Miami Music Week Review Pt.1
Ultra Music Week 2011 had to be the most exhilarating, non-stop action filled extravaganza I’ve ever been a part of. Below is our interview with Ed Banger founder Pedro Winter AKA: Busy P.
The extravaganza, for us at least, kicked off Thursday at around 4:00 p.m., when we checked out an “always ridiculous” Skrillex set over at the W hotel.
Skrillex at W Hotel
Carmine Rizzo
Jason Ano with Kia Rahimian
Mr. Vega, Kid Cedek, EtcEtc,
We figured that the only fitting way to follow up a Skrillex show would be to head over to the White Room later that night for Smog Versus Basshead, and ultimately, more dubstep madness. The show featured Skream, 12th Planet, Datsik, Goldie, Craze, Juan Basshead , amongst many other great talents across five different stages, and once again, our boy Skrillex. Each of the three rooms encompassed by White Room were completed polluted with the filthy sounds of dubstep.
Skream at Smog vs. Basshead
Congorock and Felix Cartal at No Sugar Added
Day Two started off with us meeting Chuckie over at the Fountainebleu, and riding out to Nikki Beach with him for the No Sugar Added show, which included such explosive acts as Felix Da Housecat, Armand Van Helden, Dada Life, Felix Cartal, and Bart B. More. As sick as the line-up was, we had to leave early to catch Skrillex’s set at Gansevoort’s private beach for the Beatport Beach Party. Later in the set, we were lucky enough to make it back in time for Congorock’s set, back in Nikki Beach.
Skrillex at Ultra 2011
I bring this up, only to paint a picture in your head of how truly insane Ultra week was for us. It was a constant influx of jumping from party to party, then back to party, then off to a new party – trying to capture footage of as many shows as possible. Unfortunately, we couldn’t be everywhere at once, because, as we found out on day one, we’re not the Justice league… we’re the Electro Wars Crew. Luckily, we had our good friends over at Vacay Vitamins getting some crazy coverage of the events we missed. Just to put it in perspective for you of how crazy it was, we had to miss out on the Dim Mak and Boyz Noise records party on Friday. On a regular night, those are both “must attends!” and we were kicking ourselves in the ass for missing the “triple threat set” by Laidback Luke, Afrojack, and Steve Aoki at party.
Deadmau5 at Ultra 2011
I am happy to report that we did make it out to the Mad Decent Moombah tone party at “Bar” that night. “Bar” looked like a rap battle location straight out of the film “Eight Mile”. I was half-expecting B Rabbit to jump out on stage at some point and bust a four-minute freestyle. It was the perfect place for me to rage my face off to some ridiculous moombah tone sets by Dave Nada and Dillon Francis, with a special appearance by label founder, Diplo. Tthis was easily the surprise highlight of my Ultra experience.
