When my homie Tittsworth (yes, real name) isn’t running U Street Music Hall, he’s touring the world as a producer and DJ. This track, Here He Comes is off of his 12 Steps album which dropped waaaay back in 2008. He enlisted fellow DMVers Nadastrom for the remix with Nina Sky and my favorite rapper Pitbull.

The video for the remix just dropped last month and was shot in New York by David Guinan.

Watch and learn.

There will be a day in the very near future when Washington, DC’s Nadastrom will be a permanent fixture in the top 10 of DJ Magazine’s yearly rankings of the Top 100 DJs in the world. This will occur if for no other reason than Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom may be the perfect cataclysmic storm of DJing and remixing talent and otherworldly production ability. Matt Nordstrom was already one of the most respected remixers, producers and engineers on the planet. With work under his belt with Dubfire, Pete Tong, Deep Dish and Nic Faniculli amongst others, he had a tech house pedigree that most would comfortably retire knowing that this was the apex of their career. Dave Nada’s story is much the same. World travelled punk rock/hardcore hero shaped by DC raving and deep house partying, dipped and bathed in the sea of classic Baltimore club (with a residency at the legendary “Tax Lo” dance party when it was claimed by SPIN magazine as America’s hottest dance party) and Baltimore’s streets. There’s nothing that Dave doesn’t know how to touch and turn into gold. Of all the things “winning” about DC right now, Nadastrom are really the godfathers of the “DC winning” movement, combining all elements of what makes the city phenomenal into an electrifying and exemplary witches brew of sound.

Bmore club legend Scottie B once referred to Nadastrom as the “future of club music.” Well, the future is now. Their latest release, The Saved EP, from Switch’s Dubsided imprint is the release that’s really going to take them into the stratosphere. Nadastrom’s a favorite of everyone from Diplo, the Crookers, Drop the Lime, A-Trak and Jonny Blaze so, as positioned as your favorite DJ’s favorite DJs, now they ascend to the level of commanding the respect in public that they’ve always had in private.

“Save Us (aka Jack’s Horny)” is a howling groundswell of sweaty sex panic, Lionel Hampton meeting Big Mama Thornton on Mars with an insistent rave groove. With the  thickest of bass, classic club breaks and hi hats everywhere, and the year’s most pastoral breakdown, it’s an absolute treat. They took the recipe that made “Pussy” a #1 single on Beatport, and pared it down and streamlined it into a matured, yet still club ready product. Whereas “Pussy” breaks down over and over and over again, only to be built up, then break down over and over and over again, “Save Us” neatly builds and breaks down, making it a much more accessible turn for the duo.

“Squarez” starts off as a hot Baltimore club track, then slyly morphs into disco violins, and hits when both combine with a lovely minimal synth line to be simply great dance music. “Ghetto Pass” rides muted basslines and congo drums into racing synths and quirky noise for a masterful production.

Nadastrom’s touring for this EP around the world after a Friday stop in DC for their release party. What’s next we hear from the duo is that they want to release the Nadastrom full length debut. When DC finally crosses the finish line, expect, as always, Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom, Nadastrom, to be first in line.

The fact that Washington, DC now boasts a seven day a week underground party scene is fairly amazing, all things considered. For the numerous taunts and teases the city receives, from being a city of transient non neighbors, to that of being so polarized along racial and socio-economic lines that unity of any sort, on much of anything is virtually impossible, DC’s ability to persevere, namely in the DIY dance and electronic music community is commendable. Friday’s Blisspop Summer Extravaganza event at 9:30 Club wasn’t even so much a celebration of the talents of the DJs, so much as it was a notification of acceptance of our city on a national and international landscape. Nadastrom and Tittsworth, the closers, are INTERNATIONAL superstars these days that get namedropped in the same breath as globetrotting party starters du jour like Diplo, Steve Aoki, Rusko and so on, and so forth. It must be noted that in the mind of this author that it seems as though every time Nadastrom or Tittsworth comes back to the DMV after an extended absence, namely at a Blisspop party, the crowds are larger, louder and more knowledgeable of not just the music of the headlines, but of the culture in general, and that’s nothing but a positive. Will Eastman, a cultural curator of sorts of the Capital City, does well at these parties to support our “superstars,” while at the same time surrounding them with our city’s top stalwarts and rising talents as well, which was more than apparent as Dmerit, with their funky French electro, Bobby Jae and Ken Lazee’s populist mixing, and Eastman’s stellar ear as a selector proving that DC is not just a two horse city.

Miniature water pistols? What's a dance party without a parcel of water pistols?
Photo credit Max "max_imus" Freed (http://www.twitter.com/max_imus)

What's a birthday without a candy filled Little Mermaid pinata to hang?
Photo credit Max "max_imus" Freed (http://www.twitter.com/max_imus)

If DC is going to make any waves on the national forefront, it will be due in large part to crafting an identity, or giving the nation a sense of what DC parties are all about. This is where DC’s transient and cold nature comes in, as, if you read the Washington City Paper, we abuse lots of drugs and alcohol, which says nothing about really having a good time, unless, well, that’s your bag. Blisspop reflected a great DC party angle, that of ribald and outlandish debauchery, as, between Dave Nada and Will Eastman, and a great number of other local DJs, there’s a strong indy and punk rock background, which lends itself well to the type of anarchy loosed upon the event.

You had Dave Nada dancing while swaddled in a DC flag while throwing down Nadastrom’s Beatport #1 single, the Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life” sampling “Pussy.” Then, there were all manner of soccer scarves, ketchup, or pickle juice or mayonnaise filled condoms, as well, there were pocket water pistols filled with water spraying the throng, and the coup de grace, in celebration of Dave Nada’s birthday, a pinata, filled with candy, that Nada savaged like a madman with a stick, a moment certain to be frozen in this observer’s memory for quite some time.

Will Eastman with pickle juice filled condom as Tittsworth murks the DC faithful.
Photo credit Max "max_imus" Freed (http://www.twitter.com/max_imus)

Dave Nada with soccer scarf.
Photo credit Max "max_imus" Freed (http://www.twitter.com/max_imus)

Musically, what can I say. Dmerit, Bobby Jae and Ken Lazee played the role of able openers, a difficult one in the DJ world, as you just can’t throw down hard, rattling basslines or 140 BPM manic jams, but you’re playing solidly, rubbing the sticks to start the flame, Dmerit really showing tons of promise, Micah Vellian heavily involved as a producer for Will Eastman’s debut solo effort and the work of himself and Output Message definitely worth a listen. Bobby Jae and Ken Lazee got busy and even threw in Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” for good measure in one of those congruous incongruity moments that we can thank Girl Talk for. Will Eastman’s Ruby Isle “So Damn High” remix is always a winner (director Kylos who provides Blisspop’s fetching visual backdrops promises a complete video VERY soon), and he, from a technical standpoint was really on point to be point of being phenomenal on Friday night.

And the closers. I tend to believe that Dave Nada, Matt Nordstrom and Jesse Tittsworth turn in the kind of performances they turned in in DC on a fairly regular basis. That’s what makes them who they are in the dance universe. Making the commonplace memorable is the type of thing that a chain restaurant strives to do in their credo when they serve you spaghetti and meatballs. The energetic, musical firebrand, crowd murking, wall rattling raucous mania associated with Nadastrom and Tittsworth, when accepted as commonplace, makes memories that if commonplace, you’re either living life quite well at the edge of a lighting bolt, or completely nuts. There’s a love of music apparent in the productions crafted by both performers. There’s a joy of being DJs, of having no real limits, of being able to use wobbling, drunken dubstep basslines that can wake the dead, of sampling just about anything and with some deft turns of talent making it INTENSELY musical, or having at your fingers the world of music, and in Tittsworth’s case dropping Drake and Trey Songz’s collaboration from Drizzy’s So Far Gone mixtape “Successful” as a soulful, melodic and even ponderous dance break in the midst of his three hour piledriving powerslam of music.

At the end of the day, Blisspop didn’t reinvent the wheel. Even better, if you’re full of hate for the entire hipster, DJ adoring community, it probably didn’t rate as important on your radar. But, if you’re a lover of music, and a believer in it’s power to producer such positive concepts as love, peace, happiness and unity, then this was a celebration of that. We’re all broke, we’re all struggling, and, let’s face it, times just ain’t right. Friday night, a slew of uber talented made things a little bit better. And that’s wonderful.

Kudos.

5.) Adele – Chasing Pavements – (Various Productions Remix)

Even though Mick Boogie’s new Adele/1988 remix might be getting more shine in the Internets, a little known UK remix her song “Chasing Pavements,” has goten multiple spins in my iPod. Various Production’s chupped of remix of the track was rejected by Adele’s label though.

4.) Lil Wayne – A Milli (Nadastrom Remix)

Nadastrom mixes aren’t for everyone, but if you’re into the techno/electro ish that Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom are cookin’ up, then their remix is a dancefloor banger.

3.) The Knux – Cappuccino (Remix)

Remember back in the day when a cassette single would have the instrumental and the b-Side remix? Yeah, those were the days. The Knux’s Cappuccino rework is a throwback to the times when an artist would drop a brand new verse/beat to a song and call it a remix. It comes off like a sequel rather than a new song.

2.) Lil Wayne – A Milli (Flying Lotus Remix)

Not only does Flying Lotus remix this track, but he completely reinterprets Bangladesh’ street anthem into a chilled out lounge sleeper and made it look easy in the process.

1.) Kid Cudi – Day and Nite (Crookers Remix)

You know you’ve done your job when people think that your remix is the actual official release. The Italian dance floor duo Crookers’s remix of Kid Cudi’s Day and Nite has become an international dance floor smash and has become more famous than the original, hitting the charts at BBC Radio 1 and in Australia ahead of its official January release.

Honorable Mention: Drake – Little Bit (Remix)

I tried to avoid posting tracks with rappers trying to get on hipster tracks, but Drake’s auto-tuned duet with my future wife Lykke Li is near perfection. Drake makes the move that Kanye should’ve made considering that the Kayne-Lykke collaboration with N.A.S.A. was total bunk.

Nadastrom – “A Milli” (Remix)

Tired of hearing every rapper, R&B singer, has been and baby mama try to rap over that “A Milli” beat? Then check out this remix by my boy Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom, aka Nadastrom. Their new album will be dropping real soon on Switch’s Dubsided label. (first spotted at Ddoff)

myspace.com/nadastrom