Tag Archives: Basscon

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Escape: Psycho Circus 2017 Early Report: Less Twerking at Basscon Stage than others, thank goodness.

Insomniac’s Escape line-up this year featured the Basscon stage. Ok, that makes sense. Unbelievably, in years past that has not been the case. But how can you have Halloween without scary hardcore techno and hardstyle I ask you? So fittingly, The Hard Data was out in full force Friday bringing you the goods. We got excellent interviews last night with Angerfist and Miss K8, Coone, DJ Isaac, Pulsatorz, Crisis Era and Da Tweekaz just for starters. You can look forward to those interviews hitting the print mag and online in the next week.

Getting to the site early is always a treat. You can walk around without stress and the vibe is nice. Since it opened at 4pm, it was daylight out and we got to get a good look at what Insomniac did with the NOS Events Center this year. It is super decked-out! The past events at NOS lately have mostly centered on the two big indoor areas, but here, they erected tents for the different brands, had a haunted maze, carnival rides… it’s the best I’ve seen the NOS look in a while.

There’s a good crowd here but not so packed it is annoying. One thing that occurs to me as an old school raver going back to the early 90s, is that Insomniac’s Events, even though owned by Live Nation, still retain that old school feel that I used to get playing at big chaos events in Victorville or wherever. All it is is more polished and professional. Say what you want about Insomniac but if anyone is going to represent the true rave vibe nationwide, they are the ones to do it. As an old schooler, I can logically see the history and how it all leads up to today. So, yes, Insomniac buys ads in THD, and we’re therefore a little biased, but I stand by my statement here and I don’t think many can challenge it even considering my bias.

Now getting back to the present… Escape is about Halloween, but frankly the raver crowd looks mostly the same as usual except most have put fake blood on themselves in strategic areas. We bopped around most areas Friday night and knocked out the aforementioned interviews in between dancing at the Basscon stage. Angerfist and Miss K8 knocked it out! Angerfist was playing a lot of his new tracks and there were some frenchcore flavored ones that ripped! Also the interviews this time were really good as you will read in the future. For whatever reason, the artists really brought up some good, interesting info last night.

One thing I noticed this event was that there is way less twerking at the Basscon stage than others. Thank you! I have to say, that I feel kind of sorry for especially the girls doing this. I mean, seeing them bend over and rub their butts on guys and think it’s a dance is pretty gross. And I don’t admire the guys on the receiving end either. I mean, do you really want your girlfriend rotating her butt for all to see? If she does that for you, dude, you probably aren’t the only one. It just looks full-on sad. I know most of these girls think its popular and a “thing to do” but in the end result it makes you look like more of animal than a person with feelings and aspirations. I know its probably not going anywhere soon, but it was nice to see less twerking at the Basscon stage.

Since its 95 degrees in the day, I can’t blame anyone for wearing no more than a bathing suit to these festivals, but you know the rave scene traditionally has been an “Escape” from mainstream culture and never really embraced the over-sexed to the point of exhaustion bent of mainstream culture. Hopefully we will see that feeling come back, because if we are all just concentrating on what’s down below, we can get distracted from rising higher, and really fulfilling our potential. I’m not saying be a prude, but it is the love of our culture that truly brings us together in a positive manner so that we can form truly satisfying relationships.

So now I’m going back into the festival. This is Deadly Buda reminding you, “The rhythm is life and death!”

Escape: Psycho Circus 2017 Early Report: Less Twerking at Basscon Stage than others, thank goodness.

Insomniac’s Escape line-up this year featured the Basscon stage. Ok, that makes sense. Unbelievably, in years past that has not been the case. But how can you have Halloween without scary hardcore techno and hardstyle I ask you? So fittingly, The Hard Data was out in full force Friday bringing you the goods. We got excellent interviews last night with Angerfist and Miss K8, Coone, DJ Isaac, Pulsatorz, Crisis Era and Da Tweekaz just for starters. You can look forward to those interviews hitting the print mag and online in the next week.

Getting to the site early is always a treat. You can walk around without stress and the vibe is nice. Since it opened at 4pm, it was daylight out and we got to get a good look at what Insomniac did with the NOS Events Center this year. It is super decked-out! The past events at NOS lately have mostly centered on the two big indoor areas, but here, they erected tents for the different brands, had a haunted maze, carnival rides… it’s the best I’ve seen the NOS look in a while.

There’s a good crowd here but not so packed it is annoying. One thing that occurs to me as an old school raver going back to the early 90s, is that Insomniac’s Events, even though owned by Live Nation, still retain that old school feel that I used to get playing at big chaos events in Victorville or wherever. All it is is more polished and professional. Say what you want about Insomniac but if anyone is going to represent the true rave vibe nationwide, they are the ones to do it. As an old schooler, I can logically see the history and how it all leads up to today. So, yes, Insomniac buys ads in THD, and we’re therefore a little biased, but I stand by my statement here and I don’t think many can challenge it even considering my bias.

Now getting back to the present… Escape is about Halloween, but frankly the raver crowd looks mostly the same as usual except most have put fake blood on themselves in strategic areas. We bopped around most areas Friday night and knocked out the aforementioned interviews in between dancing at the Basscon stage. Angerfist and Miss K8 knocked it out! Angerfist was playing a lot of his new tracks and there were some frenchcore flavored ones that ripped! Also the interviews this time were really good as you will read in the future. For whatever reason, the artists really brought up some good, interesting info last night.

One thing I noticed this event was that there is way less twerking at the Basscon stage than others. Thank you! I have to say, that I feel kind of sorry for especially the girls doing this. I mean, seeing them bend over and rub their butts on guys and think it’s a dance is pretty gross. And I don’t admire the guys on the receiving end either. I mean, do you really want your girlfriend rotating her butt for all to see? If she does that for you, dude, you probably aren’t the only one. It just looks full-on sad. I know most of these girls think its popular and a “thing to do” but in the end result it makes you look like more of animal than a person with feelings and aspirations. I know its probably not going anywhere soon, but it was nice to see less twerking at the Basscon stage.

Since its 95 degrees in the day, I can’t blame anyone for wearing no more than a bathing suit to these festivals, but you know the rave scene traditionally has been an “Escape” from mainstream culture and never really embraced the over-sexed to the point of exhaustion bent of mainstream culture. Hopefully we will see that feeling come back, because if we are all just concentrating on what’s down below, we can get distracted from rising higher, and really fulfilling our potential. I’m not saying be a prude, but it is the love of our culture that truly brings us together in a positive manner so that we can form truly satisfying relationships.

So now I’m going back into the festival. This is Deadly Buda reminding you, “The rhythm is life and death!”

Announcements, Articles, Deadly Buda

World’s First Blockchained DJ Mix Released by Deadly Buda on Musicoin

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When DJ Deadly Buda’s “Rock the Blockchain” DJ mix is played on Musicoin.org, fifteen separate electronic dance music tracks and their artists get paid automatically, within seconds.

The system that makes this possible was made public at about 2:00 AM, on August 13, 2017, when Deadly Buda finalized the integration of 19 “smart contracts” on the Musicoin blockchain and attached them to his DJ mix on Musicoin.org. “This will completely change the dance music landscape,” said DJ Deadly Buda, “it’s a

Click here to visit Deadly Buda's Musicoin profile.
Click here to visit Deadly Buda’s Musicoin profile.

development on par with the introduction of the 12” single or the crossfader. It will change the way we do things creatively and the listener will be the winner.”

The DJ mix contains 15 EDM tracks of various genres, hard electronic, dubstep, hardstyle, hard bass, jungle, drum and bass, hardcore techno, shamancore,  tekno, and ambient, by artists Counterstrike, Satroniq & DJ Delirium, Teknoaidi, Subterranean, Cap, M27, Harhor, and Deadly Buda.

The DJ mix format was popularized in the 1970’s and since then has existed in a quasi-legal state. A recorded DJ mix is a continuous blend of several separate songs or “tracks”. To be traditionally legally compliant, this requires numerous permissions, paperwork, and licenses. By the time the paperwork is done, the audience generally considers the music in the mix old, and has moved on to the latest sound in fashion. Consequently, most DJs over the decades haven’t bothered to get the permissions, and have released the mixes “illegally” on cassettes, CDs, and now, SoundCloud and YouTube. Generally, the artists in these mixes aren’t receiving any compensation for their music and oftentimes aren’t even credited as part of the mix.  Many DJs don’t supply playlists due to avoiding scrutiny, time constraints, lack of proper labeling on dance records, or at worst, just wanting all the attention for themselves.

Rock the Blockchain's flyer graphic is from the 1993 Turbo-Zen party in Pittsburgh, PA, High Voltage! The graphics would later be mentioned by Dan Mross in the movie "The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin" for its slogan, Technology Must Be Used to Liberate the Indvidual."
Rock the Blockchain’s flyer graphic is from the 1993 Turbo-Zen party in Pittsburgh, PA, High Voltage! The graphics would later be mentioned by Daniel Mross in the movie “The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin” for its slogan, “Technology Must Be Used to Liberate the Indvidual.”

Ironically, dance music producers make their music specifically so that it can be mixed by DJs, and clamor for popular DJs to use their songs. DJ mixes, though often technically illegal, are the main channel of publicity for smaller dance music scenes or up-and-coming talent. So for the last few decades, the music industry has generally not enforced their copyrights against DJ mixes while retaining their right to do so. Consequently, the DJs, still fearing potential incrimination, can rarely publicize their mixes on a grand scale or derive much more income than money they spent purchasing the records or Mp3s used in the mix. The cumulative effect of this quasi-legality has been that DJ mixes are still considered “underground” even though it is the audience’s preferred manner of listening to dance music.

“The more I understood blockchain technology, the more I realized that the legal problems with the DJ mix were about to be a thing of the past,” stated DJ Deadly Buda. “All the permissions, paperwork, and payments could be done in an instant.”

Blockchain technology is basically a decentralized ledger system maintained by multiple computers. The most popular blockchain in the world is Bitcoin, and it has inspired other blockchains to target specific areas of the world economy. Musicoin, as the name suggests, is geared towards music, musicians, and fans.  When a user plays a song on musicoin.org the artist of the song gets paid one Musicoin (currently worth about $0.01-0.04 USD)—usually in a matter of seconds. This is significantly higher than average artists get paid per play on Spotify or iTunes.

You can sign up to Musicoin here.
You can sign up to Musicoin here.

Furthermore, the Musicoin blockchain system allows an artist to upload a song and attach what is called a “smart contract” that can distribute payments to multiple parties if needed. For example, the smart contract could be programmed so that every time the song is played, the drummer, singer, guitarist, and bassist in a band all split the payment.

“When I realized every song on the Musicoin system had its own payment address, I got as many people I knew that made great music to upload. Then, I asked their permission if I could use their music in my mix,” revealed Deadly Buda. After conferring with some of the artists, realizing they were helping to establish a new paradigm, the following formula was decided: 40% of the mix revenue goes to the DJ, and the remaining 60% is split evenly between each of the songs in the mix. “A DJ spends a lot of time sifting through a lot of bad music to find the gems he or she plays for the public, so I wanted to honor that time and money expenditure while at the same time leaving a fair amount of room for each song to make money as well.”

A new paradigm for how DJ mixes can be made and monetized is now officially live thanks to DJ Deadly Buda and Musicoin, but there is still work to be done says Deadly Buda, “In the very near future, there will probably be just a checkbox an artist can use that gives anyone on the system the right to mix their music so long as they get paid via a smart contract. As soon as that happens, the system will be unstoppable and will benefit the established music industry and new artists alike.”

You can sign up to Musicoin here.

Articles, Events, Reviews

My Project Z Experience by 3MiloE

Every time I listen to electronic music, the experience seems new to me. Perhaps maybe it is because electronic music is an ever- changing, ever-expanding entity, with each genre and style having its own sound, social groups, and individual cultures. Festivals like Project Z is where all these groups of people who love different kinds of  electronic music unite together and celebrate not just the music, but the way it makes us feel.

Project Z 2017 was my first Project Z experience, and my girl’s first Insomniac event. It seems needless to say to those who attended, but we were both blown away.

Excitement and anticipation filled us with adrenaline as we got in line to enter, the music and bright lights shining over the fences making me nod my head and dance a little. Upon entering, I was hit with a wave of relief and euphoria. We had made it to Project Z! The scenery made me feel like i was in a dream. Colors of blue and green lit up the night and reflected upon a lake. A grassy field lay beside it, and there were many ravers just chilling and relaxing by the tranquil water. Security allowed people to relax and vibe out, while also making it feel very safe and calm when and where it needed to be. My girl and I came casually dressed and slightly unprepared in that sense, but we had comfortable shoes, a CamelBak, and an attitude to have fun.

Our main objective of the night was to find all stages and get a sense of where everything at the event was located, like exits and facilities, information booths, and other important locations. There was plenty of open space between the stages, bathrooms, and vendors, yet were also in close enough proximity of each other to navigate the event easily and comfortably considering the large attendance.

So many sights and interesting characters were there to be seen. Having just watched an entire of Rick and Morty a week prior to attending Project Z, it was fascinating to see how many totems and candies were dedicated to the show—it made us feel like we belonged. We happen to be glove enthusiasts, and so we had to sit down a few times to get some shows from a few different glovers. The interpretive dances of their hands illuminated by LED lights entranced us, making us feel a wide range of emotions.  We spotted a gang of roving go-go dancers dressed as bunnies that looked like they were from Alice in Wonderland moving their way through the crowd and stages—their sole purpose to trip people out. They did an excellent job of doing that. Another area which always caught my attention as I passed through had a projection of ticking clocks that were scattered and moving over everything around it.

Project Z dancers
These characters danced like creatures throughout the night, moving from stage to stage.

Once we discovered all three of the stages and key locations, we were ready to enjoy ourselves. The first stage we experienced was Bassrush. The sounds of riddim and dubstep sent waves of happiness and aggression throughout the crowd. One of the main highlights of the night was JoyRyde, who murdered the stage as if the crowd had taken Liam Nieson’s daughter. The intensity of the music matched with the crowd’s ability to scream and move their bodies to the raw rhythms were enhanced by lasers and intense visuals, all contributing to a feeling of euphoria and loss of self to the moment that gripped and captivated parts of our souls that had not been there before. It was hard to leave that feeling behind, but we HAD to check out the next stage known as…. Basscon.

Basscon turned out to be my favorite stage at Project Z. The music caused a chaotic physical manifestation of the emotions I felt conveyed in my dancing that only need be described with two words, “going hard”. The DJs almost  seemed as if they were controlling the crowd with their mixer. I felt like i was in a trance. The breaks and the drops flawlessly blended together into a musical roller coaster I could ride. Explosive bursts of energy that were followed by entrancing melodies gave pauses in perfect increments to where I could dance and get enough rest in between intense parts of the songs. I danced so hard, I felt like my heart was about to explode. We decided to stop before we both felt like we were going to collapse.

Going Hard! at the Basscon stage!
Screenshot of me dancing at the Basscon stage and a cameo of the candie my girl found.

When we started to get hot and thirsty, we found that Project Z provided a filling station where water was  distributed for FREE! The fact that Project Z provides free water separates Project Z from most other events or venues, as water is usually very expensive.,

We went on to find a place to chill and before experiencing the third and final stage known as Area Z. On the way there, my girl found her first candie ever, a geometric pattern that wraps around your arm.  Before “rescuing” it, we looked around to see if it belonged to anyone, because it looked as if it had taken hours of time to make. We pondered where it might have come from, and how many times it might have been traded from person to person. We questioned what kind of stories it has had, and how much it must have meant to someone. I hope whoever lost it reads this article, because the candie found a great home and is being loved and cherished!

The painter at Area Z
This artist painted to dubstep.

At this point, we needed to rest, and Area Z was a perfect place to do just that. If i could describe the music at Area Z. It was mellow dubstep, a style you could go either go hard to or just relax and listen to. A nearby painter captured the creative energy of the night and sounds into an image on canvas.

At the end of the night, we were handed fliers to upcoming events and underground shows in the nearby area. Although I may not go to all the events that were promoted, it is cool to think that at the end of every event like this one, someone can find an underground party and perhaps discover new music, new friends, and new adventures.

See you next year, Project Z!

Articles, Events

Project Z Recap

This past Saturday night the much anticipated Project Z returned to the NOS Center for its second annual show. The Joint Basscon and Bassrush show gave bassheads and hardstyle fans an exciting lineup including headliners like Eptic, Borgore, Darren Styles, and a Dj Isaac classic set.

I started my Project Z expedition early to avoid the ridiculous traffic on the way to San Bernardino. I got to the venue with about 30 minutes till showtime. Perfect because I wanted to see the Los Angeles based hardstyle artists, NonToxic. They did not disappoint the couple hundred of people that decided to come in early. They even surprised the crowd with a couple of unreleased singles. Next up was another American Hardstyle act Mekanikal, who played some awesome hard trap. Followed by the always entertaining Crisis Era, who decided to jump into the crowd and start a mosh pit.

Following Crisis Era, I needed to get out of the sauna that was the Basscon stage, so I wandered around the rest of the grounds and tried to find my friends.  I was really curious about the Area Z stage, I did not recognize anyone on that lineup so I want to see  the up and coming talent. I was kind of disappointed though, not in the music it was actually pretty good, but disappointed in the sound system. The sound was awful, my crappy Suburu factory radio had better bass than the Area Z stage, which is sad because when Ganja White Night went on later that night I could tell the set would have been 100 times better on a main stage sound system, but thats just my opinion.

After about an hour of meeting up with people and checking out some new music, I found myself at the Bassrush tent for Midnight Tyrannosaurus b2b Oolacile. The man famous for his Rick and Morty dubstep remixes was one of the highlights of the night for me, not only for the fantastic set, but because the Bassrush was just all around better than the Basscon stage. For one it was outside, so it was exponentially cooler, and  the stage production on the Bassrush stage was way better. Normally I would have made my way back to the Basscon stage because of that incredible lineup, but I decided to stay at the Bassrush stage because the Basscon stage was just way to hot. The Bassrush stage and Area Z had people I have yet to see so it worked out in my favor. I was able to see Gentleman’s Club, the UK Dub Trio whom my basshead friends have been telling me I have to see. They played Woo Boost as a tribute to Rusko, who is currently battling cancer, and hearing the whole crowd sing a long gave me chills.

The rest of my night was spent exploring  around the rest of the festival. Bouncing around stage to stage, meeting new people, trying some of the food truck food, and trading Kandi. Besides the sound at Area Z and the Basscon stage being worse then the steam room at la fitness, I would definitely say this years Project Z was one for the books (hopefully next year both stages will be outside). I’m excited excited for the future of Hardstyle in America, with Basscon’s following picking up some speed who knows what going to happen! Next up for me though is Frontliner, Lady Faith and NonToxic in Fresno followed by the Basscon takeover at Escape!!😈👊🏽

Announcements, Articles, Interviews, Issue PDF, Rave Comics

Download The Hard Data Issue 9!

Download your free copy of The Hard Data issue 9 featuring Minus Militia, Angerfist, The Hard Data DJ Team and Deadly Buda Comix part 2!
Download your free copy of The Hard Data issue 9 featuring Minus Militia, Angerfist, The Hard Data DJ Team and Deadly Buda Comix part 2!

Download your free copy of  The Hard Data issue 9 featuring Minus Militia, Angerfist, The Hard Data DJ Team and Deadly Buda Comix part 2! Click the link below.

Download Issue 9 of The HARD DATA!