Last Night: Bass Sessions at Nocturnal

Tracy Block Craze ripped a sick never-ending set at Nocturnal Wednesday, March 26 which had beat lovers gettin’ their groove on from the window to the wall. Last Night: Bass Sessions at Nocturnal Better Than: The best ‘90s booty mix you ever bought Downtown Miami’s Nocturnal night club certainly had…

VIP Badge Grants Access to Best Chill Spot

Today: The Armani Exchange Music Lounge at the Hotel Raleigh Penthouse Better than: Last night’s hangover from WMC kickoff gigs and jet lag combined VIP constitutes access to a slew of stellar events, but during WMC, being “Very Important” grants you access to one of the choicest chill spots on…

Calvin Harris loves Rick Ross and T-Pain

If Scottish singing sensation Calvin Harris is not the hardest working man in electro-land, by the end of this weekend he will be, because the cat’s got three – count ‘em – shows coming up in two days. New Times took a quick phoner from the man before he crossed…

WMC Preview: Interview with M.A.N.D.Y.!

M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade’s hit 2005 track “Body Language” M.A.N.D.Y., hailing from Berlin, isn’t female — nor is it even one person. Rather, it’s the purposefully ambiguous moniker of the DJ/producer duo of Patrick Bodmer and Philipp Jung. Longtime pals since boyhood, over the years they moved from throwing warehouse…

Corrine Bailey Rae’s Husband Found Dead

There’s some sad news out of England to report. According to this story from the AP, vocalist Corrine Bailey Rae’s huband, Jason Rae, was found dead over the weekend in the city of Leeds. Jason was a saxophone player in the band called the Haggis Horns. They’d just released an…

WMC Preview! Q&A with Louie Vega

In this week’s special Winter Music Conference guide, we spoke with house legend Louie Vega — click here to read the story. Of course, there are always interview outtakes, so for Louie’s true fans, here’s the full Q&A. — Arielle Castillo Little Louie Vega performs Thursday, March 27, at the…

Winter Music Conference

Among the major themes of this year’s 23rd installment of Winter Music Conference are better and bigger. Much bigger. Just check the numbers: 40,000 people are expected to attend various events; 20,000 area hotel rooms are booked; more than 1,780 artists and DJs will perform; over 85 venues will throw…

Beyond the Ultra World

It developed from a rather small thing by the beach into one of the biggest festivals you have in the U.S. And it represents nearly everything electronic music has to offer, and so therefore it’s one of the most important festivals not just in the States, but in the world.”…

The Future Is Now

Rane and Serato revolutionized the DJ game — and lowered chiropractor bills — with the introduction of their Scratch Live software. The new club standard, it allows DJs to play a hard drive full of MP3s in real time on a pair of turntables through a piece of hardware and…

Cause Way

All the WMC activity can be incredibly fun. But there can be an incessant air about it too: There are countless singles, albums, DVDs, and DJs to promote, and often it’s crap that might not even be available to the public for quite some time. For those who are just…

Sweet Heat

Every Friday night, Baltimore’s Club 1722 sizzles with Sugar, an after-hours party that’s been pumping the finest in old and new house music for nearly five years. And at the helm is the Sugar Girl Squad, consisting of DJs Lisa Moody and Ultra Naté. “There’s still those few people out…

Shock and Roll

Describing Hank Shocklee will run you into trouble. Only grandiose analogies such as mystical musical prophet and electro-galactic freedom fighter do him justice. A founding member of legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy, he — along with his brother Keith — created the Bomb Squad, a production team that’s greatly influenced…

Co-Operate with the Rhythm

A heavy sound system; progressive, up-tempo black music; vibe-building MCs; and an atmosphere akin to a Friday-night house party — these are a few of the ingredients you can expect at a Co-Op jam. Based in West London, England, the party has been going strong for close to a decade…

Love Bytes

The cyberlife of Dutchman Armin van Buuren, one of the biggest DJs in the world, began in the early Eighties with a Grundy NewBrain computer his mom won in a contest. “I loved it. You could program your own games in BASIC,” he says wistfully. “I made a bowling game…

WTF??!!!

On a recent afternoon, DJ Aero is sitting at home in L.A. cheerfully describing the set of 14 propulsive, four-to-the-floor tracks he recently helped create. Then his partner chimes in about one that’s still in the works. “We were in Costa Rica, and we recorded these girls chanting this thing…

Beyond Minimal

Anja Schneider took, it seems, a sort of reverse route to worldwide techno stardom. Rather than starting out in the clubs and working her way onto free-thinking European radio, she pluckily landed on the airwaves first and worried about figuring out how to mix records later. Schneider, who grew up…

Bass Head

Craze has never been one to overstay his musical welcome in any one genre. The Nicaragua-born, Miami-raised DJ boasts six DMC championship titles gained largely on hip-hop-heavy routines. Then, in the late Nineties, he won over hordes of ravers with his ingenious drum ‘n’ bass deck gymnastics. But these days,…

Bunny Hop

Roxy Summers prefers to be called Roxy Cottontail, a name she says perfectly encapsulates her love of drugs and booty. Two years ago, the New York-based DJ, party promoter, and branding genius began making her own tunes. The pursuit has both widened her profile in the dance world, attracting well-known…

A Soul Thing

After more than two decades of one of the most celebrated careers in dance music, Little Louie Vega is still teaching the new jacks — and making bodies jack. But in recent years, Vega, ever the boundary-pusher, has expanded his conception of the groove beyond plonk-plonk-plonk. As Eddie Amador once…

The Booming System

He’s remixed Elvis, Madonna, and Britney into credible techno formation — and, in the King’s case, number one status all over again — as well as collaborated with Robert Smith, Gary Numan, and Dave Gahan on original ideas. But Amsterdam’s Junkie XL (born Tom Holkenborg) is audibly excited about working…

Blog Rave

There’s something rumbling on dance floors across the United States. You might have seen it coming from France in Daft Punk’s swelling popularity or the hype surrounding the Ed Banger phenomenon. Perhaps you caught wind of it through listening to Canadian acts such as MSTRKRFT, Chromeo, and DJ A-Trak. Clubs…