This year’s event was one of the best of its kind to date; from some incredible up-and-coming acts to the world’s biggest and best DJs, Sound Wave was the place to be this past weekend. Incredible artists and an awesome energy filled both the outside street stage and inside the Maya Day + Night Club as thousands of people from all across the valley came together for one fun-filled day.

One of the first artists we got to check out was Arizona native Brazzabelle who had everyone at the Maya stage dancing for her entire set. As the sun beat down on attendees, Brazzabelle kept the party going playing some of the best big-room house, and lead right into another JNTM favorite, DJ Craze. 

Craze was definitely a surprise to most of the Scottsdale crowd as he dropped the biggest and boomiest trap and hip hop tracks this audience had ever seen. He was also a great artist to watch as he was able to get the whole crowd to react to his set.

While Craze was killing it inside Maya, we also got to check out Miami favorites and artists on the rise, Brass Knuckles who are making some pretty big waves (no pun intended) in the EDM community by combining a traditional electronic setup with live instrumentation. They’re known for calling themselves a “band” rather than just another DJ group — which could not be more true. These guys completely dominated the street stage with their huge drops and sick guitar solos.

As the sun began to set and the audience continued to grow, another JNTM favorite took the Maya stage by storm. Drezo wasted no time with his performance at Sound Wave. Dropping some of the best deep house tracks including Brodinski’s “Nobody Rules the Streets” and his own secret weapon, “Rogue,”  Drezo had the Scottsdale crowd blown away.

Finally, as the opening acts were coming to an end, Porter Robinson took to the stage in his first performance in AZ since his stop in Tempe for his Language Tour in 2012. Simply put, Porter was one of the hardest hitting acts of the entire day. Playing a lot of his stuff featured in this year’s Ultra performance, it was no surprise that he had EVERYONE dancing and jumping in the streets.

Of course, what Sound Wave would be complete without a performance from a world-wide legend. Last year, the festival headlined with Kaskade, who was recently awarded by DJ Mag as America’s Best DJ. This year, Scottsdale was lucky enough to get the world-renowned and EDM legend Tiesto to end the festival. One of the best parts of Tiesto’s set was the fact that he played some of his older tracks like Elements of Life. Like Porter, Tiesto had the entire block party jumping and dancing well into the night.

As the night came to an end and everyone shuffled out of the venue with their ears still ringing from a day full of awesome dance music, there was hardly anything to complain about. All in all Sound Wave was a smooth running event that definitely put Scottsdale on the map as a hot spot for DJs around the world. We look forward to seeing what Disco Donnie Presents and Steve LeVine Entertainment have in store for the future!

The post Sound Wave Block Party 2013 Review appeared first on Just Noise To Me.

When I first found out the album was streaming for free on iTunes, my heart sank. I stopped everything I was working on, downloaded iTunes (in a Spotify world, who uses this app anymore?) and got to listening. I immediately got chills and continue to get the chills throughout the entire album. When I was finished with my first run through, my initial thought was something like, “That was a little tame. Not sure if this is going to be my favorite.” But, as Swedish House Mafia has famously stated, “goosebumps never lie.”

I took my lunch break and returned to my desk to listen to RAM once again. This time, with the intent to listen to every detail. I wanted to pick up on exactly what these robots were up to on this album. Here’s what I came up with:

Random Access Memories is an album created by musicians, rather than just producers, to remind the masses what music once was and what it should be. Anyone who followed the Collaborator Series could realize that everyone involved in this album is a true musician, someone who paved the way in one genre or another for other musicians to begin creating music. Legends like Giorgio Moroder, Chilly Gonzales, Todd Edwards, DJ Falcon, Nile Rodgers, and ten others were handpicked because of their specific talents and specialties for this conglomeration of musical experimentation. Daft Punk is attempting to “Give Life Back To Music” as the opening track suggests.

I think the best part about this album is that it reaches the same highs as Daft Punk’s earlier records like Discovery or Homework in terms of musical energy, but without samples and loud synthesizers. Instead, the robots turn to an entirely human sound by using live instruments rather than computer generated sounds, making the album a multisensory experience.  You can feel the ominous reverberated guitar tones and the sound of water on “Motherboard.” Songs like “Touch,” “Contact,” and “Beyond” have a cinematic element that makes the listener see the music. Or maybe I’m just on drugs.

The unfortunate thing about this album is the fact that it’s coming from Daft Punk. The duo has been known for their instant classics like “Around the World,” “Da Funk,” and “One More Time,” which everyone was expecting, which is why so many people are deciding to hate on this album; they wanted THAT again. Instead they got songs like “Lose Yourself to Dance,” and “Get Lucky.” Like those two songs would EVER catch on and turn into anthems of the year…

The hype around the album was a lot, I know. Unprecedented, actually: thirty second snippets of “Get Lucky” appearing on SNL and in front of the entire Coachella audience, Vine videos with streaming track titles, billboards around music festivals around the entire country, other miscellaneous internet memes. The fact remains that this album is an incredible piece of music and music history. If you disagree, give it another listen. You still get some classic Daft Punk sounds! You still get some awesome hit tracks that will be played and stay relevant for a long time! C’mon. Give it another listen. For me.

At the end of the day, it’s incredible thing when two of the world’s most talented producers, composers, robots, aliens, whatever you want to call them, can take a look at the music they’ve created, the twenty-four years of working together, the time they’re in, and the state of music right now and say, “You know what, we’re going to do something different. Try to catch up.”

The post Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories appeared first on Just Noise To Me.