You can always count on TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) to blow the doors off of every evening establishment in the city. Go ahead and take a stroll through your favorite borough in the city, you’ll be sure to find a blockbuster booking at the club nearest you. Although, we would ask you to be weary of the overly-pretentious douche-bags who tend to lurk the streets during a festival such as this. Regardless, with names like Armand van Helden, Popof, Busy P, Mehdi, SebastiAn, Mowgli, Jimpster, Sharam and Kim Fai all flying in — this weekend has the potential to be very very special. We haven’t even ironed out an agenda as of yet, it’s just too difficult to decide.
We kinda alluded to this already, but seriously, how is it already September? Yet, another warm summer of good friends, good cheer and good music has passed us by, and now fall is right around the corner. We’re proud to say that electroTO‘s summer will last a couple more weeks, as we slowly unveil the final chapter of our Summer Sessions Live Mix Series. This final installment was recorded in concert with The Faktory, at our Social Thursday collaboration, which featured the likes of Meech, Golden Gloves (Poupon), Bordello, and of course, our guest of honour, Camel (Deadfish UK). As has been the case with all of our Summer Sessions, this one showcases a bunch of new production from our family of artists, some risky mixing, and a result that is seamless. Be sure to stay tuned until the very end, for our exclusive mix with Camel.
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MEECH | electroTO Summer Sessions: Volume IV
Let’s be honest, it’s rare to see Michel Fournier aka Meech behind the decks before 11pm, but on Thursday August 26th, it was his turn to serve in that role. Although we were curious as to how he would handle it, we weren’t surprised when our homie managed to put together one of his best live mixes to date, one that we’re genuinely feeling, and bumping in our own audio contraptions. It all starts off at a subtle 116bpm with the brilliant Bostro Pesopeo remix of Sally Shapiro’s Love In July. From there, it’s a melodic journey through the finest in low-bpm house, techno, and those in between, finally ending off in the 125bpm neighbourhood, with Sussuro (5am Mix) , one of many projects Meech has taken up with Faceless Management newcomer, Meati.
Pictured above is an early 20th century photo of the Labour Day parade in Toronto. Fast forward, oh about one-hundred years, and society has found a couple more enticing ways to celebrate this statutory holiday. This weekend is summer’s final hurrah. An opportunity to go hard, for three, four or maybe even five days in succession. Most notably, Labour Day weekend is synonymous with the Guvernment’s super event, Labour of Love. Although this year’s line-up leaves much to be desired in our eyes, it still presents an opportunity for thousands of electronic music enthusiasts to congregate around good music, and explore the subterranean realm of synthetic drugs. One more item of note, an absolute sizzler of a booking at Mod Club on Friday, when Fake Blood attempts to rekindle his dominance of the Toronto club scene.
Not too long back, we documented the tragic break-up of disco divas, Aeroplane. Indeed, the glamorous duo of Vito De Luca and Stephen Fasano have gone their separate ways, both embarking on solo projects, much in the same musical vein. Vito has effectively carried on the Aeroplane moniker, continuing the release of the now widely-celebrated monthly mixes, and various production under that banner. Stephen, on the other hand, briefly fell off our radar, before returning just recently, in a very big way — and this here, is the chief purpose of our rant tonight. Stephen Fasano can now be referred to as The Magician, his recently founded solo project.
First and foremost, the fundamentals remain the same, which is a good thing in our estimation, because both Vito and Stephen remain the unquestioned tastemakers and soundtesters for this very fragile ‘nu disco’ subgenre. To drift away from this expertise seems a bit counterintuitive. Alas, Stephen is still concentrated on the beautiful low-bpm groove that had us hooked just months ago, and he goes on to showcase his reaffirmed love for disco by giving us Magic Tape 2. The mix (which is quite obviously the second in this series) fuses the contemporary with the legendary, and even allows for some new wave indie to sneak into the lot as well. Refer to the tracklist below for all your music-nerd needs.
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Tracklist
01 ARCADE FIRE // Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
02 MARK SEVEN // Sermon (Serotonin Edit )
03 KOLOMBO // Waitin For
04 BLAMMA! BLAMMA! // Beyond 17
05 ROMAN SALZGER – Alpha Century
06 MARK RONSON – Bang Bang Bang (U-Tern’s Disco Dub)
07 HANNULELAURI // Zombie Tropicana
08 KEANE // Clear Skies (VillA Dub Remix)
09 CHILLY GONZALES // Knight Moves
10 BUBBLE CLUB // Violet Morning Moon
We’re always a tad over-excited when we can personally contribute to the impact of What’s Good Wednesday!? by bringing international DJ talent to town. Our helping hand comes specifically on this Thursday (tomorrow night) when Deadfish Audio DJ/Producer Camel comes to town to dazzle The Social, alongside trusty DJs Golden Gloves, Meech and Bordello. This one promises to be a truly rare passage through quality house and tech house, treating the most seasoned listener to a wide array of exclusive noises. Camel’s tremendous quality has been well documented on this page and we are bubbling with excitement to see this young gun strut his stuff on those fancy CDJ2000′s at The Social.
In case you haven’t already heard, one of our most cherished dj/producers will be making his highly anticipated North American debut this Thursday (August 26th) at The Social. Indeed, electroTO and The Faktory are very proud to present the latest installment of Social Thursday featuring Italian-native Andrea Maver, aka Camel, of Deadfish Audio fame.
The perfect precursor to this massive occasion is Camel’s latest promotional single, which was released just days ago as a free give-away through Jackmode Agency — one of the most relevant talent management organizations in the world. The piece goes by the name Akin and features the deep drums, melodic harmonies and enchanting vibe that we have come to know and love from Camel.
It truly seems that this dude can do no wrong in the production room, assembling brilliant track, after brilliant track. His intricate use of lucid samples, haunting organic instrument progressions, and the grooviest percussion loops all amount to Andrea Maver being one of the finest producers around. This specific aural experience almost entices you to spiritually teleport to the most remote regions of an Arabic desert, and wander, aimlessly. Thursday is going to be magical.
I’ve decided that I’m going to take 20 minutes out of my ViaOne train-ride-pre-party, to post a track that is currently melting the faces off of all those within my aural radius. To paint the complete picture, the electroTO extended family is currently on a voyage to Montreal where we’ll soon be reaching Velvet nightclub, all in an attempt to support Turbo Recordings and their recent signing of Toronto-duo Azari & III. The evening has had a promising start, and we’d recommend that you stay tuned to our Twitter Account for (somewhat) regular updates.
The electronic ingenuity that is sparking the magical energy of the moment is a cut from the Get The Curse cloth (which we made light of not too long ago), specifically from the Portuguese duo known as Photonz. Their piece entitled Plague Of The New Age, while brilliant in its own right, was truly brought to life by Spanish DJ/Producer Maceo Plex aka Maetrik. For time’s sake, I won’t say much more than that, just check this one out and pretend it’s already 3am.
Once again, blogging superpower electroTO has teamed up with promotion mastermind The Faktory to bring you an event that combines all things beautiful about Toronto’s electronic music scene. The latest edition features a very dear guest, making his North American debut, and more specifically, one of the most promising DJ talents in the world.
In the spring of 2009, we stumbled upon an infantile tech-house label based out the UK by the name of Deadfish Audio (a label that we’ve repeatedly flaunted on this very space). Spearheaded by lead-man Mowgli, the steady stream of innovative releases opened our eyes to a very refreshing take on house music, and left a lasting impression that eventually won our unquestioned support.
Thursday August 26th will celebrate the man who is arguably the diamond jewel of the Deadfish Audio crew, both as a DJ & as a producer — Camel. With three stellar EP releases and a whole slew of incredible remixes in the last year and a half, Camel has asserted himself as the most sought out young producer in the house and tech house game. Period. Mark this one on your calendar, it’s going to be special.
A huge weekend for the local scene, with Toronto-based DJs sprouting up in clubs and bars across the entire city. It’s an especially notable weekend for Riviera who will be celebrating a release party on Thursday, as well as opening up for Dj Gina Turner at The Social on Saturday. Other weekend highlights include a very intriguing booking at This Is London, of all places, on your Friday evening. This event will feature both Autoerotique and the Stickin’ magician, Mr. SonicC. All-in-all, another really fancy docket of events to enjoy.
We’re now past the midpoint of August, and the majority of us are left wondering where this summer has evaporated to. To call a spade a spade, let me state that this summer has been a real treat, filled with star-studded events, the Summer Sessions Mix Series (volume I, volume II & volume III), and of course, unrestrained debauchery, regardless of the venue. The looming end of summer also suggests that our days of shamelessly posting amorous disco tunes are seemingly numbered. We say this because the aura of a sub 120-bpm track just doesn’t seem to have the same effect when the weather isn’t warm, breezy, and inviting.
To seize the final half of August, and to celebrate the summer that was, we’re posting perhaps one of the most talked-about tracks of the moment– that being the Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas remix of The Chemical Brothers’ Swoon. This epic adaption appeared in sets by disco giants Villa, and Aeroplane, proceeding to startle the keenest of ears from then forward. It’s all in the organic instruments here, with countless guitars in the fold, an alluring bassline, and a vocal that possesses more cheeze than your favorite combo #3.
