photos by Leia Jospe

Rusko & fans

Clean or dirty? Uplifting or brutal? Those were choices dance-music fans could make on Saturday, the second day of the weekend-long Electric Zoo 2011 on Randalls Island. They could go for the polished tones, warm chords and step-by-step buildups of trance and house, the overlapping styles that have long dominated dance clubs worldwide and that gave Electric Zoo its headliners: Tiesto on Friday, David Guetta on Saturday and Armin van Buuren on Sunday. The unsubtle four-on-the-floor beat of trance has been a longtime staple of European pop hits, and in recent years American acts like Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga and Rihanna have also embraced it.

Or they could get knocked around by the squirmy, distorted bass lines, sudden blasts and saw-toothed bits of melody of dubstep, which after years of enjoyment by devotees is now making itself known to a broader United States audience through D.J.'s like Skrillex, whose fans screamed with joy on Saturday afternoon. [NY Times]

Continue reading "pics from Electric Zoo 2011 @ Randall's Island"

Chromeo at Williamsburg Waterfront in 2010 (more by Chris Gersbeck)

This was the third year that Electric Zoo, an electronic music festival featuring world-renowned DJs, shuttled and ferried fans across the East River to Randall's Island on Labor Day weekend to dance. But this time the fest that began as a modest weekend event was something more, drawing crowds that were large even by music festival standards: Expanded to three days, the Zoo hosted 85,000 people, up from 50,000 over two days last year.

The scantily clad throngs, wearing neon sunglasses, pacifiers, furry go-go boots and bikini tops--and sometimes body paint in lieu of a top--prompted several DJs to declare a return of the rave scene to New York.

"It just eventually comes back," said David Macklovitch of the duo Chromeo. "We're definitely getting '90s vibes." [Wall Street Journal]

Now that Chromeo have played the Randall's Island fest, they've expanded their previously announced 'Night Falls Tour' with Mayer Hawthorne and Breakbot to include a NYC show happening on November 4 at Terminal 5. Tickets go on sale Friday (9/9) at noon with an internet presale (username: chromeo, password: tickets) and an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (9/7) at noon.

Updated dates below...

Continue reading "Chromeo played Electric Zoo, add T5 show to tour (dates)"

Due to unforeseen circumstances the Plastikman 1.5 live show will not be able to proceed tonight as originally planned.

Electric Zoo will now be presenting a special one hour Richie Hawtin DJ set with the Ali Demiral LED visuals show. This will take place at 10pm-11pm in the Hilltop Arena - the same arena where Plastikman would have performed.

From Richie Hawtin, "Plastikman Live is a technically challenging show that has appeared successfully in over a dozen countries over the past year. The shows systems are well-tested but rely on specific requirements from the festivals where we perform. Without full compliance of these requirements we can find ourselves in a frustrating situation. My production team has been on site in NYC since Tuesday working alongside the Electric Zoo production team preparing for this show, and they have done everything within their powers to address the challenges that have been presented at the event. Sadly it has not worked out and we regret to announce that Plastikman will not perform in New York this weekend. We are excited, in light of the situation, that we are able to present this LED visual show similar to the shows that we present at other festivals around the world".

Richie Hawtin will also still headline the Sunday School Grove on Sunday at Electric Zoo.

The annual electro fest on Randall's Island, Electric Zoo, begins today, Friday, 9/2, and lasts through Sunday. And though much of the lineup and crowd may scare you (Tiesto is the big headliner tonight), there is also something for everyone. Today's lineup also includes a DJ set by Moby, Rusko, a bunch of Ed Bangers, MSTRKRFT, and what is sure to be a very special set by Richie Hawtin in the form of Plastikman.

Press release describes it like this:

Electronic music producer and performer Richie Hawtin returns to U.S. soil with his darker alter-ego PLASTIKMAN. The Berlin-based artist will bring his one-hour live experience that explores the connection between audio, visual and interactivity to Electric Zoo on Governor's Island Friday, September 2. This will mark the debut of PLASTIKMAN LIVE in New York City. Richie Hawtin will also DJ a separate set at Electric Zoo in addition to presenting PLASTIKMAN LIVE on Sunday, September 4.

PLASTIKMAN LIVE was voted the best live act of 2010 by Resident Advisor readers and also was included in U.K. tastemaker magazine MixMag's best live dance act shortlist. Since launching March 2010 at Timewarp in Mannheim, Germany, the PLASTIKMAN show has been under a constant state of evolution helmed by Hawtin and his partners visual architects Derivative and visual designer Ali Demirel.

There is also a customized iPhone/iPod Touch application called Plastikman SYNK. Conceptualized by Hawtin and developed with RJ Fischer (http://hexler.net) and Bryan McDade (Minus), SYNK is available for free and is the official companion iPhone/iPod Touch application of the current PLASTIKMAN LIVE worldwide tour. SYNK users will participate in an experiment in audience-performer interaction aiming to blur the lines of perception and participation.

PLASTIKMAN LIVE is a fully immerse real-time interactive concept experience. It is the only show where the entire event has been created from the ground up with the artist (Richie Hawtin/PLASTIKMAN) spearheading each part of the development and vision. There is one performer--Richie Hawtin aka PLASTIKMAN--on stage employing the cutting edge and custom technology to control the entire audio/visual and lighting experience, with live real-time generative visuals (no timed coded pre-rendered video or movies) in connection with cutting edge Derivative TouchDesigner software, live control over DMX-controlled lighting (custom Ableton Live Midi>DMX solution), and real-time audience/performer interaction and communication with the custom iPhone SYNK App (The only live concert that allows the audience to control part of the show, HUD readouts, audience/performer chat client, live on stage camera feed, etc.).

"I'm very excited to bring my PLASTIKMAN show to Electric Zoo," states Hawtin. "I am very energized by the incredible developments in the electronic scene in North America, and finally we're seeing the underground movement that I represent with my label, artists, DJing and live shows being acknowledged by the big events and festivals. This is a great moment in American music history, and I am delighted to have a platform to present my take on where electronic music is today and my vision for its future."

SBTRKT, who DJs twice tonight at the similar North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, DJs Electric Zoo on Saturday (despite what his posted tour dates say)

A Plastikman video below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo begins, Richie Hawtin is Plastikman tonight"

Giant and very-varied Labor Day Weekend electro festival Electric Zoo returns to Randall's Island on September 2-4 and just announced 14 more artists to its already big lineup which is split across four stages (times three days).

The fest this year features performances by big names like Moby (DJ set), Rusko, MSTRKRFT, Richie Hawtin as Plastikman, Chromeo, Boys Noize, Calvin Harris and Diplo. The lineup also includes smaller but familiar and exciting names like Daedelus, SebastiAn (Live), SBTRKT, Nicolas Jaar (Live), and many more. The whole thing is listed below.

SBTRKT meanwhile has dates coming up in July.

SebastiAn, who has had singles floating around for a few years now, and more recently a film score, finally released his first proper full length Total on May 30 via Ed Banger. The album is 22 songs of Daft Punk-esque aggressive French House and features vocal contributions from Mayer Hawthorne and M.I.A.. Check out a soundcloud stream of the M.I.A.-featured "C.T.F.O." (which stands for chill the fuck out) and the full tracklist also below.

More tour dates for Diplo, Chromeo and Rusko, along with the EZ lineup, and stuff, below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo expands lineup (SBTRKT, Nicolas Jaar, MSTRKRFT, MANY more), SebastiAn released 'Total' on Ed Banger"

photos by Sharese Ann Frederick

Ed Banger's DJ Mehdi signs a fan

Bassnectar closes out the final day

"Bassnectar, arms flailing and Cousin It hair flying in all directions, brought the loudest set of the weekend, inspiring two concertgoers to scale a 30-foot support pole inside the tent." [NYU News]

In terms of new material, he says:

This week i finished the latest Bassnectar EP, 'Wildstyle' which is the most bonkers collection of music i've ever created. Each song was crafted with you in mind, and how your body and soul will be affected when the waves of this music are crashing through your cells. We will have more info soon with regards to release, but it will definitely become centerpiece of the fall soundtrack.

Continue reading "the final set of Electric Zoo pics & more Bassnectar dates "

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.

--

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]

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

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Pete Tong fan/ Chemical Brothers / Axwell

This past Labor Day weekend, a daily (on both Saturday and Sunday) sold out-crowd of 25,000 electronic dance music fans decamped to Randall's Island to enjoy the beats of the world's best house, trance, techno, electro-groove, break-beat and drum and bass DJs. From 11am to 11pm, nearly 70 acts delivered stellar beats to the eclectic attendees...

There were four different stages at Electric Zoo, each boasting their own sets, intelligent lighting and effects, and featuring a varied line-up of similarly-grouped dance music types. The enormous main stage hosted the headliners, from ATB, Benny Benassi and The Chemical Brothers on Saturday, to Moby and Armin van Buuren on Sunday. The large hilltop venue seemed to focus on progressive trance, electro dance and melodic house, and starred killer acts like Kaskade, Markus Schulz, Steve Aoki and Above & Beyond. Under the Red Bull Music Academy riverside stage, talent hovered around hip hop, electro and big beat, including DJ Mehdi, Fake Blood and Diplo. The final venue dished out retro Detroit beats, techno and progressive house from the likes of Victor Calderone and John Digweed. -[Black Book]

Continue reading "Electric Zoo 2010 in pics - part 1 (Chemical Brothers, Major Lazer, Rusko, Erol Alkan, Fake Blood, Pete Tong & more) "

photos by Vincent Cornelli

"Though he was handed a somewhat awkward time slot (between 4 and 5 p.m.), the first day of Outside Lands did not start until Lorin Ashton of Bassnectar said so. A San Franciscan by birth, Ashton's all-encompassing formula of serrated dubstep has won the hearts and minds of local natives since he began experimenting with sub-bass frequencies and supermassive sampling in early 2000. The result is a form of music that you can quite literally feel when you experience it live -- that is, until the sound cuts out, as it inexplicably did 20 minutes into Ashton's Saturday evening set. The ensuing half hour was filled with frantic roadies rushing around on stage, starry-eyed candy kids fretting in the crowd, and a lot of people being unhappily reminded of this festival's notorious penchant for suddenly killing their performers' sound. At one point, Ashton came out with a megaphone and actually pleaded with the crowd, attempting to explain over the din of a dazed, music-less multitude that the power to the entire stage had died, and that there was nothing he could do but wait. Surprisingly, the vast majority of people devotedly hung around until the power was restored, and, even more surprisingly, Ashton recovered from such egregious circumstances with a killer comeback that featured his flagship remixes of Beastie Boys' "So What'cha Want," Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps," and Metallica's "Seek & Destroy" -- though notably missing was his rework of "Where is My Mind."" [Santa Barbara Independent]

If you head to Electric Zoo this weekend expecting Japanese dudes with double-necked guitars, you will be disappointed. That said, Electric Zoo will feature tons of artists of the electronic and DJ persuasion including Bassnectar, headliner The Chemical Brothers, Major Lazer, Diplo solo, Erol Alkan, Pretty Lights, Flying Lotus, Moby, Armin Van Buuren, A-Trak, the OTHER Boris and oodles of other crews bound to get you moving.

The four-stage festival goes down on SATURDAY & SUNDAY (9/4, 9/5 - set times are posted) at Randall's Island with after-parties later that night that you'll probably want to avoid. Tickets are still available OR you can try your luck at winning a pair!

Contest details, more pics from San Francisco, and all Bassnectar dates, below...

Continue reading "Bassnectar played Outside Lands (pics), ELECTRIC ZOO FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND (win tix) & other tour dates"

DOWNLOAD: Flying Lotus - 3 non-album tracks (ZIP)

Electric Zoo 2009 (more by Zach Dilgard)

The lineup for this year's Electric Zoo, on Randall's Island September 4th and 5th, has been updated and now includes Major Lazer, Flying Lotus, Rusko, Steve Aoki and more, which are all listed below. The headliner for night one is Chemical Brothers; night two's is Armin van Buuren. Tickets are on sale.

Major Lazer, who put on a great show, have upcoming shows at Pitchfork Fest and Camp Bisco this summer, plus lots of festivals in Asia and Europe. They recently put out a mixtape with La Roux called LAZERPROOF, which you can get that for free here.

Electric Zoo is Flying Lotus' only US gig currently. His LP Cosmogramma came out earlier this year, and he'll have an EP out before it ends.

Electric Zoo lineup and Major Lazer tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo lineup now includes Flying Lotus & Major Lazer (who are touring, giving away a mixtape) "

Chemical Brothers are set to release their seventh studio album, Further, on June 8, 2010 on Freestyle Dust/Parlaphone/Astralwerks. This album is the band's first to be released with corresponding films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks. The films will be included on an iTunes LP and special edition DVD.

As well as an eight-track album, Further is the band's first proper partnership with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall. Now a respected TV and film director, Adam - aka Flat Nose George - has been responsible for creating the visual backdrop for every Chemical Brothers gig since their live debut in 1994. Visuals for Further have been created to correspond with each track on the album and have been planned during the recording of the record.

The band will play four shows at London's Roundhouse in May. These will be the first opportunities for fans to see the band play the album with Smith and Lyall's new films in sequence and in their entirety. -PR

A song expected to be on Further called "Escape Velocity" was debuted last week on BBC. That song, all tour dates and the current Electric Zoo lineup are below...

Continue reading "Chemical Brothers releasing new album, playing shows including Electric Zoo on Randall's Island (dates)"

"Electric Zoo", the NYC electronic music festival whose multi-stage lineups of DJs & producers range from 'Jersey Shore' to hipster disco, returns to Randall's Island September 4-5, 2010. Presale tickets are already on sale.

by Showtrotta

Electric Zoo (more by Zach Dilgard)

While from the outside, Electric Zoo (Sept 5-6, 2009) might seem like a 2-day hell, overrun by fake-tanned, heavily hair-gelled masses and their female counterparts, the actual experience (at least for me) was far from it. While my jaw dropped in horror as many of the element described above boarded the ferry to Randall's Island at the 35th Street pier, and I was only further freaked out when the entire boat broke out in a sing-along to "Now That the Love Is Gone" by David Guetta (one of many deejays playing the festival), once I arrived the dread of dealing that all day, subsided.

For starters, the festival grounds were very accommodating size-wise for the number in attendance. When I first arrived around 12:30 on Saturday, there was ample room and even as the day wore on and the grounds filled up, I never felt that I was trudging through a crowd to get where I wanted to go. Along with the size of the venue, the diverse spread of deejays (who were grouped at four different tents/stages vaguely according to similar genre/sound), kept my interaction with club-goers whom I would rarely run into under normal circumstances, to a minimum. In the instances where I was confronted with people straight out of My New Haircut (NSFW!) I couldn't say a bad thing about them. Everyone at the festival seemed to be too happy to be there, and dancing their asses off, to care what was going on around them, or to do anything too outwardly annoying to ruin anyone's time.

continued below...

Continue reading "the 2009 Electric Zoo Festival in review"

photos by Zach Dilgard

Frankie Knuckles / actual members of the crowd

"This past labor day weekend in NYC, thousands of dance and electronica music fans gathered together for the first, and hopefully annual Electric Zoo Festival on Randall's Island to celebrate Electronic Music. The festival lineup featured over 50 acts which included Steve Aoki, Busy P, Danny Tenaglia, Benny Benassi, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Markus Schulz, Tom Middleton, Kaskade, and Armin Van Burren over the course of two days....

...On the second day of the festival, house music icon DJ Frankie Knuckles alongside Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) blessed the turntables with a raw and authentic classic house music set that made you feel nothing short of spiritual...

..."Music belongs to everybody," Frankie says after stepping off stage from his Electric Zoo DJ set. "Believe me, If I had the ability I would really just make it possible so that any and everybody could just show up (on the dancefloor)...a lot of times that's all you got to hold onto." To that end, it seems rather fitting that his biggest commercial hit was the ethereal and optimistic Whistle Song, which just might make him the pied piper of dance music who tries to leads the masses to a state of bliss.

Dropping next month is Frankie's Motivation Too album, which is his first compilation in six years. When asked about his own personal tactics for motivation, Frankie notes: "I normally get up early in the morning, like seven or eight o'clock. Musically I'm listening to things that are very spiritual and classical while I'm moving through the morning and getting myself together. I pretty much block out a lot of things that could possibly feed me any kind of negative energy, because my day has to be right...I figure why not get up on the right side of the bed and focus and maybe I'll get through the day and it will be alright."" [MC2D Magazine]

Continue reading "Electric Zoo Festival 2009 @ Randalls Island, NYC (more pics)"

photos by Ryan Muir

"Gigantic electronic music festivals have always been more the province of the International EDM scene. However, with electronic music experiencing a renaissance level resurgence in the United States, the time was right for a US foray into a celebration of the vibe, culture and sonically astounding experience of dance music. The inaugural Electric Zoo Festival, held over this past Labor Day weekend in New York was a party that succeeded in capturing the essence of the intense passion people have for music, by presenting it in it's best light, outdoors, at Randall's Island Park, in such a manner where old school house head met up with hipster, candy ravers next to jacked up Staten Island and Jersey gym freaks and their orange tanned girlfriends. Everybody was represented, everyone was respected, and certainly a precedent was set for the justification of making this a regular addition to the national EDM calendar." [True Genius Requires Insanity]

Continue reading "pictures from the Electric Zoo Festival in NYC (day 2) "

It's a big weekend for electronic music in NYC this weekend, maninly because of the Electric Zoo Festival which is happening at Randall's Island on Saturday and Sunday (as you can see above). Today (Saturday) is also the final PS1 Warm Up of the year.

DOWNLOAD: Justin Miller DFA Mix for Viva Radio (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Schmami - Eurolax mix (MP3)

Drop the Lime & live band @ Summerstage - Aug 8, 2009 (more by Sara Skolnick)

Last week in dance was great, more specifically Saturday. Unfortunately I missed Canyons at Dark Disco in the Park, but arrived just in time for Drop the Lime's live set, which was amazing. As much as I first loved the heavy bass champion's sound when I first started seeing him deejay back in '07, lately his (and the other Trouble & Bass deejays') sets have been a little too bass-heavy for me (I think I'm getting old!). However, the live set on Saturday was the perfect balance of heavy bass, awesome live drums, and great vocals. There is something about adding live elements to dance music that just can't be touched, and Drop the Lime's live act is no exception.

Boys Noize @ Summerstage - Aug 8, 2009 (more by Sara Skolnick)

I was in an excellent mood after Drop the Lime's set and it only got better as Boys Noize took the stage. From the get-go it was clear that it was going to be a great set. It included loads of new tracks and any predictability I had witnessed in some of his prior sets was gone. Check out some video of Boys Noize dropping one of his & Erol Alkan's new tracks "Waves" below:

While there aren't any discos in the park this week, there is still plenty going on dance-wise, starting with Thursday (8/13):

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (part 1)"

Justice is DJing at Webster Hall on Thursday, October 29th. Tickets go on sale Friday, July 31st at noon. The NYC gig is one day before the French duo DJ the Voodoo Experience Music Festival in New Orleans.

Justice is on Ed Banger Records, which is headed by Busy P (Pedro Winter). Busy P will be in NYC with DJ Mehdi (also on the label) for Electric Zoo Fest, which is taking place September 5th and 6th on Randall's Island. Other artists playing Electric Zoo include Frankie Knuckles, Lindstrom, and Special Disco Version. That event is also one of Andy Butler's DJing appearances -- he also has scheduled a pair of Hercules & Love Affair shows in NYC on August 14th and 15th.

Busy P will also be at HARD Fest's L.A. party on August 8th with Sebastian (another Ed Banger act) and A-Trak. Note: HARD Fest NYC comes to Terminal 5 on October 10th (but with a different lineup).

While A-Trak isn't on a the Ed Banger label or playing HARD in NYC, he IS spinning with Theophilus London and Treasure Fingers this Friday (June 31st) at Webster Hall. Tickets are still on sale.

Busy P is also used to be the manager of Daft Punk, who, as you may have heard, are scoring the new film Tron Legacy. The trailer for that movie is now online. Check it out below, along with the flyer for the A-Track show this Friday and all tour dates...

Continue reading "Justice DJing Webster Hall where A-Trak plays Friday + other Ed Banger tour dates +++ the Tron Legacy trailer"

Andy Butler of Hercules & Love Affair made a DJ appearance at the July 3rd Firecracker party at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Resident Advisor didn't mention Butler's set, but doesn't seem to have enjoyed the vibe of the night...

At 7:00 AM, July 4th, young party people ambled out of Manhattan Center into pale light already wearing sunglasses. But it wasn't freedom that was ringing in their ears after a long night out. For ten hours, inside the 20,000 square foot ballroom, miscalibrated bass punched their cochleas. Billed as the event to "pop off" before fireworks over the Hudson, over a thousand had waited patiently for someone to light the fuse.

Despite sound and stage, it was up to the DJs to forget business and elevate the room. Unfortunately, they failed to truly engage the receptive audience or even distinguish themselves from one another. It was a visual spectacle, but ultimately a misdirected marathon with a corporate aftertaste, that never allowed Firecracker to go off.

Butler will also be in NYC (where he lives) for a weekend of Hercules & Love Affair shows on August 14th and 15th. They'll play the Gramercy Theatre on Friday, August 14th. Tickets go on sale July 17th at noon. Then, they're be coming to Brooklyn for an August 15th show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for that go on AmEx presale today (July 15th) at noon; general sale starts Friday at noon.

As a Hercules & Love Affair gig, it's not exactly clear who'll be on hand for the performance...

Village Voice: You know I have to ask about the state of Hercules and Love Affair. You guys cancelled your Coachella appearance, and everybody is slowly starting to form their own little subgroups (Jessica 6/Deep Red, Midnight Magic). What's going on?

Butler: [laughs] The situation is, for the next record, I'm involving a whole handful of new artists, and that's how it was going to be, always. There are a lot of artists I want to work with. Kim-Ann [Foxman], [vocalist] Nomi [Ruiz], all the kids that were working with me on the first record and the tours, they've started doing their own stuff. Nomi has her band, [bassist] Andrew [Raposo] and [keyboardist] Morgan [Wiley] have their own band...

VV: So it was more of a press misconception? Like, this solo project that happened to have a live touring band got cast more as a band when it wasn't?

Butler: Yeah. I mean, these are guest artists. Like, someone like Kim-Ann [Foxman] is potentially ever-present; she and I have a long friendship and a long-standing creative collaboration. The other artists like Antony and Nomi both have solo careers, and when they went into it, they knew they had solo careers and that they would be doing their own thing. So basically, the vocalists are Kim-Ann and a whole new batch of people that I've worked with at various points...I'm co-producing with a new producer. The whole scenery has changed.

Continue reading "Hercules & Love Affair (Andy Butler+Kim-Ann+?) - 2 NYC shows (tix), Lollapalooza, Electric Zoo (and Firecracker)"

DOWNLOAD: Lindstrøm - The Long Way Home (Prins Thomas edit) (MP3)

Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair @ Studio B (more by Ryan Muir)

Hercules and Love Affair (aka Andy Butler) is releasing a new DJ mix called Sidetracked... July 21st on Renaissance Recordings. Butler will be making DJ appearances throughout the summer, mainly in Europe. One U.S. gig will be at the July 3rd Firecracker party at the Hammerstein Ballroom (tonight). Also at the event, as mentioned by Showtrotta, will be Steve Lawler, Tiefschwarz, Victor Calderone, Damian Lazarus (live) and Audiofly. Tickets are still on sale.

Butler will be at Lollapalooza on August 8th, and he'll be making an appearance at NY's Electric Zoo Electronic Music Festival, taking place September 5th and 6th on Randall's Island. Other acts at the fest include Special Disco Version (featuring LCD Soundsystem/DFA's James Murphy & Pat Mahoney), Felix Martin & Al Doyle (of Hot Chip), Lindstrom, Frankie Knuckles, Prins Thomas, and many, many more. Above you can check out the Prins remix of Linstrom's "The Long Way Home" off the latter's Where You Go I Go Too. Tickets to the fest, including 2-day passes, are on sale now. Electric Zoo's current lineup is posted below.

Another electronic music suaree, the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, is on the way as well, happening August 8th at the Old American Can Factory. The fest's headliners will be Juan MacLean (live) and RJD2; full lineup is still on the way. Tickets are currently on sale.

Electric Zoo lineup with Hercules and Love Affair comp info and tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo on Randall's Island, BK Electronic Music Fest, Hercules and Love Affair DJ sets & CD & more..."