May 30, 2014

Varien & SirensCeol – Moonlight (Feat. Aloma Steele) [Monstercat]

by Jake Groch EDM, Happy, Heavy • Tags: Aloma, and, Bandcamp, Bass, Beatport, Beautiful, Beauty, Berkeley, Blogs, Burke, California, Dance, Dark, Drum, drumstep, Dubstep, EDM, electronic, Facebook, Feat., Featuring, Female, Florida, Ft., Groch, Jake, Major, Mix, Monstercat, Moonlight, music, Nick, Onions, Original, Pittsinger, Rager, SirensCeol, Soundcloud, Spotify, States, Steele, Stephen, Tampa, United, Varien, Vocals, Youtube

This next jam is simply beautiful.

Over the past year and a half, we’ve championed one of the next two artists, Stephen Burke aka SirensCeol, from the most embryonic stages of his production career. Fortunately for Stephen, both his work ethic and intellect (the man attends Berkeley University, need we say more?) have catapulted his talents to the forefront of EDM production with his unique approach to melodic dubstep and many other genres.

I vividly remember when SirensCeol opened for another enigmatic, the genre-blurring production prodigy known as Savant. Josh Hernandez, the CEO of Alek’s record company (SectionZ Records) also happened to be in attendance as well.

Before the show began, I had excitedly rushed up to him and told him to pay special attention to the opening act, Stephen.

After SirensCeol performed a wicked set and was transitioning to let Aleks set up his gear, I beckoned Josh over to the front of the stage where I was standing.

“You gotta sign that artist,” I yelled over the music playing during the entr’acte, “He’s incredible.”

Josh simply smiled and gave me an ever so cool, “Yeah, maybe.”

Next thing I knew, six months later, young Stephen had released his first full-length on SectionZ Records with Josh.

Funny, huh?

Despite the fact that I love telling people ‘I told you so’, I will try my hardest to abstain here.

However, California-based producer SirensCeol has come quite a long way. This next jam with Varien will only serve to further this fact. Featuring the incredibly dulcet vocals of Aloma Steele (which Stephen himself was incredibly satisfied with), “Moonlight” reached the number one spot on Beatport’s Dubstep charts in virtually no time at all.

Let’s give a congratulatory “follow” to Varien and SirensCeol on their prospective social media outlets. We hope you enjoy this absolutely fantastic track, which was released on Monstercat…go figure.

Great work boys, keep em’ coming.

▼ Follow Varien
YouTube: www.Youtube.com/VarienOfficial
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/VarienOfficial
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/VarienOfficial
Soundcloud: @VarienOfficial

▼ Follow SirensCeol
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SirensCeol
Twitter: twitter.com/SirensCeol
Soundcloud: @sirens-ceol
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/SirensCeol

May 27, 2014

Monstercat 017 – Ascension Ascends the Label Even Further

by Jake Groch EDM, Funky, Happy, Heavy • Tags: 017, A, Abyss, Aero, Album, All, Aloma, Ambient, and, Ascension, Astronaut, Au5, Away, Bass, Bowtie, Braken, Burke, Bustre, Case & Point, Cassandra, Chas, Cheat, Child, Chill, Chillwave, Choice, Chord, Codes, Covenant, D&B, Dance, Danyka, Deep, Do, Don't, Dotexe, Drink, Droptek, Drum, Drummond, drumstep, Dubstep, Eagle, EDM, electro, electronic, Elizaveta, EMEL, Eminence, Excellent, Eyes, Favright, Feat., Featuring, Feint, Fijiwiji, Follow, Forget, Fractal, Fracture, Frame, Fun, Gamble, Gasser, Glitch, Goudie, Grant, Groch, Halo, Haywyre, Hero, Holly, Hop, Hour, house, Insan3lik3, Inside, It, Itvara, Jake, Jonny, Kay, Keegan, Know, Label, LaMeduza, Late, Limb, Me, Melodic, Mind, Mix, Miyoki, Monstercat, Moonlight, Mr, Munsta, music, Nadeau, nerds, Night, Nitro, Noisestorm, of, On, One, Only, Open, Original, Out, Over, Pegboard, Phosphor, Power, progressive, Quantum, Reach, Remix, Riot, Rob, Rootkit, Rose, Schism, SCNDL, Seconds, SirensCeol, Solange, Soulero, Steele, Stephen, Stonebank, Surface, Surge, Taking, Tech, The, Too, Trance, Trap, Tristam, Trivecta, Tut, Up, Varien, Virtual, Walking, Wanna, Yohamna, You, Zenith

Over the past two years, we have watched this next label transform from the likes of a promising, transgenre EDM collective with loads of potential into the fierce jungle feline you see before you today.

Monstercat is most certainly where it’s at when discussing labels that have set the tone for the next few years of electronic dance music releases.

How, you ask?

Well, that next part is a bit tricky.

To begin, this Vancouver-based music label has elucidated talents from some of the most unheard of, eclectic groups of musicians in all of dance music. Not only have they championed said undiscovered artists onto the scene, but these new talents have proceeded to swell their fair share of waves in this vastly expanding ocean we affectionately refer to as the “EDM-o-sphere.” A quick glance at the “current roster” on the official Monstercat web page will reveal a staggering number of widely popular producers you may not have necessarily associated with MCat.

7 Minutes Dead, Astronaut, Au5, Braken, Case & Point, Direct, DotEXE, Dzeko & Torres, Droptek, Falcon Funk, Favright, Fractal, Haywyre, Hellburg, Insan3lik3, Krewella, Lets Be Friends, Mr Fijiwiji, Noisestorm, PIXL, Pegboard Nerds, Project 46, Rameses B, Razihel, Rogue, Soulero, Splitbreed, Stephen Walking, Throttle, Tristam, Tut Tut Child, Varien and Vicetone.

(Just to name a few of our favorites.)

However, words will only get us so far. You need to HEAR what we mean.

Without hesitation, the fat cats over at MC have released their 17th compilation LP to date. So far, “Monstercat 017 – Ascension” has garnered attention from every corner of the EDM world, making this their most supported album to date! With a four-hour laundry list of tracks, fantastic production quality throughout, and loads of prodigal EDM producers on top of it all, Monstercat presents to you a release that will only serve to exacerbate their stranglehold on the EDM industry.

Keep it up boys and girls.

May 15, 2014

9 Brand New Songs That You Need To Hear

by Keegan Goudie EDM • Tags: Adventure Club, Aether, ANDRU, Bombs Away, Cassandra Kay, Coldplay, Favright, Gabriel Rios, Lane 8, Lets Be Friends, Monstercat, Porter Robinson, Sad Machine, Thomas Jack

According to the internet, a lot of new electronic dance music came out this week.

Exciting! And obviously, this is a must-listen. But we already talked about how epic, sick, dirty, and nasty Nero’s new song “Satisfy” is (click the link dude).

Unless you were on a hiatus from real life this week, you probably noticed that Nero wasn’t the only artist who dropped some fresh jam-sauce this week. That’s right, I said jam sauce.

In fact, there’s quite a spectrum of “jam sauce” to choose from. That’s why I’ve taken precious time out of my precious day to provide you with these precious songs.

Hope you’re happy with yourself.

Ranked in order of how much I liked them (start your own blog), here’s 9 Brand New Songs That You Need To Hear:

9. Aether | Picture Perfect

Chops got me like “damn son”.

8. Lane 8 | Every Night

For lack of a more bro way to say this, ‘Every Night’ is pretty much a 9/10 on the ‘chill scale’.

7. Coldplay | Sky Full Of Stars (Bombs Away Bounce Bootleg)

You can’t go wrong with Coldplay vocals (well, sometimes). You can’t go wrong with Bombs Away (well, Melbourne bounce in general). And you certainly cannot go wrong with a free download.

But all three? Now that’s just crazy.

6. DotEXE | My New Addiction

I feel inspired to produce my own romantic comedy (featuring Kate Hudson) when I listen to this. But really, the title says it all.

This song is addicting.

Give into the peer pressure.

Everybody’s doing it.

5. Adventure Club | Wonder (ANDRU Remix)

‘Wonder’ might be one of the best songs of the year. So it’s no wonder why a trap remix would be any different.

4. Favright | Taking Over (feat. Cassandra Kay)

Another monster jam from one of Monstercat’s finest.

3. White Rabbit | Let’s Be Friends (REMIX)

Remixing your own song is bold. Then again, so is naming yourself “Let’s Be Friends” when you create raging dub step melodies. Everything that Let’s Be Friends does is bold and simply bodacious.

And I love everything about it.