An absolutely infections track to start your week comes from none other than melodic master/producer RAC. Reworking ‘Next Year’, off Northern Irish indie rock band Two Door Cinema Club’s second studio album Beacon, RAC lets the vocals shine by removing much of the original instrumentation and sprinkling it with colorful and vivid pop layers of pure bliss. Out of all the RAC remixes we have posted, this is by far one of the best we have heard.
[Track was removed off RAC’s Soundcloud. Will update once it is back up]
The Dirty Dutch Messiah, Afrojack, has had its fair of controversy his latest original “Air Guitar”, set to be the official anthem of Ultra Music Festival 2013. While it does feature the same uplifting attitude on an Afrojack production, many fans disagree of its dubstep overtones. Which I think it is just misleading because these are not exactly “wobbles”, just motherfucking hard basslines (pardon my Dutch). While they are certainly much more permanent throughout the track, leaving little room the melodic parts to stand out, it is still a massive release and we are just happy to move on past his Gangnam Style remix.
Dallas producers AFK and Spenca team up for a trap forward remodel of last years infectious ‘Atom’ by Italian duo Nari & Milani. We featured Shape of Lights bootleg remix later that year with its daunting and low bassline, still holding up as a top favorite. Yet Spenca & AFK have come up with an intriguing transformation that hints of dubstep and trap over the original house synths. The result is a clean production of well decorated gritty elements, modernized for consumption.
Get ready for another track that is going to blow up. We recently featured a mind blowing remix of Flume’s collab with Chet Faker ‘Left Alone’ by producer Bobby Tank earlier this month. But it is Jeremy Malvin, better known as Chrome Sparks, that just gave the already rising original a tasteful spin incorporating a soft pulsating bass around sparkles of calmly light electronics. Elevating the vocals to a deeper experimental place, the Michigan producer gives us another reason to love him.
’Flume – Left Alone ft. Chet Faker (Chrome Sparks Remix)’
Back in January we were honored to premiere the bass pounding new single ‘Shakedown‘ from London producer Jacob Plant. Experimenting with both dubstep and trap, Jacob is now releasing his own trap remix of the original, packing some serious attitude and copious amounts of bounce. While its predecessor was a heavy progressive electro juggernaut, the trap vip mix is a completely different beast, both in style and structure, sharing only its distinctive throbbing bass and vocal samples. With so much going on in EDM, Jacob Plant is a refreshing and rising star, expect more from him in 2013 and beyond.
Crew Cuts is definitely his most diverse mixtape to do date, including features from Chiddy Bang, Chance The Rapper, Shwayze, G-Eazy, Skizzy Mars & OCD along with production from !llmind, Jared Evan, RJF and Sap. You can stream all the songs below as well as download the album in its entirety here.
With Crew Cuts, I had two big goals in mind—1. I wanted to challenge myself to try new things and work with new people. I have grown up a lot in this past year and I wanted the music to reflect those experiences. It is easy to “play it safe” as an artist, but I think in order for your fans to grow with you, you can’t be afraid to evolve and be better. 2. I wanted to collaborate with my amazingly talented friends and make a free project that sounds and feels like a debut album.
The electronic scene has become an incredibly volatile place where prodigies are being born every day. Savant type producers like Madeon, Zedd and Porter Robinson have penetrated the scene in unprecedented manner powered by pure talent and a grinding work ethic. And yet it is still hard to believe that Vicetone, the fast rising dj/producing duo from the Netherlands, have only been active for little over 6 months. Starting with releasing remixes of popular indie songs, like their flawless rendition of Youngblood Hawke’s ‘We Come Running’, and being supported by the likes of Nicky Romero and Hardwell, Vicetone proves they are the real deal. Now starting to release a couple more originals, we were able to chat with both Ruben & Victor to discuss their plan for 2013 as well as a lot of aspects about the music they produce.
But before we get to the interview, we have a MASSIVE exclusive mix handed down to us fresh, hot and ready from Vicetone’s musical oven. Containing a well versed sample of all the reasons why we love Vicetone, and a couple of powerful new tracks mixed in. Tracklist after the jump.
TMN: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak to us here at The Music Ninja, first round is on us, what would you like to drink?
Thanks for having us, we’d like two beers please!
TMN: In just a short period of time, you guys have grown to become one of most exciting emerging artists in dance music, walk us through some of your earlier successes, any “Oh Shit!” moments that felt unbelievable at the time?
When our Youngblood Hawke remix got signed to Universal we were definitely surprised, in a good way! We released the track for free but Youngblood Hawke and Universal liked it so much, that they decided to make it part of the official remix package. We never expected that to happen, so that was pretty cool. Another “Oh Shit!” moment was when we saw a video of that same remix being played in a huge stadium on front of 17.000 people – we get goose bumps watching that video every time!
Another moment was when Nicky Romero played our remix of his Sparks track on the radio, we had only been in the scene for a month or 3 at that time so that was definitely an “Oh Shit!” moment. Since then, he has supported a lot of tracks on his radio show and we’re very thankful for his ongoing support.
TMN: You guys seem to complement each other really well, however, what do you think is the biggest difference between the two of you, musically and personality?
Musically we have a very similar taste, and that makes the process of making music together extremely easy and productive. We work really well together in the studio because we have the same ideas about how we want our music to sound. As far as differences go, we do have our own ways with coming up with melodies. For example, Ruben nearly always uses the piano to come up with melodies and chords, while Victor normally prefers to draw the melody in directly. The melody types we both come up with are often different too, which is what makes it so much more fun to work together! Continue reading →
