Seven days of festival can seem like a lot to even the most hardened clubber. Even Craig David took Sunday's off. But that's exactly what The Garden, Croatia, have been providing festival goers for the past decade. Seven days of non-stop club, beach and boat party action featuring the world’s most splendid house and disco talent.
After a long KLM flight from Amsterdam, we arrive at Guayaquil Airport and immediately catch up with Mr C and his partner Xo Chic. It was Mr C who had suggested a DJ Mag party at Lost Beach in Ecuador — and it would’ve been rude not to have taken up the offer really.
Modular seems to be the buzzword of the moment within the dance music fraternity — everywhere we look we are encircled by the new modular way of working. Moog champion the modular approach that has always made them a popular fit in electronic circles, whilst Roland look to push the modular approach onto a new wave of future producers with their new Aira system. Then there are all the bespoke guys utilising the love of all things modular who are creating some pretty tasty systems in their own right.
Manchester’s Parklife festival exists in an alternative dimension where EDM doesn’t exist. You won’t find any cake throwing DJs or the latest celebrity selectors throwing down beats in any of its arenas. What it does offer though, is a festival full to the brim with the latest cutting-edge DJs, producers and bands, which have made it there on merit, and merit alone. Meticulously programmed from start to finish, the festival offers something a bit different — something with a little bit more substance.
The big news from Image-Line the makers of FL Studio (or Fruity Loops as some of the older readers still call it) is that a brand-new version is dropping — and there are more than a few upgrades in there that will be sure to excite existing users and quite possibly attract more than a few converts.
If there is any downside to writing the Tech Section of DJ Mag it certainly isn't getting to see all of the latest equipment from the various manufacturers many months before anyone else. But there is a price to pay for this quantity of digital gluttony and that is the fact that very little equipment truly excites our jaded eyes.
It’s the wee small hours of a Monday morning in March. As most of Britain sleeps in preparation for what will probably be another mundane (if not miserable) week at work, we’re surrounded by a few thousand devout techno disciples determined to see out the last moments of a marathon 36-hour rave, in a room usually used for family-friendly cabaret shows and, one week earlier, a darts tournament.
Swedish people are cool. It’s no secret that the Swedes have a certain “je ne sais quoi”, a magic that’s spawned everything from furniture empire Ikea to cult clothing label ACNE, and even Drumcode founder, Adam Beyer, topped off by a famously blessed gene pool and some of Europe’s most breathtaking scenery.
French production duo Amine Edge & DANCE coined the phrase “G house” to describe their low-slung, tough and funked-up take on dance music. Initially drawing inspiration from the gangsta rap of classic hip-hop acts like the Notorious BIG and Dr Dre on breakthrough tunes for 2DiY4 ('Going to Heaven with the Goodie-Goodies') fusing samples of rhymes with house beats — hence the G house tag — they draw from wider influences too for releases on their own CUFF label.
The brainchild of four partners, Switch opened in what was once an old cinema theatre in the middle of September. Seth Troxler, Sigma, Groove Armada and MK are just some of the names that have headlined so far, while Chase & Status and Paul Woolford played on NYE and NYD.
