KNIFE Party is probably one of the worst-kept secrets in dance music: If you don’t know, we aren’t about to spoilt it for you, but this Australian, electro house-cum-dubstep duo are not exactly new to the electronic music scene. In this new guise, though, they have generated plenty of excitement from fans of big room sounds around the world, despite only having released two EPs, and despite only debuting a live show at Space, Ibiza in August 2011.
Performing at festivals and gigs around the world (though always in featureless silver face masks) from Electric Zoo festival in New York to Amnesia in Ibiza via Global Gathering in the UK and Snowbombing in Austria has surely helped raise this duo’s profile, though. So too the fact that ‘Bonfire’ — a track from the pair’s ‘Rage Valley EP’ — recently featured on an episode of cult US
KNIFE PARTY
drama Breaking Bad. Knife Party’s sound is typified by tracks (and titles) like ‘Destroy Them With Lazers’ and ‘Tourniquet’ — plenty of thick rock textures, raved-up synths and generally cacophonous melanges of anything aggressive, be it dubstep, goth or electro, whilst shows incorporate similarly loud and maximalist lights and lasers, dancers in ghost costumes and much more. As a remixing duo, too, they have tackled everything from the
SEBASTIAN INGROSSO
WHEN DJ Mag tracks him down, Sebastian Ingrosso is in Las Vegas. He’s rehearsing the Swedish House Mafia show for their slot at the iHeart Radio festival, where they’ll share a stage with the likes of Rihanna, Usher, Pink and Aerosmith. It seems strange that with his friends Axwell and Steve Angello, they have risen to this level, only to then call it a day. “It’s a bittersweet feeling,” he says. “We’ve been together for more than 10 years. There’s so much that we’ve done, and now we want to breathe all this in.” And there is much to breathe in, as they prepare to take on their first — and last — world tour.
But after all the hoopla the tour will entail, it sounds like Ingrosso is keen to step out of the spotlight. “We always, and it might sound cliched, had a foot in the underground scene. Even for us, things can be too cheesy and too mainstream, but we want to go back in there again,” he says. “I just want to be making more music. That’s my plan, whether it’s with Alesso, or Tommy Trash, or Axwell, it doesn’t matter. Just see what happens.” Sounds like a good place to start. BEN ARNOLD
Swedish House Mafia to Porter Robinson to Nero in the last year. In the coming months, ravers in Italy, the UK, US and Australia can all get a live fill of Knife Party, whilst rumour has it their third EP is in the works and due for release soon. October will also see the release of Annie Mac’s double disc ‘Annie Mac Presents 2012’ compilation, the first disc of which opens with Knife Party’s dense and serrated anthem ‘Sleaze’. KRISTAN J CARYL
Style: Stadium house. Best known for: No answer. Tune of 2012: “Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso ‘Calling’.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “Tommy Trash.”
34 08
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “I would love to heal people. That would be awesome.” Should you play for the crowd or for your- self? “For the crowd, of course. Always.” What does EDM mean to you? “The word EDM is so funny. But electronic music is my life.” Should celebrities be DJs? “It depends if they have a hidden talent. I mean, what if Nicolas Cage was a fucking amazing drum & bass DJ? Then happy days.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “Yes. Lots of times. One time in Poland, they just pulled the plug on us at Cream- fields because it was after curfew.” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “There are DJs that don’t that still put together a hell of a show, so of course.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “It will always be Ibiza. It can’t be anywhere else.”