HAMMARICA.COM DANCE MUSIC MAGAZINE – BEST OF 2012
Hammarica.com | EDM News Network.
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Hammarica.com came into existence in June of this year. Hammarica brings a daily mix of the latest dance music news, DJ interviews, EDM event news, party reports, reviews and much more!
We experienced a rapid growth and gained lots of interest from dance music lovers, party people, artists, DJs, promoters and record labels alike. Founded by Wilf Libgott, Hammarica is destined to grow into an all round EDM brand for 2013. Next to its dance music magazine and PR agency for EDM DJs and producers, it will include a brand new record label serving only the very best that EDM has to offer.
2012 WAS FILLED WITH EDM HIGHLIGHTS.
Back in June we kick started with DJ interviews featuring Shogun, Tritonal and Darin Epsilon.
Shogun was already making the rounds. Ranked #122 in the DJ Mag Top 100 of 2011 and with a massive trance anthem under his belt under the name of Skyfire, everything pointed to skyrocketing success for this DJ. Ultimately, he made it into the DJ Mag list of 2012 and entered at #68.
Tritonal is another success story. Chad Cisneros and Dave Reed formed this dynamic musical partnership from opposite ends of the United States after meeting online in a sound production forum. Within a year of collaboration, their first smash hit ‘Piercing Quiet’ was voted best track by listeners of Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance radio show and the pair was on the fast track to becoming one the world’s most electrifying and innovative acts to watch.
They rocked EDC, released a hard hitting album and continued their rise in the DJ Mag top 100 at #65 this year. Their fans, amicably called Tritonians support them everywhere they go.
For their interview with Hammarica, we asked them how they felt about the rise of EDM in the States:
Chad – “I LOVE it! It opens up so many cool opportunities for the future, and gives guys like Tritonal a chance to reach a much larger audience. We love writing music, and want to share it with as many people as possible – it’s great for those guys to be getting commercial licensing, really exciting.”
Dave – “It is about damn time!!! I’ve loved this music for half my life – back in the day, most of my friends thought I was crazy. “Oh – he likes techno music.” Now, it’s become so mainstream, they’re trying to produce it! Overall, it puts a positive effect in the studio for us because each day that we’re in there, not only do we know we do appeal to the ‘trance’ sound’s fanbase, but we now know that our sound will potentially reach out on an entire global level! Such an explosion!” Read the complete Tritonal interview here.
Hammarica sat down twice with Darin Epsilon to talk about his career. And what do you know? At NYE, he will headline Insomniac’s massive White Wonderland event where he will perform at midnight.
On the production front, Darin kept raising the bar as well. His new track “Shine The Light” was handpicked by legendary DJ Nick Warren to appear on his forthcoming mix album Renaissance presents Nick Warren – The Masters Series. This is not only Nick’s first compilation for the clubbing institution since 2001, but also his first full solo outing over two CDs for Renaissance.
Darin: “There aren’t really words to describe how special this moment is for me. I spent years and years working on music and finally achieved a long-term goal. On top of that, my track appears on a mix CD by two of my biggest musical inspirations.”
BILLIONAIRE ASPIRATIONS
August 21st we were among the firsts to report on billionaire Robert F X Sillerman’s intent to invest $1,000,000,000 of his fortune to buy electronic dance music event companies.
Sillerman is the founder of what is known now as Live Nation. In the 90′s he bought up several local promotion companies to form SFX. Later on SFX changed its name to Live Nation and Sillerman sold it to Clearchannel Communications.
Now, since dance music took over, he wants to launch a ‘new’ Live Nation specifically dedicated to the EDM movement.The new company is called SFX Entertainment and is in talks with about 50 promotion companies.
TROLLING ARMIN & DEADMAU5
Hailing from Hungary, Myon & Shane 54 have achieved extraordinary success in the international dance music scene, having established a solid reputation for themselves with notable releases including numerous Beatport number ones and consistent rankings among DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs.
November 1st Hammarica was the one to break the news of the Myon & Shane 54 edit of the collaboration between Armin and Deadmau5. They had started working together on Twitter and kept their fan base in check with their progress. As they aired a pre finished version of the track on Armin’s A State Of Trance Radio Show, Myon and Shane 54 took the track and gave it their own wicked twist. 10.000 plays on Soundcloud within about one week!
HAMMARICA PARTYROCK!
It’s always a blast crashing a good party. And we, the professional Party Rockers of Hammarica.com were everywhere this year. The massive Photosynthesis, Hempfest, LSeattle, Cityarts, Krakt, Decibel Festival and last but not least the amazing Freaknight Festival.
Krakt is a series of events that brings back the underground techno to Seattle. Led by head honcho Kristina Childs, she invited king of the underground PIG of techno duo PIG & DAN for the first edition.
Decibel Festival only got bigger this year and we featured the amazing performance of Octave One. Other than parties all over town, Decibel was also host to a conference part and featured numerous panels that included anything from controller gear, to social media management and kick start projects for artists.
Freaknight was arguably the biggest EDM production downtown Seattle had seen yet. Production-wise there were over 50 different performers, 3 stages. Over 600 led panels, 6 lasers, 3 rides.. multiple VIP stages and areas, carnival games, 4 stadium confetti blowers, 6 balloon drops, 20 co2 jets and much more to mention. Headliners included Armin Van Buuren, Sander Van Doorn, Laidback Luke, Borgore and Bingo Players.
HAMMARICA REVIEWS & NEW RELEASES
Some of the many releases we featured and reviewed included Crystallize by Lindsey Stirling, Pure Trance by Solarstone and Antonio Giacca‘s ‘Majestic.’ We even had other well known artists drop by to review a number of records exclusively for us. JOOP who released the much talked about Just One Night was one of them.
OTHER RECORDS ON HAMMARICA’S SHORT LIST INCLUDE:
Maya Jane Coles – Easier To Find
SugarBeats – Honey Jar EP
Stephen J Kroos – My Musiq
Davi
Andrew Bennett – Roadtrip
Wolfgang Gartner – Evil Lurks
Brad Bitt – Crunk As Fuck
Marcus Schossow – Helvete
Darin Epsilon – Perspectives Digital Vol 4
Matei Craciun – Innocence
HAMMARICA DJ INTERVIEWS
Using its extensive network, Hammarica interviews DJs on a daily basis. Whether they are an up-and-comer, legend or superstar, everyone is very happy to drop by and shed a light on their career. The interviews give a good insight to DJ life. Of course the world of an up-and-comer always stands in stark contrast with the superstars of today. Yet, the superstars of today once were up-and-comers as well.
Read about the struggle, the successes, the never-told-before stories and most importantly: THE MUSIC.
If it wasn’t for dance music legend Juan Atkins, many of us might not have been fans of EDM. In the early 80′s he was the one to release the first techno record ever, next to his lauded work as an electro pioneer. We asked him if there was a connection between Chicago’s house scene on one hand, and Detroit’s techno scene on the other back in the day.
Juan: “Detroit is only a four hour drive from Chicago and vice versa, so yes we would drive to Chicago and we’ve been to the Warehouse and see Frankie [Knuckles] play. A lot of Chicago guys would come up here to Detroit. We would book for Hitman, Wilson and Farley Jackmaster Funk and Bad Boy Bill. Yeah all those guys come and play at parties for us here. There was definitely a friendly rivalry I guess you could say. As a matter of fact Derrick [May] sold Frankie the Tr 909 that a lot of the first house records were made from. Because Chip E was sort of like Frankie’s assistant or so to speak. He would be at the club, at the Warehouse so that’s how he got a hold of that 909 to make “Like This” and other tracks. So there is definitely a lot of relationship between Detroit and Chicago.”
Read the entire Juan Atkins interview here.
Many other DJs shared their insights as well, ranging from trance master Andy Moor, Seattle’s Don of Trap & Bass Jameson Just, to dubstep gods Cyberoptics and Vaski.
Baron Of Techno Dave Clarke had his say as well. We asked him if there was any out of this world technology not on the market today that he’d really wish was available to enhance his performances. He replied:
“A stun gun to aim at coke head artists or DJ’s playing hipster house from one mix.”
HAMMARICA’S SHORT LIST OF ESSENTIAL INTERVIEWS:
Legends of the Dutch house scene Fierce Ruling Diva
Up-and-comer BASSROCK
Hardcore legend Darkcontroller (DNA Records/RIGE/NL)
Electro Legend Egyptian Lover
Trance master Solarstone
The world’s number one DJ Armin Van Buuren
Up-and-comer Oliver Daniel
Queen of Bass Fei-Fei
Seattle favorite Marq
R&S Co-founder Renaat Vandepapeliere
Armin Van Buuren:
“I cannot tell you how enthusiastic I am when I am doing a radio show. I’m going through a pile of promos that is like… disgusting. But when I find that one track – that magical track – Like wow! This is so well produced; this is so amazing.. Then I cannot wait for it to be Friday night to play that track for a crowd and THAT is what it’s all about. Forget ALL the rest. Because that is NOT important.. In my opinion.”
YOUR DUBSTEP DJ NAME
One of the most popular items on Hammarica.com is its Dubstep DJ Name Generator. Dubstep is insanely popular and each day more kids decide to take up a career as either a Dubstep DJ or producer. Yet, not anyone can think of clever artists names. That’s where we at Hammarica wanted to help with a dedicated Dubstep name generator which is prominently featured throughout the page. Each time when clicking on “make name” a new dubstep name is generated.
Share yours on the Your Dubstep DJ Name page.
FUN STUFF
Hammarica’s fun stuff is filled with everything that is pure FUN. This ranges from ITV Live The DJ Sessions to MKKM’s Fistpump Columns, Gear reviews and dance music tutorials.
Our own Channelsurfer did a first tutorial on how to use a vocoder plugin creatively.
THANK YOU!
We love all our supporters. Without you we wouldn’t be able to deliver our content to you daily. A special thanks goes out to Kate O’Connell, Eversun, MKKM, Darran Bruce, Damen Smith-Draeko, Drew Scott, DeBosco, Chris Herrera, Larry Kleinke and everyone else who makes Hammarica a reality!
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