South West Four 2013

Competing with the Reading and Leeds festival the weekend of August 24-25 is this year’s South West Four festival, one for the ravers and bassheads, taking place in London’s Clapham Common and sporting a lineup of epic proportions including Armin Van Buuren, Carl Cox and Paul Van Dyke.

With weekend tickets priced at £100 and day tickets at a reasonable £50, South West Four is sure to rival the vast array of London’s dance festivals this year – Found, High Definition, We Are FSTVL and Field Day all having impressed the city thus far.

2013 is South West Four’s tenth anniversary and has been dubbed by Carl Cox the ‘crowning glory’ of London’s clubbing calendar – it is certainly not one to miss for Londoners and clubbers.

Get tickets here.

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Sunday West 5TH Birthday at Notting Hill Carnival Feat. Audiojack / Bushwacka at The Garden

Sunday 25 August will see Sunday West bring their 5^th birthday bash to Noting Hill Carnival. It is a 13 hour all day event featuring the likes of Audiojack and Bushwacka, both massive names in dance music.

The event takes place at the Garden, Latimer Road and will host an all-day jerk BBQ, completely appropriate to Notting Hill’s carnival traditions.

The event’s music policy spans the latest and greatest acts of house, techno and garage. Victor Simonelli, Rufus and Scot Garcia also feature on the bill, making for a day of fat beats for all the ravers at Notting Hill.

Get tickets here.

Hot Wuk Truck Party at KOKO

Saturday 24 August will see Camden’s KOKO play host to Hot Wuk’s latest and greatest Heatwave event, kicking off Notting Hill Carnival with a heavy dose of dancehall riddims.

Hot Wuk will be bringing a full carnival stage show featuring Notting Hill dancers on road and a custom-built party truck complete with the whistles, horns and flags which have been synonymous with Notting Hill for years.

The lineup includes bashment heroes The Heatwave along with a host of other names certified to get the crowd pumped:  Zi Zi Scandal, Element Dance, CDML Crew and Gina G the Energy Goddess.
With £10 first release tickets still available here, don’t miss your chance to catch the Heatwave this summer.

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Festival Review: Field Day

Field Day's was always set to be one of the biggest London has seen so far, with a line-up forged from the crème de la crème of emerging musical talents, and improvments to the sound and lighting quality, since last year saw many complaints concerning underwhelming audio.

With beloved indie rockers Animal Collective facing off against trapstep superstars TNGHT for the biggest crowd at Field Day’s headlining slot, the event was sure to please bassheads and rock fans alike. The sun was shining and the crowd was dressed to kill - it was clear that Field Day 2013 had arrived at East London’s Victoria Park on 25th May.

The Bugged Out! tent was rammed from start to finish, housing some of the biggest names in EDM. Proceedings in the tent nicely started off with a promising set from East London regular: Kiwi, whose minimalistic house was a fresh and welcoming beginning to the day. A moderate crowd turned into a raving, lunatic mass for midday act Seth Troxler, whose deep house joined forces with the blazing sun to create an Ibiza-style party that had vested house-heads fist pumping like it was two in the morning rather than the afternoon.

Meanwhile at the Laneway Stage, Chvrches were bringing their sparkling indie-pop to a huge crowd which grew significantly for Kurt Vile, proving his status as an emerging rock God, aspiring to the likes of Tom Petty and Neil Young. King Krule was another male crooner who grabbed the attention of many this Field Day, and indeed over the past year, his striking appearance combining with his gorgeously husky vocals and refreshingly organic sounding blues rock to create a snowballing indie sensation.

How to Dress Well, despite some unfortunate technical issues, succeeded in communicating the complex, multi-layered sound of his soulful R&B  - not a microphone in the world could ruin Tom Krell’s plaintive lament. Ben Pearce and Waze & Odyssey rocked the Desperados Factory to the tune of free desperados whilst Clean Bandit had the crowd jumping like they only can in a dark, sweaty, packed-out tent.

It was a touch call between the headliners, but TNGHT get our vote as the act that best rocked the headliner slot in a true Field Day fashion, with a high-tech stage show ablaze with dry ice and flashing LEDs. Lunice in particular was on top form when it came to hyping up the crowd. Overall this year’s Field Day was arguably the best yet, with the weather and the lineup both impossible to argue with. Another success story added to its history, Field Day looks set to get better and better.

Read more at the Guestlist Network

Recommended: Booka Shade

Booka Shade is a German house duo made up of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier. Though already four albums in, Booka Shade have retained the sense of underground authenticity and mystery which saw their name become a reference point for German house and techno.

The true charm of Booka Shade lies in their ability to work massive crowds at diverse parties the world over whilst staying true to the spirit and sound of minimalistic German techno, a notoriously repetitive, niche sound. Whilst Resident Advisor called their single ‘Body Language’ “one of the biggest releases of the year”, ‘In White Rooms’ is a perfect example of tech-house deep enough to see you well past 6am.

With regular tour dates worldwide, Booka Shade are an act to catch soon if you haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon.

On My Playlist: House

Here's what's on my house playlist this month.

Hot Since 82 & Habischman – Leave Me

Released earlier this year on Moda Black, ‘Leave Me’ is EDM magic – dark, hypnotic house injected with a heady, glittering dose of glamorous funk, punctuated by ethnic drum samples and growling, whispering vocals almost reminiscent of some of Azari & III.

Maya Jane Coles – Everything

This latest release from deep house goddess Maya Jane Coles is indeed everything we’ve come to expect from her relentlessly quality output. This time featuring the ethereal vocals of the predictably Swedish Karin Park, ‘Everything’ is dark, feminine, mysterious and a promising step for the producer and DJ.

Disclosure – When a Fire Starts to Burn

This opening track from Disclosure’s massive debut album Settle may not be the deep Disclosure of the days of ‘Control’ and perhaps not o the taste of fans of the duo’s earlier work but it does display them doing what they seem to do best, very well – producing party-starting, vibrant EDM pop.

Bonobo – Cirrus

The first single from Bonobo’s fifth album The North Borders, ‘Cirrus’ is a good description of the album as a whole, albeit being one of the more danceable parts of it. It is as soothing and pure-sounding as the album art suggests, chiming percussion and tingling synth lines sounding as organic and sophisticated as house music gets.

Read more at the Guestlist Network

Album of the Month: Major Lazer – Free the Universe

 

Major Lazer’s sophomore effort, Free the Universe, is as jam-packed with mega-tunes as their influential first release, proving that ‘Lazer remain the go-to lads for bashment for bassheads. The LP hurtles through genres whilst somehow making the connections seem obvious. It also develops the boys’ hallmark sound - rave music as bass-heavy and house-inspired as it is sun-drenched, always coloured by a Jamaican influence.

‘Watch Out for This [Bumaye]’, featuring Busy Signal, the Flexican and FS Green, is a prime example of the moombahton that the duo dabble in, sounding more Caribbean than Major Lazer have ever sounded and positively reeking of Notting Hill – one track guaranteed to set any carnival on fire. ‘Get Free’, one of the leading singles of the album, is a slow-burning, dub-influenced dancehall track with ethereal, almost psychedelic synths which have had hipsters grinding across dancefloors since its release earlier this year. ‘Jah No Partial’ is undoubtedly a standout track, a towering dubstep anthem which speeds through trance and jungle parts more fluidly than most other fusion acts can.

Free the Universe is a relentless party animal which goes and goes. It refuses to be played in the background and insists on being played at full volume to giant crowds all through hot summer nights. In 2011 Major Lazer replaced the influence of Switch with the talents of producers/DJs Jillionaire and Walshy Fire, of Black Chiney – thus far, it appears to be a collaboration which is going swimmingly.


Read more at the Guestlist Network

Recommended: Koreless

Glaswegian Lewis Roberts, aka Koreless, produces fragile and beautiful electronic music more in line with the soulful, emotive electronica of Purity Ring than most ‘dubstep’ you’ll have heard this year. Koreless takes a larger step away from traditional dubstep than most of the ‘post-dubstep’ acts around right now but is just subby enough to remain tied to the genre.

His 2013 EP Yugen is undoubtedly his most substantial and accomplished release to date and the perfect place to start listening to Koreless. The EP is composed of ambient electronica which is the perfect soundtrack to sunsets and sunrises, the last hours of late nights, star-watching and hypothetical arthouse sci-fi films.


Read more at the Guestlist Network

Artist of the Month: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

With gigs coming up all around the world this summer, a mainstay of festivals the country and world over, it has become clear that TEED has become one of the leading figures in dance music, beloved by indie kids and EDM-heads alike. Blurring genres more successfully than most other electronic music artists can dream of, TEED’s infectious mix of house, garage, techno and indie is sure to be the sound of summer 2013.

The producer and DJ’s real name is Orlando Higginbottom, a name which probably had some influence on the eccentricity which now guides the artist’s eclectic, highly individual production and onstage persona – the immaculately made dinosaur-themed wardrobe he flaunts in performances alone  is worth the admission price. With dancers dressed as dinos and unfalteringly brilliant visuals and live shows, TEED has earned our stamp of approval.

As well as producing a hugely successful 2012 album, Trouble, TEED has remixed tracks by the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Professor Green. He also features regularly on both Annie Mac's and Nick Grimshaw's Radio 1 shows.

‘Household Goods’, ‘Garden’ and ‘Your Love’ are amongst the most overplayed and remixed tracks of indie-dance anthems, soundtracking more hip club nights and TV and radio shows and commercials than we can keep count of. I can’t wait for the next TEED release to undergo the now-customary leak into every corner of pop culture and infect our lives with TEED’s unique and euphoric dino-dance sound.

Remember this track? Of course you do.

Read more at the Guestlist Network