chosen to appear on the release, and in addition will receive prizes from SoundCloud, Keith McMillen Instruments, iZotope, and Ableton Liveschool, and all winners will have their track appear on the official remix EP. If you want the original track check HERE and if you wanna check the other entries check HERE. Thanks for tuning in. Lets see who wins shall we?

Love and Light
Z

Clarity Music Video

As one of Zedd's most popular hits of 2012, Clarity finally has a music video to go along with. Filled with impressive settings, an awesome classic car and all the feels of the Foxes, this video is a win. Check it out!!



Also, as an added bonus, here's one of my favorite remixes of the song by Aylen, complete with a download link ;)

[re]Blow Your Mind

Hey, wassup it's Wish! About this time last year, I attended my first massive event, Holiday Madness. Showtek was in, there were thousands of people lining the dance floor at Amazura Concert Hall, and everything was just unbelievable. Now, it's time for part two, as Caffeine Entertainment and Epic Entertainment brings us back to the insanity with Holiday Madness 2 [re]gifted, sponsored by Kikwear.

This year the party is back and in the legendary Amazura. Amazura can easily hold thousands of people, and only twice in the past year have I personally seen an event that actually looked full there. One was Bobble Invaders (PLUR Rave Promotions 1st party) and last year's Holiday Madness. This event is stacking up to be in the same boat with 2,000 people rsvp'ed on the main facebook invite. Of course we know not to judge a party by that number, but the higher the attending rate, the more people actually come out. Amazura sports two stages on two floors. The main stage is significantly larger than the upstairs area, being able to fit over 3,000 people without a doubt. Upstairs has a jungle theme going on, along with windows over looking the main floor. The ambiance of the place is surreal when it's filled up.

By: Ronnie C.

What's a party without entertainment?! A long awaited booking has taken place for this party. The legendary DJ Isaac will be returning to New York to spin this party. It's been a while since he was here last, and only got to perform about three minutes of his set (thank you FDNY) at Naughty Neon 2 back in February. So now, at a much larger spot, his appearance will be [re]gifted for everyone to enjoy. If you are not familiar with his music, get on it, the bitches will appreciate it.


The lineup is epic, with city favorites X-Dream and Jen Mas, and Tight Crew's very own DJ Soappy. Making the visuals extra special is Morgan Freeman. Anybody who has been to the club knows what the laser system is like there, so putting one and two together is always epic. If all this wasn't good enough, there going to be a lot more. We're talking body painting, people on stilts walking around, aerialists, a cotton candy and popcorn machine, a kandi station, and even a sexy Santa contest with a $100 prize. This will be a night to remember [or not ;)].

Get your tickets before 2pm on Friday and save five dollars. Use that five dollars to buy your of age friends a drink. This is the most definitely the right way to kick off your partying for New Years weekend!! I'll catch you there, with gloves on and camera in hand. If you see me, say hi!

New EPIC Collaboration: Griz + Big Gigantic

There is always more music coming out and keeping the sounds we listen to fresh. With so much going on, GRiZ and Big Gigantic just dropped a new track on us that's got the fresh vibes and epicness. The track is called Power and you can download it for free.



We love us some collab and this track is SICK. And soon, you can catch the two power houses performing together on With Bassnectar and Pretty Lights in Virginia, and then on New Years Eve with just Big G and Griz in Chicago.


LINKS!

Big Gigantic (SoundCloud)
Big Gigantic (FaceBook)
Big Gigantic (Twitter)

GRiZ (SoundCloud)
GRiZ (FaceBook)
GRiZ (Twitter)

Adventure Club @ Ampersand: New Orleans SWAG

Hey everybody! It's me, Etan Wish! Last weekend was Wizard World in New Orleans (as well as my birthday weekend!). While in New Orleans, you want to check out the food, the people, the partying... oh the partying! I was checking out what was going on in town that weekend, and one event in particular kept coming up in my searching. Adventure Club. I couldn't have been happier as every time I supposed to experience this Canadian dubstep duo, I was out of town. So here we were, meeting together in the city where life tends to just, happen. And I was about to happen upon my first tiny taste of a deep south party.

By: Mixed Mag

By: Examiner

The concert was being held at a local club called Ampersand. The line outside the place was enormous, in two directions. I did have the chance to get in before the full crowd arrived. The club was not huge, but it did have space. Minus a beam off to the left of the stage, pretty much anywhere you stood on the main floor you could see the stage. There were VIP sections along the sides of the main room, and a small lounge off to back right of the bar. Not to mention the upstairs VIP section which overlooked the main floor. There was also a second room with another stage with a small outdoor smoking section. The second room felt much more relaxed with room to dance than the main floor, but that quickly changed the closer we got to Adventure Club's set.

Beverly Skillz By: Jam Base

Opening act was a dirty trap set by Beverly Skillz. With a name to match her energy and performance, Beverly destroyed the crowd track after track. People were literally "hoofing" (the art of barking, but yelling at the same time) between beats. The sound system was loud, but didn't pierce which was good because I come from all these small concert halls with crappy sound systems and live bands playing on them. The lights on stage were the only electrical visuals, along with gogo dancers on stage. There wasn't a moment of dullness in the crowd throughout Beverly's set. And then the beat dropped.

Adventure Club By: Aaron Gershon

Crowd Energy By: Aaron Gershon

Hovering over the crowd was Christian Srigley saying what's up and ready to drop right into business. At this point the club was at what looked like maximum capacity. It was an amazing site to see the support for AC out here in LA. Every drop was epic, making the crowd jump, bounce, and dance as much as their space allowed for. The laser system was also turned on, and it lit the room up with so much more energy. The vibes were amazing, it felt like everyone was having an amazing time.

Fists Up!! By: Aaron Gershon

Straight Chilling By: Aaron Gershon

The crowd was mixed with ages and people of different walks, but everyone was there to get down. I had the opportunity to meet a whole bunch of really cool people from the area. The gloving there was pretty good too, but there were only a couple out at this event. I can't wait to go and experience the NOLA scene again, and again, and again.

Photos:
Ampersand Event by: Aaron Gershon - SET

ADVENTURE CLUB LINKS:
Main Management
FaceBook
SoundCloud
YouTube
Twitter

The Z-Dar: Seven Lions Beatport Contest

Hey people! It's Z here with another contest that I could not keep my hands off of. Beatport has another contest up in collaboration with Seven Lions and OWSLA for Seven Lions amazing track Days to Come off the Days to Come EP that was released about a month ago. There has been a ton of artist putting their all into this contest, with tons of amazing new faces and styles that are coming out of the woodwork. The contests keep getting bigger and bigger at Beatport and with the ante so high and the numbers so large you can bet even some familiar faces have followed suit to take a crack at remixing too. With the grand prize being an OWSLA record release, among other goodies, to be in the ranks and likes of Skrillex, Zedd, Porter Robinson, Kill The Noise, and Jack Beats to name a few, you can bet that theres gonna be a lot of gold this time around.

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 page and listened to an ear numbing amount of remixes about 1300 give or take a couple hundred, picked out a bunch I liked the best and that I feel deserve to win the contest. Due to the sheer number of amazing tracks I found I feel I'm pressed to break my limit this time and give you a lot more tracks than I previously had planned. 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. The winner of this one gets announced January 1st, 2013 so keep your calendars marked to see which one it is.

This one here is by Infrasonix. It has beautiful light jumpy dubstep style to it. It's ridiculously fun and engaging. A surprising remix to come out of this contest I'd say. (VOTE FOR Infrasonix HERE)

This one here is from the Canada native, Cublete. It's got some amazing chillout vibes that this song perfectly melds with. It's relaxing and great if you wanna hear this song in a more vocally pure form. A+ (VOTE FOR Cublete HERE)

This one up here is by OSKR a producer from Britian, and its a sick Electro House remix that you can't help but move to. I wanna hear this dropped somewhere very soon, It's dancy as all hell, an amazing remix in my opinion. (VOTE FOR OSRK HERE)

This next one up is an impressively done light Trap remix by Slander, 7Deadlysynths, and Direwolfe. It's an unexpected remix for a lot of people checking this contest out. Not much people expected a well done trap remix coming out of this song and this one is amazing. I love the way they did it. (VOTE FOR Slander/7Deadlysynths/Direwolf HERE)

This one here is by none other than Singularity, he always seems to find a way to get on this site oddly enough, but this remix is too tight to not feature on this article. It's a great remix and the quality of production is amazing. (VOTE FOR Singularity HERE)

This one here is by Coyote Kisses, a favorite of mine, He took a different approach that most would expect with more of a electronic pop rock kinda feel going on. It works really well and I love it. (VOTE FOR Coyote Kisses HERE)

This next one up is a collaboration between I.Y.F.F.E. and AU5, and it's a heavy as hell banger of a Drumstep song. Its definitely a crowd melter if I ever heard one. Sick bass manipulation thats intense but still fitting into the song without being abrasive. (VOTE FOR I.Y.F.F.E. HERE)

This one is by a duo from Britian that goes by the name Culture Code. The have a very dramatic dubstep rendition that fits the tone of the original. It's very movie-esque and moving, Its a fun song that I know I'm definitely gonna revisit. (VOTE FOR Culture Code HERE)

This one here is by Kicks n Licks from San Diego. It's Melodic all all hell with reverberating bass that penetrates and makes you wanna dance. It's a fun remix, and I like how overblown it is without being overdone. (VOTE FOR Kicks n Licks HERE)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

These next few I liked alot but for whatever reason I feel like they didnt beat the rest in the limits 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.

Aipolar
La'Reda
Thornsworld
Affinity
Line One
Anansi
FrostBound
TMZ + Janonymous
Vitagliano
Vade
Skelton


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.

Love & Light
Z