Croatian underground electronic music festival Dimensions have announced the headliner for their 2013 opening ceremony.

British beat wizard Bonobo will join previously announced acts Mount Kimbie, Portico Quartet and Andrew Ashong at the opening concert which takes place in a 2000 year old Roman amphitheatre in the Croatian city of Pula on Wednesday 4 September.

Dimensions festival, now in its second year, has quickly asserted itself as one of the most exciting festivals of its kind, with its expertly curated line ups that appeal to the brain as much as the body. Whether you have a penchant for classic Detroit vibes or the future sounds of London, Dimensions is the place to be. Check out the full Dimensions line up here.

Dimensions Festival
Pula, Croatia
Wednesday, 4 September – Sunday, 9 September

Tickets.

Listen to Bonobo, Mount Kimbie and Dimensions on Pulse Radio.
 

Today, the 18th of July, we remember Madiba and the courageous fight he fought against oppression, the fight he fought for equality, the fight he fought for us and the inspirational example he set for us as a nation that would ripple out to the rest of the world.

"It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it. Mandela Day will not be a holiday but a day devoted to service." ~ Nelson Mandela

Today everybody around the globe celebrates the extraordinary man’s birthday with 67 minutes of helping someone other than oneself. Nelson Mandela embodies the highest value of humanity so taking part in the 67 minutes, wherever they fit into your day is simply the least we can do after all that he has done for us. While all of this is going on, we thought why not get a 67 minute mixtape dedicated to Madiba on his 95th birthday.  

Here is a 6.7 minute track by DJ Jazzy D, a 67 minute mixtape in honour of Madiba as well as a clip of the Original Madiba Jive. Listen here: 

With Dj culture enjoying its most popular and far reaching period in history, electronic music fans around the world rejoice as they've never had it so good. Well, that's the theory anyway. More often than not the rise in popularity of anything leads to more idiots getting involved - and here is the proof.  Here's our selection of the most ridiculous images of DJs posing we could find courtesy of posingdjs.tumblr.com. Let's all have a laugh (and possibly a cry) at the future of our beloved sub culture.

Casually enjoying his solar powered turntable at the beach...

Definitely an unorthodox DJ technique...

He learned from the best - DJ Storm from X-Men

Absolute DUDE...

A skill all DJs need to have- the ability to multi-task...



He was booked to play Space but got a bit confused...

Bookings for kid's parties are now being taken...


 

First DJ to spin a few on the Titanic...



Pimp my ride DJ edition...



For more priceless shots of DJs posing head here.

Listen to good DJs on Pulse Radio. 

With just a few gigs last year for Marco Carola’s massive party, Music On, Italy’s Leon has stepped up his game, being selected for four dates in Ibiza this year in addition to playing in Barcelona, Milan and Madrid just before the start of the 2013 season with the Music On tour. However, Leon is no stranger to lightning quick success. In the last few years, he’s gone from a relatively unknown Italian jock to hit maker, releasing on such lauded labels as VIVa, Cecille and ReBirth, gaining support from heavy hitters like Steve Lawler, Luciano, Carol Cox, M.A.N.D.Y, Loco Dice and more. These days, Leon is trotting the globe, headlining major festivals like the recent Kappa FuturFestival in Torino, and of course, residing at what is arguably the hottest party in the world right now at Music On. We caught up with Leon just before his set at Music On later that night to chat about his recent success, his plans for the future, and a few of his favorite tracks at the moment just ahead of his back-to-back session with friend Nathan Barato in the main room at Music On this week.

Last year you played three gigs for Marco at Music On, but this year you’ve played not only the Music On tour in Barcelona and Madrid, but have been booked for four dates at Amnesia, effectively making you a resident. Congratulations! Can you tell us more about how this came about? Luca Piccolo, my manager, together with Marco Carola and Salvatore, immediately believed in me, and I have been part of Music On from day one. Later I met Roberto and Ernesto, and they made me feel at home. I immediately believed that we could be very strong and could only grow more and more. Now we are very strong and definitely one of the best parties in Ibiza.

What is it like to be a resident at what’s basically the world’s hottest party right now? It's very emotional, like a big wave, haveing the chance to play with Carola and in the best clubs in the world. And I get to meet the best artists in the world, play with them, share ideas, music, everything. It’s a big experience and I’ve grown so much in these two years.

How do feel this has helped with other bookings around the world? 

It has definitely helped me. The gig requests have increased, especially in 2013, but also the work in the studio with the production helps. Now it is important that an artist manages to be a good producer and a good DJ. My work focuses on the selection of music, but I also like being in the studio and making tracks.

I prefer when a club or a promoter asks me to play in his club because they know Leon is a good DJ, but unfortunately many of these make their booking through the charts on Beatport, and that's not good, it is not true. Music On artists are all great DJs first.

You’ll be doing a back to back with Nathan Barato tonight. With the success of your collaboration “Que Pop,” do you see yourself working a lot more with Nathan in the future? 

Nathan is a friend. We played together for the first time at Music On in Milan this winter, and we had fun, so we wanted to try again in ibiza. This Friday, we'll play 4 hours together, which will be a lot of fun. Nathan is a very nice person and a talented producer, his tracks always great. Our track "Que Pop" out on Saved a few months ago has been successful, and we are very happy for this, and surely will do other things together. I asked Nathan to prepare also something for my new label, D-FLOOR. I hope he does a bomb!

Your career has been steadily rising from day one, but the last few years it’s really taken off at a rapid pace. Do you have any big plans for the future?

It’s a very funny thing, I remember like 9-10 years ago at the beginning I was playing for free, but I wanted to do that. Then I started doing the first productions on VIVa Music, Cecille, Saved and also an album. I've done remixes for Audiofly, Felipe Venegas, Tim Green and compilations on Cocoon also. I have been a resident of Cocoricò in Italy, and I often play in America and Tokyo, there are so many things to talk about! Now I'm very focused on Music On and my new label D-FLOOR, and I have a lot of parties with Marco this summer like Kappa FuturFestival, Kazantip, Cocoricò, Cavo Paradiso, Amnesia...

There will also be the first party of my label at Sankeys in Ibiza with my partners Pirupa and Nice7, and then I will be back in America for a tour. With regard to production, I have my track “A-Bomb” just come out on D-FLOOR, and some remixes for Betoko, Kaiserdisco, Saso Recyd coming out soon, and more on lables like Inmotion, Be As one, and I think also on a special white label at the end of the summer with an edit that I made, which now everyone in Ibiza plays.

What’s been your favorite tracks from Music On?

Wow, good question. There are lots of beautiful tracks that have characterized Music On in Ibiza. Certainly in 2012, "Hard Work" by Nathan Barato was been one of the biggest, but this year it's hard. Maybe it's still too early. My sets are always long, I can find always plenty of things to play, but two of the tracks that I like the most right now are Franco Cinelli’s “Citylights” or Patrick Chardronnet’s “All I Got.”

If you're on the island tonight, be sure to head over to Amnesia to check out Leon playing back-to-back with Nathan Barato, as well as all the other action!

Listen to Leon here on Pulse! 

Sunjam is unlike any other festival experience. The spectacle takes place at Water Cay on the beaches of Utila, the smallest of the three Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras. The party started as a free small event in 1996 and has since increased in scale to the celebration it is today. However, despite its growth, the founders and organizers of Sunjam have managed to maintain the intimate atmosphere of the festival. The 17th edition of the festival will be on Saturday, August 3rd and will feature a mix of international and local artists including Dustin Zahn, Loud Neighbor, Xpansul, Gil K, Balto, and Carlos Padilla. Guests are encouraged to arrive in Utila a week early to catch the warm up parties leading up to the event. On the morning of the festival, local fisherman transport guests to the site on their boats. We sat down with Luis Maier, a founding member and artist featured at Sunjam, to learn more about the history, venue, and overall experience of the festival.  Be sure to pick up your tickets to Sunjam 2013 on Pulse Radio!

What was the motivation for creating Sunjam? How did the idea for the festival come about? Are you one of the founders? Sunjam came about when Alun Gordon, a former Utila resident who promoted parties in Europe, thought the venue was too good to pass up. I was living in Utila at the time as well and was also was already into DJing. He put up the money for the first parties, which were free to the people for about eight years. Alun left Utila in the year 2000 if I remember correctly. We never expected or wanted to hold a festival; it was just an incredible party. Alfred Olin, Alun Gordon, and myself are the founding members of Sunjam.

How has Sunjam evolved since its inception almost 20 years ago? What has remained the same since the beginning and is there anything new we can expect to see this year? By 2004, we needed to improve sound quality, security, and services in general. This was the turning moment and we needed to get money from somewhere. Sunjam has evolved in a way that now we have the honor of having proper international DJs who really want to be there for the vibe, which hasn't changed since the beginning. We keep it to a max of 1500 people. I think this has a lot to do with it.

Can you tell us more about the venue and atmosphere of the festival? There's no venue like it, and the atmosphere is unexplainable.... You’ve got to check it out!

Do you focus on featuring local talent in addition to the well-known international artists? Our main focus is to promote talent from the region of Central America. Our formula is having proper regional DJs at the party. They pull their crowd from whatever country they come from. Central America is very small; our countries are like your states.

As someone who has played the festival before and will again this year, what makes the experience of playing at Sunjam so special and different than other festivals and venues? It’s a small venue, only 1500 people, and lots of familiar faces every year. It’s really an effort making it there. The people who go really want to go. It’s not cheap, I think, at least for people around Central America.

How do you manage all the pressure during the weeks leading up to the festival? What are some of the preparations you are working on now? I try to avoid the pressure by having everything done with plenty of time. I have good people working with me, so the team gets everything done.

Check out these videos from the 2012 edition of Sunjam:

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Julia Govor is a woman of many talents, the USSR born DJ/Producer got her start performing in a live show in a small military town and ultimately became the cassette-DJ at the town's nightclub. She eventually moved into Moscow to study film and TV Production and it was during that time that her life began to take off. She became an on-air personality for MillerTV and MTV and interviewed some of the industry's top names like Ricardo Villalobos, Richie Hawtin, David Guetta and even Iggy Pop. She's signed records to Visionquest and Get Physical and recently relocated to New York City where she's working on building her name as a DJ on this side of the pond.

Pulse Radio knows a good opportunity when we see one so we snatched up Julia and her infectious curiosity and energy to host a new radio program for us entitled "Beyond The Booth" during which Julia will chat with various DJ/Producers about more than just what's in their record bags, tackling what moves them when they're not simply making and playing the music we love. Read on to learn Julia's story, and keep it locked on Pulse Radio as we debut "Pulse Radio Presents Beyond The Booth with Julia Govor" in the weeks to come! 

Describe for us the electronic music scene in Abkhazia in Southern Russia, and how you got into it in the first place? You really wanna know about the electronic music scene in Abkhazia? Okay! Do you know where it is? It’s on the coast of the Black Sea close to Turkey. It was a part of the USSR when I was born there. My family was in the army, which secured the border near the Black Sea. My papa Misha was captain and my mom Tatiana was too. It was a small town with ten houses and a few streets. Everybody knew each other. The military port was huge; a lot of ships, sailors, and captains. Every Saturday we performed in a live show and I had to be on stage with one new song every week. Some of the songs were very famous songs by Russian singers and some of the songs were written by my oldest sister Galina, so I became a singer in a military band called "Moryachka".

After the live concerts was a party in a dance club from 8:00pm till midnight. My parents didn't let me go because I was just a kid, but I couldn't fall asleep because I could hear the music from the club as it was only one block away. I dreamed about getting older and going dancing all night. One day our papa got a tape machine. It was Paul White's Tascam machine; a beautiful silver one, and a big box of tape cassettes. That was when I first discovered Sandra. She was my favorite. In our little town, nobody knew her and when I invited my girlfriends to listen to some music they freaked out. Nobody spoke English there. I remember how I was making faces in front of the mirror and trying to lip sync with Sandra while she was singing "Maria Magdalena" from our tape machine. I had Mr. President and his hit "Coco Jambo,” 20 Fingers, Kylie Minogue’s “Confide in Me” and “Step Back in Time,” and Jassica Jay's “Casablanca.” My papa had good taste for that time. It was 1996. I was eleven and one evening my sister came home and asked my papa to take the tape machine to the club because something happened with the old one. Papa said yes, but only on one condition: Julia will be in charge and take care of the music! I was the only one in our family who really understood how to push the buttons and put the cassettes in right. So at that time I became a DJ and every Saturday after I sang my "one song" concert I ran home and prepared cassettes to bring back to the military club.

Tell us about your progression of technology. You started out when you were young using cassette tapes, what did you move on to and what do you like to use now to play? After cassettes came the era of vinyl and, after that, the CD. I played with everything but I couldn't mix well because we didn't have a mixer, I covered the transitions between songs by speaking in to a mic. Wow, guys, our little town was so small and we didn't even have ice cream there; super country-side. So I used the mic a lot to mix tracks. I said some words and said hello to the new people who came on the dance floor. In 2000, when we moved to South Russia to Temruk, I didn't play around for two years. I had to make new friends. I didn't know anybody there. So it took two years before I stepped in to a real DJ booth. There was a real mixer and CDs! I played pop songs like Moby and Prodigy. But sometimes I put on tracks from Nirvana and the dance floor became empty after one minute. Russian kids didn't have good taste. I played for school dances. It was very sad to me. I knew that when turned 18 and finished school I would definitely go study in a big city. It happened and I moved to Moscow and I became a student of movie and TV production. Nothing about music, guys.

It's mentioned in your bio that you have very little patience except for moving bodies on the dance floor. How does DJing extend your patience? It’s easy for me. I can do it five…nine hours. It’s not hard to mix, everyone can do it. What’s hard, and what needs patience is looking for something nobody knows and making your playlist unique and unforgettable. And yes I love dancing a lot.

You were at one point an actress? Tell us a little bit about how that came about. What motivated you to concentrate on being a DJ/producer? Everybody is acting all the time. I always wanted to try it and one day a very famous art house producer saw me on TV and said I had amazing energy, which was perfect for a role in his script. I played myself there. It was a very hard job, guys, because making a movie is a long waiting process. It’s hurry up and wait.

I think it’s cool making music, singing, writing lyrics, and looking for interesting sounds. It’s cool to have your own style and songs. Honestly, I wanna play around the world and bring my close friends with me everywhere! It is an amazing feeling when you dance with people to the same song together and move your hair and forget everything. It’s magic. It’s beautiful what music can do to people. Music does it with me all the time and I wanna share it with everyone.

How did your relationship with Visionquest begin? You have to be in the right place at the right time. Mr. Seth Troxler came to my girlfriend's birthday party. It was at a sushi restaurant in Moscow. Seth drank a lot of sake and fell asleep on the very comfortable sofa! I played my song "Alice” and he woke up… probably because of my voice or maybe he just wanted some water… but he came to me and I said this is my new song. After 5 months, the song was playing everywhere. I love Seth Troxler. He is a very good kid! Not because he signed me, but because I got to know him very very well. He is a true boy! He is super famous but hasn't changed.

You recently relocated to New York City. What have been some of your favorite aspects of your new living situation? What have been some of your favorite aspects of living in New York City? It wasn't my plan to be here. It happened by accident. But I think everything happens for a reason. I wanna say thank you to my husband and the universe that I’m here. This is the best place in the world and I don't wanna go anywhere else.

1) Energy
2) Dogs
3) Polite People
4) Everyone is very open and straight
6) Beautiful Women
7) Great Food
8) Weather

Do you find that getting started as a DJ here is more difficult than what you’ve experienced in Moscow or other parts of Europe? I feel like I’m 21… I have to start everything again. Fame became very comfortable but it can really damage you. I’m not looking for hype; I’m looking to make my career. NYC is the perfect place for this. You can do things that you have never done before. When you feel this everything is easy. I’m very proud that I’m not only a DJ/producer, I’m also a good wife and I take care of my husband. I do interviews with a lot of people and help to reveal them more and I’m very happy that I’m a volunteer and I take care of animals. Thank you NYC that I have time and energy for this.

You run/write a blog describing your everyday life. What got you into writing? We all make mistakes and we all do good things and bad things. I’d like to submit examples of right and wrong ones because everything is relative. I want people to not condemn what is good or bad and to love themselves for who they are. Its difficult, but people who read my blogs or my friends’ blogs on my site, at least can see something positive. I try to find something positive in everything.

You’ve got a rich history of interviewing DJs both in video and audio. What is exciting to you about doing this? I like asking simple questions and I like to open people. This is my job. Opening people. People can teach and learn.

For you, what makes a good interview? Double S: Spontaneity and Sincerity.

Did you have any difficult “learning” experiences while you were getting your start? I don't remember. Ahh no… I was embarrassed and this made me very uncertain.

Do you have any particularly funny moments you have accumulated?
1) It was for MillerTV. We were in Barcelona and I was super exited to interview Richie Hawtin. When he came to me I forgot all my questions and my English was not that good. So instead of asking him "Do you have a wife?" I asked "Do you have a husband?"
2) It was for MTV: I was doing a live interview and I had a very small dress and one side of the dress fell down and all of Russia saw my little tit!

Who was your favorite person to interview? Iggy Pop and Ricardo Villalobos.

Listen to Julia Govor on Pulse Radio

It’s that time of year again! Carl Cox turned 51 years young this week, and as has become tradition, the celebration kicked off at Sands Ibiza, the beach bar and restaurant Cox co-owns.

The place packed out for Carl, and as the sun slowly set over the tranquil Mediterranean, a few hundred beachgoers danced, snapped photos and rammed themselves in to get a glimpse of the birthday man as he pumped out energetic house from both today and years past, before Pete Tong joined him, cutting the music so we could wish Carl a happy birthday ourselves.

Once the cake had been cut (and it was delicious!), Tong took to the decks as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, marking another amazing year for one of the most loved and respected people in dance music, Carl Cox. From all of us at Pulse Radio, happy birthday Carl!

Watch as Larry King sits down with Snoop Dogg to become a Jewish Rap Star. The video starts off collecting subjects that Larry could rap about, as Snoop Doggg puff puffs on the green. Larry hands off his notes to Snoop saying, "Make a rap song out of that!" As Snoop begins to rap, Larry chimes in and you can hear, he's not so bad a rapper himself! After a ghetto transformation, the two go at rapping, interrupting for a very enjoyable weather report - warning it may not be safe for work. The duo banters on different subjects, surprisingly us all, at how well they get along. See for yourself below.

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Maurice Fulton has added to extra shows to his Australian visit this month, the American house and disco jock set to play both Sydney and Melbourne in addition to his appearance on the RBMA stage at this year's Splendour In The Grass festival.

Following his set at Splendour on Friday 26th Fulton will head down to Sydney to play Goodgod Small Club in the evening, then a set at Revolver Upstairs in Melbourne on Saturday night for the Late Show party.

Maurice Fulton Australian Dates:
26.07.13 - RBMA @ Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay
26.07.13 - Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
27.07.13 - Revolver Upstairs, Melbourne

Listen to Pulse Radio

Google is the latest company to enter the music streaming service business with its 'All Access model' Google Play now accessible to both Australia and New Zealand, having launched in the US back in May.

The service gives music fans the opportunity to listen to whatever they want when they want and personalised radio stations for less than the price of a record. Users can also store up to 20,000 songs on a cloud service.

There's a 30-day free trialon offer, though fans who sign up before the end of August will receive a monthly fee of $9.99, while the regular subscription costs $11.99.

The news of Google's new streaming service comes the same week as Atoms For Peace's Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich announced they are pulling their music from Spotify.

Listen to Thom Yorke on Pulse Radio

London duo AlunaGeorge have been busy of late. As well as crafting their own addictive pop beats and collaborating with hit makers Disclosure, the duo have played at iconic festivals like Glastonbury and were nominated for both Sounds of 2013 and a BRIT award. On top of all of that they’re on the verge of releasing a debut album 'Body Music,' which they are set to back up with a trip down under to perform at the brand new national Listen Out party. One half of the pair, Aluna Francis, had a chinwag to Pulse about new music, new festivals and potentially some new exciting collaborations.

Photo by Fiona Garden

Pulse: Out of everything that’s happened over the past couple of years what would you consider to be your biggest achievement or highlight? Aluna Francis: I think our biggest achievement is getting that album out and being in a place where we’re happy with it. After that you know, if people actually accept it and like it that’ll be even more amazing. There were some big moments though. Glastonbury was a huge moment for us, so was Pitchfork festival last year. At the time it was the biggest festival we’d ever done and yeah we were just amazed at how many people actually came to watch us. All of the stuff has been high points though; it’s all been amazing.

Your debut album 'Body Music' is coming out on the 26th of July here in Australia and we’ve had a string of teasers including 'Bad Idea' which you dropped only a couple of days ago. Are you guys excited about the release, or has it reached a point where you just want it all to be out there now? I think we really just want to get it out there because come what may, people will react to it in the same way that they would if we waited. We just want to find out what people think of us as a band with a much broader perspective of our work and not just as the singles we’ve released.

You’ve been writing for around 3 years together now which must mean that you’ve accumulated a fairly solid body of work. How did you and George decide what songs made it to the album? It was definitely a long process. I don’t know, we basically chose songs that were sonically similar. We kind of wanted the album to be able to be played from start to finish, so we wanted each song to be quite different and kind of have it’s own position on the album. We didn’t want anyone getting bored listening to the album.

What’s the process for you two when you’re writing music together? Do you find you guys overlap creatively in particular areas? Well there’s a lot of overlap in the actual songwriting process, obviously George does all the production and I do all the singing, but yeah it kind of depends on who’s feeling inspired on the day. That person will kind of lead the song with an idea and that can be anything from a few lines, to a melody or a few notes on my end and bits of music from George’s end. Sometimes he’ll even have a few lyrics in his back pocket. It definitely always changes, but it’s always collaborative. We always make sure we’re both happy with what’s being recorded and put out there.

You’ve recently released a new video clip for your single 'You Know You Like It'. The first one was such a hit, why the makeover? It’s funny because the reason is actually incredibly boring which is why we haven’t talked about it much! We wanted to be able to put it on TV and the resolution of the original footage wasn’t high enough because we did it so cheaply. We did the first one on like £200 and that doesn’t buy you a great camera! It was definitely a bit of fun to do.

When you first began recording with George the setup sounds like it was pretty humble – a laptop, a mic and a towel over a makeshift booth to make it semi-soundproof. Has that changed over the last little while or do you prefer being in a simplistic setting like that? Well the thing that was nice about it is we really enjoy limitations, so it kind of has this effect of squeezing the creativity out the other side. We don’t actually have any really expensive equipment in our new personal studio or anything like that, we just have kind of the same equipment as we did when we started out except now I’m in a room that’s separated by a wall instead of a towel. That’s it really. It feels much more personal to us that way as well.

As well as the release of your debut album, in a couple of months time you’re going to be gracing our shores for the new Listen Out party. I believe this will be the first time you’ve played out here together, are you excited? Oh absolutely, we’re both really really excited. It’ll probably be the highlight of the year because we get to spend a little bit of time over there going from show to show. I’m sure there’s going to be lots to see on the drives and we get to experience a totally different culture. You guys are supposed to have some amazing food over there so that’s pretty much at the top of my to do list!

You’re playing alongside some other big names at Listen Out including people like Azealia Banks and Duke Dumont. Is there anyone in particular on the bill that you’re really keen on seeing play yourself? I do love to discover new bands at festivals and I’m sure there’ll be some really exciting new bands. We just saw Flume in London actually, we were secretly hoping he would be in Australia as well but it doesn’t look like it’ll happen. He came and said hi which was really cool.

As well as Listen Out you’re also going to be playing a few shows with Disclosure when they head out on their headline tour and there is, of course, your collaboration with them on 'White Noise'. How did that partnership come about? Well we met because we done a couple of shows together and we’d opened one of their shows, so you know we’re aware of each others' music for ages. So we kind of chatted a fair bit backstage and got to know each other that way and it just sort of happened that they were trying to finish a few tracks off their album and they invited me to their studio for a day. That was really how it happened, it’s just really been a lot of fun since then.

Speaking of collaborations, there’s been whispers that a collaboration with Diplo might be on the table, any hints there? [Laughs] Yeah see you never know about that! Diplo has an enourmous schedule so the meeting that we had we only really had because we were both at Glastonbury and we said ok let’s go home a day early and then that turned into half a day because we went to go get some curry and messed around a lot. There was a tiny bit of listening to music but there just wasn’t enough time to create a whole song. Plus he’s pretty much in a different country every night until December so I don’t know what’s going to happen there but we definitely connected, so that’s fun.

Looking towards the future, after your album release you guys are touring pretty solidly for a few months - are you going to try and write while you’re touring or just take it as a well deserved break? I think for the time being we’re really going to concentrate on our live shows. Also we’re not too good at multi-tasking so I don’t think we’ll do a whole lot of writing. We like to be in a good environment that’s calm and where we can think; aeroplanes and cars aren’t the greatest for that. But I think we’ll probably find it quite difficult to stick to that if there is a day where we’re free. We kind of held back on the live shows while we were doing the album so now we’ve switched it round so we can focus on the live element.

For your chance to see AlunaGeorge perform at Listen Out 2013enter our competitionto win 4 tickets to the party in the city of your choice.

Listen Out 2013 Dates & Venues:
28.09.13 - Centennial Park, Sydney
29.09.13 - Ozone Reserve, Perth
05.10.13 - Observatory Precinct, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
06.10.13 - Cultural Forecourt, Southbank, Brisbane

Listen to DJ mixes on Pulse Radio

Tiga's move from electro-house to techno certainly hasn't gone unnoticed by Matthew Dear, who has teamed up with the Turbo Recordings head honcho under his Audion guise to create a "9 minute epic" called 'Let's Go Dancing'. The pair made the track during a recording session for Tiga's new album and Tiga has uploaded a 3 minute preview to his soundcloud, which you can hear below.

We'll keep you updated on any word of an official release. In the mean time you can check out Tiga's epic Boiler Room mix which made it to the #1 spot in our recent Best Mixes Of 2013 So Far feature.

Listen to Tiga on Pulse Radio

Detroit's City governor Rick Snyder confirms why he's filed for insolvency in leiu of the city's spiralling debt crisis. 

As stated in the video above - broadcast from the governors office - city officials have filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection yesterday, in an attempt to reduce the city's overall debt - a debt that's reached the tune of $18.5 billion dollars. You can see Snyder's decision in the YouTube video above.

Listen to Pulse Radio.

Greco-Roman have announced that they'll be embarking on their first ever double disc compilation this Summer featuring T.E.E.D and more.

Due for release on August 12th, the eclectic electronica label shall release We Make Colorful Music Because We Dance In The Dark and acts as a marker of their 6 year history. It's the first foray into the compilation market and the first since From The Seat of Mount Olypmus collection that featured Drums of Death, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Grovesenor.

Looking back over their key signings and tracks. CD1 - entitled colourful music - features tracks from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Disclosure, Joe Goaddard and Hackman. CD2 - Dancing In The Dark - features remixes from electronic music's molst lauded, such as Four tet, Soul Wax, Roman Flugel, Dixon and Lone. 

The full tracklisting and art are underneath for your perusal.

Disc 1: Colourful Music:
01. Joe Goddard feat. Valentina - Gabriel
02. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Garden
03. Disclosure - Boiling
04. Hackman - Close
05. Baio - Sunburn Modern
06. Roosevelt - Sea
07. Joe Goddard & Boris Dlugosch - Step Together
08. Grovesnor - Drive Your Car
09. Micachu & Tirzah - Not Dancing
10. Enchante - Swaynes Lane
11. Valentina - Ladders
12. Joe Goddard - Lemon & Lime (Home Time)

Disc 2: Dancing In The Dark:
01. Millennium - ICU
02. Valentina - Wolves (Roman Flügel Remix)
03. Joe Goddard - Apple Bobbing (Four Tet Remix)
04. Baio - Sunburn Modern (Session Victim Remix)
05. Disclosure - What’s In Your Head
06. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Move On
07. Joe Goddard feat. Valentina - Gabriel (Soulwax Remix)
08. Disclosure - Boiling (Dixon Remix)
09. Joe Goddard feat. Mara Carlyle - She Burns (The Invisible Remix)
10. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Walking Song (Lone Remix)
11. Hackman - Satisfy
12. Valentina - Ladders (David E Sugar Remix)

Listen to Greco-Roman on Pulse Radio.

Arriving at Garden Festival in Tisno, Croatia, does not feel like arriving at a festival. No empty beer cans, no used cigarette butts and a reassuring lack of ponchos or umbrellas. The Adriatic Sea stretches into the distance, and this picturesque village nestles in the mountainous bay of the Dalmatian coast. Started in 2006 as an experimental venture for Garden Bar in Zadar, the initial festival was held in Petricane and only moved to the current site in 2012 where it now hosts 2,500 revelers for a week-long showcase of quality electronic music playing to a predominantly UK-based crowd. The Garden Festival was the founding father of the new burgeoning festival scene in Croatia as when it started with an audience of 300, there were no other Croatian festivals on the scene.

The festival site itself is set on the water in a holiday apartment complex, slightly reminiscent of a lusher and more exotic Butlins (think ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ with much higher temperatures and a lower likelihood of rain). Compact and easy to navigate, many of the usual pitfalls of festivals have been avoided – you won’t lose your phone signal or your friends, and even if you do, it isn’t difficult to track them down at one of the three stages (your friends, rather than the phone signal, that is). The festival also offers a flexible approach to accommodation. While some choose to live, breathe, and eat the festival by staying on site in tents or purpose-built flats, others hire apartments in Tisno itself, sampling the local culture and exploring the surroundings. Many use the festival as an opportunity to create a bespoke experience with a guaranteed good night out every day of the week, mixing and matching with trips to the beach or to the nearby national park, or even hiring a boat and exploring the island in its full glory.

However, the initial delight caused by the apparent value for money of TGF (around £105 for a week-long affair) is slightly dampened by the sneaky add-ons which aren’t made explicit upon purchase of the tickets . The official line-up comprised a diverse range acts, which focus on quality rather than mainstream appeal. They included artists from the Wolf Music label as well as the Futureboogie DJs, Bicep and Eats Everything. However, some of these acts can actually only be attended once an additional ticket has been purchased for either the notorious boat parties or Barbarella’s nightclub for between £12 and £25, and an extra pay-out for transport there and back. The trick seems to be planning ahead and buying the £95 Early Bird tickets which include tickets for each of the Barberella’s club night after parties.

Our first port of call was Ben Pearce on the East Stage on Saturday night (having arrived a little later than the Wednesday start date). Unfortunately, the sound at this third stage, set back a little from the Main Stage and Beach Stage, was inadequate and created an atmosphere more gazebo than YOLO. This didn’t stop a the crowd bopping to his soulful house rhythms and any complaints were soon forgotten due to an incredible set from Eats Everything on the Main Stage. His wide-ranging and eclectic set was a soaring masterclass in crescendo. Eats Everything raised the roof. The majority of the festival crowd seemed to have migrated here and were the liveliest group we saw all week. Spirits and expectations were high for the after-party at Barbarella’s Discotheque – accessed via a 20 minute ride in coach or taxi from the main festival site. Some house classics from Krystal Klear kept the crowd on their feet, although the old school disco numbers from Floating Points couldn’t quite match the euphoric peaks of earlier in the evening.

On Sunday your correspondents sent a contingent to the boat party later in the evening. Leaving the on-site dock at 8pm and returning at midnight, one of the main attractions was mother nature’s magnificent sun-down over the open water. This inevitable spectacle was complimented by Leftfoot’s excellent array of classic disco tunes. Starting the night with some light-weight hip-hop and building to a soulful, jazzy line-up – he provided a welcome break from some of the heavier-duty vibes of the rest of the land-loving festival. Meanwhile, Space Dimension Controller on the Main Stage kept his crowd happy with an array of tech-house tunes. Plenty of build-up created a sense of anticipation which wasn’t always entirely realised by the slightly anti-climactic drops. Our space controller failed to really ‘take off’ until the last few songs of his set…although this never seemed to dampen the high spirits of this DJ and his dancers.

Monday dawned bright and beautiful which led to a fairly late arrival on the main site in the evening. Catching the second half of the Idjut Boys genre-jumping set, opinion was divided on the success of their controversial set list. They certainly lived up to their name with a number of mood-killing and jarring moments (The Stones ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’). A large contingent of the crowd, however, seemed to enjoy some of the cheesier moments…but we personally failed to see the inspiration in finishing the final set on the main stage with a ‘rousing’ rendition of ‘Love is in the Air’. Bicep and Casino Times followed at Barbarella’s and led the crowd on an exhilarating journey of intelligent and bouncy-based techno beats. Pulsating low lines and escalating drops made for an excellent night’s dancing. An upbeat and dedicated crowd helped the good-time vibes last long into the dawn.

Tuesday’s line-up included one of the most anticipated acts of the week – Theo Parrish at Barbarella’s for late-night soulful techno. However, at some point on Tuesday evening it became clear that Theo would not be able to attend due to delayed flights. While this could of course not be blamed on TGF, it was still a disappointing blow. Justin Martin definitely made up for thr heartache with a floor-filling set on the Beach Stage, ending with his now ubiquitous ‘Don’t Go’. The remaining acts at Barberella’s toyed with disco and unflinching bass-led house and did their best to fill the void which Theo had left.

Garden was missing some of the elements we’ve come to expect of a standard festival - but what it lacked in some areas could be made up for by the incredible setting, high quality acts and the opportunity to make the experience your own. It provides a reasonably priced foundation for a fantastic holiday. We were sorry to leave and curious to see what next year’s offering might hold. TGF has reached its awkward adolescence – it is no longer the new-born founding Croatian festival, but neither does it have the established appeal of some of the more grown up international electronic music festivals. No doubt it still has a long future ahead of it and once it has ironed out some of its logistical creases, TGF may well reclaim its position as they crowning adriatique festival.

Listen to The Garden Festival on Pulse Radio.

In the aftermath of his recent Arkitekt 02 compilation release, Pulse can offer an excluisve stream of Luca Bacchetti's 'California'.

The Italian house DJ has been selected to mix the latest instalment of the Arkitek series, kicked off previously by Robert Dietz. Califronia is an exclusive track that can only be found on the compilation, released earlier this week on the 15th July. You can check the track out in the Soundcloud player above, a forward thinking deep house track locked in groove and doused in emotive ambiance.

"Given that my work involves a lot of air travel, I really miss being on the road and in the driving seat" explained Luca of his track. "When I can, between one gig and another, I jump at the chance for this kind of experience, where the sheer beauty of it all is to lose and then find oneself again. It was during one of these breaks, on the way back to Venice after sunset, after driving through Arizona, Nevada and California, that I began to wonder whether I could write a song to sum-up that precise moment"  he goes on. Have a listen to the compialtion proper in the Soundcloud player below.

'Arkitekt 02: Luca Bacchetti' is available to buy now.

Listen to Luca Bacchetti on Pulse Radio.

BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe just named “Isis“, the new track by Hot Natured, his “hottest record”. The track is forthcoming on their debut album 'Different Sides Of The Sun' due out on the 2nd of September 2013.

Hot Natured is a four-member group comprised of Lee Foss, Jamie Jones, Luca C and Ali Love who draw their influences from classic house, Detroit techno, soul, jazz and reggae. Individual members of the group have managed to accrue sizable reputations in their own right. Lee Foss, Jamie Jones, Luca C and Ali Love have all been acclaimed producers, DJs and musicians over the past few years.

Earning major success with their track “Benediction” and its follow up “Reverse Skydiving“, their new track continues their streak of stellar grooves and beautifully orchestrated dance music. Ali Love‘s singing is fantastic on this record, but expecting anything else would be a surprise.

"Isis" will receive an official release on September 9. The album, ‘Different Sides of the Sun’ is out a week earlier on September 2nd, 2013.

Pre-order the debut album‘Different Sides of the Sun’

'Deep house' royalty Hot Natured have hinted at a date for the release of their debut album in a recent interview.

Speaking to Mixmag at Balaton Sound Festival in Hungary, label head Jamie Jones has revealed that a long player is due from the four piece, after they stepped up their game by developing into a live show, playing sell out dates at Brixton Academy, Glastonbury and Sonar.

"The album's coming out the first week of the September and we handed in the masters last week" revealed Jamie to the UK based publication. "We had too many tracks but managed to squeeze about 15 onto the album with only like 30 seconds to spare."

"The first few shows we did at Brixton Academy were the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done" he says of the transformation from DJ to live. "It's really cool, in a way it's easier because I know all of the songs, I don't have to get any of the music ready, we have a set amount of songs and the more I do it the more confident I get playing my bass parts."

The LP, titled ‘Different Sides Of The Sun’, will drop on September 2nd. Check out the tracklisting and also the forthcoming single Isis in the Soundcloud player..

‘Different Sides Of The Sun’
1. Operate (feat. Kenny Glasgow)
2. Isis
3. Reverse Skydiving (feat. Anabel Englund)
4. Different Sides
5. Benediction
6. Forward Motion
7. People Change (feat. S.Y.F)
8. Take You There
9. Planet Us
10. Tightrope
11. Mercury Rising (feat. Anabel Englund)
12. Alternate State (feat. Roisin Murphy)
13. Detroit
14. Physical Control
15. Emerald City (feat. Anabel Englund)