SoundTrax: Summer Road Trip
posted in: Features • Reviews & Playlists
The summer road trip has become one of the most clichéd coming-of-age events in our society, but for good reason. Sunshine, fast cars, convertible tops, best friends, better tunes”what more could you ask for? The journey has come to embody the carefree, driving-with-no-destination vibe that a lot of us strive to emulate in our daily lives (mainly because there is something incredibly appealing about jumping in the car with three of your best friends right after senior year graduation, and booking it cross country just for the hell of it). But as we all know, good music is paramount to the success of an excursion. And SoundTrax is here to provide just that, but as much as we embrace the cliché, this will not be your typical sing-along road trip (we did that already).
There is a growing movement in the EDM world pushing away from the heavy bass sounds popularized by Skrillex, and instead embracing the French-touch that seems to have all but disappeared in recent years as Justice and Daft Punk have faded while Rusko and Bassnectar are booming. The sound features a heavier focus on melody, and a retro touch in terms of sound design. The movement is picking up steam so rapidly that there doesn’t really seem to be a star (like Skrillex for dubstep). There’s not even a solid genre title yet, and with influences ranging from French house, to Chi-town disco, and LA pop, the music is constantly morphing and pushing forward. We’ve put together a list of some of the funkiest, youngest producers out there right now. So grab some friends, pick your favorite summer destination and jam-on, cosmonauts.
Rapidly rising star, TheFatRat has been tearing up the blogosphere in recent weeks, partly thanks to his stellar Foster The People remix that kicks off this road trip. Next up Lenno takes us back to the ’90s, and SoundTrax favorite Madeon kicks it up a gear with his own infectious style of complextro-meets-disco. Justin Faust and Goldroom provide some sunkissed tunes that mellow things out a bit for the middle part of your trip. Lenno returns with another great Foster The People remix, before TheFatRat return to close things out.