Blasterjaxx
| Blasterjaxx | |
|---|---|
 DJ member Thom Jongkind at Open Beatz 2016 |
|
| General information | |
| origin |
 The hague
|
| Genre (s) | Big room , house , dirty house |
| founding | 2010 |
| Website | blasterjaxx.com |
| Founding members | |
Producer, DJ |
Thom Jongkind |
Producer, DJ |
Leon Vielvoije (until 2012) |
| Current occupation | |
Producer, DJ |
Thom Jongkind |
producer |
Idir Makhlaf (since 2012) |
Blasterjaxx (also BlasterJaxx ) is a Dutch DJ duo, consisting of the two DJs and producers Thom Jongkind and Idir Makhlaf. Makhlaf joined the project in 2012 due to the departure of founding member Leon Vielvoije. They celebrated their breakthrough with their debut single Faith . The duo mainly represents the electro house genre and in particular its subgenre big room and, since 2017, the future bass sector .
Career
Until 2012: foundation and musical beginnings
While Thom Jongkind was initially concentrating on his studies, he began playing in various clubs with his friend Leon Vielvoije and producing his own first songs. In 2010 they decided to join forces as a duo. They formed the project "Blasterjaxx" and started it with the production of unofficial remixes. They started in the Dirty-Dutch genre, which still influences their big room sound today. A few months after releasing their first remixes, the song La Vaca was released on the record label "The Drughouse Recordings". Thom noticed early on that as a duo they were making great strides in terms of producing and that their fanbase was growing. Shortly afterwards they received the request for a contract with the record label "Defected Records", which they signed.
However, the relationship between the producers quickly began to break up and Vielvoije left the project. For the time being, Jongkind continued the “Blasterjaxx” project alone. In an interview, the duo said that at this point in time, Idir Makhlaf kept visiting the studio as a fan and wanted to prove his talent there. He became aware of the project while studying together. Jongkind and his manager saw potential and offered Makhlaf to join the project as a producer for the time being. This happened towards the end of 2011. In collaboration with producer D-Rashid, they released their first EP in 2012, entitled Reborn . The two songs included Reborn and Where We Go were able to advance to the top 20 of the Beatport Top 100 within a few days. Various tracks then appeared for download on the Internet and on music portals such as Spotify .
2013: International breakthrough with Faith
In March 2013, the song Bermuda was released with which they established themselves in the big room with a higher quality style. Together with producer Dave Till they produced the song Rock Like This . Till released the track on Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike's record label "Smash the House". Only a month later, Loud & Proud followed with Billy The Kid. Also in the summer the Koala EP was published, which the duo describe as a decisive release for the upswing of their career.
Puzzle followed on August 5, 2013 . This was created in collaboration with Quintino, who reached number one in the Dutch charts last year with his song Epic . Three weeks later, Koala was released from their EP as a remix single. In September 2013 they released the single Faith on the record label " Ultra Records ", which is sung by the German singer Ziya. The song reached the top 20 in Sweden and stayed there for 27 weeks. After a short time the track reached platinum status and became a club hit.
In particular, the song was promoted by the also Dutch DJ Hardwell , who then recorded the duo on his record label " Revealed Recordings ". Her debut on "Revealed" was her track Fifteen , which Hardwell had previously reworked. Further festival successes appeared until the end of 2013 with tracks such as Snake or Our Soldiers . At the end of 2013, the duo finally achieved entry into the DJ Mag Top 100, in which they reached number 71.
2014: Mystica & increasing festival popularity
In 2014 they released the song Mystica on Hardwell's record label , the vocal version of which Werewolf followed in April 2014. The vocals are again from Ziya. The song could celebrate successes all over Europe. Shortly after their release, they were in the upper half of many Central European iTunes charts and number one in the Beatport Top 100. Furthermore, they were able to enter the Austrian single charts and only just missed their placement in Germany.
This was followed by all appearances at festivals such as the Ultra Music Festival 2014 in Miami, where they played a large number of new songs, including the song Echo , which was released a short time later on Nicky Romero's record label "Protocol Recordings", and the track Rocket , the was created in collaboration with the Dutch trance and big room duo W&W . In July 2014, they hit one million fans on Facebook. As a thank you, they made the song Vision available for free download.
In parallel to their own releases, they are also active as remixers. They mixed the title track for Armin van Buuren's single Save My Night , Laidback Luke & Dimitri Vegas & Like Mikes More as well as Tiësto's Adagio For Strings . Blasterjaxx 'remix for the world hit Tsunami was also made available for sale as a single single by Dvbbs and Borgeous . The duo received further remix commissions from musicians such as Afrojack , Hardwell , Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, David Guetta and Steve Aoki .
After the song You Found Me with vocals by the US singer Courtney Jenaé was released on December 12, 2014 via "Spinnin 'Records", Blasterjaxx started 2015 with two more singles. It all started with the track Beautiful World , which she played with Dutch hardstyle duo D-Block & S-te-Fan produced. Although it was assumed that, similar to the cooperation between W&W and Headhunterz, a mixture of hardstyle and electro-house would emerge, the production turned out to be a predominantly bigroom-heavy track. The song is sung by the American singer-songwriter Ryder, known for her collaboration with the Dutch DJ and producer Dyro. The track received almost exclusively positive reviews and was able to advance to the top of the Beatport Top 100.
The duo reached 13th place in the 2014 DJ-Mag elections.
2015: Break from Idir Makhlaf
At the Ultra Music Festival in March 2015 they played a large number of new songs. Including the tracks Freak You Well together with DOD and Ghost in the Machine in collaboration with DJ MOTi and singer-songwriter Jonathan Mendelsohn. The latter has meanwhile been announced for July 3, 2015. At the same time they released the song Push Play for free download. This was produced together with Justin Prime. In April 2015, the long-awaited track Forever was released as a single. Like You Found Me, the lyrics were sung by singer Courtney Jenaé. Long before that, a remake by the German DJ duo Jaxx & Vega was released , which was called several hundred thousand times. On June 1, 2015, the song Bowser was released on Hardwell's record label "Revealed Recordings". The track was recorded together with W&W. The two received very positive reviews for it at the Ultra Music Festival.
The events were announced in a Facebook post under the title “A massage from Idir”. Makhlaf suffered several panic attacks and stress and lifestyle had a very negative effect on his health. At the beginning of December 2015 it will probably continue for a longer period of time that Thom Jongkind will represent Blasterjaxx alone on stage and Idir Makhlaf will take over a large part of the studio work.
At the same time, the release of the long-awaited song Heartbreak was announced. The track was played several times in 2014 and the vocals were assigned to Keri Hilson in advance . However, the actual singer turned out to be the Canadian singer-songwriter Delaney Jane. The final version is also a reproduction, which is stylistically very different from the previous ones and, apart from Big-Room, also covers the area of pop. The release of the song took place on November 30th, 2015 and quickly advanced to the top 15 of the Beatport charts. The single is also the first release of her own record label "Maxximize Records". The label is an imprint of "Spinnin 'Records". Releases on "Maxximize" followed by Jewelz & Sparks , Timmy Trumpet and Dannic , among others .
In the DJ-Mag elections, they slipped to 19th place.
2016: experiments with other genres
On February 26, 2016, Hardwell presented the upcoming single Soldier in the “Hardwell-on-Air” podcast , which Blasterjaxx recorded together with the US EDM formation Breathe Carolina . With The Silmarillia , the duo released a cover song for the song Silmarillia by the trance duo Carlo in May 2016 . At the beginning of August 2016, Hit Me feat. Go Comet! the third collaboration with DBSTF.
Also at the beginning of August 2016, the collaboration with Olly James, premiered at the Ultra Music Festival 2015, was released. The song was introduced by the duo themselves as Phoenix , but appeared on iTunes under the title Asteroid , which caused confusion. In addition, the single was not announced by any of the performers and the record label was the largely unknown label "MMII Music", which has no connection to the trio. After no statement about the release was made to date, Blasterjaxx posted a picture on their Facebook profile on June 29, 2017 with the subtitle: Who remembers Phoenix? Both Makhlaf and James can be seen in the studio, which indicates the production of the song. James described the release on "MMII Music" and the resulting change in title as " fake ".
In the same month, Going Crazy, the second collaboration with Hardwell after Fifteen, was released as the official single after it was already on his "Revealed" collaboration in June 2016.
Big Bird , inspired by the LA-style techno track James Brown Is Dead , was released as a follow-up single on October 3, 2016. In September 2016, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike announced that their originally canceled collaboration with Blasterjaxx was being voted on coming free tracks would be at the top. In the 123rd episode of their Maxximize-on-Air podcast, they then presented their new version of Insanity , which was first presented to the public in 2013 . The Big Room track was released as a free download on October 18, 2016.
On November 12, 2016, the song Heart Starts To Beat was released , which was produced in collaboration with the Italian DJ duo Marnik. In mid-December 2016 they released a remix for The Chainsmokers ' Setting Fires . On December 30, 2016, the track No Sleep followed , which advanced to 15th place in the Beatport Top 100. Another remix was made to Hey Baby by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Diplo .
The duo reached number 43 on the 2016 DJ Mag Charts.
2017: The XX-Files
In January 2017, Blasterjaxx made a guest appearance on the 300th episode of Hardwell's " Hardwell-On-Air " podcast. In an interview there, they announced their upcoming single Black Rose , which will be sung by Jonathan Mendelson, as well as a larger project, the result of which they announced for March 2017. When this turned out to be an EP called The XX-Files , the first release of which was Collide , which was recorded with David Spekter. This was already published on February 18, 2017 in selected download stores. The songs More with Mister Blonde, which is their first Future Bass production, and the Black Rose were decoupled as further singles . The EP was released on March 10, 2017.
On May 8, 2017, the song Savage was released as the first single from their second part of the XX-Files . The EP was released on June 2, 2017 and has the title addition "Festival Edition", which alludes to the style of the songs contained on the EP. In addition to a number of new productions, the track Neptune , first presented in 2015, was also included. The drop of the song has been changed in the meantime, but is included on the EP in its original version.
On July 7th, 2017 they released the songs IHNI (I Have No Idea) and Malefic as a free download in combination with a "Blasterjaxx-Booster-Pack". The latter is based on a demo from 2015. Ten days later, on July 17, 2017, the big room song Temple was released . In August 2017, the much calmer song All I Ever Wanted with producer Tom Swoon followed.
In October 2017, the duo released the song Bizarre with the singer Uhre. This is based on the fundamentals of the future bass genre. A short time later, the song Narco appeared , a collaboration with Timmy Trumpet , with whom they returned to the big room pattern.
2018: return to the big room
On January 15, 2018, Blasterjaxx and Olly James officially released the track Phoenix on “Maxximize”, whereby the unverified release of the track as asteroid from 2016 finally turned out to be “fake”. This version is the one that was played at the Ultra Music Festival 2015, replacing the original version from 2014. The original drop from 2014 was taken up again in the new Gotham production . The song advanced to the top half of the Beatport charts.
On March 26, 2018, the big room song 1 Second followed , which was described as a fusion of “romantic lyrics” and “science fiction mood”. The aggressiveness of the piece is said to have been compensated for by bouncy influences. The song Rio was released in May 2018 . This takes up the melody of the song Samba de Janeiro by Bellini from 1997. The cover track was premiered at Tomorrowland Brasil 2016.
In June 2018 the track Switch was released , which they produced together with the Dutch DJ and producer duo Bassjackers . The track has been supported by Hardwell and Tiësto, among others, since spring 2018. On July 13th, 2018 Blasterjaxx presented the song Bigroom Never Dies as the next single. This was created in collaboration with Hardwell and is their third joint collaboration after Fifteen and Going Crazy . The song refers to the big room house music style that both musicians and projects predominantly represent. The song had over 6.5 million clicks on Spotify by the end of the year.
2019: First studio album
On January 5, 2019, the duo announced that an announcement would follow the following Monday, January 7, 2019. It was the release of a studio album that would be due for the second part of 2019. The title of the album was announced as Perspective and work is expected to have started in early 2017. Not only festival tracks, but also songs for other target groups should have been created. Furthermore, with the album productions they justified the long time in which they did not release any new music.
The first single from the studio album was released on March 22, 2019. This is called Super Friends and was sung by the British singer Jack Wilby. Originally a rap art from Example was also included; however, this was removed for the final version. On March 25, 2019, Jongkind played a large part of the new productions during an appearance on the radio station Slam! . On April 19, 2019, Children of Today was the second release from the studio album.
Members
Current:
Former:
- Leon Vielvoije (born February 3, 1991 in Rotterdam )
Discography
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thom due to Idir's break at Airbeat One 2016 in Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
EPs
| year | title | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Blasterjaxx | First published: December 18, 2010 |
| 2012 | Reborn |
First published: December 3rd, 2012 (with D-Rashid) |
| 2013 | Koala bear | First published: March 21, 2013 |
| 2017 | XX files | First published: March 10, 2017 |
| XX Files (Festival Edition) | First published: June 2, 2017 |
Singles
| year | title | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | La Vaca | First published: September 30, 2010 |
| Kingston |
First published: October 7, 2010 (feat.Royal Flavor) |
|
| Bambu |
First published: October 28, 2010 (with Chaosz) |
|
| Africa |
First published: November 9, 2010 (with Retrick Abigail) |
|
| Like Thiz | First published: December 30, 2010 | |
| 2011 | Escucha |
First published: February 7, 2011 (with Carlos Barbosa) |
| Blossom | First published: May 26, 2011 | |
| Dopenez Anthem | First published: September 1, 2011 | |
| 2012 | Toca Flute |
First published: January 30, 2012 (with Carlos Barbosa) |
| Congo Longo | ||
| Bomberjack |
First published: February 2, 2012 (with Firebeatz ) |
|
| Faya |
First published: April 12, 2012 (Free-Track) |
|
| Reborn |
First release: December 3rd, 2012 (double single) |
|
| Where We Go | ||
| 2013 | Bermuda | First published: March 26, 2013 |
| Rock Like This |
First published: May 6, 2013 (with Dave Till) |
|
| Loud & Proud |
First published: June 4, 2013 (with Billy The Kid) |
|
| puzzle |
First published: August 5, 2013 (with Quintino) |
|
| Koala bear |
First release: August 26, 2013 (incl. Remixes) |
|
| Faith |
First published: September 2nd, 2013 (feat. Ziya) |
|
| Fifteen |
First published: September 9, 2013 (with Hardwell ) |
|
| That big |
First published: September 20, 2013 (with Yves V ) |
|
| Snake | First published: November 15, 2013 | |
| Our Soldiers |
First published: November 29, 2013 (Free-Track) |
|
| 2014 | Mystica | First published: January 6, 2014 |
| titanium |
First published: February 3, 2014 (with Badd Dimes) |
|
| Mystica (werewolf) |
First published: February 21, 2014 (feat. Ziya) |
|
| astronaut |
First published: March 3, 2014 (with Ibranovski) |
|
| echo | First published: April 7, 2014 | |
| Rocket |
First published: April 21, 2014 (with W&W ) |
|
| Legend Comes To Life | First published: July 14, 2014 | |
| vision |
First published: July 17th, 2014 (Free-Track) |
|
| Gravity | First published: August 8, 2014 | |
| Lucky Number 13 |
First published: November 4th, 2014 (Free-Track) |
|
| You Found Me |
First published: December 12, 2014 (feat.Courtney Jenae) |
|
| 2015 | Beautiful World |
First published: January 5th, 2015 (with DBSTF feat.Ryder ) |
| No place like home |
First published: February 20, 2015 (feat. Rosette) |
|
| Push play |
First published: March 23, 2015 (free track) with Justin Prime |
|
| Forever |
First published: April 28, 2015 (feat.Courtney Jenae) |
|
| Bowser |
First published: June 1, 2015 (Free-Track) |
|
| Ghost in the Machine |
First release: July 3rd, 2015 (with MOTi feat. Jonathan Mendelson) |
|
| Heartbreak |
First published: November 30, 2015 (feat. Delaney Jane) |
|
| 2016 | Parnassia |
First published: January 18, 2016 (with DBSTF) |
| Get ready! Blasterjaxx Edit |
First published: February 23, 2016 (by Boostedkids) |
|
| Soldier |
First published: February 23, 2016 (with Breathe Carolina ) |
|
| The Silmarillia | First published: May 23, 2016 | |
| Mad Hatter |
First published: July 7th, 2016 (Free-Track) |
|
| Hit me |
First published: August 1st, 2016 (with DBSTF feat. Go Comet!) |
|
| asteroid |
First published: August 1, 2016 (with Olly James; unofficial release) |
|
| Going crazy |
First published: August 29, 2016 (with Hardwell) |
|
| Big Bird | First published: October 3, 2016 | |
| Insanity |
First published: October 18, 2016 (with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike ; Free-Track) |
|
| Heart Starts To Beat |
First published: November 21, 2016 (with Marnik) |
|
| No sleep | First published: December 31, 2016 | |
| 2017 | Collide The XX-Files |
First published: February 18, 2017 (feat.David Spekter) |
| More The XX Files |
First published: February 25, 2017 (feat. Mister Blonde) |
|
| Black Rose The XX-Files |
First published: February 27, 2017 (feat.Jonathan Mendelsohn) |
|
| Savage The XX-Files (Festival Edition) |
First published: May 8, 2017 | |
| Malefic Blasterjaxx Booster Pack |
First published: July 7th, 2017 (Free-Track) |
|
| IHNI Blasterjaxx Booster Pack |
First published: July 7th, 2017 (Free-Track) |
|
| Temple | First published: July 17, 2017 | |
| Roots Blasterjaxx Edit |
First published: Aug 14, 2017 (by Crystal Lake) |
|
| All I Ever Wanted |
First published: September 1, 2017 (with Tom Swoon) |
|
| Bizarre |
First published: October 6, 2017 (feat. Clock) |
|
| Flight 49 Blasterjaxx Edit |
First published: October 30, 2017 (by Wasback & D3FAI) |
|
| Narco |
First published: November 13, 2017 (with Timmy Trumpet) |
|
| Follow | First published December 15, 2017 | |
| 2018 | Phoenix |
First published: January 15, 2018 (with Olly James) |
| 1 second | First published: March 26, 2018 | |
| Rio | First published May 7, 2018 | |
| Switch |
First published: June 15, 2018 (with Bassjackers) |
|
| Bigroom Never Dies |
First published: July 13, 2018 (with Hardwell) |
|
| 2019 | Super friends |
First published: March 29, 2019 (feat. Jack Wilby) |
| Children of Today | First published: April 19, 2019 |
Remixes
2010:
- Merlin Miles - Take a Bow
2011:
- Carlos Barbosa - Come On
- Rob Boskamp - Born to do This
2012:
- D-Rashid feat. Tyrah Morena - Seu Amigo
- Steve Aoki , Angger Dimas, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike - Phat Brahms
- Junior Rodgers feat. Jemell - Touch Your Fire
2013:
- Tom Staar - Kingdom
- Tiësto feat. BT - Love Comes Again
- Billy The Kit feat. Nathan Duvall - Burn It Down
- Mind Electric - Scream
- Tiësto - Adagio For Strings
- Junior Rodgers - Vamos De Rumba
- Quintino & Alvaro - World In Our Hands
- Tiësto, Quintino & Alvaro - United (Ultra Music Festival Anthem) (with Tiësto )
- Laidback Luke & Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike - More
- Manuel Galey - Show Me
- Dvbbs & Borgeous - Tsunami
- Pascal & Pearce feat. Lcnvl - Desperado
- Kato & Safri Duo feat. Bjornskov - Dimitto (Let Go)
- Afrojack feat. Spree Wilson - Spark
2014:
- Ayu - Feel The Love
- Armin van Buuren - Save My Night
- Jack Eye Jones - Far East
- David Guetta feat. Sam Martin - Lovers on the Sun
- Bassjackers - Get Ready
2016:
- Steve Aoki feat. Sherry St. Germain - Heaven On Earth
- Nytrix feat. Dev - Electric Walk
- BOOSTEDKIDS - Get Ready!
- Tritonal feat. Chris Ramos & Shanahan - This Is Love
- The Chainsmokers feat. XYLØ - Setting Fires
- Krewella - Marching On
2017:
- Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike vs. Diplo feat. Deb's Daughter - Hey Baby
- Kraantje Pappie - Pompen
- Maeva Carter - Life Is Short
Individual evidence
- ↑ BPM Radio Australia: Blasterjaxx Interview - BPM RADIO Australia on "YouTube"
- ↑ Top 100 DJs 2014. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 27, 2015 ; accessed on October 28, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Interview with Mayday
- ↑ Christine Mattappillil: Blasterjaxx Reboots “The Silmarillia”!
- ↑ The Silmarillia on "whosampled"
- ↑ Henry Einck: Blasterjaxx & DBSTF feat. Go Comet! - Hit Me on Dance Charts
- ↑ Blasterjaxx vs. Olly James - Asteroid on iTunes
- ↑ Blasterjaxx: Who remembers Phoenix? on Facebook"
- ↑ Findance: Blasterjaxx releases a new music video
- ↑ Timo Büschleb: Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike vs. Blasterjaxx - Insanity on dance charts
- ^ Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Facebook post
- ↑ Insanity on "WeRaveYou"
- ↑ Rob McCallum: Hardwell On Air Celebrates 300th Episode with Live Stream of Blasterjaxx, Jay Hardway, more on " DJ-Mag "
- ↑ Hardwell: Hardwell On Air 300 LIVE + Special Guests LIVE.DJHARDWELL.COM # HOA300 on " YouTube "
- ↑ Post on "VK"
- ↑ Timo Büschleb: Progressive House hit with goose bumps vocals - Blasterjaxx & David Spekter - Collide on " Dance Charts "
- ↑ "Blasterjaxx & David Spekter - Collide" on "Beatport"
- ↑ Blasterjaxx Release Two More Tracks Ahead of Upcoming EP on "The Media-Nanny"
- ↑ More on " Beatport "
- ↑ Kanvar Kohli: Blasterjaxx drop an amazing new single, "Black Rose" on "Dancing Astronaut"
- ↑ Exclusive Interview Blasterjaxx: 'Always Trying to Evolve the Big-Room-Sound on "Spinnin' Records"
- ↑ Blasterjaxx - 1 Second on "EDM Reviewer"
- ↑ BlasterjaxxOfficial: Album announcement on "Facebook"
- ↑ Chart sources: AT SE
Web links
- Official website
- Blasterjaxx on MusicBrainz (English)