Dance
Faithless Explore the ‘Human Spirit’ With ‘All Blessed,’ First Album In 10 Years
The track, recounts founding member Sister Bliss, had a life of its own. “’Insomnia’ took a year-and-a-half to become a hit,” she tells Billboard over the phone from her home in the England. Early on, the record lived underused in DJs’ vinyl cases. Then, broadcaster and DJ Pete Tong championed the track, the evergreen monster took on a life in clubland across Europe. A radio edit was cut at a more conventional 3-and-a-half minutes, and the single went to No. 3 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart. With a core of Sister Bliss, frontman Maxi Jazz, and producer Rollo (whose sister Dido has recorded with the act), Faithless would become mainstage festival crowd-pleasers, and one of the biggest acts of their kind. Now signed to BMG, the outfit has sold more than 15 million albums worl...
Oneohtrix Point Never Releases Song Co-Written With The Weeknd
The producer’s new single “No Nightmares” was co-written by the pop superstar. On Monday (Oct. 26), Oneohtrix Point Never released his latest track “No Nightmares.” Coming from his latest album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, out this Friday via Warp, the song was co-written by Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin and one Abel Tesfaye — the given name of the superstar known to most as The Weeknd. It also features vocals from Tesfaye (listed in the liner notes as The Weeknd) and Chairlift’s Caroline Polacheck. Altogether, the trio construct a meditative cuddle puddle of synth and drifting prog rock flourishes that lull you into a pleasantly zoned-out state of zen that is a welcome respite from the frenzied cacophony of life itself. Hear it...
First Spin: The Week’s Best New Dance Tracks From The Saunderson Brothers, Eric Prydz, Hot Chip & More
New Music Friday is intense. Hundreds of songs drop from artists around the world, and you’re supposed to somehow find the best ones. It’s fun work, but it’s time-consuming — so we at Billboard Dance want to give you a hand. Each week, we sift through the streams and dig into the digital crates to present absolute must-hears from the wide breadth of fresh jams. Sometimes New Music Friday is kind of quiet, and then sometimes everything drops all at once in a wonderful clamor of bleeps and bloops and bass. This Friday is one of those Fridays! Today sees major releases in the form of Major Lazer’s latest album Music Is the Weapon, a new single from Zedd, Tchami’s long-awaited debut LP Year Zero, along with a pretty, ...
Miami Club LIV Caught In Power Struggle over COVID-19
The puppeteer behind the parties and arguably the king of South Beach’s nightlife scene, LIV owner David Grutman, stopped by a few months ago to look at new upholstery, but he mostly stays away from the club at the center of his hospitality empire. “I cried real tears,” the 46-year-old Grutman said of his last visit to the shuttered club and nightlife’s seemingly bygone era. “It’s really been my lifeblood.” Technically, LIV and Miami’s other nightclubs could reopen at 50% capacity under an ordered issued Sept. 25 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Miami leaders have imposed a midnight curfew — a real buzzkill for a scene that doesn’t even get started until the a.m. hours — and are restricting loud music so that people don’t have to shout and risk spreading the virus through their spittle. Also, a l...
José Padilla, DJ Who Pioneered the Balearic Sound, Dies at 65
The celebrated Spanish DJ and producer traveled from his hometown Barcelona to Ibiza in 1975, where he would later settle in for his legendary Café Del Mar residency and forge a reputation as the godfather of chill-out music. Padilla’s sunset mixes spawned the popular Café del Mar compilation albums, which have sold more than six million copies around the globe, according to his reps. As a producer, Padilla cut remixes for Norah Jones, Chris Rea and others, he would take his tunes to clubs and parties around the globe, and he counted Madonna among his fans. His first artist album, 1998’s Souvenir, went on to earn a Latin Grammy nomination for best instrumental work. As his health deteriorated in recent months and the pandemic saw his income dry up, Padilla launched a GoFundMe. “My situatio...
Mat Zo Breaks Down His New Album ‘Illusion of Depth’: ‘I Wanted to Make a F— You Statement’
Now 30, the English-born, Los Angeles-based artist is delivering some of his best work to date on Illusion of Depth, which spans jungle, rave, melodic trance and DnB and maintains the cockiness Zo’s earlier output while also demonstrating his maturity as a producer and human. Body-movers such as “Love Songs” and “Next Chapter” will increase your already significant distress about not being able to dance at a club for the foreseeable future, while the soaring, multi-movement “Paralysis” will provide you with the emotional catharsis necessitated by this garbage year. “I was getting really tired of how clean everything is in this corner of dance music,” Zo says of the album in a statement. “Above all else, I wanted to make an album w...
What’s Your Favorite Track in the Top 10 of Dance/Electronic Songs? Vote!
In 2020, a few select tracks have dominated the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, with the Imanbek remix of Saint Jhn’s “Roses” now in its 30th week on the chart, where it has spent many of them in the top position. Meanwhile, The Black Eyed Peas and J Balvin have spent exactly a year on the chart with their hit “Ritmo” which is currently celebrating its 52nd week on the chart, while Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande are still holding strong with their smash “Rain On Me,” now in its 21st week. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, bloggin...
First Spin: The Week’s Best New Dance Tracks From Bicep, DJ Snake, Machinedrum & More
One of the neatest tricks of electronic music is its ability to grab samples from anywhere and whip them into entirely fresh music. So it goes with “Apricots,” the latest from the always excellent Belfast-bred, London-based duo Bicep. The single amalgamates a recording of traditional Malawian singing recorded in 1958 by famed ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey and a 1950s-era performance by The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir into an urgent and rather hypnotic body-mover. Should these samples make sense together? Maybe not? Do they? I mean, just listen. “Apricots” is the lead single from Bicep’s forthcoming sophomore LP Isles, coming January 22 via Ninja Tune and exploring thoughts and emotions related to their upbringing in Northern Irela...
20 Questions With Paris Hilton: Yes, She’s Still a DJ. Deal With It
So she says in the recently released documentary This Is Paris, an often candid look at how Paris Hilton came to be Paris Hilton™. The doc focuses on the abuse Hilton says she experienced while she was a teenage student at Provo Canyon School, a Utah institution for troubled teens at which Hilton and other former students allege that they were beaten, drugged, put in solitary confinement and subjected to other emotionally and physically abusive behavior. In the film, Hilton says partying was her way of dealing with the trauma. Eventually, what was a coping mechanism became part of her brand. On the heels of this doc, Hilton spoke to Billboard about her love of Avicii and Daft Punk, what she really wanted her DJ name to be, and what she wore to her first rave. 1. Where are you i...
Watch Pendulum Perform From Historic Island Military Fort
Last month, Australian DnB veterans Pendulum returned with their first new music in 10 years. This past weekend, they played those two tracks and much more during a livestream performance from a historic island military fort in the English Channel. Premiering this past Friday, “Pendulum at Spitbank Fort” features the trio — Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul Harding — doing a very rock-oriented show incorporating Pendulum classics like “Watercolour” and “Witchcraft” along with new music including “Driver” and “Nothing for Free.” You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat a...
Ikaya Feels It’s ‘Unfair’ for Her & Dexta Daps ‘to Be Blamed’ for Seemingly Crowded New York, New Jersey Concerts
Fans of Dexta Daps and Ikaya appeared to have a grand time on Sept. 26 and 27 at the reggae artists’ New York and New Jersey shows, dancing and singing along. But after videos of the seemingly crowded outdoor events surfaced on Instagram — while the coronavirus pandemic is ongoing — the criticism started rolling in. “The promoters, @dextadaps and all others directly responsible for the staging of this event during a deadly pandemic are a bunch of dummies,” an Instagram user commented on one of the videos from the Brooklyn performance. “Trust me, the city will hit you all with some hefty fines..not excluding possible jail time…” Now, Ikaya — the Jamaican reggae, R&B and dancehall singer who is featured on Daps’ song “Nose...
Guess Which Video Game Now Features a Diplo Avatar?
Diplo, a doer of many things in both waking life and virtual reality, has now done yet another thing with the launch of his avatar within FIFA 21’s Volta Football series. Within the game as a playable character, Diplo is among a cast of “Groundbreaker” players including soccer phenom Kylian Mbappé, Olympic gold medalist in boxing Anthony Joshua, and actor and former professional soccer player Eric Cantona. This isn’t Diplo’s first time on the field with FIFA, as he produced the 2018 World Cup’s official (and very Major Lazer-sounding) anthem “Live It Up” by reggaeton star Nicky Jam with a feature from Will Smith. For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Dip was one of the models Nike used to show off its uniform for Team U.S.A., with the producer al...
