Blog

The countdown to Sun City Music Festival continues. We are just weeks away from Texas’ largest dance music event taking place at El Paso’s Ascarate Park August 31st and September 1st. Purchase your tickets online now and save.

For today’s Sun City Sound Clash, we are merging the styles of two fresh new talents in dance music. Though one is breaking your fall while the other is making you shake, we can’t get enough of the innovative sounds coming from the productions of budding acts Danny Avila and Baauer – no matter just how different those two sounds may be.

Danny Avila

Still a relative newcomer to the industry, Danny Avila has already become one of the biggest contenders for dance music’s next generation of talent. With releases on revered labels like Big Beat Records and Interscope Records, support from some heavy players, a residency in Las Vegas and a radio show broadcast around the globe, it’s easy to understand why Danny Avila has seen such a meteoric rise. At the ripe old age of 16, the Spanish prodigy won the ‘Best Newcomer DJ’ at the prestigious 2011 Vicious Music Awards, and it has been nothing but a string of successes following suit. His big-room debut single, “Breaking Your Fall” led to Danny being highlighted as one of Billboard’s “21 Under 21: Ones to Watch 2012.”

Danny Avila’s production and DJ sets are what set him apart from the competition. Neil Moffit of Hakkassan Las Vegas says, “it’s Avila’s captivating drive and youthful spirit that breathes life into his performances. Known for his innate track selections that explode with energy and are brimming with creativity, his mixes are always bold, fresh, and original.

So to answer your question, Danny, yes. We are ready to jump. Come jump with us when Danny Avila takes the stage at Sun City Music Festival.

Baauer

Bass music extraordinaire Harry Rodrigues, better known as Baauer, has been producing dance music since the tender age of 13. Making mostly house and electro under his previous pseudonym Captain Harry, his current influence stems from hip-hop as made evident by his debut single “Harlem Shake.”

Originally released on Diplo’s Mad Decent/Jeffrees imprint in May of last year, the track was slow to catch on. The single did not begin to sell significantly until February of this year, when a YouTube video with the single in the background turned into an internet meme of the same name. “Harlem Shake” created a viral video craze online, with people from all around the world uploading their own videos for the hit. The single charted at number one for five consecutive weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100 while it also reached number three in the UK and number one in both Australia and New Zealand. That’s some debut!

Following the success of his international mega-hit, Baauer has just recently collaborated with hip-hop superproducer and other Sun City talent Just Blaze on their latest release “Higher.” Known for the crisp snares, gnarley basslines, and random fun samples he uses on his production, get to Sun City Music Festival August 31st and September 1st to get your shake on when Baauer takes the stage.

Born Christopher Marshall, this 21 year old grew up in a small town outside of San Antonio without much of a dance scene to speak of. The ability to burrow through record stores and discover music was not an option, so a young Crizzly found most inspiration for music making from videos on the internet. Although he was making “weird stuff” in his bedroom when he was 15, Crizzly didn’t stumble upon dance music or production until he was 19. Picking up a set of turntables shortly thereafter, the first gigs he scored were usually birthday parties. Production followed with Crizzly bootlegging/remixing rap songs that he heard on YouTube. He released his own versions of Waka Flocka Flame’s “Hard in Da Paint” and “Snap Back Swag” from AJ Hernz, and set the worldwide blogosphere alight. And after websites began reposting his cuts and edits, Crizzly started to develop a strong following.

But it is perhaps his ambitious, grassroots approach to getting his music out to the world that we admire most. After playing 2011’s Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, he took 20 USB drives with his music and distributed them to some of the industry’s heavy-hitters. “I made it a mission to pass them out to my favorite producers. I was nervous, but I gave it to Diplo. He listened, and now he plays ‘Hard in Da Paint’ in his set.” Crizzly even had his track “Snap Back Swag” added to a playlist on Skrillex’s tour bus, and Skrillex added the remix into his set as well.

Blending dubstep and hip hop to create his signature sound coined “crunkstep,” Crizzly describes his style best. “It’s definitely a mixture of two different worlds, dance music and hip-hop,” he goes on. “People can connect because there’s a lot going on, and there’s more than one dimension. The audience responds immediately too. Since there’s a half-time feel, the blend just makes sense. It feels right to me.” So what can you expect when Crizzly joins us at Sun City Music Festival? “I play a lot of hard stuff. I expend a ton of energy. I want the fans to get buck wild, crazy, and crunk. I want them to make some bad decisions and have fun.”

Come get crunk at Sun City Music Festival on August 31st and September 1st when Crizzly takes the stage at Ascarate Park. Grab your tickets online or in stores!

On this edition of the Sun City Music Festival Drop, we’ve got amazing releases coming out of the wood-work from our talented roaster. With so much great music coming out, it’s all the more reason to secure your spot on the dance floor August 31st and September 1st. Buy your tickets now before prices increase Monday at midnight!

Cassy mixes the next installment of the esteemed fabric compilation series: fabric 71

It is hard to rival the DJ career of Sun City Music Festival talent Cassy. Currently holding down residencies at leading venues Panoramabar in Berlin, Trouw in Amsterdam, Rex Club in Paris, and now Output in NYC, it is clear that Cassy has a global reach. As a seasoned crate digger, the time she spent working in Berlin’s famous record store, Hard Wax no doubt helped shape her legendary sets and now, her forthcoming release. But it is perhaps her expertise as a track selector that makes us most excited for her impending fabric mix.

Cassy talks about the forthcoming release, “The tracks on the mix all represent what I love about electronic music, and what I love playing. Simply, each track is individually beautiful — there is not much more to add. All of the producers are special in their own way. The project has come at a perfect time for me in terms of me being able to communicate where I am at artistically. I have aimed to get back to the roots of what this should be about for every DJ — namely playing records for the love of playing records — and not because of anything else.”

As you could guess, fabric 71 gives us a sneek peak of what we can expect when Cassy brings her raw, unadulterated sound when she takes the stage at Sun City Music Festival. fabric 71 will be released August 19th.

Brodinski’s Bromance merges with OSWLA to launch Bromance US

Along with his partner Manu Barron, Parisian producing DJ and Sun City talent Brodinski are expanding their Bromance imprint in North and South America. Brodinski remarked on the founding of Bromance US, “We’ve had in mind to build a proper team in the US to help us for such a long time… Manu was working on other stuff with the OSWLA fellas at that time, and one night we all had dinner, nothing pro, just a huge friendly dinner. When we sat down later with Manu and the crew to talk about opening a new office / antenna out there, it goes without saying that it felt like something pretty obvious: they were our guys, the right team, the American extension of the family.”

With the combination of the French label’s forward-thinking artistic selection and the experience from the team behind Skrillex’s OWSLA, Bromance US is set to be a truly unique venture serving as a strong platform for Bromance and burgeoning American musicians. The first release from the new union is the debut concept album, History of Man, from progressive Toronto-based producer Illangelo out August 20th. Be on the look out for several more releases on the Bromance US circuit for 2013, including EPs Louisahhh!!! and other Sun City act, Brodinski.