Music News: 5/21/09

21 May 2009

Beatportal.com - Latest News

Posted: 21 May 2009 04:17 AM PDT

Sorry for the long time since the last update! Nic and I have continuously been on the go, running on three hours of sleep per night and no brain power to type anything worthwhile. We spent a few days in Las Vegas, and I am not a gambler, so we did some wild activities like shooting UZI 9mm machine guns at pictures of Osama Bin Laden!

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Deadmau5 to take over Apple store

Posted: 20 May 2009 05:53 PM PDT

Tomorrow between 7pm and 8pm, Deadmau5 will cause a riot at the Apple store on 1248 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, California, after the star announced his plans to play a set at the retail store. In the past Deadmau5 created a roadblock at a Virgin store in Los Angeles, and this time he wants to "convert an Apple store into an all out party". Read Deadmau5 amusing blog post after the jump, talking about his special one-off performance.

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Interview: Speedy J on the benefits of DJing in parts

Posted: 20 May 2009 12:05 PM PDT

We live in a time of technological change. Consider the DJ. Once confined to the humble turntable and the physicality of music on vinyl, the DJ is now able to remix music live and deconstruct musical works on a molecular level using software. At Beatport, more and more labels and artists are releasing parts to tracks, enabling DJs to create live remixes and re-edit music in the DJ booth. One of the biggest advocates of DJing in parts is Dutch techno pioneer Speedy J, who last year released 'Kreate', a huge collection of loops and samples which allowed DJs to build entire tracks in a live setting. Then in October, Speedy J launched his Open Collabs project encouraging producers worldwide to submit samples and loops to him, so that he could build an entire album from them. Speedy J is obsessed with parts, and always has been. Beatportal decided to interview the DJ revolutionist to try and understand the possible futures of DJ culture. Because, as author Stewart Brand once said, "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road." No DJ wants to be squashed. Here is an in-depth interview with Speedy J about his thoughts on parts, conducted naturally, as an IM interview, because if we're talking about parts, we may as well do it in parts.

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The importance of Ibiza’s IMS

Posted: 20 May 2009 09:20 AM PDT

Imagine a dance music world where the most prominent DJs, record label owners, managers and industry heads all gather in one place to discuss the future of the scene. That's what Pete Tong envisaged when he launched Ibiza's International Music Summit (IMS) last year. The second annual IMS takes place from 27th - 29th May, and Beatportal has enlisted the services of British DJ and all round good guy Tom Middleton to blog live from the event, in order to share the most important discussion points raised during the panels with the worldwide dance music community. But why should you care about IMS? Pete Tong explains it all, right here.

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