Author Archives: Blas Yaselli

[Secret Ninja Pass] This Week at Beta – 9/10 – 9/12

Alright, ninjas. We’ve been hooking you up with free entry to Beta over two years now. We know you’ve had some epic times, catching some of the most legendary talent EDM has to offer, and we’re on board to keep this thing going. So, we’re once again giving you an opportunity to check out the best night club in North America for free. What all do you have to do to get in? It’s pretty damn easy. Just follow these steps:

– Head to the front door and enter the club before 11 pm
– Show this post to the cashier (Valid for 21+ only)
– The deal is valid for tonight and Saturday only. If you want to catch Doctor P, you should pick up tickets here.

See you on the dance floor.

Skylab Satellite Pre-party - 9/10
’Stafford Brothers – When You Feel This ft. Jay Sean & Rick Ross’
Mija - 9/11
’Major Lazer – B2GETHER (MIJA REMIX)’
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[Secret Ninja Pass] This Week at Beta – 9/3 – 9/5

Alright, ninjas. We’ve been hooking you up with free entry to Beta over two years now. We know you’ve had some epic times, catching some of the most legendary talent EDM has to offer, and we’re on board to keep this thing going. So, we’re once again giving you an opportunity to check out the best night club in North America for free. What all do you have to do to get in? It’s pretty damn easy. Just follow these steps:

– Head to the front door and enter the club before 11 pm
– Show this post to the cashier (Valid for 21+ only)
– The deal is valid for tonight and Saturday only. If you want to catch Doctor P, you should pick up tickets here.

See you on the dance floor.

Bingo Players - 9/3
’Bingo Players – Curiosity’
Doctor P - 9/4
’Bubblehead’
TENSNAKE - 9/5
’Tensnake – The Walk’
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The Music Ninja + Hype Machine.

I am Blas Yaselli, founder of The Music Ninja. It is unfortunate that I feel forced to write this post, but at the end of the day, The Music Ninja is my pride, my joy, and my baby. As a proud parent, I will do ANYTHING to protect it.

I will keep this short because there isn’t really much to say.

Recently, Hype Machine was made aware that there are PR companies and labels trying to infiltrate themselves into music blogs in hopes of pushing their artists. They are making an effort to crack down on this, and I support that.

A month ago, they approached us and expressed some concerns about writers within our team. Someone got singled out; a person had only posted nine times in four months, with each and every post vetted and enjoyed by our internal team. Regardless, evidence was gathered and we dealt with the party involved.

Following an internal investigation, we identified an additional account that warranted removal.

Case closed! (we thought)

We felt good about the situation, as well as our relationship with the Hype Machine.

As such, it came to us as a complete surprise that yesterday, Hype Machine stopped indexing the site we’ve worked so hard to build over the past six years. After a few heavy sighs and conversations with Hype Machine, it all came down to a person using a pen name, a practice which is otherwise commonplace in journalism and writing. Again, we understood their concern, but there was nothing we could do about it.

In light of that, I want to publicly disclose our system for publishing new music.

Only five Ninjas on our entire team have the ability to publish a post, all of which have multiple year tenures with our site. Their job is to filter submissions by other contributors, and ensure that we continually bring you the latest and greatest music.

So what happens next? Well, we are still optimistic and hope for a positive resolution in the near future.

Are we banned from Hype Machine? No.

Did Hype Machine stop indexing us? Yes, but we are working on fixing that.

Are we irritated with the nonstop drama and rumors flying around? Yes. We graduated high school over a decade ago.

Will Hype Machine index us again? That will be determined by what we do next. So what’s next?

Even though we wholeheartedly love and appreciate every post that each Ninja has written through the years, we have to make some changes. Despite people not wanting an onslaught of press release emails, IMs, texts, tweets, and smoke signals, all authors will be listed by their full name. We are also going to roll out detailed author pages with links to people’s social media (twitter/facebook or whatever they are comfortable with). This way, everyone is completely accounted for and there’s absolutely no confusion with who everyone is within our team.

The Music Ninja and Hype Machine go way back. We’re consistently ranked one of the top blogs on their site, and were even featured as blog of the month within our first year of being online. Not to mention all our wonderful fans that ONLY listen to us on their system. We want no drama and understand their concerns, which is why we are taking steps to address them.

Thank you for everyone who has sent words in support. We hear your concerns and we are working to make the universe whole again. And for people that listen to us on SONOS… My heart goes out to you because that is how I listen to my own baby.

Here’s to discovering new music. Every. Damn. Day.

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The Eiffels – More [TMN PREMIERE]

The Eiffels
More

With a vividly playful and melodic start, “More” delivers an energetic yet nostalgic approach to post 80’s synth rock, something this Los Angeles trio knows how to execute. A follow up to their previous single “I Did It Now“, this second release containing thriving power chords and anthem like lyrics, builds on top of their current momentum. Some people have described their sound to be somewhere between Phoenix and The Killers, and while there is an absolute truth to that, I like to believe they came from the Breakfast Club soundtrack.

The Eiffels is set to release their debut EP this spring, having worked with producers Ethan Kaufmann (Wild Party) and Will Brierre (The Killers, Neon Trees, Walk The Moon, Imagine Dragons). And with a massive U.S. tour starting this May, it is obvious you will hear more of them in 2015.

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George Maple – Vacant Space (Sondrio Remix)

Sondrio
Vacant Space (Sondrio Remix)

Australian Dj/Producer Sondrio released a powerful rendition of Calvin Harris’ Blame just two month ago and the blogosphere had a field day, topping the charts of the popular music blog aggregator Hype Machine.

And so what? Many posts and number of plays have never impressed us, nor is the reason why we share music on The Music Ninja. Yet we cannot deny the fact that Sondrio is able to create fresh new experiences for every one of his remixes, including “Blame”. That is the reason we respect him so much, letting original songs shine through without compromise while still maintaining a unique approach that very song is easier said then done. Today we have a new renditions of the especially seductive track from George Maple “Vacant Space”. Providing a much calmer baseline to match the many softer aspects of the original, Sondri adds many non-intrusive electronic layers that happily coexist in a soothing environment where the vocals never get overshadowed.

You can download this track via a follow here.

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[Resident Artist of the Month of January] Datsik

If there were such a thing as an Olympic event for Electronic Dance Music where each country selected their most talented representative every four years, Datsik would already be one of Canada’s sophomoric leaders. The promising young producer that started under a moniker with origins derived from his old Xbox Live gamertag, rapidly become his own establishment just months after his first release in 2009. And “rapidly” could not be more of an understatement. Soon after teaming with Excision the spring of the following year, Datsik was already joining forces with Bassnectar in the fall to deliver the eclectic track “Yes” (And till this day we still have the email from Lorin’s team that blessed us with a preview before release.)

But who really wants to talk about music from 5 years ago? Fast-forward to just a few months back and Datsik is still infusing a dark and mechanical aggression to his music while heavily paying tribute to distinguishable components of both old-school and modern swagger-forward hip/hop. The years of 2013-2014 came with ubiquities hits like: “Hold it Down”, “Hollow Point” (in collaboration with Getter) and the haunting basslines of “Scum”. Robust and coherent collections outlining his musical maturity: Cold Blooded EP with the official single “Vindicate” paving the way, the sequel release Let It Burn LP (September 2013) and finally we arrive at his latest endeavor, Down 4 My Ninjas EP. All the while signing a wide variety of dubstep/ bass producers under his very own successful record label Firepower Records.

Needless to say, most of us at The Music Ninja have had a front row seat of Troy Beetles’ music journey and today we cannot be more excited to present to you The Music Ninja’s Resident Artist of the Month of January.

But that is not all we are doing. Datsik has called upon the ninja brotherhood announcing, The Ninja Nation Tour, a comprehensive and lethal electronic adventure across The United States and Canada, is set to kick off January 22nd and carry all the way through April 9th. Be sure to come back here regularly for tour information, exclusive giveaways, interviews, and fresh new music.

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Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Won’t Back Down (Boehm Remix)

Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Won't Back Down (Boehm Remix)

Can you really say no to Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Trumpets? I think not.

Boehm (a.k.a Alex Craciun) hailing from Bucharest, Romania just released a soothing and riveting interpretation of Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s 2012 Tom Petty cover of “ Won’t Back Down”. The original takes advantage of Leftwich’s sultry vocal performance to provide completely mellow undertones, yet even with the playful kicks and trumpets, Boehm gives his soft voice room to breath through each verse.

It is fascinating how in an age where Indie Dance is ubiquitous and artist like RAC are well known for providing colorful electronic pop remixes to indie songs, producers like Boehm can come along to occupy the space with a uniqueness that makes this sound their very own.

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