Two years have passed since Diplo and Switch put out the now infamous album, Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do. The compilation of Jamaican Dancehall tracks was named the 10th Best Album of 2009 by Rhapsody. I have been to parties and DJ sets in the past two weeks where the infectious, vibrant, energy of Pon De Floor has filled the room. Every time, the crowd responded with a unanimous roar of approval, sing-a-log voices, and chaotic dance moves. How do you follow that up? Hopefully we will know soon enough, since it is rumored that the new single ‘Original Don’ featuring Partysquad will be hitting the internet by the end of this week.  Amber Coffman, Jahdan Blakkmoore, and Vybz Kartel are a few of the vocalists appearing on the new album. To hear a few clips of several new songs, check out the video below.

Festival season is officially upon us, and lot’s of events this year are looking to expand. This includes Made Event’s annual celebration of all things dance music, Electric Zoo, which has added a third day to their weekend extravaganza that will take Labor Day weekend, September 2-4, 2011. The line-up is as follows:

Friday, September 2

☛ Main Stage: Moby (DJ set), Benny Benassi, Rusko, Tiga, AN21 & Ma Vangeli

☛ Hilltop Arena: Richie Hawtin Presents Plastikman (Live), MSTRKRFT, Felguk, Gareth Emery, Markus Schultz, Robbie Rivera

☛ Carl Cox & Friends Take Over Sunday School: Carl Cox, Loco Dice, Joris Voorn & Nic Fanciulli (B2B), Victor Calderone

☛ Red Bull Music Academy Riverside: Crookers, Martin Solveig, Bart B More, Busy P, Feed Me, SebastiAn

Saturday, September 3

☛ Main Stage: David Guetta, Above & Beyond, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, John Digweed, Sander Can Doorn, Sub Focus

☛ Hilltop Arena: Ferry Corsten, ATB, Andy Moor, Dirty South Joachim Garraud, Mat Zo, Sean Tyas & Simon Patterson (B2B), Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano

☛ Sunday School Grove: Luciano, Danny Tenaglia, Carl Craig, Chris Liebing, James Holden, Steve Bug

☛ Red Bull Music Academy Riverside: Skrillex, Super Smash Bros, 12th Planet, Beardyman, Kid Sister, Porter Robinson, Tommy Lee & DJ Aero

Sunday, September 4

☛ Main Stage: Armin Van Buuren, Afrojack, Chromeo, DJ Snoopadelic, Calvin Harris

☛ Hilltop Arena: Boys Noize, Diplo, Big Gigantic, Carte Blanche, Excision & Datsik, Fake Blood, Jack Beats, MiMOSA

☛ Sunday School Grove: Richie Hawtin, Dubfire, Gui Boratto, Guy Gerber, Ida Engberg, Nicolas Jaar (Live)

☛ Red Bull Music Academy Riverside: Infected Mushroom, Gabriel & Dresden, Arty, EDX, Hardwell, Kyau & Albert, Mark Knight

More artists TBA!

Payment Plans

Passes to the festival can be purchased HERE. This year, Electric Zoo is also offering a payment plan for those who would prefer to not pay the full sum all at once. This payment plan contains two options. The first payment option allows you to pay a 50% deposit of your order total upon purchase of the pass, plus service fees, with the remaining 50% automatically deducted from your card on August 1, 2011. The second option allows you to pay 30% of your order total plus service fees as your first payment, with the remaining total automatically deducted in equal payments on July 1st and August 1st 2011.

Dust Reduction

Electric Zoo will also be making efforts to reduce dust this year, as the dancing and frolicking of 25,000 pairs of feet coupled with the unusually dry summer took a toll last year, and by the end of the day, the grass had been trampled and a lot of dirt had been kicked up into the air.

Here’s a list of things they’ve put in place to reduce the dust:

• Flooring will be used in all of the tents. This means that where all that dancing is going on, the grass will be protected and dirt won’t be kicked up.
• Dirt service roads will be covered with flooring. As our crew travels in golf carts and other vehicles to get from place to place around the perimeter of the festival grounds, there’ll be far less dirt stirred up.
• Making use of existing pavement for high traffic areas, including the area directly in front of the main stage. The main stage will be moved back this year in order to create more space. This will mean that a large area directly in front of the main stage will now be situated on pavement rather than grass. So when you “tear up the dancefloor” in front of the main stage, you’ll no longer be tearing up grass and kicking up dirt at the same time

They’ve also hired lawn specialists to consult with and work with Randall’s Island Park to improve on the maintenance of the field and to get it as healthy as possible before Electric Zoo.

Check out our coverage of last year’s Electric Zoo HERE, and stay tuned for more information and updates from us as the event draws closer!

What’s left to say about Major Lazer? After attending every single NYC appearance, I thought I’d tire of seeing them live. Not so. Diplo and Skerrit Bwoy took over Øya’s Vika stage with lazers blazing for one of the most explosive sets of the week. Though there were familiar elements I’d come to expect from a Major Lazer show – Skerrit Bwoy’s “Pon De Floor” moves, girls dancing on stage, and a touch of Ace of Base – there were definitely some surprises in store.

Assigned the sunset time slot, Major Lazer ushered in the night with a full-blown party, transforming the stage into outdoor dancehall. Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne joined us in the photo pit to take some choice shots of his own, a testament to Major Lazer’s growing popularity. Coyne wasn’t the only one who made a guest appearance – Die Antwoord joined the action and clearly had a blast on stage, wearing Pokemon and Stitch onesies, no less. Unpredictable as always, Skerrit Bwoy took advantage of the scenic atmosphere, disappearing for a moment only to emerge in one of the trees surrounding the stage.

All in all, it was one of my favorite Major Lazer performances to date. I had to take off a little early to catch Robyn, but given their recent collaboration, I have to wonder if La Roux made a cameo after I left.

Catch some snaps of Major Lazer’s set after the jump… and CLICK HERE for more photos from the festival.

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We were already amped about the massive line-up for Øya Festival in Norway, but after seeing the list of artists scheduled to perform at Nighttime Øya, our anticipation has gone through the roof. Øya has teamed up with some of the best clubs in Oslo to keep the music going after the park closes at 11 PM. Diplo, Caribou, Four Tet, Jamie XX are among those who will illuminate the nightlife scene in the nation’s capital each night after the festival.

As for the festival itself, Yeasayer, Die Antwood, and the Flaming Lips have been added to the roster, which was finalized last week. They will join the list of previously announced artists that includes M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Robyn, La Roux, The xx, Sleigh Bells, Miike Snow, Major Lazer and many, many more.

Tickets for Øya Nighttime events will be available at the venue and in advance at the festival. Discounts will be given to those who hold a festival pass, which costs around $330 for five-days. CLICK HERE for tickets and info.

In a surprising union, Major Lazer (Diplo + Switch) has teamed up with La Roux to create Lazerproof, a mixtape that combines Major Lazer’s electro-dancehall bangers with tracks from La Roux’s eponymous debut album. No stranger to the realm of mixtapes, Diplo has collaborated with M.I.A. on Piracy Funds Terrorism and Santigold on Top Ranking, creating mixtapes that fuse the respective artists’ debut albums with a selection of hip hop, dubstep and reggae beats. La Roux’s songs have seen their share of dubstep remixes, making her collaboration with Major Lazer a little less surprising (bonus: check out tradehooks compilation of the best La Roux remixes HERE).

Lazerproof balances the familiar with the unfamiliar, while delivering surprise after surprise. Some songs are close derrivatives of their respective archetypes  - the Costra Nostra Edit of “Cover My Eyes” adds a ska beat while keeping the melody and vocals intact. “In For The Kill” gets reworked twice, first in “Independent Kill”, where Candi Redd raps over the original melody, then again in ”In 4 The Kill Pon de Skream”, which takes Skream’s pervasive remix  and laces it with a stripped-down beat from “Pon de Floor” for a curiously subtle result.

“Magic (Falling Soldiers Dub)”, a less obvious interpretation of “As If By Magic”, takes the vocals from its poppy predecessor and lays it over a reggae dub. Stripped of its synth undertones, the song takes on a completely different mood. The two closing tracks – “I Said It (Major Lazer Dubplate)” featuring Opal and “Hold Yuh (Double Dubplate)” featuring Gyptian – left us mystified. Although there are two La Roux songs that didn’t get the mixtape treatment (“Saviour” and “Reflections Are Protection”), neither resembles the tracks in question.

CLICK HERE to download Lazerproof from the Mad Decent blog, a free download if you get it today (Wednesday, May 26). Last we checked, the server was having some issues, so if you need it right this second (as we did), head over to the Stockholm Beat Connection for an alternate download link.

We leave you with two samples from Lazerproof: “In 4 The Kill Pon de Skream” and the mysterious “Hold Yuh (Double Dubplate)”. If you can figure out its origins, by all means, enlighten us in the comments section below.

Major Lazer & La Roux – “In 4 The Kill Pon de Skream”

Major Lazer & La Roux featuring Gyptian – “Hold Yuh (Double Dubplate)”

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After a five-year absence, Robyn is set to release Body Talk Pt. 1 – her fifth studio album – on June 14. In anticipation, she has already released three tracks – “Femebot”, “None of Dem” (produced by Royksopp) and “Dancehall Queen” (produced by Diplo) – through digital outlets; today sees the video release for her first single, “Dancing On My Own”. The video, directed by Max Vitali, is about “being sad on a dance floor”, Robyn said in a behind-the-scenes video,”there’s a lot of dancing in the video, both by me and other people.” Decida, the video’s choreographer, adds: “It’s about her being kind of pissed off… and dancing and bringing out some kind of energy.” Indeed, the video showcases Robyn’s signature dance style that first charmed us on her 2007 tour.

The behind-the-scenes video also gives us a sneak peek of what her upcoming tour will look like. “It’s going to be looking a little bit like what I’m going to bring on tour,” Robyn said of the video set, “So it’s going to be a performance video but it’s also going to be in something like a rave or like a club or somewhere where people are dancing.” In a creative marketing move, Robyn and Kelis engaged in a Twitter conversation yesterday, which served to announce their joint US Tour, tentatively called the “All Hearts Tour”.

Watch the video for “Dancing On My Own” after the jump, and CLICK HERE for a behind-the-scenes look. We’ll be catching Robyn this summer when she headlines the Øya Festival in Oslo, and will bring you more details on her stateside jaunt as they emerge. Stay tuned…

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You have roughly six hours left to purchase discounted Electric Zoo tickets at $107, and given the most recent additions to the line-up, you’d have to be out of town, out of cash, or out of your mind to miss New York City’s biggest annual music event.

While last year’s line-up was almost all house, this year, Made Event is expanding the festival to include more sectors of electronic music, adding dubstep, electro, experimental, and more. In addition to the previously announced headliners, Flying Lotus, Bassnectar, Boys Noize, A-Trak, Major Lazer, Rusko, Wolfgang Gartner, Diplo, Steve Aoki, Aeroplane and Afrojack are among those that will grace Randall’s Island with their musical touch this Labor Day Weekend. Keep checking the official website (and The HiFi Cartel, of course) for the latest updates on the line-up – and trust us, there is plenty more to come.

CLICK HERE to purchase your early bird passes, and don’t forget, the prices will go up TONIGHT at midnight. Check out photos of Day 1 and Day 2 of the inaugural Electric Zoo by Oliver Correa and Kenroy George, and check in with us later this summer for your chance to win tickets to this massive blow-out.

Last Saturday, Hard brought their signature party back to the east coast for a blowout that drew a sold-out crowd to Terminal 5. The unstoppable line-up of Destructo, Proxy, Buraka Som Sistema, Major Lazer and Boys Noize delivered five straight hours of pulsating electro that made Hard’s second outing in New York City a raging success.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ALBUM

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If there’s one thing we should have all learned by now it’s that Trouble & Bass throws one hell of a party, and last night’s installment of No Escape from New York was no exception. The featured guests, 12th Planet and Flinch, brought their west-coast grime to The Studio at Webster Hall for a rager that also served as the backdrop for AC Slater‘s music video shoot for his upcoming release, “Take You” featuring Ninjasonik.

The Trouble & Bass Crew was in full effect, with The Captain, Drop the Lime and Star Eyes joining AC Slater for alternating sets. Diplo, Roxy Cottontail, Dances with White Girls and Apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas all dropped in to get their dose of bass on a Wednesday evening.

CLICK HERE to check out photos of the night, and don’t miss the Trouble & Bass Crew when they take over Miami at the end of the month for the Winter Music Conference.

Check out the latest edition of the Trouble & Bass Smashcast, featuring Flinch. Listen to it below, download the free mix HERE or subscribe to the Smashcast for a regular dose of the Trouble & Bass Crew.

Trouble & Bass Smashcast 004: Flinch

As usual, Diplo turned to Twitter to announce an April release for Lazers Never Die, the upcoming Major Lazer EP. “Sound of Siren”, which features M.I.A. and Busy Signal, is the first song off the EP and has already been making its way around the interwebs.

The EP will also feature collaborations with Buraka Som Sistema, Collie Buddz, Lindi Ortega, Kicks Like a Mule, Ms. Banks and Thom Yorke (which brings to mind another Diplo Tweet from a few weeks ago).

Major Lazer will embark on a “Lazers Never Die” tour this spring, which will include stops at Ultra (March 27), Hard NYC (April 3), and Coachella (April 17). Listen to “Sound of Siren” below, and click through for the full track listing.

Major Lazer featuring M.I.A. and Busy Signal – “Sound of Siren” (right click to download via Pitchfork)

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