Review: Electric Zoo

Electric Zoo Music Festival takes place every year the first weekend of September on Randall’s Island in New York City. As the premier electronic dance music festival in the north east, Electric Zoo garners massive acts and large scale productions. With names like Tiesto, Above and Beyond, Skrillex, Knife Party, and Pretty Lights set to headline in front of one of the most recognizable skylines in the world, Electric Zoo was shaping up to be one for the books.

Fool’s Gold took over the Riverside Stage Friday with the agenda to set Electric Zoo off with one hell of a party. Bringing an all-star line up of heavy hitters to the stage all throughout the day and long into the night including Nadastrom, Dillon Francis, Araabmuzik, Tommy Trash, and of course A-Trak himself, the label conquered the first day of the festival. Nadastrom fired up the crowd with an energy filled set of moombah tracks and mid-tempo bangers. Gesaffelstein was the next to take over the decks and the french-techno DJ raised the bar as he kept the crowd dancing with nonstop grooves spinning tracks like his remix to The Hacker’s Shockwave, and  his own Control Movement. His real talent shined when later in his set he spun a genius mix of Armand Van Helden’s classic tune Witchdoktor with Robyn’s Show Me Love vocals over it as he watched the crowds arms thrust into the air in approval. As the newcomer finished out his set with the crowd roaring for more, it was time for more veteran hands to take center stage. Dillon Francis came on the mic to address the crowd that it was time to turn it up. Opening with his personal banger, I.D.G.A.F.O.S. 2.0 he brought the crowd to the next level as he dropped huge track and huge track on the eager crowd. He continued to raise the energy until the crowd was just about to rush the stage, and then he did it. Dropping RL Grime’s Trapped out remix of Afrojack’s Pacha on Acid that blew the roof of the tent. With the crowd going wild to hip hop infused track, Francis continued to bring the trap with Oliver Twizt’s Trap Mix of Dillon’s very own track with A-Trak Money Makin’. As Francis ended his set, Tommy Trash was preparing to take his shot at the crowd.

Throwing down a bombardment of bass heavy electro bangers, Tommy Trash flipped the switch from day to night and set the stage for Fool’s Gold’s leading man A-Trak. Fedora on, all lights on him, A-Trak scratched into Sharooz’s Hysteresis, and mixed through a couple electro tracks including his remix of Martin Solveig’s The Night out and Duck Sauce’s Big Bad Wolf. With the night well into its closing hours and A-Trak approaching the back end of his set, the crowd was raging as hard as ever. With the screeching vocals of Karen O’s voice bellowing into the tent, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s notorious voice synonymous in the dance world with A-Trak’s very own acclaimed remix, Heads Will Roll began to loop over the packed crowd; everyone waiting for the drop of their favorite dance remix. And then it happened. A-Trak scratches into a trapped out remix of the song as FOOOOOOLS GOOOOOOOLD echoes over the drop while A-Trak’s occasional “We trippy mane” is heard over the mic. From there on it was all about the hip hop. With tracks from RL Grime, Salva, French Montana, and even Skrillex all showing some slowed down power. Ending his set with the latest track from Boys Noize “XTC”, A-Trak definitely sent the festival off right on the first night.

Although Fool’s Gold’s take over garnered most of our attention on friday we couldn’t help but take note of the massive acts holding down the main stage. Nicky Romero, Hardwell, Laidback Luke, David Guetta, and Pretty Lights rounded out the line up of talent to kick off the festival’s largest stage. Nicky Romero tore up an early set time for an eager New York crowd and helped carry the energy through the heat. Hardwell followed him up with a diverse set of chart topping bangers like Alesso and Sebastion Ingrosso’s Calling and Swedish House Mafia’s Save the World, mixed with hard hitting electro bangers like Tiesto’s Maximal Crazy and his own Encoded. Pretty Lights was the real act to look out for on friday night. Taking the closing spot for the first day of the festival, all eyes were on him as he scratched into his popular track Hot Like Sauce. He transitioned through Total Fascination and Still Night as he approached a set changing moment. As he brought the music down he beckoned for the crowd to take it back to the original as he scratched into his ever popular Finally Moving and the Etta James sample more popularly known from Avicii’s Levels. As the crowd sang along with the famous sample, Pretty Lights infused his hip hop influence as he took his set to a personal level with Electric Zoo. Chatting briefly over the mic, Pretty Lights intricately scratched into a jumpy remix of Nas’ big apple anthem NY State of Mind. With the crowd’s roar of approval, the chorus could be heard from the thousands of fans in the crowd that sang it back with the skyline glowing in the distance.

Saturday brought a new day with new heat, but the energy was anything but gone. As Fool’s Gold surrendered the stage, Steve Aoki and the Dim Mak crew prepared to slaughter day 2. Kill The Noise, Felix Cartel, Dirtyphonics, Angger Dimas, 12^th Planet, Datsik, and Aoki himself, all awaited their chance to tear up a set for the NYC crowd. Each got their chance to send the crowd into a dance floor frenzy, and each did so with undisputed ease. Notable sets came from heavy hitters like 12^th Planet and Datsik who both threw down massive sets that set the tent off. Aoki stepped up to the plate to lead his men through the end of the night and he didn’t dissapoint. In typical Aoki fashion his set consisted of crowd surfing in a life raft, cakes, champagne, and more crowd surfing, all choreographed to Steve’s mix of unstoppable electro tunes. Unlike Friday with the Fool’s Gold crew, the Dim Mak guys weren’t the only ones we were thoroughly interested in. The Hilltop stage where Group Therapy had taken over on friday hosted from huge acts on saturday. Mord Fustang blew minds during his early afternoon set. The Estonia native murdered his set track after track dropping favorites such as Lick The Rainbow, We Are Now Connected, and The M Machine’s Deep Search.

On the mainstage, always favorites Sander Van Doorn and Bingo Players carried the eager crowd through the heat in the early afternoon. As the afternoon lingered on, the swedish destroyers of dance music Dada Life turned up the heat. Cranking out tracks like kick out the epic motherfucker and their remix of Duck Sauce’s Big Bad Wolf. Rusko made a special guest appearance back at the Hilltop stage where he threw down a set the crowd will never forget all while having a blast himself. He played everything from classics like woo boost to newer stuff like Hold On.

No matter where you were all day, you were at Above and Beyond saturday night, if not, we don’t know what you were thinking. Above and Beyond put on a show for the crowd, for New York City. Their production was unbelievable, and an impecable set of arena filling trance and heavy dance tunes. Playing favorites like Sun And Moon, Thing Called Love, and Alchemy, the duo brought the crowd into the show. With a camera above the crowd, the two Dj’s projected a video of everyone in the crowd onto the back of the stage and typed messages speaking to the crowd from the DJ booth. The whole performance was flawless and one to be remembered.

Sunday was definitely the most hyped day of the festival. With the previous two days blowing our minds, and nobody wanting the party to stop, Sunday brought in a fresh line up of big name acts and a cooler climate. Acts like Tiesto, Skrillex, Knife Party, Bloody Beetroots, Excision, Flux Pavilion & Doctor P, Boys Noize, and Diplo were among the many to tear up Randall’s Island for once last day.

Acts like Congorock, 3LAU, Dash Berlin, and Benga all lit up the crowds that rushed to catch every last bit of music from the last day of the festival. With Diplo’s Mad Decent taking over the Riverside stage for the final day and the highly anticipated later time slots, we patiently waited for night to fall and the party to really get started.  Flux Pavilion and Doctor P put on a show any dub head would have cried to. With nothing but heavy bass tunes and nonstop energy, Flux and Doctor P threw down one hell of a set. Tracks like Flux Pavilion’s own Bass Cannon, Jump Back, and Blow The Roof, Delta Heavy’s remix of Nero’s Must Be The Feeling, and UZ’s Trap Shit V7 kept the crowd rocking throughout the entire set. As the set came to a close, Flux and Doctor P knew they had to bang out one last heavy hitter, and as the crowd begged for more, Flux Pavilion gave them what they were looking for. With a little throwback, Flux took the crowd back to where most of them fell in love, dropping his classic remix of DJ Fresh’s Gold Dust and letting the set ride out until the end.

The main stage stacked the talent of Knife Party, Tiesto, and Skrillex one after another, but the real party was going down back at the Mad Decent stage. Zed’s Dead melted faces in expected fashion with their set of grimy tunes and hard hitting drops. The crowd was going mental, and it all set the stage for what in our opinion was the best set of the weekend. Mr. Mad Decent himself took to the decks to shut Electric Zoo down. Kicking off his set with DJ Punish’s Moombah remix of Punjabi MC’s Mundian to Bach Ke with Lil John’s looped screams for the crowd to put their fucking hands up. This track set the night up for what was the sickest party of the weekend. Moving seamlessly through a wide range of tracks like Skrillex’s Bangarang into Bingo Players L’amour, and somehow ending up with the crowd going absolutely nuts to Azealia Bank’s 212. Diplo repeatedly hyped the crowd more and more as he moved from an absolute monster of a set. Raising the energy with tracks like Dada Life’s Just Bleep Me and his own track with Tiesto C’Mon. As the end of the set crept near, Diplo wasn’t ready to give up and neither was the crowd. Moving into his own Major Lazer track Original Don, he began to flip the party on its head. As he called out over the mic for the crowd to jump, the tracked chopped and warped into Flosstradamus’s trapped out remix of the track. With a mix into Kanye West’s Niggas In Paris, the crowd knew it was time to rage. Going wild like animals the crowd rapped along with the maistro as he continued to turn the once Dance Music filled rage into a trapped out hip hop show that the crowd could do nothing but get down to. The genuis began to lace in standard hip hop tracks with his unbelievable collection of perfectly executed drops, dropping Chris Brown’s Look At Me now, Waka Flocka’s Grove Street Party, Rick Ross’s B.M.F. (Blowin Money Fast), and a breakdown of Snoop Dogg’s Drop It Like Its Hot, all mixed in with some slowed down and trapped out monsters like RL Grime’s remix of Mercy and Baauer’s Harlem Shake, standing to be one of the hardest hitters of the year. Diplo shut the place down and leaped from the stage in appreciation as he headed down the line to take photos, shake hands, and give high fives. Skrillex was throwing down on the main stage but nothing compared to Diplo’s beast of a party he had just single handedly thrown in the Mad Decent tent.

Electric Zoo came to a close, and through thousands of photos and countless memories, its safe to say we’ll be back again next year. If you’re ever in the NYC area at the end of your summer, be sure to check out Electric Zoo Music Festival on Randall’s Island because it is sure to go off. Oh, and whats better than raging in front of the New York Skyline all day, and then raging in it with everyone at night? NYC definitely knows how to party. Until next year Electric Zoo.

Review and Photos by Drew Wheeler

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