Mugasha Aux

Mugasha has launched to the public today and is, officially, out of beta! We have been working hard for the past 6 months to make this happen. I remember a few months back, we started talking about launching in May...and then July and now finally August 20th, 2009. So you might be wonder what does this all mean? Or more importantly how does this affect you?

So what does the launch mean?

Mugasha is available to everyone and its free. You don't have to be registered or logged in to listen to music. We want you to interact and have made the signup process simple, but it is not required. 

We've launched a bunch of new features and refinements that make listening to music easier, but the most dramatic difference is the front page. The new homepage is a snapshot of what's happening on Mugasha. It shows you what's new and hot. For new and casual listeners, the homepage is a good place to start and discover music. 

The browse pages have also been enhanced. You can browse sets by popularity and newness. You are able to search tracks and artists. The new artist pages make it really easy to find music and events related to that individual artist. 

What else? Well, we are going big... Today we have launched 4 massive new shows on Mugasha!

We've got a special event lined up for you tomorrow. Simon Lee & Alvin, the duo behind Radio KUL, are going to be releasing their 100th episode and have a dope 3 hour show hosted by Aruna and guestmixers Myon & Shane 54, Jaytech, and Boom Jinx. Believe me when I say, it's not to be missed.

So make sure you come back over the next 7 days to check out the new content and releases by new artists. 

What else is new?

Mugasha Aux

We recently launched Mugasha Aux (http://aux.mugasha.com). It's our blog where we post electronic music news, reviews, interviews, etc. Pretty much all things EDM (Electronic Dance Music). AND we want you to contribute! We've set is up so that all of you can post to it. Just write up your post, attach your pictures/videos/etc and email it to: post@mugasha-aux.posterous.com. It'll get posted automagically, thanks to Posterous. So start posting up your event pictures, album reviews, cool videos, and everything else.

Badges

We've made a bunch of badges for you so you can show off your Mugasha love to all of your friends on your Facebook, MySpace, website, etc. You can see a couple of examples below. Head to the Badges page (http://mugasha.com/badges) to copy the code to paste into your site.

What is next?

More content -- We are constantly working with Artists and labels to get more podcasts and more electronic music on Mugasha. We hear you. We know you want more DnB, more progressive, more ambient, techno, chill, lounge, trance, minimal etc. and we want to bring it to you. Our goal is to launch 2-4 new shows each month. 

More Facebook and Twitter -- We know many of you spend a lot of time on those sites and we want to integrate those sites even better. Expect Twitter login in the next few months. 

Mobile - We are working on our first mobile app already. It is going to be on Android (Google) and it will be very cool. It will even play music in the background. *sigh iPhone*. iPhone users, stay tuned :) 

Artist platform -- We want to make it really easy for Artists to promote and bring content to Mugasha and other sites. We want to make the process simple for them. More on this soon. 

Advertising and Sponsors 

Mugasha is a great way to get your product out. We have some great packages, email us for more info partners@mugasha.com

Thank you. Seriously, thank you.

Thanks for being a part our small company. We've got some big dreams, and your guys' support and feedback keep us going. If you're diggin' Mugasha, we'd love if you invited your friends, made blog posts, and got the word out. Let's build an army. This is just the beginning!

Cheers! 

Team Mugasha (Akshay, Justin, and our awesome interns)

Hello there! We are Simon Lee and Alvin from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and you may know us from our weekly radio show, Radio KUL, which will soon be on Mugasha too! We're extremely excited about Mugasha, it sounds like a terrific idea!

We were also told that we can contribute to this blog! Well we hope you'll be listening to our show on Mugasha soon, but till then we'd like to share with you one of our latest interviews. Through our e-zine, Radio KUL Extra, we talk to some of the artistes and guestmixers featured on our radio show, and we recently interviewed a Canadian DJ and producer name Dezza after we featured his track "Believe". Here is the interview, and we hope you'll enjoy reading it!

Dezza An Overnight Success

While most DJs and producers climb a steep ladder to reach recognition for their music, battling the heavyweights and the usual suspects of the mainstream scene, some are lucky enough to achieve overnight attention, with nothing more than just a single track made on their laptop as an experiment, or an irresistible bootleg that’s clever and pure pleasure.

In our opinion, one such recent example is 25 year old Canadian DJ Dezza.

An “almost accidental” Dezza bootleg of a sample from the keyboard riff of Blessed Union of Souls’ “I Believe” began cropping up on Tiesto’s live sets and on the Internet slightly over a month ago. Those who heard it for the first time got the same reaction as us – It sounds so good, and then your mind races to remember where you’ve heard that chorus before, and next you wonder “How come nobody thought of this earlier!”

What an amazing craft of genius.

Dezza is now reaping the fruits of massive radio airplay (we told you it works!). (He has even revealed exclusively here that a vocal rework with the original singer could be in the works!)

The track has gone on to be a killer tune and a lethal weapon ever since, and now Dezza finds himself receiving the kind of attention he never even dreamed of. In less than a year of winning a producer competition organised by Pete Tong, he’s already had close to 20 releases on various labels, and now with “Believe” taking over the dance masses by storm, he’s eager to churn out more as the public awaits his next move.

Can the ‘aircraft-traffic-dude by day’ keep up with the limelight and impress us one more time?
Radio KUL Extra tracks Dezza down for this exclusive!

Dezza

“Believe” is taking over the world by storm! How and when did you come up with this track, and how did it get so much attention?
I made the tune earlier in the year in January. I was over at a friend’s house who produces hip hop. He showed me a beat he was working on with this sample and I said, “Oh yea! I remember this tune”, and that was it! I jokingly told him not to tell me what the sample was or I would steal his idea. Eventually I remembered what the sample was and tried to piece it together to make a hip hop beat. My ideas obviously changed and I came up with what you hear! The attention has come solely from the Internet. With the help from Spartacus Inc’s Dan Mckie, we flooded the web with the tune in hopes of heavy support so that we could go big with the tune, and it worked!

Has it been signed? When can we expect a release?
The tune has not been signed yet, hopefully I can get it somewhere within the next couple of months. The sample is the main issue. I’m just as anxious as everyone else is to get it released.

Why did you choose to sample Blessed Union of Souls? And can we expect a vocal mix?
When I heard my friend play the sample, it immediately took me back to when the song was in heavy rotation on the radio in the mid 90’s. I was about 11 years old and just starting to obsess with music and I loved this tune! I am in the process of getting vocals done from the original lead singer of the band, Elliot Sloan, so yes, a vocal mix can be expected in the future.

Tell us more about your other releases before this.
Well, I’ve got quite a few releases in the last few months. It all started with my winning of Tongs Bedroom Bedlam. Since then I’ve had around 20 releases from different labels. I’m new to the business so I’m trying to put out as many quality tunes as possible. Most of my tracks are fall into the progressive house genre.

Are you currently doing any live gigs? Where can we catch you on the decks?
Though I absolutely LOVE DJ’ing, I’m focusing mainly on production at the moment. I recently opened up for Wolfgang Gartner. The scene in my small city is flooded with DJ’s, it’s nearly impossible to get into a regular gig unless you are friends with the promoters and even then it’s hard because they have people hounding them all the time for bookings. So I’ve decided to focus more on production, get my tracks out there, and hopefully get booked. I hate Politics. Boo. =P

Describe your musical style in 3 words.
Melodic. Emotional. Happy.

Are you DJing and producing full time?
Well, honestly, full time I work for Canada’s national airline and play outside with airplanes all day, you know, the guy with the light sabers that guides the planes around? That’s me! Haha. I’ll come home after a long day of work and work on productions and remixes until about 530 every morning and then do it all over again the next day. It takes up all of my time, but I love (it).

So with all the attention, what’s next?
I will try to release as many high quality tunes as possible, keep gaining support, make as many contacts as I can, and eventually I hope to one day be able to travel and DJ all over the world.

And a quick message to everyone reading this!
Thanks everyone for the support and all the great feedback I’ve been getting from all of you! Watch out for many more tracks coming this summer from me =)

Dezza is living proof that you could be the next superstar producer and you won’t have to quit your dayjob! You will hear Dezza’s “Believe” on all Simon Lee and Alvin mixes soon!

More info :

Well that's our first blog post here. We hope to bring you more articles from our site and of course, our radio show on Mugasha soon! Till next time!

It's been a long time coming, but the legendary Greg Wilson has finally been featured on the Essential Mix (Essential Mix - January 17). Greg Wilson was one of the very first artists in the UK to actually mix two records together, and was the first DJ to mix live on British TV in the early 80's. The video below is from that live broadcast. It's crazy to see how alien the idea of mixing two records together was at that time. Enjoy the uber 80's haircuts and fashions!

Greg took a two decade hiatus from DJing to become a record producer, but came back in 2003 and didn't miss a beat. He's become more popular than ever before. His style still draws on the music of the 1970's and 1980's. He comes on strong with soul, disco, and fuuuunnnnk! It's not all retro tunes, though. He dabbles in some modernism to keep it fresh, e.g. Track #20: Gotta Keep Workin' It (GW MashUp). You heard right, that's a Missy Elliot mashup amongst the funk!

Greg Wilson pretty much kills it on this Essential Mix. Have a listen. Stand out moments for me are:

Track #8: Psycho Killer (GW Edit) - Talking Heads

Track #26: You Can't Have Your Cake And Eat It Too (GW Edit) - B.T. (Breanda Taylor)

Track #45: Pacific State (GW Edit) - 808 State