Armin Van Buuren & W&W - 'D# Fat': Is it a sign of a style change for Armin?

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Labelled as 'Progressive House' by Beatport, Armin Van Buuren's collaboration with W&W is available now: ​

To put this latest release into context, I have found a few choice quotes from Armin regarding house music in his DJ Mag interview:

"I've been really impressed by a lot of the new house guys..All that new energy that they're bringing, I thought 'OK, this is the future'."​
​ "Of course, I 'm jealous of some other DJs and their sound, but I can't change my sound. It would be too far away from my heart. I can't do something I can't love."

And on W&W: ​

​ "Some guys like W&W are playing a more house-based strand of trance, and all the styles are merging. Some people call Swedish House Mafia trance. But people are still experimenting with the harder edge of trance. It is not just one sound."

Could 'D# Fat' be a signal of the beginning of a style ​change for trance legend Armin Van Buuren? We've already seen Armin dabble with more Progressive House sounding tracks in 2012 such as 'We Are Here to Make Some Noise'. With a new album already finished and promised by Armin to be "very different" because he's been "drawn to different musical styles", trance fans should brace themselves as we could see a very different Armin Van Buuren in 2013.

(Source: DJ Mag, ASOT, inthemix)​

ASOT in NYC sells out Madison Square Garden in less than 1 hour!

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Huge news out of New York today as one of the largest A State of Trance events ever organized in North America was sold out in less than one hour! The Armada team along with Made Events sold out all 12,000 tickets at the iconic Madison Square Garden which is a massive accomplishment and a major stepping stone for the Trance genre overall.

Hopefully this is a signal of bigger things to come in future ASOT tours. The Swedish House Mafia also sold out MSG in record time a few months prior to the announcement of their massive One Last Tour which has seen jaw-dropping sell out crowds. Could ASOT do something similar for ASOT 650 in 2014? I hope so.

This year's ASOT 600 'The Expedition' is traveling to far off places like Minsk, Guatemala City, Kuala Lumpur, and Beirut which will create many new Trance fans all over the world. But ASOT 650 should think bigger in 2014 by targeting huge venues in North America just like the Swedish House Mafia did. Cities like L.A, San Francisco, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Chicago should all be put on the calendar. I don't see any reason why A State of Trance cannot sell out the Air Canada centre, Shaw Conference Centre, or BC Place in Canada.

I hope Armin views this sell out at Madison Square Garden as an opportunity to take ASOT 650 and the entire Trance genre to the next level in 2014.  

*Not everyone was happy with the news of a sold out show at MSG, read @TranceInNY's reaction for a different perspective.

And the winning ASOT 600 cities are....

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The State of Trance 600 live broadcast on Youtube just announced the winning cities that will be visited by Armin and his Armada army as part of their ASOT 600 world tour. Next year's ASOT 600 will be branded as 'The Expedition - let's turn the world into a dance floor!' and will span from February 14th, 2013 to April 6th, 2013. The first winners are:

February 16th​, 2013: Mexico City, Mexico
March 1st, 2013: Sao Paulo, Brazil
March 9th, 2013: Beirut, Lebanon
March 15th, 2013: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
March 30th, 2013: New York City, United States
April 6th, 2013: Den Bosch, Netherlands

Please note that these are only ​the 'very first' 6 cities announced as Armin promised there will be more cities revealed in future ASOT broadcasts. Armin also stated that his team are in the process of finalizing various ASOT 600 events with promoters around the world. I certainly hope that is the case for a Canadian city because hosting an ASOT 600 in this country would be a slam dunk.

I honestly thought a Canadian city would have been announced as one of the first 6 cities but fear not Trance fans, there is still hope that 'The Expedition' will land in Canada in 2013. ​

Note for New York: Made Event, the organizers of the Electric Zoo festival in NYC, will be the official organizers for ASOT 600 in New York City. Armin was very excited to announce venue but was held back as it seems that the venue deal has not been finalized. Could they be holding at Madison Square Gardens or the new Barclays Center? That would seem like a strong possibility.

(Picture Source: ASOT Website)​

The ASOT 600 Toronto Campaign Video....Is it indication of big news headed our way?

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​Armin will be unveiling the first cities that will host ASOT 600 events on October 18th.

There's a lot that's interesting with this video which has nothing to do with the video itself but rather the people behind it. According to the credits the video was made by Different Levels, a professional video company, and was sponsored by DJ Mag Canada and Ink Entertainment (Guvernment).

​But wait it gets better. Beginning on Oct 14th there was mounting pressure on the owner of the Twitter account '@ASOT600TORONTO', who actually doesn't live in Toronto but in the Ukraine, to hand over the account to local campaigners. There was a lot of drama that ensued that ultimately lead the account to now be shared between a few locals. It's not quite clear who controls what but it does seem strange as to why all of the last minute activity to control an account that will become considerably less important unless Toronto is selected as one of the ASOT 600 cities.

Is it possible that someone out there might know some key information about an upcoming ASOT location which could explain this professionally made video and last minute power struggle to control a Toronto ASOT600 Twitter account? Maybe. We'll find out in approximately 31 hours. ​

Update: The owner of the @ASOT600Canada account tweeted this a few hours ago: ​

Is it wrong to get excited for the possibility of an ASOT 600 date in Canada at this point? All indications are pointing towards a positive news announcement tomorrow for a Canadian city from the Netherlands. ​