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Music

The Ten Best Sets From Ultra Music Festival

Lauren and David provide your Post-Ultra FOMO. Sorry we're not sorry.

Ultra Music Festival had sadly come and gone. The dust has settled, the glowsticks have been packed away in a desk drawer, and hopefully you are not wearing a tank-top that says SEX DRUGS & DUBSTEP at work. Because that's a bad idea.

For the last week, the internet has been ablaze with a slew of live-sets recorded at the festival. Whether or not you watched he biggest sets of the weeked during the livestream or were plagued with some serious FOMO, now you can blast many of these epic moments in your headphones for the next 353 days, 8,477 hours, 508,658 minutes and 30,519,539 seconds until Ultra 2015. To hold you over until that joyous day here are some of THUMP's favorite sets from the weeked:

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GAIA:


Armin van Buuren is the undisputed king of trance. Always has been. Always will be. He has lately transitioned into playing a more progressive trance-house (dare I say trouse?) sound, pleasing many a reveler at EDM-tinged mainstage of festivals like Ultra. Still, every year Armin's world-famous "A State of Trance" radio show celebrates another year of magic with a stop at Ultra's massive mega structure. While he held it down on the Main Stage on Saturday, by Sunday Armin was nowhere to be found on the ASOT lineup, opting instead to award his many worshippers with a set under his purist-trance guise, Gaia. Cloaked in a druid robe, and alongside production partner for the project, Benno de Goeij, Armin threw down a 90-minute set of straight up Gaia-goodness. My jaws is still on the ground. [D.G.]

DILLON FRANCIS:


Everyone loves Dillon Francis. Whether it's his funnyman antics under his alter-ego DJ Hanzel, Twitter exchanges with Taco Bell or the fact he makes some of the most booty shaking music on Earth, the dude is doing pretty well for himself. And while he's currently producing a lot of trap beats, his Ultra set is the perfect example of the constant creativity that he continues to display as an artist.  Armed in a sharp suit, Dillon closed out the Worldwide stage with an hour set of adrenline-soaked beats that don't let up for a single second. This performance is also jam-packed with a ton of unreleased exclusives like his new Daft Punk remix as well as a collabo with Martin Garrix. Woah! [D.G.]

MIA:

Sometimes closing your eyes and pretending you're travelling somewhere is more fun than actually going, especially when it means avoiding expensive flights, overwhelming crowds and the serious havoc humidty can wreak on one's hair. This is not one of those times. M.I.A, the ultimate bad girl, did not fail her loyal followers at Ultra's Live Stage. During her song "Y.A.L.A.," M.I.A stopped the DJ and said, "I need all my ladies on stage with me." Minutes later the stage was at capacity with beautiful dancing ravers. Twerking by yourself in your bedroom to this live set is almost as much fun.  [L.S.]

HARDWELL:



On YouTube, even DJ Mag's #1 DJ looks awkward jumping alone on stage behind pyrotechnics and fancy equipment as 50,000 people mob in front of him. The 50,000 people in the crowd still seem to be having a good time, though. Tear. Before taking the stage, the young Dutch wunderkind tweeted that this set was indeed "one of the biggest moments of his life," and if you looked at the level of ecstatic exuberance on his face throughout the headlining throwdown, it was clear that he was very sincere in his statement. It's always special to witness someone at the very pinnacle of their career, and this was indeed one of those moments. Also, catch the last two minutes of this set to fully understand that Moombahton Hardstyle is now a thing. EDM will never be the same. [L.S.]

Eric Prydz can do no wrong. This year he brought his massive HOLO production to the main stage of Ultra and while the full hologram setup was limited due to impeding weather, he still had the entire crowd hypnotized in a state of ravenous bliss, while he controlled their every move like some sort of mystical progressive-house messiah. Prydz has a knack for taking you just deep enough into the rabbit hole before launching your dancing ass towards the heavens at the speed of sound. He is and always will be a legend. [D.G.]

DIPLO:

Wes Pentz does not act alone. He's started a label to surround himself with friends, and even has two duo group sideprojects—Jack U and Major Lazer— so that he can always play with a partner. At Ultra, he was scheduled for a now-rare afternoon solo set, but nope. Diplo refused. Instead he brought along Riff Raff, Waka Flocka Flame, Sean Paul, Walshy Fire and Jillionaire. Where was I? Crying alone at my desk. [L.S.]

DJ SNAKE:

The man behind "

Turn Down For What

" ended his Ultra set with Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." It wasn't remixed, edited or touched up at all. This is what draws chills, even through the computer. Turn down for Whitney Houston—that is all. [L.S.]

Ultra 2014 marked the tenth anniversary of the Carl Cox & Friends tent.  Yes, that means for a decade straight Carl has been gathering the best in techno on one of the biggest stages that the planet has to offer. That officially makes him a dance music legend, Ultra icon and all-around BOSS. Which is something you should probably already know. When we think of how many times he has chanted his iconic tag-lines "oh yes, oh yes!" or "fantastic" we get a little choked up inside. This year, obviously Coxy did not dissapoint. You know why? Because Carl Cox

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is

Ultra Music Festival—don't slip. [D.G.]

DEADMAU5:

Deadmau5 is king of the internet trolls, hater of all things EDM and loves every minute of it. Mau5 got his moment to really shine when he filled in for Avicii, who canclled due to emergency surgery. His now infamous set included highlights: pranking Martin Garrix by dropping the now infamous Old MacDonald remix of "Animals", throwing mainstream big-room house the middle finger with his the inclusion of progressive techny beats and honoring Avicii by dropping the "Levels" melody over his inconic track "Ghosts N Stuff". This set was an all around win, destined to go down in the Ultra history books. [D.G.]

David and Laura just listened to far too many Ultra sets. @DLGarber + @laurschwar