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Ultimate Music Experience will sneak up on us and before you know it, we’ll be catching some rays and dancing all night at Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark this coming March 13-15th. Have you grabbed your tickets to the show and the pre-party yet?

In this edition of our Sound Clash, we’re pairing two very respected pioneers of their respective styles. Though one is known for his soaring strings and the other for his metal-tinged electro, we’re honored to have Tiësto and Boys Noize join the lineup for this year’s anticipated Spring Break event.

Tiësto

Now celebrating his 20th year in the dance music industry, Tiësto is unequivocally one of the pioneers of the genre. With his early days creating hardcore and gabber influenced tracks, the Dutchman’s style has seen an evolution to the fullest end of the spectrum. Most notably known for his efforts in trance, Tiësto is responsible for many classic anthems. Tracks like “Traffic,” “Flight 643,” and his remix of Delerium’s “Silence” exposed the UME talent to mainstream audiences, the latter of which spent four weeks in the UK’s Top Ten chart and reached #3 in the Billboard‘s dance chart.

His fourth album Kaleidoscope, released in 2009, is still considered his most experimental. Featuring hits like “Feel It In My Bones” and “I Will Be Here,” the album showcased Tiësto’s talents outside of trance, ranging from electronica, indie-dance, alternative rock, trance, and house. One of his latest efforts, and regarded compilations, Club Life: Volume Three Stockholm features that big room sound that the legend has been sporting as of late. Tiësto’s latest radio-ready single “Red Lights,” shows off the Dutchman’s softer side with light guitar strums, thus proving his ever-evolving sound. If you’re ready to feel it in your bones, come join us in South Padre Island for Ultimate Music Experience on March 13-15th.

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Boys Noize

Hailing from Hamburg, Germany, Boys Noize has been putting in work as a DJ and a producer for half his life. His jaw-dropping sets have gained worldwide recognition because of his impeccable mixing skills and mesmerizing visuals. His early releases in 2004 made it on labels like International Deejay Gigolos Records, Kitsuné Music and Turbo Recordings, but the following year, saw the launch of his own imprint, the now famous Boysnoize Records.

A frequent entry on industry “Best of” lists, Boys Noize has become one of the most valuable electronic artists. Known to merge various styles to create a unique and innovative sound, his influences stem from hip hop and disco roots as well as heavy noise, distortion and electro sounds. Often weaving a mix of electronica with some off-kilter melodies, classic house sounds, and fidgety blips-and-beeps, the Boys Noize recipe is an infectious and energetic one.

Still celebrating the release of his international hit EP Go Hard, we’re ready to do just that when Boys Noize performs at Ultimate Music Experience, taking over South Padre Island’s Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark on March 13-15th.

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Paper Diamond is a one of dance music’s buzzing artists creating a unique sound unlike anyone any of his peers. Using a varied tech-friendly workspace, this Ultimate Music Experience talent oozes productions rich in bass driven beats, catchy vocals and melodies.

Hailing from Colorado, Alex Botwin has been a bass mechanic long before his Paper project. As a part of The Pnuma Trio, Botwin played bass for the outfit since their inception in 2004. Fusing classical, jazz, funk, hip hop, and drum and bass, the group’s releases were lauded for their individuality with the media dubbing them “Music of the future.” After the group parted in 2010, Botwin found himself going back to the drawing board, “Basically, I had all this music that I had no outlet for. Pnuma was my dance music project and since I wasn’t having any reason to focus on that, I decided that I needed a new outlet to be able to make whatever else I wanted besides. For a while I was making music as Alex B as well, which is a downtempo project. But I wanted some separation from me personally and my art, and I wanted to freely make dance music if I wanted to–or make whatever type of music I wanted. So that was what led me to start the project.”

That project is of course Paper Diamond. When it came time to release his debut album Levitate, he called an old friend, “I became good friends with Derek Vincent Smith from Pretty Lights. It’s funny, he used to open a lot of Pnuma shows and now he’s obviously massive–huge beyond everyone. As much as people wanna not believe it, he kind of changed everything for livetronica music.” Armed with a vast treasure trove of music that he’d been working on, the two started brainstorming, “Basically, I made all this music, and I hit Derek up and was like, ‘You know, I heard you’re starting a label. We’re homies. I wanna run my new record by you.’ I gave him my new record. We talked about all the songs, and he gave me some ideas. Then I went back, and we ended up putting it out.”

After Levitate was released in 2011, Paper Diamond began gracing more and more lineups and flyers – and not just because of his stellar productions, but for his on stage presence as well. Known for his interactive live sets, versus the conventional DJ setup, Paper Diamond on stage is feast for the senses. His dynamic performance makes every show a unique experience. Gearing up for 2014 “Cold Crush” tour, Botwin gave his fans a scoop of what to expect, I’m using my iPad on stage to control two computers, one has Ableton to play the music, which then sends a MIDI signal to the second computer, where I can control all of the LEDs and live visuals on stage that will capture the nonstop energy of my set. So basically, I get to represent myself in not just a musical manner, but I get to provide an overall visual experience for my fans as well.”

Hard at work in the studio, this year will see the release of new tunes with never-before-heard collaborations with various writers, producers and singers. Having just announced an eight-month residency at Wynn Las Vegas, the producer released his new single “Black Rose.” This sultry downtempo track shows off Paper Diamond’s versatility and we are thrilled we get to see it live at Ultimate Music Experience on South Padre Island, Texas on March 13-15th. Buy your tickets to the celebration today!

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Boys Noize is one of the few artists who can say that they have been making electronic music and working as a DJ for over half of his life. Quickly establishing himself as an amazing talent behind the decks, his sets have become a staple to festivals around the globe not only for their technical prowess but for their showmanship as well. It’s no wonder Rolling Stone voted this Ultimate Music Experience artist amongst the Top 10 “DJs Who Rule The Earth.”

Born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, Alexander Ridha has been finessing his skills on the decks from an early age, “My first DJ gig was in a proper house club in Hamburg when I was 16, supporting a local hero at the time, Boris Dlugosch. I was playing stuff by Mateo & Matos or Theo Parrish, a lot of Guidance Records releases, a couple of Masters At Work tunes. The first French stuff started to hit hard as well around ’97 and ’98 and from then I got more and more into electro labels like Gigolo Records.” Gaining traction on the DJ circuit, Ridha opened for acts like Felix da Housecat and DJ Hell, the latter of which released some of the earliest Boys Noize singles like The Bomb/Boy Neu EP in 2004.

The birth of social networks like MySpace proved to be very beneficial for the young talent, “I was very lucky, I have to say, because my music was only released on vinyl until then and it was the first time that people everywhere could listen to my music easily. I had a great deal of output at that time — a lot of 12″s and remixes — and it was so lucky that regular people outside of the DJ world were able to listen to my music.” Though his early productions were on respected labels like Kitsuné Music and Turbo Recordings, in order to retain full artistic freedom, Ridha established his imprint Boysnoize Records in 2005. “I don’t compromise when it comes to music,” he says, “I do what I think is cool and what I like and not what the market wants or people may expect. Maintaining artistic freedom has always been the most important thing to me — for my own music and for anyone on my label.”

Outside of his work as a label boss and DJ, Ridha has become a master in the studio. As a recording artist and producer, the Boys Noize sound is unmistakable. Amassing three albums, 2007’s Oi Oi Oi , 2009’s Power and 2012´s Out Of The Black, and countless singles and EPs, his work as a remixer is equally as impressive, making edits for everyone from Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Feist, David Lynch, Santigold, and Scissor Sisters. Lest we forget his collaborations with heavyweights like Snoop Dogg, Erol Alkan, Mr. Oizo, and more recently, with Skrillex under the moniker of Dog Blood.

Now that the dust is starting to settle from his massive Go Hard EP released in summer 2013, you can find Boys Noize making audiences go hard all across the globe. Catch his critically-acclaimed set when Boys Noize makes his way to South Padre Island, Texas for Ultimate Music Festival on March 13-15, 2014. Tickets are now available, buy yours today!

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