“Basstown’s Booming” said the tag at the Boston Herald. The Boston Globe referred to it as a “popular club party” and a “rad dance night.” The Boston Phoenix also chimed in.

Thunderdome was a stunning success (click here for slideshow). While the next day, Basstown turned in a capacity+ audience at Great Scott. Make It New (which many people still consider the top taste in Boston dance music clubbing) hums along as usual and new nights like SOLID! and others are rapidly picking up momentum as well. (Click here for slideshow).

The point of all of it is to keep people from saying Beantown (a reference most Bostonians dislike) and instead, Basstown, a city where the bass thump of dance nights sits alongside the guitar riffs and rock scene the city is most known for. Part of the movie sQuare productions is making is focused on this saga. The saga of Thunderdome, the Fort Point Channel, after-hours parties, Modeselektor and Isolee in Basstown.

Saturday saw Boston’s best rock club (Great Scott), fill to the brim with dance music heads, and young ones at that. Hyped duo Plus Move brought the funk (they are in talks with some considerably cool dance labels for their EP) and DJ Etan, a Basstown principle partner, kept the party live (he himself is getting hit up by some heavy labels).

The track that brought everyone to the dance floor, however, was a bootleg from DJ Die Young:

Big Country - “In A Big Country (DJ Die Young Bootleg Mix)”

Of course, this blog will always be about good new electronic music, and this track from Ireland’s Gavin Herlihy has been in rotation for more than a minute:

Gavin Herlihy - “Opium Haze”

International superstar Dubfire returns to Basstown Friday, February 29 at Estate:

Dubfire - “Rib Cage”

And there is some talk Basstown can bring Kompakt superstar Gui Boratto sometime in April:

Goldfrapp - “A&E (Gui Boratto Remix)”

And of course dubstep remains the most vital new electronic music genre and some in Basstown agree. It’s mining of classic reggae-style riddims and deep sub-bass is the vanguard of club culture:

Peverelist & Appleblim - “Over Here”

But the biggest news of the week came when Basstown announced it was bringing Diplo back to The Hub on Saturday, February 23. Get your $15 advance tickets here before it sells out. That will make for one good slideshow.

 

 Big Country - In a Big Country (DJ Die Young Bootleg Remix): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Gavin Herlihy - Opium Haze: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Dubfire - Rib Cage: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Goldfrapp - A&E (Gui Boratto Remix): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Peverelist & Appleblim - Over Here: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The most forward-thinking dance night in Boston is re-styling again. Make It New, the Thursday night dance party that is featured in the doc, has recently added new resident DJs: Volvox, Die Young and DJezus. This means you’ll get a minimum of three DJs each night. The three-plus-year-old night also has a new ally in Basstown, the local dance music promotion team. They’ve also invited me to take on residency (I named the night after reading an article in Harper’s Magazine about Ezra Pound, fwiw). Everything old is new. Again.

Two of the new residents combined to make a mix for the re-launch, Die Young and Volvox:

DJ Die Young + Volvox - “Make It New 2008″

1. Dapayk & Padberg - Black Beauty
2. Elektrochemie - No. 19
3. Dubfire - I Feel Speed (Audion Remix)
4. Namito,Eyerer - Quipa
5. Adam Beyer - China Girl
6. Oxia - 12 Years Later
7. Cirez D - Teaser (Oliver Huntemann Remix)
8. Mr. Noize - Diplomatic
9. Mark Broom - Ping Pong
10. Oliver Huntemann - Zum Goldenen Handschuh
11. Rainer Weichhold - Bamboo
12. Popof - My Toyz
13. Markus Lange - Perihelion (Julian Jeweil Remix)
14. Shackleton - Blood on My Hands (Villalobos Remix)
15. Julian Jewil - Air Conditionne
16. Annie - Heartbeat (The Field Remix)
17. Panda Bear - Bros

That lead track is so wonderful. Dapayk & Padberg are good friends of SiC featured family Freude-Am-Tanzen and the message is clear. “This could be / The last vinyl album / MP3s killed the / Black beauty“

In the meantime, dance music is now big enough to fill Madison Square Garden and the same Justice, Busy P and Fancy tour in Boston has already sold out (this when we were told, not three weeks ago by one of the city’s largest booking agents, that Justice would never sell out in Boston). This time, when we say things are changing, we actually mean it.

Red Foxxx is one artist we’ve highlighted before, and again his track is nearly ubiquitous in our world. The song combines elements of Michael Gray’s “Borderline” (on the usually trance-heavy Ultra) with Lil Wayne and Fat Joe’s “Make It Rain”. It’s definitely a revisit of Foxxx’s Thugrave idea:

Michael Gray / Lil Wayne / Fat Joe - “Make It Borderline”

It usually makes this happen:

Thugrave is typically built on some kind of epic dance track which is then edited to suit the emotion of some typically hot rap a capella. As in Baltimoroder’s classic “Ghost Musick” edit. Take something like this, for example:

Gregor Tresher - “Anti”

Which is forthcoming on the Great Stuff label out of Europe. It rises and falls like an overly-ambitious mountain climber. Gregor is a serious up-and-comer in the European scene.

Justice is making everyone sweat dance music, and with good reason. The music they make is intensely rock-oriented, designed to make crowds panic. For some aesthetes like me, it can be a bit too garish, which is why this edit is more my style:

Justice - “Phantom Pt. 2 (Soulwax Mix - Cut the Midrange Drop the Bombast Edit)”

Make (It) new.

The film itself is undergoing a MiN session in the edit process. Here’s what director Amy Grill has to say:

“The entire story structure is written. Once I saw some crucial elements that were missing and through some important notes and feedback (and got past how hard it was to watch certain footage and people), the thruline really came together.

I then holed up with my assistant editor, Jason Blanchard and we edited for hours on end. Our most recent investment was able to pay for his visit to San Francisco, our multiple delivered meals, and the RAM and hard-drive space needed for the edit.

Now we must somehow find money to buy a laptop exclusively for the final rough edit. We have some local SF help who has offered space for fine cutting, which will be necessary, but we need a laptop to finish. We are also hoping for a post-production grant to fund all of the important finishing processes (sound mix, color correction, DVD authoring, &c.)

But I’m confident it will be a great film. One that is funny, touching and, most importantly, tells the amazing stories of this new dance obsession.”

If you’d like to be involved in the film, let Amy know.

 

 DJ Die Young & Volvox - Make It New Promo Mix: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Red Foxxx - Make It Borderline: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Gregor Tresher - Anti: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Justice - Phantom Pt. 2 (Soulwax Remix CTMDTB Edit): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our compadres over at Basstown did the right thing Friday night. Their “SOLID!” event in Cambridge’s Central Square hosted Initiales AA, a techno kid from RISD and, as it turns out, Missouri. We share a kind of kinship with the young DJ/Producer, being that he is from the midwest, DJs with a certain panache and loves proper techno. So much so he even paid his own way to visit Koln for Total 7.

Initiales AA made a mix for his Basstown show:

Initales AA - “Basstown Mix”

Rufus Wainwright - Tiergarten (Supermayer Remix)
Apparat ft. Raz Ohara - Holdon (Modeslektor Remix)
Martini Bros - From Buleaux (Konrad Black Remix)
Dapayk & Padburg - Sister
Monty Luke & Tasho / Marc Houle - Paranoid / Techno Vocals (acapella)
Prztz - Nutdisco (Duckbeats So-Yo Dub)
Layo & Bushwacka - Life2Live (Jesse Rose Stripper Dub)
Tying Tiffany - You Know Me
Hidenobo Ito - Voicedelique (Krikor Remix)
Calvin Harris - Girls (Micky Slim’s Bomb Squad Remix)
Deadmau5 - The Reward is Cheese
Kris Menace - Steamroller
Gregor Tresher - A Thousand Nights
Daso - Daybreak (Jona Mix)
Van Den Love - Tom Cruise (Christopher Wade’s As Little As Possible Mix)

Speaking in Code did the same, visiting Koln for Total 6. The annual Kompakt party where all the artistic family gets together. In fact, the image above (credited to “SQare”) was published in the excellent European music magazine Intro. In the film, you watch Kompakt blow up before your eyes as the guest list they prepared far exceeds the capacity of their provincial venue.

The whole electronic vibe is spilling into America as well. Beyond critical favorites like LCD Soundsystem, Burial and Simian Mobile Disco (oh, and Justice, who just booked Madison Square Garden), Basstown-promoted acts like Pantha Du Prince (img, img2, flyer) and SiC stars Modeselektor are getting in on the action. Most significant though, is the popularity of The Field.

The Field is a Kompakt recording artist from Sweden. Newly-discovered Boston blog Pulp and Circumstance had his album in their best of 2007 (in addition to Modeselektor and Pantha Du Prince). The Field is one Alex Willner, a Facebook friend. We obtained some of his early ambient demos back in the day and feel it’s time to share them now. It is his birthday, after all.

The Field “Track 5″

The Field “Track 6″

The Field “Track 8″

The Field “Track 10″

It’s all a sign of the continuing ascent of electronic music and the overall acceptance of the sound as an artform. The better the aesthetic, the better the music. Consider again our friend Thom Yorke, who is very much a visionary of the new music paradigm. A referenced top track of 2007 was a remix of his track “Harrowdown Hill” from Ripperton, who we casually blogged about a few months back:

Thom Yorke - “Harrowdown Hill (Ripperton Dub)”

Hi Thom.

 

 Initiales AA - "Basstown Mix": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 the Field - "Track 06": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Field - "Track 08": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Field - "Track 10": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Thom Yorke - "Harrowdown Hill (Ripperton Dub)": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download