Saturday [6.4] – Menno De Jong, Rank 1, Kristina Sky @ Avalon
1735 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028 [10pm-6am, 21+]
Tickets – Click Here [Use code “NOGL” for 10% off!] | Guestlist – Click Here
Menno De Jong – Menno de Jong is primarily known as a Trance DJ and producer with an international following. Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, de Jong was born on March 17, 1984 and was interested in music — classical as well as modern — at a young age. Being classically trained on the piano and incredibly passionate about music led to him taking up DJing and producing in his early teenage years. he first established himself as a producer with the release of ‘Guanxi’ on the British label Anjunabeats in 2004. In the years that followed he took the Trance scene by storm with singles such as “Tundra”, ‘Last Light Tonight’, ‘Spirit’, ‘Turtle Paradise’, ‘Never Lose The Magic’, ‘Place In The Sun’ featuring the vocals of Ellie Lawson and many more. This resulted in him being championed by the genre’s leading DJs including Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Paul van Dyk. Numerous remixes for tracks such as ‘Mark Otten – So Serene’, ‘Karen Overton – Your Loving Arms’, ‘John O’Callaghan ft. Ria – I’ll Follow’ and the classic ‘Hydra – Affinity’ also proved popular within the Trance community. He went on to perform at major clubs and festivals worldwide, including Tomorrowland, Electric Daisy Carnival, A State Of Trance, Amnesia Ibiza and Amsterdam Dance Event and over the years developed an unwitnessed agility in performing, equally talented in delivering prime time sets as well as marathons lasting as long as 10 hours.
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Rank 1 – They’re one of Europe’s most established, respected dance acts, having been catapulted to stardom by their debut release ‘Airwave’. In the 9 years that have followed they’ve continued to pack out the CD wallets of world’s A-list spinners with speaker-spankers that have included ‘Such is Life’, ‘Symfo’ and ‘Life Less Ordinary’… In 2009 they unleashed ‘L.E.D. There Be Light’ – a track that was quickly snapped up by ID&T as the anthem for that year’s Trance Energy event. Their Live and DJ sets induce floor-quakes before thousands of fans at clubs, arenas and festivals every single weekend. They are Piet Bervoets & Benno de Goeij… and they’re Rank 1. Rank 1’s Year One – ‘Airwave’: After a chance introduction at a party in the spring of 1997, Benno & Piet recognised much common musical ground and decided to work together. As the Dutch trance dawn rose up over Europe, the pair found themselves faultlessly positioned at its epicentre to reign. Championed by fellow fast-risers Armin van Buuren, Tiësto and Ferry Corsten, in 1999 the stadium-sized sound of ‘Airwave’ sent out an audio shockwave across the continent. It proved to be such a hit that just 12 months later ‘Airwave’ had been released, incredibly, in over 40 countries – jumping into the Top 10 in the UK and becoming the first Dutch track to top the European Dance Chart. The Rank 1 Singles: Working at the pace of roughly one floor-carnivore a year, Rank 1 followed-up with ‘Such is Life’ (2001), ‘Awakening’ (taken from their debut album ‘Symsonic’ – both 2002), ‘It’s up To You’ (2003), ‘Beats @ Rank-1 Dotcom’ (2004) and ‘Opus’/’Top Gear’ (2005). After a year’s production break they returned to the fray in 07 with two monster collaborations: ‘Life Less Ordinary’ (in tandem with Alex M.O.R.P.H.) and the ‘This World is Watching Me’, co-produced with Armin. In 2009 Rank 1 became the ‘go-to’ men for event anthems, remarkably producing them for not one, but two world-class festivals. In February ‘L.E.D. There Be Light’ became the wildly-popular, Beatport-smash anthem for Trance Energy, while ‘Symfo’ was selected to define Poland’s colossal Sunrise festival. Their latest track The Great Escape (a collaboration with Jochen Miller) has been choosen as theme track for the Polish event ‘enTrance’ to be held in 2010. The Rank 1 Remixes: Rank 1 also has an estimable remix-o-graphy to their name. Freddie Mercury, Ferry Corsten, Push, Cygnus X, Delirium, Marcel Woods, Mr Sam, Ronald van Gelderen, Angelic and Ayumi Hamasaki have all been given Rank 1’s studio re-touch. Piet the DJ, Benno the Producer: Rank 1 now has two distinct branches to its operation. Benno is in charge of all the Rank 1’s production elements. He co-produced many of the tracks on Armin van Buuren’s 2008 long-player ‘Imagine’ and has already commenced work on the next one. Piet meanwhile takes the role of the globetrotting DJ, spinning at tent-pole events like Dance Valley in his native Holland and numerous international tours (including the US and Australasia) for the likes of Gatecrasher & Godskitchen. In 2009 Rank 1 found themselves re-entering the DJ Magazine Top 100 at No.77. Rank 1 LIVE: Over recent years, Rank 1 has increasingly come together on stage for their Live performances. They became the first live act to perform at Sensation and famously forced the closure of doors of Trance Energy’s main arena (when 25,000 clubbers packed it out to hear them play). Their kinship with the biggest event in trance music is widely-known and they are the only live act to have rocked Trance Energy 3 times! Outside of that Rank 1 has continued to thrill crowds live at some Europe’s best-known festivals including Mystery Land, Sunrise & Nature One. Rank 1 – The Mindset: When it comes to interviews, Benno & Piet are, in essence the ‘Daft Punk’ or trance! Now famously reclusive, they don’t like the term ‘success’ as it implies they have already arrived. Instead, on the few occasions they do speak, they prefer to speak in terms of ‘progression’ & ‘perfection’. Ultimately though they are far happier to let their music do all the talking.
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Kristina Sky – With records out on Armin Van Buuren’s Armada, Paul Van Dyk’s Vandit and U.S. mega-label Ultra, while holding a coveted residency at the world-famous Avalon Hollywood, it’s easy to see why Kristina Sky is one of America’s brightest shining Electronic Dance Music stars. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she’s been DJing to thousands of passionate dance music fans since 2002, coast-to-coast in the U.S. and around the world—from China to the Philippines, Ecuador to Guatemala and Canada to Costa Rica. Handpicked to play Armin’s ASOT550 in the Netherlands, Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival and North America’s biggest music festival, Coachella—sharing the stage with legendary acts like Madonna and Daft Punk—Kristina is undoubtedly one of America’s most beloved EDM ambassadors. Her live set recordings, guest mixes and popular radio show, TRANCELATE, generate tremendous support from her ever-growing fanbase—broadcasting worldwide via satellite, FM and the internet. It’s really no wonder that Kristina’s uber-dedicated fans voted her #39 in America’s Best DJ Poll 2013 and have kept her in the top ranks of the highly regarded Tranceaddict Top 250 DJ Poll for six consecutive years (#74 in 2012), while VIBE Magazine named her one of 30 DJs to watch in 2014! Her DJ sets are unforgettable and energetic journeys through the best of dance music and her production sound ranges from warm and groovy progressive-house to emotional, melodic and uplifting trance. Playing alongside many of the world’s top DJs, while also gaining their support on her tracks, it’s only natural that she’s made quite a name for herself in the global dance scene. If you haven’t had a chance to experience one of Kristina’s live sets yet, anyone who has will tell you that you’re missing out. Her passion and love for the music is undeniable and her ultimate goal is clear—to move you on that dancefloor and leave you with a memorable soundtrack to nights you won’t forget.
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