I’m not really sure what to write for this week’s introduction, but for some reason, I feel the holiday spirit. So allow me to air my grievances towards my position as a division manager for a youth basketball league and my ridiculously boring job, responsibilities that have prevented me from talking trance with a friend of mine. Ben Gold would’ve been there too. Enjoy the pole below.

     Finally, a preview for this track! The Estiva remix of “Love is Strong” achieved moderate success on Enhanced’s 5th instalment of the Digitally Enhanced mix compilation series, but I can only wonder what kind of attention would have been drawn if C-Systems, Jo Micali and Hanna Finsen’s original mix had been featured instead. Built upon the solid foundation of Mrs. Finsen’s voice is a tune that is as delicate as it is energetic. The emotion-filled synth work layers nicely with the breakdown’s piano and the chorus’ subtle claps, all  feeding the buzzing lead that comes full circle to give more importance to the song’s lovely vocals. A definite purchase for all progressive trance fans.
C-Systems & Jo Micali ft. Hanna Finsen – Love is Strong (Original Mix)
Released on October 22nd on Enhanced Progressive


     Until recently, I had never heard of Danny Chen or Statement! Recordings. However, the aptly named label has made a statement, releasing a magnificent production from a relatively new member of the trance family. Putting a capital ‘U’ in Uplifting, Chen easily communicates a happy feeling throughout the tune, staggering rising sounds with a quiet wandering synth in the intro and a reverberating bassline that follows the lead of the 5-note piano sequences that drive the chorus. With “Sunny Days” being reviewed in DJMag Italy, it’s clear that Danny Chen is a name to look out for in the future.
Danny Chen – Sunny Days (Original Mix) Statement! Recordings.
Released on July 16th on Statement!
Beatport – iTunes
Danny Chen - Sunny Days [Statement!] by Danny Chen

     If hawtmusik.com had a record of the week, this would be it. Apart from featuring the best bassline I’ve heard a long while and a vocalist who seems to change gender mid-song, Disclosure’s latest single is filled to the brim with clips that could run a track on their own. Whether it’s the quick succession of notes forming the afternoon delightful melody (see what I did there), the  separate vocals that yelp every now and then, the sublime kicks, claps and stabbing cymbals (attack, decay, sustain and release are so short, this element sounds more like chopsticks hitting together) that congregate to form the percussions, the aforementioned incredible bassline or the perfect isolation and/or interweaving of these layers, there’s something in this song for everyone. Having reached the 22nd spot on the UK singles chart, I’m obviously not the only one to think this song is amazing and I hope you join me in supporting Disclosure by purchasing this future classic.
Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – Latch (Original Mix)
Released on October 8th on PMR
Beatport – iTunes


     Getting it’s first play during Pete Tong’s Essential Selection on October 12th, the Larse remix of “Love is All I Got” is a deep house tune that is sure to attract a different kind of audience than mau5trap is used to. Originally a collaborative effort between electronica/folk band Crystal Fighters and electro wunderkind Feed Me, the track gets a calmer and groovier take with the help of another fantastic bassline and somewhat minimalistic percussion sounds. It’s hard to downplay how wonderfully the German producer has used the vocals in this track as it seems that he himself recorded the lyrics to specifically go with his instrumental. Along with identifying the track’s mood, the singing gives life to certain parts that would have otherwise seemed endlessly repetitive. Another vote of confidence for German engineering, the Larse remix of “Love is All I Got” is a mandatory buy for all those interested in the softer styles of house.
Feed Me & Crystal Fighters – Love is All I Got (Larse Remix)
Released on November 18th on mau5trap
iTunes Pre-Order
Feed Me & Crystal Fighters - "Love Is All I Got" (Larse Remix) by Larse

     It’s no secret that I have a broner for Eric Prydz and by proxy, anyone he makes music with. Andre Sobota is a producer who falls into this category, having released a 2-track EP on Pryda Friends in July of this year. His Prydz-like music is not what attracts my attention this week, however. Hiding in the rough of the Brasilian’s SoundCloud page was this diamond, a remake of Sasha and Krister Linder’s “Cut Me Down.” Under Sobota’s tutelage, 2011’s IMS anthem transforms from melodic tech house to acoustic electronica and it sounds absolutely fantastic. While musicians like to take listeners on a journey through their albums and productions of longer length, Sobota possesses the rare capability of doing this within the span of a single track, inserting slightly downtempo d&b percussions and elongating Linder’s vocals to serve his purposes. Transitioning his reconstruction to Sasha’s original lead at the end beautifies the production even more and makes this song well worth a listen.
Sasha ft. Krister Linder – Cut Me Down (Andre Sobota Remake) Acoustic, Electronica.
Sasha - Cut Me Down (Andre Sobota Remake) by andresobota

In terms of shows, the next 2 weeks are booked solid. On October 19th, Raneem will be playing an extended 7-hour set at Circus for a live episode of Drop Zone, his radio show, while Calvin Harris plays his unique crossover style at New City Gas (sold out). The most overused showroom in Montreal opens itself up once again on the 20th to host veteran Bob Sinclar. Let’s fast forward to the 24th, when dubstep supergroup Nero take over Telus Theater for a bizarre Wednesday night show. Friday the 26th begins with Ferry Corsten and Gabriel & Dresden at New City Gas and ends with Ben Gold and Dennis Sheperd at Stereo. The following night is another doubleheader, with Tim Mason at New City Gas (best costume wins $5000), spinning a solid opener for James Zabiela, who pays a rare visit to Circus. On All Hallows’ Eve, New City Gas opens it’s doors yet again, this time for a costumed night with legend Erick Morillo and Third Party.
Finally, I’d like to introduce the new end of post segment that will be featured from now on. Every Thursday, posts will be capped off with a video related to music. It could be a music video, a documentary, an intervew: anything really. This section has nothing to do with songs and artists we like (we don’t necessarily dislike them either), but rather the actual video. This week, the video for Ben Gold’s next single, “Fall With Me.”


Boy, that escalated quickly. I will not apologize for that.

I’m not talking about herpes, or the time interval between posts here at The Hawt, or the difficulty of my midterms, or … whatever. I’m talking about the DJMag top100 DJs of this year. I was astonished to see how bad this year’s poll is (it’s worse than last year’s!).

I have to admit a few artists deserve their newly acquired spot in the top100 and I congratulate them (I’m talking about Tritonal, Skrillex, Hardwell, Orjan Nilsen, Alesso, AN21, Felguk, Porter Robinson and Sidney Samson), but if you take a look at the top20, you will (most likely) throw up. You will notice that David Guetta is first, beating Armin Van Buuren for the first time. This “tragedy” shows us how the poll is now a huge farce and how getting good rankings just depends on how many Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers you have. I’m sorry David Guetta, but making pop music doesn’t mean you’re a good DJ. I remember hearing him at Bal en Blanc 16 and it was the worst set I’ve heard in my life coming from one of the “greatest DJs in the world”. He may have become better, but from what I know, I still don’t think he deserves his spot.

Also, Deadmau5 keeping his 4th spot helps proving how bad the poll now is. He told DJMag himself that he’s not entirely sure why he’s 4th in that poll, since he never touched a CDJ in his life and doesn’t consider himself a DJ.

To conclude my “raging”, let’s just say that the poll has become too popular and that most people voting don’t really know many DJs and vote for the ones they hear on the radio, like Guetta, Tiesto and Deadmau5 (don’t get me wrong though, I think Tiesto deserves his spot). Check out this video of Sexy chick, definitely the best remix/edit I’ve heard! Hahaha.

On to other things…

Justice just released their newest album Audio, Video, Disco and I’ll be honest with you guys, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the album. It’s a lot less “in yer face” and more of an “old school electro” record. It’s very good music by itself and I love it, but I think their last album was a little bit better when it comes to electro (and their singles/remixes). Justice didn’t bring their style to their album as much as they usually do in their other tracks and I don’t really see their album being played live without being remixed at all, it’s not electro enough. Of course there are a few tracks that are more Justice-y, like Civilization, but there are too many soft tracks in my opinion. It’s a good album, but not what I was expecting from the French duo… but hey, at least they will probably go back on tour! (It’s been 3 years since their last visit to Montreal) I’m sure their live performance is still amazing and I can’t wait for their return. While waiting for their tour, check out their video for the song Audio, Video, Disco(which is kinda awesome to be honest):

In my last post I talked about Tritonal and how they were really good and impressed me at their set. Two weeks ago, they released a club remix of a song I loved called Still With Me (featuring the amazing Cristina Soto). I think you guys should check it out if you didn’t already do so, since it’s really great!

I’ve been listening to dubstep again in the last few weeks, hoping their would be new records that were worth listening to since the last time I really checked into it (like 1 year ago). The style really evolved and is now a lot more “complicated” than it used to be. Let me explain: if you remember, the first time most of us heard about dubstep was when Rusko released his remix of Take Me to the Hospital and at that time, most songs were simply a bass line with simple wobbles, a few random sounds here and there and one or two drops (it was also always at 70 bpm). Now, if you listen to a song from Skrillex or Nero for example, there are a lot of different synths being used, mixed with a lot more samples and it’s not always 70 bpm. Also, moombahton is exploding right now and emos that used to listen to hardcore emo and such (now listening to dubstep) are all changing to half moombah, half dubstep. I like moombahton to be honnest, but it feels really weird to see a girl (non-emo girl) that used to listen to Usher and David Guetta ask me if I know Borgore or Skrillex or even if I know about moombahton. I guess the world is evolving! (Yeah right)

Here are a few links to youtube you should definitely check out if you enjoy dubstep.

Nero – Promises (Skrillex Remix)

Excision and Downlink – The Underground

Josh Money – Let Go With You

Robyn – Call Your Girlfriend (Feed Me Remix)

That’s it for now! Have a great week and may your midterms not suck as much as mine.

Hey everybody. We are Circuit 12 and we will be new writers for The Hawt. We really hope to be able to bring you, the readers, the best music out there and to keep you up to date with Electronic Music.

Both of us will be blogging independently as well as collaboratively. This is me, Rob, one half of Circuit 12 and the 2nd half, Jon, will also be blogging.

We hope to stay quite active in our writing and we will always be able to answer any form of question you may have. You can email us at circuit12@overtonerecordings.com

To kick things off, I would love to discuss TATW 350, the milestone episode of Trance Around The World. Just in case you are not familiar with this podcast, it is a 2 hour show hosted by Above & Beyond that you can download free on iTunes. It also is broadcast live on DI.FM every Friday at 2PM EST.

So this past Friday, the 10th, Above & Beyond celebrated their 350th edition of the show. An amazing achievement. I hear the party lived up to the achievement. From what I hear, the party (held at the L.A. Palladium) was beyond electric, with a godly line-up that included the likes of Super8 & Tab, Boom Jinx, Jaytech, Cosmic Gate as well as A&B themselves. The show started off with Boom Jinx, who true to his style, delivered an awesome progressive set which warmed up the crowd substantially. It was then Jaytech's turn who did exactly what Jaytech does, and it was brilliant.

Then, it was time for Cosmic Gate. Like the gods that they are, they delivered one of the best sets of their career, and had the LA Palladium bowing down to them, and loving the tunes. And as soon as the crowd was at its climax, Above & Beyond stepped on stage to the sound of Aruna and Mark Eteson. It was magical. They killed it, track after track.

To finish off the night, Super8 & Tab played a great set which added the cherry on top of the cake.

I went to go check the tracklists and was happily surprised to see the genre of songs all artists played. I was hoping A&B would not celebrate their 350th episode with a masquerade of dream trance, and they did not. Above & Beyond played a very deep melodic set compared to what they usually play. The highlight of the set, in my opinion, was Jerome Isma-ae & Daniel Portman's remix of Reflect by Maor Levi (Youtube link below). For fans of deep house, you will surely adore this tune.

Not only was the party incredible, but the guys at TATW did such a good job at getting faraway fans involved. There was a special TATW site where you could see where in the world people were listening. They even managed to reach the #1 Trending Topic on Twitter that day, an amazing achievement.

I think they deserve all the buzz they get, because they are amazing producers as well as amazing DJ's, and they are definitely some of my favorites in Trance.

Also, the 351st episode of TATW was broadcast today with a guest-mix from Armin van Buuren. It was an awesome follow-up to 350 and it was awesome to be able to experience a little ASOTATW, if you know what I mean ;)

On to other things.

I was listening to Episode 113 of the Gareth Emery Podcast, and came across a masterful dubstep/electro song. It is signed to deadmau5's label mau5trap, and is a collaboration between filthy-electro expert Feed Me and LA based Kill The Noise. I really, really liked this tune, and I thought I would share it with you. I unfortunately could not find a DL link, but I will link you to Youtube.



And in other dubstep news, Skrillex is going on a "mini-tour" with Nero, the dubstep king. If ever this show comes to Montreal, it is something you should not miss. If you like dubstep that is.

The new deadmau5 album was released not that long ago, and I have listened to it fully. I must admit I was not totally impressed by most of the songs, but there are still a few brilliant ones (Raise Your Weapon, Some Chords, Cthulu Sleeps). I really think deadmau5 has fallen a little behind in producing since his Strobe/Arguru/Brazil days. He seems to have very similar repetitive songs being released one after the other, and I am just not satisfied. And I also must admit that it is really the vocals in Raise Your Weapon that give it such power. I mean the dubstep part is good, but the power of the song is from the vocals, which are brilliant. The new deadmau5 album is what i was expecting, but now what I was hoping.



Blake Jarell is in town tonight, at Circus Afterhours. He is performing a 5-hour set. I must say I do not know much about Blake Jarell, but I definitely know he is a skilled producer who will surely play a good set.

I have been talking to producer Matt Lange for a little while now, and hopefully I will be able to interview in the coming weeks, make sure to stay tuned for that.

To end this off, here are a few good Trance songs I have been hearing over the last little while. One of them is a great remix by Cressida of Jericho. The other one is a brilliant remix of Pocket Damage by Ferry Corsten. It's Rafael Frost on the remix, so you know it will be good.


Thanks for reading The Hawt.

Circuit 12 (Rob)