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An Israeli production company is working on a documentary about the horrific Oct. 7 terror attack on the Supernova Music Festival at Kibbutz Re’im by Hamas militants. The assault by air and land by the militant arm of the terrorist organization that governs the more than two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip included the killing of more than 260 revelers at the Paralello Universo Supernova Sukkot Gathering electronic dance music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Israeli production company Sipur is working with Israeli broadcasters HOT Channel 8 and HSCC on a feature documentary about the assault that was part of Hamas surprise raid on the Southern border of Israel that found the militants killing more than 1,300 Israeli men, women and children and kidnapping nearly 200 civilians and soldiers.
The film will be directed by Yariv Mozer (The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes) using exclusive footage from participants and key people at the party, with the team aiming to “present an in-depth look at the festival before, during and after the horrific event,” according to THR, including interviews with investigators, soldiers and journalists and unseen footage from attendees.
“I have seen things in my life. I have lived through wars; I have fought in wars and I have even filmed during a war,” Mozer told THR in a statement. “But nothing prepared me for the harsh images I have seen in the remains of the massacre that took place at the Nova music festival. I see it as my duty as a documentary filmmaker to bring to the world the testimonies and horrific stories from the survivors of this slaughter. Young women and men whose only sin was their desire for music, and the passion to celebrate free love, spirit and freedom.”
President Biden referenced the massacre during remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict days after the attack, naming “young people massacred while attending a music festival to celebrate peace” among the violent incidents of the previous few days.
Sipur CEO Emilio Schenker said the team “moved quickly” to begin work on the doc within a week of the attack because they believe it is “imperative to do everything in our power to shine a light on the greatest evil committed against our people since the Holocaust. The Supernova Music Festival must be seen and understood in its entirety to truly understand the larger meaning of the unspeakable crimes against humanity that occurred there. The world must never forget.”
The producers of the Supernova Gathering issued their first statement on the massacre on Friday. “Our dear tribe of Nova, first and foremost, we want to convey our sincere and heartfelt condolences to all the families, friends, partners and couples who have lost their loved ones or have been affected by the tragic events that unfolded, following that magic night and that turned into an exceedingly heavy morning,” they wrote.
“What was planned to be the happiest and largest electronic music festival of the Nova Tribe has turned into a scene of unspeakable tragedy, an inhumane war crime, an unprecedented violation of the most basic human values,” it continued. “This is the epitome of pure and unbridled evil, the horrifying and senseless murder of countless innocent angels, whose only ‘crime’ was being Jewish and living in Israel.“
The festival was attended by approximately 3,000 people, with a lineup focused on the electronic psytrance dance subgenre. Around 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists entered the site by truck, motorcycle, ATV and paraglider and began killing festival attendees with machine guns and RPGs, while also taking a number hostage and transporting them to Gaza.
Israel is expected to launch a major land invasion into Gaza in retaliation within days with the stated aim of wiping out Hamas’ infrastructure and leadership.
The electronic music industry’s premier soccer tournament, Copa del Rave, is returning to Los Angeles on November 2 with teams forged from electronic music artists and industry figures.
Confirmed DJ players include Copa co-founder Ardalan, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Xie, Zomboy, Zen Freeman, EDDIE and Borgore, with more to be announced.
The tournament will also feature teams from CREATE Music Group, Capitol Music Group, Downtown Music, INFAMOUS, Red Light Management, Symphonic Distribution, YourArmy/ATC and The Free Agents.
The tournament is once again happening at Evolve L.A., in the city’s Frogtown neighborhood. Games begin at 3p.m. and run until 8p.m. A spectator donation is requested. A donation is also required from each competing team, with the winning team getting to select the charity that will receive the money raised.
The first three installments of Copa del Rave raised more than $40,000 in donations for the LA Mission, which provides support to homeless people in L.A.; MusicCares, a Recording Academy organization that helps people in the music industry going through hard times; and Give a Beat, which uses music to help people impacted by the criminal justice system.
Previous players include Diplo, GG Magree, Wax Motif, Ardalan, TEED, The Chainsmokers and more. Kappa won last year’s tournament, with the previous two editions won by Red Light Management.
“Copa del Rave is back! We might be older and slightly more injury-prone, but the hunger out on the field is still real,” tournament co-founders Alastair Duncan, Jonathan McDonald and Ardalan said in a joint statement. “We’re truly grateful for all the teams and DJs participating, who are willing to get out there and play for a good cause.”
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The weekend’s in sight, and we’ve got the solace of the dancefloor on our minds. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Fred again.. & Jozzy, “ten”
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The Label: Atlantic Records
The Spiel: Fred Gibson has established himself as a technician of music that’s simultaneously melancholy, peppy and entirely his own. The producer again flexes that ability on his latest, “ten.” Featuring shimmery vocals from Jozzy (a singer whose also got writing credits that include “Old Town Road”), the song is a tight, slightly somber affair about missing someone bad, with the percussion and tempo also imbuing it with a certain brightness, like that feeling of finally actually seeing them. The song — written by Fred, Jozzy and Jim Legxacy — comes in the midst of Fred’s three-night run at Forest Hills in New York this week, and ahead of a sold out eight-night residency at The Shrine in Los Angeles later this month.
The Artist Says: “This song is about missing home, which I have this year more than ever,” says Fred. “Jozzy and Jim are both f—in g’s and great friends from different sides of the world which I kinda love because it feels like one voice is coming from L.A. and another from London. But yeh foreal I wanna thank them for making this song wit me and also jus for bein my mates. Cos I guess that’s the thing that makes being away from home better? Its always the people innit.”
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Skrillex, Flowdan & Lil Baby, “Pepper”
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The Label: OWSLA/Atlantic
The Spiel: Skrillex brings the same tough-as-nails vibe that he started the year with into the close of 2023, with the producer again linking with Flowdan on “Pepper.” Their duo’s third collaboration of the year — after January’s scene-shaking “Rumble” and August’s similarly heavy “Badders” — “Pepper” is a glitchy, darkly stuttering and ironically cold-as-ice track that could very well be the close of a trinity of songs thematically focused on dominance, strength and winning over adversaries. This new one features Lil Baby, whose shimmery, melodic vocals counterbalance Flowdan’s sucker-punch delivery.
The Artist Says: “It’s inspired by being an underdog, not taking no for an answer, overcoming all odds, making sure you get that win,” Flowdan says.
G Jones, Paths
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The Label: Illusory Recordings
The Spiel: The producer returns with his much-anticipated sophomore album Paths, the follow-up to 2018’s The Ineffable Truth. A experimental bass pioneer in his own right, the artist born Greg Jones has worked with legends including DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin and Eprom, and on Paths, he once again demonstrates why they’ve all sought him out. The album synthesizes sharp, sometimes challenging, often spare and occasionally explosive bass music that deftly maintains the celestial, cerebral and frequently ambient tone that’s part of his signature. Jones has developed a new live show for the album that he’s debuting at Red Rocks Amphitheatre this Sunday (Oct. 15).
The Artist Says: “I’ve been working on the Paths Live show all year, remixing and reformatting songs from Paths as well as the rest of my catalog for live performance, and also doing multi-day IRL work sessions with my team of visual collaborators, building this new show from scratch,” says Jones. “I can hardly contain my excitement about it all. I’ve been discovering so many new ways to perform my songs in a live context, and really believe that the audiovisual aspect of the show will be far beyond anything we’ve done before.”
REZZ & deadmau5, “Infraliminal”
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The Label: mau5trap
The Spiel: REZZ and deadmau5 mark another milestone in their history as pals and collaborators with “Infraliminal,” an dual edit of deadmau5′ “Superliminal,” the opening track of his 2012 classic >album title goes here
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Source: Kaitlyn Morris / Getty
Janelle Monáe continues to show the world how multitalented she is. She recently took the stage at 2 Chainz’ new strip club and the culture was here for it.
HipHopDX reports that the singer songwriter was in Atlanta on Friday, October 6. During the evening she paid a visit to 2 Chainz’ newest venture Candyland. It seems the adult establishment knows how to set the vibes; so much so the self-proclaimed “Lipstick Lover” headed to the stage for a dance or two. While she did not remove any of her clothing her moves were enough to keep the crowd in attendance entertained. In the house was the “Southside Hov” rapper and clearly he was impressed. He shared some footage of her routine to social media asking “Do you think she should work there on her off days.”
Naturally, the post quickly picked up traction online. Many IG users applauded her confidence while others were quick to note that the dancer in the background was the real hero. This is not the first time Janelle has worked her Black girl magic in such a seductive manner. Back in May she brought some West Indian energy to the Met Gala after party when she got on top of the main bar and started winding to Dancehall Reggae.
Located in the heart of Atlanta the juke joint recently opened on Tuesday, October 3. In an Instagram post 2 Chainz explained how special this business move is for him. “This is big. This is monumental for me; this is actually my birthday present to myself. So anybody that support or plan on supporting I just want to tell you I appreciate [it]” he said.
You can view Janelle Monáe dancing at Candyland below.
10 years ago, Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams enjoyed one of the biggest hits of their respective careers with “Get Lucky” — which spent five consecutive weeks at a peak of No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. On Wednesday (Oct. 11), the Oscar-nominated hitmaker is reflecting on the creation of that smash hit.
Williams appears in the latest episode of Daft Punk’s Memory Tapes series — a collection of interviews with key Random Access Memories collaborators in commemoration of the record’s 10-year anniversary. In his interview, Williams recounts his journey from being invited to be one of the album’s songwriters to eventually providing vocals for two songs on the final tracklist.
“When they brought me in to write on the album, I thought I was just writing for someone else,” Williams mused. “So, in my mind, I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, I’m writing this for someone. Okay, I think this is Michael-esque…’ It’s all feeling.”
That feeling resulted in “Get Lucky,” a seismic hit single that won two Grammys — including one for record of the year — and reached the top 10 of eight different Billboard airplay genre charts. Williams noted that while the songwriting process was fairly seamless, the recording process was particularly meticulous, with Daft Punk members Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo urging him to re-record certain sections several times over. “Now I understand the value of taking the time to iron it out, it could be perfection,” he says. “That’s the difference between a human and a robot.”
Williams also revealed that the road to “Get Lucky” was a bit longer than some might think. “By the time the song was done, I didn’t know who was gon’ end up singing it,” he recounted. “I didn’t hear it for a year, I forgot what the song sounded like — both of them.” “Both” is in reference to “Lose Yourself to Dance,” the other Random Access Memories track that Williams provided lead vocals for.
The rest of Williams episode also included footage of him hearing the final mixes of his Random Access Memories cuts and more reflective musings about what working with Daft Punk taught him about himself and the universe. “We must remember, we are part of the universe,” he said. “We don’t run the universe.”
Random Access Memories peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and won five Grammys, including the award for album of the year.
Additional guests in Daft Punk’s Memory Tapes series include album collaborators Julian Casablancas, Chilly Gonzales, DJ Falcon, Todd Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Paul Williams and Chris Caswell. Rodgers’ episode will debut on Oct. 25, while an interview with Williams & Caswell is set for Nov. 8.
Watch Pharrell Williams reflect on the making of “Get Lucky” above.
Pop superstar Kylie Minogue says she made a “conscious decision to go for it” in terms of promoting her new album Tension – and indeed she has. Since mid-May, she’s been hard at work across the globe to tell the tale of Tension.
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“The entire team’s been working really hard,” she tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen to her full interview, below). “I feel so grateful for this moment and so excited for the music and what is unfolding — people’s experience with the music and how they’re making it their own and really welcoming it into their lives, that how could I not give extra? I mean it’s kind of my default anyways.”
All that hard work paid off too. Tension debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, scored her biggest sales week in the U.S. in early 20 years, and opened at No. 1 in the U.K. and in Australia.
Now that she’s broken the Tension, next up for Minogue is the launch of her residency at the Voltaire Belle de Nuit at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, which begins on Nov. 3. The intimate club, which will hold only 1,000 guests at each show, promises to offer a unique experience with Minogue, which the Voltaire advertises as “more than just a residency.”
Minogue says her performance within the club will feature a “selection of songs from throughout the years” and that the show, and its setlist, could evolve over time, since she has 20 shows currently scheduled “over a number of months,” on through next May.
Guests attending an evening at the Voltaire during Minogue’s residency will see their evening start around 9:30 p.m., while Minogue will take the stage a little after 11. “It’s late night,” she says. Will her Voltaire performance differ from a traditional touring show from Minogue? “It will be different to a normal concert,” she says. “My show’s normally two [hours], two [hours] and 15 [minutes long] … so it’s gonna be more snug [than a regular show]. I think it’s gonna feel, because we’re so close [she and the audience] … to be revealed. I mean, I haven’t done this kind of show before. But I think being that close and that intimate in that environment, I think it’s gonna feel kind of more than what it might appear on paper.”
Will her Voltaire residency preclude Minogue from going out on the road with her own tour? No! Does she have a desire to head back out for her own traveling show? Yes!
“I see [the Voltaire engagement] as a very specific show and experience, enhanced by and limited by its surrounds. It is a performance within the Voltaire club. And, to be this involved at the inception of this club — which will hopefully be there for many, many years with lots of different artists performing there — I do feel especially attached to it because I’ve known about it since its inception and I’m part of the opening. But, my tour? That would be different again. And a very different sensation for me and for the audience. So yeah, I would love to go on tour again, absolutely.”
Also in our chat with Minogue, the pop princess reveals how she “would love to be back in the studio” working on new music after the inspiring time she had making the Tension album. “I feel like we’ve just kind of tapped into something that I’d love to explore more.”
Also on the new edition of the Pop Shop Podcast, we’ve got chart news how *NSYNC returns to the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 20 years and makes a splashy entrance on Billboard’s airplay charts with “Better Place,” Pop Shop hosts Katie and Keith discuss their recent concert trips to see P!nk and Jessie Ware, respectively, and a chart stat of the week about Madonna’s debut on the Hot 100, 40 years ago this month.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Another group of Electric Zoo ticket buyers have filed a class action over what they call the “absolute fiasco” at this year’s festival, marking at least the fourth such lawsuit filed against promoter Avant Gardner, the organizer of the popular dance music event.
In a complaint filed Thursday in New York state court, lawyers for four attendees accused the Brooklyn-based company of false advertising, breach of contract and other wrongdoing over the event, which saw its Friday shows canceled at the last minute and Sunday plagued by problems.
“Normally this event is a transcendental audio-visual festival that creates everlasting thrilling memories for tens of thousands of EDM fans,” their lawyers wrote. “And while it did create everlasting memories in 2023, the memories created were not the ones which ticket holders were looking forward to.”
The “oversold, grossly understaffed” festival was “nothing short of an absolute fiasco,” attorneys for the concertgoers wrote, resulting in “long lines, massive overcrowding, and a literal stampede of people when it was discovered that the organizers oversold tickets.” The case was filed on behalf of Billy Ting, Duoc Vo, Garry Huang, Jeffrey Wang and Joshua Chin, but said it aims to represent as many as 75,000 ticketbuyers who had similar experiences.
Electric Zoo, held annually on New York City’s Randall’s Island, is one of the country’s top electronic dance festivals, but this year’s iteration – the second by Avant Gardner since the company acquired the festival in 2022 — was marred by issues.
First came an abrupt cancellation of Friday evening, meaning no performances by top names like The Chainsmokers and Kx5. That was followed by a delayed start and long lines on Saturday, and then a chaotic Sunday in which thousands of ticketholders were denied entry after the site reached capacity. Some fans jumped fences or ran through security checkpoints as a group.
Avant Gardner, which promised refunds for Friday and for anyone turned away on Sunday, blamed the problems on “global supply chain disruptions.” But sources later told Billboard that the Friday shutdown largely had stemmed from the promoter’s failure to pay vendors from last year’s festival, leading to a shortage of experienced concert professionals willing to work at this year’s event. Those shortages led to issues that caused city officials to withhold permitting approval until they were fixed. Citing internal sources, the New York Post also attributed the problems to staffing issues, as well as to a planning process that allegedly started months later than usual for a festival of its size and complexity.
Additionally, Sunday’s problems were caused by overselling the event by 7,000 people, according to an NYPD estimate reported by local news outlets. Shortly after the festival, Mayor Eric Adams suggested the city might launch an investigation into Avant Gardner over the debacle: “It’s unfortunate that the organizers wanted to turn our city into a zoo.”
Thursday’s lawsuit is at least the fourth such class action filed over the messy event. The first, filed on Sept. 13 in federal court, said Avant Gardner had caused “a nightmare endured by thousands of electronic music fans.” Another, filed just three days later in the same court, said the organizers had “lied to their guests at every opportunity.” In a third lawsuit, a Connecticut man said the festival’s “lack of planning and overselling of tickets” had caused dangerous overcrowding that caused him to “fear for his life.”
The specifics are varied, but all four lawsuits allege roughly similar forms of wrongdoing: That the Electric Zoo organizers misled ticket buyers, that they broke promises to concertgoers, and that they were negligent in failing to prevent the problems. Each case is seeking to represent hundreds or thousands of fans, and some or all of the cases could eventually be combined into a single, consolidated action.
A representative for Avant Gardner did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Electric Zoo class actions are only the latest legal issues for Avant Gardner, which operates an 80,000 square foot, multi-venue facility in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood. The company and owner Jürgen “Billy” Bildstein have clashed for years with the State Liquor Authority over allegations of drug use and other safety issues, including a 2020 agreement in which the company agreed to a $100,000 fine and to retain an independent safety monitor.
In August, that state-appointed monitor, T&M Security LLC, sued the company, claiming Avant Gardner had terminated the arrangement prematurely and then refused to pay its fees. A month earlier, another case claimed that security guards had assaulted patrons while searching them for drugs during a pride event.
An artist manager who had several acts scheduled to play the Paralello Universo festival in Re’im, Israel, near the Gaza Strip, and who was there during the attack on the festival, describes a scene of chaos and terror.
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Raz Gaster had multiple artists playing the electronic music festival, where at least 260 people were killed and others were abducted amid an attack by Hamas operatives Saturday (Oct. 7).
Gaster arrived on site at the festival event at approximately 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the party — which had started the night prior — meant to go until approximately 5 p.m. Saturday evening. An offshoot of the Paralello Universo festival brand started in Brazil nearly 20 years ago; the Israel event was called Supernova Sukkot Gathering after the Jewish holiday and was hosting several thousand attendees in a rural location near the Gaza Strip, with a lineup focused on the electronic psytrance genre.
Everything changed, though, when rockets and missiles launched from the Gaza Strip by Hamas starting landing on the site an hour later, part of a widespread attack on Israel.
“Around 6:30 in the morning we started hearing explosions,” Gaster says. “We went out of the backstage and we saw a full bombardment everywhere. It was hundreds of rockets and mortars flying from everywhere and explosions all around us.”
Gaster says that at this point, festival security advised everyone to get down on the floor and put their hands above their heads for protection. But after 5-10 minutes, Gaster says, “the policemen shouted in the microphones, ‘Okay, get in your cars and go.’”
“The moment the policemen said ‘go now,’ I ran,” Gaster recalls. “I didn’t wait, because we know it’s a rocket attack. You need to act quick.”
Because his car was parked near the stage very close to where he was standing, Gaster and three other men — including Universo Paralello co-founder Juarez Petrillo — were able to immediately get in Gaster’s car and drive out minutes later, after Gaster made sure the artists he works with were also in vehicles fleeing the site.
Gaster says he was “driving super fast, not stopping for anything, even when missiles are coming down. My instinct told me don’t stop for shelter, just drive… We drove so fast we didn’t even know what was happening.”
By the time Gaster and the others made it to a villa rented by the production team, located approximately 30 kilometers away from the festival, they had started getting texts and phone calls telling them that minutes after they drove away from the site, Hamas fighters had arrived “with machine guns, with RPGs, with grenades, and just slaughtered whoever they could.”
He says that these attackers arrived by motorcycles, quads and trucks approximately 20 minutes after missiles started landing.
Gaster and those he was with turned the villa into a command center, contacting IDF, other Israeli security services and “all of our friends that we know personally that have firearms that have connections that can go there.”
During this time he and the others were receiving messages from friends and colleagues still on site, who reported that the attackers were shooting attendees in their cars as they attempted to drive away. A friend of Gaster’s messaged to say that the driver of her car had been shot and that she and another friend were pretending to be dead to avoid being killed. He says these women ultimately played dead for five hours before being rescued. As of Sunday (Oct. 8), Israeli rescue service Zaka has reported at least 260 bodies at the site.
“People were hiding in ditches, hiding in bushes, hiding in the woods, hiding wherever you can think of,” says Gaster. “We were getting horrible messages from friends saying, ‘Please help us, they are shooting people next to us.’”
Gaster says it took IDF and special forces a few hours to arrive on site, with those who were there attempting to defend themselves in the meantime.
“At the party there was already a police force, like any licensed party,” Gaster says, “and they were the first ones to try to give assistance by fighting… We are Israelites, so most of us have military experience, and a few from the production managed to kill some terrorists with their bare hands and their weapons.”
Gaster says that the owner of the production company behind the festival, Nova Tribe, killed two of the attackers after taking their guns. Gaster says he and the team at the production villa were being sent on-site locations from various attendees and then sending these locations to the owner, who then went to help these attendees.
“It was 24 hours of working to find as many people as we could and get as many signs of life as we could,” says Gaster.
Universo Paralello was not origintally intended to take place at the Re’im site, with organizers moving it to this location only two days before it started, when another site in southern Israel fell through. The new site at Re’im featured a pair of stages, with the Israeli producer Artifex playing the mainstage when the attack started. Gaster was told that the attackers closed the road into the festival from both sides so attendees could not escape.
Other festival attendees have been abducted by Hamas. As a group of between 15-20 people gathered at the production villa, they, says Gaster, “started seeing videos on social media of hostages and people we know that are kidnapped and bodies we could recognize [as] our friends. Many friends are still missing, and we still don’t know where they are.”
He approximates that there are still 600-700 people missing from the party. All but one artist on the festival lineup has left Israel, with Gaster and others putting artists on any available flight into Europe as airlines canceled flights amid the attacks.
While Gaster had just arrived to his home in the north of Israel when Billboard spoke with him at around 1 a.m. local Israeli time (he says the IDF controls most of the area between where he was and where he lives, so he felt safe to drive home), he says that amid the chaos they are all “still trying to find any signs of life.”
“We are a peaceful community, we are a musical community, we do it for the creation of fun,” says Gaster. “We only wanted to dance and have a good time and enjoy music together, and it turned into a nightmare.”
At least 260 people are dead after a Hamas attack at an outdoor electronic music festival in Israel near the Gaza Strip, according to CNN. An unknown number of attendees also seem to have been abducted by Hamas operatives.
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The attack happened on Saturday (Oct. 7) at the Universo Paralello Festival in Re’im, Israel, a rural area located near the border of the Gaza Strip. CNN says the Israeli rescue service Zaka has reported at least 260 bodies at the site.
The rocket attacks began at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning, with Hamas operatives attacking festivalgoers roughly 30 minutes later. CNN reports that several attendees were taken hostage, with those reports corroborated in a statement by the festival itself. There has been intense fighting throughout Israel since Saturday morning, when Hamas began firing rockets into the country and an invasion followed.
Universo Paralello, which took place Oct. 6-7, is a festival that originated in the Brazilian state of Bahia and is focused on psytrance, a high-BPM form of trance music that has long been one of the most popular forms of electronic music in Israel.
The Israeli version of Paralello Universo, called Supernova Sukkot Gathering after the Jewish holiday, released this statement on Instagram earlier on Sunday (Oct. 8): “The Nova tribe is shocked and pained. We support and participate in the grief of the families of the missing and murdered. We are doing everything we can to assist the security forces, standing by. They are in continuous contact and are located in the field during scans and searches in order to locate the missing.”
The statement says that festival organizers will pass information about missing people to relevant parties, including the IDF.
“We are full of hope and pray that good news will come to us and to you soon,” continues the statement, which was written in Hebrew. “In moments like these, it is important that we be strong and united, full faith, we will support each other and be there for anyone who needs it.” The event has since made its Instagram page private and did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The lineup featured psytrance producers from countries including Brazil, Spain, Japan and Mexico, with performers Aladin, Artifex, Astral Projection, Flare Jackalon, Jumpstreet, Kido, LIbra, Man With No Name, Noface, Protanica, Rocky Tilbor, Shove, Spectra Sonics, Swarup, Wegha. Billboard reached out for comment from multiple DJs on the lineup but did not immediately receive responses.
Universo Paralello has been happening in Brazil for nearly two decades. The festival was co-founded by Juarez Petrillo, a longstanding producer and promoter and the father of the globally known producer Alok.
Earlier on Sunday, Alok released a statement regarding his father’s presence at the Israeli event. Petrillo was on the lineup performing under his DJ name, Swarup.
“As many of you know, my father was in one of the invaded locations, and concerning his involvement in the event, he is not the organizer,” Alok’s statement reads. “My father was HIRED to perform at an event that licensed the rights to use the festival’s name, as has happened in several other countries before. The Israeli producer licensed the use of the brand and independently organized the event, with my father being one of the attractions.”
This week in dance music: Spencer Brown shared his experiences as a producer with OCD, Palm Tree Festival Aspen released the lineup for its February event, Kylie Mingue’s Tension hit the top of Dance/Electronic Albums, M83 answered 20 questions about his discomfort with the limelight and more, the David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical Here Lies Love announced that it will host DJ sets after select performances starting this weekend, we shared an exclusive first looks at the forthcoming ILLENIUM graphic novel, the managers of artists including deadmau5 and Chris Lake announced a new venture around artist IP and Beatport announced the recipients of its second annual inclusivity grants.
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If you want even more, you’re in luck. Here are the best new dance tracks of the week.
James Hype feat. Kim Petras, “Drums”
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The Label: Island Records/Cross Records
The Spiel: The U.K. producer — who blew up last year with his unstoppable “Ferrari” — pairs with dance chanteuse Kim Petras and Justin Timberlake (sort of!) for the electro pop whirlwind “Drums.” A staple of Hype’s sets since 2019, the heart rate-raising club anthem evolved into the track you hear now after Hype linked with Petras in the studio, with the singer’s shimmery timbre playing against a sample from Timberlake’s “Like I Love You” with the pop stars iconic “drums!” directive from that 2002 classic giving this song its name.
The Artist Says: “Fast forward to 2023, I met Kim in LA and we got together to create this version of ‘Drums’ you hear now,” says Hype. “We were also incredibly blessed to have Justin Timberlake agree to keep his original vocal, so this record feels incredibly special to me.”
The Vibe: Indeed as Timberlake said 21 year ago, “It’s kind of special, right?”
Mau P, “Dress Code”
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The Label: Black Book Records
The Spiel: “You wanna know the dress code? Okay, we don’t have a dress code,” insists the vocal on the latest from Mau P. Making his debut on Chris Lake’s Black Book Records with this one, the Dutch wunderkind (who recently dropped an ace remix of Swedish House Mafia’s “Ray Of Solar”) once again demonstrates why everyone’s paying attention to him. His latest tech house weapon is loaded with simply cool sounds, from the skittering synth to the growling bassline to a hectic build and a drop that’s equal parts wailing vocal and car alarm.
The Artist Says: “I don’t care what you look like or what you dress like, I just want you to have a good time,” say the producer born Maurits Westveen. “This record is meant for people to feel good about themselves and have a good time.”
The Vibe: The strutting confidence of putting on that one outfit you look legitimately great in.
Neil Frances & DRAMA, “Energy”
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The Label: Nettwerk
The Spiel: L.A. indie dance duo NEIL FRANCES puts an exclamation point on the release of their latest album, It’s All a Bit Fuzzy, with its standout single “Energy.” A collab with Chicago house/R&B duo DRAMA — “get your hands up, I ain’t coming for your man’s love,” declares DRAMA vocalist Via Rosa — the track is fresh, fun and in possession of that effortless kind of cool that feels just right for the weekend.
The Artist Says: “It’s about stamina on the dance floor, music that never stops and nights that last forever,” NEIL FRANCES says in a joint statement “but most importantly the ‘energy’ to keep up with the person you’re leaving with.”
The Vibe: It’s the beginning of fall, but you’re still locked into that late summer mood.
Chromeo, “Personal Effects”
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The Label: Chromeo Recordings
The Spiel: The Funk Lordz are back with “Personal Effects,” the lead single from their forthcoming sixth studio album Adult Contemporary. Coming 20 years into Chromeo’s career and reflecting the album’s theme of grown-up stuff, the new track is about breaking up with your live-in lover and them leaving all their things at your house after they storm out. “Adult Contemporary is a meditation on modern, mature relationships, which means: if we gotta sing about curling irons, so be it,” says the duo’s Dave 1.
The Artist Says: “This is the last song we added on the album,” Dave 1 continues. “I was on a flight and the pilot said, ‘Please don’t forget your personal effects’ and I was like, ‘Wait, how come this isn’t a Chromeo song title?!’ We felt like we needed a little breezy funk … something warm and fuzzy to bop to. You notice that long instrumental bit at the end? That’s definitely a motif on the album: extended sections where we let the music ride out.
The Vibe: Extremely relatable, down to the L-O-L lyrics “she loses hair ties all the time,” which anyone with long locks can relate to.
Miaj feat. Cakes Da Dilla & Wreckno, “I WANNA BE A BIG STAR”
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The Label: never_b_alone.mp3
The Spiel: A hot-to-the-touch house anthem from Mija, “I WANNA BE A BIG STAR” is inspired by ballroom culture and features a pair of almost absurdly scorching verses from Cakes Da Killa and Wreckno. Spare, sophisticated breakdowns from the producer offer a moment to catch your breath before she and her collaborators wind it all up again. The track is the final from Mija’s four-track NO RULES EP, which is out in its entirety today via her own never b alone.mp3 label and was funded by raising Ethereum and selling digital collectibles on web3. Mija is on tour across the U.S. until early December.
The Artist Says: “This is a house tune I wrote inspired by the documentary Paris Is Burning,” says Mija. “After I wrote the demo, I asked legendary artists Cakes Da Killa and Wreckno to jump on the track, and both of them delivered sickening verses. I wanted to keep the raw emotion of the original samples juxtaposed with quick and dirty house drops. Something you can dance, to something you can cry to.”
The Vibe: Sweating through your t-shirt on the dancefloor.
Dom Dolla, “Saving Up”
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The Label: Three Six Zero Recordings
The Spiel: The days are getting shorter, but Dom Dolla is keeping the sunlight vibes high with his latest, “Saving Up.” A truly joyful disco-flavored singalong inspired by the sound and spirit of the U.K. dance scene, the song features power-lunged vocals that insist “If you’re gonna be saving up, save your love for me” and finds Australian producer Dolla making a track on which he explores his interest in making a track that “sounds sampled, but isn’t.”
The Artist Says: “I was in the U.K. last year after a massive summer of touring when I caught the train down to Brighton with some friends and ended up in an incredible studio overlooking the beach,” says Dolla. “I was missing home a bit, but felt really inspired and wanted to write a feel-good record, reminding myself of the importance of saving time for the ones I care about and love.”
The Vibe: The simple but life-affirming joy of dancing with your besties.