Every music connoisseur has been down this preverbal road once or twice. Take a second and picture this: You have developed a special interest in an artist that is beginning to be recognized by the general public but hasn’t quite … Continue reading
Although Swedish House Mafia have disbanded and gone their separate ways, the trio has one last venture together in this music video by the artist Lune. The track “Leave the World Behind” with the help of Laidback Luke was the track that made the trio into the power they are now and surface across Europe and make it to Ultra for the first time. The track is one that has the beginning breakthrough sounds that are in the majority of their current tracks and is a format which led to the world premiere of the famous track “One,” at Ultra Miami Music Winter Conference in 2010 which resurfaced house music across the United States.
Since then they have had much success due to the wave of Electronic Music that hit the United States during 2011 with the surfacing of a new genre of dance music and the popularity of House and Trance. From then until now Swedish House Mafia composed of Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell, and Steve Angello, have grown across the world with their hits being played in clubs all across the world such as “Save the World,” “Antidote,” “Greyhound,” and now “Don’t You Worry Child.” Although there were many collaborations and they each did their own tracks separate from Swedish House Mafia, they took the chance to then each create their own individual record companies.
Created by Sebastian Ingrosso
Created by Axwell
Created by Steve Angello
With the mainstream popularity growing, Swedish House Mafia had its differences from the direction where they wanted to go, and with them living in different parts of the world, collaboration between them was getting difficult. After the release of their latest album, they declared one last world tour hitting major cities across the world not including Europe due to the already extensive touring they had done there over the past few years. Tickets to these shows sold out in minutes and sometimes two or even three dates were added which also later sold out.
Although their music was one that is traditionally associated with the club scene, the majority of the people who attended the shows were not those posh bottle service people, but people who enjoy the music for what it is as well as had an emotional response to the majority of the tracks. Earlier, the trio created and event called Masquerade Motel, which took place in Ibiza, the electronic music capital of the world. They attempted a major overhaul of this event that took place originally in 2011 and spread to Miami in 2012 and finally took place in LA on 2013.
The show was a light filled adventure, which started off with many other DJ’s such as Mat-Zo, Otto Knows, and Alesso. All of them playing their most popular tracks ensuing the crowd in a frenzy as the night progressed and Swedish House Mafia was about to take the stage.
Mat-Zo played a lot of his famous track with a majority of the crowd jumping but mostly swaying as true fans of the British Producer from London played his famous tracks. The set mixed well together and was a bit of a departure from what is expected from the headliners, giving variety to the day filled with producers currently on the top of Beatport and of their careers.
Otto Knows came out and became known to the public because of Sebastian Ingrosso during a session of “Refune Radio,” which is a mix done by Sebastian Ingrosso on his label Refune Records. The Swedish Producer started off a set which consisted of a more House themed mix, differing greatly from the previous performer but leading closer to the sounds of Swedish House Mafia to an extent. As the set grew to a close, the track which made him famous, “Million Voices” hit the audience with a thus as they began to sing along with the track.
Alesso, is the young Swedish producer that Sebastian Ingrosso took under his wing many years ago and at his age of twenty one might surpass the popularity of Avicii. Also signed with Refune Records, his collaboration with Seb originally entitled, “Calling,” as a monster of a track that was everywhere in Europe upon its release and took to beatport by storm. Later the vocal version was released and as renamed, “Calling (Lose My Mind)” which only added depth to the already beast of a track with the help of vocals by Ryan Tedder. Earlier he created the track, “Raise Your Head,” which was a major hit as well, though not as popular. Finally to cap 2011 the remix of Nadia Ali’s “Pressure” by Alesso stormed all of the shores from the UK to US demonstrating the power that was to come. In 2012 when the release of “Calling (Lose My Mind)” the track that made him on Beatport for the #1 slot, he release another track “Years,” which he closed his set with, was also #1 on Beatport.
The track which ignited the audience was “City of Dreams.” It encapsulates a moment in which the music takes the listener into a different place that most dance music does. Modern day music is about drinking, going to a club with lyrics that talk about living for the moment, which is not what this track is about. It personifies a feeling that cannot be replicated, it was a moving track that the thousands of Swedish House Mafia fans sang along to and swayed with as Alesso dropped the track. The LCD screens and stage glowed a perfect color as the sun was peeking through the hills of LA and set. Hands were raised in the air with the song playing and the ground shaking as people once again moved their arms from side to side singing along, “I still miss you.”
Swedish House Mafia took the stage with a giant curtain falling revealing a futuristic display of LCD screens in something similar to a chandelier, layered from larger to smaller as they got closer to the three of them. The ground thumped as the heavy snare drum began and the track Greyhound began to play. The crowd screamed as the track played and the wet ground felt solid under ones feet. From the mouths of everyone smoke came out from the cold air as breezes swept through. Trickles of rain bounced off of the bikini tops of some, tank tops of others, and jackets of most as the sound from the heavy bass tracks all echoed across Chinatown in LA.
The set began to play mainly Deep House for a while until the signs from fans were raised in the air that read, “We come, we rave, we love.” As the night grew darker the lighting became more spectacular with laser cutting through the trickles of rain falling from the sky with the ground thumping as the masses of people jumped and sang along. Many hits from their album were played as well as popular mixes like that of, “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall,” “In My Mind (Axwell),” and “Antidote.”
The crowd never seized to slow down and as an intermission they had people raise their cell phones in the air counting down the time until Swedish House Mafia took the stage again. When the timer stopped the curtain fell once again stopping the video that as being displayed on it and took to to the LCD screens. A new mix of “One,” was played which was slowed down making it then somewhat of a hip-hop track which was surprising. It played over well and then lead to a transition that was a few of the older tracks, mainly from their first album. As the set grew to a close they played “Don’t You Worry Child,” which received the response it normally would have and then stopped the show with the main lights coming back on.
A shadow made its way across the stage and then followed by to other ones. They turned back on the large LCD panels and played “…One more, just because you are so amazing and beautiful today.” A piano began playing and to hardcore fans screaming ensued as they were the main rhythm to, “Save the World Tonight.” The track then after its build began playing with the crowd clapping along and then singing, “Who is going to save the world tonight.” Swedish House Mafia turned down the sound so the crowd was the only thing being heard allowing the roar to ensue. They turned the volume back up and led the song to the chorus. Everyone jumped, danced, moved, and bounced as the main chorus took place and song turned to its fast paced nature. The small break that occurs in the song led for the perfect fusion of it with the new track by Sebastian Ingrosso, “Reload.” The LCD crystal rained down sparkles as the stage let down a wall of sparks and smoke as fireworks exploded over the stage. Everyone waved their arms as the track was ending.
“We came, we rave, we love you.”
– Axwell
The Line up for Coachella has been announced! Who are you wanting to go see?
This song is one of the singles from Major Lazer’s new album “Free the Universe” which will be out February 19th 2013.
As the weekend was coming to an end, from my experience of going the last few years, Sunday seems to be the day with the best music, and this year was no exception. The day was sunny and hot drying off the rain from the previous day. There was still mud but it was not as slippery, and there seemed to be less of a crowd.
It all started off in AMD with The Boxer Rebellion, which ended the first opening band that weekend in ACL in which the band was European. A fan of English music, it was an amazing experience to finally see the majority of the bands from across the pond in one weekend. The band was clean cut and had a great fan interaction playing tracks which were fan favorites but also favorites of the band. They were very into their music and sounded great for being as mellow as they were.
Although they have grown in popularity for their track, “Generator ^ First Floor” they still looked like the small indie band that has shown up out of nowhere and made it big. They still had much enthusiasm for their music, but the crowd was not as drawn into the five band member band from Queens New York. The music they played was good but nothing that had not been heard from any other band. They had the same generic sound that indie bands from the time of their conception have. I am not trying to say that they are just okay, their music is great, but after hearing a lot of indie bands recently and the emergence of the in the recent years, this band just seems like any other, even though they were the few to start the trend and turn indie to mainstream.
There are times for music fanatics when an artist just takes them beyond this realm and into a world or escape like nothing that exists. The crowd huddled around the AMD stage once again to catch Gary Clark Jr. is set was astounding with a great band behind him, making the guitar become its own force as he manipulated it in a way that is not seen in most performers today. It was being pushed to the extent that resembles every rock legend guitarist from Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page. The crowd around us was very talkative taking away from the performance. I closed my eyes just to try to block them out and hear the string of the guitar being played to such perfection, that even the imperfections and slips seemed to be perfectly in tune. After a while of transcending all that was able to be made out was the song, there was nothing else heard or anybody else around. My body move rhythmically only out of a reflex rather than control. It was an experience which truly reminded me why my passion for music exists and how worldly it truly is.
From that I went to go eat and have a bit of as break from standing for the past few days. Then it was over to the Budweiser stage to catch Two Door Cinema Club. This band had finally made it big with their first album, and with their second one being released just a few weeks ago, there was more of an expectation for them to have a good set. Their set mainly consisted of track from their new album, “Beacon,” which although the crowd lacked knowledge of them, they swayed and moved to the rhythmic beats of the tracks. Their set was similar to what they have been playing around the country, and had just the night before been at House of Blues Houston.
We left early to be able to make our way through the masses to the Honda stage to watch Die Antwoord. While attempting to take a shortcut through the eats, they gated off the area creating a sea of people beyond what is seen in the stages with nowhere to move. As we made our way back we noticed the diversity of people and how people from all around the region gather for this weekend. Finally arriving to the stage, we stood nearly beside the sound booth listening to the South African Rave/Rap group “Drop dem beats.” With much controversy behind them as to their true meaning and significance in the scene, their show was up to par to what image they portrayed. They played some of their new tracks as well such as, “Diz Iz Why I’m Hot (Zef Remix),” and “Xpen$ive Sh1t.” The opening of “Expen$ive Sh1t,” was Ninja telling the crowd, “Lift your wristbands in the air. Now that’s some Expensive Shit.” He continued saying to grab your girl’s ass and saying, “Now that’s some expensive shit.” He ended by telling everyone to grab their dick, and saying, “That’s some expensive shit,” and bursts into the song. Their show was loud, obnoxious, and astounding. It captured everything they stood for perfectly with the side panels of the stage reflecting images from their music video and famous works of fan art. Their set ended amazingly giving some time to run to the Budweiser stage.
Iggy and The Stooges are one of the legends which I chose to look up to because of their contributions to the rock world. I have been an avid follower of the band for a number of years and was enthralled to see their reunion tour. The history of this artist is one which has been written about extensively and looked at it from different perspectives. When the band took the stage and then Iggy went on the crowd did their standard tradition of screaming, with the majority not really knowing the history if the band. Iggy was insatiable, and owned every piece of the stage from the mic to the floor to the crowd. At one point he screamed at the audience to bombard and attack the stage. The sea of people began to flood the stage as they kept performing. Considering their age, they still rocked the stage and gave rock the religious experience it once was. It was a reminded of the roots of rock, not about the retro clothes, or the thick frame glasses, but the actual music and the actual deep seeded emotions of rebellion, anarchy, love. Although the current generation did not understand the intensity of what was going on, the older ones were singing along and jumping around as reminisce of their adolescence kicked in. They did not play famous songs like, “The Passenger,” but won over my affection with, “Raw Power.”
Although there was a bit of a struggle convincing my fellow ACL friends to see this band which closed the festival to us we headed over to see Crystal Castles. The ending set must always be the best and the previous night this held true, only to be blown out by this group which played in the smaller Honda stage. After being a fan of theirs for a number of years I was finally able to see them. This group is not only an intense group of electronic music, but has an element to them which surpasses any live act in the electronic music scene. Their music is their medium, although a few strobe lights and pulsating tricks made it that much more, there was a more to them than just a light show. Modern day performers rely heavily on their show and play their music to accompany it. Crystal Castles broke this growing trend at ACL and most importantly played the majority of their hits close to the beginning of their set, allowing them to just plow through them and play some of their new tracks from their forthcoming album Crystal Castles III. Their performance was astounding and was beyond what I expected from them.
They closed the festival out for me and my fellow ACL counterparts, which were first going to see Childish Gambino, another great artist which unfortunately did not mean the same to me as Crystal Castles. The night ended perfectly, making the reflection of this year’s ACL weekend the best. Every year it does get better and every year there are new stories to tell, but it is not only the festival that makes it worth the trip. The city changes to a heaven of different kinds of music, allowing everything and everyone in it to be heard. There is a shifting of what the festival is, and what it can be, not only do I say this because of the two weekends that it will now take place of, but because of the shift in music and acceptance of not just the mainstream. I am looking forward to next year and cannot wait to see what they deliver.
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