In the waning days of the Disco era, Larry Levan crafted a new style of dance music, which, like House music in Chicago, came to be named after the nightclub where it was most played, the Paradise Garage. Garage music may have started with disco, but over the decades, it's evolved in some surprising ways: [more inside]
posted by empath on Oct 27, 2009 - 62 comments

The Humanthesizer. Calvin Harris is promoting his new single by using a type of skin-safe conductive ink to "play" his song with the assistance of, ah, several assistants. [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack on Aug 12, 2009 - 29 comments

A recently uncovered musical experiment by Delia Derbyshire predicted the sound of modern dance music three decades before it became fashionable. [more inside]
posted by le morte de bea arthur on Jul 18, 2008 - 37 comments

The bastard offspring of New Age, Techno, Industrial and Acid House, trance is one of the most popular and most maligned musical genres of the 21st century. Trance can be bombastic or delicate, psychedelic or rock and roll, spacey or deep, euphoric or dark, commercial or underground, lush or funky, melodic or monotone, hard or laid back. You can try making some yourself with this toy, or go in depth with this tutorial. You can find it online, but if you want to really experience it, you need to hear it at a club.
posted by empath on Jan 16, 2008 - 184 comments

Like free music? Like Blogs? Try putting them together: To start, search Hype Machine and Elbo.ws to find music you like. Then start following the links and blog-rolls, and before you know it, you'll have dozens of blogs just begging to give you songs to download. If you like indy dance music like I do, here are some blogs to get you started: Digital Eargasm, Missing Toof, Palms Out Sounds, These Rocks Pop, Kiss Atlanta, Resonator Magazine, Fluo Kids, Discobelle, Disconap
posted by empath on Sep 21, 2007 - 24 comments

A massive collection of live DJ and PA sets of electronic music sorted by year and genre. Enjoy.
(Coral Cache link. Please use this to help archive and propagate the files.)
posted by loquacious on Dec 31, 2006 - 15 comments

WaxDJ.com - an excellent source for free downloads and streams of original electronic music mixes of all sorts, from seasoned pros to beginning bedroom amatuers, all told numbering in the hundreds or thousands. My current brand new favorite is the very diverse and well-versed Detriot/Chicago techno stylings of DJ Rubsilent. Recomended mix: Future Funk 23: (Direct MP3 link) (Streaming mp3 link) But don't let me divert you - search for your favorite local DJ or browse for new ones.
posted by loquacious on Oct 11, 2006 - 19 comments

Mark Spoon , best known as half of German trance duo Jam & Spoon, was found dead today, apparently of a heart attack at age 41. Jam and Spoon aren't well known in the mainstream, but they almost single handedly invented the dance music genre today known as "Progressive Trance" with their early 90s singles "Stella" and "Age of Love" (Short MP3 samples).
posted by empath on Jan 12, 2006 - 38 comments

The Box [low-fi mid-nineties MPEG-1; music here]
posted by ab'd al'Hazred on Nov 24, 2005 - 41 comments

Traditionally, (video) a DJ uses two turntables, but recently a series of new products has challenged the primacy of vinyl. While local record shops have been closing left and right, online stores have begun offering digital downloads. One digital-only outlet recently sold their 1,000,000th mp3. And now, a new store has taken the DJ completely out of the equation by making mix cds on demand.
posted by empath on Nov 14, 2005 - 59 comments

just get yourself high [lo siento para el Player Real]
posted by Pretty_Generic on Sep 25, 2005 - 18 comments

Gloria Estefan and Mylo [warning: eighties]
posted by Pretty_Generic on Sep 11, 2005 - 35 comments

I find Paris's Radio ABF the perfect background noise, with an optional 256kb/s stream. It's electronica.
posted by Pretty_Generic on Nov 18, 2004 - 22 comments

"touch my tra-la-la" - Mefi falls in love with Günther.
posted by sgt.serenity on May 1, 2004 - 21 comments

I have a what!?! And now ladies and gentlemen, here is our first candidate for the most annoying song of this summer.
posted by beatnik808 on May 23, 2003 - 32 comments

The 2003 Winter Music Conference is now one month away. During the conference you will be able to attend the main conference, the 2003 DanceStar USA awards show, the huge ULTRA 5 Music Festival, and countless other parties during the week. Everyone influential having anything to do with dance music will be there for 5 days of endless pool parties, late night clubbing, networking, and general debauchery. If you need to know what will be going on, you should already be on the Miami Master List, the definitive guide.
posted by cmicali on Feb 17, 2003 - 12 comments