photos by Oliver Correa & Amanda Rohowsky / HiFi Cartel

"Mykki Blanco freaking out the crowd at Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival. #fierceness #nobros" - Tavia Nyong'o

"#BEMF Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival
exceeding expectations after 1 set" - Schuyler Van Horn

Nicolas Jaar / Gold Panda @ MHOW, 11/10/2012

The 2012 Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival went down this past weekend (11/9-10) at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Glasslands, Cameo, Public Assembly, 285 Kent, and Brooklyn Bowl, with shows running until about 4 AM each night. A worthy alternative to people who don't like the excesses of major electronic festivals like Electric Zoo and Ultra Music Festival, BEMF has become one of the most forward thinking ones around. And this year may have been their best lineup yet with some great names in IDM, downtempo, post-dubstep, deep house, instrumental hip hop, and more like Nicolas Jaar, Gold Panda, Photek, Nguzunguzu, Kingdom, Mykki Blanco, Salva, Shlohmo, and many others.

N. 6th St. in Williamsburg was flooded with people, likely due to having Public Assembly right next to Music Hall of Williamsburg which is just down the street from Cameo, and the ticket pickup tent in the parking lot across the street. (Not that N6 isn't a madhouse anyway on the weekends.) But also very likely that on Saturday night it was due to one of the festival's most in-demand acts, Nicolas Jaar, whose set was pushed back from 1 AM to 2:30 AM after the last-minute addition of Dave P. Ashley from Et Musique Pour Tous wrote, "I've never seen Music Hall of Williamsburg as crowded as it was last night. For the first half hour of Nicolas Jaar's hour and a half long set, nobody could move, and dancing was an intimate experience to be shared with strangers." Hazel Sheffield call his set "precocious," writing:

He turned the chorus from Cat Power's 'Cherokee' - "Marry me, marry me to the sky," - into a slowburning, plaintive swirl of a lyric, then slipped the clanging chords from Dave McCallum's 'The Edge', best known as the opening sample on Dre's 'Next Episode', into an interlude, sending people wild for about two seconds, before they realised the joke was on them. Precocious, then. But completely absorbing.

He also wrote that "not all of the acts at BEMF were so wilfully subversive," and that some of the DJs like Salva, who played Public Assembly on Saturday, kept things on the more in-your-face dancey side.

More pictures from the festival below.

Continue reading "Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival 2012 in pics (Nicolas Jaar, Gold Panda, Photek, Nguzunguzu, Mykki Blanco & more)"

BEMF 2010 (more by Chris Doss)

The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival is here tonight (11/9) and Saturday (11/10), and since our last update, the full schedule has been revealed. They're no longer using Villain as one of the venues, but will be using 285 Kent instead.

Tonight's updates include Omar S, Drop the Lime, Nick Catchdubs, Morri$, Deadboy, Jackmaster, and Matt Shadetek playing Public Assembly; and Nadastrom & Sabo, Uproot Andy & Geko, and DJ Blass playing 285 Kent (all ages). Those are in addition to the previously discussed sets by Gold Panda, Photek, and more at Music Hall of Williamsburg; Nguzunguzu, Kingdom, Fatima Al Qadiri, MikeQ, and more at Glasslands; and Braille, Brenmar, Mykki Blanco, Mess Kid, and more at Cameo.

Saturday's updates include Groundislava, Shlohmo, Salva, Lazy Brow, Jubilee, Wildlife!, Dre Skull, Dubbel Dutch, Fantasy Thrilla, and a special guest at Public Assembly; and Hussle Club and Body Language at Brooklyn Bowl. Those are in addition to the previously discussed sets by Nicolas Jaar, Lauren Flax, Nick Hook, and Heathered Pearls at Music Hall of Williamsburg; KI:Theory, FaltyDL, Benji B, and Pearson Sound at Cameo; and Baths, XXYYXX, Hiawatha, and Shadowbox at Glasslands.

Tickets for the festival are still available, including 2-day passes, 1-day passes for Friday (Saturday is sold out), and a special all ages ticket, which grants you access to tonight's 285 Kent stage (the rest of the venues are 21+).

Flyers with full lineups and set times are below...

Continue reading "Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival 2012 is here (full schedule)"

FaltyDL - 'Hardcourage'

As mentioned, FaltyDL has been at work on his new album, Hardcourage, which features the single "Straight & Arrow." Details on the album have surfaced and we now know that it comes out on January 22 via Ninja Tune. That's the awesome cover art above [very Barney Bubbles - Bill] and the tracklist, including "She Sleeps," a collaboration with Friendly Fires' Ed Macfarlane, is below. The "Straight & Arrow" single comes out next week (11/13) via Ninja Tune and features remixes by Four Tet, Gold Panda, and MikeQ & Divoli S'vere. FaltyDL also just revealed the video for that track, which you can watch below.

As mentioned, FaltyDL will play Webster Hall on December 7 with Skream, but you can catch him in NYC sooner than that because he's been added to the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, which happens this Friday (11/9) and Saturday (11/10). FaltyDL plays Cameo Gallery on Saturday with Pearson Sound, Benji B, and Ki:Theory.

Since we last spoke, the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival has revealed more of its schedule (some of it is still TBA though). You already know that Music Hall of Williamsburg is hosting Gold Panda and Photek on Friday and Nicolas Jaar and Nick Hook on Saturday. In addition to Cameo's aforementioned Saturday lineup, on Friday they have Metro Area, Braille, Brenmar, Mykki Blanco, and Mess Kid. Glasslands has Kingdom, Nguzunguzu, Jam City, MikeQ, and Rizzla on Friday, and Baths, XXYYXX, Hiawatha, and ShadowBox on Saturday. Lineups are still TBA for Public Assembly, Brooklyn Bowl, and Villain. Tickets for the festival are still available.

FaltyDL video and album tracklist below.

Continue reading "FaltyDL reveals album info and video, playing Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival (updated schedule)"

Jam City

As mentioned, the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival returns on November 9 and 10 to multiple Brooklyn venues, including Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bowl, Public Assembly, Glasslands, Cameo, and The Villain Loft. Since we last posted, the lineup has been expanded and now includes Shlohmo, Jam City, Nguzunguzu, Kingdom, Salva, Groundislava, Brenmar, Nadastrom, Omar S, Mike Q, and more, in addition to previously announced names like Nicholas Jaar, Gold Panda, Photek, and others. The updated lineup is below.

Tickets for Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival are on sale now.

Continue reading "Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival expands lineup (Shlohmo, Jam City, Nguzunguzu, Kingdom, Salva, Omar S & more)"

photos by Erez Avissar

Simian Mobile Disco

Warm Up at MoMA PS1 continued on Saturday (8/6) with Simian Mobile Disco, Omar S, Steve More, Beppe Loda, and Forma. It rained through Simian Mobile Disco's DJ set but a dance party ensued nevertheless.

SMD also DJ'd a FIXED party that night and Forma played The Stone.

Warm Up happens again this Saturday (8/13) with Black Dice, His Name is Alive (DJ set), oOoOO, Clams Casino, Ayshay (DJ set), and Water Borders. Meanwhile two of them play Mercury Lounge tonight (8/11).

More pictures from this past Saturday below...

Continue reading "Simian Mobile Disco, Omar S, Steve More, Beppe Loda & Forma warmed up PS1 (pics)"

words by Rachel Kowal

Dent May @ BV-CMJ 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

A few nights earlier, I tried and failed to see Dent May at a late-night show, but I figured I'd give it another shot, so I headed over to the Cake Shop after the BrooklynVegan CMJ show at MHOW Thursday night, and was delighted to see that they were running on schedule. I thought I was tired at that point, but I've got to hand it to Dent May and his friend Bobby for their dedication to the cause. "We drove 20 hours straight to be with you. Our car got towed. We've been threw a lot of shit, and we love it," May said by way of introduction. A quick look at Bobby's zombie-like stare as he sat, waiting for the show to start, revealed just how tired he was. In addition to their lengthy sojourn to New York, it was their last show of the week and the third of the day. Luckily, their music is upbeat and undeniably catchy. When they started to play, they sprang to life, and many of the people in the audience began to dance.

Dent May doesn't have any more dates on his schedule, but he is on the lineup of the just-announced All Tomorrow's Parties curated by Animal Collective taking place May 13th-15th at at Butlins Holiday Centre in Minehead, UK. Full initial lineup announcement below...

Continue reading "Dent May played CMJ, playing Animal Collective-curated ATP "

Yacht @ Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Hopefully you had fun getting down this week so far. There's much more happening this weekend, especially Saturday (7/25):

Fixed is back where it all started 4+ years ago - the Tribeca Grand! JDH & Dave P will be deejaying, plus they've brought together a monster line-up for what is sure to be an awesome return to the original site of some of their best parties:

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (part 2) (James Murphy, Yacht, Free Energy, Lemonade, Radioclit, Omar S, more) "