The WMC-Ultra electronic music season has reached its 26th year and British DJ-producer Carl Cox is one of the few scene veterans who can boast having been there for the long ride. A child of the late-’80s acid house boom and Second Summer of Love, Cox cut his teeth spinning…
Few individuals have had as lasting an impact on electronic dance music as legendary British DJ Pete Tong. An early proponent of house, he has been one of the most highly regarded tastemakers in the world for a quarter-century now. This March, Tong comes to town for his annual Surfcomber…
Art-pop maestros !!! (pronounced Chk Chk Chk) are a rowdy, snarky blast, punctuated by rippling bass sweeps, woozy synth codas, and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. But the outfit faces more competition than ever in the realm of rhythm-oriented indie rock. From Hot Chip to the Klaxons to Cut Copy, many of the…
In certain Native American tribes, the vision quest is a rite of passage by which the young undertake a personal journey alone through the wilderness and commune with the natural world, eventually discovering their destiny in dreams and shadows. For electronic music crew Visionquest — Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtiss, Shaun…
There’s a fascinating duality at the core of UK producer Glimpse’s work. It’s the duality of control vs. loss of control. On one hand, he favors analog studio production over digital, reckoning that today’s automated digital tools eschew the elements of human spontaneity and imperfection — he grapples the dominance…
Underworld, the UK-based electronic duo of Rick Smith and Karl Hyde, has been the vehicle for an audio-video conflux that rose to prominence from the post-acid house scene of the ’90s, and really hit the public consciousness after the song “Born Sippy .NUXX” was used to great effect in Danny…
Influenced by Fleetwood Mac, Chicago house music, Animal Collective, and copious amounts of peppermint tea, Cut Copy — made up of Dan Whitford, Tim Hoey, Mitchell Scott, and Ben Browing — began as Whitford’s solo DJ project in 2001. It then emerged on the scene as a performance trio with…
Kiss at Hard Rock Live March 17
Philip Glass at New World Center March 17
Gal Costa at the Fillmore Miami Beach March 19
Bobby Brown and Heads of State at Sun Life Stadium March 20
Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks at BankAtlantic Center March 20
It’s 2011 and after working his way up from Detroit’s techno underground, Richie Hawtin is a world-class dance music institution. Of course, there are his seminal labels Plus 8 and Minus, his acclaimed Plastikman alter ego, and his hard-earned rep as a game-changing innovator in the arenas of production and…
It’s only been about three months since beloved local quirk-pop queen Rachel Goodrich left you, me, and the Magic City for the big, bright floodlights of La La Land. And already we miss her so much. We watched helplessly as Rachel picked out her favorite records, stuffed her suitcase, and…
Having released his debut EP to immediate acclaim on Josh Wink’s Ovum label in January 2010, NYC wunderkind Chris Manik made the leap from virtual unknown to internationally celebrated “It” producer in little more than a year. MANIK has since joined the artist rosters of chic labels like Poker Flat,…
Say you’re playing the 1983 Atari console game Crystal Castles, in which Bentley Bear must collect gems to advance. Bentley accidentally ingests a jewel and falls through a hallucinogenic tunnel that spirals into a secret level filled with panicky confusion, abrasive synths, and warbled voices that morph into machine-distorted screeches…
The last time Crossfade caught up with Pretty Lights, AKA Derek Vincent Smith, he was preparing for his Magic City debut at the Vagabond. Since then, the versatile electro producer has acquired a new drummer, killed Ultra 2010’s live stage, and released a couple of albums that are downloadable to…
Twenty years in the game and the Slackers are still sharper than a stepping razor. On Sunday night, hundreds of people came out for the NYC ska rockers, the Duppies, and Miami’s own Askultura at Churchill’s Pub.The sound man was on point, the room was full, the booze was flowing,…
You won’t find wabi-sabi at your local sushi bar. Though it sounds like a spicy condiment, it’s actually a Japanese worldview centered on acceptance of transience, and it’s the way New York-based singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ Moby determines the aesthetic value of his recordings. “When things are kind of broken…
If you’re a regular of Miami’s EDM scene, then you’ve surely attended a SAFE party. They’ve been responsible for many of the top international house and techno bookings of the last several years, hosting memorable recurrent performances by the likes of Matthew Dear, Radio Slave, Damian Lazarus, M.A.N.D.Y., and Matt…
From all the way back in the day when street-level party music label Nervous Records was first founded in 1991, the master plan was always straight-up support for the deepest and grittiest parts of the house and hip-hop subcultures. “The true underground is the guy who sleeps until 1 in…
After 13 years, Ultra Music Festival has managed to push aside the week that helped create it. Ballsy as the move may have been, we all knew Ultra had long overshadowed Winter Music Conference. With the conference’s attendance at just 3,763 last year, the festival managed to sell out two…
