LISTENING to their latest album ‘Army Of Mushrooms’, it seems Infected Mushroom have caught a case of the wobbles, since tracks like ‘U R So Fucked’ on the Israeli- born, California-based Amit Duvedani and Erez Aisen’s eighth LP boast gelatinous basslines which owe as much to Skrillex as psy-trance. “We’ve been listening to people like Porter Robinson and Zedd, so we’ve been much more open to different genres,” Erez reveals.
Not that Infected Mushroom have ever been as close-minded as their psy- trance stereotype suggests, with 2009’s ‘Legend Of The Black Shawarma’ album featuring a collaboration with heavy metal headbangers Korn. In that sense, they were leaders rather than followers, given that current EDM superstar Deadmau5
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Style: “EDM.” Best known for: “Psy-trance.” Tune of 2012: “Zedd ‘Slam The Door’ (OWSLA).” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “M Machine.”
features My Chemical Romance on his new album, and the pair were putting on spectacular multimedia shows well before Joel Zimmerman put on his mouse head. “We always believed the live element is essential to EDM,” Erez says. “But now that Kaskade is selling out arenas you don’t need a live band any more.”
That’s why Infected Mushroom have ditched the live guitars and drums for their new live tour, which sees the duo performing inside two enormous orbs. “It’s a completely new experience to our other live shows,” Erez claims. “It’s more of a visual show with music telling the Infected Mushroom story.” A story that shows no sign of ending soon. PAUL CLARKE
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “Amazingator — the power to make ev- erything amazing.” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “To the crowd, because to myself is boring.” What does EDM mean to you? “More and more people converted.” Should celebrities be DJs? “No, it is a learning process.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “No, because we are too strong to be thrown off… and we are amazing.” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “If you make the people dance and go crazy, yes you are a DJ.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “Tel Aviv.”
44 16 SDAFT PUNK
TUCKED away in a hidden location (probably) somewhere in the environs of Paris, France, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have this year mostly been working hard on an album they’re producing with Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers. Rumours about the album upped stakes in August this year when Nile Rodgers wrote about the collboration on his blog. “Just when I thought I couldn’t get more hyped up about the future, I got a call from Daft Art’s Paul Hahn,” he said. “We marveled about some new technology, some visual concepts and how many things had come together over the last few months. We talked about my Fender Stratocaster nicknamed ‘The Hitmaker’, my plexiglass Guitarman nicknamed ‘The Chic-ocaster’ and of course, the current state of the mixes for the next Daft Punk album. I’m hyped.” With such mighty, musical super-powers at work together — on what will be Daft Punk’s fourth album — it’s likely to end up the electronic music equivalent of a crime-busting operation carried out by a conglomerate of Batman & Robin, Superman and Spiderman. And while the publicity-shy French duo aren’t revealing anything about this forthcoming
Best known for: Being publicity-shunning, electronic dance music living legends.
musical opus, you can bet that — taking into account all of the afore-mentioned producers’ electronic disco and house music credentials — it’s likely to be something mind-blowingly brilliant. Also reportedly planned for next year is a Daft Punk European summer festival tour that sources say will include sets at Glastonbury in the UK, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Primavera Sound in Spain, the Peace And Love Festival in Sweden and Oya festival in Norway. Exactly what they’re up to musically, though, no one can really be sure. In recent years the Daft duo have done no publically-advertised gigs, no live shows and released only their brooding, Vangelis- inspired soundtrack to Tron Legacy. Whispers of future productions and hints at collaborations are all there’s been. And if they had to be compared to any historical superhero, then it’d probably be the mysterious, fellow-Frenchy, elusive Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s previous success with game-changing albums such as ‘Homework’ and the spin-off remixes and reworks that have followed that keep them popping up in this Top 100 DJs poll. Hopefully they’ll change that and step up to the decks soon… CLAIRE HUGHES