As a loyal fan of the Swedish House Mafia, I was both excited and genuinely curious to see what Axwell would do with his 90-minute block at Electric Zoo this year. There are inevitable expectations when seeing a member of the SHM crew, but the decision to call it quits has afforded Seb, Steve, and Axwell a new chance at superstardom on their own individual terms. However, make no mistake about it: when Axwell, Seb, or Steve introduces themselves as “from the Swedish House Mafia,” they do it with pride.
Like many others, I’ve become frustrated and bored with the choreographed SHM spectaculars, but it looks like the guys are beginning to use their status as a launching point to push lots of new music like they used to. I happened to see Axwell as he was entering his trailer 30 minutes before his set, and I told him that I hoped he would change things up. His exact response doesn’t matter, but it was essentially a polite ‘fuck off’ with a slight grin. Little did I know that Axwell was already a few steps ahead.
Just from examining the intricate track selection alone, you can tell that Axwell came prepared to give the New York crowd something different. While he started off with the symbolic “Greyhound,” he also dug beyond the Beatport top 10 and whipped out a ton of new combinations and ID tracks. He went tribal right from the start with “Azumba” from Gregor Salto but added in bits and pieces from “Allein” to keep the crowd’s gaze. NO_ID’s “Leave A Light On” remix was brought back from the dead, with help from Thomas Gold’s 2011 rework of “Marsch Marsch.”
Gregor Salto – Azumba
[audio:http://uploads.dancingastronaut.com/2012/07/Azumba.mp3|titles=Gregor Salto – Azumba]The vibe became much more bouncy / disco with Tom Staar and Kryder’s remix of “Can’t Stop Me,” which is more a complete re-thinking of Afrojack’s original than a stereotypical “remix.” Another highlight of the middle section was Sebastien Drums, Whelan & Di Scala’s track “Here I Come” with elements of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” and “Leave The World Behind.” He also spiced up the classic “In The Air” with “Miami 2 Ibiza” and Alesso’s upcoming “Clash” with “Together” and “One.”
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Afrojack, Shermanology – Can’t Stop Me (Tom Staar / Kryder vocal mix)
[audio:http://uploads.dancingastronaut.com/2012/09/Cant-Stop-Me-Kryder-Tom-Staar-Vocal-Mix.mp3|titles=Afrojack, Shermanology – Can’t Stop Me (Tom Staar / Kryder vocal mix)]After throwing it back to the original SHM anthem, he cut all the background music and played the first verse of Chris Martin’s vocal on “Every Teardrop Has A Waterfall” as a true acapella. At the perfect moment, the strong piano chords of “Resurrection” kicked in, and the rest you had to be there to really appreciate. To quote SiriusXM’s Danny Valentino, “I have goosebumps.”
Axwell was even able to restore my faith in the tired “Quasar” when he chopped it with Florence’s “Spectrum” vocal and Faithless’ “Insomnia.” Careful not to wear out the overplayed Hard Rock Sofa drop, we were treated to Quintino’s “Epic” drop the second time around. It was followed with more Thomas Gold and Tommy Trash, “Sing 2 Me” with “Ladi Dadi” and “Alright.” Axwell was not messing around.
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When Ax announced that he was playing his last track and thanked the crowd, a distinctive pulse overtook the main stage area. As soon as “Heart Is King” was recognizable, everyone thought they knew was in store — a “Save The World” vocal and the Knife Party remix drop. Well, we got that, but one final surprise from Axwell’s arsenal: “Reload.” Arguably one of the most played songs at this year’s Electric Zoo, it was an incredible ending to an impressive set that was both highly technical and thoroughly entertaining.
Axwell was able to push us to listen to new songs by expertly pairing with well known elements that kept everything familiar, but also new at the same time. Mixing old with old and new with old proved to be the perfect formula for keeping the crowd engaged and also exposing it to a wider variety of beats. The structure was reminiscent of a Kaskade set, and I think I like it for all of the same reasons.
It’s safe to say that the performance was hands down the highlight of my Zoo experience. It proved that SHM’s members are not sitting on their laurels, and it’s just the response I needed for friends who pick on their sets for being repetitive or unimaginative. The more interesting thing now will be to see whether the guys will pursue different sounds or remain similar in their approaches. Steve Angello already appears to be returning to his darker, underground roots, and I can’t wait to see what he and Seb bring out at upcoming gigs. With Size In The Park and ‘All Mixed Up‘ coming up in the next few months, we won’t have to wait long to find out.
Axwell definitely set the bar high for his SHM brethren, but I’m confident that this is a game in which everyone wins: better music all around. Isn’t that the point of this whole thing anyway?
Editor’s Note: The track embeds in this article are as close to the real thing as we could find, but may differ slightly from Axwell’s private bootlegs.
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Chris Martin*
Fixed. Thank you.
Great interview!
Full tracklist!:)
http://www.1001tracklists.com/tracklist/17502_axwell-at-electric-zoo-festival-united-states-2012-09-01.html
The tracklist you listed is pretty much the same i’ve heard in july at milton keynes bowl and last week in ushaia…!
Anyone who knows anything about music was not at axwell and was there to witness one of the most life changing sets I’ve ever seen from Sasha. Great crowd, great vibes and some serious dark real progressive house
lol he plays the same tracks again and again….
this set was the best I’ve herd from Axwell in a long time!
axwell killed it on the main stage, there was twice as many ppl there for axwell than for above and beyond who closed the main stage.
Just saw Steve Angello at XS for Labor Day Weekend. He played a lot of the same bootlegs, like Quasar/Insomnia/Epic and Ladi Dadi/Sing2Me/Alright. Their sets were still slightly different but maybe not as different as we all want them to be.
A&B played a 10x better set. this coming from a longtime house & shm fan. axwell did nothing unexpected
One of the best reviews from DA in a while. Checking out his set.
I almost saw Wolfgang Gartner instead for all the reasons you said.. It would’ve been the worst mistake imaginable. There are times throughout a festival when you check the time wondering how much longer this DJ will play. I didn’t do that once with Axwell, I was way too engaged. The energy was absurd, and the emotion in a Swedish House Mafia track can take you places. When Axwell dropped In My Mind, it was one of the best moments of my life. This set, followed by Above & Beyond… There aren’t even words to describe it.
first 6/7 songs were fresh (including the great opening track- what is that?) but once we heard in my mind we knew it was time to have our minds blown at sasha… i agree with below poster
This is where you’re wrong. Musical elitism is a pointless game with no end. Everyone is entitled to their personal music preferences, that’s what make Festivals so great. There’s something for everyone. Yes, I think all music fans owe it to themselves to check out different stages and artists but no, they’re not bad music fans who know nothing about music if they don’t like it.
I guess I worded that wrong, in fact I told a lot of people they should probably see Axwell if they had never seen Angello, Ingrosso or Axwell before. I just don’t agree that he did anything different for this set except a few new premade bootlegs. In fact if this was last year at ezoo I would’ve probably chosen axwell. Sasha just really blew my mind, it was nowhere near what I was expecting
Everyone in the crowd including myself was in awe when Axwell dropped “Epic”, it was perfect. It caught everyone off-guard. Axwell is nothing close to being predictable or repetitive. He is still on top of his work.
New tommy trash track and dubvision likely to be released on axtone went unmentioned in this article…
He opened with something other then greyhond and his remix of antidote was new as well
Axwell is a huge favorite of mine but I thought his set needed another 30 minutes or so to really breath. I heard Heart Is King begin and couldn’t believe it was almost over. I saw him again last night at a club outside of Boston, MA. He played for 2.5 hours and the set, while similar, FELT a thousand times better. It was the Director’s Cut while the Zoo set was something cut down to fit a running time. Granted, that happens at a festival, you can’t play for forever, but I’ve seen DJs make better use of their time slots. A&B stole Day 2 and the whole Festival. Sorry, Axwell.
The new Tommy Trash remix was the set highlight. Just wow.
the crowd screaming ohhhh!!! at 1:15:54 is priceless and gave me goosebumps and made me wish I was there and not in FL for school!
that wasn’t a remix of antidote:) it was a bootleg of antidote with Hatiras, Will Bailey & Nom De Strip – Swagnum P.I. (Original Mix)
anyone know what the song was right after in my mind