Champagne wasn’t the only thing poppin’ at Le Bain last Friday, the 29th. Booties were poppin’ to a steady diet of house cuts courtesy of New York’s finest FaltyDL (Planet Mu/Swamp81) and Montreal goldenboy Jacques Greene (LuckyMe). While Falty played an exuberant set that was filled with notable favorites, (tunes from Julio Bashmore, dubs from Boddika, Joy O) he also played to one of the more livelier and stranger crowds at the space (apparently The Jonas Brothers were roaming about). It was all good in the end, setting the stage for Jacques Greene to play his carefully curated set of RnB quickfire edits, classic house tracks ranging worldwide, and of course dropping some proper techno knowledge with some heat from Wax. A big night? Certainly. A messy night? Without a doubt. That didn’t stop it from being one of the best nights Le Bain has housed in ages. Big-up the Mean Red girls, FaltyDL and Jacques Greene for throwing it down in Dark Disco style.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ALBUM

FaltyDL – Moonshine [BUY]

This weekend is a big one for NYC’s musically inclined, with events packed in from Thursday through Sunday. Whether you favor progressive, bass driven beats in a small, dark venue or tend to be drawn to tech house and a huge dancefloor, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. I hope you all worked hard this week, so you can play harder this weekend…

☞ Thursday, electro master Calvin Harris hits hotspot LAVO, which is sure to bring out all the beautiful people of New York club life.

☞ Friday, XXXY makes his NYC debut at Tammany Hall along with Laurel Halo, Shlohmo, Braille and a special guest. Advanced tickets can be purchased HERE.

You Gotta Do You by xxxy

☞ Friday, Meanred brings Dark Disco to Le Bain, featuring Jacques Greene, Falty DL, and Dan Wender. Be sure to get there early as the space has a tendency to fill up quickly.

LM007 – THE LOOK by Jacques Greene

☞ Friday, Fixed with special guests The Miracles Club (Portland) Live + Midnight Magic (NYC) Live + Trap.Avoid (Dither Down, NYC). Open vodka bar 10-11. Tickets are $10 at the door.

☞ Saturday, PS1′s Warm Up returns with Prince Language &  Stretch Armstrong, Das Racist, Vockah Redu, Ital, and XXXY. Tickets are $15 at the door.

☞ Saturday, Verboten brings Claude VonStroke, Justin Martin, Christian Martin, and John Dill to Good Units. Advanced tickets can be purchased HERE.

Crack DJ Mix – 01.06.2011 by Claude VonStroke

☞ Sunday, Verboten presents Justin Martin, Christian Martin, Gina Turner, and Mikey G. & Gil K. on the XVI Roof Deck. Admission is free for ticket holders from Saturday’s event at Good Units, or you can purchase advanced tickets HERE.

Thursday May 12, Dark Disco returns, this time bringing the beats to Santos Party House in the form of a CSS after party. CSS will be performing a DJ set, with opening sets from Justine D and Lorraine Sangre. With three sold out shows in New York City, CSS is sure to bring some great tunes for an even better time.

Formed in 2003 in Sao Paulo by a group of friends with an unquenchable thirst for good times and indulgence in all things pop and art, CSS rose to notoriety with the help of a thriving creative community, underground club scene and a little thing called the internet. Pulling together their numerous talents, the band drew legions of international followers entranced by a universally accessible, albeit original and off the wall, look and style.

The band name is Portuguese for “Tired of Being Sexy” (taken from something Beyoncé once commented to the press: “I am tired of being sexy”).The live performance CSS offers is uniquely energetic and entertaining. Lovefoxxx dodges among her bandmates and involves the audience in virtually every song. Sá, Cintra, and Parra switch instruments so often it’s easy to forget where they started.

Advanced tickets can be purchased HERE, or at the door. Be sure to bring your CSS/Sleigh Bells ticket stub if you’ve got it for super reduced $10 entry at the door.

This Saturday, Dark Disco is back at Good Units once again, this time with a lineup that’s sure to inspire some serious debauchery. Although the artists featured this week are varied in their musical productions, they have all pushed the envelop of what electronic music is understood to be, each in their own individual way.

Toronto native Merrill Nisker, better known as Peaches, is an electroclash artist whose songs are mainly focused on sexuality. She lives and works in Berlin. She plays almost all the instruments for her songs, programs her own electronic beats, and produces her records. Peaches’ music is preoccupied with gender identity. Her lyrics and live shows self-consciously blur the distinction between male and female: she appears on the cover of her second album Fatherfucker with a full beard. Peaches is a state of mind as much as she is an artist. Essentially, Peaches is a revelation — an embodiment of sexual freedom, a damnation of gendered and lookist labels, and an admirable nasty attitude.

Creep are two girls from Brooklyn making sexy and spectral trip-hop that sounds like the soundtrack to an unearthly porno. Composed of producers/DJs Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard, the duo are calling in acts such as The xx and Nina Sky to sweeten their sinister soundscapes. Though they’ve been acting primarily as producers, Creep will soon be a full on band, using heavy visuals in their live performances.

Saheer Umar, together with Olivier Spencer, is one half of the infamous duo House of House. House Of House was formed to inject a grandiose and soul-searing bit of drama onto the dance floor, a lost element that made legends of the great clubs of yesteryear. They have been influenced by the classic sounds of New York and New Jersey Deep House, seminal Techno outfits like Basic Channel and Underground Resistance and the soulful sounds of Imagination, Womack and Sade.

Relatively new to the scene, Rinsed combines some of the best upcoming drum & bass talent in the Midlands area. Promoted by Wizzdom and Jonty, Rinsed holds regular drum & bass nights at The Caddyshack, Whitchurch aswell as supporting many other promoters in the area.

Advanced tickets can be purchased HERE.

Check out photos from the last Dark Disco HERE.

Shortly before Midnight on Saturday, Dillon Francis stepped up to the decks in Public Assembly’s back room and kicked off a lesson in mixing with a slew of moombahton tracks.  The house-tinged tunes got the crowd moving in time to a marching, reggaeton beat.  The dancing was hesitant until Francis cut the sound to announce the end of the moombahton experiment and the beginning of his dub set.  Laying new productions and exclusives side by side with British dubstep anthems like Rusko’s “Cockney Thug”, Francis put together a set long on originality and song-craft.  His drops were precise, and the bass powerful.  Francis puts together real songs, rather than tweaking out to rapid-fire bass blasts.  His dubstep has melody and his mixes are more than a string of build-ups and bass drops.

With one final bass-rattling banger, Francis yielded the stage to Flufftronix and Dirty South Joe.  The opening set established the tone, and left the Luvstep duo to finish teaching the lesson Francis had begun.  Their set was beyond tight.  They dropped bomb after bomb without ever losing the thread of the mix.  The set was cohesive.  Everything flowed.  Emalkay, Caspa, Magnetic Man—the Luvsteppers piled up the hits, but made each track their own.  If dubstep has a canon, then these two have it down.  They also have an ear for hooks, and their music weds gorgeous vocal samples with deep-space echoing bass rips.  “Luvstep” is rich, full music that belies the spare, glitchy beats that spawned the genre.  If “Luvstep 2”—the new mix dropping on Valentine’s Day—holds up to Flufftronix and Dirty South Joe’s live set, they could end up creating a dubstep mix with as much crossover appeal as recent British records such as Skream’s Outside the Box and Magnetic Man’s self-titled.  Luvstep held the crow in its deep, bass-fueled sway for a full two hours.  The bass brought some kids to such heights of ecstasy that they were literally humping the speakers. At least one room full of people will be anxiously awaiting the new tape.  In the words of one reveler, arms spread wide and head thrown back in genuflection before the altar of Luvstep, “these boys are the truth!”

Anticipating the St. Valentine’s Day drop of “Luvstep 2”, the follow-up to last year’s most excellent Luvstep mixtape, Flufftronix and Dirty South Joe are taking their melodic bass rumblings on tour.  This Saturday they’ll be making a stop at Public Assembly’s back room for a night of deep vocal dubstep.  If you haven’t heard the first Luvstep mix from these Mad Decent approved dub maestros then check it out HERE or download it from iTunes as episode #57 of Mad Decent’s Worldwide Radio podcast.  You can also get reduced admission for Saturday’s party if you RSVP with promoters Meanred HERE, and while you’re there peep the Garden State-cribbing teaser vid for the new tape.  With lush fills, sweet vocal samples and bubbling, echo-chamber bass, these boys are making dubstep with massive pop appeal.  Catch them on the come-up.

I know a party is a really big deal if I simply CANNOT wear anything already hanging in my already rather expansive closet and just MUST go buy something shiny and new specifically for the occasion. This past Dark Disco, which took place at Element at the end of last May, was just such a party. Before I knew what was happening, I found myself adorned in neon and lace, entirely unnecessary drink ticket in hand, loudly professing my (totally platonic I swear) love to a certain female UK artist as my feet started to blister in my boots from hitting the dance floor too hard. Needless to say, it was a night to remember, and this upcoming Dark Disco on December 3 at Music Hall of Williamsburg is shaping up to be no different, with Nosaj Thing, Mary Anne Hobbs, Toro Y Moi (DJ set) and Dirty South Joe all confirmed. CLICK HERE for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the show.

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Say what you will about the effects of social media proliferation, it sure saved the day (or night rather) this past Thursday when it was suddenly broadcasted through Twitter and Facebook that Santos Party House, the original venue for the Ninja Tune XX party, had been shut down. As we are not privy to the inner workings of the minds over at MeanRed, we can only imagine the panic that must have ensued as a replacement space had to be found, new deals brokered, and information distributed to the masses, STAT. But hey, this is New York City, and we don’t let a little thing like legal troubles get in the way of kick ass tunes and a good party. So before long, masses were gathering in front of Crash Mansion as equipment was set up at lightning speed and door men who thought they were in for a regular old Thursday were suddenly faced with a mob of music lovers from as far away as Ohio, anxious to get out of the cold and into the sound.

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