This weekend, some of EDM’s most coveted acts will board the Norwegian’s Jewel Class mega ship, “Pearl,” to set sail from Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica and back, from Jan. 22-26 as a part of the world’s first and biggest cruise festival dedicated to dance music, the Groove Cruise. Organizers credit this year’s strong lineup for the sold-out, weekend-long event and EDM music magicians like Dada Life, Bingo Players, Markus Schulz, Sander van Doorn, Michael Woods, Dash Berlin, Roger Sanchez and Chus & Ceballos are all headlining.

When it first debuted back in 2004, the “Groove Cruise” consisted of just over 100 friends who were also house music fans and embarked on a rowdy cruise together to rave out. Today, it is literally the “world’s largest floating dance music festival.” The 96-hour, non-stop experience is marketed as a high-level production, multi-themed, EDM spectacular and currently runs two yearly events out of LA and Miami. Revelers on the Miami to Jamaica route will enjoy endless parties and concerts for four consecutive days and nights, including pool parties and a special beach party in Jamaica. Whet Travel, the producer of such dance music debauchery, oversees six unique themed cruises, including Groove Cruise Miami and LA, Inception At Sea, Ship Rocked, Motorhead’s Motorboat and The Zen Cruise.

Aside from rambunctious, fabulous parties, the Pearl cruise liner won’t snub party-goers who will undoubtedly be looking to indulge in other activities or relax while nursing their hangovers. Thankfully, there is a spa, bowling alley, on-board water park, pools and upscale dining venues, readily available for leisure fun.

One highlight of the Groove Cruise’s Miami sailing will be an open-to-close, eight-hour, birthday set from Markus Schulz. Schulz will be releasing a new album in April and while he has been tight-lipped about details, he will be hosting an exclusive, invite-only, first-listen playback to the album onboard. 
BlackBook will be aboard the Groove Cruise and has the chance to select five readers (who already hold tickets for Groove Cruise Miami) to attend the invite-only listening party for Markus Schulz this Friday, Jan. 22. To win, simply share this article with hashtag #BlackBookGrooveCruise on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Photography: Linda Van Den Broek

In our minds, Andrew Rayel’s remix of “Save My Night” by Armin van Buuren is the best trance track of 2015. Rayel, still young at 23 with a very promising career as an EDM music producer, first signed onto AvB’s music label, Armada Music, in 2010. He has since blossomed and is regarded as a master for orchestral-heavy, melodic remixes. Today, he can count such successful milestones as headlining at Ultra Music Festival, EDC Las Vegas, A State of Trance Ibiza at Ushuaïa, Tomorrowland and having been ranked #24 in 2014’s  DJ Mag Top 100. With a commendable library of remixes under his belt from star trance DJs Tiësto, Hardwell, Markus Schulz and Dash Berlin (his most recent work “Till The Sky Falls Down” just dropped in December), Rayel is piecing together his second artist album for release in 2016.

“It’s still in process, and I really can’t say much right now, but expect something big,” Rayel said to BlackBook during his holiday set at New York’s Marquee. He did divulge, however, that the album would be an energetic and emotional mix.
“I really can’t wait for the entire process to be done,” he continued, seeming reasonably drained from the tolling creative process.  Yet, this winter he will power through, touring across the U.S. by making stops in LA, Toronto at Direct Energy Centre for A State of Trance 750, Philly’s Soundgarden, as well as a playing at the Armada Beach party in Mar Del Plata, Argentina.

No matter where he ventures, his heart appears to remain true for the urban capital of dance these days, telling BlackBook: “New York is for sure one of the places that I simply love to come and play for. It’s such an amazing city that has lots to offer from music, tourism, business, the whole package deal.” When asked what his New Year’s resolutions were, Rayel replied: “I don’t have an exact one to be honest but it would be: health, happiness, and success to my friends and family, and hopefully another big year in the scene.”

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/190262417″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Damian Lazarus

“Playing Verboten in Brooklyn has become something of a tradition for me on New Year’s Day,” confessed DJ/producer Damian Lazarus of last week’s big NYC gig. The musician, who launched his own live band in 2015, Damian and The Ancient Moons, while simultaneously moving his solo career forward and running Crosstown Rebels record label, has gained prominence in the EDM world over the past two years.

Currently, his main focus is this weekend’s Day Zero Festival in Tulum on the verdant Yucatan peninsula. Now, a co-production with Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberté and his creative firm Red Moon, Day Zero has poised itself in just four years to be a profoundly unique and outer-worldly underground electronic music experience. (Think visually a blend of circus futurism with Mayan cultural themes and pulsating big beat house clashed with subversive techno).

“Day Zero is an event like no other,” Lazarus said. “We leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of creating the most vibrant, unique and beautiful party you could experience anywhere in the world.”

This EDM festival was first conceived in 2012 to coincide with the final day of the Mayan calendar and, since then, has taken off. Previous memorable acts have included Massive Attack, Acid Pauli, who returns in 2016 after a two-year hiatus, Jamie Jones and Trentemøller.

“The fact that it’s set in Tulum at the center of the Mayan world and beneath a glistening cosmos adds to the anticipation of this incredible joining of music and performance,” he said. “This will be our fourth Day Zero and it promises to eclipse the madness and wonder that has gone before.”

Thankfully there’s a lineup to support his enthusiasm. This year, festival-goers can also expect to take in sets by Felix da Housecat, Bedouin, DJ Three, Fur Coat, Metric and Serge Devant.

“Damian and I have been becoming close friends over the years and we share a kindred spirit for fun, good times and extraordinary experiences,” Lailberté said. “I have always been impressed with his Crosstown events. They have a special way of bringing tribes together from all over the world and creating magic moments.”

At sunset, Day Zero’s Spiritual Guide, “Carlos the Reindeer,” will kick-off the festival with a special blessing, soundtracked by Mexico’s leading sitar player Sidartha Siliceo. The subsequent days will see hundreds of individual performers entertain attendees with a variety of creative acts, music and dance, in addition to the concerts taking place on the main stage. Organizers claim that these temporal spaces and performances “will encourage discovery and exploration throughout the site’s jungles, waterways and caves.”

Lazarus is set to perform on Jan. 8 with a cast of cohorts from Crosstown Rebels as the label celebrates 13 years.

“When you combine amazing music and wonderful people in a place like Tulum, it becomes much more than just another party,” Lazarus said. “Day Zero is a chance to connect with loved ones, re-engage spiritually with the stars and planets, engage in some ancient and primal rituals, and generally experience something you simply can’t find anywhere else.”

Tickets to Day Zero are still on sale, here.

To promote his most recent album, The Politics of Dancing 3, legendary German electronic producer Paul van Dyk (Matthias Paul) has embarked on a significant world tour. It’s been more than a decade since his last Politics of Dancing project and, according to van Dyk, it took a lengthy three-year creative process for the collaboration to come to fruition.

“So many things have changed within the music industry since the last Politics,” he announced ahead of the compilation’s Dec. 11 debut. “The way we make and produce music, how we release music and, of course, how we all consume it, that’s natural—that’s evolution. The third Politics of Dancing needed to address that and have a different approach [than] the first two. The answer in how to do that lays in musical cooperation and artistic collaboration. To me, making music is one of the most stimulating, fun and fulfilling things to do in this world.”

For this project, van Dyk worked in the studio with 23 other producers, singers and songwriters, including Aly & Fila, Ummet Ozcan and Giuseppe Ottaviani. BlackBook spoke with him after his recent New York stop at Terminal 5 to hear more about his creative process and musical innovation as a departure from the genre that made him most famous: trance prim.

The Politics of Dancing 3 is a massive undertaking. How were you inspired to make the tracks on the album? 

“My inspiration always comes from the fans. They are the ones that keep my passions and motivations running at the levels they do is.”

What were your biggest challenges in producing it? 

“The third Politics of Dancing had a different approach to the first two. There are 23 different co-producers and singers featured on the album. People like Aly & Fila, Roger Shah and Ummet Ozcan, Sue McLaren, Trisha McTeague and others. These are the people whose music I’ve admired. As a result, there was an immense amount of ‘moving parts’ to its production process. Aside from the actual in-the-studio production time, though, staying on top of all the ‘who’s doing what, when and where’ was pretty intense. That was the biggest single challenge. The greater the challenge, the greater the satisfaction in its end result.”

How do you feel it shows your progression as an artist? 

“Politics of Dancing 3 is pretty much my idea of what electronic music should sound like. ‘Politics 3’ is almost like a ‘sound dictionary’ of where I’m at musically today.”

Are sub-genres of EDM even relevant today? 

“From an artist’s standpoint, they’re almost, if not entirely irrelevant. ‘Electronic dance music’ is the only classification [or] bracket that I personally subscribe to. For the press, fans and other quarters, though, they’re reference points and thus serve a purpose. Sub-genres multiply and become more diluted and harder to define by the day, so there’s certainly a paradox occurring there.”

You’re on a grueling tour schedule; what’s the importance of touring with the new album? 

“Oh, the importance to me is massive—huge. It’s 50 percent of the equation. Actual album promotion is really only the tip of touring; it’s far more about the artistic synergy. A musician produces to make music to move people. He then performs it so he or she can enjoy sharing that music with audiences. People react to that, prompting the process to begin again. It’s an entirely recurrent [or] reciprocal relationship, which is exactly they way it should be.”

How are fans reacting to your sound?

“Six months after its release and, what has it been now, 30 different countries and, I think, 60 or so shows, it’s pretty safe to say that it’s the album that fans wanted to hear.”

How do you clear your mind after working for so long to create and perfect such a big album?

“You don’t. After the album’s complete, you’ve in essence only completed the first half of the equation. It’s when the tour’s done that you really need to break out the mental squeegee. When that time comes, I do the same as [anyone else]. I put down the phone, turn off the laptop and take myself somewhere as far off the map as possible.”