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VELD – Top 10 tracks & memories

August 8, 2012

Well, VELD went down in history as the biggest EDM festival ever to grace Toronto.  While we wait for official numbers I can certainly confirm that there were well over 20,000 people in attendance – and I would bet it was closer to 30,000.  The true massiveness of the festival wasn’t felt until the very end of the weekend, when Gareth Emery closed down the Bacardi tent at 9pm and everyone with any energy left flocked to the main stage for 2 hours of big Swedish synths with none other than the unofficial poster boy of the modern EDM movement – Tim Bergling, AKA Avicii.  My highlights are included below, but let’s start with some MUSIC.  Here are my biggest tracks from the festival, let me know your biggest tracks in the comments below!! (you must be signed in to comment).  See our pics from Day 1 right here!

Honourable mentions go to Hells Bells (Albin Myers), Troll (Qulinez), and Atom (Nari & Milani) – heard lots of these ones.  Here’s the list!

10.  The Joy Formidable - A Heavy Abacus (Qulinez remix)

QULINEZ (pronounced Q-Lines) has been putting out epic productions since they broke onto the scene with TROLL earlier this year.  This one combines their massive Swedish synths with a beautiful vocal that’s being dropped by guys like Tiesto and Avicii as a regular part of their set.

9.  Deniz Koyu - Bong 

Following up his two premiere bangers Hertz and Tung, Deniz Koyu – the 26 year old protege of Fedde le Grand is back with BONG, the huge festival anthem that spells pure energy.  We heard this one at least 5 times over the weekend, as we expected..

8. Deadmau5 – The Veldt (Tommy Trash remix)

This one was expected, and though we don’t yet understand the linkage between The Veldt and VELD festival.. do you?  All we know is that Deadmau5 released the track following a lengthy production session streamed live to his fans, and the same week Ink announced the festival and Deadmau5 as a headliner.. coincidence? I think not.. This Tommy Trash remix got dropped probably 6 or 7 times.

7.  Sander van Doorn & Julian Jordan – Kangaroo 

Sander’s newest track with young prodigy Julian Jordan blends a classic Sander melody with a hard electro drop that we’re guessing came from Julian.  It’s been floating around the festival circuit all summer, but was only released a few weeks ago.  It definitely works on the floor, this one got massive reactions from the crowd at the main stage and in the tent!

6.  Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello, Alesso – Eclipse (Why Am I Doing This?)

It’s been floating around the blogs since January, but we still haven’t seen the official release of this Swedish gem.  Avicii dropped it, and we definitely heard it at least another couple times.. man it goes hard.  Can’t wait for more individual stuff from the Swedes now that they’ve split up.  I like their solo work a lot better than the SHM stuff.

5.  Tujamo & Plastik Funk – Who

When Avicii dropped this track, you heard a huge “ooooooh” from the entire crowd.  This dark but bouncy drop is prime grease for the closing set.  It took me a minute to find, but I’m glad I located it!  All I can think of during this build is pure Laidback Luke, sounds exactly like his style.. he’s one man I can guarantee will be dropping this bomb for many months to come.

4.  Steve Aoki ft. Wynter Gordon – Ladi Dadi (Tommy Trash remix)

This is probably the biggest track of the summer.  I’ve been to lots of festivals this summer, and this is the one track I’ve heard at every single one.  Tommy Trash has very quickly become one of the strong forces in the EDM game, no wonder he closed to Bacardi tent on the first night.. look for lots more of Mr. Trash coming your way, it seems everything he touches turns to gold.

3.  Acivii – Summerburst ID w/ Ruthane – All you need is love (acapella)

This track will be the new Levels.  Release it already!!!

Sound is shit, but you get the vibe!  Thanks for the video XRastrisX, next time don’t cover the microphone!

2.  Tommy Trash & Sebastian Ingrosso – Reload 

What a dope track.. this melody is pure gold.  It had the entire crowd humming along, and got dropped by at least 3 or 4 artists.  Get used to hearing this track, it will stick around for the rest of the summer at least.  People have been fiending this one since Ingrosso dropped it at EDC NYC, I would expect a vocal version to be released in the coming months.

Thanks for the video 6969sn.

1.  Burns – Lies (Otto Knows remix) 

At first I thought this was an Avicii ID, but after scouring the internet when I got home, I was pleased to find that this Otto Knows remix is a Burns original.  Watch out for Otto Knows, this Refune young gun will be a stalwart on the festival circuit next year.

When Avicii dropped this track, it was an absolute EXPLOSION of energy.. I found a youtube video and posted it below, thanks ExtremeBroBeats lol.

The weekend was characterized by BIG sets from BIG names - Tommy Trash was the MVP in the Bacardi tent on day 1, with the main stage honours split evenly between Knife Party and Michael Woods.  Both Deadmau5 and Steve Angello played predictable sets (albeit  full of crowd pleasing bangers), BUT they both redeemed themselves with awesome sets at Guv on Saturday and Sunday night respectively.  Taking over the decks at 2am, Steve played around an hour of more commercial stuff but then went right into a dark 20 minute big room tech house selection that blew my mind, followed by hours of techy house and techno and a set list that I’m dying to get my hands on.  

Day 2 was the trance takeover in the Bacardi tent, with legendary vets Cosmic Gate and Toronto favourite Gareth Emery taking the best set awards.. though Fila (of Ali & Fila) threw down really hard as well, as did Ben Gold.  The tent was fully packed by the time Gareth took over at 7:30 with some hard trance and progressive house tunes that kept roughly 10,000 people bouncing until 9..  Then it was time for one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend.. would Avicii come out to a judgmental Toronto crowd and stick to his usual festival set full of his own edits and a massive Levels mix, or would he take a couple risks and play us something new?  Well, the man delivered 2 hours of bangers.  He definitely got the best reactions from the crowd, and lots of people were surprised to see him play some of the songs he did, like Tujamo & Plastik Funk’s Who and Sebastian Ingrosso, Alesso & Steve Angello’s Eclipse (Why Am I Doing This).  Man, Avicii you delivered.. how high will he jump in this year’s DJ Mag Top 100?  I’m guessing Top 5 at least.  If you haven’t voted yet, DO IT HERE!

A big shout out to Sean on the Guv blog who gave us the heads up about a few of these tracks in his preview here.

Check out our rundown from the weekend here, and a brief review of some other tracks that got dropped in our latest edition of The Drop.  Our full photo albums from day 1 is right here!

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  Drew Barton