Monday Choon: Nicky Romero & FORS - Follow You

Nicky Romero’s latest release, “Follow You” with FORS, feels like a track that is quintessentially Romero, yet still manages to carve out an identity of its own. The production carries the familiar polished, melodic sound that has become synonymous with his work, while the emotive vocals from FORS add a deeper, more personal dimension to the track. There is a romantic quality woven throughout “Follow You”, giving it an almost nostalgic sense of longing and devotion. For me personally, it feels very much in line with some of Romero’s previous work, but with a freshness that makes it stand out rather than simply revisiting familiar territory.

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero x Vikkstar x Alpharock x Oaks - Where Do I Go (Rameses B Remix)

 

Following the success of the track "Where Do I Go" by Dutch DJ and producer Nicky Romero, Vikkistar and Alpharock last year comes the remixes of that track, one of them is by Leeds based DJ Rameses B, which gives the track a new dimension with a modern day drum and bass feel with it. It still keeps the high energy essence of the track but with a deeper rhythm. It's my pick from the remixes so far so turn it up and enjoy. 

   

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero & Sick Individuals - In My Head

 

We're going to get a lot of new tracks dropping in the coming months following the official start of festival season after things kicked off in a big way at Miami Music Week and Ultra Miami. First track that caught our radar is today's featured track from Dutch sensation Nicky Romero who teams up with fellow countrymen Sick Individuals for their latest release "In My Head", the song almost has two sort of sides to it with the opening vocals and beats giving it that big room sound with heavy bassline and strobes but as the song progresses you get the feel of the Nicky Romero element coming in, it hits you with the melodic chorus and then that carries the track through. It's definitely a banger for us and one you will be hearing a lot during the festivals coming up. 

Monday Choon: Thomas Nan x Andrew Allen - Did I Ever

Dutch producer Thomas Nan describes his sounds as being inspired by the funky music and grooves from the 80s which he's sculpted into a 21st century unique sound. He's not wrong as much of his music is centered around the 80s types beat and not to mention they're all pretty groovy. This weeks featured track see's him team up with Canadian vocalist Andrew Allen in their track "Did I Ever", its everything Thomas describes his music as and more with a great up tempo beat which catches you from the first drop as the track has a steady build up but once you get into it, you'll find yourself hitting repeat as you want to listen to the track again. Thomas just dropped this track in time for ADE on Nicky Romero's protocol records label and its gone down with much hype, so turn up your volume for this one. 

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero & Teamworx ft. Joseph Feinstein - World Through Your Eyes

Nicky is making music great again, not that music wasn't great before but the man behind Protocol Recordings has a knack of making music that when you hear it, gives you that feel good sensation. This track is another crack and Nicky himself says he is very proud of this song, teaming up with Teamworx and features the vocals of German singer Joseph Feinstein, "World Through Your Eyes" is a track that evokes joy, with the melodies and synths. The song features a delicate instrumental melody which carries the vocals throughout the song, while we would expect a big room drop, the guys opted for a more groovy one which works beautifully. The official music video for the track is out as well and we have it for you today. 

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero - You Used To

We got everybody's favourite Nicky Romero on the blog this week with his latest track "You Used To". If you, like me have been listening to podcast after podcast this lockdown, you'd know that Nicky's Protocol Radio has been one of the most streamed over the past year and with good reason too. The podcast is streamed live every week from his Protocol Studios and he keeps the hits coming but its lovely to hear his new work coming through. This track harks back to some of the early stuff Nicky used to make but on a much more mellow vibe. It has that great electronic beat to the track with a steady bassline which is assisted by the vocals. Overall, a very cool track to get the week going. 

Monday Choon: Teamworx ft Sarah de Warren - Can't Get Enough (Azooland & CORX Remix)

Teamworx teamed up with Sarah de Warren on this cracking track back in August and towards the end of last year the label Protocol Records released a host of remixes. After listening to them all, it was quite a tough choice to select just one to feature, as most were pretty good. It came down between two but the eventual winner was Azooland and CORX, their Remix included the original feel to the track with an uptempo underbody which starts off with a deep bass line which we're hearing a lot from the likes of David Guetta. The build up leads to a deep sound drop which just amplifies the track and for me works better than the Bosto Leon one. While the original version of "Can't Get Enough" is still a banger, we needed something a little more faster to get the year going. 

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero & SICK INDIVIDUALS ft. XIRA - Only For You

If there's one good thing to take from this lockdown for us, is that DJ's have had more time to work on new music with all their free time and we've seen some interesting collaborations born from it as well. Everyone's favourite Dutch DJ Nicky Romero is one of them who's teamed up with Dutch duo Sick Individuals for todays featured track "Only For You". The track features vocals from Xira and is a great feel good track, with a classic Nicky Romero style backtrack with build up and drop. It's one of those tracks that just has you reminiscing on the good times and  would have been a perfect track for a festival after-movie but alas we're going to have to wait a while before can party together again, its nice knowing that we're still getting quality music to listen to at home though. 

Monday Choon: Trilane & YARO ft. Sarah De Warren - Way Out

 

Sticking with the Swedish theme we have Progressive House duo Trilane on the blog this week with their latest track featuring Yaro and Sarah de Warren on the vocals. Released on Nicky Romero's Protocol Recordings the track has gotten decent airplay ahead of its release and while the build up might be slow it really has a great a vibe to it once the beat gets going. Prefect kind of pick me up track for a Monday.

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Monday Choon: Deniz Kuyo - Next To You

Progressive and electro house producer and DJ Deniz Kuyo is back with that familiar catchy sounds with yet another foot tapping masterpiece. The Turkish/ German producer has a knack of creating these feel good tracks, signed on to Protocol Records and with the guidance of Dutch legend Nicky Romera, Deniz has been created some great music over the years, his track "The Way Out" featuring Amba Shepard is still one of my favourite tracks to date. It's a great track which has a chilled mellowed vibe with a great bass line line and chorus, much different to what we're used to from Deniz but not something that is frowned. It is the perfect sort of track to put you into a good mood on a Monday. 

Ultra Music Festival 2017

It's been 2 weeks since Miami was taken over by the sounds of Electronic, Dance and House music, Miami Music Week 2017 proved to be as usual, bigger and better than the years before and headlining this international acclaimed music event was Ultra Music Festival which has been a firm favourite for many fans of the genre's over the years. Ultra really has been the one music festival that set standards for every other one around the globe and since grown and now finds itself being taken around the world in various countries. 

Coming back to the Miami event, the line up was endless and the stages were insane to say the least. You practically had the top 100 DJ's in the world all in one place over one weekend, playing their hottest and latest tracks to crowds of thousands. The lighting and pyrotechnics display that go into the event is next level crazy, even though it is already one of the most highly rated music events in the world, the organizers still go out of their way to make every year bigger and better. It saw a host of new releases from various DJ's and the sets at Ultra are always worth a watch, UMF have released all of the DJ sets to the respective DJ's, all of which were uploaded in HD and we have as link to all of them for you to watch! I've selected some of my favourites for you to watch below. 

Armin van Buuren	Tiesto	Above & Beyond
Andrew Rayel	Dash Berlin	Armin van Buuren ASOT
KSHMR	Fedde Le Grand	Axwell /\ Ingrosso
Hardwell	Nicky Romero	Sam Feldt

Monday Choon: Tritonal & Paris Blohm ft. Sterling Fox - Colors

If you watched the Ultra South Africa 2013 aftermovie, you would find this song very familiar as it was used for that very video. Many though seem to think the song is by Nicky Romero since he featured it in his set but this is to set the record straight, it's not by him but rather DJ duo Tritonal of Austin Texas and Paris Blohm with vocals from Sterling Fox. The song was released in June this year by Spinnin Records and has been popular with many of the top rated DJ's, including Nicky, it's a great song and hence it makes our featured track of the week, enjoy!

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero & Anouk - Feet On The Ground

It wasn't that long ago when Dutch DJ sensation Nicky Romero burst into the EDM scene with his hit track Toulouse. Ever since then he's taken the world by storm with his releases, rising to the top of DJ Mag top 100 charts and is one of the most indemand DJ's. He also launched his own record lable, Protocol which produces music for many other top DJ's and his colaborations with other greats in the industry only does more for his reputation. Today's featured track is hot from the Protocol kitchen, which see's Nicky team up with Anouk for this great track. 

Ultra SA 2014

It feels so surreal, sad at the same time because it's over but glad to have experienced it and looking forward to what the future holds from South Africa and this great franchise. I've always been a massive fan of UMF and it's on my bucket list to visit the main party in Miami one day but with the current exchange rate drama it just wasn't feasible. Luckily though the guys at Electric Music heeded my and I'm sure many others call, after 2 years of planning and negotiating, Ultra South Africa became a reality. 

This past weekend saw the festival take place in Cape Town and Johannesburg, in what was the most anticipated music event in 2014, it did more than live up to expectations. With over 40 artists, 11 of which were DJ's that have been voted in the DJ Mag Top 100 charts, crowds were entertained to some of the finest music from some of the best in the business. I attended the Johannesburg leg which saw over 25,000 of the combined 40,000 from both shows take in the sounds and party from 12pm till just after 2am on Sunday morning. 

The variety on offer was quite impressive from the Nicci Beach stage that featured many of the local DJ's playing electro and house music, Soul Candi stage that had deep house and then the impressive main stage, which was HUGE! that featured all the head liners. The local contingent got things under way with the likes of Fresh and Euphonik, Rodger Goode and Goldfish warming the crowd up to what was to be an epic night. 

The first of the international line up was Blasterjaxx, with them being most known for their hit track faith, it was a great way for the crowd to experience what they were all about. The 17 year old wonder kid, Martin Garrix was next, with his new age sounds, his hit tracks Animals and Wizard sent the crowd into raptures. The kid isn't even old enough to drive, heck his dad was here to oversee proceedings and to see him on stage with such a presence was just mind blowing, it seems like he can do no wrong at the moment. 

The next performers was probably the ones I was most looking forward to seeing, ever since hearing them on ASOT 500, I was sold. Willem and Wardt bring a very different style of electronic dance music, with a more harder style sound but very catchy at the same time. If their own work isn't enough, their remixes of many hits by other DJ's just shows you their versatilely. Their remix of Zedd's clarity is still one of the best I've heard and was a firm favourite by the crowd as well. I do hope they tour again as a 1 hour set isn't enough of this talented duo, we want more!

Prior to UMF 2013 in Miami, many didn't even know about Krewella, what a difference a year makes as people could not wait for their set. The energy by the sisters on stage was incredible, their songs although becoming commercial is only a credit to their success and what they have achieved, if you think they killed it last year at UMF, be sure watch out for them at this years event in Miami as I was thoroughly impressed by their performance. 

A few years back when Steve Aoki toured SA, he brought with him at the time not very well known Nicky Romero, to my disappointed Nicky didn't make the Durban leg of that tour but as I expected he stole tbe show at the concert with many saying he was even better than Steve, which I don't find hard to believe, his talent is endless with almost all his productions being massive hits. He rocked Ultra SA with most of his top releases and remixes, there was no stopping him as he started off with his first chart topper Toulouse and just went on from there. He was definitely a  firm favourite with the crowd as some told me they were there just to see him!

Now after seeing such a stellar line up, dancing and jumping all day does get to you but suck it up, down another Red Bull because you still had 3 more to go! Alesso, who some feel should have been the 4th musketeer in the Swedish House Mafia came on soon after Nicky, his hit remix of One Republics "If I lose myself" was by far the crowds pick of his set. Afrojack formed part of the double header head liner, not really a fan of his recent stuff but as I told a friend, seeing him live made a difference and changed my perception about him. 

As you can imagine by the end of Afrojack's set, mine and I'm sure many others feet were ready to give up. It was 12:30am, it was cold, we were exhausted and quite frankly we should be heading home but no one moved towards the exit gates. Damian Pinto, the voice of Ultra came on stage to gee up the crowd for the final artist but he didn't have to. The man, the legend, Tiesto came on to a thunderous welcome from the crowd, kicking off his set with Pair of Dice, he went on to play some of his new work which included 'Take Me', 'Red Lights" and the new remix of John Legends 'All of me'. He has such a presence on stage, it's indescribable and he just knows how to keep the crowd going as he pushed out, mix after mix.

Halfway through his set the rest of the crew came on to join Tij on stage with Afrojack hoisting him up onto his shoulders with the help of South Africa's DJ Fresh. While up there Martin Garrix  hijacked the decks for a bit to spin his latest song, Helicopter, Tiesto soon got back on and then put Martin on his shoulders, all of them on stage at once, not sure if it's happened before but it was a sight to see! Tiesto then ended off his set with some classics of his, pick of the bunch had to be his remix of Deliriums Silence but hearing Adagio for strings for the first time live was an experience on its own! 

The show ended with a flurry of fireworks and all the artist waving the Ultra South Africa flags, Damian Pinto came on stage to thank the performing artists, the sponsors and the crowd. He let slip that this wont be a once off thing and from the response they got in Johannesburg, they might consider 2015 to be held over 2 days. This has been by far one of the best Ultra's outside the USA, the show on the whole was a great success and not only was the calibre of acts good but the sound and lighting to match. The production team can be pretty chuffed at what was accomplished and I'm sure they gave each other pats on the back when this was all finished. Everyone was suffering from depression on Monday with the reality that what we were once looking so forward to has now come and gone but boy was it worth it, till 2015!

PS, lookout for the after movie coming ;)

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero vs. Krewella - Legacy

Signed, sealed and confirmed! All systems go for Ultra SA! Phase 1 of the line ups have been released with the biggest artist confirmed being Tiesto! Others include Nicky Romero, W&W, Krewella and Alesso.

Tickets go on sale from 1 November 2013 at 9am, to over 18 years only

Cape Town, 14 February 2014 - Ostrich Farm

• General Access Early Bird: R600
• Phase 1: R700
• Phase 2: R800
• Phase 3: TBA
• VIP Phase 1: R900
• VIP Phase 2: R1100
• VIP Phase 3: TBA

Johannesburg, 15 February 2014 - Nasrec

• General Access Early Bird: R650
• Phase 1: R750
• Phase 2: R850
• Phase 3: TBA
• VIP Phase 1: R1200
• VIP Phase 2: R1500
• VIP Phase 3: TBA
• VVIP Phase 1: R3000
• VVIP Phase 2: TBA

For more info visit www.ultrasouthafrica.com or follow them on twitter @UltraSA

Here is today's featured video, fresh from Ultra Records, Nicky Romero featuring Krewella, both of whom will be part of Ultra SA 2014!

Relive Ultra Miami 2013

When it comes to music festivals, there was only one that topped them all for me, yes there's Tomorrowland, Creamfields, EDC and the list goes on but UMF Miami has become the ultimate one. Every year it just gets bigger and better with this past year saw them celebrate their 15th year running and the festival extended over two weekends at the Bayfront Park. Since it coincides with Winter Music Conference, you can expect almost every big name DJ playing there on the weekend. Its like an all you can listen to EDM buffet. It was also the venue for Swedish House Mafia's final show as it all began for them in Miami so it was only fitting that it ended there as well. 

Words cannot begin to describe this party and that's why they make an after movie every year to show the rest of us how much we missed out. It was originally said to be released at the end of July but for some reason that go delayed till today but whatever the case, its here for us to enjoy! There are a few legends that feature with the South African flag in the video so keep an eye out!

Tickets for UMF 2014, which returns to a one weekend format have already gone one sale with early bird specials being snapped up in a matter of minutes. I am seriously considering attending this one as tickets are easier to come by than Tomorrowland and it is undoubtedly the mother of all jols. Hola at me if you're interested as well.

Monday Choon: Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike - Chattahoochee

Tomorrowland, possibly the worlds biggest party took place in Belgium this weekend. The world's best were present to entertain the crowd which was in excess of 180,000 people. The likes of Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, Nicky Romero, Carl Cox, Fedde le Grand to mention a few and not forgetting the resident DJ's Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike whom are featured this week with their anthem for Tomorrowland as this weeks choon. I managed to catch a few sets from the live broadcast on youtube, the scenes looked insane apart from the torrential down pour on Saturday night. It looked like another epic year in the outskirts of Antwerp and yet again left millions who couldn't attend with a severe case of FOMO. 

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero feat. Nervo - Like home

Nicky Romero is fast becoming a favourite of many dance music fans, his set at this years Ultra Music Festival was not short of amazing. For this track he has teamed up with the Nervo twins from Australia, the blonde bombshells are most noted for their 2011 track "the way we see the world" which was co-performed with Afrojack and was the anthem for Tomorrowland that year. This song is quite catchy and you'll find yourself putting it on repeat on your media player.

Monday Choon: Fedde le Grand ft Nicky Romero - Sparks

Fedde le Grand, the guy that brought you the classic "put your hands up for Detroit"  combines his talents with Nicky Romero who has a current hit on the charts "Toulouse" to bring us this epic tune which is sure to send sparks flying in the clubs!