It’s not Sunday, you say? Well, I just slept for 13 hours so it’s hard for me to even tell you what day it is but I do have my normal Sunday serving of hot tracks for you plus a wrapup on the Identity Festival from this past Saturday in Mansfield, MA. If you were lucky enough to be there or at any of the other dates in NY or NJ this weekend, you have a good idea of what a success this roving festival turned out to be. If there was one word I could use to describe the way things went at Identity, it would be smooth. Almost all the sets started and ended on time, despite Rusko’s tweet mere minutes before his set declaring he had just spilled his drink all over his equipment, and the schedule made for little chaos in getting from one stage to the other. As far as the music goes, after seeing Datsik open up for the party in the parking lot on the Dim Mak stage, we headed in to catch parts of Booka Shade, Nervo and Manufactured Superstars before heading over to Dim Mak to catch Nero. While I’ve seen them (or just one of them, as was the case on Saturday) more times than I can count, their set blew me away featuring all of my favorite remixes of theirs, including “Hypnotize You”, “The Recluse”, “Stress” and the “Crush On You” track off their newest album. What an amazing set.
Then we cruised over to Avicii whose set I could only say was amateur. I know there will be people who disagree with that as he had the crowd, including myself, loving it but other than SHM’s “The Island”, Axwell’s “I Found You” and a mashup of the Killers with Afrojack’s remix of “Techno Fan” to close, it was all his originals pretty much played through in their entirety with minimal transitions in between and he even fucked up doing that a few times. I love this cat as a producer but for as much time as he spends with the Swedish legends, you’d expect him to be a much better DJ. I think part of it had to do with the fact that Identity was a debut performance for a lot of his fans and he wanted them to hear all his original stuff but bro, that’s what iTunes is for…
The next block was split between Rusko and Steve Aoki for us. Rusko was killing it per usual with a few new tracks that I’d never heard, including a remix of Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic” and a new dub track that had a sample that sounded like Toots. Aoki’s set was sweet, as had been promised, with him DJing about 20 feet high above 4 giant letters spelling his last name. He also played Alvin Risk’s “Diminshing Returns” which sold me on his set, despite drowning me in heavy metal for one song too long.
Finally, Kaskade. Never seen a full set of his before but given his studio repertoire of straight baby-making music, I didn’t really know what to expect. If you were there, you know… If you weren’t, make it a point to try to see him, he puts together great sets full of current and RAGING songs interspersed with some of his slower originals, creating a great balance.
Sorry for the drawn out review but believe me when I say I could say a lot more… Now let’s get into it.
First, Duck Sauce released their new track under the guise of another producer’s edit (like Oh God did with “Barbera Streisand” and Viceroy did with “Goody Two Shoes”) with Bastille getting the credit this time. Usually, these “edits” are very close to what the originals end up sounding like…
Duck Sauce – Radio (Bastille Edit)
Tommy Trash also finally hit us with the full remix of the track “Edge of The Earth” which previewed a while back on his SoundCloud. This guy is absolutely destroying it lately, especially with his track “The End”.
Richard Dinsdale ft. Sam Obernik & Hook N Sling – Edge of The Earth (Tommy Trash Remix)
Avicii also dropped a new track this week. Not amazing and definitely not the next “Levels” or “Fade Into Darkness” but worth having in your collection.
And since this was a rather slow week for music and I wasn’t necessarily “blown away” by any of these other tracks, I wanted to share with you a remix that has found a special place in my heart as of late and you should grab it. Bingo Players’ “Cry (Just A Little)” gets remixed by Kids at The Bar and was released as a Gotta Dance Dirty™ exclusive a few months back. Takes what is already one of my favorite songs of the summer and turns it into a banger. Listen and love it.
Bingo Players – Cry (Just A Little) [Kids At The Bar Bootleg Remix]