Thursday it was all about the Dim Mak Pool Party with Steve Aoki and friends at the Raleigh Hotel Pool. His “friends” included DJ Carnage who greeted with a dubstep version of “Save The World.” Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike offered up a mix rendition of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” into Daft Punk’s “One More Time.” Sidney Sampson delivered spot-on blends of electro house, progress house and dubstep.
Dim Mak’s head honcho Aoki set it off with his Afrojack collaboration “No Beef.” It made sense because the surprise guest Afrojack was actually in the booth manning the decks at the moment. Aoki dropped another crowd pleaser with Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit Of Happiness.”
The sets were slathered with water blasts, cryogenics, champagne sprays, crowd rafting and cake — lots and lots of cake. Aoki aggressively burrowed into an oversized sheet cake, mixing it up before offering teaser samplings to front-row fans. With the crowd roaring anticipation to be one of his welcome victims, Aoki heaved the massive cake to the first few rows of willing fans to more uproarious applause and encouraging. All the while he played Borgore “Decisions” or commonly and affectionately referred to as the “Bitches Love Cake.” He spun for maybe 30 minutes then rode in a raft with a buddy. He sprayed the crowd with champagne and went running around for another half hour while the crowd ate it all up (literally). The tracks magically transitioned and one had to wonder how this is possible and who’s manning the decks. Sometimes it was electro house veteran Benny Benassi, sometimes Afrojack and occasionally Aoki. It was a spontaneous team effort. Aoki introduced a new dub-inspired track he said he wrote with Flux Pavillion so that’s one to watch for.
Electro-house DJ/producer Felix Cartel took to the decks in a massive way dishing out energetic and thumping tracks right from the start. He played his own, winning “No Sleep” and wound down with one of many remixes of “Clarity.” He wasted no time instigating the crowd and keeping them engaged even after his follow-up to his Dim Mak boss’s antics. Mr. Cartel also should be another on everyone’s one-to-continue-to-watch list.
The night closed out (or was just getting started) with a cab ride over to Miami’s Club Space for an opening, heaping, lively, earful from Bassjackers. Each and every track was just as kicking as the previous. Note-to-self, look into Bassjackers mixes or podcasts. He dropped a remix of the fun-loving, vocoder-laden “Easy” from dynamo’s Porter Robinson & Mat Zo. When he dropped a remix of “Maximal Crazy” it seemed a subliminal reference to the substantial crowd, ambiguous winding lines and hysteria to get into the venue tonight.
Ferry Corsten followed up with one of his winning archives “Rock Your Body Rock,” last year’s captivating “Check It Out” and his melodic “Live Forever.” Menno de Jong and Giuseppe Ottavianni were also on hand mingling with the A-list VIP’s.
Tritonal was in house rounding out the lineup and celebrating posting the following on Facebook, “Let’s all wish my best friend and awesome partner, David Reed, a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Let’s rock this party dude!!” A perfect example of DJ’s partying in true style.
Images by Kathy Vitkus
