Posted Date January 2007

By Dennis Sebayan and Thomas Cesa

This year was a wild roller coaster ride for clubland. To see the full cycle of things, let’s look back ten years ago to 1996, the year trance ruled the world. Faithless, Robert Miles, BT, Armand Van Helden (with his remix of “Professional Widow”), BBE are all names synonymous with the dancefloor and people are touting dance music as the next wave of mainstream music and lifestyle. More and more people are going out to raves and nightclubs, while the first generation of ravers from ’91-’95 are experiencing ecstasy burnout.

Well, dance music never really did cross over. Our beloved music continues to ride the crest, sometimes colliding with the mainstream but never fully meshing in it. But the music is everywhere – you can hear it on Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani’s new albums, while Junior Vasquez, DJ Dan and Kaskade – all from the underground - are remixing major label artists. Then there’s all the fresh new dance punk, new wave, goth and techno output electrifying hipster crowds, particularly at the Ruff club Friday nights at the Annex and MisShapes Saturday nights at Don Hills – both in New York City.

Everything is changing and that's part of the reason why we at Onbeat have decided to give you more. Aside from the tasty tidbits and bytes, as told to us from labels across the globe, we’re enabling audio streaming and downloads from our site, in order to bring you closer to the cutting edge. Watch for more on that.

Ableton continued to make strides, releasing Live 6 with upgrades, while the rest of the technology world scrambled to catch up in the digital revolution. Check out our Trends & Tech review of the new multimedia player and controller by Denon (HD2500) to find out the hot scoop on this mp3 DJ mixer.

New York City clubs like Pacha, Sullivan Room, Cielo, Crobar and Mr. Black became dance music institutions, sticking to a DJ format and bringing in the world’s talent to play to dedicated crowds. Once again Danny Tenaglia maintained a strong presence, DJing shows that ranged from the giant festival (Ultra) to ‘intimate’ gigs – because what Danny set doesn’t feel intimate – at NYC's new superclub, Pacha. Joints like Sol in Chelsea showed what it meant to start out with a house music format, only to have to change to hip-hop. The club discovered new strengths within the club’s mammoth brick walls, with video capabilities that have made Sol the toast of corporate branding events.

America caught up with Europe and fell in love with electro house and techno, with labels like Little Mountain Recordings and Great Stuff releasing some serious tracks. Great Stuff out of Germany introduced a superior promo listening system for us lucky reviewers, allowing you to hear quality clips online, on the fly.

Reiner Weichold worked at a big German freelance promotions company for nearly 10 years before starting at Great Stuff, and made the system work. He’s also the one checking all demos and talking to producers. “If there’s something very interesting we sit down weekly in a small team to listen to the new stuff and remixes,” he says. After the advent of myspace, Reiner claims he receives more demos.  “I think I spent around 1.5 hours per day listening to perhaps 30 demos we receive via links, mp3 or CD.”

 Additionally, Great Stuff houses Martin Eyerer A&Ring for Kling Klong, Tomcraft A&Ring for Craft Music, Gusgus A&Ring for Pineapple and Jean Claude Ades A&Ring for Swings Records. They’ve put together some of the biggest tracks of the year, including SUPERMAX Lovemachine remixed by Gusgus, Gregor Tresher & Guy Gerber “Open The Gates” remixed by Deetron and ROCKERS HI-FI “Push Push” remixed by M.A.N.D.Y. And that’s just a smattering of it all, since they put out about four vinyl releases per month. Next year, they will be releasing full albums now by Gusgus, Coburn, Lützenkirchen, Jean Claude Ades, while still maintaining a weekly night in Munich, among satellite events in other cities.
www.greatstuff.eu.com for more info.

Logos: KLING KLONG / CRAFT MUSIC / PINEAPPLERECORDS / SWINGS

Groove Source out of Chicago continues to pump out quality house music, with Dust Traxx leading the pack. This year alone saw quality pumps coming from Joey Beltram (“Alien Chamber/Beyonder”), Sebastien Leger “GEFD/T,” Johnny Fiasco “All Night,” and Felix Da Housecat & Diddy “I’ll Jack You vs. I’ll House You,” on Felix’s own Rude Photo label. Dajae, Harrison Crump and Angel Alanis each have forthcoming LPs for the ’07, while house music mainstays Double Down as well as Bad Boy Bill, JJ Flores and Steve Smooth’s Menage Label will be working with Dust Traxx in the future.
www.groovesource.com for more.

My pick for artists that rocked this year were Trentemøller, The Knife, Feadz, Above & Beyond and Motor. Next year look out for I’m From Barcelona, Young Love, Clara Hill, The Glimmers and The Torpedo Boys. (Maybe this means I’ll be writing more in-depth about them in the coming months.) But for now, Onbeat’s star player Tom Cesa takes the reigns, filling us in on all the amazing music that may not be on everyone’s radar’s just yet, but will be making all the magazine’s year end lists 12 months from now. Trust.

Artist : Trentemoller / Photos By: Rune Johansen

Artist : Young Love

Artist : Clara Hill

Tom Cesa:
It’s tough to sum up a year’s worth of music, especially when you’re covering this varied scene. But there was one moment that all of us can agree on when it comes to defining 2006…the long awaited return of Daft Punk live. The Gaelic duo’s live sets all over the world galvanized the scene the way few performances do. Whether you are a deep house head, a breaks fiend, or a techno mentalist, you found yourself scouring the Internet for sounds, images and video just so you could peak this moment. Hopefully, Thomas and Guy-Manuel won’t stay away “too long” again.

While labels such as Ed Banger and Kitsune Records dropped banger after banger, the French did manage to leave room for the rest of the world. Minimal - love it or hate it - continued to rock the clubs (and the Olympics, thanks to Richie Hawtin). Album releases from giants like Coldcut, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox and Basement Jaxx seemed to fall on deaf ears, while albums from Booka Shade, Nathan Fake, Skream and Peaches were forward thinking and brilliant.

While the scene has been healthy for a long time, 2006 saw Baltimore House finally get its due. Bringing a hip-hop cut aesthetic to old skool breaks, B’More helped to bring smiley-faced hedonism back to the dancefloor. (I hear they love this stuff in Brooklyn.)

Chemical Brothers were dance music’s big winners at the 2006 Grammy’s, winning two awards. And maybe it’s me, but many of their tracks (both old and new) were canned by a variety of DJs this year. They just put out 2 new “Electronic Battle Weapons” promos…Are we in the middle of an Amyl House resurgence?

We say a sad goodbye to Markus Löffel from trance legends Jam & Spoon who passed on earlier this year. We also bid farewell to this generation’s Factory Records, Output Recordings.

Here’s what made 2006 a standout year:

The Artists

MSTRKRFT
MSTRKRFT might be the most unique and unlikely dance music story of 2006.

Artist : MSTRKRFT

From the ashes of noise rock darlings Death From Above 1979, member Jesse F. Keeler and the former band’s producer Al-P began to retool tracks as MSTRKRFT (pronounced “masterkraft”) in 2005. The Canadian duo hit the studio hard in 06, rolling out remix after remix for artists like Wolfmother, The Gossip and The Kills. Their crowning achievement, their debut album The Looks (released in July), was a collection of banging club tracks that sounded like an acid fueled bender at your favorite boozer strip club. The interesting part of the MSTRKRFT is that not only did the indie rock bloggers worship their every beat, electronic artists began to acknowledge their innovation. Mylo, Armand Van Helden, and Freeform Five all began to support their work, encouraging electronic artists like Para One, Acid Jacks and Linus Loves to all line up for a MSTRKRFT re-rub (this writer views the Para One remix as the top remix of the year). Even pop starlettes All Saints got a remix. If you had said the minds that brought us the filthy feedback of “Romantic Rights” would be able to give us disco euphoria, I would have said you were crazy.
But that’s exactly what happened.

Carl Craig
Carl Craig is the type of artist you could find every year on lists such as these.

Artist : Carl Craig

A trailblazer, legend, class act, Carl’s work maintains its brilliance and authenticity year in and out. This year he seemed to pop up a lot. He spent a lot of time in the studio, which is no shock. But the variety of the techno innovator’s remix projects were enlightening and intriguing. He took on the glittery electro pop of Goldfrapp, the tracky acid of X-Press 2, the electronic jazz of Theo Parrish, and the leftfield pop of Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, creating remixes that are respectful of the originals, while broadening their energy. He even finished off his year with a 9-minute building classic remix of Brazilian Girls’ “Last Call.” In his spare time, Carl teamed up with Laurent Garnier to compile the “Kings of Techno” for Rapster Records, one of the best mix compilations of the year. Carl covered the European Perspective of the 2-CD comp, spanning everything from classic EBM to Italo-funk. A Japanese compilation also appeared on import “From The Vault: Planet E Classics Collection” which contained many of Carl’s timeless productions. Not a bad year for the kid from Detroit. We should keep our eyes on him.

Switch (Dave Taylor)
Chances are that no matter where you were in the dance world in 2006, you lost your mind to a Dave Taylor production.

Artist :Dave Taylor

While this British club kingpin has been banging out quality house for the last few years under a variety of guises, in 2006 he was as in demand as he was prolific. Whether he was dropping a squeaky throbbing burner (Induceve “Warehouse Shit”), or hands in-the-air remixes for acts as varied as The Futureheads, Edu K, Bugz In The Attic, Sharon Phillips, MYNC Project, Lily Allen, Kelis (as Switch or Solid Groove), the output was consistent; part filth, part class. But it was as Switch that Taylor found his greatest success, “A Bit Patchy” - a broken beat, sub bass interpretation of hip hop staple Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band “Apache.” With his tracks being charted by everyone from Pete Tong and the Basement Jaxx to Diplo and Erol Alkan, his crossover appeal was limitless in 2006. Yet he still remains a bit of a mystery to us press types, doing little to no media. Maybe it’s due to our inability to give his productions a proper label. Is it deep house, is it jackin’ bailie techno, quirky break hop? We’re not sure…and somehow, I think he likes it that way.

www.myspace.com/switchandsolidgroove

The Labels

Data

Label : DATA RECORDS

OK underground hipsters, hear me out on this one. Yes, they are affiliated with international dance whores Ministry of Sound. And Yes, they cater to the big club sounds of bottle service and velvet ropes…but they have released some massive tunes this year.

Fedde Le Grand “Put Your Hands Up for Detroit,” Eric Prydz vs. Floyd “Proper Education,” Switch “A Bit Patchy,” Cajmere  “Say You Will,” Chelonis R. Jones “I Don’t Know,” Mish Mash “Speechless” - all of these were huge. Rumor has it they’ve also snapped up Mason’s “Exceeder” for a re-release complete with new mixes. At least they are using their deep pockets to sign quality tunes and taking some chances on tracks, which is helping them become worldwide club smashes.

www.ministryofsound.com/music/singles/

Modular

Maybe it was the fact that they needed to establish a US office, maybe it was all the good Australian wine they were drinking…OR maybe it was just because they spent sometime at the A&R table and put together one of the best and brightest artist rosters in recent memory. The Aussie label which brought us The Avalanches (new album next year?) had a busy year, but they are now reaping the benefits. Cut Copy, MSTRKRFT, The Presets and Klaxons all had breakthrough years in the US market, combining dance rock experimentation with catchy ear friendly hooks.

They snatched up Soulwax Night Versions for US release, ending the year with one of the hottest dance pop bands (New Young Pony Club) on the tip of everyone’s tongues and are set to release blogger favorite Van She’s newest EP.  They also threw a few great parties here in the US - a lost art for sure.

www.modularpeople.com/us.html

Looking Forward to 2007:

The Artists

Digitalism

For fans of German duo Digitalism, look at 2006 as an appetizer.

After a whirlwind schedule of touring and remix duties, Ismail Tuefekci and Jens Moelle are putting the finishing touches on their debut album. Their heroes are Daft Punk, but Kitsune label manager Gildas Loaec sees them more as “the future Chemical Brothers.”  So we guess it is fitting that their debut album is set for a 2007 release on the US home of the Chemical Brothers, the mighty Astralwerks. Astralwerks General Manager Errol Kolosine says, "Astralwerks has always strived to work with the absolute best electronic and dance acts.  Digitalism is one of the finest of an exciting new crop of talent in this realm and we can't wait to unleash their grooves on America." After an absolutely blinding set here in NYC this past fall, let’s hope they support their album with a full US tour. (Also look for new material from their Palermo Disko Machine guise in 2007 as well.)

www.myspace.com/digitalism

Patric Alavi

Artist: Patrick Alavi

Label : roXour

Don’t listen to those stories about Germans only loving minimal. Consider Patrick Alavi.

Producing records for labels like Oxyd and Loaded, we saw Patrick come into his own in 2006 and is on the cusp of breaking into the big time. Describing his music as “just funk and dope,” Patrick’s banging glitchy beats have fallen into the boxes of Tommie Sunshine, Mylo and Freeform Five. As the “daddy” of his label roXour, he hopes to expand it into “a label for art in general, that will include all kinds of expression like music, fashion, paintings, movies and so on.”

But for now, the focus is on the music. Having just released remixes for pop princess Jamelia and roXour artist Tepr, Alavi will continue to release tracks on roXour, while also establishing a new sublabel alaMort.  “alaMort will just release straight dancefloor abusing music without thinking too much about the innovation character, just music that is made in a couple of hours with a lot of intensity which sounds like a coffee overdose.” Look for his new tracks “becau$” (on roXour) and “Gift” (on alaMort) early in 2007.

www.myspace.com/alamort

Nightmoves

One remix is all it takes…well, one remix and a massively successful underground party.

Nightmoves (aka Matt Waites and Pete Cage) have been holding it down at their indie dance party Liars Club in Nottingham, England. Through the club, the DJ duo met up with the members of The Klaxons. They rerubed the groups’ single “Gravity’s Rainbow,” accolades from the dance world came pouring in and the rest is history. Since then, they have remixed tracks for Van She, The Infadels and Bent. Instead of regurgitating the same old punk funkery with a 4/4 beat, Nightmoves stretch out the tracks into formidable disco-fied dancefloor fodder, epic builders which twist guitars and synthlines into the airhorns for today’s post rock party. The duo is looking to get out some original material in the new year.

www.myspace.com/nightmovesareboom 

The Labels

Tiny Sticks
As they claim on their official site, Tiny Sticks “is London based record label which is launching itself into the murky world of specialist music.” And it looks to be quite murky, considering that bleepy techno, sublime nu-disko and the occasional electro romps have littered Tiny Sticks’ back catalogue.

Since its start in 2005 by production duo Mock & Toof, the label has gone from strong to stronger with each release outdoing the previous. Tiny Sticks has received praise from dance music luminaries like Damian Lazarus, DJ T and Trevor Jackson and has been seen by many as one of the important UK dance labels out there. This past year has seen some large releases from them, the biggest being Dondolo's 'Dragon' which came complete with a killer Shit Robot mix. Their attention to funk has attracted a variety of remix interest from DJ Touche and Hot Chip. Honesty, I’m hard pressed to think of another label that has progressed so rapidly.
Keep any eye out for new music from recent signing Turbo Crystal and new material from Mock and Toof. Look for these Tiny Sticks to become Big Pricks in 2007.

Luscious Sounds
Run by “Mr. Dooms Night” himself, Azzido Da Bass, Hamburg’s Luscious Sounds has been methodically releasing top electro, house and breaks tracks over the course of 2006.
Featuring production from electro player Play Paul, Get Physical giants Booka Shade, and DJs Are Not Rockstars (Princess Superstar and Alexander Technique) the label has been supported by Deep Dish, Justice and M.A.N.D.Y. The label is now poised for big things in 2007.

Boys Noize

Artist/Logo: Boys Noize
While Alex Ridha (aka Boys Noize) was one electronic music’s biggest new comers in 2006, it’s his label, Boysnoize Records, that will be ingrained on everyone’s sonic conscience in 2007.

The label credits their success to their unique sound. ”I think we got a little bit of success because its sound is very special and there’s really no other labels who produce the same music/sound” says Boysnoize representatives. Rather than their music being a reaction to the current music trends, the label just wants to evolve on its own terms. “Nowadays, electronic music [has gotten] more and more minimal and Boysnoize Records is just on a different level. We are not trying to be ‘maximal’ or it becomes music which everybody seems to forget.” While looking to create “a powerful, quality and timeless sound,” they are also looking to “support the young guns.” Newly signed artists Les Petit Pilous and Darmstadt will be jumping head first into to the BNR pool, as well as the second EP from the mysterious PUZIQUe. But of course, Boys Noize himself will be the label’s most active artist in 2007, with an LP due out in the spring and a new 12” complete with remixes by French wunderkind Surkin releasing a little sooner. The label also plans to start throwing BNR nights around the world. Lock up your daughters…’cause the boys get a little noisy.

www.myspace.com/boysnoizerecords