Electric Zoo at Randall's Island

Day time raving was a bit surreal, with people swarming the New York City island-park like it was Ibiza. But instead of white sand beaches, it was dirt dance floors and four outdoor stages. Dust clouds billowed from the crowd, so much in fact that most people with face masks were actually using them for health reasons, not for the typical rave remedy involving a smear of Vicks Vapor Rub. The first song we heard going through the gates was "One" by the Swedish House Mafia, played in Rockstar fashion by Joachim Garraud on his key-tar. I warned my friend this wouldn’t be the last time we'd hear it this weekend.

The Chemical Brothers headlined Day 1 of the event, touring for the release of Further, their seventh studio album. True to form, their show paralleled their latest project, which pairs the eight new songs with visuals designed by long time collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall. The live show, however, has a few old gems re-worked and spliced in (noteably a brief but memorable eruption into their Noel Gallagher collaboration on "Setting Sun"). The Chemical Brothers will release a video for each song, "Swoon" being the latest to hit the web, not to mention one of the more incredible sights to be seen on the enormous LED screen at Zoo.

"Swoon" couldn't have felt any more different when played out by Belgium-based Aeroplane. Their set was a blend of french house, funk, disco edits, with some of their own remixes, including:

George Michaels, "Faith" (Aeroplane Remix)

Chemical Brothers, "Swoon" (Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas Remix)

Daft Punk, "One More Time"

Chilly Gonzales, "Never Stop" (Erol Alkan Rework)

And speaking of Erol Alkan, he also played Red Bull's stage, spinning a hard hitting set (esp for 3:30 in the afternoon), highlights including:

Boris Dlugosch, "Bangkok"

Tensnake, "Coma Cat"

Mumbai Science, "Ancova"

Afrojack, "Pach on Acid"

Following Erol was the former man of mystery, Fake Blood a.k.a. Theo Keating (a.k.a. DJ Touche, former member of Blank Ghosts & The Wiseguys) playing his mix of all things buzzing, wobbling and roaring basslines, including a Jack Beats remix of his very own "Mars". Surprisingly, FB dropped a bomb at the end that drove the crowd mad... and that bomb was Swedish House Mafia's "One". He'd never seemed to me to be the type of DJ to play what sounds a lot like a hard house, border-line trance anthem... but he seemed relatively unsurprised that the crowd would flip when they heard it.

Back to the main stage, with Major Lazer sans Dave Taylor (a.k.a. Switch). Though the audience was exponentially larger, the production was much smaller than their New York premiere last year at SOB's. Back then Major Lazer came fully armed with an entourage of guest vocalists (including Nina Sky and Ninjasonik) and a stage full of dancers jumping off ladders to dagger. This time, Major Lazer held it down with a bare bones production featuring Skerrit Bwoy hyping on the mic. Nevertheless, they blew the crowd away with a few key re-winds and shout-outs to the MC's hometown- the Bronx. At the end of the show, I wondered what the difference would be between a Major Lazer DJ set without Switch, and the upcoming Diplo set. Here it is spelled out:

Major Lazer Highlights:

Dave Nada, "Moombahton"

Major Lazer, "Keep It Goin Louder"

Barrington Levy, "Murderer"

Gyption, "Hold Yuh" (Major Lazer mix)

Solid Groove (aka Switch), "This is Sick"

Redlight, "What You Talkin' About" (Feat. Ms Dynamite)

And finally, a track heard many times over during the weekend, the Major Lazer contribution to Cajmere's Percolator remix collection:

Cajmere, "Perkolator" (Major Lazer remix)

Diplo Playlist Highlights:

Sandro Silva- I Told Ya

Diplo + Laidback Luke, "Hey!" (Foamo Mix)

MIA, "Bucky Done Gun"

Rusko, "Woo Boost"

Excision + DatSik, "Swagga"

And yet again, Swedish House Mafia's "One". This time you could feel the roar of the crowd louder than the music.

Flying Lotus was the strangest booking for Zoo, considering the rest of the line up. His set was simultaneously head scratching and brilliant, packed dense with beat patterns and multiple layers of other people's music. Playlist is sort of meaningless with a set like his, but a highlight was a tripled-up mix of Nas' "Nas Is Like", Mr. Oizo's "Stunt", and Portishead's "Machine Gun".

Later in his set, Oizo re-emerged with his new track collaboration with Justice's Gaspar Auge:

Mr Oizo & Gaspar Auge, "Rubber"

And finally Flying Lotus ended with the a (sort of, kind of) audience sing along to his "Do The Astral Plane".

Other plays at the festival included:
 

Moby:

Zinc, "Killa Sound"

Cassius, "Feelin For You"

 

Claude Vonstroke:

Claude Vonstroke, "California"

 

DJ Mehdi:

L-Vis 1990, "Forever You"

 

Paul Kalkbrenner:

Paul Kalkbrenner, "Aaron"