The number one Billboard Dance Club Song in the country this week is Disclosure feat. Gregory Porter – Holding On. In an era full of anthemic, festival style EDM tracks, this smooth, soul flavored house track has reached the top of the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. This goes to show that DJs and dance music fans alike truly appreciate music that’s a little out of the mainstream.
We love this song and we’re banging it on the Asheville House Music Society radio show on 103.3-LP FM and AshevilleFM.org in Asheville, NC, mixed live by @djtonyz every Saturday night/Sunday morning from 12 midnight to 2 am.
We’re digging this 2015 video Club Megamix mashup of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits by DJs MichaelAngelo & DigiMark. Modern remixes of all songs included in this mashup give it an updated feel for dance floors everywhere.
The world’s largest pure electronic dance music retailer, Beatport, today announced http://pro.beatport.com. The new website is mobile responsive. Yes, that’s optimized for mobile devices. Beatport says the color scheme is better for Pro DJs in low light environments for those jocks in the booth purchasing tracks on the fly.
The above view is a screenshot of the home page on a 13″ MacBook Pro. I noticed right away the switch to the audio player at the bottom of the screen, which begets the question – where is your playlist?
Playlist Tool
Well, Beatport took some liberty here with the “hamburger” menu icon at the bottom right, which usually signifies access to a setting area for account management, user profile management and that sort of thing. Then again, dance music never really stuck with convention, did it? It will probably annoy a bunch of information architects, but as long as you figure out what it it’s for, you’ll be alright. Just click on what UI developers call the “hamburger” icon at the bottom left and you’ll get your tracks listed as shown here.
Beatport also reveals a completely new logo.
Beatport 2014 Logo Update
Clark Warner, BEATPORT’s Executive Creative Director says this about the new look:
“The new Beatport logo is all about connections: the universal connection with music; the sacred connection between DJs and fans; and our shared connection with one another as members of this vibrant community and culture. Headphones represent the beginning of these connections, not the end. They’re the point where the DJ first interacts with the music, and with that spark, sets the soundtrack to our musical experience.”
We took some screenshots from the iPhone to show you what the mobile responsive view looks like (as if you haven’t seen it already). But before you get started below, one thing we are curious about is this Beatport Pro direction. Is that for DJs who want to buy music or does that include fans to? According to the press release we got tonight about the beta launch of Beatport Pro, Lloyd Starr, President ofBeatport Pro and COO of BEATPORT was quoted as saying:
“Beatport has grown into the leading destination for fans of electronic music culture of all stripes over the last 10 years, and Beatport Pro represents our commitment to the DJs that are the lifeblood of this community. It’s a commitment that Beatport was founded on, and one that remains a decade later. I would like to personally invite anyone with constructive feedback, suggestions, and ideas to share them so we can continue to make Beatport Pro the best DJ resource available.”
Hmmm…does that mean that pro.beatport.com will be for DJs and Beatport will then enter the consumer market with a subscription service for rabid Avicii and casual Kaskade fans alike? Inquiring minds think we know.
While you’re thinking about that, have some fun with the screenshots below. Don’t forget, in the new mobile responsive, you have to use the “hamburger” icon menu to flip to the wav to skip through a track. An extra click. Not sure if that was necessary, but maybe it will improve over time. It’s hard to get these web based experiences to react like an experience in a mobile app. Too bad they couldn’t replicate what SoundCloud has done with their wav form scroll in their new mobile app experience.
One gaping hole we almost missed, but then did notice, is the checkout process. It still runs through Beatport.com. I almost missed it, because I wasn’t going to purchase a download just to write this post. But, I said, eh…what the heck. I might as well try it.
I learned you can’t purchase directly through Beatport Pro and that is problematic, because it doesn’t keep with the user workflow they intended with the complete redesign. I wanted to see how the iPhone would handle a download – can you store a download to your phone or do you have to download it at Beatport and then transfer it in via iTunes? It doesn’t look like it’s an end-to-end seamless experience, because on the iPhone, the payment screen is not responsive. Browse through the screens below for a look or try it on your phone yourself.
Beatport Home Screen Scroll down to begin playback of top ten Active playback at bottom Flip to the wav form Artists I follow Search result Login screen Sign Up/Login call to action Another login window My Beatport screen My Beatport Menu Hold Bin Account setting do not yet exist Beaport Pro Shopping Cart Add Coupon Code Beatport Pro Checkout redirect
A few weeks ago, I gave Pioneer rekordbox® a spin during a few sets I did at The Nightbell in Asheville, where they’ve got a pair of Nexus 2000s in the booth. I found the software to be quite intuitive to use. Very fast analyzing hundreds of tracks and easy to build playlists. It also syncs with iTunes, but for some reason, I’m having a bit of a struggle since my iTunes folder is on an external thumb drive and not an internal folder on the laptop. I haven’t seemed to be able to get it to recognize updates to the iTunes file or playback tracks from the iTunes folder. I had to simply create genre-based playlists under the playlists tool and then analyze all tracks on the thumb drive again. Kind of off and hoping someone might be able to help.
On the reverse, the LAN connection with sync and the ability to drag and drop tracks to each deck is genius. We found it extremely useful, but there was this odd situation of jumping back to the last track played every time I dragged a new track in. I had to make sure that when I dragged the track to each deck, the track intended to be next stayed active by playing it for a few seconds and then pressing cue. I was told by a friend that works for Pioneer DJ about the Auto Cue feature, which alleviates this problem. I think it was already on Auto Cue, so I’m not sure I was doing it right. I have yet to fully investigate how to prevent re-loading of a prior track instead of loading the new track before I’ve pressed play.
Given that it’s free, it’s worth a shot to download it and see if it’s right for you. With this software, Pioneer is taking it to Serato and Traktor Pro, given that the software itself can be used for mixing with a controller. You will have to register a user account to operate it though. We think Pioneer wants to start tracking what music you’ve got in your library, so there are some new controls they are introducing to do that in this software.
Last night, I’m at the Disco 3000 party at Ben’s Tune-Up in Asheville. I discovered this party online. When I moved to Asheville on January 28th of this year, I immediately started looking for the house music spots. At first, I didn’t find much. But after digging a bit deeper, I stumbled upon Nighttimeswerve aka Adam Thome who is a member of the Earthtone Sound System crew with Josh Hughey. They’ve created for themselves quite a following as Earthtone Sound System, which was born in Atlanta, but has since relocated to Asheville. Along with DJ Trevor Baker, they created the Disco 3000 party, which currently occupies the outdoor space at Ben’s Tune-Up, a local Asheville restaurant/bar, weather permitting. On cold or rainy nights, they bring it indoors.
ETSS and Trevor are focused on playing a blend of indie dance, nu disco, breaks, house and tech house. It’s really about whatever is funky and gets the crowd going. They vibe off each other and switch off, preferring blending with Serato then using Traktor with the dreaded sync button (which I actually do rely on – I have no shame!). They surely had a dance floor moving last night. Now, I’m a sucker for these emo style house and tech house songs that feature singer/songwriters, rock vocalists or unexpected soul samples. So, to close out the night, Trevor ran this amazing song “So Good To Me” by New Jersey’s Chris Malinchak, which samples “If This World Were Mine” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. The song went to number 2 in the U.K.
I was in the middle of a conversation with Adam when Trevor dropped eased out of the current track and brought this one in. I immediately cut-off Adam (sorry, dude!) and said, “what the f*** is this?” It was beautiful, but then again, anything that brings a deep house sound together with the legendary vocals of Marvin Gaye and Temmi Terrell should stop a conversation dead in its tracks. And, that’s what it did. So, without further adieu, here is the SoundCloud and official YouTube video below for your listening enjoyment.
If you’re looking for a hot remix, check out MK’s reworking of this instant classic. I love both versions. Depending on the vibe of the party, you can rock either one and get a groove going.
Mark Kinchen, known around the world simply as MK, has been producing dance music since the early ’90s. MK is responsible for three incredible house music classics, including “For You” under the pseudonym 4th Measure Men, “Love Changes as MK featuring Alana,” and the legendary record by Nightcrawlers called, “Push The Feeling On.”
I first learned about MK when I heard this record, “Somebody New” (which I still have on vinyl!) on KMS Records in 1989. KMS was Kevin Saunderson’s label out of Detroit. One could argue that while we attribute tech-house to German producers like Terry Lee Brown Jr, MK was really one of the early pioneers of tech house – the blending of techno and house. And, it’s clearly apparent on this record as well as the “For You” release.
According to his Wikipedia entry, his discography stops short in the late ’90s and doesn’t pick back up again until 2009. But in an interview with PublicSF, MK mentions doing two or three remixes a month after the Nightcrawlers record. A quick check over on Discogs and you can see that MK has credits on 435 remixes at the time of this writing. That’s pretty incredible, as I personally had no idea he had done that much work. I guess someone has to get started correcting the Wikipedia entry! It’s a huge body of work and maybe it’s time to go back and revisit many of these mixes. Well, that’s when I have some time, because that’s a lot of stuff to wade through.
Since we’re not going backwards but forwards, here are two recent MK mixes that I really loved. The first is a remix of Duke Dumont’s hit, “I Got You,” which is also available on Beatport as a download.
This one, Wankelmut feat. Emma Louis, “My Head Is a Jungle,” was one of the top tracks on Beatport’s Deep House and Tech House charts. MK took a crack at this one and the results are here on Netmix. We love this mix and we hope you do too!
We’ve been listening to phenomenal music this week. Coldplay’s new album, Ghost Stories, hit the store on May 19th. When we were scoping out Moby’s latest release, Almost Home,we discovered that the same DJ/Producer, Sebastien remixed that record and this one too! Of course, we had to just jump on the Sebastien bandwagon and get this one onto the blog as well. Okay…so we’re a little late to the game on this Sebastien dude. He seems to be scoring a few points with choice artists who make incredible music. Could Sebastien be the next Calvin Harris? It looks like he’s working his way down that road, for sure.
Here’s the original official Coldplay video for single, “Magic.” The song is about a love somehow broken. By whom it doesn’t say, but the memories of that love still persist and while the relationship fades from view, it was still like magic, even if it’s now no longer together.
Here is the Sebastien remix of Coldplay “Magic” we discovered on SoundCloud. He gives this record a nice bottom end deep house flavor with simple piano chords throughout that keep this song grounded near the original. Simple, emotive and effective.
Not sure yet where to buy this remix as the download has yet to make itself available. Hopefully, we’ll see it soon.
If you’re looking for more of an electronic dance music remix, the legendary Giorgio Moroder gives this one a spin as well. You can hear the difference in the more polished sound of the experienced dance music veteran in the complex synth and drum patterns. This is available now for download through iTunes.
Moby’s new album, “Innocents” is out now and this song, Almost Home, features the American singer-songwriter, Damien Jurado on vocals. It’s an emotive and sensitive downtempo number with a sweeping hook and long synth pad washing underneath. Very ethereal and though provoking. Classic Moby in his ability to find and work with interesting vocalists flying under the mainstream radar, but popular in their own right.
You can hear more of Damien Jurado’s folk sound and singer/songwriter abilities on his website.
Here is the official YouTube video for Almost Home.
If that’s a bit too downtempo for you, here is a remix from Hamburg, Germany based DJ/Producer, Sebastien. This guy is definitely someone to watch for his ability to work with strong vocals. Maybe a German version of Calvin Harris? We’ll see!
Since Frankie Knuckles’ untimely passing this week, there have been many Internet messages and tributes to Frankie Knuckles in words and images, but it’s important to hear the music of the man who created the genre we know as house music. Here are three Frankie Knuckles Tribute Mixes. The first is from America’s number 1 mix-show DJ, Riddler (@djriddler) for 103.5 WKTU.
This mix is by Frankie’s long time friend and production partner, DJ/producer David Morales. Both Frankie and David have been part of the Def Mix production and management company helmed by Judy Weinstein.
Sennheiser, a leading manufacturer of headphones and microphones for the pro can consumer audio market, recently launched the Inspired by DJs: Day and Nite Portrait Series to promote its new Amperior headphones. Based on the popular HD 25 DJ headphone, Sennheiser says the the Amperior, with its brushed aluminum finish, is geared for both the street and the DJ booth. Netmix takes a look at Sennheiser's new One Day & One Night contest and marketing campaign with Bob Sinclair, QBert, Richie Hawtin and other influential DJs.
