News

Slater also announced he’s taking the album on tour with support from EDM.com Class of 2022 star Kaleena Zanders.

If house music celebrates anything, it’s community, and there’s no one better to bottle it into an album than AC Slater.

The barnstorming DJ and label owner has announced his third full-length album, Together, which will drop under his Night Bass banner.

What better time than summer for an album release by one of today’s most influential house music producers? Together is scheduled to drop right ahead of the summer solstice on June 16th, and if Slater’s stellar discography any indication, the album is bound for dancefloor domination through the season.

View the original article to see embedded media.

According to Slater, the record is the byproduct of “one of the most challenging, exciting and transitional times in my life, personally and professionally.” But with the support of his kith and kin, he’s now ready to bask in the afterglow. 

“Strength in numbers has always been important in my life,” Slater said in a statement. “Anyone knows me knows my motto: ‘I just want to do cool sh*t with cool people.’ The feeling of sharing a journey together with people you love is unlike anything else. Building something TOGETHER. I have always been an extremely shy person from a very young age, and even up to now. It was something that stood in my way, but I am able to overcome with the feeling of love and support from the people around me.”

Slater is now gearing up to take Together on the road for a U.S. tour, which kicks off July 7th in Philly before wrapping up in D.C. on September 8th at Echostage. EDM.com Class of 2022 star Kaleena Zanders will support on each tour date.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, April 13th at 10am local time.

FOLLOW AC SLATER:

Facebook: facebook.com/djacslater
Twitter: twitter.com/djacslater
Instagram: instagram.com/djacslater
Spotify: spoti.fi/2XfTOIA

ZHU dazzled the audience at Zamna Festival over the weekend with a spellbinding dose of new music.

ZHU‘s new music is like a hypnotizing dose of dark magic.

Taking to the lush jungle of Tulum over the weekend, ZHU briefly paused the action to play out a spellbinding unreleased song that simply left the crowd at a loss for words. The performance was a part of the April edition of Zamna Festival, where he headlined over the Easter holiday weekend.

The vocal-heavy introduction was intoxicating in its own right. The crescendoing chorus of falsettos was spectacle enough to draw all eyes upon the “Faded” producer before the crooning hook “take my soul” echoed powerfully through the foggy forest. 

The soulful track is well within ZHU’s wheelhouse when it comes to his ability to meld hip-hop, R&B and house in memorable fashion, much like on his recent remix of Genesis Owusu’s “Get Inspired.”

There’s no word on a release date yet for this mysterious song, but ZHU wants fans to rest assured there’s new music on the way, tweeting, “My new wave is coming.”

View the original article to see embedded media.

Follow ZHU:

Facebook: facebook.com/zhu
Twitter: twitter.com/zhumusic
Instagram: instagram.com/zhu
Spotify: spoti.fi/391vjDR

Not everyone is shutting the door on the idea of a Fyre Festival redemption arc.

The greatest redemption arc in festival history could be in the works. Either that, or a true spiritual successor to the disastrous “greatest party that never happened.”

We’re of course talking about Fyre Festival 2, the sequel few could have seen coming.

“Fyre Festival II is finally happening,” tweeted Billy McFarland, convicted felon and founder of the ill-fated 2017 music festival. “Tell me why you should be invited.”

It’s been a year since McFarland was released from prison, and in that time he hasn’t shied away from lofty ambitions in the entertainment space. He’s teased a return to the Bahamas with an event called PYRT (a so-called “treasure hunt” that has since been quashed by authorities) and announced his plans to develop a new documentary. Now he’s announced Fyre Festival is back.

The disgraced entrepreneur’s announcement predictably drew mixed reactions, but not everyone is shutting the door on the idea of a Fyre Festival redemption arc. Dance music star Sam Feldt even offered to perform at the event, should it take place—McFarland is barred for life from serving as a director of a public company, per the SEC.

The announcement arrives just days after McFarland publicly stated he is working on paying back the victims of Fyre Festival’s calamitous 2017 debut, a collective $26 million in restitution. 

While he’s out from behind bars, McFarland is currently on supervised release for a period of three years.

After two albums and a historic rave at Madison Square Garden, it seems the year of Skrillex is just getting started.

Here we go again. Even after the release of two full-length Skrillex records in 2023, the “new album” rumor mill is churning like it’s 2015. 

Skrillex recently performed at a free pop-up in São Paulo alongside famed DJ and radio presenter Jyoty Singh, who also invited M.I.A. to the block party as a surprise guest. During the show, Singh hopped on the mic with a succinct yet far from cryptic announcement: “We’ve been here working on a new Skrillex album.”

And it seems the album is already well underway. Details are scarce at the moment, but Singh took to Twitter in the show’s wake to confirm her involvement and reply to a fan who asked if it will feature Brazilian artists. “Absolutely,” she wrote.

Skrillex recently released Quest For Fire, his long-awaited sophomore album, before stunning fans less than 24 hours later with a second, Don’t Get Too Close. The latter hit streaming platforms during his historic rave at Madison Square Garden, which followed a momentous pop-up performance in Times Square alongside Fred again.. and Four Tet.

Now, the prolific producer is gearing up for a massive concert at Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where he’s primed to perform a staggering five-hour set.

Skrillex has not yet publicly confirmed a third 2023 album at the time of writing.

Follow Skrillex:

Facebook: facebook.com/skrillex
Twitter: twitter.com/Skrillex
Instagram: instagram.com/skrillex
Spotify: spoti.fi/30OEWUh

Fred again.. is at his most vulnerable in his “Tiny Desk” performance, an aching showcase of his singular approach to songwriting.

If for some reason you still haven’t jumped on the Fred again.. bandwagon, his latest performance should do the trick.

NPR Music’s long-running “Tiny Desk” series isn’t known for its electronic music sets, but the British superstar isn’t your average DJ. Released today, Fred’s intimate performance is a microcosm of his unique approach to songwriting, a homespun march into the fragility of life that uses samples as its yarn.

Playing the piano, marimba, vibraphone and his signature Maschine, Fred takes seven of his tracks for a spin: “Kyle (i found you),” “Roze (forgive),” “Adam (interlude),” “Me (heavy),” “Berwyn (interlude),” “Delilah (pull me out of this),” and “Faisal (envelops me).”

One of the set’s highlights comes just before its midway point, when he slinks into an aching rendition of his heartbreaking track, “Me (heavy).” “Tiny Desk” is all about extracting the vulnerability of its subjects, and Fred wears his heart on his sleeve as he sings about the struggle of staying strong while the health of a significant other deteriorates in the hospital.

Check out the full “Tiny Desk” performance below.

Follow Fred again..:

Facebook: facebook.com/fredagainagain
Instagram: instagram.com/fredagainagainagainagainagain
Twitter: twitter.com/fredagainagain1
Spotify: spoti.fi/3w2WKZD

Omar Dhadra’s open invitation to his 21st birthday was viewed by over 2.5 million on TikTok—but he didn’t think they’d actually show up.

Omar Dhadra is among the select few to come out of their 21st birthday celebration with something to remember.

Dhadra, a London-based university student, had lofty aspirations to turn his 21st birthday into a Project X-style event comparable to the 2012 film of the same name.

Dhadra started the journey when he posted an open invitation to TikTok to join the festivities. The clip quickly spread to over 2.5 million people on the platform, who had mixed reactions from intrigue to eagerness to pure horror.

But it wasn’t a marketing ploy, or a money making scheme. According to Dhadra, it was all simply in pursuit of the perfect night.

“We’re creating what we imagine the perfect night to be,” Dhadra told Vice prior to the event. “We’re not actually making money, to be honest. That’s not what this is all about. It’s more about just having a sick night.”

Law enforcement ultimately caught wind of the invite and forced the cancellation of Dhadra’s event at its original address, but he was reportedly able to successfully relocate it to a local club 15 minutes away. It wasn’t the destructive house party that the now-infamous film depicted, though it was a resounding success in Dhadra’s book. He dubbed it the “best birthday ever.” 

View the original article to see embedded media.

“This has given us both time and inner space to curate new music authentically without the expectation or filtration of whatever is thought of as being ‘Tritonal worthy.'”

Four years after launching, PRAANA have unveiled the masterminds behind the alias. 

Renowned trance and progressive house duo Tritonal have raised the curtain to reveal they’re the ones behind the PRAANA project. They said in an Instagram post that creating music under this moniker for the past few years has allowed them to create music through a more authentic lens, without feeding it through the subconscious “is this good enough for Tritonal” mindset.

“For the last 3 years we’ve been composing & producing deep melodic music under another moniker, PRAANA!” the duo wrote. “This has given us both time & inner space to curate new music authentically without the expectation or filtration of whatever is thought of as being ‘Tritonal worthy’ and we’ve subsequently released around 25 records.”

View the original article to see embedded media.

PRAANA have also announced their newest track, a collaboration with Danni Cara called “Moment,” which is the first single from their forthcoming debut album. It will be released on April 12th on Colorize Music.

PRAANA released a six-minute video explaining the purpose of the project, as well as the music they’ve created and how it has unlocked their musical potential over the last few years. The goal of the alias is to create music without any pressures or restraints, a pain point many musicians often struggle with.

Check out PRAANA’s announcement below. 

Follow PRAANA:

Instagram: instagram.com/praanamusic
Twitter: twitter.com/praanamusic
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3mdCDXZ

“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters.”

If you’re hoping for a Daft Punk reunion in the future, we’re not likely to get that lucky.

French super-producer Thomas Bangalter, one-half of Daft Punk, recently sat down with BBC News for a candid interview about life after the robots. The exploratory conversation comes ahead of his first post-Daft Punk album, Mythologies. 

To the dismay of longtime fans, the duo in 2021 released an eight-minute video to celebrate their shape-shifting career—and call an end to it.

“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters”, Bangalter told the BBC. “It was a very important point for me and Guy-Man[uel] to not spoil the narrative while it was happening.”

“Now the story has ended, it felt interesting to reveal part of the creative process that is very much human-based and not algorithmic of any sort,” Bangalter continued. “It was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and going away from them. I love technology as a tool, [but] I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves,” he added, raising concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence in music creation.

After Daft Punk’s shocking split a few years ago, their future hung in the balance. But fans holding out for a reunion shouldn’t hold their breath, at least not in 2023.

“As much as I love this character, the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot,” Bangalter added.

For Bangalter, his next step was going back to his roots and childhood. His mother and aunt were dancers, and his uncle was a dance instructor. Angelin Preljocaj, a renowned French contemporary choreographer, approached Bangalter about scoring a ballet and he immediately obliged.

Bangalter’s ballet score premiered in Bordeaux last year and is now being released as an album, Mythologies. He released its first single, “L’Accouchement,” earlier this year. 

Next month, Daft Punk will release a special “10th Anniversary” edition of Random Access Memories, which will feature never-before-heard music from the legendary duo. They recently shared the album cut “The Writing of Fragments of Time,” a collaboration with Todd Edwards.

You can pre-order Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Edition) here. The album is due out on May 12th via Columbia.

This first-of-its-kind vinyl compilation is entirely compostable.

BLOND:ISH continues to usher the music industry towards a plastic-free future with the release of the world’s most sustainable vinyl record.

The environmental activist, dance music producer and Madonna collaborator has released #PlasticFreeParty, a compostable compilation album made of bacteria. 

Developed in partnership with the sustainability collective Evolution Music and Deepgrooves, the world’s greenest pressing plant, the vinyl employs the use of PHAs, which function as bacterial-based replicators of physical plastics.

BLOND:ISH’s nonprofit Bye Bye Plastics cites that traditional vinyl records are the most emission-intensive music medium, generating 12 times the greenhouse gasses compared to other types of music media.

The novel concept succeeds without compromising on its sonic qualities. According to a press release, the record will only begin to activate the decomposition process with prolonged exposure to moisture or while unprotected in a natural environment, meaning the integrity of the record will continue to hold up simply with standard care of this unique vinyl composition.

The 14-track #PlasticFreeParty LP includes tracks from Shiba San, Chambord and more. Fans can now pre-order the album, which drops April 11th.

Follow BLOND:ISH:

Facebook: facebook.com/blondish
Instagram: instagram.com/blondish
Twitter: twitter.com/blond_ish
Spotify: spoti.fi

AREA21’s next evolution is now unfolding on streaming platforms via a live performance tape with dazzling production.

Martin Garrix and Maejor, the aliens of AREA21, have arrived with their first live performance film.

The collaborative project between Garrix and Maejor saw a celestial debut album release in 2021. Now they’ve dropped their first live performance film, Live on Planet Earth, alongside a companion album to cover new ground in illuminating the AREA21 mythos.

“We’ve always been dreaming of having AREA21 on stage with a band,” Garrix said in a statement shared with EDM.com. “The music on the album has been made with a lot of live instruments like real bass, real drums, so it’s amazing to be able to put that into a full live performance now.”

Now streaming, the 46-minute film features Garrix on guitar and cover performances of fan-favorite tracks such as “Spaceships” and “Followers,” among others. Fans can listen to the new live album below.

The film is available to stream on Hulu in the United States, on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner in all other territories.

Check out the Live on Planet Earth trailer below.

Follow AREA21:

Facebook: facebook.com/area21
Twitter: twitter.com/area21
Instagram: instagram.com/area21
Spotify: spoti.fi/34whOez