We Keep Kids Dancing!

Squadron & DonDisko are proud to finally present a legendary electronic music icon, and that’s none other than Erol Alkan. So make sure you mark your calendars, it’s going to be a very special night! We’ll be also celebrating DonDisko’s 3 year anniversary.

EROL ALKAN (Phantasy Records)

Have you heard the one about Erol Alkan? The bearded studio-sorcerer worshipped by bands and DJ’s half his age as a living electronic idol? About the kid in his early 20s who’s founded that Trash night in London where they’re playing Bowie and basslines at the same time? I heard that he invented the mash-up. I heard that he created the second coming of French Touch just by remixing Justice’s “Waters Of Nazareth”. I heard he bought guitar music back from the grave. No, it was electronic music. Or was it reggae? I heard he once revived a Roland 303 just by looking at it. Didn’t you hear? He’s bringing psychedelia back? Wait – I heard he’s bringing Disco back? Didn’t you hear? That’s the thing about Erol Alkan – hearing is believing. Until you’ve borne witness to one of his legendary live sets, poured headily over one of his meticulously crafted productions, or been catapulted to a sudden sonic nirvana by the dropping of one of his remixes, you might be justified for dismissing his existence as an extremely elaborate myth of the musical underground. After all, how can one man, still in his early thirties, have kept so many kids dancing for so long?

Recently Erol is working on various collaborations with fellow friend Boys Noize, together they produced dance floor hits such as “Lemonade”, “Waves”, and “Death Suite”. His busy schedule has seen Erol headlining most of the World’s biggest festivals including Glastonbury, Global Gathering, T In The Park, Pukkelpop, Creamfields and Coachella. Whether he’s playing the latest in hardcore thrash or producing delicate anthems of spectral beauty, one thing’s for sure; music, truly fertile music, is never very far from Erol Alkan, and his sound can only continue to grow in the future. Haven’t you heard?

Line-Up: Erol Alkan, Squeak! & Fat 32, Orange City, Mathematikal.

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• Venue – Tattingers Club, Rabat, Malta
• Website – www.squadronmalta.com , www.dondisko.com
• E-mail – info@squadronmalta.com , info@dondisko.com
• Tickets – €20
• Outlets – Dr.Juice (Spinola / St.Julians), Riot (Bay Street / Plaza), Fact (Qormi), Exit (Valletta), Royal Impact (Zabbar)

Aoki is Back!

For the very first time in Malta, DIM MAK records will be heading to Numero Uno (ta Qali) on the 7th of September 2011 (Eve of a public holiday). The night will feature none other then the head of DIM MAK, STEVE AOKI togther with AUTOEROTIQUE. The formidable team of Squadron, DonDisko, Ep!c and Electronic Theory join forces once again to host this night.

STEVE AOKI

International Superstar DJ/Producer Steve Aoki, returns to Malta after his suprise appearance last summer. Headlining virtually all the festivals around the globe including Tomorrowland, I Love Techno, Sonar, Monegros, Coachella, T in the Park, Exit, Creamfields & Pukkelpop.

The man behind DIM MAK Records has been credited with launching the careers of some of the most influential acts of the last decade including Bloc Party, The Kills, Klaxons, MSTRKRFT, The Bloody Beetroots, Mystery Jets, The Rakes, The Gossip and more. Since founding the label, he’s stepped into the limelight himself as a DJ, artist and producer remixing the likes of Michael Jackson, The Killers, Robin Thicke, Lenny Kravitz, Weezer, Chester French, Tiga, All American Rejects, Drake, Chris Cornell & more.

More recently he’s been seen collaborating with like-minded producers ranging from from Boys Noize, D.I.M., The Bloody Beetroots, Armand Van Helden, Laidback Luke, Afrojack, The Faint, & Junkie XL and can now be found readying his debut artist album which includes collaborations from the likes of Lil Jon, Rivers Cuomo, Sky Ferreira, Chiddy Bang, Travis Barker, Kele of Bloc Party, Kid Cudi, Blaqstarr and the mysterious [[[zuper blahq]]] who can be found on the lead single “I’M IN THE HOUSE”.

Keep up to date with Steve Aoki by checking his tour dates and blog on www.steveaoki.com
www.dimmakrecs.com

AUTOEROTIQUE

Signed on Dim Mak Records in 2009, Autoerotique streaked like a tracer bullet through the strobe-lit sky of the T.O. dance community with their official first single Gladiator featuring remixes by Aoki/AM, Klever, Larry Tee/Alexander Technique, The Faint, AC Slater & Milano.

Following the Gladiator EP, Autoerotique showed off the many colourful arrows in their musical quiver releasing remixes for Benny Benassi, Felix Luker, Tiesto, Etienne de Crecy, Joachim Garraud, Sarah McLeod, Lykke Li, Shinichi Osawa, Chris Cornell & Timbaland, Diplo & Laidback Luke, Larry Tee, B. Rich, Disco Bisquits, Fischerspooner and Weezer.

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• Date: 7th September 2011 (Eve of a public holiday)
• Venue: Numero Uno Ta Qali
• Headlining: Steve Aoki & Autoerotique
• Tickets: More info soon!

Everyone’s Favourite Midweek Night is BACK!

Those who can recall the first DonDisko Tuesday nights should remember how, within the walls of one of the smallest clubs in town, a strange assortment of misfit kids came together one Tuesday night a month, throughout the Summer.  These kids were not there to chat up their latest crush, or to check out each other’s dresses and shoes.  They were there out of genuine shared interest for a new type of club culture which was then taking the rest of Western Europe by storm.  Right in the middle of the flanel shirt and bad music oriented typical Summer Tuesday nights in Malta, the enthusiasm of these kids was fueling an alternative to the monotony.

Three years later, the monthly DonDisko Tuesday nights have returned to re-offer the alternative.  Whilst retaining their original raw, gnarly, character, they have grown exponentially.

Last year, they have hosted an assortment of local DJs, as well as one of Belgium’s leading electro boys, GTronic.  This year, the night has moved to Cabanas, and will be yet again hosting an array of local electro, disco, and techno DJs, including Squeak, Mathematikal, Fat32, Diskid, Dale, Bart Nickson, and many more.

The final night will see very special guests Italian duo Fare Soldi manning the decks.  You can expect a couple of very flashy tracksuits, some Donna Summer, and lots of disco action coming at you from these guys.  Their ‘Cassotto EP’ says all that and more.

See you on the dance-floor.

 

 

 

 

You’re Gonna Want it!

On the 5th of August 2011, Squadron, DonDisko, Ep!c and Electronic Theory join forces to give you International superstar DJ/Producer TIGA for the very first time in Malta. The man behind classic tracks ‘Sunglasses At Night’, ‘You Gonna Want Me’ and “Mind Dimension’, is inarguably one of the most requested electronic artists in the world. Headlining most of the major festivals across the globe from Rock Werchter, I Love Techno, Sonar, Monegros, Oxegen to Pukkelpop. After such a long wait, you can understand our excitement to present such a legend. But that’s not all, man of the moment DJEDJOTRONIC from the infamous BoysNoize Records will also be headlining this highly anticipated summer event to be held at the magical Buskett Roadhouse and surely promises to be one of the main events in Malta for 2011.

TIGA (Turbo Recordings, CA)

Based in Montreal, Tiga is a DJ/producer who has effectively worked the underground and the mainstream with his wry brand of campy electro and stark techno. Tiga’s first exposure to his future came from touring the Goa area of India with his DJ father throughout the ’80s. Following in his father’s footsteps, Tiga began spinning in Montreal’s cooler clubs in the early ’90s, bringing the acid house sound to Canada. In 1998 he set-up his own label Turbo Recordings, and has come a long way since. Turbo has released over 20 albums, with a handful of the scene’s finest artists releasing on the Montreal based label. Boys Noize, Proxy, Zombie Nation, 2manydjs, Felix Da Housecat, Erol Alkan & Chromeo have all has successful releases on Turbo. Tiga also has released under the monikers of ZZT (with Zombie Nation) and TGV (with Mateo Murphy).

In 2001 Tiga entered the studio with producer Zyntherius “Jori” Hulkonnen and a singular vision: “electro, but mainly about my eyes.” This resulted in the track that catapulted Tiga to superstar status, the remix of Corey Hart’s ‘Sunglasses at Night’. Tiga went on to release 2 full length albums, Sexor and Ciao! The Canadian legend is widely known for his remixes: Tomas Andersson’s “Washing Up”, Scissor Sisters’ “Comfortably Numb”, Jamie Lidell’s “Telephone” and Felix da Housecat’s “Madame Hollywood” but also for his covers of Nelly’s “Hot in Here”.

Like Tiga on Facebook to exclusive DJ sets, previews of his upcoming songs and remixes, podcasts, dj charts and more. http://www.facebook.com/officialtiga

DJEDJOTRONIC (BoysNoize Records, FR)

Djedjotronic is possibly one of the most important and influential artists in the ‘new’ wave of modern techno. Hailing from the mighty BoysNoize Records roster, Jeremy discovered electronic music through Warp and UR, a decade ago. Djedjotronic’s particular style is a mix between pumping computer beats and insane techno, all about making people rave. The French DJ and producer is coming from an extremely busy year, playing in virtually all the major festivals namely Pukkelpop, I Love Techno, Dour, Mystery Land, Sonar and Nuit Sonore. While releasing two huge EP’s in 2009 and 2010 on BoysNoize records, Jeremy has also remixed some of the best in the industry, with the likes of Tiga, BoysNoize and Chilly Gonzales. The in demand artist starts 2011 on fire with two killer remixes for Chromeo followed by a featured track on Busy P and Dj Medhi’s Compilation “Let the Children Techno”. His analogue bomb “Uranus” charted #1 on the Beatport Electronica charts and his latest releases Bugle and Tetris on BNR TRAX have received huge response.

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• Date: 5th August 2011
• Venue: Buskett Roadhouse
• Headlining: Tiga (Turbo) & Djedjotronic (BoysNoize Records)

Yo ho ho and a bottle of Rum

Squadron & DonDisko kick off their summer 2011 agenda with the highly anticipated Jam Factory Boat Party aboard the Europa II on the 2nd of July.

As always, Jam Factory will bring together a number of different genres onto one dance-floor featuring Malta’s finest selection of local talent. Lineup for the night will feature Squeak!, FAT32, Bart Nickson, Dale vs Diskid & Nioxin Vitae

Event is limited to 300 people to ensure everyone’s enjoyment.

See you on the dancefloor.

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• Boat – Europa II
• Boarding from Gzira at 6PM, Departure at 6:30PM
• Website – www.squadronmalta.com , www.dondisko.com
• E-mail – info@squadronmalta.com , info@dondisko.com
• Tickets – €15 (Out 16th May)
• Outlets – Dr.Juice (Spinola/St.Julians), Fact (Qormi)

DonDisko at Creamfields

Electronic Theory returns this year as host of the ever-popular Techno arena, together with Squadron & DonDisko. The arena will be headlined by Detroit Techno Legend Carl Craig, coined the ‘Greatest remixer of all time’ by DJ Mag. This year, Carl won the ‘Lifetime Achievement award’ at the Beatport Music Awards, making 2011 a bigger year than usual for him. It also marks the 20th anniversary of his Planet E label, a landmark that he and his fellow DJs are celebrating with a big world tour, during which he has chosen Creamfields as a Maltese stop.

It’s Disco Time at the Factory!

If there ever was a branch of dance music which adheres to the unspoken DJ rule of ‘reuse, resample, recycle’, it must be Disco. Whether one most easily associates it with Nile Rogers’ guitar work, Giorgio Moroder’s arpeggios, or Aeroplane’s remixes, it remains present as soundtrack to adventures on dance floors across the world, in a thousand different forms.

Given that it is such a colossal form of dance music, and following the overwhelming success of our party last NYE, this 8th of April Jam Factory has chosen to pay tribute to the music, by paying tribute to disco.

DJs on the night are Squeak, Mathematikal, Orange City, Bjan Jensen, and The Wizard. Some of them make disco, some of them resample it, some of them remix it. All of them have seen their fair share of it. They will be picking the best gems from past, present, and future disco and, in true Jam Factory fashion, mashing them up with electro, techno, and house music.

For this one, we also need your help. We’re expecting you to dress up (although looking back at what you came up with on NYE, we find ourselves sure we don’t need to insist), in anything which to you represents anything disco. Whether it’s big afros and bell bottoms from the Tony Manero era, handlebar moustaches and top gun sunglasses from the 1983 Magnum P.I. era, or an Armand Van Helden hairstyle from the present, it goes. Liquid Club will also be decorated and set up to suit the theme, so we really are expecting you to try your very best.

12th July of ’79 as the day disco died? We really don’t think so.

See you on the dancefloor.

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• Venue – Liquid Club, San Gwann, Malta
• Website – www.squadronmalta.com , www.dondisko.com
• E-mail – info@squadronmalta.com , info@dondisko.com
• Tickets – €10
• Outlets – Dr.Juice (Spinola/St.Julians), Fact (Qormi)

Time to Meet: LES PETITS PILOUS

We’re just a few days away from Les Petits Pilous’ highly anticipated second show in Malta, so the Disko-Squad crew decided to ask Anthony Ferrando and Jean-Patrick Simonetti a few questions. In less than 4 years, the French cousins have toured all over the globe, while playing at some of the world’s major festivals including I Love Techno, Pukkeppop, Tomorrowland and Les Ardentes just to name a few. Their tracks, most of which released on the infamous BoysNoize Records, have been played by the likes of Moby, Boys Noize, The Bloody Beetroots, Justice, 2 Many DJs, Felix Da Housecat and Armin Van Helden. Les Petits Pilous tell us more…

 

We’re glad to be having you back soon, the fans here are eagerly waiting for the 9th of February. Your first appearance in Malta back in July 2009 is still talked about to this day. How do you feel about this?

It’s really nice to have people waiting for the show, we remember this Malta gig very well, actually it was the first time that the crowd was louder than the soundsystem ! So we gonna try to do better this year

The name Les Petits Pilous has come a long way and has established itself as one of best in electro following hit releases on BoysNoize Records which have been supported by the likes of Moby, Justice, Boys Noize, The Bloody Beetroots and Armin Van Helden just to name a few. How do you manage to keep the momentum going?

Well we just work a lot, spend hours tweakings synths and drum machines and take time to release things, only when we really like the tracks.  We also do remixes for friends and just keep that productive mood going on, remixes are a good way to learn and try things as you get to work on different genres and see how they build the track.

Being a duo, does one of you do more of the producing whilst the other is the DJ or do you both work hand in hand?

As we now live in Paris and Gent, we would need really long arms to do that hand in hand thing but we work equally on production dj sets and everything, it’s important that both of us can say his opinion on anything we do.

How would you describe your music and sets to someone relatively new to Les Petits Pilous?

It’s a tricky question because our music is evolving and we work on different influences we have like techno and disco for example, but the best way to get the idea is to have a listen (listn.to/lespetitspilous) and come to the party. Party music is much more understandable in clubs.

Recently you released two tracks in collaboration with the The Subs from Lektroluv Records, how did this collab happen?

We met them in Nederland on a gig and really became friends, and as Anthony moved to Gent (where they also live) they were seeing each other more, and after a moment came the typical producers sentence : “Hey, why don’t we make a track ?” and then we did the 2 tracks with everybody providing ideas.

Having played at some of the World’s major festivals including I Love Techno, Pukkelpop, Tomorrowland and Les Ardentes, how do you find the atmosphere when you compare such big festival crowds to a club show?

It’s not the same atmosphere as you don’t have the same environement in festivals, there are a lot of stages and people move a lot more between places, so you have to convince and be more catchy in a festival, in the club you can play with more freedom what you want at the moment, and do more “ear education”

Speaking of shows, which was your most memorable one yet?

In interviews we often say the Squadron gig in 2009, and it’s not a joke! It was a really good team who welcomed us and we enjoyed it a lot, also had some time to visit as we came one day before and it’s a really nice place.

What should we expect from Les Petits Pilous in 2011?

We are working on new original tracks and some collaborations with friends, we have a remix for a french rock band comming out soon normaly and will push our live show

Which Artists should we look out for in the future?

Electric Rescue and Das Glow are on our “list”

Apart from your Noize music. What music do you listen to relax?

Everything except the new Black Eyed Peas. We listen to a lot of disco, funk, as long as it’s good.

How do you find the new FIFA 2011?

We stopped at FIFA 2010 because we are trying to spend more time in the studio than the xbox this year

Have you ever had any embarrassing moments on stage?

We can’t remember such an event, sorry, or maybe it was too bad to remember

Is there anything else you’d like to say to your fans here in Malta?

Hey Malta we are back, we hope it’s gonna be like last time or even better! We’ll share love with you, Don’t miss it!

They are BACK!

Squadron and DonDisko kick-off their 2011 agenda with a bang on the 9th of February as they proudly present none other than the amazing french duo Les Petits Pilous straight from BoysNoize Records. Following their smashing performance back in 2009, the boys will be back for another memorable night of mayhem!

Les Petits Pilous formed by cousins named Jean-Pat & Anthony, kicked-off their career recently yet they are already considered to be one of the brightest talents and biggest artists on BoysNoize Records following their amazing dance-floor hits “Wake Up” and “Housi” which attracted a lot of attention world-wide and supported by the likes of Justice, Moby, Boys Noize, Felix Da Housecat, Armin Van Helden and 2manydjs.

2010 alone has seen Les Petits Pilous headlining at some of the biggest electronic music Festivals in the world including, I Love Techno, Pukkelpop, Berlin Festival, Tomorrowland, Transmusicales and Les Ardentes just to name a few. They have also released their second EP on BoysNoize Records, ‘Bielle’ followed by a very special colloboration with The Subs on Lektroluv Records. Les Petits Pilous are the true definition of the nu-rave/electro style that’s dominating clubs all across the globe. The french cousins have also released tracks on famous record labels such as Turbo Recordings and Ed Banger Record.

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• Venue – Tattingers Club, Rabat, Malta
• Website – www.squadronmalta.com , www.dondisko.com
• E-mail – info@squadronmalta.com , info@dondisko.com
• Tickets – €15, VIP €25

INFO: Jam Factory NYE

First of all, thanks for the great feedback you’ve been giving us. We’re sure that this coming NYE will be one to remember. In answering some of the questions we’ve been asked:

 

Bar / Decor:

 

Forget Escape Club as you know it. The place will be set up and remodeled to suit the exclusive Jam Factory crowd and theme with upgraded sound system, lights, visuals, confetti canons, glow sticks, face paint, you name it. Without revealing too much, we’ll just say that we’ve got a massive countdown in store too. We will be taking care of the bar. It will be fully stocked and cheap prices and offers will be running all night long.

 

Theme / Dress Code:

 

Some of us like tight jeans, some of us like shorts. We’re not ones to press anybody about dress code, and how you turn up for the party is entirely up to you. The theme of the party is ‘RAVE’. If you decide to dress up and want to be creative, think early 90s UK warehouse parties.

 

Freebies / Giveaways:

 

We want to show our gratitude to all of those who have supported Jam Factory over 2010, so we’re going to be giving lots of freebies out on the night. To kick the gift giving rituals off, we’re going to be giving The Mothership Soundsystem’s first mix CD to the first 100 attendees on the night.

 

Line-up:

 

… of all sorts, including:

 

Squeak!, Jay Zinga vs Fat32, Orange City, DJ Niki, Dale, Luca Cordina & HystericmaniaK

 

All DJs will be playing special NYE sets out, and mashing styles across the spectrum of electronic music. From fidget house to electro, to disco to techno to house.

 

Limited Crowd:

 

Importantly, we are limiting this event to 400 people. The place could take more than that, but we want to make sure all of us have enough space to let go and go wild. Don’t be disappointed and get your tickets now from:

 

Dr. Juice (Spinola / Bay Street)

Fact (Qormi)

Exit (Valletta)

 

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122074144516349