Frederik Olufsen, AKA The Frederik, is a classically trained Danish producer whose sound is a mixture of growing bass and thundering drums. His style pays homage to electro, dubstep, glitch, house, and several other genres while being entirely original with his unique bass lines, detailed synths, and ever rising arrangements.
His newest EP, 56K, sounds as if Wolfgang Gartner and Feed Me had a child, and that child married Noisia to spawn the heavy yet melodic EP.
So Global… I haven’t even had time to process how great it was. It all started Friday with me and my good friend Jalen taking the media bus up behind the main stage of Red Rocks. We went to the top right away to go to the second stage dying to see Krewella who I must say blew our expectations away. We were slammin’ drinks waiting for the crowd to get a little crazier in the VIP when the rest of our crew of friends shows up. Then it started to get crazy.. We went into VIP to dance a bit for Krewella as the sun was setting. Not five minutes later the section was overflowing with elated fans dancing their asses off. Realizing that it was getting insane we turn around to see if the crowd behind us had grown. Well the whole of the upper part of red rocks was PACKED to the brim with people. People were overflowing into the VIP hoping the fence, the security guards almost helpless with the sheer volume of people up there raging to their favorite tunes. Krewella’s set finished up and we decided we would go check out some of the booths before Knife Party came on the main stage. Smoked a dude up and got free Puffalo’s hats. (For those that don’t know its basically the most weed oriented hat for CU Boulder possible) Ironically enough on our way down to the main stage after establishing our location for the rest of the concert we see Krewella in the VIP having more fun than anyone around them. I have to say, seeing artists love what they do but also be diehard fans still, makes me so psyched and hopeful that not all famous musicians will sell out and not want to interact with their fans.
Turns out that the members or Krewella, Jahan Yousaf and her sister Yasmine along with producer Rain Man are also nice as shit! Knife Party and Steve Angello kinda let us down. It being Knife Party’s first appearance at Red Rocks, and having some killer music already produced we were expecting to see a legendary moment at Red Rocks but it just didn’t seem to live up to what we had envisioned. Steve Angello of Swedish House mafia has a pretty annoying accent, and the fact that he kept saying “I’m Steve Angelloooooo” didn’t help our opinions of the performance… All that said they were both very fun to dance to and such, plus my ears were blown out, Steve Angello was actually so loud and repetitive toward the end we left early..
Friday I went to Beta for the super secret DJ, as the line up on Saturday wasn’t all that mindblowing, but Morgan Paige at beta wasn’t that insane either, being that the previous two years it was deadau5 and Dada Life..
Yet it was all going to come together for a night of 100% grade A dubstep: SUNDAY AT GLOBAL.
Sunday oooooh man it was unreal. The lineup on the main stage was pretty legendary, most noteably Dillon Francis, Crizzly, Adventure Club, Figure, Zeds Dead and Excision. Everyone killed their sets, got the crowd moving, jumping, and basically doing everything in their power to try and convey the flood of pure ecstasy that the music drive deep into their soles. Plus a lot of people were on a lot of drugs. Anyway my favorite of the night was definitely Dillon Francis, he fucking knocked it out of the park. Such a diverse set from dubstep to moombahton sampling songs from all genre’s. I fell in love with seeing Dillon Francis live that night. Here’s a taste of the Dill:
Adventure Club stayed in their zone of very emotional, lovey dovey, sad, dark dubstep. You know the dubstep you can have sex to. We didn’t get a chance to see Crizzly because the ain stage was so stacked with talent that we didn’t leave the whole time. Zeds Dead was outrageously mind blowing, Omar Linx? Well I thought he did a great job, but with Zeds Dead’s classic songs such as Coffee Break… I just want to hear it whomp without rap behind it, regardless of my opinion it was sick:
Anyway I thought they did an amazing job. Onto EXCISION!!! Holy facemelt. All the stereotypical dubstep adjectives such as face melting, ear tearing, eye bleeding, ragefest… They basically all apply to EXCISION better than any dubstep group I have ever seen. Watch this shit..
Ya insanely awesome. They threw down one of the most intense sets I have seen, constant insanity. Not really a break for their whole set.. My legs died but I was in heaven, talk about being sore from dancing too much. I can’t even call it dancing really it was all too crazy. The energy was growing the entire time right up to the moment the music was turned off and we were all left dumbfounded trying to process what happened. Killer show, killer crowd, killer setting… Global Dance Festival at Red Rocks is here to stay and if you haven’t been get a ticket for next year, I promise it’s an experience in its own that any dance music person will enjoy, and most likely attend again. And again….
The messiah of the Colorado electronic music scene, Mr. Derek Vincent Smith has blessed us with another amazing track today! “You Get High” is the last track Derek will release until his upcoming album is released. Speaking of his upcoming album, Pretty Lights made the entire thing from self-made vinyl. AKA he made his own records (the frisbees you stick on a turn table and put a needle to) and remixed them all together to create an album. That is quite an impressive feat and I’m sure that album will be nothing short of amazing. Back to the track “You Get High”; in Derek’s own words he describes it as “slow-mo disco stomp” and “it’s all about the high you feel when listening to good music.” I think everyone who has been a fan of Pretty Lights over the years experiences that same “high” when listening to any of his songs.
Now, Pretty Lights didn’t treat us with just a new track, but he was feeling so gracious that he accompanied it with a video! The video is set to the tune of the new track and is a recap of his 2-day masterpiece New Years Eve show at the FirstBank center. Yours truly was lucky enough to be in attendance on December 31st to see one of the most amazing shows i’ve ever witnessed. I know that usually my reviews are filled with obscenities and me just rambling on about the food i’m eating, but my review of this show? Perfection. Complete with lasers, the towers of lights in the shape of our famous Denver skyline, and balloons! Balloons you say? What’s so special about balloons? Well let me tell you! When there’s 1000′s of those motherfuckers ranging from the size of a baseball to as glorifyingly-round as a smart-car; from a perfect circle to giant six-foot dong shapes; from one side of the color wheel all the way to the other…all hailing down on you to the ultimate climax of a countdown from 10, all at the same time. It. Is. Fucking. Perfection. I have never witnessed in my entire life the level of pure joy felt by every single person in attendance, then at that exact moment. So Enjoy.
YEAHHHHHHH! O Let’s Do It! Let’s Review It! First off, I’d like to inform everyone that I am currently eating a $1 Totino’s pizza, which as I look back on Altitude festival at CU’s Balch Fieldhouse, is about how much i would have liked to pay for this show. I mean no disrespect to the artists who graced us with their presence Saturday night April the 28th because they all THREW THE F**K DOWN! However, as is tradition (apparently) at CU sponsored music shows, the crowd was atrocious. I have never in my seasoned career as a concert-goer witnessed such an unhappy crowd of young individuals. Seriously buffaloes, cheer up and dance, quit fighting (there were 5 that i saw). But let’s jump into into the meat of the show.
I arrived at 8pm sharp with my herd of friends to the indoor track and field stadium that is the Balch Fieldhouse just as Robotic Pirate Monkey was beginning their attack on our ears. We immediately took over the front row, using the railing as our pivot for ultimate raging. The venue was relatively empty still, but we made sure RPM knew how hard we went for local talent. The trio threw down in traditional CU style tossing out classics like “Joleen” and catering to the weed capital of the US with the likes of “Sir Spliffton Doobinski”.
At this point 9 o’clock was rolling around and it was time for RPM to unfortunately depart and for the likes of 21 year-old Michigan producer Griz to begin his assault. I would also like to apologize if you’re reading this Griz, i know we wouldn’t stop shouting GK at you, but it’s all outta love (we know all about you!). Griz, formerly known as GK, really ignited the crowd at Altitude. The big man played a lot of new material off his upcoming album, but i distinctly remember (and by distinctly i mean, from what i think i remember) him playing the absolute sickest 3 track line-up consisting of remixes of Lil Wayne’s “6’7″” and “A Milli” followed by House of Pain’s classic “Jump Around” to close out his set. So Griz, you won the medal, awarded by me, for my favorite performance of the night!
The next artist to hit the stage was Bay-area rappers Zion I along with producer Amplive. At first i was tentative to hear a hip-hop artist sandwiched in between a line-up of all electronic music, not because i don’t like the group, but because one would think the flow would be…off. That was not the case though. Amplive must have turned up the base when the group stormed the stage because HOLY SHIT my inner organs were a-jumpin’. Due to a large quantity of California natives at CU along with a large quantity of weed-smokers, the crowd absolutely ate up all Zion I could dish out. For as far back as i could see from front-row, everyone had their hands up high and their mouths singing along to classics like “Coastin’”.
Now by this time in the night, the fieldhouse had pretty much filled up and goddam was that crowd rowdy. I had to remove myself from the front row due my knees being black and battered from being crushed up against the front fence. I slowly descended towards the back of the crowd, periodically stopping to test the waters. However, it would seem the only safe place to be was near the back of the angry mob. There was something about Gramatik’s set that really set the crowd on fire. No matter where i tried to stand in the audience, there were fights, moshes, and a tide-like eb and flow in the crowd. Therefore, Gramatik, i’m sorry man! I don’t really remember much of your set because i was honestly too busy trying to stay alive to pay much attention, but i know you threw down because you never let a crowd down. I would also like to take this time to sincerely thank you for letting me witness a fist-fight between a male and female person to the soundtrack of your new song “Solidified”. It was extremely special!
12:30. At this point i was pretty beat-up and pretty goddam exhausted from droppin’ it lower then all you ladies out there. But i needed to hang in there; i needed to see MSTRKFT play in their entirety. The Canadian beard-wielding duo comprised of JFK and Al-P followed through on their legendary hype and absolutely tore the house (fieldhouse) down! Playing heavy tracks like Nero’s “Doomsday” and their own “Heartbreaker” and “Bounce” (“Bounce” is also the soundtrack to the trailer for box-office hit 21 Jump Street), the crowd was just not on the same level as MSTRKRFT. Even though, they were only on stage for a mere hour and a half (i know that’s pretty long, but keep reading…), they still managed to get significantly drunker then every single person still left standing. And left standing there weren’t many. What’s wrong with you pussies, you can’t rage for 6 hours straight? COME AT ME BRO!
Anywho, pretty much a great night at the Altitude show. Also, i was pressured into this interview by my extremely threatening peers here at PressPlay. Do you know how stressful it is forcing yourself to remember that much which you previously have forgotten? Geez…
I’m gonna throw at you guys some samples of all these artists, and you better listen to them!
This past Tuesday Nero headlined the Ogden Theater with the talented Dillon Francis as the opener for their Secondreality tour. Some of you may remember that this London duo also happened to open for Skrillex at the 1stBank Center last Halloween at the Spookytings Festival. Nero is comprised of Joe Ray and Dan Stephens and their latest tour highlights their newest “Welcome Reality” album (2011) which has become a smashing hit in both the United States and the UK.
To be honest the night started out a little rushed. Dillon Francis who played the Fox last December is starting to become a well known name in EDM and word on the street from festivals this spring is that he absolutely throws down. Many people were disappointed, however, to find that Dillon was supposed to start his set at 9 PM. He didn’t actually start playing until around 9:15 or so. Either way, there probably should have been another opener to push back the time because it was hard for many people to get down there by 9 PM, myself included, and everyone wanted to see him. I happened to catch the tail end of Dillon’s set and only got to see one of the very last songs so I unfortunately can’t accurately comment on how that part of the night went. However, the last half of the last song that I caught was absolutely brilliant. Keep an eye out for this guy.
Then Nero came on around 10:45 after about ten minutes of production changing the set and they sure came in with a bang. Their well known custom DJ booth fixed with retro game pieces, TVs and amps really added to the overall experience of the show. They opened strong with “New Life” and set a serious precedent for what was to come for the rest of the night. The rest of the songs were from the Welcome Reality album such as Doomsday, Angst, Must be the Feeling, Guilt, Promises, Innocence, 2808, Me & You, the list goes on. Alana came and made a guest appearance by singing on the DJ booth and on glowing cubes on the side of the stage for songs she was featured in. I was lucky enough to score a VIP pass and got the best seat in the house front row on the left side. The speaker decks were probably five feet away from my ear and that is why, two days later, my ears are still ringing like crazy from the noise. Was it worth it? Absolutely. People in the theater were going absolutely nuts the entire time. I’ve never seen the Ogden so packed with so much energy, ever. I only wish Nero could have played longer- the show ended at about 11:45 PM. I would have really liked to have seen them play until at least 12:30 or 1 AM by mixing a few other songs from different artists in with their own set list. Overall, great show. I can’t wait to see what Nero comes out with next!
Last night, on a desolate Wednesday evening, one of dubstep’s true OG’s– the Birmingham UK native, Martin Knowles, morefamiliarly know as Emalkay, took the stage at Boulder’s Fox Theater. He was supported by Denver’s forefront bass producer, and recently signed 1320 records artist, Project Aspect. Ticket sales seemed to have been minimal (as expected of a Wednesday night show the week before finals), but the theater slowly began to fill up with an interesting mix of rowdy, young dub-heads, bored hill residents who stumbled upon promotional comp tickets, and local friends and supporters of the show’s openers. When we arrived, Project Aspect was half way through his set, which was truly a testament to the modern-day Ableton DJ. His melodic, heavy style was littered with glitchy beat-repeats, improvised vocals and venue-rattling drops. He reminded us of a new age, glitch-hop version of Aarabmusik, by the way he was constantly effecting and controlling every “aspect” of the music throughout his set.
By the time Emalkay took the stage the venue had filled up quite a bit and the crowd was anxious. Knowles, baring only a case of CD’s, wasted no time in dropping the heavy genre-defining classics for which he is so admirably known. His style was refreshing- taking the speedy, repetitive UK sub-bass melodies expected of a Dub Police artist and infusing them with the dirty, contemporary saw-tooth synths that have become a staple in newly trending American dubstep. Knowles continued to fuel the crowd with fast-paced (140BPM) four-on-the-floor jungle beats between dropping his countless well-known dubstep anthems (see: “When I look at you” and “Fabrication”). All in all, we were impressed with the show. We got to genuinely witness one of modern dubstep’s acclaimed originators with support one of the movement’s newest local innovators.
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: A Night In Review)
