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The Unstoppable Chris Lake

An Interview On His Collabs With Aluna & More

In terms of electronic dance music, Chris Lake is a bit of a juggernaut. He has no problem finding ways to innovate house music, constantly churning out hit track after hit track, collaborating with some of the biggest names in the industry, and giving us the soundtracks to many nights out on the dance floor.

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What can you say about a 2x World No. 1 DJ, who has been leading the electronic dance world for over a decade since he was only 14, who has officially remixed tracks for huge names in the music industry like Rihanna and Calvin Harris, that hasn't already been said? That's the case with the legendary Hardwell, who at 25, is just getting started.

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Gioli and Assia are making sure the world knows women have a place in dance music. No longer do we live in a world in which the music industry is a boys only club. In fact, there doesn’t have to be a man involved at all.

Both Gioli & Assia kickstarted their careers uploading videos to YouTube where they automatically began building their separate personal brands. By 2015, the two met through the platform and discovered that their sounds not only combined beautifully, but they also worked together seamlessly as singers, songwriters, DJs, and producers.

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Louis Tomlinson, previously of One Direction fame, just released his new single "We Made It."

The pop star announced his debut solo album, entitled Walls and dropping January 31, 2020, the day before releasing the song. The music video follows a young couple through the formation of their relationship and the eventual hardships they face, as Tomlinson sort of just looks on and narrates like a creepy, British fairy godmother. It seems as if maybe Tomlinson could only be bothered to go to one day of filming, so they shot the video without him and then just inserted shots of him singing with his hands in his pockets in front of vaguely similar scenery.

But the video aside, it's a song so wholly unremarkable that every time you read the name you may find yourself singing the far superior "Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 in your head—even if you're still literally listening to Tomlinson's song. It offers a repetitive, almost NSYNC-like rhythm and rhyming scheme, with lyrics that a robot could have written in its spare time. Unfortunately, it seems Tomlinson has taken his love of early 2000's British rock and channeled it into the creation of tepid, noncommittal music that sounds like someone trying to imitate The Wombats trying to imitate The Arctic Monkeys. It's so many levels removed from the kind of edgy, punch-you-in-the-face, British rock it's desperately trying to be that it ends up sounding like nothing at all.

MUSIC

The Boyband Era is Resurrected in New Monsta X and Steve Aoki Music Video

"Play it Cool" is a glittery blast from the past with a few modern twists and turns.

Steve Aoki is back with yet another EDM-pop banger.

This time he's aiding South Korean boy band, Monsta X, on the posh banger, "Play it Cool." The song initially appeared on Monsta X's Take.2 We Are Here, which dropped in February and climbed to the number five spot on the Billboard World Albums chart by March 2nd. The highly anticipated music video for the English version of "Play it Cool" dropped yesterday, and it's a fun bit of nostalgia packaged in a glitzy blend of Eastern and Western culture.

Parts of the video make you forget what year it is – a five-piece boy band doing some high-energy choreography in perfect unison while flashing bedroom eyes at the camera? Surely this is 1999 and NSYNC will be appearing on TRL tomorrow. The only thing that firmly roots this video in the present is when it cuts from the pop group's nonstop dance parties and pillow fights to show Steve Aoki driving his car aimlessly, jamming along to the song until he just can't "Play it Cool" any longer and is compelled to pull over so he can get out and dance like mad in the middle of nowhere.

The song is three minutes of fun bubble gum K-pop infused with plenty of Steve Aoki's signature vocal sampling and infectious drum loops that are sure to energize the clubs when it comes on —from Seoul to New York City.


Dustin DiPaulo is a writer and musician from Rochester, New York. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Florida Atlantic University and can most likely be found at a local concert, dive bar, or comedy club (if he's not getting lost somewhere in the woods).


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