Electronic Dance Music Blog & Podcast

With the release of his sophomore album, Goblin, earlier this year, Tyler, the Creator and the rest of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All have gain a substantial following from fans all across the globe.

On August 29, Tyler beat out Kreayshawn, Big Sean, Foster the People and Wiz Khalifa for this year’s “Best New Artist” award for his “Yonkers” music video at the 2011 MTV Music Video Award.

Upon the announcement, Tyler and the Odd Future crew scrambled on stage to accept the award. “I’ve wanted this since I was nine years old,” he said while holding a “Free Earl” t-shirt. “This is for my little brother, Earl, he’s not here right now. I really can’t really believe I’m here right now. “

Watch Tyler’s acceptance speech below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Polaris Prize board released the shortlist for the 2011 nominees a few days ago.  Cutting the long list down, there are now only ten artists up for the prize.  These ten artists (and albums they are nominated for) are:

The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Austra – Feel it Break

Braids – Native Speaker

Timber Timbre – Creep on Creepin’ on

Destroyer – Kaputt

Galaxie – Tigre et Diesel

Hey Rosetta! – Seeds

Ron Sexsmith – Long Player Late Bloomer

The Weeknd – House of Balloons

Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Each of the nominees above will be awarded $2,000 for making the short list, and are still in the running for the $30,000 grand prize.  I’m sad to see that Tim Hecker didn’t make the short list but there are definitely some high quality acts still remaining.  I will keep you posted once the winner is announced!

I leave you with a Braids video for their track “Plath Heart” from Native Speaker. Not sure if it’s a fan video or an official video, but it is a cool one nonetheless. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

The board of directors behind Canada’s most highly sought-after music aware have announced the long-list nominees for the 2011 Polaris Prize.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Polaris Prize, it is run by a Canadian non-profit organization that awards Canadian music of the highest quality and integrity, regardless of radio play or album sales.

In a more detailed description of the organization itself, the people at Polaris describe it as “a not-for-profit organization that honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music. Polaris recognizes and markets albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history. it is is adjudicated by selected music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers.”

Click here for the complete long-list of artists nominated for the 2011 Polaris Prize.

The winner will take home $30,000 ($10,000 more than last year’s prize) and those who make the short list will take home $2,000 each.  Not bad at all for doing something you love.

Some of my favourite artist who’ve made this year’s long-list include Tim Hecker, Arcade Fire, Braids, Dirty Beaches, Timber Timbre, and Young Galaxy. Some other notable nominees include The Weeknd, Sloan, Stars, Neil Young, and PS I Love You among many more.  The competition is intense, to say the least.

Here are a couple tracks from my two favourite nominees:

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]Stream: Braids – Lemonade

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]Stream: Tim Hecker – 06-Hatred Of Music I

Check out more details about the Polaris Prize here.

So MixMag did this Poll and I didn’t vote. In fact I didn’t even know this poll existed, but nonetheless here it is.

10. 2Many DJs (Who?)
09. Tony DeVit (A definite Legend)
08. Sasha
07. Paul van Dyk
06. Ricardo Villalobos (Not sure how he snuck in there)
05. Carl Cox (Isn’t he a cage fighter these days)
04. Andy C
03. Sven Vath
02. Richie Hawtin (Should have been #1)
01. Tiesto

via: MixMag

We’re proud to announce that our annual green arts and music festival, Lightning in a Bottle, has received the OUTSTANDING Greener Festival Award for 2010!

From the website:

“A further fifteen UK, North American and European festivals have been named as winners of the prestigious Greener Festival Award 2010 making a grand total of 47 winners in 2010.  The new winners include Bonnaroo (USA), Lightning in a Bottle (USA),

West Beach (USA),  Osheaga Festival (Canada), Outside Lands (USA), Shambala Festival (Northants), End of the Road (Wiltshire), Waveform (Norfolk), Bestival (Isle of Wight), Camp Bestival (Lulworth), The Co-operative Cambridge Folk Festival, Hard Rock Calling (London), T-in-the-Park (Scotland), Big Tent (Scotland), Boom (Portugal) and  Welcome to the Future (Netherlands).”

We’re very happy to be sharing this award alongside some of our favorite festivals. We can’t wait to see what everyone else has in store for 2011…we know ours is going to be even more beautiful, sustainable and magical!

*Appropriately enough: the award is made of recycled bottles.

Winter Music Conference is coming up and it’s time for the IDMA Awards. Stop in and vote for your favorites.
Vote Here

25th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL DANCE MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEES Continue reading “Vote in the 25th Annual IDMA Awards” »

So it’s the 7th Annual Hard Dance Awards voting time. It seems the categories have changed a bit to be more region specific which really makes no sense at all and seems to be a ploy to try to add more categories to the awards. My suggestion for next year maybe also add categories for DJ and Producers that also divides them up my hair or eye color and maybe age or Mac or PC preferrence. Best US DJ with Black Hair, Brown Eyes Over 21 on a PC…ME!! But anyway, go vote so some DJs can increase the rates they are currently charging after they win. Where’s my whistle crew?

From the press release:
7th Annual Hard Dance Awards powered by Trackitdown.net has launched! Continue reading “Go Vote in the Hard Dance Awards” »

With the success of his State of Trance Podcast and the chart-topping productions he cranked out this year it’s no surprise that Armin took the coveted #1 DJ in World spot yet again. If you’re in LA be sure to catch him this weekend at Monster Massive.

Here is the complete list for 2009:

1. Armin van Buuren (non-mover)
2. Tiesto (non-mover)
3. David Guetta (up 2)
4. Above & Beyond (non-mover)
5. Paul van Dyk (down 2)
6. Deadmau5 (up 5)
7. Ferry Corsten (down 1)
8. Markus Schulz (non-mover)
9. Gareth Emery (up 14)
10. Sander van Doorn (up 3)
Continue reading “DJ Mag Top 100 for 2009” »

Euphoria and Trackitdown recently held their annual Trance Awards and below are the listed winners…no surprises really. *Yawn*

Best DJ
1. Paul Van Dyk
2. Armin Van Buuren
3. Tiësto

Best Producer
1. Paul Van Dyk
2. Armin Van Buuren
3. Tiësto

Best Label
1. Armada
2. Vandit
3. Anjunabeats

Continue reading “2009 Trance Awards Winners” »