Diplo released the "Express Yourself" 7" this month, the single for that track from his EP of the same name. You've already seen the video for that song, which features bounce artist Nicky Da B, and below we're offering a stream of the single's b-side, "Move Around" (featuring Elephant Man and GTA). That's the cover art for the 7" above. Pick up a copy on green vinyl.

Diplo, Grimes, Skrillex (one of the greatest guitarists of all time), Tokimonsta, Pretty Lights, and others are set to head out on the Full Flex Express Tour, a tour of Canada on a train modeled after The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Band's 1970 Festival Express tour.

Although the Full Flex Express tour doesn't come to the US, Diplo, Skrillex, and Pretty Lights will all be in NYC later this summer for Electric Zoo, which returns to Randall's Island from August 31-September 1. Tickets are on sale now. The full lineup is listed below. Skrillex will also be in the NYC area for Bamboozle this weekend.

Speaking of electronic dance festivals in New York, the Electric Daisy Carnival will occur at MetLife Stadium this weekend from May 18-20. The lineup includes MSTRKRFT, Richie Hawtin, Fatboy Slim, Bassnectar, and others. Tickets are available. Full lineup below.

In more related news, the touring Identity Festival, whose lineup was a bit better last year but certainly bigger this year since it sold out in less than 24 hours, returns to NY on July 28 at Jones Beach. Artists playing include Datsik, Eric Prydz, Nero, and more. Full lineup below.

Festival lineups and stream below...

Continue reading "Grimes taking a train ride with Skrillex & Diplo; Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Zoo, Identity Fest & other EDM news too"

words by Kon Glikos, photos by Zach Dilgard

Flying Lotus / ravers

As we were saying, This past Labor Day weekend saw the second installment of the Electric Zoo festival, taking place on Randall's Island. The two-day festival boasted a line up of over 70 artists on 4 stages, catering to most genres of electronic music. The line up ran the gamut. Commercial dance DJ's/acts such as: The Chemical Brothers, Moby, Armin Van Buuren, and house and techno staples the likes of: Richie Hawtin, Claude Von Stroke, and Steve Bug found themselves along side each other on the bill. In addition, artists such as Martyn, Erol Alkan, and Aeroplane represented genres like dubstep, electro, and nu-disco.

Highlights on Saturday included a blistering live techno set from Reboot, taking place in the Sunday School tent. In the evening, Major Lazer brought the crowd into a frenzy with their all-encompassing musical mash-ups. Over on the Red Bull Academy stage, Flying Lotus's much anticipated set had its moments of brilliance, namely a re-edit of Radiohead's Idioteque towards the end of his set. The Chemical Brothers closed out the night on the main stage, starting off with a string of new songs, signifying a musical directional change, giving way to older crowd favorites. Additionally, the visual production paired with their music, made their performance memorable for the thousands that listened in.

Day 2 started off on a high note, with Jon Hopkins's thoroughly original take of a live electronic set, which seemed largely improvisational. The next time slot called for witnessing a meeting of the techno minds back at the Sunday School tent. Techno heavy weights: Martin Buttrich, Mattias Tanzmann and Davide Squillace performed a track for track DJ set that was mainly composed of their favorite techno classics. It quickly became one of the highlights of the weekend. On the main stage, Moby played his DJ set to a sea of people in full on festival mode. His set was a retrospective, made up of tracks from dance eras gone by. What he played was a nice contrast to the seemingly endless stream of commercial trance and progressive house sounds coming from the main stage all day long. He was one of the top main stage performances all weekend.

While the aforementioned performances made up what I thought to be some of the most significant of the weekend, there was no shortage of cringe-worthy music being performed. For example, the countless musical crimes being committed in the Hilltop Arena tent (aptly re-named the Jersey Shore tent by many), aided in shedding some of the festival's musical credibility. Still, the premise of this festival seems to be that there is something for everyone because "you get what you pay for". Only time will tell if this is the electronic music festival that New York City deserves.

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As promised, here are more pictures from last weekend's event. Part 1 is HERE. Part 2 is HERE. Part 3 continues below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo in pics - part 3 (Flying Lotus, Moby, Reboot, more) "

photos by Andrew St. Clair

"Dutch this, Swedish that! Germany's answer to house, Boys Noize, put on one hell of a set. Almost every track he dropped was welcomed by a roaring cheer. Technically he was breathtaking and proved once again why he is the future of electronic music." [Dancing Astronaut]

Here is Part Two of our continuing coverage of the 2010 Electric Zoo Festival that took place over Labor Day Weekend on Randall's Island in NYC. We had multiple photographers and reviewers on hand. Andrew's pictures of Saturday (day one) were posted HERE. His pictures of day two (Sunday), continue below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo 2010 in pics - part 2 (A-Trak, Armin Van Buuren, Boys Noize, Diplo, Steve Aoki, JDH, Dave P & more) "

DOWNLOAD: Âme - Setsa (MP3)

Dixon

A cold has prevented me from hitting many a dancefloor so far this week. As I mentioned at the end of part 1 of the Week In Dance, Micachu & The Shapes play the second New York show on their tour, at Le Poisson Rouge tonight (10/2). Check out a video of Tim Exile (who played Santos Thursday night) remixing Micachu & The Shapes, live, below and don't forget that following the Micachu show Martyn, Kotchy, Starkey, DJ Sharmaji, and Samiyam will also be at Le Poisson Rouge (11pm, now changed to 21+).

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (part 2) (Dixon, Tim Exile, Micachu, Mixhell, Stretch Armstrong, Toxic Avenger & more)"