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Electric Zoo Promises To Be Breed Apart From Other Festivals

Darren Ressler 2 Comments

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We’re still weeks away from Memorial Day and the official start of summer, but electronic music fans in the New York City tristate area can look forward to the upcoming Electric Zoo festival, which will be held on Labor Day weekend. The two-day event produced by Made Events will take place on September 5-6th at Randall’s Island Park. The festival will feature performances from the usual list of big-name house and trance DJs like Armin Van Buuren, Benny Benassi, Danny Tenaglia, Roger Sanchez, Luciano, Robbie Rivera, Marco Carola, David Guetta, Ferry Corsten, Richie Hawtin, Markus Schulz, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, Frankie Knuckles, and more to be announced. Want to hear drum ‘n’ bass, techno or dubstep? Well, you’re shit out of luck (so far).

Tickets for the event are currently available as single-day passes at $55 and double-pack two-day passes at $100 for General Admission. VIP single-day passes are available at $120 and VIP double-pak two-day passes at $225. VIP passes include a separate VIP entrance, access to VIP lounge with private cash bar, exclusive viewing area at main stage and access to VIP-only deluxe bathrooms. Tickets are available at Electric Zoo’s website.

Matthew Dear and Ryan Elliott Take A&R Reigns at Spectral Sound

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Ghostly International’s offshoot Spectral Sound has developed an impressive catalog of music since launching in 2000. Over the span of almost nine years, the label has released choice albums, such as Matthew Dear’s Leave Luck to Heaven, and choice techno efforts by the likes of Jeff Samuel, Osborne, Geoff White, and James T. Cotton. After a solid run of releases, co-owner Matthew Dear has announced that he is taking over A&R duties for the label with Ryan Elliott.

“Ryan and I are simply on the road more than anyone in the office,” Matthew Dear tells Big Shot. “The past few years have seen us playing a lot more, meeting new acts, receiving demos on the road, and playing more new music out in the clubs. Since we experience the physical reality of what things sound like out there, it was only fitting that we took over more of the artistic direction. We want the label to reflect more of the life we’ve been experiencing.”

“Context is one of the most important elements of dance music,” adds Ryan Elliott. “Playing somewhere around the world most weekends really lets you hone your ear as to what works well and what does not. We want to bring that to our release schedule even more than we have in the past. We both are continually playing, receiving, and looking for new music, so its only natural that we parlay that into our A&R duties. It’s also good to have more than one set of ears deciding on releases. If something grabs both of us right away, it’s usually a good sign that it is a track or artist we want to pursue.”

Spectral Sound has a slew of upcoming releases dropping in the next few months, including EPs from Osborne and Lee Curtis, as well as singles from Seth Troxler, Bodycode, Kate Simko and Death Is Nothing To Fear 5.

“Spectral has always been very amorphous in our direction in sound, and we’ll definitely stick to that path of continuous change,” adds Dear. “Things will get deeper than they have in the past. We’ll also be planning more label showcases and residencies around the world.”

“Spectral Sound 2009 is aimed squarely at the dance floor,” concludes Elliott. “Groove heavy tools for DJs. Further development of our core artists and a constant ear to the ground, looking for like-minded new (or new to our label) producers. As Matthew stated, we also want to do more real-time events, pop-up Spectral parties and label nights to help deliver our sound.”

The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett Disses Ultra Gig

Darren Ressler 16 Comments

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After ripping the roof off Roseland in New York City, The Prodigy, who are riding on their new album, Invaders Must Die, flew down to perform at Ultra Music Festival in Miami. Bad weather and flight delays almost caused the revered UK band to miss the gig—something that mastermind Liam Howlett almost wishes had happened. “Ultra didn’t really float my boat, “Howlett tells Big Shot. “We’ve done [Ultra] before, and I really don’t like it.”

Keith Flint had a different take on the show. “It was wicked,” he told Big Shot. “I didn’t see much of the festival. We got delayed coming in from New York, and we went straight onto the stage from the airport. That mission to get onstage is always exciting, especially when it’s a banging show. Miami rocks—they love their dance music. We banged it and it rocked.”

“We’ve done [Ultra] before. I don’t really enjoy it. I didn’t think the crowd was very good. It was very flat. It’s meant to be like a rave or a party, but it was the most unresponsive crowd I’ve ever seen. It was, like, dead. [Miami] is filled with holidaymakers that time of year, innit? I could have a better party in my living room.”

Nonetheless, Howlett says he isn’t planning to rush back to Ultra—or Miami—in the near future. “It’s not my type of thing, you know? We’ve done [Ultra] before. I don’t really enjoy it. I didn’t think the crowd was very good. It was very flat. It’s meant to be like a rave or a party, but it was the most unresponsive crowd I’ve ever seen. It was, like, dead. [Miami] is filled with holidaymakers that time of year, innit? I could have a better party in my living room. It was, like, nothing. I was like, c’mon, c’mon…what the fuck are we doing? You can print me saying this. I don’t give a shit.”

The Prodigy return to the U.S. for an eight-day tour kicking off on May 18th in Washington, DC. Strangely enough, no Miami area dates are on their upcoming itinerary.

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In A Troubled Economy, Electric Daisyland Expands Into Two-Day Event

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You don’t need us to tell you that the economy sucks. Music festivals all over the world and the U.S. (including Langerado) have been canceled, and many have been forced to get extremely creative (layaway plans, deep advance discounts, iPhone apps, etc.) in order to maintain interest among cash-strapped music fans. At a time when events are being canceled or scaled back, Insomniac, which promotes SoCal’s Electric Daisy Carnival, is expanding from a one- to two-day event for the first time. Billing itself at North America’s largest electronic music gathering, EDC, which will take place June 26-27th at Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Park in L.A., is expecting to draw 100,000 attendees (last year’s event drew 65,000 people).

“Last year we had all the production set up on Friday and were completely ready for the event,” explains Insomniac Events’ Pasquale Rotella. “Many of the artists were in town, guests and attendees were also already in the area and looking for something to do. We figured, why not do two days and extend the festival over the whole weekend?”

Despite the economic downturn, Rotella is confident that tickets—which, incidentally, go on sale on April 21st—will sell business as usual since EDC has become a SoCal institution for fans of dance music.

“We are somewhat more protected than many of the other larger festivals. We like to think that all of these unique factors result in EDC being one of the more recession-proof festivals in America.”

“We have a loyal following, many of whom travel from far away and we really want to maximize the enjoyment that they get out of the event,” says Rotella. “In addition, EDC is a very unique festival as we are in the middle of one of the largest urban areas in America.This means hotel prices are generally lower, access is convenient and accommodations more varied. On top of that people don’t have to travel far if they are coming from Southern California so travel expenses are minimal. Finally, our ticket prices are very reasonable which contributes to our overall accessibility. So, in the current economy, we are somewhat more protected than many of the other larger festivals. We like to think that all of these unique factors result in EDC being one of the more recession-proof festivals in America.”

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