After a prolonged break from the limelight, legendary UK dance outfit Faithless is back in action. If you’re a fan of the rave/club scene, chances are you’ve heard the all too familiar chords of inspiring Faithless anthems like Insomnia, God is a DJ, and We Come 1 echo forth from the soundsystems of clubs and festivals all over the world. Now, 15 years after their formation, Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss, and Rollo are back on the dancefloor with a slew of festival dates (Ultra, T in the Park, and Oxegen, among others) and a new album (entitled “The Dance”). New tracks like “Sun to Me”, “Not Going Home”, and “Feel Me Now” can be heard in their recent essential mix: a heartfelt, highly spiritual 2 hour mix of big room house and trance.

It’s worth mentioning that their performances billed as “Faithless Soundsystem” (like at Ultra) will be a stripped down version of their live show, with Maxi on vocals and Sister Bliss on the 1s and 2s. The sans ‘Soundsystem’ shows will feature a fully live band. Don’t let this dissuade you from checking them out at Ultra, however. The same spirit behind the music will be there, present especially in the literal and figurative voice of the band Maxi Jazz.

Faithless Soundsystem Essential Mix
1.Faithless — Sun To Me (Original Club Mix)
2.Simian Mobile Disco — Cruel Intentions (DJ Pierre Mix)
3.Goldfrapp — Rocket
4.Faithless — Feel Me Now
5.Fenech-Soler — Lies (Alex Metric Mix)
6.Michael Cleisz — The Beginning (Spencer Parker Remix)
7.Black Box — Ride On Time (Zombie Disco Squad Mashup)
8.Beltek — Running Backwards
9.Imogen Heap — Hide & Seek (Joy Kitikonti Remix)
10.Faithless — Insomnia (Rene Amez Vs Sister Bliss Vs Tommy Trash Mashup)
11.Graeme Lloyd — New World Translation
12.The Temper Trap — Love Lost (Rollo& Sister Bliss Remix)
13.La Roux — Quicksand (Alex Metric Mix)
14.Ptm — Techno Trip – Starlight
15.Juan Kidd vs Bobby T — We Come (Faithless Soundsystem Mashup)
16.Charles Ramirez — Working Hard
17.Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Heads Will Roll (A -Trak Mix)
18.Hot Chip — One Night Stand (Jooris Voorn Mix)
19.deadmau5 — Strobe (Michael Woods Mix)
20.Gabe & Adam K — The Mask
21.Slacker — I Have No Memory (Final Tweak DJ’s Mix)
22.Funkagenda — Flauta Magica
23.Monaque — Id – Vapour
24.Bent — As U Fall (Kyau &Albert Mix)
25.Dirty Vegas — Tonight (Above&Beyond Mix)
26.Gat Décor — Passion (Original Mix)
27. Faithless Faithless — Not Going Home (Rollo & Sister Bliss Monster Acid Mix) – Nate’s Tunes

© 2010, Rob. All rights reserved.

Ferry Corsten @ The Palladium

Lots of work being done on the blog this week but meanwhile I thought I would mention and shout-out Ferry Corsten’s new tour called “Once Upon a Night”. The details are mentioned here but basically it sounds a lot like Sander’s “Dusk Till Doorn” theme where the DJ takes the listeners through 3 main phases – sunrise, party, sunset. Rise up, rage, go to bed. Drink red bull, dance, pass out. Something like that.

Some of you may have seen Ferry Corsten at Nocturnal Wonderland this fall, when Ferry was busy promoting his new album “Twice in a Blue Moon”. Well that tour has passed now, and Ferry is busy promoting his new compilation which has 25 brand new unreleased tracks created specifically for his compilation. That is a ballsy statement but it means that at the Palladium you can definitely expect to hear a brand new playlist with new surprises and guests.

According to the description of the tour, Ferry will bring along 2 “superstar” guest DJs to join him for his new concept show. Since Nocturnal was Ferry’s favorite gig of 2009, I think one can definitely expect to see a lot of work being put into this Friday night show. I will be at the Lakers game Friday night and probably won’t make it out to this show (but definitely expect to be at Axwell the next night at Avalon). I am disappointed but happy that Insomniac is bringing Ferry back for another big solo production in Los Angeles. It’s shows like these that remind the world of how special Los Angeles is to the world of dance music – we get nothing but the best, month to month, winter or summer, rain or shine.

Be proud, Angelenos! Buy tickets here.

By the way, Ferry just re-released 2 things: Out of the Blue (which he plays at pretty much every single one of his shows), with remixes by numerous DJs including stormers by Tiesto, Simon Gain, and Hi-Tek as well as System F’s original album remastered. The second CD has a track that I have been hunting for since I became a trance fan – it is called Insolation and it was featured on Ferry Corsten’s Passport to the United States compilation. Here is the track, in all of its glory:

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.

Man…. what a thursday here in the OC. Did not expect that at all. Thank you all, epic!

I could not agree more. What a night in Huntington… good times, good crowd, and of course great music from the DJ Mag ranked #9 DJ in the world.

Gareth Emery at Avec

The Venue

The venue was, extremely surprisingly, very nice. The club was decked out with chandeliers, nice seats, and best of all a glowing crystal tree above the ample-spaced circular bar. The capacity was around 500 and I would say the place was 90% full – plenty of room to dance and yet plenty of crowd energy to keep the night going.

Avec Nightclub in Huntington Beach

The bathrooms were ridiculous, with huge private stalls (even for the urinals in the guys bathroom); a confirmed report via my girlfriend said that the doors in the girls’ bathroom are see-through until they are locked at which point they become opaque. 100% unnecessary but 100% cool; that’s what nightlife should be all about.

This venue, of course, pales in comparison to the behemoth nightclubs such as Avalon and Vanguard in Hollywood. However this has some positives – less pushing, less ridiculousness in the bathrooms, and more space to dance. The clubgoers were decked out nicely – a good mix of mostly young trance fans combined with poshed out Orange County elite.

One funny thing about the place is that it’s literally in the middle of a suburban area (as all of OC is) in a strip mall. You would not guess that there is a nightclub there by any means. Within a few blocks are such greats as Pavilion’s, Burger King and Chipotle. I guess if you’re hungry afterward it’s pretty convenient though.

The DJ

Gareth Emery and Misha & Chandley from LABeatCo

I won’t lie, I got to the place right before Gareth Emery did so I didn’t hear the opening DJ play. In fact he walked in and I shook his hand as I was waiting to get entrance into the club. Malia, the Club Circus promoter was nice enough to hook me up with entrance to the club (interview with her will be posted next week) and I was lucky enough to spot Gareth before his set. I spoke to him briefly before his set and he seemed to be in a good mood; genuinely happy to talk trance with a fan. He told me about some upcoming releases on his new label and of course the pleasures of flying in with no sleep and a huge timezone change. Hopefully by Saturday he will be a little more accustomed and will drop a humongous 4 hour set onto the ears of happy clubgoers at Club Circus in Hollywood. For last-minute tickets click here or pay at the door.

The Music

Gareth Emery’s set was just as he said – down the middle. Not too crazy but definitely not too mellow. He dropped some of his own tracks, which are always awesome to hear, including Exposure, On a Good Metropolis Day (mashup by Myon & Shane 54), possibly a new track of his, and the Stoneface & Terminal remix of More than Anything. A full tracklist is posted below for anyone interested.

Gareth’s sound morphed from a melodic start to some techy sounds including a couple of tracks by Sander van Doorn to some intense trance including a Guiseppe Ottaviani remix of Paul van Dyk; he ended with a bang with some Emery favorites including my request for On a Good Metropolis Day (but we could’ve seen that coming anyway, right?).

Gareth Emery at Avec

Conclusion

Overall – Gareth Emery was surprised and so were we. A fantastic night with positive energy and vibes in the middle of a strip mall in Orange County.

I think no one was surprised by his set but on the other hand it’s just what we wanted to hear – huge trance tracks mixed with the Gareth Emery sound and the sound of Garuda. I was happy to hear a lot of tracks that I’ve been playing at home and have wanted to hear through a huge sound system for quite some time. The people were great – no fights, no anger (besides a few people who had a few too many), and not very many people on drugs at all (especially compared to Zabiela at Avalon the next night).

Good times and here’s to more good times coming from the folks at Love Music Dance and Club Circus!

Full tracklist as compiled by myself and other members on tranceaddict.com

Ashley Wallbridge – Chimera
Urban Astronauts feat. Kate Louise Smith – See The Sun (Aurosonic Remix)
Southside Spinners – Luvstruck 2010 (Filthy Rich Mix)
OceanLab – Lonely Girl (Gareth Emery Remix)
Sander van Doorn – Daisy
Wippenberg – Pong
Dash Berlin feat. Emma Hewitt – Waiting (First State Remix)
ID
Andy Moor – She Moves (Ashley Wallbridge Remix)
Tiesto vs. Lange, Andy Moor & Komytea – Lethal Stadium Four (Gareth Emery Re-Edit / Mashup)
Rank 1 vs. Jochen Miller – The Great Escape
BT feat. Jes – Every Other Way (Armin van Buuren Remix)
ID
ID
Gareth Emery – Exposure
Delerium vs. Gareth Emery – This Is That Silence (Myon Collision Black Army Mash Up)
Sander van Doorn – Renegade
ID
Paul van Dyk feat. Johnny McDaid – We Are One (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix)
Gareth Emery – More Than Anything (Stoneface & Terminal Remix)
ID
OceanLab vs. Gareth Emery – On A Good Metropolis Day (Myon & Shane 54 Mashup)

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.

Get your house on tonight with James Zabiela at the Avalon. Zabs is one of the most innovative talents on the circuit these days, bringing a fresh, lively take on progressive house to the table that lies somewhere between the Sasha and Swedish House Mafia schools of house music. Misha (and possibly myself) will be there, so be sure to say hi if you see one of us! Speaking of Misha, he recently just interviewed one of the promoters over at Circus Disco. Be sure to stay tuned in, as it will be posted soon. Have a good weekend!

© 2010, Rob. All rights reserved.

Well, after just a month of no activity over at Vanguard in Hollywood, Vanguard is “back”. What that means, no one really knows.

The big promoter, Giant, who used to have all the big events on Saturdays at Vanguard has clearly moved on to Avalon and plans on staying there, co-hosting with Spundae. That’s crackin as always (this Friday I will be attending Control Fridays yet again to witness the power and might of James Zabiela behind the decks!). Giant seems to be continuing down the line of house, leaning less and less toward trance acts on its lineup. In the near future there are few and far between in LA, however house addicts will certainly be getting their fix with the appearance of Sasha, Digweed, and Tiefschwarz all within the next few weeks.

Meanwhile at Vanguard, the future seems uncertain. I am still trying to figure out who the actual promoter is for this new Vanguard Saturdays, but the events keep somehow popping up on Facebook and inviting me so someone is doing their job out there. Good work. The lineups don’t have any particular reason or rhyme either – the past couple of weekends have been house but this Saturday we have Darude, who is still working on a comeback after a long disappearance, surely fueled by the royalties coming from Sandstorm.

So what’s in store for Vanguard in the near future? No one seems to know anything; we’ll let the new promoters develop a theme and a crowd and I’m sure something will evolve soon. Can’t let an awesome space like that go to waste.

Meanwhile, we’ll let Giant and LMD (the folks at Circus) pick up the slack and throw some great events. I already spoke of the lineups for Giant in the next few weeks; Circus has trance greats such as Kyau and Albert, Richard Durrand and Menno De Jong on the way. Very exciting.

Next step: get people to go with me.

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.

Tonight at the Avalon, veteran British DJs Lee Burridge and Danny Howells will be at the controls. I find it a bit odd that these guys are doing Control Fridays instead of Avaland Saturdays, but nonetheless, it’s a great opportunity to see a few bonafide professionals do their thing.

Tomorrow night is a doozy, a three-pronged, multi-genre night of electronic music at multiple Los Angeles venues. The one I’ll be attending (and I recommend that you do so as well) is Four Tet and Nathan Fake at the Echoplex. If you haven’t heard of Four Tet before, grab your headphones and start listening, because he’s consistently been putting out some of the best beats for more than a decade, including his most recent effort “There Is Love In You”, which is pretty much universally regarded as one of the best albums of its kind in recent years. His style has evolved alot over the span of his career, and has settled somewhere in the ballpark of melodic, ethereal, introspective, beat-oriented techno (enough adjectives for you?). It’s not exactly club music, so expect his live laptop set to be more of a head-bobbing. UK experimental techno honcho Nathan Fake rounds out the bill. Unfortunately, the show is sold out, but you might be able to snag a ticket at the door if you show up early enough.

On the other side of the 101, the Avalon will surely have the disco ball up and running for the night. Self-proclaimed “creator of disco” Calvin Harris will be the main event, bringing his popular brand of disco-infused house in a DJ set that will surely feature some new cuts off his forthcoming album. Supporting him will be tech house funkers Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler (as “Rebel Rave”), whose groovy brand of minimal tech will certainly complement Harris’ style very well. Lastly, a couple blocks away at Circus, Irish trancer John O’Callaghan will be on tap for the night.

Lastly, I wanted to give a shoutout to one of my UCLA homies. DJ/producer 2C-G (aka Geoff Bowen) recently just finished a very quality remix of Jason Sundstrom’s track ‘Perplexed’. It’s a heavy techno stormer of the peak-hour persuasion; definitely not for the weak of heart! He also runs the Tek LA blog (definitely worth bookmarking) where you can find his most recent minimal tech mix, which I highly recommend. Geoff is only 19, and is somebody you’ll want to keep an eye on over the coming years as he develops his sound, so be sure to keep tuning into his blog for original tracks, mixes, and info about parties he throws in the LA area!

Have a good weekend, people!

Danny Howells – September (Future Beat Alliance remix)
Four Tet – Angel Echoes
Nathan Fake – The Sky Was Pink
Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone
Jamie Jones – Summertime
Tiefschwarz feat. Seth Troxler – Trust
Damian Lazarus – Spinning (Sasha remix)

© 2010, Rob. All rights reserved.

Source: Jakob Montrasio

Winter is always a good time to release a compilation – the festivals and clubs aren’t as full blown as they are during summer, Ibiza is asleep, and the music releases are less party-oriented. That means DJs have a chance to catch up on some more melodic tracks and build up their libraries for summer. These days, compilations released by big DJs are a lot more label focused. Each DJ is not only trying to make a nice mix, but also of course using that mix to promote tracks from his label. Armin van Buuren’s annual A State of Trance compilation, for example, often features unreleased Armada tracks that get listeners excited and eager to click the “buy” button once each track is slowly released on Beatport. Gareth Emery’s compilation, released in late November, was titled “The Sound of Garuda” and was very explicitly a featurette of tracks from his new label, Garuda.

Of course there are plenty of haters out there who say DJs should not pick their favorite producers but instead pick the best tracks ever. However I find that to be a pretty much impossible task. I like the fact that the DJs hold tracks from release and pick new gems to tease us with before they hit the main street. That makes the compilations special and unique to each DJ; otherwise there would very likely be quite a bit of overlap if every DJ just picked the biggest bangers at the time. And, of course, each compilation has a particular theme or sound and that generally fits with the label of the producer putting it out, so it makes sense that the same names come up on compilations over time, along with some newcomers too.

Here is a roundup of three new compilations being released (or just released) in February and March of 2010.

Markus Schulz – Las Vegas ‘10

Markus Schulz by now is known for the fact that his compilations are more unique than most others (see his latest blog entry for his own explanation). He not only chooses his tracks meticulously but works with each producer to tweak the tracks in order to make the compilation flow beautifully. This definitely pays off. Markus set the bar extremely high last year with his Toronto ‘09 compilation. It featured his dark, progressive sound and each track weaved into the next beautifully. The transitions were barely noticeable and you could tell that there was a lot of time and work put into the compilation.

That was released summer of ‘09. And already Markus is back with a new one. The tracklist includes a lot of Markus favorites – Rex Mundi (whose track Nothing At All created huge hype on the Toronto comp last year), Arnej, Mr. Pit, Mike Foyle, etc. and some newcomers, including LA’s very own  Torin Schmitt and Norin & Rad!!! (congratulations to both!) Markus is well known for putting a lot of time and effort into everything he does and this new compilation will surely prove to be no exception. He killed it at TAO, and now faces another crazy schedule for 2010; we can’t wait to have him back in the City of Angels this year (Mainstage EDC?! Yes please! No side stage vs. David Guetta this year!)

Ferry Corsten – Once Upon a Night

Looks like Ferry has already decided to ditch his “Passport” series, which had only 2 volumes, and is coming out with a double CD compilation which features 25 completely brand new unreleased tracks. That is pretty massive and impressive that a DJ can ask 25 different producers to either hold release on a production or create a brand new track just for his compilation. Ferry’s Passport to the United States compilation was one of the first mix CDs that got me into trance. It has so many beautiful tracks including Beautiful, Insulation, Beauty Hides in the Deep, and many more tracks that are simply classics at this point. I am expecting no less from Once Upon a Night.

The compilation won’t be out till March but looking at the tracklist one can already tell that greatness can easily be expected. There are new tracks from staple Flashover Recordings producers Breakfast and Rafael Frost, both of whom have released amazing stuff in the past (the Sunlight and Red come to mind, respectively). There is also new material from Bart Claessen, Andy Duguid, BT, and Ferry Corsten himself, who is one of my favorite and one of the best and most respected trance producers out there. I am very excited for this compilation to be released soon and can’t wait to listen to it!

Oh and if you want to see Ferry live (very likely that many tracks from this compilation will be played there), you can do so at the Palladium on April 2nd. Only 40$ a ticket right now! I plan on going; just need to convince some friends to come with.

Cosmic Gate – Back 2 Back 4

The duo of Cosmic Gate, which has amassed a large following in California as of last year, is back with their Back 2 Back series. Their talent received worldwide recognition in 2009 – Armin van Buuren was a huge supporter of their tracks and remixes; they released a new album titled Sign of the Times which got tons of airplay; and Cosmic Gate was responsible for some huge remixes including that of John O’Callaghans Find Yourself (played at Monster Massive by AVB) and Paul van Dyk’s Home. Furthermore, Cosmic Gate hopped up to spot #19 on the DJ Mag Top 100 list which is very high and respectable.

The compilation was mixed in Brazil and features Cosmic Gate’s new single – Barra. This compilation’s tracklist seems to have a lot less exclusives and unreleased material compared to that of Markus and Ferry. However Cosmic Gate’s mixing skills are excellent and looking at the tracklist I see a lot of great productions that have impressed me in the winter months of 2009 and 2010 such as “The Great Escape” by Jochen Miller and Rank 1 and Mat Zo’s “24 Hours”. I see some great producers on the list too – Glenn Morrison, Boy Hagermann, Lange, Ronski Speed, and am excited to hear Nic Chagall remix Marco V (Nic being half of Cosmic Gate).

Summary

So that about sums up the next few releases in the compilation world! I hope you are excited as I am about checking these bad boys out in time for the huge releases coming this summer which are sure to evolve dance music as well as rock the dancefloor harder and better than ever before!

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.

Progressive house maestro Hernan Cattaneo will be gracing the decks of Playhouse tonight. You may remember that he played the main stage of Monster Massive this past year. He is quite good, and doesn’t often play around these parts, so if you have a particularly bad case of the Mondays, you know where to go to cure those blues.

© 2010, Rob. All rights reserved.

Anyway hope everyone has a safe and good time tomorrow; meanwhile enjoy this trance classic!

Tickets seem to be sold out but you can still get VIP’s here

Tomorrow night should look something like this:

Palladium (Photo Source: Drew Ressler, Rukes.com)

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.

Crystal Method (source: kainr flickr.com)

This review won’t be long like my other reviews because of the fact that Crystal Method’s live sets are really hard to break apart into specific songs or parts. It all kind of blends together into one trippy big beat performance which is exactly what I wanted and expected.

We arrived at the Avalon (Control night on Friday) at around midnight. There was absolutely no line and we walked right into the venue after getting our tickets (I did see a line for those without tickets – but if you wanna see Crystal Method with no advance ticket then you deserve to stand in line!). The opening DJ was still playing, dropping house tracks left and right like nobody’s business. The crowd was your average clubber diverse mix ranging from Hollywood nightgoers to music lovers to hipsters to punk rockers. The guys are from Los Angeles and Scott Kirkland got on the mic numerous times to remind us of how special our city is. It reminds me of when I saw them at EDC and Scott closed out by saying that they love playing Los Angeles and as fans we should be appreciative of the fact that we get so many high profile music acts rolling through our city all the time.

We do try to appreciate and this blog is one way to do so!

Anyway the guys got into it pretty quick; after a 30 second aural intro, they dropped the first beat and never looked back. The set lasted about an hour and a half going through all of their tracks over the years. I could recognize Busy Child, Keep Hope Alive, and other tracks from their older albums. The ones that I didn’t recognize were most likely from their new album – Divided by Night. Many of their tracks are not only recognizable from my home playlists, but from movies, commercials and other artistic collaborations that Crystal Method fits so perfectly. No words and big trippy beats make for excellent background tracks.

The Crystal Method pushed forward, blending everything into a climactic finale to close out their main set. Then something happened which no one could have expected.

The guys were going on and on about how special Los Angeles is and how they love being here; then Ken Jordan said that because it’s Valentine’s day coming up he’s going to bring his girlfriend up… then this is what happened:

Ken Jordan proposed to his girlfriend right on stage! That was pretty awesome – the crowd was going nuts by that point and the guys closed it out with another one of their tracks which you can see in the video above. Overall I loved their music and their set; it was a lot more intimate and intense than when they played at EDC which was basically one long buildup (and that was good too).

Thanks to the YouTubers who put up these videos!

One funny experience that we had was with the t-shirt vixens in the back of the club. We walked up afterward and they were selling t-shirts for 25$ a pop. They honestly weren’t anything special and I was ready to walk away until they proposed a buy one get one free deal. My friend said he would take the free shirt (it was a white one with their tourdates on the back) and I coughed up the cash for the t-shirts. That was when the fun started.

Turns out they only had the “free” t-shirt in small size. I was told this as soon as I paid my money (so I think they knew beforehand, but let’s pretend they didn’t know). Ok, I said, we’re good then, can we have our money back. “No.” I began to argue with the 2 vixens behind the table. My argument was: look, you told us it was buy one get one free, the shirt is too small, can we just have our money back or a second shirt that will fit my friend? (He’s a guy, not small size for sure). “No. You already paid.”

More arguing ensued. At some point, another t-shirt maiden emerged from the side and with the strictest face I have ever seen (I felt like I was her 5 year old son who just wandered away at the mall and got lost) she told me that I can’t have my money back because I already paid. I hadn’t even picked up the shirt from the table at that point. So basically I started getting really angry and my friend ended up dealing with the girls. He tried on the shirt, showed them that there was no way a small shirt would fit him, and eventually we got our money back and walked away.

Long story short: think twice before giving your money before you get the right size shirt! And watch out for the fury of the t-shirt girls at the Avalon!

That all happened after TCM’s amazing set so I wasn’t mad at all, especially because I was with good friends having a good time. We walked out and moved on with our lives.

Good times at Avalon – we’ll be back March 5th to see James Zabiela at Control Fridays. Hope to see you there.

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.