Tag Archives: Madison Square Garden

Review of New World Punx at A State of Trance 600 New York City

After seeing KhoMha’s show on a Friday in March in New York City, I was excited to see the super duo New World Punx (NWP), consisting of Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten play at a State of Trance 600 on Saturday. The show sold out in one hour at Madison Square Garden, a massive arena which hosts the biggest sporting events in New York, a sign of just how big trance music has suddenly become today.

Markus Schulz is often described as a DJ’s DJ, a musician who fellow DJs study, imitate and admire due to his amazing skill, vast technical mastery and hooky, vibrant compositions. Schulz was named America’s Best DJ of 2012 by DJ Times.

Madison Square Garden was completely packed to the ceiling with crazy, berserk, screaming fans after I arrived and the show started.  At one point, right before NWP came on, the entire sound system blew up, dying for a tense 10 minutes during which time the crowd nearly turned into a mob. Fortunately the sound was restored quickly and everything was good.

NWP’s set was visceral, ethereal, dark and memorizing. The percussive keyboard style of the group was present in almost every element in their arrangements. At one point, the keyboards turned into a heavy, crushing bass that felt like it was going to vibrate your atoms apart.

New World Punx ASOT 600 Made Event

If Markus is dark than Ferry is light. Their two styles contrast and compliment each other quite nicely much like fire and oxygen. Their set twisted and deftly turned on so many hair pin, musical dimes it made you feel dizzily breathless. Unlike many DJs which just play the same old, tired riff over and over again, NWP didn’t have a set of songs, but instead an aggressive and sophisticated, series of hooks which could have been the basis for a 100 separate songs by themselves. The massive output was mind boggling and it is no wonder that Schulz has played long sets for hours and hours as a solo artist, together the group is a bottomless well of rich ideas.

The light show was hypnotic, an unreal hyper kinetic collection of images that made you feel as though you were in a higher, more enlightened state of transcendental being. It was like staring divinity in the face, both the devil and the angel together in one space, one group, until it was good, much like day and night coexisting to create a full normal day.

It’s no wonder that A State of Trance is one of the most successful world tours today. At the show, NWP not only showcased the future of trance but also set the standard for all live performing acts. If you have not seen NWP perform live it is recommended that you check them out when they come to town.

New Word Punx at ASOT 600 NYC

 

10 Things We Learned During the April 4 Global DJ Broadcast Chat

Another trance Thursday on April 4 is in the books and the Global DJ Broadcast World Tour featured was from The Terrace at Space in Miami during Winter Music Conference week. Markus was online chatting with the army and while eavesdropping we learned these 10 things:

1) The 2013 city compilation will be coming in mid-June. The city is still top secret but he will be mixing it when the Scream Bus Tour ends next month. There’s also the possibility of a new Dakota track for the compilation. He was asked about a new album but a new track will have to be acceptable.

2) As just about any musician would say after getting the chance to playing at Madison Square Garden, “It’s up there among accomplishments in my career.”

3) The SchulzArmy and trance family is massive and Markus hopes to return to Mexico this summer.

4) Serato is for time code, not mixing. Someone asked what was on his laptop in the picture and the answer was Serato. The follow up to that was, “I should stress that I’m not using Serato for DJing and mixing. I use it to send timecode to front of house so that when I am playing vocal tracks off my album, the visuals can get synced to the audio.”

5) We need teleporters! If Markus had a teleporter he’d be at Pop2013 in Oakland and A State of Trance 600 Den Bosch but as he said, “Just unfortunate they haven’t invented the teleporter where I could do Den Bosch and Oakland on the same night.” Oakland you win!

6) Ferry and Markus mesh well together, they aren’t competing. During the previous weeks broadcast that featured a 30 minute guest mix from Ferry Corsten there was a lot of criticism of Ferry. Markus addressed that writing, “I did have a read through all the comments last Friday morning. To be honest the way I look at it is that I have my own style and Ferry has his, but there are parts of it that overlap and mesh together. The thing I want to stress is that both Ferry and I will continue to be solo artists, and the NWP project will only be a small percentage of what either of us do in a year. But it’s fun when we do it together.”

7) Romper is taking over dance floors. “My heart was going a million miles a minute when we started with this on Saturday. 18. New World Punx – Romper”

8) Right now the all time undisputable rabbit hole track is ‘Nothing Matters’ by Mark Knight. He said all time would probably have to be Daft Punk – ‘Alive,’ ‘Be Yourself’ or ‘Plastic Dreams.’ Here’s a glimpse of ‘Nothing Matters’ from Toronto in September 2012.

9) EDC Vegas 2013 is close! Electric Daisy Carnival 2012 was shut down early on the second night due to high winds and it ended just as Markus was playing Loops & Tings. During the broadcast I had asked that he open his set with it to pick up where he left off and the reply was, “yeah EDC Vegas and I have unfinished business this year.” Sounds like there’s a great chance he’ll be in Vegas for Electric Daisy Carnival yet again.

10) Give vocalists the credit! A question was asked about the inspiration for lyrics, like ‘Nothing Without Me’ and ‘Caught.’ Markus replied stating, “To be honest I can’t take the credit for writing the lyrics to either of us, the respective vocalists are the ones to credit there.”

You can download this weeks broadcast here: https://soundcloud.com/markusschulz/gdjb-worldtour-wmcmiami

Tracklist:

Markus Schulz (Recorded Live from The Terrace at Space in Miami – March 17th 2013)
01. Markus Schulz Presents Dakota – I’m Where it Went Wrong
02. Tucandeo – Grey Goose
03. Danilo Ercole – A Man with Two Names
04. Greg Downey Presents R.I.C.O. – Afraid of the Dark
05. Microtrauma – Reflection
06. Aerofoil vs. E&G – One Word (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
07. Khomha – Dejavu
08. Omnia – The Light
09. Markus Schulz Featuring Sarah Howells – Tempted
10. ID (Track 10 from GDJB World Tour Johannesburg Set)
11. Dimitri Vegas, Moguai & Like Mike – Mammoth
12. Khomha – Dusk Riddles
13. Orjan Nilsen – No Saint Out of Me
14. Dannic – Clobber
15. Markus Schulz & Elevation – Finish Line
16. Digital X – Raptor
17. Ferry Corsten & Markus Schulz – Stella
18. New World Punx – Romper
19. Markus Schulz & Ferry Corsten – Loops & Tings
20. ID (Track 04 from Markus ASOT 600 Miami Set)
21. Cosmic Gate – Storm Chaser (Khomha Remix)
22. ID
23. Ashley Wallbridge & Rafael Frost vs. Tristian Garner – Overdrive Zorro (Markus Schulz Mashup)
24. Armin van Buuren vs. W&W – D# Fat
25. MKB – Katana (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
26. Markus Schulz Featuring Ana Diaz – Nothing Without Me (Beat Service Remix)
27. Grube & Hovsepian – Trickster
28. Markus Schulz – The Spiritual Gateway
29. ID