So long, farewell!

It's been an absolutely amazing freshman academic year, but alas, I leave for home on Tuesday to spend my summer in my rural birth town. Living in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne has been an eye opener as a city renowned for being one of the party capitals of the United Kingdom. Where I live at home is far away from any descent nightclub, and will be a way for me to spend valuable time with family, old friends and to possibly save up some money for my much anticipated trip to Ibiza.

So it's fair to say that I'm waving goodbye to all those treble vodkas, to all the soul locked within the Northern nightlife and to all the unbareable hangovers; just until September when it starts over again. I do wonder what the summer of 2011 has in store for me. It's set to be another amazing Creamfields with the lineup, but besides that I really have nothing planned. I would like to spend a night at Fabric in London, but my friends back home couldn't plan to get dressed in the morning, let alone travelling to the capital for a big blowout.


Anyways, I hope you guys all have some summer shinanigans worked out. Today I'm going to enlighten you with a song that I heard on Corsten's Countdown this week and haven't been able to rid my head of since. This is Urry Fefelove & Abramasi with the original mix of 'Destroy The Zombies'. It's amazing how trance can start off quite typical and morph into an epic breakdown that draws from electro. It will be released soon on Flashover Recordings.

How far would you go to rave?

Well, I just had minor foot surgery today to remove part of my toe nail due to an ingrown toe nail. I've been told it can take up to 4 weeks to heal and in the mean time I shouldn't be doing anything too active. This includes raving, as busy dancefloors can lead to people stepping on your toes and that could cause excrutiating pain. I'm on a whim as to whether or not to listen to this advice though. There's a party going down tomorrow night; Danny Byrd (Hospital Records) and Hazard (Playaz) are both playing at Digital in Newcastle. Turbulence is a big Drum n Bass night which comes to Newcastle once a month. Can I really afford to miss this?

I'm in a slightly Drum n Bass mood these past couple of days, so I'm going to share with you a track that's really been good for chilling me out lately. It's a track from the new London Elektricity album, 'Yikes!', released on Hospital Records. The song is called 'Meteorites' and features Esla Esmeralda on vocals, as do many tracks on the album. The use of a fast tempo piano is a unique essence, and a particularly interesting use in this song. I hope you're as happy to see London Elektricity outperforming his old tunes as I am.

R.I.P. Radio - Your Future Is Podcasts!

Right, so I know podcasts have been around for many many years now, but it's only since October 2010 that I've realised their significance, and thus been tuning into a number of them every week. Within dance music, as it's not seen as a contemporary genre (no, Black Eyed Peas aren't dance), new released never make it into the charts. So how do you discover new dance music? Well, I've found 2 ways. The first is to keep track of you favourite record labels (some of mine being Anjunabeats, Armada, Hospital, RAM, Garuda, Toolroom Knights, etc.) and the second being podcasts! Most major record labels have a podcast, and I'm going to share with you my favourite podcasts and I've been downloading on a weekly basis for some time now.

Trance:
Armin Van Buuren - A State of Trance
Gareth Emery - The Gareth Emery Podcast
Above & Beyond - Trance Around The World
Ferry Corsten - Corsten's Countdown
Sander Van Doorn - Identity Podcast

House:
Mark Knight - Toolroom Knights

Drum & Bass:
London Elektricity - Hospital Records Podcast

Various genres (Not weekly):
Mark Eteson - Global Gathering Podcast
Andy Mac - Creamfields Podcast

Well, these are mostly the ones I'm digging at the minute. Would like to find more House and DnB podcasts but I'm struggling to find descent ones. Waiting for Mau5trap to develop one, as I'd love Joel Zimmerman to be doing a weekly podcast. My favourites are definitely The Gareth Emery Podcast and Trance Around The World, I advice anyone who reads this blog post to listen to one of the two this week and form their own opinion. Listen to it whilst you're surfing the web, playing your favourite PC video games (I listen when playing CSS and Starcraft II) or maybe even when working.

I'm going to leave you with a beautiful remix from Daniel Kandi today of Gareth Emery's 'Fight The Sunrise' from the new remix album of Northern Lights which is on Gareth's very own label, Garuda. Brings me back memories of when I saw Gazza at Sankeys in Manchester in March earlier this year. Stay tuned!

Keep calm and rave on!

I'm quite eager to get posting, so I'm going to first post a song I'm absolutely loving at the minute. Mat Zo, a 21 year old British producer from London, has released this absolute banger on Anjunabeats. He's dabbled in Drum & Bass previously but is heavy into the trance scene right now. Hope you're as excited for this new producer as I am.

I've had a sore head today after a big night out on the town in Newcastle last night at it's own superclub, Digital. This is bar none, my favourite club in Newcastle when someone big comes along, but the student nights are pretty dismal. The music is cheese, the girls aren't so easy on the eyes, and the cheap as chips drink deals lead to everyone on the dance floor being ridiculously off their heads. Friday nights, such as this one coming, will bring the likes of Danny Byrd (Hospital Records) into the equation, with a much less student population attending.

This week I will be upgrading my 2 day camping ticket for Creamfields to a 3 day one. For the first time, the festival has opened it's gates for one more night, which at £20 extra is incredibly exciting. Creamfields is unbelievable, I reccomend it to any dance music enthusiast. Twas the best weekend of my life last year, and I can't wait for August bank holiday to roll around again this year!

Welcome to my blog!

Hey, my name's Tom and I'm a big fan of electronic dance music. I reside within the United Kingdom, am currently a student and hoping that one day I'll be producing my own block rockin' beats. Just going to introduce you to my blog where I will keep a diary of nights out across the world, post new tunes I'm really digging on (perhaps some old ones too for nostalgia) and give an insight to any productions I might be working on in the future.

Stay tuned folks!