This past weekend I celebrated my birthday. Over four different nights we partied with four different groups of close friends.

One night I was lucky enough to play to a packed club called The Caprice with Dan W, the other owner of Play It Tonight. This was a university crowd that aren’t used to house music and people were losing their minds! They had never heard good ‘techno music’ as they called it and wanted to know where they could find more dance music online.

(Sean Gallagher [CEO] & Brent Sutherland [CFO] helping put up the banners)

(Sean [CEO of Play It Tonight] with Olivia)

(Jerin [promoter], Dan [President of Play It Tonight], Sean [CEO] & Brent Sutherland [CFO])

Later on the weekend I played at one of Vancouver’s biggest clubs; the Red Room. There was one moment where I played one of my favorite tracks, Strategy - Joshua Heath on Salted, and there I was looking out at a smiling / cheering sea of people which included my best friends, my brother and countless beautiful women. I looked behind me and three cute girls were dancing around and hanging in the DJ booth with me. At this moment my friend Anna ran up to the booth with tears in her eyes telling me that this was her favorite song and that she hadn’t heard it in a club before. She had a tough day and hearing this song in the club brought up all of the emotions that she had been storing away from her tough day.

(Sean Gallagher [CEO of Play It Tonight] with girlfriends Katy, Coco & Sammy @ Red Room)

The final night of my birthday weekend was a little more relaxed. A friend and I were hosting a dress to impress cocktail party for our close friends. For the occasion I made some CDs from Play It Tonight and they were played throughout the night. At around 11:30 the party was at its peak. All of my close friends were mingling and having a blast. Everyone was smiling and just as I was looking around enjoying the moment my ears clued into the fact that another one of my favorite tracks Les Djinns (Trentmoller Mix) - Djuma Soundsystem on Get Physical Music was being played through the house system. The song fit and highlighted the moment perfectly and it just added to the magic of the evening.

(Sean Gallagher’s Birthday Cocktail party - Sean Gallager [CEO] and Brent Sutherland [CFO] can be seen in the top middle of the picture)

These three amazing experiences reminded me of how lucky I am to be working with music on a daily basis. Sometimes when you deal with music all day you take it for granted; you forget the power that it holds. Dance music has the power to blow people’s minds, it has the power to evoke such emotions that it can bring someone to tears and it can bring any moment to the next level; for this I am thankful.

This week we have another HOT list of TOP RELEASES! We have taken the time to scan through the 438 new releases this week to pull out the gems for you to rock this weekend! Click on the PLAY buttons below to listen to the samples.

“Time After Time” - Tocadisco [Superstar Recordings]

Time After Time Original Mix

Tocadisco

Superstar Recordings 2007-07-20

7:09

$1.98

“Star Future” - Discokris [Discokris Records]

Star Future Electro House Mix

Discokris

Discokris Records 2007-07-25

7:12

$1.98

“Strategy” - Joshua Heath [Salted]

Strategy Original Mix

Joshua Heath

Salted 2007-07-24

7:06

$1.98

“My Headphones (420 re-rub)” - Joshua Heath [Salted]

My Headphones 420 re-rub

Joshua Heath

Salted 2007-07-24

5:36

$1.98

Let us know your thoughts on this week’s picks!

Since Dan was just sharing the brand new Dubfire release with you all, I thought I might refer you to a single by Simian Mobile Disco, that was featured back on Dubfire’s Taipei Global Underground accompilation.

Its called “Hustler“, have a listen:

Hustler Original Mix

Simian Mobile Disco

Global Underground 2007-04-15

5:30

$1.98

This new release by Discokris encourages you to “take your own future into your hands, with your own imagination, with your own creativity, and make it your work, and make it your idea.”

–Well, I’m not sure they really achieved the first half in taking their own advice, but they definetly nailed the latter part!

You can’t really go wrong with a classic, as the main melody of “Star Future” was taken from Air’s 1998 release “Kelly Watch The Stars” (as shown above).

Discokris however, managed to put a nice spin on things with a electro house mix of the track, aswell as some added vocals. Be sure to check it out:

Star Future Original Mix

Discokris

Discokris Records 2007-07-25

7:12

$1.98

Star Future Electro House Mix

Discokris

Discokris Records 2007-07-25

7:12

$1.98

Play It Tonight is very happy to announce the arrival of Dubfire’s new release Road Kill on Toolroom Records.

This track by Dubfire has been destroying dancefloors around the world and is now available with 3 remixes!

Remixes by
Cedric Gervais
The Dolphins
Joao Lee & Ale R

Check out the Cedric Gervais mix here:

Road Kill Cedric Gervais Remix

Dubfire

Toolroom Records & Traxx 2007-07-25

7:49

$1.98

There are moments in life where everything comes together to create a truly magical moment. My most recent ‘magical’ experience took place May 31st, 2007. It was the first hot sunny day in Vancouver and a bunch of us headed to the marina and hopped on my friends 34′ Sea Ray. Beautiful boat. Perfect really. We headed out towards Gambier Island (about a 45 minute ride) listening to the classic rock station. They played a perfect mix of Steve Miller, The Stones, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Zepplin, Fleetwood Mac and the Police. The mood was set.

Arriving at our destination the BBQ was lit up and more friends showed up in their wake board boat. The music had progressed into deep house courtesy of Miguel Migs, his Those Things album to be exact. It worked just brilliantly as we soaked up the sun, surrounded by mountains and blue sky and good people.

A few beers later and we were in the prime of our life. At this point, the One+One album came on, the mix by the uber partnership of Nic Fanciulli and James Zabiela. By the 60 second mark the whole boat was dancing. And it pretty much stayed that way until the end. We were all unified, smiling at each other and just loving life. The track that took it to the next level was the M.AN.D.Y. remix of Push Push by Rockers Hi-Fi. I had liked that track since day one, but in this perfect place at this perfect time, it was the best song on earth. I will forever be brought back to that very moment every time I hear that track. Thanks.

Push Push M.A.N.D.Y.s Pusher Remix

Rockers Hi-Fi

Great Stuff Records 2007-01-22

6:53

$1.48

Japan experiences difficulties with Physical Sales in The First Half of 2007.

Physical sales have sharply declined during the first half of 2007 in Japan. This downturn is a part of a world-wide drop in physical music sales that has been happening over the last 2 years.

Physical formats dropped 9 percent during the first half-year to 129.6 million units, according to the RIAJ - the Recordings Industry Association of Japan. What is interesting about this is that recent stats show that dance music specific sales have been growing in Japan despite the overall downturn of the physical aspect of the industry.

Digital asset sales have not yet been disclosed by the RIAJ but we look forward to seeing the results!

I have been playing a lot of shows recently and have been spending a lot of time at Electronic club nights. Over the past few months I have been noticing that the nights are consistently getting busier and I have begun to wonder if this is the same around the world.

Because I am a DJ I get to hop around from club to club and will generally make the rounds to most of the good house nights here in Vancouver, Canada. In the past here it used to be that on a Friday or Saturday night there would be 5 or 6 big house music based club nights. On one of the given nights there would generally be one smoking busy night and the rest of the nights would be half or 3/4 full. However, in the past few weeks every one of these nights has been rammed busy! Its an exciting thing to see.

All of this has left me pondering the question of ‘has mainstream clubland finally begun to get bored of hip hop?’. It seems as though all of the cool kids in Vancouver have now started coming to the house nights and this is also where you will always find the best looking girls. It seems as though its only a matter of time until the general club going populace gets bored of the same old hip hop and looks for something else. My suspicion is that house music is the next in line.

I realize that in a lot of areas of the world electronic music is the biggest genre and can even be considered ‘mainstream’. I am curious to know weather other markets around the world are experiencing the same transition to becoming dance music friendly havens.

Is this happening in New York? LA? Miami? Berlin? Hong Kong? Sydney? London? Moscow? Bhaliwood?

Spread the dace music love, spread the dance music vibe!

Now you too can make sure that every mix you make is harmonic and does not clash with the brand new Mixed In Key harmonic mixing software.

Mixed In Key has created a software that analyzes all of your MP3 catalog, will sort your catalog by key, can make recommendations about what other keys will work as well and what songs in that key will work best.

You can save the identified keys of songs into their ID3 tags on the spot and you can drag and drop your songs into Ableton Live, Traktor, Virtual DJ and most CD burning applications.

Some of the biggest DJs in the world are now using Mixed In Key. Maybe you should consider using it too?

It’s easy to be proud of where you live and the people you surround yourself with… lately for me, even more so. Vancouver is home to some of the hottest dance music producers around today. Konrad Black, Mathew Jonson, Circlesquare, Male Model Machine, Jay Tripwire, Tyler Lewis, Nicky Delgado and Luke Mckeehan are all Vancouverities.

Vancouver is definitely a unique city, one of only a few where you can be in the mountains in the morning (skiing, snowboarding, whatever) and then be in the ocean (boating, windsurfing, etc) in the afternoon. The moutains and the ocean are that close.

There are more Playboy Magazine centerfold models from Vancouver than any other city. Hugh Hefner is quoted as saying ‘there must be something in the water up there’. Sounds like the local producers are drinking from the same fountain.

Vancouver Producers:
Konrad Black
Mathew Jonson
Male Model Machine
Dj Timeline
Jay Tripwire
Tyler Lewis
Nicky Delgado