Treasure Island Part 3: Deadmau5

DJs and assorted techno artists have traditionally kept secrecy about their talents. Vary few release all of their songs, and even less release full albums. You can only find some tracks on illegal softwares, so if you're dedicated to paying your artists and reserved to iTunes, you won't have much luck.

I walked into Deadmau5 with this understanding of techno. It was completely true. Frankly, I had only listened to a few songs by the notorious, Micky-Mouse-helmet-wearing DJ and I liked only two. However, I'd seen some online videos and I expected a good show.

But I got even better. Deadmau5 came on stage with his usual massive cube and mouse-helmet. When he popped up, the crowd went wild as it stretched from the stage all the way back to the food vendors. He maintained the basic format of some of his most popular songs like Ghosts N' Stuff, but like most DJs, mixed his music live.

The most interesting thing about Deadmau5's performance was his fluctuating of intensity. Sometimes he would blast out his techno sound at full volume, and then he'd slowly wind down, and then back up again. It wasn't traditional build up techno (which I hate) but rather a complicated rise and fall performance.

And of course, with the massive DJ cube and mouse-helmet equipped with fluctuating light patterns, the show was musically and visually pleasing.

Keeping with the tradition of techno, Deadmau5 saved his best for Treasure Island.

Check out some videos of the show here (remember to turn up the quality for the best sound/visual):




-C

Treasure Island Part 1: Die Antwoord

We all thought they were a joke, but they're a band. Die Antwoord kicked off Treasure Island Music Festival this year with their Zef Hip-Hop Techno beats, and it was so fokken next level. First their DJ came on, replacing DJ HI-Tek because he apparently doesn't like to fly. Clips of their music videos ran on the screen as Yo-Landi Visser jumped out on stage in a full body, pajama-like jumpsuit. She's even smaller in real life, but she's got all the same spunk as she does in their music videos. Then, Ninja joined her on stage to spit some next level rap and even free-style in between songs. Die Antwoord put on a goofy show, and it may have frightened a few people, but you can't deny that it was some fresh Zef.

Check out their video of Zef Side below.



-C