Escort at MHOW in February (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Brooklyn's 17-piece disco orchestra Escort are releasing their self titled debut full length on November 15 on their own Escort Records. The album features the single "All Through The Night," which you can watch the video for below. Also below is the album's artwork and tracklist.

Escort are having a record release party at Cameo Gallery on November 18, where they'll be DJing along with other DJ sets by Prince Language and Darshan Jersani. They're also playing a live performance of the album at Music Hall of Williamsburg on December 17 with Midnight Magic and DJ sets by Sean B and Will Automatgic of Spank, who is presenting the show. Tickets for the MHOW show are on sale now.

All dates, video, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Escort releasing an album, performing it live"

photos by Chris Gersbeck

Music Hall of Williamsburg turned into a disco Saturday night (2/27). Live sets were performed Escort and Midnight Magic. DJ sets came from Sean B and Will Automagic of Spank. Pictures from that show are in this post, and they continue below...

Continue reading "Escort, Midnight Magic & Spank DJs played MHOW (pics)"

"One year after their incredible performance at Celebrate Brooklyn, Escort are assembling their 17 piece disco orchestra for a rare live appearance at Le Poisson Rouge. And the rumors are true: they've completed their highly anticipated full-length album, which they'll be playing live for the first time in its entirety. The night will also feature sets by some of the city's most beloved DJs: Darshan Jesrani of Metro Area, DJ Druzz of the Rapture, and Prince Language (No Comprendo, Negroclash). Dress to sweat. This is a general admission, standing event. [Le Poisson Rouge]

Continue reading "Escort playing debut album w/ 17 piece "disco orchestra" @ LPR (TONIGHT)"

DOWNLOAD: The Black Ghosts - I Want Nothing (Sinden remix) (MP3)

Ghostland Observatory @ All Points West - Day 3 (more by Chris La Putt)

Last week in dance it seemed like there was even more than usual going on. While I missed what looked like a typically awesome night of deejaying from A-Trak & co. at Webster Hall on Friday I made it out to the Tribeca Grand Saturday night to see Dirty Sound System. Unfortunately the dirty duo did not live up to my perhaps too high expectations after seeing their French partner in crime, Pilooski, kill it back in May. They played some tracks I was happy to hear out...Tiga's "Shoes", the Pilooski edit of Elvis' "Crawfish"...I was even glad to hear Dolly Parton's "Jolene". However, after an hour of many classic pop tracks, with very little mixing (which I anticipated but was hoping wasn't true for the pair who refer to themselves as "more selectors than traditionnal dj's") I was left a little disappointed, hoping for something a little more left field.

Luckily by the time they started letting people in and I got to All Points West on Sunday, things had turned around. Mogwai (who I'd never heard before) sounded great from the beer garden and Ghostland Observatory, who former Week In Dance writer David Bruno had urged me to check out years ago, lived up to the hype. What was already a great night ended on an even better note, with everyone in the Queen of the Valley Tent going crazy for Etienne de Crécy's live set:

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

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: The Field - Over the Ice (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Santogold - You'll Find A Way (Switch and Sinden Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Switch - A Bit Patchy (Eric Prydz Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Cinematic Orchestra - Channel 1 Suite (Four Tet Remix) (MP3)

DJ Van Scott @ The Musuem of Natural History - May 30, 2008

Last weekend (Friday in particular) was all about making decisions, which is one of my least favorite things to do, especially when choosing among bands/deejays playing at the same time. Friday I think I might have made the wrong decision. I went to One Step Beyond (which featured Switch and Van Scott) at the Museum of Natural History. I arrived around 10:30 or so and witnessed a great deejay set from Van Scott. It touched on a variety of styles, all highly danceable. The tracks were current, but not overplayed, and Van dropped some lesser known remixes of familiar tracks making for a very fun lead up to Switch.

Switch @ The Musuem of Natural History - May 30, 2008 (CRED)

I'd been looking forward to seeing Switch for months, but I found his set Friday night to be just ok. I wasn't hooked from the beginning and nothing he did brought me in until the last half hour. That's when he started teasing the crowd with "This is Sick", periodically sampling bits and pieces of it, not dropping the track until the very end of the night. When he finally did, it was loud and awesome and made me feel slightly less bad about my decision which made me miss tons of other things happening that night.

Goon & Koyote @ Love, NYC - May 30, 2008 (CRED)

When it was over, I found out that Escort still hadn't gone on at the Masonic Temple. I tried to make a mad dash to Brooklyn from the Upper Westside but the D train was not having it. I gave up at 2nd Ave, and instead caught the tail end of what I'm sure had been a great night of dance from Goon & Koyote at Love.

Luckily things already seem to be looking up this week. This Friday there are way fewer decisions to be made.....

Continue reading "Switch played in a museum ++ the Friday night in Dance"

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: Van Scott - Electechouse Mix (April 2008) (Sendspace MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Switch Mix for Kissy Sellout Show (Sendspace MP3)
DOWNLOAD: RA.082 - Goon & Koyote Podcast (MegaUpload MP3)

Tommie Sunshine @ Hiro Ballroom - May 22, 2008 (CRED)

This past weekend was not one of the best I've experienced, but there were some good moments: Thursday night at Hiro, Tommie Sunshine dropped an hour and a half of very interesting, highly danceable, wobbly/fidgety house. Sunday night I got down to a decent, fun set by VDRK at Damn! at the Knitting Factory. He played Fred Falke's Love Theme which was absolutely amazing to hear out.

The less exciting parts of the weekend were Junkie XL's set at Hiro, which started off fine, but got a bit repetitive. Then it went from really hard stuff to a very mellow track which you probably would've appreciated a lot if you were on drugs, otherwise it just seemed a bit cheesy.

People getting down @ Damn! @ the Knitting Factory - May 25, 2008 (CRED)

The second disappointing part of the weekend was Apparat's set at the Knitting Factory. The show sold out. The Knitting Factory was as packed as I had ever seen it and people were actually dancing. But I just could not get into it. I went into this show loving what I had heard of Apparat thus far, but I found their live show to be very underwhelming. They had a few moments where they were rocking, but other than that it was just kind of eh. The parts that were more guitar-driven and rocking reminded me of the past few times I saw m83 (who are currently on tour and will be in town next week) a few years ago and once that happened they were all I could think about. I realize that m83 and Apparat are two different bands, trying to accomplish different things, each with their own sound, but they were similar enough that I felt as though I was watching a far inferior version of an m83 show.

From the looks of it, this week in dance should be much better. Fortunately/unfortunately most of it is happening on the same night:
Friday (aka TONIGHT - MAY 30).......

Continue reading "Switch in a museum & a ton of other places to dance tonight"

Maceo Parker in Prospect Park, 2006 (more)

Tickets are on sale for the following Brooklyn shows....

May 30 - Lose Your Shit Party w/ Escort, Herbaliser (DJ Set), Dego from 4Hero, DJ Smallchange

Jun 1 - 651 Arts Presents: Toshi Reagon plus Sharde Thomas & The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band

Jun 18 - Jazzfest & boomBOOM Presents: MACEO PARKER & TBA

Jul 10 - Brooklyn Hip Hip Festival: REVIVE DA LIVE featuring Chris Dave with special guests Bilal, Smif & Wessin, Chip Fu, Ladybug Mecca , and surprise guests TBA

Jul 31 - APPLES IN STEREO / Earlimart / Posion Control Center

Aug 21 - SUZANNE VEGA plus CHRISTINA COURTIN

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: Cosmo Vitelli on Beats in Space July 12, 2007 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Runaway on Beats in Space October 9, 2007 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: David Bruno No Way, No Way Mix Oct 07 (MP3)

Daniel of LA Riots @ Webster Hall - May 16, 2008 *

Cut Copy set the bar pretty high with their very energetic and fun set Wednesday night. Luckily things continued down that path for the rest of the week. Friday night I made it to Webster Hall just in time to catch the last half hour or so of a very disco-fied set by James Murphy. He also threw in some classics which you could not help smiling at when you thought about where you were. Speaking of which...as much of a weird/hellish crowd the Webster Hall-based event drew, I really appreciated having space to dance and not sweating my ass off merely from being inside the venue. After James, LA Riots spun a great, banging set which was much more what I was expecting from them after experiencing their lower key set at Love last month. Daniel (1/2 of LA Riots -- the other half J'ob was not there) had the crowd perfectly warmed up and right where it needed to be for what can best be described as the dance explosion that ensued when JFK and AL-P got behind the decks. Things went from everyone getting down as they had been, to a sudden rush of people storming the stage and everyone in the place going accordingly bananas.

MSTRKRFT @ Webster Hall - May 16, 2008 *

They played for about 2 hours, from 2ish-4ish and covered every great electro song you've heard recently along with tons of new stuff. For anyone who's seen them the past 2 times they were here, the set was much more along the lines of their CMJ set (which I thought was much more exciting and creative) than their one last month at Studio B...

H&LA @ Studio B - May 17, 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

...which is where I headed Saturday night to catch Hercules & Love Affair's debut performance that everyone has been talking about since. Overall I thought it was a great show...for a debut performance. The first couple of tracks were a bit shaky, but the group quickly rebounded with "Blind" which was still good, albeit different, without Antony (see for yourself here. A few of their songs had me absolutely losing it (namely "Athene" and "You Belong") while others were just ok. I think the problem I ran into was...I kept comparing them to Escort, and in some instances found myself wishing Zena Kitt was singing in place of Nomi, though I'm not sure if that would've worked out as ideally as it did in my head. Hercules & Love Affair's tracks have a much more modern sound vs. Escort's classic disco.

Speaking of Escort, don't miss them at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on May 30th. Tickets are on sale.

At the end of Saturday night when all was said and done, I had a great time...there is nothing like live disco. Sadly that's one thing there isn't enough of, but luckily there are plenty of other great dance happenings in the city this week:

Continue reading "Flosstradamus & other Thursday night events ++ Escort, LA Riots, MSTRKRFT, H&LA, & other 'dance' stuff too"

Tough call, but I think I'm going to have to vote for Escort to win this year's Plug "Music Video of the Year". Check out all twelve of the nominated videos below....

Continue reading "the 12 music VIDEOS of the year (according to Plug)"

We missed out on the events previews last week...So, this being the somewhat official last weekend of summer: here's a rundown of NYC area events this week.

Get out there and shake it in the sunshine wearing white pants and get ready for a (great) winter inside the club.

SATURDAY ATJ - day and night
I'm really proud to be associated with and playing at such a great event. If you haven't taken the time to read about the Bronx High School for the Visual Arts and their plans to beef up their music programs with the donations from the festival, please take a minute. Then buy a ticket and strap on your dancing shoes. Things are gonna get wild when the sun sets with The Virgins, Soulico, FREE BLOOD, and of course Riot in Belgium.

FRIDAY ATJ - on a roof
Friday Night Rooftop Musebox Kick-off Party with Luke Temple, Paul Duncan, Butane Variations, and DJ nonsense from me...which won't matter after you drink all the Free Beer.

SUNDAY AFTJ - on a boat while the sun sets
People Don't Dance No More (my party) + Finger on the Pulse are getting together to throw a wrap up boat party on Sunday at 6 pm. We have a super huge guest DJ duo joining us on the boat and we'll be cruising and grooving til 10 pm. Tickets should be on Ticketweb, but get to the boat around 6 pm and you should be fine. $15 is cheaper than a Circle Line cruise and you get to hang out with your friends, not your cousins from Ohio. All proceeds from the party are of course going to the kids, so spread the word and help pack the boat. Pictures from our last boat outing are here and here. Don't miss out on the last one of the summer!

CONTEST!
Email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: jump) for a chance to win one of TEN PAIRS of combo tickets to the After the Jump night party, and Sunday's Boat Party. Tell us which band are you most looking forward to seeing at ATJ (and your first and last name for guestlist).

ESCORT at PS 1
The show of the season at last year's PS1's Warm Up was definitely Escort. They are back again this year to glitter their way through new material and turn the sun into a giant discoball hanging over the courtyard. This is your last chance to dance at PS1. Next weekend goes to the rockers.

Other dancing to be done:

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ David Bruno (08/23/07)"

The PS1 Warm Up party in Long Island City has announced their line up for the summer...As I mentioned, this party is incredible in its depth of talent and ridiculous setting. All of the dates are below and there is no shortage of disco parties from DFA to Rong to a live Escort show. I love disco in the daylight... -David Bruno

Continue reading "PS1 Warm Up 2007 Summer Schedule"

short one today. Here's what's up this weekend NYC....

Friday - 6/1
* Runaway at Lit (best flyer award)
* Escort live at Studio B (highly recommended) (with Client)

Saturday, and some other stuff, below.....

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ David Bruno (06/01/07)"