Written by: Sam Wolloch
Something fun for the pregame to Electric Daisy Carnival Orlando 2019, I thought I’d share the EDM that got me here on the 17 hour road trip from New York City with my shotgun Astro Boy. We decided to get hype for the festival by listening to old sets from prior Insomniac events like EDC and Electric Forest and I wanted to start by avoiding many of the artists on tap this weekend. So here it is, awesome EDM sets we played from Soundcloud while we cruised I-95.
OK so I lied, so sorry for the commercials, but the first set I put on is from Youtube because I love the energy of Elephante 2019 EDCLV. The combination of his tasty edits for the tracks on his two studio albums and the pop songs he mixes in and out of as he plays the sunrise set Friday at Circuit Grounds make this such a feel good set to get us started. Plus if someone (like my shotgun) tells me they aren’t that familiar with Elephante, well here’s what he’s all about, Progressive House at its finest!
Next up was Dillon Francis 2019 EDCLV, as we both agreed that he put on a dope performance for his most recent stop at Brooklyn’s Avant Gardner. You can hear a few of his newer releases debuting on the EDC stage and there’s nothing else like this Moombahton legend as we continue to chat it up getting to know each other.
At this point it was getting close to midnight so I needed some classic dubstep to sustain me. I turned to Flux Pavilion 2015 EDCO, a great set from the golden era of UK dubstep. This isn’t the last time I would turn back the clock a bit, but this trip down memory lane was just what the doctor ordered as made it to Maryland.
For my last set of the night before lights out, I clicked over to the recent Zeds Dead 2019 EForest to give it a listen for the first time. I really felt how excited they were to be back at EForest and enjoyed their vibey set as we importantly cleared Metro DC into Virginia before calling it a night.
Bright-eyed and ready to roll at 6AM, I chose the Kygo 2019 EForest set to get good vibes going to start the day. I can’t help but put a smile on my face and sing along to Kygo’s music, and his headlining set this past summer is a great example of his outstanding work, like his Whitney Huston rework “Higher Love.”
Keeping it at Electric Forest, but getting in for some wonky wubs, the epic experience that was the Subtronics 2019 EForest set played next. I enjoyed all the shoutouts to the other artists he featured in his set and my goodness that last half hour left me feeling extra funky once Astro Boy was up and at em to keep me company.
One of my favorite artists right now, I dialed in the Ekali 2019 EDCLV set he played near the end of the weekend at Circuit Grounds. He worked through different genres skillfully as the energy flows through his mindful mixes, and I’m all kinds of in love with his Illenium collab “Hard to Say Goodbye” that Ekali debuts at the end of the set. We finally decide to turn up the hype and listen to a few EDCO 2019 artists play sets in prior years.
We fixed that by turning to the Alison Wonderland 2016 EDCO set, where she triumphantly mixes through her tracks from her first album. It is fun fun listening to older sets and talking about how much artists grow as they fill out their libraries and gain experience. Plenty to love about the old Alison, but very excited to hear her play again in 2019!
Ditto for the Slander 2017 EDCO set, it was a masterpiece two years ago and is still a great listen today. I expect a bunch of their new tracks and heavy-hitting edits for their set this year, and look forward to one of the standout sets on my Friday lineup. And with that, we pulled into our lunch stop at my guilty pleasure, Cracker Barrel. Something about that country cooking appeals to my shamelessly metropolitan mindset.
Back to some classics, I dialed it way back for Arty 2014 EDCO as this is the artist I’m likely to start my weekend with Friday afternoon at Kinetic Field. Feel good house music never did anybody wrong, and I’m fairly certain it even helped to settle down all that country cooking rolling around in my belly.
Staying on theme with house music, I’ve really been impressed from what I’ve heard from this next artist. Lo and behold, his set from last year: Dombresky 2018 EDCO. If you live by the motto “House Every Weekend,” then this is the artist for you. The hype is real for his Saturday evening Stereo Bloom performance.
From here I slowed down the pace with Troyboi 2017 EDCO as we got to Georgia, feeling the need for some bass heavy hip hop flow to keep me from bouncing around the car to more house music. Admittedly I spent the next hour grinding on my car seat to his filthy beats instead.
With the finish line in sight I sent it for one of my all-time favorites, Adventure Club 2016 EDCLV. Their b2b with Bear Grillz at sunset on Friday is one of my most anticipated sets for EDCO 2019, but that is nothing new for this self-admitted Adventure Club fanboy. And finally onto our last state, we crossed the Florida – Georgia Line!
With my road trip buddy Astro Boy finished with his college essays, I let him pick out our next set, which was BTSM 2019 EForest. I was pleasantly surprised by this set with a bunch of really tasty heavy bass remixes for SIKAL (Songs I Know And Love.)
And for our last set of the trip, we fittingly agreed on Zhu 2019 EDCLV since we both will be seeing Zhu as our last set Sunday night at EDCO 2019. There is something sexy and seductive about his brand of bass music and it was just the set to ease us into Orlando.
And there you have it, fifteen wonderful EDM sets that painted the musical canvas of our car trip from New York City down to Orlando for the festivities of Electric Daisy Carnival 2019. I hope you enjoyed the read a little more than I enjoyed that drive. As always, check out my twitter @SamWolloch for quick clip videos and coverage of #EDCO2019 all weekend long for our #MoonLandingFam.
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