POST BY JUSTIN (yes, again. his computer is not working properly for some reason.)

If you live in Canada, you’ve surely heard about the death of New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton. Good ol’ Jack valiantly fought the nasty cancerous cells which had been plaguing him since early 2010 and surrendered early in the morning of August 22nd. He will be remembered by many as the man who brought the NDP to prominence. However, for those of you who don’t exactly know who he is or are far too immature to care about politics, like me, he will be remembered for the glorious ferret he kept on his upper lip. RIP, Jack. Now back to the music.

Since the end of the Ibiza season crosses paths with the opening of the DJ Mag top 100 poll, lots of DJs/producers are hard-pressed to spit out new tracks and leave a lasting impression before the general public goes back to work/school. I’m relatively certain that’s what Alesso and Sebastian Ingrosso had in mind when collaborating on their new track, “Calling.” Set for release on Ingrosso’s Refune Records on August 31st, this Progressive House bomb perfectly melds the distinct styles of both the veteran and his young protégé. A beautiful loop of chopped up vocals gets the tune underway, flowing into the short breakdown and introducing the simple, yet catchy melody. Then comes a vital part of the tune, the bassline. It oscillates in and out of audible volume and slowly rises from low to high pitch. It somewhat resembles the cuts in Alesso’s remix of Pressure, making me think the loop comes from him. It adds a magnificent contrast to the lead synth and truly makes “Calling” what it is. The only drawback I have to this collaboration is the way the volume of the different layers is distributed. All previous previews of this track came from live performances with loud bass, completely overshadowing the bassline and diminishing my enjoyment. I’d have to hear it live myself to properly judge, but still a great song to have on your iPod.

Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso – Calling (Original Mix)

Released on August 31st on Refune Records

In lieu of recent events, I find it hard to believe that computer software and an idiotic arsonist come before British producing partners when you search “Nero” on Google. The duo of Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray has got to be the hottest act in the Dubstep and Drum ‘N Bass worlds right now. With the emerging popularity of Nero’s collaborative remix with Skrillex of their own “Promises” and last week’s massive release of their debut artist album, “Welcome Reality,” it seems like the group has set a nearly insurmountable bar for any of the subgenres’ other artists. Their productions have reached the far corners of the EDM universe, turning Trance, House and Techno enthusiasts, as well as far too many critics, into huge fans. Needless to say, I’m a big supporter and their latest remix of Calvin Harris’ “Feel So Close” does nothing but strengthen my love for these two geniuses. In this reworking, they keep the vocals intact and precisely incorporate quick stabbing drum sounds that go great with the inevitable wobbles of Dubstep. To top it all off, the remix is outfitted with a brilliant, fast-paced melody that, combined with the lyrics, give the song a satirical feeling of sinister comfort. Give it a listen, there’s an open spot next to me on the Nero bandwagon.

Calvin Harris – Feel So Close (Nero Remix)

Released on August 22nd on Ultra Records

Beatport – iTunes

As if listening to their music wasn’t fun enough, Nero designed their very own Facebook-integrated arcade game, in which you can sample 6 tracks from “Welcome Reality.” Take control of Daniel, Joe or Alana (vocalist on most of their tracks, although not technically a part of the group) and go postal as street thugs attack from all sides. The more points you have, the more tracks you unlock. Play the game here or check out the whole album here.

Diplo’s history as a collaborator leaves little doubt that he is more than just your average DJ/producer. Unbeknownst to the majority of the public, the Philadelphia native is partly responsible for massive chart topping hits, such as M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” Beyonce’s “Rule The World (Girls),” Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi’s “That Tree,” Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne’s “Look At Me Now” and an immeasurable quantity of other wildly popular tracks. His latest team effort, a Dubstep/Electronica track with Datsik and vocalist Kay, surpasses almost all of his previous work, as far as the dance floor is concerned. The track starts with a comical manipulation of Kay’s voice, making her sound like a husky rapper with throat cancer. This paves the way for the breakdown, which is characterized by scattered kick drums, a nagging wind sound, bits of vocals and an awkward melody, all building up to a veritable “calm before the storm” moment. Where Stoneface & Terminal succeed in Trance, Diplo and Datsik do in Dubstep; the drop is the offspring of Hurricane Katrina and Mount Vesuvius. It’s jumping off the Empire State Building and having God turn up the effects of gravity tenfold. The drop is so hard, it makes diamonds feel like sponge cake. Strong, heavy synths and Datsik’s signature “Transformers” sound crowd the meaty part as the title of the track, “Pick Your Poison,” is repeated amidst the bass-heavy and undeniably massive sound. This song is a must-have for all Dubstep fans and will surely be played for a long time.

Diplo & Datsik – Pick Your Poison (Original Mix)

Released on August 2nd on Mad Decent

Beatport – iTunes

It’s been over a year since the first Sound of Garuda album was released. The 2-disc compilation brought us tracks like Ben Gold’s “Sunstroke” and was also the platform for the original release of Gareth Emery’s incredible re-edit of “Lethal Stadium Four.” This time around, Garuda is going with a single-disc, 12 track compilation with all exclusive tunes. Taking tracks and artist from a multitude of labels, Emery seems to have chosen songs that best reflect and hone the Garuda sound, hence the name of the compilation series. The Sound of Garuda: Chapter 2 will feature exclusive tracks and mixes from Garuda veterans, such as M.I.K.E. and Mark Eteson, as well as newcomers Craig Connelly and Michael Jay Parker, Triarchy’s first original production and of course, two tracks from the leader of the label himself.

The Sound of Garuda: Chapter 2

Released on Garuda on September 5th

(If the soundcloud doesn’t work go HERE or HERE if the first option doesn’t work either)

Now a quick event update. If you won’t be going to New York for Electric Zoo or Toronto for Labour of Love, then its no sweat off your back. That’s right, Montreal finally decided to plan a few big events for labour day weekend. Fei-Fei gets the weekend started on Friday at Circus Afterhours, with a big chunk of that night’s proceeds going to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. On Saturday, September 3rd, Sebastian Ingrosso makes an appearance at Metropolis for a solo show. If you leave as soon as it’s over, you might be able to scurry over to Circus in time for the start of John Digweed’s set. If you read this blog, you probably aren’t a Techno fan, but you still might want to get your ticket for the legendary Carl Cox at Stereo. Physically and musically, the man is a tank. He’ll have some tough competition with Umek, Arty and Tritonal all playing at Circus on the same night. My pick: Circus with the superstar trio. It’s half the price of Carl Cox’s show and features 3 artist instead of one. Have a great Labour Day weekend!

Summer is a great season; plenty of quality shows, new releases, sundresses, great weather and… more sundresses. Obviously if this was the Playboy website I would be talking exclusively of sundresses (on or off), but this is an EDM blog so I’ll be talking more about the latest shows and releases we’ve got to see and listen.

First of all, we went to see Gareth Emery at Telus Theater AND Circus Afterhours on July 22nd and I must say, it was great. There’s something that Gareth has that other DJs don’t and I can’t really tell what it is, but one thing I know is that he makes people go crazy (me included).

Telus Theater (Northern Lights Concert): As expected, he played a similar set to the one he played at ASOT500 last April. He obviously played the so-called “ASOT 500 Remix” of Into the Light and the KNAS Insomnia mashup on top of other great tracks. There was also a few live performance with Mark Frisch, Roxanne Emery and Lucy Saunders. Something worth mentioning: Gareth played the piano while his sister sang Too Dark Tonight and he was great. Mark Frisch was the best live performance in my opinion, but all of them were good. The only “bad” thing we’ve noticed was that Lucy Saunders cannot dance, at all. She would clap her hands and not move at all, but hey, she still sang really well. Overall, it was an incredible set and my favourite from Gareth until now. The atmosphere was great, the sound was almost perfect (not too loud and good quality) and the lighting was crazy (especially the laser). It was a little bit hot in there and the fact you can’t refill water bottles kind of sucks, but it was only from 12 to 3, so we weren’t really tired yet and could endure the lack of water.

Circus Afterhours (Regular Set): The afterparty was at Circus Afterhours and Gareth played a 2 hour set that finished around 7-7:30 (I can’t remember exactly). Since he played all of his best tracks at Telus, it wasn’t as good (in my opinion) as the concert before, but it was still above average in term of quality. It really felt like an afterhour instead of a normal set: there was less energy in the crowd and such, but I still enjoyed my time there as well. We caught Blake Jarell’s last 45 minutes and I think he was really good. My favourite track from him was his mashup of Heart Is King vs. Losing My Religion, even though I really don’t like the original of Heart is King (the vocals make it that much better, yes).

I don’t remember if Gareth played his new collaboration with Ben Gold at Telus Theater (or Circus), but one thing I know is that it’s awesome and that I have a 128kbps version for you guys! Make sure you buy it on September 5th when it gets released; I’ve set an alarm on my phone to make sure I don’t forget. I’m not kidding. I really like the mix of Gareth’s “way of doing songs” with Ben Gold’s synths and personal touch. Hear the awesomeness for yourself:

Gareth Emery & Ben Gold – Flash

Let’s change of music genre a little (a lot) and talk about Moombahton/Moombahcore. This genre is a mix of reggaeton and dubstep/weird car engine noises. I thought it would be horrible at first, but after giving it a listen, I must admit that it’s really good and innovative. Here is a song (harder moombahcore than usual) and a mix from Diplo that’s really great and that is not 100% moombahcore, but it’s really worth listening too.

Datsik – Firepower (Munchi Moombahcore Remix)

MDWWR #67 Diplo's Moombahton 2k11 Mix by diplomaddecent

That is all for now! Don’t forget to buy your tickets for Michael Woods, Mat Zo and Jochen Miller that are going to play at Beachclub on the 13th and Jochen Miller and Heatbeat at Circus Afterhours (right after Beachclub).

POST BY JUSTIN (He wasn't able to post it from his account for some reason).

My couple of months away from EDM blogging saw 3 artists call off their Montreal appearances, free tickets thrown away, multiple trips to BeachClub and an unfortunate bout of food poisoning, ultimately leading to a 4th and 5th cancellation. Although the end of May/beginning of June was supposed to be rife with international DJs, Andy Moor, Axwell and Ferry Corsten were unable to grace us with their talents. Regardless, we had other events to focus on, like the 100th episode of Tytanium Sessions. On the 1-year anniversary of the 105th edition of Gareth Emery’s podcast, Sean Tyas set camp at Circus Afterhours for the 100th episode of his. Even though none of us are big fans of his weekly show, there was no way we were going to pass up a St-Jean-Baptiste celebration with Raneem, Arnej, Simon Patterson and Sean himself.

Raneem got the show started with a set full of IDs. The live Afterhours.FM broadcast only began one hour into his performance, so he naturally kept most of his own productions for the last 2 hours. He played his popular remix of Emvy’s “Strut,” as well as “Out of Nowhere” and his mashup of CIrez D’s “On Off” and Darude’s “Sandstorm,” which is always a crowd pleaser. After re-listening to his set, it has become clear how much Raneem’s grown this year. Nobody at The Hawt had ever heard of him until Gareth Emery’s February show and our respect for his musical prowess hasn’t stopped gaining since. Here’s the last 2 hours of his set from the night.

Filesonic – Megaupload

Arnej followed our favorite Circus resident with the best 90 minutes of the night. His darker take on Trance was ever so present as he entertained the crowd with tracks by Dakota, Jacob van Hage and a few from Coldharbour Recordings. The highlight of the night came when he played his new 8 Wonders tune, “X.” The song features a somewhat elaborate melody, all the while keeping the bass-heavy dark presence which he holds dear. As if that wasn’t enough, he followed his original with Chris Schweizer’s bootleg mix of “Zombie Nation.” When he turned down the music, only to hear the entire club singing along, it was obvious that he had stolen the show. Here’s “X,” along with his set.

Arnej pres. 8 Wonders – X (Original Mix)

Released on July 18th on Arnej Music

Filesonic – Megaupload

Arnej was followed by the evening’s headliner, Sean Tyas. I’d seen him at Circus before and I recall having had an absolute blast. True to his form, Tyas turned the bass up as high as possible and consequently, no one could quite hear the melody or any other parts of any of the songs he played. I’m not sure what it sounded like in the DJ booth, but we were only able to recognize the tunes we actually knew. Amongst the incomprehension, we were able to make out Funkagenda’s “What The Fuck,” Eric Prydz’s remix of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and Tyas’ “Banshee.” Only after listening to the recording afterwards was I able to properly appreciate it. And even then, it wasn’t anything special. All together, it was a somewhat disappointing performance by Tyas, as he was easily overshadowed by the impressive squad he invited to play alongside him. Here’s his set from the night.

Filesonic – Megaupload

Simon Patterson was the next to play. He nearly employed the same tactic as Tyas, but cleverly turned down the bass ever so slightly. His set was characterized by unpredictable drops, lengthy breakdowns and lots of his own tracks. I was disappointed to see him neglect his label’s latest release, Nick Callaghan and Will Atkinson’s 2011 remix of his classic, “F16.” In fact, he played Night Vision’s only other 2 releases in Des McMahon’s remix of Wayde Rafnel and Dave Correa’s “Derailed” and Patterson’s own “Latika.” He ended his solo time with “For The Most Part,” his collaboration with Sean Tyas which fit nicely in what was to come. Here’s his entire set from Circus.

Filesonic – Megaupload

In the final moments of the Afterhours.FM live braodcast, Patterson and Tyas played back to back, as in one song after the other. This is when they played their more recognizable tracks, like Dogzilla’s “Without Me” and Tyas’ remixes of Tiësto’s “Suburban Train” and Gareth Emery’s “Sanctuary." Here’s their back to back set.

Filesonic – Megaupload

Thanks to our buddy Samson at montreal-nightclubs.com for the download links. Check his website for all the tracklists from Tytanium Sessions 100.

The holiday weekend continued on Sunday at BeachClub. Pointe-Calumet hosted Sander van Doorn and hundreds of Montrealers eager for a taste of the amazement he displayed at Bal en Blanc. Playground had built a special stage for Armin during his recent visit, but for some reason, Sander was not given the same luxury. Albeit a little crowded, the dancefloor was nonetheless spacious and easily encompassed the horde of day ravers. Here’s what the scene looked like from the DJ booth:

As you can imagine, the area was laden with more than a few over-makeuped, silicone engineered “hotties” grinding their shirtless He-Men and the HGH/steroid abuse problems that came with them, shades of La Folie. I can only speak for myself, but while I’m not a fan of the fake tit, I don’t mind having a few graze my body while I dance. I might be split on the whole Guido culture, but I’m definitely not on Sander van Doorn.

The Dutch producer settled in just as we arrived and opened with the obvious track of summer 2011, Alesso’s remix of “Pressure.” The next hours were spent bobbing and weaving in between genres, going from House to Trance, Electro to the rare Techno track and so on. Sander took the opportunity to drop many tracks from the newest in his Dusk Till Doorn compilation series, which contains lots of new material from Spinnin’s sub-labels. From Wall Recordings, he played Afrojack’s “Doing It RIght” and “Prutataaa,” a collaboration with DJ R3hab, Erick Strong’s “Italian” from Reset Records and Ummet Ozcan’s “Transcend” from Liquid Recordings. However good “Transcend” may be, it was greatly overshadowed by his latest dubbed “Reboot.” The tune reveals a different, more tech-trance side to Ozcan, a variety he’d been lacking for a long time. It’s on the Dusk Till Doorn compilation, but will get a proper release on the 1st of August.

Ummet Ozcan – Reboot (Original Mix)

Released on August 1st on Doorn Records

Since he was so brilliant at Bal en Blanc, his set at BeachClub may have been slightly disappointing to some, considering he also chose to play a variety of genres instead of sticking to the strict Trance makeup his performances used to employ. He ended his show with Eric Prydz’s fantastic remix of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” a tune made for live performances currently being played out by loads of DJs, the original mix of “Daddyrock,” even though the Arty remix had just been released, and Sander’s remix of The Killers’ “Spaceman.” He also managed to squeak in his new tune, “Timezone,” which features the vocals of Frederick, but it lacks the power and energy needed for a song to be played live. Regardless, although Sander’s performance paled in comparison to the white party’s, it was a memorable one that displayed his love for all genres of EDM and his willingness to open the minds of the numerous House enthusiasts.

Raneem was on closing duties and since we had missed most of his opening set at Circus on Thursday, we decided to stick around to check out our favorite resident DJ. There’s a few things we learned: first off, looks like Raneem shaves his pits. Just sayin’. Second, Raneem is as popular, maybe even more so, than Sander van Doorn is in Montreal. If you’re a member of the Montreal Trance Scene group on Facebook, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There was a ridiculous amount of praise for him with lots of people saying that he had ousted the Dutchman. Thirdly, his new track, which he happened to premier at the event, is absolutely genius. It’s called “Free Fall,” its just been signed to Leon Bolier’s Streamlined and it might be even better than “Out Of Nowhere.” Here’s a video of Raneem at BeachClub mixing Mark Sherry’s “Phantasmic” into his own “Free Fall.”

Raneem – Free Fall (Original Mix)

Released on ??? on Streamlined

Check out Ramy Bargz’s YouTube channel for nearly all of Raneem’s set from BeachClub.