Tuesday’s Artist Spotlight: Knife Party

Friday the 13th and Knife Party go together like lamb and tuna fish. Or maybe you like the spaghetti and meatball?

Spring Awakening Music Festival 2014 Day One will certainly be one for the record books. With a headliner like Moby taking to the main stage as the Friday headliner of last year, it’s no wonder that React Presents wanted to step up their game this summer.  Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen are no newbies to the EDM scene. For those unaware (where have you been, brah?), the duo formed simultaneously with the impending departure of Pendulum, their former group. Shattering boundaries and synthesizing unmatched beats is no new feat for these electro-house rocking trailblazers, and I can specifically remember the first time I listened to their debut Summer Mix; it practically launched me headfirst into the electronic scene.

Thanks guys.

Since the groups formation, Knife Party has been one of the most imitated acts in all of EDM. Mr. Swire and Mr. McGrillen are so talented that for the first four years of this decade, new artists and producers have aspired to attain a method such as theirs. We had the privilege to see KP on Halloween in Chicago a few years back. Midgets on stilts and chicks in metal bikinis rubbing chainsaws on their private parts; what more could you ask for? The experienced I had watching Knife Party perform will forever be ingrained in my memory as one of the best show I have, and probably will ever see.

This is why popping in at the Knife Party set on Friday at SAMF will be a no brainer.

See you there.

Who: Knife Party

What: Next-level, fast-paced metal influenced electro house

When: 9:00 to 10:00 PM

Where: Equinox Stage

Why: Really? You don’t know?

Artist Spotlight | Dirt Monkey – Dubstep is What?

Sadly, due to various circumstances, one of which includes an increase in the accessibility of production related materials (DAWs, plug-ins, YouTube training videos, etc.) and thusly a spike in the number of unqualified producers flooding the scene, we now find the unfortunate phrase “dubstep is dead” appearing in much higher frequencies, from all corners of the EDM-o-sphere. With an over-saturated market producing less that average tunes, we certainly understand the frustration coming from current and former fans of this perhaps “endangered” production method.

Despite the fact that I will unabashedly admit to being a tremendous fan of this particular genre, in all honestly, dubstep has assuredly lost part of its former attractive luster that had previously captivated me so. When Skrillex infused his own concoction of punk-rocking, face-melting bass modulation into the originally underground, 2-step garage motif, and introduced it to America, it was a goddamn fucking revolution.

Sorry for the language ladies and Ned Flanders, but it emphasizes my point.

Okalie dokalie Ragerrinos?

Now, four years and about a trillion releases later, dubstep has all but exhausted the transient stranglehold and warm welcome it had once possessed in the American electronic dance music market. On the other, more positive hand however, the genre has indeed given rise to a panoply of increasingly popular spinoff styles like drumstep, melodic dubstep, and lovestep, spawning game-changing producers like Figure, Seven Lions and Kill Paris.

Personally, I firmly believe that instead of immediately writing off any future attempts at dubstep production, we as fans must re-think the way we find and critique music in general. Dig deeper. The good stuff, the original stuff, is usually at the bottom, or in the last place you’d think to find it. And sure, we’ve heard a lot of the same samples and instrumental arrangements over and over, but lets focus more so on the talent involved in developing a song’s chord progression or the crispness, vividness and fullness obtained in an artist’s mastering of their work.

However, setting all cynical premonitions aside, to this day we still manage to find dubstep producers creating unique, mind-blowing music that raises a similar set of goose bumps on our skin to the ones initially produced by our knight in shining armor, the champion of “brostep,” Sonny Moore.

Holy shit, I was supposed to introduce this next artist wasn’t I?

Whoops.

Dirt Monkey, his name says it all frankly. As usual, below we have included a smattering of the dankness from this Boulder, Colorado-based rager named Patrick Megeath. It will be all you need.

Want more? You got eyeballs, a mouse and half a brain right?

SoundCloud: @dirtmonkey
FB: www.facebook.com/dirtmonkeymusic
Twitter: twitter.com/dirtmonkeymusic

 

 

 

 

Music Is Wonderful: ‘Lets Be Friends’ Monstrous Monday Mix! This Means War Vol. #1 [Heavy]

After a long weekend of raging and attending EDC festivities, this is exactly what we need on a Monday to pick us up off our asses. If your feeling a bit sluggish this afternoon, press play, and crank this.

Lets Be Friends has put together one hell of a banging mix with their first edition of ‘This Means War.’ The DJ duo, who hails from the UK, began to release music at the start of 2013. Their first release titled ‘EP 1’ (clever title, huh?) caught our attention earlier this year. We liked it so much, we did a post on it (HERE). Give a listen to a few of their original tracks, we are particularly partial to Manslaughter, Best in the West, Pull Up Your Finger and The Creator. If you’re feeling lazy don’t worry, each can be heard in this all-star studded mix tape.

If you follow us here at Rager Onions, you will LOVE this hour long mix. It features some of our absolute favorite artists. From Knife Party to Dillon Francis to Excision, Lets Be Friends knows Bass Music. Not only do they drop some absolutely dirty jams, they found a way to transition each onto the other in a perfect fashion. We don’t know what else to say about it other than “WHY HAVEN’T YOU PRESSED PLAY YET???”

Show Jonney & Oren some love and follow them on SoundCloud/Facebook/Twitter.  And be sure to watch out for their forthcoming release, cleverly titled ‘EP 2.’ Your gonna like the way they sound, I guarantee it.

Balls.

Set List:

1 • Friends* Intro
2 • Dillon Francis • Fireworks (Lets Be Friends *Re-Amp*)
3 • Excision & Far Too Loud – Destroid 8 Annihilate
4 • Letsbefriendsuk – 1-lets-be-friends-manslaughter
5 • LBF MashUp # 1 • Armin Van Buren/Knife Party/MajorLazer/Flux Pavilion
6 • Knife Party • LRAD
7 • Monsta • Holdin’ On • (Skrillex & Nero Remix)
8 • Dubstep – The-creator-by-lets-be-friends
9 • Knife Party • Bonfire • (Lets Be Friends *Bootleg*) 
10• Bro Safari • The Drop (Original + MUST DIE Remix)
11• LBF MashUp # 2 • Porter Robinson/Black Box/Knife Party
12• Showtek & Noisecontrollers • Get Loose
13• The Prodigy • Omen
14• Pegboard Nerds • Self Destruct
15• Kill The Noise • Jokes On You • (Kill The Noise Remix)
16• Letsbefriendsuk – Lets-be-friends-intimidation
17• TNGHT • Higher Ground • (Lets Be Friends *Bootleg*)
18• AN21, Max Vangeli & Steve Angello – H8RS • (Kryder & Tom Staar Remix)
19• Tony Junior, Carnage, New & Used • Nobody Beats The Signal • (Tommie Sunshine Bootleg)
20• Knife Party • Baghdad
21• Laidback Luke • Pogo • (Deorro Remix) ( Build Up Only )
22• Virtual Riot – Energy Drink
23• Letsbefriendsuk – 01-sinner-winner-lets-be
24• Letsbefriendsuk – Lets-be-friends-best-in-the
25• Shockone • Big Bounce
26• Letsbefriendsuk – Lets-be-friends-allow-it
27• Pendulum • Ransom
28• Letsbefriendsuk – Lets-be-friends-pull-up-your
29• Major Lazer • Anything Goes • (Lets Be Friends *Bootleg*)