Countdown to Electric Zoo: 30 Days!

Electric Zoo Featured Artist: A-Trak



Electric Zoo, New York's largest Electronic Dance Music Festival, is back for a second year. Made Events is following up last year's lineup, which included Armin Van Buuren, Deadmau5, Benny Benassi, Busy P, Steve Aoki, Yuksek, and many more, with an even more impressive lineup, found here.

Montreal native, 26 year-old Alain Macklovitch is A-Trak. Widely known for his collaborations with Kanye West, Travis Barker, Boys Noize and Kid Cudi, A-Trak has been a World Champion DJ for over a decade (after winning the DMC at the age of 15). Though often indescribable, A-Trak's style blends multiple genres, most notably Hip Hop and Dance Music.



A-Trak got his start at a young age, spinning records for his older brother, David Macklovitch's (Chromeo's Dave 1) band in Montreal. Since those humble beginnings, A-Trak has worked with Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and Boys Noize, as well as many other well-known artists.



Considering his fellow performers at Electric Zoo, A-Trak's style is definitely underrepresented. Turntablism and Techno usually don't go together, but A-Trak brings them both together seamlessly with the audience watching in awe, and will definitely be a welcome addition to this event.

Big Gigantic at Camp Bisco 9

Highlights are courtesy of THERFW.com

Big Gigantic Camp Bisco 9 from THERFW.COM on Vimeo.

New Pretty Lights EP: Spilling Over Every Side

Derek Vincent Smith of Pretty Lights can deliver. "Spilling Over Every Side" is his 2nd EP of 2010, and the 6th free release on his website, Prettylightsmusic.com. There are 6 songs in total, all of which are noticeably longer than in previous releases (5 of the 6 are upwards of 7 minutes). This length allows for a mixture of the styles Pretty Lights has become known for, thumbing electronic hip hop beats, distorted synths, and more organic jazz sampled lyrics and horns. Smith explains the emphasis on longer, genre bending tracks in that, "I guess, because thats what I want to hear... fresh, intricate, beats that attempt to communicate ideas or tell a story somehow."



What's more impressive about the EP, is that Smith released it in the midst of a busy summer tour. Look for Pretty Lights, now featuring live drummer Adam Deitch, Saturday, September 4th at Electric Zoo.

Bassnectar - Timestretch (Official)

Tragedy at the Love Parade

Yesterday, the Love Parade, perhaps the world's most illustrious electronic dance music festival, known for celebrating peace and love, became the scene of a tragedy. Nineteen people were killed, and 342 injured during a stampede which occurred in a tunnel that was the only entry-way for an estimated 1.4 million people who would attend the event. While the cause of the stampede is seemingly unknown, blame is already being placed on the city officials, who had planned only one entrance to this year's event. It seems that the sheer amount of people drawn to this event was greatly underestimated by the those officials, and festival planners, and with horrendous consequence.


The Love Parade, which began in West Berlin, Germany in 1989 originally as a political demonstration for peace and international understanding through love and music, had been held annually in Germany's capital until 2003. Since it's inception, the Love Parade has become an international spectacle, drawing hundreds of thousands to Berlin, and later other German cities, to celebrate life, love, and EDM. In an attempt to prevent further panic, the event was allowed to go on in spite of the incident, however it is not known whether the festival will continue after this year.



It is my hope, that in spite of this tragedy events like this will not be discouraged in the future, but rather more emphasis will be put on accommodating the many, many people whose sole desire is to celebrate peace, love, and music. On that I will leave you with a reminder of how great the Love Parade has been as a tribute to what may be its final year.

My Camp Bisco YouTube Debut (Besides Monkey)

Thanks to A.R.T. for showing me this video of a great ESKMO set at Camp Bisco 9 on 7/16/10. I'm dead center in the yellow soccer jersey, but you should definitely focus on the guy on stage. Brendan Angelides aka ESKMO is an amazing, up and coming San Francisco Producer/DJ who has a unique and interest sound, and is someone to watch. More to come from CBIX.

DJ Fresh - Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix)