Groove Cruise's crew of organizers and captains now enter its 20th year of sailing and is proving that its community is more culturally and commercially successful than ever before. After announcing a sellout of Groove Cruise Miami and launching sales for a 2024 cruise aboard the Norwegian Princess — one of the world's largest and most opulent cruise ships — it's hard to imagine how things could get any better for the Groove Cruise family.




CLASS CLOWNS

"Groove Cruise is outrageous!" Groove Cruise founder Jason Beukema blurts with nostalgic excitement. "I remember the very first Groove Cruise ever in 2004. Someone said to me, 'How did you get the class clown from every single school on one cruise ship?' [laughs] That's been the vibe. It's just hilarious. So funny."















Minutes later, tears of sorrow follow when Beukema speaks about the tragic situation surrounding Groove Cruise Miami.




"We lost [Groove Cruise Lead Production Manager] Nate Shaw to suicide in May," Beukema recounts, his voice low and quivering, belying a deep and raw emotional pain. "I took it upon myself to use the platform we have up here [at Groove Cruise] to speak about mental health and suicide prevention."




It's not irrational, emotional whiplash for Beukema to feel such a broad range of emotions so quickly or often. As a place of celebration, the Groove Cruise family certainly parties together. But as a family, they also grieve together. That may be the essential aspect of Groove Cruise Miami for organizers and attendees this time.




"It's a little deeper than just partying," Beukema contemplates, a melancholy sigh punctuating his thoughts. "We're doing this for him."












Just before Autograf performs as the first musical act of the festival, intercoms shipwide spark to life with Beukema's voice. This time, he's in a jovial mood.




"See you at the pool deck!" his voice crackles across hundreds of tiny speakers.




Louis Kha of Autograf stands near the railing on the upper pool deck, watching the Carribean waves pass by. "We're on the edge of this boat, almost in the ocean. Our lives are dangling on a thread," says Kha. "The mere reminder of how insignificant yet precious our lives are at the same time — that constant reminder makes me enjoy the moment much more so. It's beautiful."




Beukema also notes the healing power of the ocean in cultures around the world, "the idea that you come from the ocean and you go back to the ocean." This year, that search for deeper meaning is a clear focus of the festival.




After Autograf's performance, Beukema is standing on a balcony overlooking the main pool deck stage as Claptone plays BLOND:ISH's, HUGEL, and Nfasis's blockbuster track "Tra Tra." Considering it all, how does Beukema view his ongoing relationship with Groove Cruise?




"Groove Cruise is my baby," Beukuma says with goofily sincere, heartfelt confidence.










BLACK WATER

Playing in the main pool stage booth, Hellbent Records boss Cloonee drops a riveting bootleg of Octave One and Ann Saunderson's quintessential house track "Black Water."




Intentionally or not, Cloonee's choice to play that bootleg immediately links Groove Cruise Miami to historic house music traditions, all while forging a compelling path forward. Life and music are cyclical. We reinterpret the past to determine the future and move on from the present together.




"Hanging out with other artists has probably been the best thing about Groove Cruise," Cloonee tells Gray Area after diligently pausing for a moment to consider his thoughts. "Just meeting artists you wouldn't usually get to spend time with and actually being together and drinking and shit."












"There is a super eclectic mix of artists on this boat," he furthers. "I'll be wandering around, not really knowing where I am cause this boat is fucking massive, and then you'll hear drum and bass on one stage. You go this way, there's house. There's dubstep. It's pretty good. Really good mix."




Electronic music giant EDX shares Cloonee's perspective. "It doesn't matter how trendy or cool you are. People come here to enjoy and celebrate DJing and electronic music culture. It's fulfilling for everyone. It's not just about music, it's about getting together and spending time together as DJs and friends."




At Groove Cruise, "luckily you're all on the same boat. You end up meeting and talking to a lot of people who are celebrating your music," says EDX. "It's good to hear firsthand about your journey, your music. It's very interesting and really means a lot to everyone who works in music that struggles sometimes with what's next, or with what I should do."




How do artists' sonic palettes develop over time? How do artists come together to influence one another's sound? And how are new genres and subgenres conceived, incubated, and birthed into being?




Maybe the cross-pollination between artists at Groove Cruise Miami that Cloonee and EDX describe is a small part of the answers to these questions — undefinable answers which may reveal the very nature of artistic inspiration itself.










A VERY AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

"My sound is an underground sound," notes modern Chicago house music pillar Gene Farris. "Groove Cruise is driven by underground music. So we go hand-in-hand — like a hand in a baseball glove."




Farris is an artist Groove Cruise relies upon year after year to set the tone for the party. He's located on a branch immediately adjacent to the trunk of the Groove Cruise family tree.




Later, he'll funkily twirl in the sweet spot of the ship's top deck dancefloor alongside fellow Chicago-based producer Anthony Atalla as the sun rises and the ship pulls into the tropical island paradise of Labadee. For now, he relaxes on a purple velvet couch in one of the ship's air-conditioned nightclubs.




"I'm happy these guys have me every year. Happy to be part of the family and community," Farris says. "It's awesome."















On the other hand, it's been five years since Scottish producer and Anjunabeats label artist GRUM last played Groove Cruise.




Returning half a decade later, "it's the same vibe," he says. "The atmosphere is all very friendly and fun."




"[Groove Cruise] feels very American," he laughs. "It's a very American experience. Non-stop party — it's loud, it's in your face," he says. "But I manage. I muddle by."




Grum advises Gray Area on what genres and sounds he sees coming into focus in global dance music.




"Hopefully we're going to move away from everything being split up by genres and back to more about interesting artists," he says. "Some people have been enjoying Bicep, Loan. Daniel Avery has done some good stuff. I think there's room again for that kind of creativity. That's what inspires me."




Farris, the vaunted label head of Farris Wheel Recordings, also seeks to be inspired by compelling sounds from unique artists. But Farris is focused on scouring for artists who may not be as well-established as GRUM-preferred Irish heavyweights Bicep.




"I try to look for the younger talent in today's era," says Farris. "Up-and-coming producers — they're the most hungry. People who are current. People who just know what's going on [in the underground] right now — that's what we're looking for."







THE GIANT GRID OF NEO-AMERICAN TECHNO

One artist with such current knowledge is Declan James, the Dallas-based neo-American techno producer and founder of the label and party series Voidware.




Richie Hawtin, the patriarch of North American techno, recently enlisted James for the upcoming From Our Minds tour with the stated "mission to develop and increase awareness of the younger generation." Press releases also note that Hawtin booked James and others to "showcase a diverse group of North American underground artists moving the ideals of '90s techno forward in their own unique ways."









On Groove Cruise, James imposes his brand of neo-American techno on the dancefloor, although he began his career as a trance producer on Above & Beyond's label. Now, his sounds are eviscerating yet groovy. He plays industrially alien soundscapes at high speed, replete with a slew of bizarre, sometimes Lovecraftian textures.




"I've come to find that people in the United States are responding really well to weird stuff, really experimental crazy stuff," James says. He also emphasizes that American audiences delight in the higher tempos he typically plays.




"It's very clear to me that there's a new sound developing," says James.




He's markedly excited as he tells Gray Area about the sounds of neo-American techno, which he's bringing into sharper cultural focus alongside a growing group of close-knit North American artists.




"The key figures are the Genova Group — me, Jay York, Decoder, Freeman 713, and Barbosa. Then there's Lindsey Herbert, Henry Brooks, Selective Response. I would characterize the new wave of techno in the United States as those artists right now," he explains. "It's just this giant grid thing happening."




Like pioneering foley artists figuring out which materials to manipulate to accompany the shattering of a bone breaking onscreen, James is among the vanguard of neo-American techno producers experimenting with new sounds to best convey their personal perspectives as artists in the nascent neo-American techno movement.




Later in the festival, James plays a b2b with Detroit-born Toronto resident Alley Kay on the ship's open-air top deck. They drop a wild techno bootleg of Daft Punk's "Rollin' and Scratchin'."




James, Kay, and this next generation of underground electronic communities continue to coalesce today. On a boat. In the middle of the Caribbean Ocean. The giant grid of neo-American techno grows.







JUST KEEP BOUNCING

Groove Cruise aerialist Ashley Neptune strides down the long narrow, red-carpeted stateroom hallway, exhausted and fully covered in sweat. Clad in a nude-colored bra and thong, silver chain link top, and black Puma sneakers, she insists that she would have a complete outfit — but she'd just broken her matching silver chain bottoms.




"I just visited the shuffle workshop!" says Neptune, her tank completely empty. “[The instructors] fucking crushed it. I learned so much. I sweated my ass off. I got my workout, and I learned something new today — so double-double check!"




The main technical lesson that Neptune learned about shuffling?




"Just keep bouncing, no matter what. Just keep bouncing. Even if you're fucking it up, no one will really know," she explains with a laugh.




As Neptune opens the door to her stateroom for some well-deserved rest, her roommate and Groove Cruise stage dancer, Lela Bea, gracefully slinks across the open doorframe. Bea's tall, svelte figure cuts in a white velour shower gown. She's about to put the final touches on her makeup before donning yet another gorgeous, otherworldly outfit for the evening as Neptune returns from her first-ever shuffle class.















On-the-clock, both Neptune and Bea's effervescent talent and beauty are wholly inescapable. Behind the scenes, they now have an additional air of eminent contentment.




On Groove Cruise, muses of all sorts abound. There are muses for the muses. Inspiration is everywhere, all the time, all at once.







WHAT FUELS THE FUTURE

A protégé of deadmau5's label mau5trap, Speaker Honey is currently on an interstellar trajectory as an electronic music artist. "I'm really working towards identifying techno, trance, electro, and bringing the fusion together [between] those three," she tells Gray Area.




Tonight, under the dark Caribbean sky, she's in a reflective mood as she credits Casmalia with linking her up with Groove Cruise.




"I'm very appreciative," she says. "I feel like the Groove Cruise fam really honors my presence here."












A common theme amongst artists and attendees alike is that the deliberate, judgment-free attitude which permeates Groove Cruise provides artistic cover for everyone to explore without fear. Speaker Honey agrees.




"I love Groove Cruise because it gives me the opportunity to express myself musically and sonically without the expectation of specific sound. In this space, I can actually be free to play whatever the fuck I want."




Regarding her experience on Groove Cruise Miami, Speaker Honey says, "I've only experienced positive omens. Everything's been a positive affirmation to remember the serendipity in the universe, to remember the good things that happened to you."







Why is Speaker Honey so honed in on how Groove Cruise constantly reminds her of the good things in life?




"Because that's what fuels the future."







OFF THE DEEP END

Jauz — alongside Zeds Dead, Excision, and a handful of other North American artists — is a keystone producer in the first wave of North American bass music artists that arose from the wake of Skrillex's arrival on the scene and the subsequent explosion of American brostep in the early-to-mid tens.




Nowadays, Jauz is still a very busy man. But not necessarily from working on music. Recently, he became a new father.




However, neither his lack of sleep as a new parent nor his place in the pantheon of American bass music have caused him to forget his fundamental connection to house music.




Speaking to Gray Area backstage moments after concluding his Groove Cruise headlining performance, Jauz explains that "this set was [my] new Off the Deep End project. I've always played house music, but this is my outlet to strictly play house music — the records I've been making, but also records that I really love. [Records] that I couldn't play in my normal Jauz set just from the way my sound has evolved over the years."




In a moment of true candor, Jauz concedes that the novelty of his Off the Deep End project makes performing that music decidedly more exciting to him as an artist than playing his world-renown version of American bass music.




"I still love playing real Jauz sets. But I've done it for almost ten years now," he says after careful consideration. "So it's cool to do something different, something fresh. My music normally is so all over the place, and this is so down a specific lane, that it's totally different than anything I do. So it's a lot more exciting for me."







INTO THE SUNRISE

After his set, Jauz makes his way to the top deck as Groove Cruise Miami completes the last leg of its journey. He joins Habstrakt, Bijou, Matroda, Cloonee, and Dillon Nathaniel as the group plays b2b2b2b2b2b well into the AM hours. Gene Farris and Anthony Attala are thrown into the mix at some point, too.




In such moments, the bubbling percolation of inspiration and influence between international electronic music artists on Groove Cruise is never more apparent.




As the morning sun slowly rises over downtown Miami's gleamingly white skyscrapers, nearly 2,600 sunkissed Groove Cruisers say farewells.




They disembark from the ship, a healthy glow emanating all around.




Thus goes Groove Cruise Miami, straight into the sunrise.






























Groove Cruise Miami: The 35th Sailing of an American Dance Music Institution

The mixtape is as synonymous with dance music as the kick drum. Through every era of dance music, DJ mixes have acted as a form of cultural capital and communication, a vessel of artistic expression, and a map that led listeners toward unique sonic sojourns. And while the medium has morphed from physical tapes to CDs to no physical form at all, the mixtape still reigns supreme as one of the DJ's most potent storytelling devices.




In 2021 Spotify ushered the mighty mixtape into the streaming era by introducing DJ Mixes to the platform. They said it was, "a way for artists to connect with fans and further expand their global audiences." But every dance music fan who fondly remembers the joy of exploring the twists and turns of their first mixtape (mine was a Christopher Lawrence mix from 1999) knows that it's so much more than that.




We understand that every mixtape holds deep meaning to a true fan. And the promise of discovery, surprise, and joy. With that in mind, Gray Area joined Spotify in welcoming some of our favorite artists to curate mixes that capture the spirit of being handed a cassette tape at a dusty warehouse. And over the coming months, we'll reveal a series of ten mixes from some of our favorite artists. And we couldn't imagine anyone better to head up the effort than DJ, producer, and Farris Wheel Recordings founder Gene Farris.


Gene has been a part of the dance music community almost since its inception. A bonafide legend of the storied Chicago scene, he's gone from rocking the decks at warehouse parties in the early 90s to becoming a staple of the global club and festival circuit with appearances everywhere from Ibiza and Amsterdam to Miami and Sydney.




He started his label, Farris Wheel Recodings, in 1996 as a platform to release his own music and since has expanded it to be one of the preeminent tastemakers in house music featuring a wide range of artists from Mark Farina, Paul Johnson, and Sonny Fodera to John Summit, J. Worra, and Eskuche.




His mix—made entirely of Farris Wheel tracks—features a who's who of tech house, including MISS DRE, Baby Weight, Max Low, Sacha Robotti, Casmalia, and a pre-techno Will Clarke.




We chatted with Gene to find out what his first mixtape was, how he put the mix together, and what this new iteration of the mixtape means for the future of dance music.







You've seen every iteration of the mixtape as a DJ. So what's impactful about being able to do one on a platform that has the potential to reach so many people?




All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to touch everyone, and this gives me that opportunity, and that's really cool!




Do you think having mixes on streaming platforms has the potential to create new dance music fans?




Absolutely! You're tapping into people who probably wouldn't normally go to the club randomly and find this DJ. With this platform, we come to you!




Your label has releases from a broad range of established artists and up-and-comers. How did you choose who you featured?




It's really just a matter of quality control, to be honest. Whoever has the hottest track gets featured at that moment in time.




What about putting this mix together was different from other mixes you've done in the past?




All the tracks are released on my label Farris Wheel Recordings. I picked my favorite tracks, and there are loads of new music from the label. I love the whole mix.




Do you remember the first mixtape someone gave you?




Yes. It was Frankie Knuckles Live at the Warehouse.




What's your favorite old-school mixtape? Why?




Ron Hardy Live at the Music Box is my favorite because Ron was the GOAT! I've studied his mixes quite a lot, and he was one of the most innovative house music DJs of our lifetime.




How does your mix capture the spirit of old-school mixtapes?




I'm not sure that it does, to be honest. I can only aspire to be that cool.

Gene Farris

B. I. Empey