10 minute read
Grooves
u MK u Ultra Music/Area10 Fronted by Carla Monroe, this hands-in-the-air, pop-house track certainly achieves liftoff. Soulful vocals, soaring piano keys, proper rhythmic builds and a sticky-sweet refrain all add up for another MK winner. – Jim Tremayne
Advertisement
u Ferry Corsten & Trance Wax u Armada This killer collab brought together the best of both worlds, combining a sublime progressive-breakbeat track with a solid trance foundation. Dreamy, drummy, lightly sprinkled with vocals and even an old-school jungle “wub,” this track drops a little house vibe near the end, topped off with a piano arpeggio. Wonderful. – Jennifer Harmon
u Michael Gray u Sultra One of the hottest nu-disco tracks of 2019 gets a couple of next-level remixes from 84-Bit and Ian Ossia. Pumping, funky and with a little sprinkle of Chic – “I wanna be at Studio 54” – these remixes hit the mark.
Boys Noize “PARKERS JOINT” EP
On this massive two-tracker, Blaqwell delivers a jackin’ jazzy house title track with a funky lead horn – this one really moves. Meanwhile, on the flip, “Tribesmen (to the Rhythm)” puts forth a stomping groove that’s perfect for late-night action. Proper good! – Tommy D Funk feat. Bryan Chambers A cover of the Tony Rallo & The Midnite Band track from 1979,
– Curtis Zack
Swiss maestros Martinez and Berto team up with Bryan Chambers for a pumping disco workout perfect for the Glitterbox stable. Faithful to the original, but with all the ingredients needed for today’s clubs. – Curtis Zack
“UNCHAINED”
u Right Mood u Good For You Brazilian producer Right Mood delivers a full-on, deep, dense, spacedout house groover. Pushing an ’80s rave vibe, this one includes moody, male vocals and crisp percussion – a must track for your afterhours parties. – Tommy D Funk
MR. DAVIS
u Thommy Davis u Quantize The legendary Basement Boys member delivers a long-player with 16 soulful dance tracks, all of the highest quality. Original cuts and covers of classics by Karen Young (“Hot Shot”), Jomanda (“Make My Body Rock”) and René & Angela (“I Love You More”) make this a terrific album. – Curtis Zack
u Jaded Soul u Traded Music Dropping classic house sounds, London’s Jaded Soul pushes this vocal-driven, but very bottom-heavy track to good effect. Big grooves, complete with piano flavors, make for a hip-swinging vibe – good stuff.
u Blaqwell u Simma Black
u Aston Martinez & Marco Berto u Glitterbox – Tommy D Funk
u TOKiMONSTA Feat. VanJess u TOKiMONSTA Music A hip-shaking remix of an eerily sexy R&B-flavored gem, this rework is a classic house banger – equipped with melodic cowbell, no less. The vocal is to die for, but the beat will keep things grooving for hours. Start the night with the original, but work up to this remix, leaving everyone wanting more, for sure. – Jennifer Harmon
“SWEETER”
u Sonny Beau u Tropical Disco Yet more classy disco-sampling goodness (via Barry White) from the TD imprint. Two mixes to pick from, both following a similar vibe, with the “Club Cut” just edging it for me. – Curtis Zack
Blaqwell “COME AWAY” (BLOND:ISH REMIX)
u Sad Money x Kaskade feat. Sabrina Claudio u Ultra This perfectly club-ready track combines an undeniably seductive vocal with subtle, twinkling accents for a winning result. This upbeat remix pushes the vibe into icy-cool party mode. Rollicking, yet slightly melancholy, this nicely designed cut offers a catchy and unique soundscape. “ON THAT DAY” EP u Nenor u Razor-N-Tape Nenor and Razor-N-Tape come correct once again with a deephouse four-tracker filled with groove, funk, and plenty of style. “And Others” and “Fire & Water” are great early-night choices, whereas “Gonna Do” and “On That Day” are primed for 2 a.m. and later. “SAY MAMA” u Alex Preston u Another Rhythm Preston returns with an uplifting disco-house track that’ll drag you to the dancefloor. Flexing a ’90s style, this one’s jumpin’ and pumpin’.
“VOCÊ É LINDA”
u Wheeler del Torro feat. Sidney Washington u Dog Day Featuring Doug Gomez on the remix, “Você é Linda” has that classic Latin vibe, with outstanding percussive elements, acoustic guitar and sultry vocal all thrown in the melting pot. This could easily be one of the underground hits of the summer. “SOULMAGIC” (REMIXES) u Soulmagic u Soulfuric Recordings The 2003 house hit gets the remix treatment here from a trio of studio talents. Saison’s effort gets dense and funky, while Marco Lys ramps up the energy with a build-up-mad mix. Finally, “Morten & Mikkel’s Extended Jam” mixes up the funky bass with jazzy flourishes and melodic moments. Terrific remix package here.
Sonny Beau MK Nenor Trance Wax
– Jennifer Harmon
– Chris K. Davis
– Tommy D Funk
– Curtis Zack
– Tommy D Funk
Thommy Davis Alex Preston
TOKiMONSTA
Guest Reviewer: Rob Jones
“MVINLINE” u Boys Noize u Defected On this rousing effort, the celebrated German DJ/producer delivers a bangin’ discohouse stomper on his Defected debut. The track, which samples the vocal hook from the 1979 disco single “Mainline” by Black Ivory, culminates into a ’90s Daft Punk-esque style crescendo, which completely rocks the dancefloor. Angel Johnson
Sounding Off (continued from page 29) of the unit’s two channels and controlled with a single knob. And for media, you get a single USB slot on the back, and an SD slot on the front.
Hands-On
Just a moment ago, I did say that the Denon DJ Prime Go has “few” compromises, but that’s not the same as no compromises – and, of course, on a unit this size, that’s not surpris ing. One of the first compromises takes a tiny bit of getting used to: the track gain and EQ controls have been placed horizontally and moved more toward the back of the unit. (Thankfully, they’re all still there, just arranged differently.)
The performance pads are also more limited in scope, and have been moved above the jog wheels, and instead of eight of them, you have four buttons which are “banked” into two groups. The fact that Denon DJ equipped the PRIME GO with just a single USB port for media is a bit concerning; it means having a USB key or drive with all your content for your set, and a single point of failure given that USB mass-storage devices are sometimes fussy and prone to de
ADMN (continued from page 10) Antelope Orion 32+ or the Apollo Twin Duo, depending on the project. For plug-ins, I use Slate Digital, FabFil ter, Waves Bundle, various Universal Audio plug-ins, Native Instruments Suite, and Rob Papen plug-ins. Other hardware includes a Midas Venice 320 analog mixing board, ADAM Audio A77X monitors with an ADAM Audio Sub8 active subwoofer, Elektron Ana log Four synth, and Eventide H9 MAX multi-effects unit. veloping media errors. Of course, you can use the SD media slot, or Tidal streaming, I suppose, but I would have preferred dual USB media inputs.
In any case, the stuff you need at your fingertips is all there, it’s all in reach, it’s all intuitive to use — and most importantly, it’s fun to use. About my only complaint? Denon DJ didn’t see fit to include a way to dis able the crossfader. Frequent readers of my reviews will know that this is a pet peeve of mine; I don’t use a cross fader to mix, I never have, and being forced to contend with one invariably means having to use gaffer’s tape to secure the thing in the middle posi tion — or otherwise risk bumping it during a set and cutting my audio out. But as it happens, just before press time, I learned from Denon DJ that a future update of the firmware will address this very issue, perhaps by the time you read this.
Because I’ve covered the capabili ties of the Engine OS firmware in so much detail in previous Denon DJ reviews, I’ll glaze over the specifics a bit. Suffice it to say that Denon DJ hasn’t left anything out. You still get the same beautiful interface with its fresh, modern design, with its read
DJ Times: What’s your DJ set-up?
ADMN: My home DJ set-up in cludes an Allen & Heath Xone:92 mixer, two Pioneer DJ XDJ-1000mk2 multi-players, and two Technics SL1200 M3D turntables. For gigs, I use an Allen & Heath Xone:96 mixer, two Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS2 players, two Technics SL-1200 turntables.
DJ Times: Any tips, tricks or tools for success in the studio?
ADMN: Learn how to mix your able and aesthetically pleasing fonts, colors and layout. It’s simple, natural and intuitive to use, and it still incor porates the same safety features, like not letting you power the unit off unless you mean it (and confirm it), and not letting you accidentally touch a waveform display and end-up jump ing ahead two or three minutes in the track in error.
Despite the PRIME GO’s small size, the controls feel just as solid, just as professional, as any other member of the PRIME series.
Due, in part, to my familiarity with the Engine OS software at the heart of the unit and, in part, to really topnotch user-experience design, getting going with the Denon DJ PRIME GO took only a minute or two — once I could figure out how to turn it on, anyway. (In my defense, it’s hard to see the power icon on the all-silver button, which is hidden on the back panel of the unit on the left side.) Of course, plugging in a pair of head phones, the XLR cables to my testing monitors, and my test USB media was all required as well.
What I particularly like about the Engine OS software is that it makes
it easy to find, organize and access own tracks. Understand frequency ranges and how frequencies interact with the speaker. Understand fre quencies from different parts – you have your bass and lead and your drums. It’s important to understand how each element of a track inter acts with each other.
DJ Times: You’re working on an album, right? What’s the vibe?
ADMN: I’d say, given the climate, listening is hugely important. I mean,
Rebooted: DJ Expo 2020
content on the USB media. I use Camelot keys when mixing EDM, and it’s a simple matter to sort my library by key and browse good candidates to mix into a set. But sorting by BPM, artist, title, year, genre, rating or other criteria is simple, and you can always browse or search using the pop-up keyboard directly on the touch screen. As I’ve noted in the past, this is a con troller interface for the smartphone generation.
Conclusions
Denon DJ is preemptively capturing an interesting market for the PRIME GO. Between its battery-powered use cases, few functional compromises, excellent software, and features that include internet access with Tidal streaming, all in all, the unit makes a compelling case for itself. With a street price of right around $1,000, I wouldn’t describe it as inexpensive; but for that price, it provides a pretty incredible amount of functionality, and hence val ue, within its diminutive footprint. And with that, I think I’ll take the PRIME GO upstairs with me, and revisit some of my favorite EDM tracks from years past in true DJ fashion — all in the comfort of my easy chair.
there’s going to be club bangers in there – stuff that’s meant for the dancefloor – but I also want to ex pand and include some things for sitting in your living room and relaxing.
DJ Times: What is most impor tant for a DJ to be successful?
ADMN: It’s one-part work, onepart consistency, one-part building a team. You can’t be an island in this industry. – Ashley Teffer
DJ Expo will run Nov. 16-19…
At Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City…
Don’t miss it – be there!
