Posted by: Jay

We’ve all been waiting for it for a loooong long time and I’m happy to announce that there is finally a weekly event where you can hear your favorite Beatery DJs laying it down! I’ve rustled up 800 Larkin Lounge for us to have our way with every Friday, 5pm - 10pm, plus I somehow convinced the owners it was a good idea to give us access to $2 PBRs and 2 for 1 well drinks! That, my friends, is how to kick off your weekend.

We’ve got a super sweet line up for our first party this Friday (4/22) that I’m absolutely thrilled about! Full details can be found on the:

Weekend Warm-Up info page

Great music, cheap as hell drinks, no cover… what’s not to love?? See you there!

Posted by: Derek

Whew! So, two weeks back and I still can’t stop thinking about Miami. It was a heck of alotta content packed into a week, and a great deal of awesomeness was had.

The folks I went with and I were lucky enough to have been invited to a private party at legendary mix engineer Tom Lord-Alge’s house, where both BT and Alex MORPH were performing. First off — WTF? This is totally the sort of thing that happens at a private party out there…sounds like a joke almost but it was complete awesome reality.

We all know BT, but lemme introduce you to Alex MORPH if you don’t know him.

He’s actually one of the most consistent and solid remixers in the trance scene, a killer artist and DJ, and…has an inexplicable love of trucker hats. Yup, he’s basically never seen without them - and true to form he was wearing one out this day as well.

Since they were broadcasting the audio from the event on XM, some kind soul saved the stream into a file, and I’ve found it to share with y’all. It’s fun stuff - back and forth between progressive house and flowy trance. Perfect for watching the sun go down over the bay!

Enjoy the set here, and look farther below for the bonus video!

Alex M.O.R.P.H - Live at Global Frequency 2011 (right click and save-as to download)

For extra WTF factor, he was joined by two gogos in white feather outfits that were rocking their stuff on stage — this was a pretty interesting juxtaposition with pounding progressive tracks played by a dude in redneck duds (see bonus video below!!).

BONUS! Here’s a short clip of what the scene was like:

Alex MORPH at SeaToSun Global Frequency Miami 2011 from Derek Ryan on Vimeo.

Posted by: Derek

whoa, what a ride…

As mentioned in my [last podcast post] I just got back from Miami Music Week, and hot damn that was alot of awesome.
Industry parties, pool parties, things happening at all hours, craziness all around.

Given that nearly the entire dance music community was there it was a great place to meet friends, listen to some amazing tunes at arms-length from legendary spinners, and bask in the sun and the beats coming from every direction (even Wallgreens had a DJ!).

roger sanchez - yup, he's right there.

Besides new connections and great memories though, one of the most incredible things I took away from the experience was the power of dance music as a uniting and unifying force for all sorts of people. This was present on every dancefloor in town, where the vibe was just ALIVE in some indescribable way, from the small events to the huge warehouses. However, the largest events seemed to showcase it the most - Above & Beyond’s Anjunabeats Ice Palace event was incredible, and the biggest of them all - Ultra Music Festival - trumped all reason.

Ultra is insane.
According to the figures, this year was attended by over 100,000 peeps.

ultramainstage

The amount of people there should be absolute chaos, and if you look at the aftermath photos it still was to some extent.

However, nothing speaks to the human spirit like 70,000 people in sync with the DJ and each other in an undulating, bouncing, flowing tide.

Though every stage at Ultra shared this, the tent (or blimp hanger I should say) shared by Carl Cox and then A State Of Trance 500 was off the charts.

Absolutely nothing like it - look in any direction and thousands of people are experiencing what you are, bobbing to Carl Cox’s impeccable rhythmic melange, or completely losing it to Gareth Emery throw down Forbidden City.

The crowning moment for me had to be when Ferry Corsten threw down Beautiful - and the message hit home, leaving the entire arena crying, laughing, jumping, and sweating their hearts out. Very meta in a way, as one of the (minimal) lyrics to this tune is “Let the music carry us together” — it did, and in a way impossible through any other medium.

I’ll have to get a video from somewhere of this slice of time — it was absolutely incredible - will post if I find.

If you’re interested in seeing more pix of what Miami is like during music week, check out my album on Facebook.
And if we’re not friended on there, add me for chrissakes ^_^.

Bienvenido a Miami!

PS - I had the awesome chance to spin on one of the smaller Ultra stages! it was epic. and very miami. see below:

Posted by: Jay

I have very exciting news: We are on the brink of landing a weekly happy hour gig Fridays at 800 Larkin lounge! I’ll tell you all the details once it becomes official but the last hurtle to clear is a “get to know you” set the owners asked me to play tomorrow, Friday 3/11, at 10 pm.

So I want to pack the place. It would be awesome if you brilliant reads, friends and fellow DJs could roll out, get some cheep drinks, rock out my (hopefully) amazing set and kick your weekend off right!

To sweeten the deal I’ll be giving out some free drinks! Below are some hot new tracks I just got that I’ll drop tomorrow. When you hear one, just come up on up to the decks and say something like: “Hey, this is one of those track form your blog!” and BOOM, free drink! You don’t even have to remember the names (hell, even I can’t remember the names of all these tracks).

See you tomorrow night!

DJ Jay
800 Larkin Lounge
10 pm - Friday 3/11

Robb G, The Afterschool Special - “Big Money Jazz Hands”

Gabriel Rocha - “Drunken Russian” - DJ PP Edit

Avicii - “Sweet Dreams” - Avicii Swede Dreams Mix

Jean Nipon - “Cairo” - Tony Senghore Remix

Posted by: Matt

Back in the middle of 2010, Derek dropped a tip on this blog about a little Drum n Bass band called Pendulum in which he took time to emphasize the fact that they actually perform live as a real band - drums, guitars, synths, vocals, bass (guitar), and so on. I actually had a chance to check them out at their stop at the Fillmore in San Francisco last week, and though I didn’t know much more than that going in, I was definitely not disappointed.

Having tried it once or twice myself, I know how hard it can be to play “live” electronic music while both retaining the feel of the studio tracks AND keeping it interesting for the performers. What do you think? Did they pull it off? (tip: the answer is fuck yes).

(*I may have been the only person at the show who didn’t know this at the time, but they are playing live their own remix of Voodoo People by The Prodigy. Meta, no?)

Since I’ve really been enjoying their latest album Immersion, here are two taster tracks to whet your appetite:

Crush

Watercolour

If you like ‘em, go get the whole thing from iTunes or Amazon.