Dynamite, the Nobel Prize, Vikings, Minecraft, the Pirate Bay, the Millennium Trilogy, Swedish meatballs, and of course, Swedish women. These are only a few elements that make Sweden awesome, music being the important one missing from this short list. Here are a few old tracks from Swedish producers that I’ve been avidly listening to these past few weeks:

Faithless ft. Cass Fox – Music Matters (Axwell Remix)

     Originally released on Sony BMG back in 2007, re-released alongside Rollo & Sister Bliss, Peter Heller and Mark Knight remixes on Toolroom in 2010. I have a soft spot for anything remotely Faithless.

Dada Life – We Meow, You Roar (Original Mix)

     Also from 2007, back when Dada Life wasn’t popular enough to occupy both faces of a vinyl. The A-side of this record is a Rob Mooney track with “We Meow, You Roar” taking the B-side. Sidenote: Dada Life recently announced their new studio album, “Rules of Dada.” Pre-order it here.

Carl B – Social Suicide (Original Mix)

     Profuse records gave life to this old-school big room trance track back in 2006, only Carl’s second release to date. This guy is quite inspiring to young producers, because he was able to break into the dance music scene without any prior music education whatsoever.

Axwell & Sebastian Ingrosso – Together (Original Mix)

     The first release on the now famous Axtone record label, Axwell and Ingrosso’s 2005 collaboration was and is an amazing one. It was subsequently featured on many house compilations, including the soundtrack/compilation to SHM’s documentary, “Take One.”

Eric Prydz – Slammin’ (Extended Mix)

     One of my favorite tracks of all-time is this Eric Prydz classic. Is came out on Feel the Rhythm in 2003 and it was one of the gems that propelled him into the house music spotlight. It still sounds amazing today. Sidenote: He recently did an edit of Adrian Lux’s “Teenage Crime” that I can’t get enough of.

     This Friday, Armin van Buuren and Jochen Miller play a sold-out show at New City Gas which continues into the early hours of Saturday morning, as Miller heads over to Circus Afterhours. On Saturday, you can catch Etienne Ozborne at Circus after you’ve gone to see Sultan & Ned Sheperd play at New City Gas. Sunday is a big one, as the Palais des Congres plays host to another installement of the annual Black & Blue festival. You can also go check out Felix Da Housecat at La Mouche on Sunday. A week later, on Saturday October 13th, it’s Tommy Trash’s turn to play New City Gas and Mr. Jean Louis spins another set at Circus Afterhours. Enjoy your weekend!

After two intense nights of raving and completely screwing with my biological clock,  I gotta say I’m kind of happy i got two  very relaxed days. It allowed me to try and catch up on all the songs i heard over the weekend. Turns out I’m probably gonna need over a week.  Aight so as you know on NYE Fred and I went to Red-Lite to see Cosmic Gate & Avicii. Problem is we, or anyone else for that matter had no clue that Avicii’s set started at 5am, so we got there at 11 and got to see all the resident djs play, mostly, they sucked. At least we got it better then Toronto, cops cancelled Avicii’s set, suckers. Anyways once Avicii showed up it was sick, living up to my expectations from Electric Zoo. It’s incredible to think that he hasn’t been djing for very long and he’s this good. I mean come on, even i look older than this guy, ok maybe not but its close… Here are some highlights of his set:

Swede Dreams – Avicii (I tried to find this song after hearing at Electric Zoo and gave up shortly after, then it got released or something)

Drowning (Avicii’s Unnamed Mix) – Armin Van Buuren

…loved the original, love the remix.

Jailbait Insomnia (Avicii Mashup) – Avicii vs. Faithless

Ah, the cryptic Maxi Jazz lyrics are classic, just classic. And finally my favourite Avicii song of all time:

My Feelings For You – Avicii & Sebastian Drums

Hopefully Fred will be able to put in a video he took of the best 8mins or so of the set.

Aight, so when he was done, Cosmic Gate came on but unfortunately the crowded sucked some serious balls (stupid Laval), and Fred forced me to leave early. Their set was sick but I think people were too tired to enjoy. Funny side story: The next night at Circus, Nic Chagall (1/2 of Cosmic Gate) was hanging out at Circus with all the other world superstar djs there and at some point, Jon (from Circuit 12) crossed him in the bathroom and cam to get me. So obviously, as anyone else would have done i  presume, i started running towards where he was, totally bowling over some girl in the process. In my defence, she should not have been between me and Nic Chagall.  Anyways so we get to him and wait awkwardly while he finishes his conversation with some other dude and then we start talking and I apologized for Red-Lite sucking balls and he agreed with me. Anyways, we talked a bit more and it turns out he’s fucking nice and he’s now my new idol. But back to the music now here are  some tracks they played:

Back to Earth (Arty Remix) – Cosmic Gate

(Really sick track, I love the Jochen Miller Remix as well)

This Light Between Us (Dabruck & Klein Remix) – Armin Van Buuren

(This picture really does not do him justice… he usually wears a hat.)

Alright so that was just night number one. On the second night we were blessed to see Marcus Schossow and Simon Patterson (and meet Nic Chagall, aka Jesus).

Schossow was not at all what I expected, in a good way. He actually gave the best set of the weekend. He’s a bit chubby for a dj (see picture here), I found that pretty funny too. When he came on i actually thought he was a sound technician or something, shame on me really.

The Emergency (Marcus Schossow Remix) – Bt & Andrew Bayer

Love Comes Again (Bart Claessen Remix) – Tiësto feat. BT

You’re Not Alone (ATB Remix) – Olive (this track has the most majestic vocals)

Simon Patterson came on later, and just like Schossow it was complete energy the whole time. I mean, when you open your set with some Marcel Woods, it’s a good sign of things to come.

Tomorrow – Marcel Woods (one of my favourite tracks at the moment)

Without You – Dogzilla

So before I end this incredibly long post by my standards, fairly short by Justin’s though, I would just like to share with everyone that GARETH EMERY IS BACK IN MONTREAL FEBRUARY 25TH AT CICRUS AFTERHOURS!!! Thats right mofos (20$)!!!

We also have a crazy January/ February with Ronski Speed, Wippenberg, Benni Benassi and Gareth at Circus and Paul Van Dyk at Theatre Telus. In March we got Marco V at Circus also. Man i love that place. And don’t forget Bal en Blanc in April with Tiësto and Above and Beyond already confirmed.

For those of you in University, good luck going back to school and for those of you in Cegep, fuck you.