When Moby took over the pixelated DJ pod in the Carl Cox and Friends Mega Structure last night, I wonder if he was saying to himself, “This audience is going to fucking love my set tonight… whether they like it or not!” He immediately began egging the crowd on, pumping…
Maybe it was the unbearable heat at their last Ultra performance, but Cut Copy seemed rather reserved this time around.Still, with pop gems that would make Depeche Mode jealous, the Aussie band gave the kids what they wanted: polished songs with unbelievably catchy hooks. Seriously, we had their sophomore effort,…
Sunday, a day typically reserved for Jesus. And if I were a praying man, I’d probably throw on a pair of kakis and confess that I was involved in a massive seaside dry-hump last night. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Over the course of seven hours, this indie…
You tweetcasted from the port-a-potty. You got goofy and sunburned with Simian Mobile Disco, Boys Noize, and a middle-aged, glowstick-wielding paramedic at Day Two of Ultra Music Festival. And then (so long as you didn’t overdo it and pass out in a trash pile behind the Tower of Ultra) your…
Sure, you could have been at the Fool’s Gold party at Grand Central — a decent enough choice. But you would have missed out on the next-level shit. The Overthrow and Trouble & Bass’ Black Magick party at the Overthrow Castle surely had a darker vibe than other festivities last…
In the wee hours of the morning, Busy P and DJ Mehdi brought a little bit of La France to Downtown Miami with a short but sweet Ed Banger party. Not your normal night, the patio was thick with fans of cocaine, left over Ultra-lites, and people who dig good…
It seems like Simian Mobile Disco has taken a bit of a tumble lately. In shedding their electro-house sound and adopting a darker techno approach, it seems they’ve lost quite a few fans. We remember a few years ago, in 2008, when the duo performed live at Studio A to…
With Armin Van Buuren and Boys Noize blasting the grounds with unrelenting four-four, local act Afrobeta’s early-evening set at the UMF Radio Stage provided some soothing audio balm. The mostly-local stage was practically hidden in a back corner of the park near the bay. But from the beginning, the band’s…
Boys Noize, the pseudonym of German producer/label head Alexander Ridha, has delivered some of the best live P.A. performances of Winter Music Conference over the past few years. This has been thanks to uptempo beats that still brought some melodic nuance and pop structure to everything. Of course, a couple…
Yes, things went all Pete Tong … and Sarah Main, Bob Sinclar, and DJ Jazzy Jeff to name a few, at Saturday’s fourth annual Pacha Ibiza Pool Party at the Shelborne Beach Resort. In the afternoon hours, party people sat sedately around the pool, enjoying the perfect weather, dipping their…
Over the last 18 hours, we here at Crossfade have provided you with 18 reports from our first day wandering through Ultra Land and beyond. So far, we’ve played a few rounds of Ultra Bingo. We’ve gone to pool parties and Sunday School. We’ve enjoyed sweaty encounters with CSS, Erasure,…
Emerging from New York City’s early-’90s acid house rave scene, Moby debuted with a deep, aqueous, tribal sound that would veer from ecstasy-rich techno to aggro industrial before crystalizing into the crossover poptronica of 1999’s multi-platinum Play. Along the way, this socio-politically outspoken musician became an unlikely figurehead as his…
The Three Deck Wizard (AKA Carl Cox) and a couple of his friends, Laurent Garnier and Loco Dice, kept last night’s crowd of young heathens sweaty and screaming at the New Carl Cox and Friends Two-Level Mega Structure. (Sorry, that’s what the event is calling it.) Three-decade electronic music vet…
We are waiting until after the full 36-hour rager known as Sunday School: The Lost Weekend to give our verdict. But after stopping by last night (this morning, really), Sunday’s climax seems promising. We arrived early in the night to find it a little dead. But after returning at 4…
Putting Trentemøller on the penultimate slot of Ultra’s Live Stage last night was a ballsy move. As a producer, the smart Anders Trentemøller makes sweeping, beautiful soundscapes that are truly cinematic. But they take patience and concentration to digest.So, in a live performance, how would he translate this with a…
Last night at the Fixed Freakout, Marcus Lambkin’s Shit Robot Show made its Miami debut at the Vagabond in front of an ecstatic crowd of electro-poppers. Churning out reworked tracks from his back catalogue, the Irish-bred, Germany-based producer provided the perfect sonic nightcap after a day of fist pumping with…
If you live in Miami, you might think you live in the most dance-music-saturated place on Earth — unless, of course, you’ve spend a lot of time in the U.K. Dance music is part of the pop fabric here, with synth sounds regularly charting on pop radio. It’s a phenomenon…
If you’ve only ever heard debut album Attack Decay Sustain Release, you might think otherwise. But Simian Mobile Disco was never just a killer indie-dance crew. Sophomore record Temporary Pleasure had its fair share thudding, tech-y moments, not the least on sparkling, climactic “10,000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong” and the…
After several years of complete absence from Miami, Norwegian duo Röyksopp more than made up for it last night. The pair’s pulsing, tripped-out nighttime set on the live stage is already a contender for one of the best shows at the festival.Though their latest album, Senior, was mostly instrumental, slightly…
Can CSS be considered electronic music? Barely. Except for a few synthesizers, the band is more about live instrumentation. But it was a welcome relief to ears already tired of the bleeps and bloops that come with attending a festival like Ultra.However, it being the first day, it seems like…
Adding dance-rock originators Erasure and Duran Duran was a smart move for Ultra organizers. The performances should have bridged the psychic gap between old synth work and the newer acts on the live stage — and anyways, who doesn’t love some good ’80s jams?Well, thousands of Benny Benassi fans, apparently…
Maurice Benjamin and Addy Weitzman are a Montreal-based band called Footprintz, one of several groups currently signed to the Visionquest label. They’ve been friends for a number of years. And thanks to a few chance intersections with label co-founder Seth Troxler, they just scored a record deal. Yesterday’s set at…
