HARD LA Presents: Wolfgang Gartner @ The Palladium 10/20/12 [Live DJ Mix + Free Download + Tracklist]

HARD | Wolfgang Gartner - Official | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud

It's been quite a while since I've seen good ol Wolfgang Gartner live. I think it may have been the first time he released his Medusa set up, I don't remember. All I remember was we partied a bit too hard that night. Any hoo, for those of you who were there to experience his set last November at HARD LA and would like to relive that moment again, and again, you can stream + download his whole set at the link below. I did a quick search through the internet and found the tracklist for you guys/gals as well.

Smokeout Fest 2012 - Full Line Up [Wolfgang Gartner, MSTRKRFT, Danny Brown Added]

Smokeout Fest: Official

Wolfgang Gartner, MSTRKRFT, and Danny Brown just added!!
This is definitely an event not to miss.
Plus, Get your LOW END on with the whole Low End Theory Crew.

The Road to EDC Las Vegas 2011: Part 1

How and where to begin? It's the week of Summer Solstice. The weather is supposed to start to heat up. Everyone and their tucked away dance deprived musically malnourished inner-selves can't wait for the weekend to arrive. It's like when we saw Wolfgang Gartner debut his new stage production at Avalon not too long ago. Impatiently waiting. Trying to get a peak behind the curtains. Waiting anxiously as we dance to the DJs who went on before him, but secretly conserving all of our energy for the Undertaker, the Maestro, the Cosmic Conductor keeping us gasping for air as we cry out for Space Junk.

Wolfgang-Gartner-Essential-Mix-320

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Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas 2011 [Line Up + Set Times]

EDC Las Vegas 2011 [Insomniac Events] : Official | Facebook | Twitter | Tickets

kineticFIELD : Official

Wolfgang-Gartner-Essential-Mix-320


cosmicMEADOW : Official

Wolfgang Gartner - North American Tour [Tour Dates]

Wolfgang Gartner [Ultra Records] : Official | Facebook | Twitter

No need for a full introduction on Mr. Wolfgang. We shared his visually enticing and historically thought provoking music video for Illmerica here. Reviewed his "hello 2011" set at Together As One [Go Ventures + Insomniac Events] over here. And in a matter of months he'll be touring North America with show dates spanning Los Angeles, New York, and almost everything in between. When we saw him perform at Avalon he set the record for most attendees in that club. Let's hope that when we see his return to Avalon he not only breaks his record but the fire marshal doesn't... never mind. I'm not going to jinx it. See you at Avalon!

Wolfgang Gartner - BBC Radio1 Essential Mix 11/6/2010

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Beyond Wonderland 2011 [Trailer]

Beyond Wonderland [Insomniac Events] : Official | Tickets
If Johnny Depp shows up in his whole Mad Hatter garb I'm going to go bonkers. I wonder if there will be secret underground tunnel entrances for super special and magical ticket holders. Will Alice consume the bottles labeled "DRINK ME" and cake aptly titled "EAT ME". Is there going to be a blue caterpillar on top of a giant mushroom in the Caterpillars Garden smoking a hookah. Do we have to attend the tea party in order for us to get to the Queens Domain? None of these answers are questioned in the official trailer. There is however a yummy audible treat titled Space Junk which accompanies the stellar visuals.


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Wolfgang Gartner - Illmerica [Music Video]

Wolfgang Gartner : Official | Facebook | Twitter
There's a lot one can say about Wolfgang Gartner's music video for the track Illmerica. You can take the funny comedic route and point out how many deliberate inaccuracies were placed like the S.W.A.T. guard watching over Pocahontas or the sign in the forest that read "Do Not Place Unsolicited Advertising Materials On This Property." There are also the slap in the face depictions that make you think about the deeper historical implications like the pilgrims giving a Thanksgiving Turkey and bucket of toxic yams to the Native Americans. And there are also the images for those real history buffs. During the initial build up you have Nikola Tesla building his Wardenclyffe Towers to only have the untalented Edison push him out of the way to take credit for providing the world with a usable means of electric power. Or you could just say nothing, press play, and scratch your head and wonder, "Why didn't they teach us US History with videos like this in High School? People would of actually payed attention."


Purchase Wolfgang Gartner - Illmerica @ Beatport | Juno | iTunes
Tour Dates:
1/29 Pacha NYC in New York City, NY
2/03 House Of Blues in Orlando, FL
3/04 The Ritz in Tampa, FL

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Together As One 2011 [Concert Review]

Afrojack @ SNS Arena | Photo Source: Together As One's Facebook
Now that I've had about a full day to rest|recover|reflect on the insanity I partook during the last moments of 2010 into the first moments of 2011 I can finally share some of the highlights of Together As One [Go Ventures + Insomniac Events]. I'll explain things in the order I experienced them and I'll focus on some of the musical moments that really stood out for myself and the crowd. Following these highlights I'll share a couple comments and suggestions for future events. Let's begin...

Saturday Night Sessions Arena
Afrojack [ Official | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube ]
The first song we heard when we stepped into the Saturday Night Sessions Arena was Show Me Love by Steve Angello & Laidback Luke feat. Robin-S. The positive energy of the arena was electrifying. Everyone was singing, dancing, merrymaking and we knew things were just getting started. When you take that amount of energy and double it, that's what occurred when Afrojack dropped his remix of Show Me Love right after the original track.

Afrojack - Pacha On Acid by Ace Agency

The crowd also went wild when Pacha On Acid began to play. There's just something special about hearing the build up from 3:45 - 5:12 in a giant sized arena with the bass thumping and possessing you to move your body in ways you didn't know they moved. To be honest with you, I don't get many songs by Afrojack until I hear it live on a massive sound system. Case in point his recent track titled, Replica. Once I heard it in the arena it made perfect sense.

Favorite sing along moments would be during Take Over Control and his remix of Watcha Say by Jason Derulo. Definite TAO moments right there.

Bassrush Arena
Nero [ Facebook | Twitter | Youtube ]
With all the posts we've done with Nero on Dank Radio you can probably guess the excitement I had to finally ring in the new year with these guys at Bassrush. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed when I only saw one of the two forces behind Nero. But no matter I had the music to bring my spirits back up.

I've been playing their Essential Mix over and over for the past couple weeks and their set consisted most of the key tracks you'd expect. Early in the set you heard their In The Middle Remix and it seemed like the crowd wasn't too familiar with that track from my vantage point. The crowd however did respond when they heard MJ Cole's Sincere ( Nero Remix ). Let's just say the ladies got expressive at this point.

MJ Cole - Sincere (Nero remix) by Sunday Best

In a matter of moments I finally got to hear the set of songs I've been waiting to hear on a proper sound system. Nero's remix of The Jets Crush On You sounded spectacular. I missed it when they played the track at Audiotistic and was waiting for this soung to drop during their set. The moment when they played Downlink's Factory
 + Chase & Status' Let You Go (Nero Remix) + Nero's Welcome Reality was amazing. The passion behind the lyrics of Let You Go over Welcome Reality is perfect for a massive's speakers.

We stayed for a handful of the Drum & Bass tracks but had to make our way to the Together Arena for Laidback Luke. One thing that stayed with me was what the MC's said about Bassrush. They were happy for the continued growth of the LA Bass scene and how more people are accepting of the music and declared that Bassrush would never ever leave the scene and stay until the very end.

Together Arena
Laidback Luke [ Official | Facebook | Twitter ]
What more can I say about this guy that hasn't already been said. I've seen him a handful of times throughout 2010 and each time I see him perform he does something new/different that blows my mind. And after each set I'm extremely inspired and driven to practice even harder.

The best way to describe a LBL set is that the crowd's energy fluctuates between 80% at it's lowest point and reaches it's highest at about 120%. In essence he always manages to keep the energy at a constant of about 100% throughout his sets. Don't ask me how the math works, It just does.

LBL used his remix of iSquare's Hey Sexy Lady to build the crowd up for the countdown. Which was very appropriate especially with the "People people put your hands up" lyric. After the yelling, confetti, and toasts he brought the crowd back in with his & Steve Angello's track Be. And just when you thought things couldn't get even wilder he drops Timebomb (Original Mix).


After Timebomb he proceeded to drop a continuous stream of audio bombs that prolonged the special feeling felt during the point of countdown. If I can recall, he did a combination of Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand & Fake Blood - I Think I Like it that made the crowd erupt in excitement. In every LBL set there's always a time when you say to yourself, "WTF?! is he really playing this?". During that night it occurred when he played Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are. Just as the song was playing with the ladies singing their hearts out and the guys confused with the song choice he drops his remix of Dirty Talk.

With all musical journeys piloted by Luke a flight wouldn't be complete without a dash of Dubstep thrown into the mix. Despite the negative reaction of some audience members he still manages to guide us through the turbulence and get us from point A to point B.

Wolfgang Gartner [ Official | Facebook | Twitter ]
Just when you think the TAO attendees were beginning to run low on fuel Wolfgang Gartner picks up from where Laidback Luke left off and continues the party well into the night. 2010 was a good year for Wolfgang. He solidified his production status with a slew of continuous bangers which culminated into his signing with Ultra Records. He also left us with a special going away 2010 present in the form of an Essential Mix.

The moment he strung together Mr Oiozo's Rubber + Beyonce's Single Ladies + Mumbai Science's Gold I was in awe. It truly was one of those "OMFG I can't believe you just did that?!" moments. Another song that caught the whole tent's attention was MC Lyte - Cold Rock A Party. I never thought I'd ever hear that song at that type of event. One song I NEVER thought I'd ever hear that night was Jodeci - Freakin You. If anyone knows who made that remix he played that night please let us know in the comments section!

Wolfgang Gartner - Space Junk (Original Mix) by Adrinanna

Aside from the random songs he through into the mix to throw us off[in a good way] he included all his crowd favorites: Wolfgang's 5th Symphony, Undertaker, Yin, and his latest tracks Illmerica & Space Junk. All in all it was a great set and despite the crowds chants for an encore he only teased us and left us wanting more.

Comments + Suggestions
1) Disorganized Entrance: Bicycle racks to snake the line and organize the concert attendees in a more orderly fashion. Additional staff to do ID/Ticket checks & security pat downs. A third GA entrance point. We understand that if you want to get in quickly to an event you need to show up early and be patient. But this is never an excuse for a lack of planning by event organizers.
2) Running out of Water in the Arena: Periodic refilling[once every 30min during peak hours of 9pm-12:30am. Once an hour from 12:30am-close] of each station by additional push-carts or golf carts. The best example of this was during Coachella. Even when a station ran out, it only took 15 min. for a cart to come around and refill the buckets. If costs per additional people power are an issue you need to remember that water is a BIG sell at these events, more so than alcohol[no hard data. just based on observation].
3) Countdowns out of sync: Better communication between each stage through walkies/synchronized clocks|computers. Sound/Tech guys easing up on the alcohol consumption before the countdown[i did front of house at an all ages venue for 2 years so i know there are certain shows when you say "F(*)ck it I'm partying w/ everyone else"].

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Together As One 2011 - Set Times

Official | Facebook | Twitter | Tickets
Growing up my parents always told me and Eccentric that whatever you do during the first moments of the year will be a good gauge of what types of activities will be in-store for the remainder of the year. With that said...

Go Ventures and Insomniac have put together one massive line up for their lucky number 13. Having to decide on whether to spend the countdown with either Laidback Luke, Jack Beats/Major Lazer, or Rusko is just killing us. LBL has held it down each and every single time we've seen him this year and knowing him he'll have some LA treats thrown into his mix for this special occasion. Jack Beats, Wolfgang Gartner, and Nero have all produced mind blowing Essential Mixes. 12th Planet and Kill The Noise have always held it down for the locals and it'll be great to see them at the party. Diplo might even do his special 'ladies' set to get all the females grinding/grooving. And the opportunity to finally witness the Dada Life is just plain bananas.

Whichever artists we do have the opportunity to party with at TAO will in no doubt be a great time. I can't think of any other way I'd like to start off my year. Spending time with my brother, good music, and fun people. 2011 is going to be a fun year, this I'm certain. [Bonus Info: We're heading up to the radio station RIGHT AFTER TAO. In true Dank Radio fashion the party will continue until the sun rises. LIVE BROADCAST // Aziatik Rhythmz Present: Dank Radio // Saturday Jan 1st. 4 - 6am // 90.7fm KPFK // kpfk.org {streaming worldwide}]

Wolfgang Gartner - BBC Radio1 Essential Mix 11/6/2010 by Ear Cande

TOGETHER ARENA
5:30pm-6:30pm Swedish Egil
6:30pm-8pm Richard Vission
8pm-9:30pm Markus Schulz
9:30pm-11pm Dada Life
11pm-12:30am Laidback Luke
12:30am-2am Wolfgang Gartner
Essential Mix (20-02-2010)- Jack Beats by Dooz Le Witz

SATURDAY NIGHT SESSIONS ARENA
5:30pm-6:30pm Barry Weaver
6:30pm-8pm Kill The Noise
8pm-9:30pm Afrojack
9:30pm-11pm Diplo
11pm-12am Jack Beats
12am-1am Major Lazer
1am-2am DJ Reza
Major Lazer [Switch & Diplo] - Essential Mix 25-07-2009 by A Ketch

BASSRUSH ARENA
5:00pm-6:15 Dj Fury
6:15pm-7:30pm Shimon
7:30pm-8:30pm Logistics & NuTone
8:30pm-9:30pm 12th Planet
9:30pm-10:30pm Ed Rush & Optical
10:30pm-11:30pm Nero
11:30pm-1:00am Rusko
1:00am-2:00am Pendulum (dj set)

Mc Armanni Reign, Mc Dino, Mc Questionmark

Nero - BBC Radio1 Essential Mix 11/13/2010 by Ear Cande


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Ultra Music Festival 2011 - Phase 1

Ultra Music Festival: Official | Tickets | Facebook | Twitter
Wolfgang Gartner - Undertaker by genki

!!! (CHK CHK CHK) - Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass by Hypetrak

Sub Focus 'Could This Be Real' (Sub Focus Dnb Remix) by subfocusmusic

Skrillex - Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Noisia Remix) by NOISIA

Something Bells by daedelus

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Sound of Stereo - Interview

Sound of Stereo: Official | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud | Beatport

Everyone here at Dank Radio loves it when our family and friends get involved with our creative processes. Not just with our music, the radio program, but this site as well. With that said, we will be featuring a piece from one of our trusted friends every so often [haven't worked out the schedule just yet]. To start us off, I would like to introduce you all to my good friend Nightfox. Here she is to explain how she managed to secure an interview with Sound of Stereo by the use of modern day technology.

Dank Radio: Here’s my not so recent interview with Sound of Stereo from their show at the Avalon on October 22. I had so many other questions I wanted to ask, but with the limited amount of time I had and the excitement of it, I found it hard to formulate coherent thoughts and focus long enough to create a through interview.

I was already in Hollywood that night to cover the wrap-up of LA Fashion Week, along with a fellow writer.

I didn’t even expect to interview them that night. But much to my surprise, the guys responded to my request to speak to them- via twitter. It’s a good thing Mando Fresko was spinning at the time so no one could hear me screaming my ass off.

I met up with the duo right next door at The Redbury hotel, the newly refurbished hotel adjacent to the Avalon. The duo was in the US for about two more weeks before heading back to the motherland (Belgium) to play the fifteenth annual I Love Techno Festival, the music event that kicked off the duo’s careers. In March they’ll be headed to Australia for Future Music Festival. Hopefully by then their album will be finished and they’ll head back to the states!

I want to note one of my favorite parts of the interview was when my forced partner Cherelle got up and started moving a coffee table around in their room, in order to get the voice recorder in prime position for picking up sound. It made me cringe when it happened (moving other people’s furniture around during an interview doesn’t exactly put the interviewee at ease) but I laugh at it now, and hope that Vincent and Jochen forgive me for that, haha.

Enjoy,
Nightfox


Photo: Bick Narcelona
Nightfox: How different is the Belgian music scene compared to the music scene in the U.S., specifically Los Angeles?
Vincent: I don’t know, I think the European crowd is more used to having dance music around, so they’re more snobby about it, I think. So when we play in the U.S., it’s more fun, and we can do whatever we want.
Jochen: It’s not more fun then playing in Europe, it’s just different. It’s a bit more over the top, especially in L.A. It’s different, but it’s both a lot of fun.

Nightfox: What is the ideology behind your band’s name Sound of Stereo?
Vincent: Where did the name come from? I have no idea. We were thinking about changing it but we just kept it.
Jochen: I was making music, producing electronic music, and I was like, we need a name. And that was it. So there’s no real nice story to it.

Nightfox: As far as your sound goes, do you find your musical style still evolving, or have you pretty much found your voice?
Vincent: Oh no, it’s evolving like, everyday. We’re getting inspired all the time by different artists. If we pick up a CD from someone, well, I don’t know, it’s constant.
Jochen: That’s the cool thing about DJ’ing. When you play in a band it’d difficult to make rapid changes to the style you play. Playing so many different places and meeting so many different people it’s nice to pick up other stuff. Like, yesterday we met some people and today we got some tracks from them that were really cool so we may play them tonight.
Vincent: It’s all really instant.

Sound of Stereo - Metric by Sound of Stereo

Nightfox: I know you guys have been doing this a long time. Do you still get excited playing venues like Avalon and traveling? Do you still get that thrill?
Vincent: Absolutely.
Jochen: Sure.
Vincent: It’s cool to play all these different places all the time, yeah. It’s always exciting because every club is different, every crowd is different.
Jochen: Even every night in the same club is different.
Vincent: Yeah, we’re still excited as much as we were years ago. Years? Yeah years. Two years ago. (laughs)

Nightfox: How did you guys meet each other?
Vincent: Uh, I got some music from him through a friend and I was like, we have to meet up! We did a party together and after that it just took off.
Jochen: He was already DJ and I was already playing in rock bands before I started producing electronic music. He picked up a track that I did and then we kind of decided to work together.
Vincent: And it’s funny because we live really close [to each other].
Jochen: Yeah, we didn’t know and we live like, I don’t know, 5 kilometers from each other. And we say kilometers, it’s like 2 or 3 miles. Like 15 minutes.

Nightfox: What motivates you? Would you say one of your goals would to be to gain international stardom or do you just do it for the passion?
Vincent: You have to do it because you love the music.
Jochen: I hope it’s the second one. At this point, it still is.
Vincent: Definitely the second one. Yeah, if you don’t like it you’re not going to push yourself.
Jochen: Stardom is not something we pursue at all but it’s fun to be able to get rooms like this and talk to people like you. It’s just fun you know, and I don’t consider it stardom it’s just so much fun to be able to travel and do what you love.
Vincent: Yeah!
Jochen: It’s cheesy but that’s what it is.

Nightfox: So what have you guys been up to lately? Anything the fans should know?
Vincent: Album, album, album, right?
Jochen: Yeah. It’s all about the album at this moment.
Vincent: And trying to tour in between, playing gigs and just trying to combine both and get things moving. We are really trying to think about what we’re going to do with the album. It would be stupid to do all club bangers on an album because no one cares. We were trying to find a sound. I think now we found it, or kind of found it, so now the process has started.
Jochen: And like, playing wise, we’ve been in the states for three weeks now and we’ve got one more week playing shows. Then it’s every week somewhere else in Europe and then in March it’s Australia and probably U.S. again.
Vincent: By then the album should be wrapping up.

Nightfox: How do you feel about electronic dance music and the direction it’s headed now? I know EDM is a big thing in Europe but here in the U.S. they are starting to play it a lot more on the radio and it’s kind of becoming more mainstream. What do you think about that? Do you think it’s a good thing?
Vincent: It’s cool because it gives us a bigger platform to do our stuff. And more people are getting more into dance music so that’s good. We get a bigger fan base, I think. But when something gets mainstream, the whole charm of the underground goes away.
Jochen: It’s always difficult to make that crossover.
Vincent: Yeah, you have to find something in between, but it’s cool exposure for dance music, really.
Jochen: It’s cool because it’s fresh in the U.S., fresher than in Europe. Yeah, at first it’s strange to have it now on the radio here cause…
Vincent: …our radio station plays it all the time.
Jochen: Yeah. Like, our national radio plays it all the time, even during day rotation. But it’s good. I like it.

Nightfox: Who are your biggest influences at this moment?
Jochen: I think the guys we listen to and the guys we meet a lot are our biggest inspiration, like the other DJ’s we meet on tour. We really like Harvard Bass, Wolfgang is doing really well too. The guys from MSTRKRFT, we talked to them too. Erol Alkan, Brodinski and Boys Noize are still DJ-wise and production-wise the guys who…
Vincent: And there’s some cool new guys coming, these guys called Mumbai Science. They’re on the same record label as us (Lektroluv) and they’re like, blowing up right now. Then there’s another guy from Scotland, his name is Clouds. It’s like, those guys, they keep it alive.
Jochen: It’s like, they’re friends, we know them so it’s not like when you say it’s Daft
Punk and you really look up to them. It’s just friends and we keep each other fresh.
Vincent: Yeah, we unintentionally push each other to do better stuff.

Mumbai Science - Gold (Original Mix) by MumbaiScience

Nightfox: So you motivate each other?
Vincent and Jochen: Yeah!

Nightfox: So when you produce music, what is your artistic process? I know a lot of artists like to ‘put themselves on lock down’ so to speak, for a couple weeks to focus on their album. Do you find that you need that as well?
Vincent: He’s on lock down (laughs).
Jochen: He locks me down (laughs).
Vincent: I have a chain (both laugh).
Jochen: No, uh, [all my stuff] is at my house so whenever I feel like it. Like, the last few months, I’ve been doing more and telling myself “Okay, now produce.” Otherwise if you’re just doing EP’s, when you feel inspired, you go to the studio and you make some tracks. Now I’m sitting in the studio more and really making ideas and keep writing. It’s a different process but it’s fun. I don’t lock myself down yet. There’s a lot of demos and I think once we’ve chosen [them] then we’ll be on lockdown to mix down everything.

Nightfox: What makes you stand out as DJ’s? What makes you different?
Jochen: We want to make everyone have a good time. We just like to play stuff we really like and adapt to the public that is in front of us. We never have a steady tracklist. We always have our CD’s and our music with us. We have our selection of what we like and try to match what the crowd likes without making too many compromises. You wanna have a good time but you want the crowd to have a good time too so the interaction is important. I think that’s the thing about being a good DJ that makes a difference. I’m not saying we’re really good at it but I think that’s something that’s really important to do.

Nightfox: So where are you off to next after LA?
Vincent: We’ve got a couple days off.
Jochen: Then Sacramento, Calgary, London, Canada. And then back. Rest for a couple
days.
Vincent: And then an extra show on Sunday. Then it’s back home for I Love Techno.
Jochen: We’re doing a big Dim Mak show in Vienna, too.
Vincent: Yeah, just back to Europe for touring.

Sound of Stereo - Live @ I love techno 2010 by Sound of Stereo

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