The name says it all: Masters at Work. Since 1991, Little Louie Vega has dropped gem after gem like a careless jewelry thief at Magic Sessions, the Miami Music Conference’s longest-running event. “Sixteen years later we’re still here. What does that tell you?” quips Vega. “It’s a party that has…
For young ravers, Richie Hawtin is a great DJ for supplying rhythms to roll to. With arms spread and glowsticks twirling, the world is lost in his smooth and tripnotic techno beats. But true fans of Hawtin — and his alter ego Plastikman — know his brilliant compositions of ambient…
Twenty years ago, DJ Pierre (real name: Nathaniel Pierre Jones) made the squelch heard ’round the round. Pierre, along with Spanky and Herb J (as Phuture), created the sound called acid by tinkering with a Roland TB-303 bass line machine and placing the high-pitched result atop humid Chicago house. But…
James Holden’s spanking-new album, At the Controls (Resist), is an amalgamation of various genres from the electronic music spectrum. Tracks by the likes of Plastikman and Fennesz flow with complete disregard to their differences in style. Holden’s original productions and remixes have been tinged with almost every type of sound,…
The chronicles of Murk are as eclectic as the duo’s home city. After fifteen years together, several different aliases, countless remixes, international residencies, and hit records, Ralph Falcon and Oscar G hold a Sunday-night residency at Mansion — Made in Miami — a salute to the origin of their success…
Who do that voodoo? Kudu so well. Founded in the Drrrty Drrrty (Atlanta, a.k.a. the A Game) but refined in the Borough of Kings (Brooklyn), Kudu shed all baby fat and jazz-fusion while producing the sinewy full-length, Death of the Party. Kudu — the collaboration of Deantoni Parks and Sylvia…
If you like your downtempo with hand drums, maracas, kalimbas, clanging cowbells, and vocalese, classic soul DJ Tommy Bones’s African, East Indian, and Brazilian-flavor mixes will have you dancing like the possessed. This Connecticut Yankee gone global with releases on King Street, Wave, and most recently Defected cut his teeth…
Miguel Migs’s music is not easy to classify. He hails from Northern California, and hints of the Golden State can be found shining through his productions with chill, soulful beats infused with jazzy horns and an assortment of other influences. Classy deep house tracks have made dance music’s pretty boy…
Following in the almost absurd tradition of Teflon-coated, press-shy android-funk duo Daft Punk, Frenchman Pascal Arbez-Nicolas has maintained an ambiguity in the press as he produces under the name Vitalic. Lurking in the shadows, however, has not diminished the profile of Vitalic’s unrelenting electro-house singles (releases dating from 2001 to…
Part of the appeal of producing music with machines and expensive toys is that instruments and complex beats can be synthesized with the turn of a knob. Yet when a DJ’s live set is more akin to checking e-mail than performing, technology can be a drawback. D:Fuse is bringing the…
House music veteran Frankie Knuckles and rising stars Simon Marlin and Max Reich, a.k.a. the Shapeshifters or Shape UK, are joining forces during WMC to promote their respective new albums. If Knuckles’s 2004 A New Reality is any indicator of what to expect for his new release, fans of house…
Any city whose very existence captures the public imagination becomes an elusive, flickering ideal. Miami has proved to be an especially potent muse, a mirage viewed as an oasis of paparazzi and celebrities, a Latin paradise, a haven of illicit and criminal behavior, and a concrete proving ground for immigrants…
Think of it as career day for DJs. Technology and music pioneers present three days of workshops, demonstrations, and Q&A sessions to enlighten aspiring musicians during Remix magazine’s Remix Hotel Miami 2005. “It’s an extension of what we do at the magazine — focusing on the technical and creative aspects…
Sandy Rivera, the man behind Kings of Tomorrow, epitomizes New Jersey deep. He came to international attention in 2000 with “Finally,” a classic love number featuring the svelte vocals of Julie McKnight. “Finally” was a massive house anthem that was inescapable for months in discotheques around the world and was…
“The goal is to make music that makes people hop as much as it hops genres,” states Ian Parton, founder and primary songwriter of Brighton-based sextet the Go! Team. Note the exclamation point in the group’s name, because Parton’s poly-cultural troupe is all about the forceful punctuation. The male/female outfit…
Los Amigos Invisibles have the right idea when it comes to keeping dance music alive: Bring back da live rhythms! Simple, no? This Venezuelan sextet provides a full band of piquant Latin funk, salsa, merengue, and breezy, hedonistic lounge tunes, all sex-tinged with lyrics describing nightlife woes and even stuff…
Not that long ago, Argentine DJ Hernan Cattaneo refused to acknowledge his world-class status and claimed, “I don’t think I’m Mr. Big DJ yet.” Well, things have changed. Cattaneo’s deep house-and-progressive marathons have earned him a reputation among clubbers around the planet, and he’s a regular feature at hot Tokyo…
When we announced our second annual Ultra Music Festival spinoff, we never imagined we would receive a staggering 87 submissions, 54 of which were sent to Miami New Times and 33 to New Times Broward-Palm Beach, from both established DJs and relative greenhorns. Amazingly, we managed to listen to them…
by Mosi Reeves
DJ Hell Pawn Shop Lounge, March 25 DJ Hell, the nom de plume for Helmut Josef Geier, signifies Eurotrash electronics at its most seductive and confrontational, all acid noise and dark, deep techno-funk. He plays many roles, from owner of the hugely influential International Deejay Gigolo label to producer of…
Miguel migs State, March 24 This week, you’ll want to go deep — deeper than you’ve ever been before. Here to transport you to the inner sanctum of housedom is Bay Area-based DJ and Miami favorite Miguel Migs. He’s got a jazzy way of spinning tracks without falling into the…
Damian lazarus Pawn Shop Lounge, March 25; Fairwinds Cafe, March 26 British DJ and producer Damian Lazarus purveys dance-floor futurism through his imprint Crosstown Rebels. The sound is at once familiar — think Rephlex-style Luke Vibert mixed with a bit of industrial techno — and eerie: the records he spins…
Back in the early days of WMC, talking about diversity meant comparing and contrasting the work of, say, Junior Vasquez with that of Danny Tenaglia. But now that M3 is a major player as well, spotlighting a host of musical genres traditionally overlooked by the house-music-heavy WMC, the parties and…
