Have to start these reviews somewhere so why not start with Friday? After (somewhat) recovering from a very, very busy 3 days of nonstop dancing, I am finally able to clear my head and recall what the hell happened during this marathon of a weekend. As most people did on Friday, our schedule brought us to the Fool's Gold tent for the majority of the day with stops off at Netsky, Reboot, and Luciano throughout.
Treasure Fingers
Treasure Fingers started out the day for us playing his usual mix of nu disco fire and chiller electronic tracks. It was a perfect way to start the day as everyone's feet needed a little bit of a warm up for what was about to ensue. One of the best tracks that we did not suspect him to play was by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, who we recently saw at LPR, called Tapes & Money.
Gesaffelstein
After Treasure Fingers, we all wandered a bit as we were all a tad bit disappointed that Brodinski had cancelled last minute. We had heard rumors he was having trouble with his US visa and was canceling most of his shows but of course we were hopeful up until the very last day. His Bromance counterpart, Gesaffelstein, was obviously our next must-see of the day and I still have yet to be disappointed by him after seeing him twice prior. The deep, dark techno always makes me very angry and ready to fight someone or something but man is it good. I think the ultimate setting for his style would be on Halloween (hint, hint Gesaffelstein...). He of course played some of his newer stuff but also kept to some of the classics of his such as one my personal favorites, Hatred.
Netsky
I personally left Gesaffelstein rather early in order to not miss a second of Netsky, as he was on the top of my list to see on Friday. I have always been a huge fan of Netsky and Hospital Records since discovering my love of drum and bass last year. He dropped all sorts of tracks, ranging from hip hop to dubstep to trap to the obvious drum and bass. Of course, many of these tracks were from his new album, 2, which is so good that you can literally listen to it straight through (and it just got a gold record in Belgium). I have relistened to the set in all its glory and listed all the tracks I recognized from it in order below along with some of my favorites posted in their entirety as well. Hands down biggest surprise in the set was the switch over to hip hop which then went between some hip hop classics and 2 Koan Sound tracks. Wish he would've left out the mainstream BS like Internet Friends but whatever, gotta give the little preteen kiddies some songs they know. Definitely looking to see a true Netsky show in the near future where we can expect only banging drum and bass and some drumstep.
Netsky - The Whistle Song
Skream - Anticipate (Netsky Remix)
Netsky - Iron Heart *see below*
Netsky - Detonate
DJ Fresh - The Feeling (Metrik Remix)
Sigma, Takura - Summer Days
Netsky - Come Alive
Metrik - Flightwave
Bungle ft. Ayah Marar - The Siren (Camo & Krooked Remix)
Major Lazer - Get Free (Andy C Remix)
Wolfgang Gartner - Illmerica (Loadstar Remix) *see below*
Sub Focus - Rock It
Loadstar - Terror Drone
DJ Kool ft. Biz Markie & Doug E Fresh - Let Me Clear My Throat
Koan Sound - Sly Fox *see below*
Fatman Scoop ft. Crooklyn Clan - Be Faithful (Put Your Hands Up)
Koan Sound - Funk Blaster
Knife Party - Internet Friends
Double 99 - Ripgroove
Netsky - Puppy
Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg - The Next Episode
Netsky - Give & Take
Sub Focus - Out The Blue
Rusko - Everyday (Netsky VIP Remix)
Toronto is Broken - Spirit Song 2012
Major Lazer - Original Don (Flosstradamus Remix)
Netsky - Iron Heart
Wolfgang Gartner - Illmerica (Loadstar Remix)
Koan Sound - Sly Fox
Dillon Francis
After somewhat wearing myself out at the fast paced set of Netsky, I found myself at a set that I was hoping to be a little more laid back by Dillon Francis. Unfortunately, Dillon has gone further and further away from moombahton and the chill sounds of his remix of Hit's Me Like a Rock in favor of the more mainstream electro/dubstep sounds that you can find in his current songs like IDGAFOS. I'm personally not a fan but I stuck around for most of it in hopes that it would change more to the "baby making" music that he used to claim he played.
Jack Beats
In addition to this, Jack Beats were also a bit disappointing as they opted for more of the electro/dubstep style as well in order to play to the crowd. They could have (and in my mind should have) played most all Jack Beats originals and remixes and I would have been perfectly happy as I was the 3 other times I saw them. One track that can never be missed by them however is their Get Down VIP which then turns into their personal moombahton VIP. Needless to say, it doesn't get much better than that so we were happy to at least catch that for the second year in a row.
Reboot/Luciano
Before the end of Jack Beats and during Tommy Trash we found our way to the tent that would later simply be referred to as "home" for us, the Sunday School Grove. Granted, I don't pretend to know much about the Cadenza Vagabundos show so we were mostly just checking it out and getting our groove on. Luckily our fellow writer, wins1o was able to ID one of the better tracks that was dropped by either of them. Reboot dropped probably one of the most vulgar tracks known to man but holy hell is it tasty. Once Luciano was on we were all very intrigued and some ended up staying but the majority of us ended up checking out A-Trak.
Mike Dunn Presents Mr. 69 - Phreaky MF (Mike Dunn's "Original Phreak" Mixx)
A-Trak
A-Trak started out keeping the previous electro vibe alive with tracks from Wolfgang Gartner and such, eventually moving into his remix of Martin Solveig's "The Night Out". Not long after, the Big Bad Wolf paid us all a visit which later was mixed into the Dada Life Remix of Big Bad Wolf. As the howls still echoed throughout Randall's Island, you could hear A-Trak's collab with ZINC, Stingray, coming in.
What most people were waiting for however, was some of the nu trap that people have grown to love nowadays. Some say it's the new moombahton and honestly, they are probably right, I give it 3 more months tops until it's hardly heard from again. That does not mean that it's bad though, as I tend to love it, especially the tracks that A-Trak dropped. I had first anticipated hearing the Luminox remix of Rattle from Dillon Francis but just ended up having to wait for it a little later on in the night. It is far and away my favorite nu trap song and I don't see it ever being topped. A-Trak also first dropped his current favorite edit of his Heads Will Roll remix by Kid Kamillion to start out the trap trend. Staying true to the Fools Gold label, A-Trak also mixed in the Baauer remix of Rollup by Flosstradamus and the Oliver Twizt remix of Money Makin'.
Bingo Players - Rattle (Luminox Remix)
All in all, A-Trak did not disappoint and he ended with a little bit of what some people started with, playing Gesaffelstein's Control Movement followed by his own remix of New Lands and XTC by Boys Noize. I never have been disappointed by A-Trak and he definitely brought the heat for his hometown crowd in NYC. We ended the night with Pretty Lights who was very, very solid but ended up leaving early as we had to gear up for the days to come.
Make sure to check out our other reviews of EZoo Saturday and Sunday. Ultimately, we add another year into the books and all look forward to next year assuming the lineup continues to impress. Bravo again Made Event.
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