Kaskade - EDC Las Vegas Virtual Rave-A-Thon
Let's take a moment to remember the dark days of 2020 virtual raves. Thousands of us, off our nut on lukewarm tap water, fist-pumping in our living rooms while the dog looked on in sheer terror. The chat room was a tragic substitute for the smoking area, filled with people typing 'PLUR' while wearing pajama bottoms. Still, the digital neon aesthetic of Insomniac's green-screened studio managed to provide a bizarre, neon-soaked lifeline for a house-starved generation. Looking at the Kaskade EDC Las Vegas Virtual Rave-A-Thon tracklist, it is a masterfully engineered House set designed to keep your serotonin levels from entirely flatlining.
Sitting comfortably at a 125.2 BPM average, the set heavily features the 12A Camelot key, driving a solid, uplifting mid-range energy that translates perfectly through a laptop speaker. Kaskade's mixing is punchy and radio-tight, wasting absolutely no time. His selection is a brilliant mix of nostalgic crowd-pleasers and fresh lockdown anthems. Dropping Kölsch's "Loreley" adds a touch of melodic class, while his own Chemical Surf collaboration "Pow Pow Pow" delivers that essential, brain-rattling tech-house bounce. The arc of this Kaskade live set is pure escapism.
Kicking off with an unidentified "Unknown" opening track, he builds the digital tension before peaking with an unreleased five-minute groover. Finally, he wraps the stream with the bittersweet closing track, "Come Away" featuring Sabrina Claudio. A brilliant, weird slice of rave history.