Scotch and Murder had the privilege of venturing down to Miami this past weekend for Ultra and a little WMC action. Let us take you on our journey and share some favorites along the way. Below you will find a brief description of our experience of each particular event we we're invited to, plus some videos from each event. For all of the videos from our weekend visit the Scotch and Murder YouTube Page.
HARD Miami 2012:
Our first event of the weekend was HARD Miami. We arrived just in time to catch the start of Busy-P's set. A stellar one at that, featuring remixes of Kavinsky's Nightcall and Cassius's I Love You So (below). Next up was everyones favorite German Boys Noize, who absolutely lit the stage on fire. Mr. Noize played a fine selection of his own music plus that of others, including a stirring remix of Jay-Z and Kanye's Niggas In Paris (below). Finally, after Gesaffelstein, the dark prince of electro himself, took the stage. Of course this was with fair warning, Busy-P was sure to ask his audience if they were ready to go to hell. Sure enough they were. Our decent began with 's very own Viol (below). Quite possibly the perfect introduction to the depth of hades. At this point we joined the crowd dancing amongst flames, tortured and teased by pulsing base and demonic baselines.
ULTRA Day 1:
At first we were a bit dismayed to see seating at Ultra's new Live Stage. Then we realized we would have front row seats to just about every act we wanted to see. So we strapped our selves in and went for the ride. New Order kicked off the festivities with a dream come true set. The kind our older siblings have been bragging about. Miike Snow's full band performance was probably our favorite of the day. Truly flawless execution with high levels of energy and passion. Kraftwerk's performance was so beyond unique it can only be described as one of a kind. Finally, Pretty Lights closed out our first day at Ultra with a dance happy set for the books. My man can throw one hell of a god damn party.
The Windish Agency Presents: Diplo / Skream / Caspa
After a quick shower and a bite to eat we found ourselves back at Grand Central for The Windish Agency's stellar line up. To our dismay, however, we missed some of the acts we wanted to see most. Nonetheless, we made in time to catch Diplo, Skream, and Caspa. Not to shabby. For what its worth, Diplo probably has the best stage presence of any DJ we have seen preform live. A total natural. Nothing feels forced. Its like hes spinning right next to you. Skream's set proved to us that he is in fact probably the best pure Dubstep artist out. Caspa had us going so hard we forgot to take any video of his work.
Ultra Day 2:
At the start of Ultra day two we found ourselves reunited with Gesaffelstein. The dark prince appropriately played in near seclusion at the MixMag stage on the water. Naturally the crowd followed for what turned out to be quite the day time dance party. On our walk back to the Live Stage we stopped in for a little taste of some Laidback Luke, who was absolutely destroying the Main Stage. Back at the Live Stage we caught a glimpse of Metronomy, who may have the coolest bassist alive. Next we dashed off to see the man with his own tent, Carl Cox. We weren't the only ones. The trip to see Mr. Cox was about as close to a human traffic jam as you can get. Once there, we found ourselves blasted with an endless supply of bass.
Midway through Carl Cox's set we rushed back to the Live Stage to catch M83. A performance we were expecting to be the highlight of the day, if not the festival. Unfortunately, the band experienced technical difficulties for 50 minuets. Ultra has no choice but to keep in line with the cities timing requirements, so that was 50 minuets M83 was not getting back. However, the band came out and delivered a rousing version of Midnight City (below). No hard feelings, M83 is still one of our favorites. Shit happens.
Justice was next on the menu for our first real visit to the main stage. The Frenchmen put on quite the performance with a fine mix of tracks from both Cross and Audio, Video, Disco. We were particularly ecstatic to witness Stress preformed live (below). Justice continued to tease the crowd with fake endings to the sets. Finally the duo closed with what felt like a never ending version of Audio, Video, Disco. To call it epic would be a understatement.
We ended our second day of Ultra with 2manydjs. No we did not see Avicii and Ms. MDNA in all of their glory. Instead we decided to attend what turned out to a non-stop dance with your pants off extravaganza. 2manydjs (aka those dudes from Soulwax) perfectly meshed and mixed tracks a supremely unique set of tracks, some of which we would have never expected. The highlight of Ultra trip came as 2manydjs closed their set with Nirvana's Breed (below) as a sea of confetti shot into the sky only to land at the crowds dancing feet.
Oliver at Bardot:
Energized from an absolutely thrilling day of music, we joined our dear friend Dave Edwards for a drink at the Dream Hotel. After rubbing elbows for a minuet we decided to head over and finally catch Oliver, the duo we had been waiting to so long to see. Note, we had missed them the two previous nights. After catching a cab to Bardot we were pleased to see that the two man act from LA had yet to preform. They did not disappoint, putting together a fresh blend of the latest in Nu-Disco, New Wave, and Funk.
Ultra Day 3:
Our final day of Ultra Music Festival 2012 turned out to be another camp out at the live stage. Note we were a little videoed out at this point. We kicked things off with the Magnetic Men, the project featuring producers Skream, Benga, and Artwork. Next up was the pleasant surprise of Chase and Status. Some heavy drum and bass was just what the doctor ordered. Next was SMM super favorite those Bloody Beetroots. The duo got off to a slow start, but absolutely destroyed it during the second half of their set. Please do check out the video of Warp, probably our best of the show. The Beatroots ended their set with the Isely Brother's Shout (below). We finished off our Ultra 2012 experience with Bassnectar, who left the crowd screaming "we want bass" as the festival closed its doors.
