CASMAMENA - From the Bay to the Beach

From Puerto Rico to Brooklyn to Oakland and now to Miami Beach, CASAMENA has taken his deep musical roots and replanted them in some of the most soulful spots in the Western Hemisphere.

Carlos Mena, aka CASAMENA, is a Dominicano music producer and DJ that was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He has produced music for platinum selling artists Arrested Development, Tre Hardson (The Pharcyde), Osunlade’s Yoruba Records, Vega Records, GotSoul Records, Deeper Soul Records, and Phuture Soul to name a few. He's an equal opportunity DJ, rockin' everything from Hip Hop to House to Latin grooves to Afro rhythms. As long as it's got a little funk and soul, he'll give it a spin. His solo debut Hip-Hop Meditations fuses Afro-Cuban music with Hip Hop and has received wonderful reviews from major Hip Hop publications across the country.

We know CASAMENA primarily from his forays into House music, working with such artists as Ezel, Tamara Wellons, Louie Vega, Osunalde, and Atjazz. His podcast, The CASAMENA Radio Hour has been hugely popular for years, and he also throws jammin events from NY to LA to MIA, including his well-known Bembe party.

Carlos just recently moved from his long-time residence in the Bay Area right here to Miami Beach. We can't wait to see what big things he'll be doing in the Magic City! GLOBAILE was there to capture the sunny and sexy welcome party thrown for him at the Clevelander Rooftop in South Beach...Bienvenidos a Miami CASAMENA!

Sander Kleinenberg - This Is...his Yacht Party

Who knew you could make an entire music empire off of two words.... "This is..."

Sander Kleinenberg, yet another Dutch House DJ, has been around for a while. But it was his breakthrough monster hit This is Ibiza that really launched him into superstar DJ status. From there, he immediately capitalized on the catch phrase's marketability, and released This is Miami, followed by This is New York.

Sander is here in Miami for Ultra Music Festival, but he kicked off the festivities with his annual boat party. And what is the boat party called? Yup. "This is....the Ultimate Yacht Party".

Our host Miss Angelina had a chance to hop aboard the Biscayne Lady and check out the madness. Redundant wording aside, this was the ultimate yacht party. You haven't lived until you've watched a Miami sunset over crystal blue waters while sipping cocktails and dancing with an international music-loving crowd...

Here's our video coverage. The song is also by Sander. Guess the title... Yup: "This is...Our Night"...smh

Afrobeta - Back on stage for another Ultra Fest!

Afrobeta have been the darlings of the Miami indy music scene for quite some time now. They swiftly took over the Magic City's underground, and now with their debut album coming out under Ultra Records offshoot label, Do IT, they are set to take over the world!

Miss Angelina had a chance to sit it in on one of their rehearsals as they get ready for their upcoming performance at the Ultra Music Festival this weekend. Check out this interview with the electronic pop duo that everyone has fallen in love with...

Around the World in 6 min! Episode 20

Here's our Ultra Music Festival preview episode of Around the World in 6 min! We go from the USA to the Netherlands to the UK to Germany to show you awesome music videos from the top DJs around the world all coming to Miami for Ultra this week....

Ultra Fest Preview: Boys Noize - Electronic Generation Next

It seems like all the top dogs in the electronic music world are, well, kinda old. (With all due respect). So let's take a moment and give shine to a guy who is representing for the next generation...Boys Noize.

Yup, even in the name you can tell he's a youngin'...Boys Noize is the stage name of Alexander Ridha, a German electronic music DJ/producer. Germany has been dominating the electronic music scene in Europe for a while now, so it's no surprise that this Kraut is killin it.

He's doing what all the kids are doing - fusing a bunch of different sounds and influences together to make an innovative and unique sound of his own. Boys Noize mixes hip hop with disco, with electro sounds with lots of, well, noise. Add impressive live mixing and super psychedelic visuals, and you've got the Boys Noize package deal.

With early support from big dogs like Felix Da Housecat, Boys Noize has gained worldwide recognition and the title of Best Electronic Artist on Beatport 3 years in a row. He's remixed David Lynch, N.E.R.D, Depeche Mode, Snoop Dogg and The Chemical Brothers amongst others, and has worked with big time artists like Kelis, Black Eyed Peas, Spank Rock and Scissor Sisters.

He established his own imprint, Boysnoize Records, in 2005, and in September 2010 celebrated the 50th release on Boysnoize Records as well as the launch of the first sub-label BNR TRAX, which presented its first release in October 2010.

Daaaaaaaamn! This guy is makin MOVES! You can catch him live at the Ultra Music Festival this weekend. We love to see guys like Boys Noize carrying the torch...the future of electronic music is looking bright!!

Ultra Fest Preview: Chemical Brothers - Still Awesome

Nearly 20 years after The Chemical Brothers started playing together, these pioneers are still taking electronic music to the next level.

Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands met in grade school in the United Kingdom back in the '70s. After getting involved in various music projects of their own, the 2 began to DJ together in 1992 under the name The Dust Brothers (after the US production duo famous for their work with the Beastie Boys). They released their first track, a Hip Hop song called Song to the Siren, in 1993 while they were still in university.

From there they started releasing original music & remixes, touring, and getting enough recognition that the original Dust Brothers threatened legal action over use of their name. And so in 1995 they changed their name to The Chemical Brothers, after their ground-breaking original track Chemical Beats, the song that epitomized the duo's genre-defining big beat electronic sound.

From there they released their debut album, Exit Planet Dust (the title inspired by their name change), entering the UK charts at #9. It eventually went on to sell over a million copies worldwide. And they haven't looked back since.

Over the next 15 years they would continue to pioneer their signature big beat sound, win 8 Grammy awards, 5 BRIT awards, and collaborate with the likes of Oasis, Fatboy Slim, The Flaming Lips, Q-Tip, and Michel Gondry amongst others.

They also became heavily involved in writing music for motion picture soundtracks, and contributed to such films as The Butterfly Effect, Hanna and Black Swan.

These guys have held it down over the years, and 7 albums later, they are still kickin' ass! They will be headlining at this year's Ultra Music Festival, no doubt playing tracks off their 7th and most recent studio album, Further. Further is the band’s first album to be released with corresponding short music video films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks. We love this psychedelic groovy video for the song Swoon.

Ultra Fest Preview: Tiësto - #1 DJ in the world...?

Is Tiësto the #1 DJ in the world?

Well, he was named "World’s No.1 DJ" 3 consecutive times by DJ Magazine from 2002 through 2004. But 7 years later, this guy is not only going strong (he's ranked at the #3 spot in 2010), he may be bigger than ever...

Let's go over the facts:

- In January 2011, he was named "The Greatest DJ Of All Time" in a Mixmag poll.

- In 2004, he was the first DJ to play live on stage at the Olympics.
- He's got a wax statue at Madame Tussauds.

- He's reached over 130 million hits in YouTube.

And now he's crossing over to the mainstream, harder than before, with his latest collaboration with Diplo and Busta Rhymes - C'mon.

C'mon has been released on Tiësto's own brand new label, Music Freedom. Tiësto explains, “I want to be able to sign artists and release music that as a fan I would listen to. Musical Freedom allows me to do this and hopefully help out some new and exciting developing artists.” (via Tiesto.com)

Well, Diplo and Busta Rhymes aren't exactly "developing artists" - they've both been in the game for a hot minute. But this recent fusion of House with Hip Hop is certainly a "new and exciting" sound that is taking over the globe, so it's only right that the god of house music himself got in on the trend!

Tiësto will, of course, be headlining at the Ultra Music Festival this week, and Diplo will be there too...so I think it's safe to bet that Busta will be making a "surprise" appearance...anybody want to place a friendly wager? ;)