Fischerspooner, 2010

Fischerspooner

Photo: Steve Mack/Getty Images

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Fischerspooner, Cedric Gervais & More: ULTRA 2018 Announces Phase 2 Lineup

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Even more electrifying headliners and legacy acts have been added to an already stunning bill of performers as ULTRA 2018 unveils its Phase 2 lineup announcement
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Feb 26, 2018 - 6:00 pm

Go time for ULTRA 2018 is fast approaching, and if there was already more than enough to get excited over from the long-running electronic/dance festival's previous announced Phase 1 and RESISTANCE Miami lineups, the event's promoters have now unveiled the Phase 2 lineup for the festival's 20th anniversary installment.

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

Rounding out the list of live headliners for ULTRA 2018 are electroclash performance art supergroup Fischerspooner and hard-hitting electronic rock/dubstep fusion act Modestep. Additional support acts announced as part of the Phase 2 lineup are GRAMMY-winning DJ/producers Benny Benassi and Cedric Gervais, GRAMMY-nominated tech/tribal house wizard Danny Tenaglia, big room electro house heroes Laidback Luke and Oliver Heldens, future house chart-topper Jauz, and many, many more.

With the festival's 20th anniversary now less than a month away, ULTRA have also released the first two episodes of their five-part 20 Years Of Ultra documentary detailing the early development of the festival, role of Miami in the American dance scene, and Ultra’s unique incorporation of both DJs and live bands in their yearly lineups.

General admission tickets for ULTRA 2018 are now sold out, but a very limited number of VIP tickets are still available. VIP tickets and more information are available from ULTRA's official website.

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Carl Cox, 2016

Carl Cox

Photo: Future Music Magazine/Getty Images

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Carl Cox, Adam Beyer: ULTRA Music Festival 2018 Drops RESISTANCE Miami Lineup

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The official lineup for Ultra's RESISTANCE stages – the Carl Cox Megastructure and Arcadia The Spider – has been announced
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Feb 1, 2018 - 1:55 pm

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the massive three-day ULTRA Music Festival.  Held in Miami annually during Miami Music Week since 1999, the festival has grown into one of the world's premiere electronic dance events.

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

The phase one lineup for ULTRA 2018 has already been announced, and just this week the festival promoters have followed-up with the official lineup for their house and techno stages, branded jointly this year as RESISTANCE.

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With an exciting stable of some of the biggest names in underground dance music, the RESISTANCE stages – the Carl Cox Megastructure and Arcadia The Spider – will be helmed by legendary DJ Carl Cox and dark techno visionary and Drumcode label boss Adam Beyer.  Along for the ride with Cox and Beyer, house heads at the Carl Cox Megastructure will be treated to a special joint b2b2b set featuring Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber and Paco Osuna, as well as the minimal techno stylings of Pan-Pot, the bouncy crossover U.K. vibes of Jamie Jones, and the special brand of ethereal melodic ambience always brought to the table by Maceo Plex.

Dancers at the Arcadia The Spider stage – a fan favorite spider-shaped staging structure from previous years that is making a welcome comeback in 2018 – will be treated to a series of supergroup sets, courtesy of J.E.S.u.S. (Jackmaster, Eats Everything, Skream, and Seth Troxler) and Better Lost Than Stupid (Davide Squillace, Matthias Tanzman, and Martin Buttrich). The stage will also play host to the live synthesizer wizardry of Stephan Bodzin, the patented tech-house of Patrick Topping, Technasia, Matador, and Hot Since 82, as well as the inimitable track selection prowess of Pete Tong, Nic Fanciulli, and Friday night headliners Sasha & John Digweed.

GRAMMYs

ULTRA Music Festival will take place in Miami on Mar. 23-25. General admission tickets are still available, but will likely sell out before the forthcoming release of the festival's phase two lineup.

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Swedish House Mafia at the GRAMMY Awards, 2013

Swedish House Mafia

Photo: Steve Granitz/Getty Images

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Swedish House Mafia Shock Ultra 2018 As Surprise Headliner

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The legendary trio resurfaced as Ultra 2018's surprise closing headliner, their first official gig together in five years
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Mar 26, 2018 - 12:18 pm

The five years since Swedish House Mafia closed out Ultra Music Festival 2013 – capping off the final show date of their "One Last Tour" and closing the chapter on what was ostensibly to be their final show together as SHM – have seen vast changes in the landscape of dance music.

Much of the melodic, up-tempo and trance-inspired sounds of progressive house that once universally dominated festival mainstages have been largely replaced by aggressive breaks, dissonant chopped vocals and hard bass drops more akin to turn-up trap music and American dubstep. "Raging" has fully replaced "raving," as some of us might say about the current state of the scene.

So when rumors of an SHM reunion began to quietly circulate about the industry over the past months, then more fervently throughout Miami over the past week as Miami Music Week and Ultra Music Festival 2018 began to kick into high gear, there were certainly questions of how the group's sound would stack up for a new generation of festival goers in an era when the sound of a scene can evolve dramatically in just five years.

Swedish House Mafia's Miami poster campaign, 2018

Posters teasing SHM's return on the streets of Miami
Photo: Nate Hertweck/Recording Academy

But as fans walking the streets of Miami this past weekend began to notice sly posters incorporating SHM's trademark three circles artwork interpolated with a variety of major brand logos, it became increasingly clear how much rising excitement there was among the gathered crowds over the possibility of seeing Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Steve Angello once again standing next to each other onstage under the banner of Swedish House Mafia.

And on Sunday night, as the lights came up on the mainstage after an extended production break setting up the unbelievable displays of high-definition video, lasers and choreographed pyrotechnics, all doubts were washed away.

In an unbelievably high-energy set weaving through every major hit from SHM's remarkably deep catalogue, alongside key productions from all three members' solo careers, the trio also managed to deliver a lesson in deep-cut big room house that festivalgoers will very rarely see on modern mainstages.

From updated  renditions of classic SHM tunes like "Leave The World Behind" to a surprising nod to trap music courtesy of a bombastic new remix of the Knife Party-collab track "Antidote," the boys showed that they may have gone their separate ways over the past years, but they certainly have not gone away. In the hours following their closing set – complete with huge sing-alongs of their GRAMMY-nominated tracks "Save The World" and "Don't You Worry Child" and a final encore of the Pharrell Williams-featuring "One (Your Name)" – social media was afire with tweets and posts from DJs and fans around the world lauding the return of the sound of progressive house, and soon #SwedishHouseMafia was one of the top global trending topics on Twitter.

As Axwell proudly announced during the opening chords of "Save The World": "This is not just about Swedish House Mafia getting back together. This is three friends who have not seen each other in five years! …It's Swedish House Mafia for life this time!"

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Zedd, 2017

Zedd

Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images

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Air + Style Fest 2018 To Host Zedd, Gucci Mane, Phantogram And More

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The annual L.A.-based music and extreme sports festival has announced its 2018 lineup
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Jan 9, 2018 - 5:15 pm

Olympic Gold Medalist and international extreme snowboarding ambassador Shaun White's annual two-day Air + Style festival is returning to L.A. in 2018, and today White announced a killer lineup of bands, DJs, and rappers slated to make appearances at the festival's fourth iteration.

Topping the lineup for the 2018 edition of Air + Style is current GRAMMY nominee Zedd, along with Phoenix, Gucci Mane, Cashmere Cat, Cut Copy, DRAM, GRiZ, Mura Masa, Phantogram, Tinashe, Washed Out, and Badbadnotgood, with more artists still to be announced.

As always, central to the Air + Style festival will be a display of extreme talent from some of the world's most exciting talents in snowboarding, though last year's massive multi-story big air ramp will be replaced with an urban street-style snow park for the 'boarders to shred. Also, alongside the usual display of winter sports prowess,  the festival will be adding a skateboarding competition for the first time this year, which will see some of the world's best skaters  go toe to toe on a fast, transition-based concrete skatepark based on iconic skate installations from around the world.

"The festival is a combination of all my passions: sport, music and culture," says White of the festival. "The fact it happens in my home state of California and in Downtown LA, makes it even more special."

Tickets for Air + Style 2018 are available now.

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Armin Van Buuren in 2015

Armin Van Buuren

Photo: El Pics/Getty Images

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Ultra Music Festival 2018 Phase 1 Lineup: Armin Van Buuren, RL Grime, & More

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The first batch of top tier DJs, live headliners, and supporting acts for the 20th installment of ULTRA Music Festival have been announced
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Dec 19, 2017 - 1:29 pm

The first phase of headliners and supporting acts for the 20th-anniversary installment of the massive three-day electronic dance festival ULTRA has officially been announced.

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

Many of the biggest names in dance music, including previous ULTRA headliners, are featured heavily in the phase one announcement, which touches all major dance/electronic genres fairly evenly. Names like Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren, Eric Prydz, RL Grime, Empire Of The Sun, the Crystal Method, Infected Mushroom, and Marshmello are certainly no surprises for any dance festival lineup these days.

But there are a few unexpected bookings as well, with controversial rap/hip-house artist Azealia Banks joining the live headliners group alongside the somewhat surprising inclusion of the Wailers and Julian Marley. (How might a classic reggae act play off against a surrounding sea of thumping bass music?) There's also Porter Robinson's mysterious new hard house/trancestyle project VIRTUAL SELF.

The 20th installment of ULTRA Music Festival will take place on March 23–25, 2018, at Miami's Bayfront Park. Some GA and VIP tickets are still available but are likely to sell out soon.

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