With Basscon Wasteland fast approaching, the hype is getting real! The massive announcement dropped by Insomniac is sure to attract the Hardstyle family from near and far to California, eager to celebrate a two day festival with such heavyweight names. From up north, representing the rapidly growing Canadian hard scene, we have Crisis Era. Matt and Silas are a duo of producers from Vancouver that have been mobilizing the Hardstyle crowd in North America since 2012. They are signed to Brennan Heart‘s label, WE R, and have played in almost every massive Hardstyle event in the past couple years. I can tell you one thing, those guys know how to throw down!
Following their success in Belgium’s DayDream Festival, the guys are ready to step it up and destroy 3 stages in what’s gonna be one EPIC weekend for them. Starting on the 27th at Hardfest Festival in the Netherlands, flying to The USA straight to the Wasteland on the 28th and finishing in Dallas for Hardismystyle on the 29th.
What can you expect from them? With tracks like Moshpit, Turn me on, Party up, featuring names like Code Black, Audiofreq, and more, you can count on a high energy performance full of dance floor bangers; where they plan to premier their first full EP. Their versatility and fun personalities have made a lot of unique collaborations possible, such as their new track with Gammer that was dropped on their recent visit to Edmonton, with the Kutski‘s “Keeping the Rave Alive Neon nation tour“; where they made a really strong impression with the local crowd. On their first time in the City of Champions, Crisis Era managed to make it such a memorable night, everyone in Alberta took over their live chat with fans (which lasted about 10 hours) the following Sunday to let the guys know how much everyone appreciated that party, and were looking forward to everything they had coming up. Such as a new mix series where they are looking to experiment with different genres to showcase their range, and starting a merchandise line that will be initially available at their shows, and online in the near future.
If you want a taste of their music and really unique sense of humour listen to their guest appearance on KTRA, and their Hard Island mix. Both feature original tracks, and some strong remixes, such as their banging version of Kaskade’s Disarm you, and their one of a kind takes on Get your freak on, called Come on, and Radiohead’s Creep. If you’re into snapchat comedy, they’re usually posting really creative, hilarious skits, plus an inside look at their creative process and hectic tour schedule. Be sure to catch their set at Basscon, or whenever you get a chance. They will for sure Make-Make-Make it POP.
You can follow them on Snapchat at CrisisEra, on Facebook HERE, or Instagram for more original content and upcoming songs and events.
By Brandon “CabZ” Caballero Follow me on Twitter @BrandonCabZ
This year marked the 20-year anniversary of the Electric Daisy Carnival as Insomniac set out for their biggest event of the year in Las Vegas, NV. This was the 4th year that Insomniac’s hard dance label, Basscon would host a stage at EDC. Thus far, we have been treated to stages of the Gas Mask Man (that has now become synonymous with Basscon), a giant One Eyed Monster, last year an apocalyptic New York scene and this years stage was promised to be an Apocalyptic San Francisco. The stage displayed a Golden Gate Bridge surrounded with shipping containers and graffiti and wrecked cars, and was being attacked by a giant crab! The stage was equipped with fireworks, pyrotechnics, 50ft flames lights, lasers and even its own go-go dancers. A stacked lineup of worldclass Djs promised this year’s Basscon as one to be remembered.
Another exciting first for Basscon was the Basscon Anthem by TNT – “Wasteland”. I recently spoke with TNT at Project Z and asked for their comment on making the anthem, they told me “We have seen the US Hardstyle scene grow-up in the USA and get bigger and bigger over these past few years. We felt like it was finally time to give you an anthem of your own!” For years American fans of hard dance who follow overseas events have wanted an anthem to hype up their weekend. For those who are not familiar, an anthem is exactly what it sounds like- it is the theme that sets the spirit for the entire weekend ahead and rallies everyone together and builds excitement for the show! “Wasteland” perfectly captures this spirit with lyrics such as “Crawling on the barren soil underneath the blackened sun, we are the children of the desert, we rule this wasteland.”
As I walked through the gates at the entrance I immediately heard the baseline bouncing from Basscon. Kutski was opening up the weekend for hardstyle lovers and kept to his motto of Keeping the Rave Alive; he had sparked the party spirit of all the ravers who had assembled far and wide to be at that Basscon stage just to be apart of a weekend packed with their favorite hard dance artists.
Other notable performances on Night 1 include Leiel, Audiofreq, who is an absolute madman bursting with unstoppable energy every set I’ve seen him play, Adrenalize , some freestyle fun with LNY TNZ, the legendary Technoboy, EDC first-timer Code Black, , Isaac, the UK hardcore DJ’s Darren Styles and Gammer who played individual sets as well as a special b2b set, and the night ended with Ran-D, who dropped the RAW on EDC from his first track, raising a big middle finger to everyone else saying “F#CK EDM”, to his last at sunrise. Honorable mention to Padaro, DJ Adaro’s father, who was partying at the front of the stage with the rest of the crowd!
Night 2 – After attending Gabberfest all day it was right back to EDC on nothing more than a few hours of sleep, but I remained optimistic due to the stacked lineup for the day. Night 2 started off with US Hardstyle DJ Mekanikal, followed Max Enforcer, Stephanie, Bioweapon (the duo of Code black and Audiofreq), Da Tweekaz and a special set where Brennan Heart showcased many new tracks from his new album I Am Hardstyle, and he even brought Jonathan Mendelsohn out on stage to sing a few tracks live! Following Brennan Heart’s performance, all music stopped at the Basscon stage and the crowd was treated to the “Basscon Experience”, a 10min firework show ending with the Basscon anthem and TNT starting their set. Following TNT was the beginning of the RAW Hardstyle for the night; Gunz 4 Hire (Ran-D and Adaro) came out and treated EDC to a particularly brutal set showcasing music and even video clips for their No Mercy Tour. Digital Punk took the stage next, and almost had to open a can of whoopass on someone who thought it would be a good idea to climb the stage and mess with the CDJ’s during his set before finally being removed by security (watch over your friends people!). Night 2 closed down with the haunter or the dark himself, DJ Adaro.
Night 3 – you can look around and definitely tell the heat, partying and lack of sleep is beginning to take it’s toll on the crowd… BUT, they don’t call it Wasteland for nothing! Basscon kicked off with a bang with a special b2b set from Canadian Duo Crisis Era and US DJ Darksiderz. Next followed a block of euphoric Hardstyle with Sylence, Audiotricz, Wasted Penguinz. Next, D-Block & S-te-Fan, Coone and Tuneboy, entertained the crowd and prepared them for the final push of the weekend. Lady Faith took to the stage next and differed from her normal style to instead play many more RAW tracks into her set, even showcasing some Notorious 2 tracks, to prepare everyone for Radical Redemption. The army of the Radical was strong throughout the audience, and Radical himself rewarded them by playing many of the tunes that brought him to notoriety, including Brutal 5.0 and Spell of Sin. As Radical left the stage he addressed the crowd to “get ready for the #1 hardcore act in the world” and DJ Angerfist took the stage! Now, I will say, there is a high expectation for the last DJ of the weekend at the end of 3 days, but Angerfist sparked energy in the people partying and the crowd was exploding with energy that was a truly remarkable achievement at the sunrise set. The hardcore reinvigorated the crowd like nothing I could have expected, people were shuffling, hakken and there were moshpits everywhere. This was a crowd was here for hardcore and they were loving every minute of it! Angerfist’s set built faster throughout and showcased many of his popular songs, and he even included some frenchcore, and ended clocking in at over 200bpm!
When it comes to Basscon Wasteland at EDC Las Vegas, it was a success in every aspect, and a great way to spend “20 years under the electric sky”. Whether you like euphoric, freestyle, hardcore, mainstream, RAW, UK hardcore, there was something to make you happy. With the new generation of ravers now receiving more exposure to hard dance than ever had before at American festivals, it is my hope that Basscon will inspire a new wave of American hard dance artists. This is good for growth of the scene and I hope Insomniac gives them the chance to play their events one day. I also hope Insomniac continues to grow and diversify their Basscon label, and hope for a standalone Basscon event in the future, maybe even including multiple stages so the euphoric fans, RAW, freestyle and hardcore fans can have a stage of their own. The hard dance scene in the US has limitless opportunity and can be anything we make it to be. I hope for many more events with an anthem, laser and firework show to mirror the European endshows, but most importantly, all of us should take pride in the collective being we become when we can come together for a common mentality to go hard!
It was such a refreshing morning back at THD headquarters knowing that we get to experience another night of Hardstyle and Hardcore. Daybreaker and Murdock practiced their footwork and loosened up with a little pregame warm-up while Deadly Buda unsuccessfully begged Insomniac for a couple more comps to the sold out show. If you didn’t get a ticket to Saturday night a week earlier, basically you were S.O.L. and we felt lucky we had at least secured our entry for the night.
Day 2 started slightly earlier than Day 1 to accommodate the welcome of Adrenalize to the states! Although we didn’t get to experience much of his set, the California crowd definitely didn’t leave him with an empty Palladium, they were chanting already at 8:45! It was jam packed as we made our way in during the first hour. Malthe Mehlskov, from Denmark, is only 16 years old and is quickly taking the mainstream Hardstyle scene by storm. No matter if you caught his set or not, it’s pretty evident that this kids deserves all of our support.
Digital Punk brought the Rawstyle flavor to Basscon Wasteland!
We didn’t mention the visuals much last field report. The lasers, well they weren’t really lasers, they were sort of like lasers but better… they were INSANE. At times it was like a spider web of color pulsating to the music. There were mixed feelings about the shark’s head DJ booth, but thank goodness it was real and not just an LED screen. We saw Brandon Adams from SDK events and he gave two thumbs up to the shark’s head. The LED screens that were used were tastefully relegated to the background to amplify the talent on stage.
Saturday also brought the return of DJ Stephanie to Los Angeles, playing all of her top tracks including all the dance floor bangers that we are all familiar with and sung along to, she even previewed a new track of her own. At about 10:00pm, our man Deadly Buda rushed over to the QSA meet-up to see what was happening and lucked into photobombing their group photo.
DJ Stephanie making her return to Los Angeles!
Seeing Da Tweekaz for the first time was a little different than anticipated, but they can certainly put on a show (more gimmicks!). They had all of their mainstream hits lined up (even though we expected more rubber duck samples) and offered the biggest surprise of the night by introducing their remix of Jumpstyle legend Mark with a K’s track “See Me Now” which was beautifully crafted into the Hardstyle sound design. After their set, Da Tweekaz caused a few mini-riots in the crowd when they walked out of the backstage and met with their fans right at the soundboard by the dancefloor. Just a few yards away, we bumped into the maestro of Florentine Gardens, Cesar Mendoza, who was rocking out with his posse.
Code Black was next. Even though his set with Bioweapon was the highlight of the entire event, nobody can deny the anticipation and excitement that surrounded Code Black’s solo set. His timing and mixing were perfectly executed, playing some very emotional and nostalgic tracks that even had some die hard Hardcore fans paying close attention (here’s looking at you Kim!) which says a lot about the impact he had on the crowd.
Code Black, the other half of Bioweapon, playing night 2 solo!
But this wasn’t even the best part! The majority of the night was waiting in anticipation for the rawest act of the show: Digital Punk! Although he played a lot more aggressive on the Trauma Tour, his set list was perfectly tailored to the city of Los Angeles, keeping it nice and raw, with the highlights being “Brutal 5.0” by Radical Redemption being played along with “My God”, DP’s track together with E-Force. At this point the crowd went absolutely f’n’ bananas. From wall-to-wall Angelenos engaged in some sort of hyper-mutated floor shuffle. Navigating through the crowd at this point was more challenging than Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Both nights it seemed like the crowd craved the raw sound, but Basscon struck the right balance this show by showcasing raw and euphoric together. If its all raw, or all euphoric, the sound gets boring. Having that contrast all night really made both styles pop.
Basscon must have known it was hometown legend and happy hardcore DJ, Lostboy’s birthday, because the night was closed out by UK/Happy Hardcore hero Gammer who has a ridiculous amount of skill and precision when it comes to DJ’ing, which allowed him to put on one hell of a performance. I thought the crowd would be too tired, but… no. Gammer cranked up the BPM and the crowd was jumping like jelly beans. He also kicked down some half speed madness and it’s a tribute to the SoCal faithful that they amazingly appreciated all the harder styles together as one.
Before we sign off, we want to give a special thanks to Cornelio “Atari” Cedillo for his amazing pictures, most of which can be found on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/theharddata/). Enjoy!
California showing some love to the harder styles!
Dedicated to the harder sound of electronic dance music.
