As much as March was supposed to be the month for huge electronic dance music festivals, like Tomorrowland Winter and Miami's Ultra Music Festival, DJs and producers alike haven't let COVID-19 stop them from delivering their music to fans. Instead, they've found alternate ways through live streaming to not only give attendees the epic set they would've played, but also to everyone around the world.
From teasing new tracks in those livestreamed sets, announcing upcoming albums, dropping EPs, and releasing tons of new songs, DJs and producers have made sure last month had no shortage of new music.
Armin van Buuren and Super8 & Tab collaborated on a trance/progressive house festival-ready track, "Leka." To keep us in that festival mood and spread some positivity, the trance legend's A State Of Trance (ASOT) also launched a livestream initiative called Beat The Silence. Reruns of past ASOT live sets have been livestreamed on Twitch, Facebook and YouTube since March 23rd.
This livestream initiative wasn't the only one big headliners like van Buuren were a part of. Beatport hosted a global music event on Twitch called ReConnect that featured a long list of DJs like Carl Cox, Nina Kraviz, GRiZ and RÜFÜS DU SOL. At the end of the month, Tomorrowland held their own livestream event, United Through Music, in which Afrojack, Lost Frequencies, Dimitri Vegas and Vintage Culture spun some tunes.
Ultra Music Festival teamed up with SiriusXM for the Ultra Music Audio Festival. The live stream event featured DJs like David Guetta, Afrojack, Armin van Buuren, Nicky Romero, Major Lazer and Tritonal -all of whom also released new music this month.
David Guetta and MORTEN dropped a club-friendly tech house track, "Detroit 3 AM," that pays homage to the city in its name. On his new release, Guetta told EDM.com, "We're doing something that is influenced by techno and a little bit dark, but at the same time has a huge sonic. It makes it almost like a rave that would be sexy, a rave that would be house. It's hard to describe something that doesn't really exist."
Also this month, Porter Robinson released another single, "Something Comforting." Accompanying the beautiful melodic song, he posted a video statement saying that it was at the peak of his struggles with depression that he was working on it and that he spent hours going through new ideas and being unhappy with them. He said, "I was really beginning to question whether or not I would ever be able to make music again, and that was a very, very scary thought to me."
The lyrics of Porter Robinson's song begs for someone to say something comforting and also Major Lazer's latest unexpected collaboration does just that. Working with Mumford & Sons' lead singer, Marcus Mumford, the trio released a carefree and soothing tropical track, "Lay Your Head On Me." In our time of anxiety, the song's lyrics hope to ease some of those worries, as Mumford sings, "This too shall pass, it won't always be the same," and "It's okay, it's alright, someday we will be fine."
After dropping release after release these past couple of months, Nicky Romero dropped his Redefine EP featuring "I See" and two unreleased songs, "Time" and "Replica." Seven Lions also released an EP of his own, Find Another Way, with five tracks including last month's "Only Now" and four new songs. Kygo has been working on a body of new music too. This month he announced his upcoming third studio album, Golden Hour. The tropical house pioneer also released a single from it, "Like It Is," featuring Zara Larsson and Tyga.
For more awesome big room, future house, future bass, house, and electronic songs, be sure to check out the rest of our playlist!