Damian Lazarus - Day Zero Sound Of The Mayan Spirit (CRMCD021)

            

- Assembling thirteen exclusive unheard tracks made for this special release for Crosstown Rebels

- Marks the debut Day Zero festival happening in Mexico on the special Mayan calendar prophetic date 21^st December 2012

- Day Zero features the label’s past, present and future artists such as Jay Haze, Acid Pauli. Mathew Jonson, Fur Coat & more

Damian Lazarus, the Crosstown Rebels spearhead infamous his idiosyncratic nature embarks on a daring new project with Day Zero. On 20^th - 21^st December 2012 he will stage a festival in sun-soaked Playa del Carmen, Mexico that will celebrate the momentous end of this world cycle, as decreed by the ancient Mayan civilisation.
To commemorate this enigmatic event he asked thirteen artists to create a new track for a special Day Zero compilation. His peers and comrades stepped up to the challenge with Rebel’s artist past, present and future contributing to this momentous collection compiled by Damian Lazarus.
Pier Bucci opens with the eerie and captivating ‘Mayas’ full of his Latin-American spirit. He was introduced to the music world by Crosstown, releasing his first two albums on the label. Next up, Quenum shares his ‘Prophecy’ and Mathew Johnson returns to the label with the driving pulses of ‘In Search Of A New Planet With Oxygen’. Johnson delivered a huge remix early in the label’s history from Hiem ‘She’s The One’ and is a pioneer of the underground house movement.
Listen closely to the messages hidden in the knocking drums and trembling tones of ‘Jeel, k´eex’ from Mexican native Metrika. Crosstown’s newest first lady Francesca Lombardo’s contribution ‘Cosmic Dancer’ swells with femininity and allure while Fur Coat, who concocted the last artist album for CR, explain a little more about the significant date in their cut ‘Greed, Insanity’.
Fosky & Bog and the newcomer to the label Jay Haze both contribute epic dancefloor monsters to the collection. Haze is boss of legendary techno imprint Contexterrior and has been living in South America of late, fascinated by its mystical pull.
Supernatural cuts from Eduardo Castillo featuring his baritone opera trained voice and the Israeli Navid Izadi ft KMLN align up with Mike Shannon for his ‘Sunrise’ and the closing moments from Thugfucker & Shaun Reeves and Acid Pauli & Nu bring this otherworldly assembly to a flourishing close.
The Day Zero album arrives on the dawn of the 24 hour event that brings together the best electronic music and entertainment from some of the world’s finest DJs as they embrace a new moment in time. The occasion will mark the end-date of a 25,625-year-long cycle and the final cycle of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. At this moment the galactic alignment will occur, the earth will align with the centre of the Milky Way creating a moment for transformation, renewal and change.
Joining Damian Lazarus at the event are Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja, UNKLE’s James Lavelle, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Jamie Jones, Trentemøller, Art Department, and more alongside artists from the album including Metrika (live), Acid Pauli, Francesca Lombardo, Amirali (live), Fur Coat, Thugfucker, and outstanding alternative performances, workshops, games from Mayan Culture, and jaw-dropping 3D visuals and projections.
The Crosstown Rebels started their mission in 2003 powered by a modern electronic canon spearheaded by Damian Lazarus. The label has inspired countless unforgettable dance floor moments and nurtured many universally adored music makers. Soon to be entering its tenth year at the forefront of future-moving dance music, Crosstown Rebels remains the electronic pioneering force of the past decade.

Label: Crosstown Rebels

Cat no: CRMCD021

Web: www.crosstownrebels.com

Distribution: Above Board Distribution

Released: Mon Dec 3rd, 2012

Tracklist:

01. Pier Bucci - Mayas
02. Quenum - The Prophecy
03. Mathew Jonson- In Search Of A New Planet With Oxygen
04. Metrika - Jeel, k'eex
05. Francesca Lombardo - Cosmic Dancer
06. Fur Coat - Greed, Insanity
07. Fosky & BOg - Chestionabil
08. Jay Haze -2012
09. Eduardo Castillo - Ahometa Kuyaxi
10. Navid Izadi ft. KMLN - Kurandero
11. Mike Shannon - Sunrise
12. Thugfucker & Shaun Reeves - Timewave Zero
13. Acid Pauli & Nu – 12






LINK TO THE FREE MIX DOWNLOAD

Crosstown Rebels celebrate Day Zero in Mexico

Crosstown Rebels have announced plans for Day Zero, a 24-hour party taking place in Mexico on December 21st, 2012.

The event is timed to coincide with what the Mayans believed to be the end of the current "World Age"—that is, the cosmically significant occurrence at the center of the 2012 theories. Many people describe this event as some kind of apocalypse, but Crosstown Rebels boss Damian Lazarus assures us that "it’s more of a new beginning—the beginning of a new chapter." Day Zero is a celebration of this transition. It's taking place among the temples at a never-before-used Mayan theme park in Playa Del Carmen. The party starts 6:00 PM on December 20th and ends at 6:11 PM on December 21st—the exact moment this cosmic shift is expected to take place.

The lineup is a unique mix of core Crosstown artists (Lazarus, Jamie Jones, Art Department, Subb-an, Amirali, Infinity Ink, Fur Coat, Francesca Lombardo), friends of the family (Acid Pauli, Maayan Nidam, Thugfucker, Metrika, Matias Aguayo) and a few interesting curveballs (3D of Massive Attack vs James Lavelle, Trentemøller and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs). There will be Mayan dancers and shamanic rituals, antics provided by Crystal Rebels and lots of crazy visuals (e.g. video-mapped floating pyramids).

Day Zero is meant to be the first in a series of special events around the world, though no plans exist yet for future editions. Last week we called up Lazarus in Ibiza (post-disco nap, pre-Paradise at DC10) for his side of the story:

How was Burning Man?

Incredible, it really is like no place on earth. The Rebel Heart—that is, the Crosstown Rebels and Robot Heart party on the Wednesday—it’s become something of a phenomenon. It’s just so intense, literally like partying on another planet. We had about three or four thousand people there for the party. We drive out to the Playa, deep into the desert and then everyone follows on their bikes. It’s just such a bizarre occurrence. You start a party somewhere, then it starts moving and everyone starts following behind you, like all these art cars come and surround the party. I guess they kind of make a nightclub, if you like. It’s pretty special, man.

In a way that seems like a similar experience to what you’re trying to create with Day Zero. Would you say that’s true?

Burning Man offers up the experience for freedom of expression and I think this event will offer a similar platform. A chance to creatively open up and join with like minded people. We are in discussions with a couple of amazing art cars that we discovered at Burning Man this year about the possibility of them joining us in Mexico.

I should point out, though, that the actual venue that we have for Day Zero 
is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in my life: it’s an as-yet unopened to the public Mayan theme park, so it has three pyramids, two lakes, four swimming pools. It’s as good as being in the real thing. We are going to have the stage in front of the main pyramid, and we are working with an incredible visuals company. We are going to be video-mapping onto the pyramids, and we have a lot of incredible surprises that will be awaiting people for the event. Basically the idea was to pull together the dream location, the dream lineup, dream partnerships, people that we love working with, to make this event something people have never seen before. It just kind of feels like the planets are aligning, and that’s exactly what is going to happen.

Can you give me an explanation of the significance of the date? What exactly is the context?

It’s the first time in 26,000 years that there will be a galactic alignment 
of the planets. The Mayans foretold that this would be the end of a life cycle, and many people kind of see this as being the end of the world. Most people who have any kind of understanding of the relevance of this date would say it’s more of a new beginning—the beginning of a new chapter. I think that the date December 21st, 2012 is the kind of thing that a lot of people would generally just dismiss as hogwash or just a load of old bullshit, but I think that for the first time we have something that our generation can latch onto that actually feels like something special. I think there’s been some kind of generational shift in attitude, there’s a lot of uncertainty in our world at the moment. There’s a lack of religious belief, and so that kind of means that the people don’t really have anything on a higher level to hold onto. I think this date actually offers people the chance to take a bit of stock of their lives, to think about who they are, what they do, what they give, what they take from this world in which we live. I think putting it into the perspective of what we do as musicians or DJs or producers or artists is a really good opportunity for people to come together and celebrate the fact we’re here and celebrating the way we know best—by putting on an amazing party and enjoying the best possible music together with our favorite people and basically coming together to celebrate the life that we have and see what’s about to come next.

Do you think parties and festivals can have a semi-religious role in people’s lives?

I think a lot of people follow this music and this lifestyle as ardently and with
 as much passion as many people follow a religion or belief, you know? I’ve personally witnessed and experienced so many moments of pure beauty and love and just true moments with dreamlike qualities that you couldn’t imagine happening in everyday life, for example a sunrise set to the backdrop of our music at a place like Burning Man or certain records that just kind of lift your spirit to a higher place, moments of pure clarity when you’re enjoying a moment like dancing with a friend or a stranger. I think our music plays a very important role in a lot of people’s lives. I think now’s a good time to appreciate that and to really show people that this music is about more than just paying money and walking into a nightclub and getting off your head for a few hours, you know?

Would you say this is the most special event Crosstown has ever done?

Absolutely, yeah, without question. I think it was just kind of time for us to step it up a little bit and try something different. I’m a bit of dreamer, obviously, and
 I have this whole idea in my head of how this event should be. Like I said, it’s trying to put my dream team together, both artistically and musically and from the production level, and involving people that bring something extra to my life that’s not just the day-to-day running of a record label or a nightclub. So I’m hoping this is going to be something very, very special, not just for Mexico but for our friends all over the world who will hopefully come and join us.

Have you given much thought to future Day Zero events?

Well realistically we’re so busy working with this at the moment that we’ll have to take each day as it comes, but I like the idea of finding alternative spaces, maybe places of natural beauty, to hold similar events in the future. But for the moment, we’re just concentrating on this one on the 20th and 21st of December. I found out that the Mayans say that the end of the calendar cycle will happen at exactly 6:11 PM on the 21st of December Mexico time, so I decided that we’d run a 24-hour event which would start at 6:00 PM on the 20th and close at exactly the moment the Mayans say that the cycle ends. So I don’t know what’s going to happen at 6:11 PM on the 21st—I suppose you have to wait and see—but I know that we’ll be planning something very special leading up to that.
 

Words : Will Lynch