In an era of one-trick ponies riding the bandwagon of a single trendy style, it’s rare to find artists that straddle both ends of the house and techno spectrum. But Russia’s Andrew Guyvoronsky, AKA Tripmastaz. is in the unique position of being associated with both the funky, jacking Chicago house…
Making a living as a musician was considerably easier before the digital music revolution started killing record sales. These days, it’s particularly tough for idiosyncratic artists like Marco Benevento, a Berklee-trained keyboard virtuoso and songwriter who eschews pop formulas in favor of experimental jazz-rock forays. Fortunately for Benevento, his talent…
Wherever you might stand politically on this year’s historic thawing of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations, one positive outcome we can probably all agree on is the freshly opened floodgate of cultural exchange. Case in point: El Tropicana de Cuba will perform its first stateside show in more than three decades at…
He might be a man of few words when it comes to interviews — as we found out ahead of Friday’s Miami debut show at Bardot — but really, Galcher Lustwerk is the spoken word don of contemporary deep house. The laid-back, self-styled vocals he sprinkles over sultry stripped-down beats…
Brothers Ali and Basti Schwarz have had over three decades to build up a widespread loyal following under the Tiefschwarz banner. Which is still saying a lot, considering the pair’s relentless stylistic mutations over the years. From the mellow deep house of their early DJ days in Stuttgard, Germany, to…
Miami’s hometown heroes of electronic dance music are in the habit of ditching us for greener pastures once they blow up internationally. Take heavyweights like Maceo Plex and Danny Daze, who skipped over the pond to stake their place in Europe’s more lucrative club and festival circuit. One artist reversing…
France’s contributions to electronic dance music are considerable. And not just by way of commercial heavyweights like Daft Punk and David Guetta. Paris is also home to a fruitful underground house and techno scene which has grown by leaps and bounds since the 2000s. Among the Parisian scene’s prime movers…
Alan Palomo’s new album as Neon Indian, Vega Intl. Night School, came close to never happening. In 2011, the Texan synth-pop producer’s laptop was stolen on the mean streets of NYC after a late night of debauchery during his Era Extraña album tour. “It’s pretty much the most VH1 Behind…
In the world of techno — a genre that probes the unexplored farther reaches of electronic sound to herald the music of the future — it’s the stylistic innovators who pave the way. Take Aril Brikha, a techno trailblazer who’s been doing it on his own terms for a whopping…
Kasper Bjørke had it pretty good during the 2000s as one half of dance pop duo Filur. Along with vocalist Tomas Barford, the pair certainly enjoyed its share of commercial success in Europe with hit singles like “I Want You,” one of Denmark’s top music exports in 2005. But alas,…
Live bands are a rare breed in the world of nightclubs — kind of like turtleneck sweaters or the words “I’m sorry I just stepped on your foot.” WhoMadeWho vocalist and guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg noticed this fact and saw an opening. “There was a serious need for live music in…
Though best known as Efdemin by the techno heads, the label of “DJ/producer” doesn’t quite do justice to Phillip Sollmann’s career as a sound artist and sonic explorer. Perhaps audio auteur would be a more apt title. Schooled in the avant-garde traditions of musique concrète and electroacoustic sound design, Sollmann…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more prolific and innovative producer on the American electronic music scene today than Travis Stewart, AKA Machinedrum. Taking his cues from the U.K. sonic tradition, he’s responsible for some of the most forward-thinking future bass sounds this side of the pond. 2013’s critically acclaimed…
It’s been ten years, almost to the day, since the debut release from Argentinian DJ/producer Mauricio Barembuem — better known as Barem. Released for free on the fairly obscure (and thus aptly named) Unfoundsound Records, the Kleine EP might have ended up relegated to the dustbin of underground techno history had…
Hot Sugar’s work can be considerably icy and bitter — at least nominally so. Track titles like “Addictions,” “Trauma,” and “Dead Inside” certainly seem to point to a darker section of the human condition, a running theme in his work. But the actual sound of the Grammy-nominated NYC producer (born…
Summer festival season isn’t off to the best start for Ten Walls, AKA Marijus Adomaitis. Creamfields, Sonar, PITCH, and Urban Art Forms have all dropped the Lithuanian producer from their bills following a recent homophobic Facebook rant where he referred to the gay community as “people of different breed” and…
Unlike the UK, where rave culture blazed through the mainstream like a wildfire following the late-’80s acid house explosion, American rave remained a comparatively smaller, self-contained underground subculture. It’s therefore possible to trace its origins to a mere handful of key players. One of them is certainly San Francisco DJ…
Like fellow boogie meisters PillowTalk and Nick Monaco in the Crew Love collective, Life on Planets is bringing a fresh if retro approach to dance music, self-described as “dawning a long-awaited return to authentic songwriting” in the genre. “So much of vocal songwriting in modern dance music lacks poetry,” the…
Being a global techno icon with a hectic international touring schedule can take its toll on the best of them. After a decade of exponential momentum, the globetrotting DJ lifestyle certainly caught up with Hotflush Recordings boss Scuba, AKA Paul Rose. “The whole of 2014 was a pretty difficult time…
When Waze & Odyssey dropped their bootleg of R. Kelly’s “Bump n’ Grind” in 2012, the pair’s garage rework was so piping hot, it actually brought major label Sony Music running to give it an official release with the blessing of R. Kelly himself two years later. It was one…
Miami resident Nicolas Troncoso has already made a name for himself as a budding tech-house producer with releases on hotly tipped international labels like Neim and Superfreq. But as the A&R mastermind behind Miami’s Prisoner of Love label, he’s also emerging as one of our local underground dance music scene’s…
The South African electronic dance music scene may not be as prominent as those of North America and Europe, but house music has certainly found a more than worthy representative in native son Culolethu Zulu. Back in 2008, the then-18-year-old production wunderkind would attend the Red Bull Music Academy held…
