FEATURES
A Seattle Company Disguised a Drive-In Rave as a Religious Service—And Got Away with It
A Seattle concert lighting company has pulled off a hoodwinking of biblical proportions. You’ll understand that pun in a moment. According to a report by IQ Magazine, Seattle-based company R90 hosted a recent drive-in rave by classifying it as a religious service. Doing so allowed them to swerve the repercussions that result from violations of COVID-19 lockdown laws in the state of Washington. R90’s “Covert Bat Drive Thru Rave” was organized by owner Joe Cole, who found a fortuitous loophole in Washington Governor Jay Inslee‘s official memorandum permitting drive-in spiritual services. Cole and his team pitched the rave to state officials as a spiritual gathering that would offer “the gift of music.” What followed was an intimate 21-car r...
Comparison Test: Is the VF Engineering Lamborghini Huracán Performante Better Than the Stock Version?
Years ago, I was driving in a car with John Hennessey on the drag strip behind his shop, located just west of Houston, Texas. The car was a then-new 2014 Porsche 991.1 Turbo S that I was in the process of driving across the country. I’d been racing against one of John’s huge-horsepower Cadillac CTS-V Coupes, and after about 20 battles (the AWD Porsche kept winning) I gave him a ride in the Turbo S. At the end of the strip I asked John if his company tunes Porsche Turbos like this one. He replied that he’d tune anything. Then I asked why on earth would anyone bother tuning such a ridiculously quick car. “Well Jonny,” he began in his infectious, homey drawl. “Two buddies buy the same car. One of them’s got to be faster than the other guy. It’s ...
This Electronic Music Album Samples Endangered Songbirds to Raise Awareness of Conservation
A group of artists have responded to the challenge to create a song utilizing the sounds of their favorite songbird. The result is an album that will immortalize the calls of the world’s most endangered bird species in an effort to draw awareness towards their plight. Artist Robin Perkins, also known as El Búho (Spanish for “the Owl”), is spearheading the project as a follow-up to his 2015 release, A Guide to the Birdsong of South America. The initial album was supported by a successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised $15,000 for two South American nonprofit organizations. The follow-up effort, titled A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, aims to do the same with music featuring the Jamaican Blackbird, ...
EDM.com Presents “Quarantini Chats” Episode #3: Ferry Corsten
Whether they’re bedazzling eggs with rhinestones, baking their own sourdough from scratch, or concocting absurd cocktails, those in the social media community at large have embraced their creativity during their time in quarantine. Harnessing that creativity and manifesting it into the dance music community, EDM.com’s Instagram Live interview series “Quarantini Chats” invites the brightest music producers and DJs in the game to join our platform and craft a custom cocktail as they sip and dive into a wide range of topics with our special guest hosts, The Hotel Lobby. Pioneering trance producer and electronic music Renaissance man Ferry Corsten is joining EDM.com for the third episode of “Quarantini Chats.” After dropping his scintillating album As Above ...
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Watch Mat.Joe Debut New Dirtybird Track and More from a Berlin Gelato Shop [Video Premiere]
There are few things sweeter than a bowl of ice cream, but Berlin house duo Mat.Joe have emulated a sound and style every bit as delectable. Fusing their passions for hip-hop, skateboarding, and house music, Mat.Joe have forged a crisp, rhythmic sound inherent with soulful, urban influences. The result is a project embraced worldwide—the duo has racked up a large and loyal following while touring across Europe and the Americas. In addition to finding success on labels such as Defected, Spinnin’, and Armada, the duo started their own imprint, Prïma, which translates to “fantastic” or “awesome” in German. They hope to launch their first releases later this year. Mat.Joe has remained busy this summer, releasing “Shine” on Toolroom Recor...
This Book Explores the Evolution of Electronic Music Through the Lens of 90’s “Beat Culture”
The modern electronic scene has come a long way since its fascinating beginnings, which were heavily influenced by the colorful “beat culture” of the 90s. The evolution of hip-hop and electronic music throughout the era has now been etched into a book called Bedroom Beats & B-sides: Instrumental Hip Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century. Scheduled to hit the shelves this winter, the book explores “beat culture” through the lens of its author, Laurent Fintoni, who dedicated over 20 years to the project. It includes over 100 interviews with artists, music producers, DJs, and record label owners, all of whom were deeply immersed into the culture. “This book is a deeply personal project that has consumed me for over 20 years,R...
Watch the $10,000-Winning Video of Marshmello and Halsey’s “Be Kind” Fan Contest
Back in May, Marshmello joined forces with Adobe and Live Nation to launch a fan video editing challenge, inviting creators to develop a short that demonstrates how they are fostering kindness in a world that desperately needs it right now amidst the unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic. Almost two months after inviting fans to “show how they’re bringing kindness to the world,” Marshmello has delivered some kindness of his own in the form of a colossal cash prize to the contest’s winner. Julian Curi‘s wallet is flexing thanks to his heartwarming video. Curi’s entry netted him a cool $10,000 cash prize as well as a virtual meet-and-greet with the masked electronic music superstar later this year. In a congratulatory tweet, Marshmello said he “can’t wait to l...
No Compromises: How the Chiron Pur Sport and Super Sport 300+ Push Bugatti’s Envelope
Why make one derivative of your hypercar when you can—and should—have two very distinct versions, each of which takes the already wild base car’s attributes to the extreme? That’s the thought-process at Bugatti, as it continues to capitalize on the dynamic capabilities of the Chiron. See all 36 photos Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport: Designed for Cornering Bugatti de-emphasized the Chiron’s top speed with the Pur Sport. In fact, engineers reduced the Chiron’s 261 mph top speed to 217 mph in the Pur Sport. The goal: To make the quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter 16-cylinder hypercar more fun to drive at lower speeds on a twistier tarmac, Bugatti’s deputy design director, Frank Heyl, said. Heyl’s design team worked closely with the French brand’s engineers during ...
Nicky Romero’s Eye-Popping 3D Livestream “Another World” is Live
Iconic dance music producer Nicky Romero has taken the livestream game to the next level with with “Another World,” an immersive 3D streaming event. Fresh off the release of his highly anticipated collaboration “I Need You to Know” with fellow electronic icon Armin van Buuren, Romero has launched his new livestream concept amidst a COVID-19 pandemic that will simply not relent. Ideated and produced by Visual Lab, the show is being touted as a technological pièce de résistance with cutting edge design and animation. According to a press release issued to announce “Another World,” the stream will feature many exclusive, never-before-heard tracks from Romero and his illustrious label, Protocol Recordings. Romero teased the stream on Instagram earlier i...
This New Zealand Bar is Reinvigorating Nightlife In Town Rocked By 2011 Earthquake
In 2011, a massive earthquake rocked Christchurch, New Zealand, nearly wiping out the city’s nightlife industry. On a mission to help fill the empty void left after the disaster, Mitch Ryder and Sam Smith opened Hide, a bar that is being used as an “all-inclusive ‘safe-space'” for those looking to experience live electronic music. Post COVID-19 lockdown, the club is now back open, selling out and welcoming in record numbers of attendees. “Before the earthquakes, there were about 10 serious, world-class nightclubs in Christchurch,” Ryder told Stuff. “They were formidable, but they closed and there was no scope for anyone looking to rebuild.” Hide, which opened last year, takes inspiration from European clubs, equipped with a spaciou...
This South African Style of EDM is Taking TikTok by Storm
Those who have experienced the idyllic vibrations of a dance music festival can attest that if EDM is known for anything, it is that the genre is all-inclusive, pervading all areas of globe and opening its arms to all walks of life. Where the beauty of the genre really lies, though, is in its malleability. Through its many sub-genres, electronic dance music is able to be deconstructed, whittled down, and molded into a signature dish all one’s own, with all the accoutrements necessary to start a movement. Such is the case with Amapiano, a South African style of EDM that is taking the music industry by storm. A unique fusion of deep house and jazz, Amapiano emerged in South Africa in 2012 and has steadily risen to become a bona fide juggernaut. Artists such as Moonchild Sane...
The Revenge of /\/\/\Y/\
As the 2000s became the 2010s, no artist looked more poised to transform the landscape wholesale than Mathangi Arulpragasam, whom most millennials know as M.I.A. A brilliant Sri Lankan musician, political disruptor, and cultural synthesizer from London, she made music almost entirely about being exiled by birthright, about her complicated relationship with societal upheaval having an activist father with links to (but not, as oft-believed, actually in) the LTTE, about how rich music itself becomes when you look outside of spaces colonized by Western whites. Then she ate a truffle fry. It’s instructive to look back on how deeply M.I.A.’s and Kanye West’s paths diverged as the 2010s took shape. Both were cutting-edge royalty beginning in 2004, pulling just about every musically inclined pers...
