​Kyle Watson shares his 10 iPod favorites ahead of HARD Summer

South Africa’s Kyle Watson has taken the world by storm with his infectious spin on jacking house and techno. Kyle’s original sound has been picked up by leading labels like Ultra, Atlantic, This Ain’t Bristol and Dirtybird – giving him the privilege of being one of the very few South African artists to break out of the local scene and tour globally.

The dancefloor dynamo effortlessly sells out club shows wherever he goes while consistently providing lethal remixes for major acts such as Rudimental, Zhu, Oliver Heldens, Justin Martin and Malaa. Classically trained and fully tuned into the dance music scene, his forward-thinking house style blends dark and light together with a melodic and raw grit that is entirely unique.

With his uncanny ability to win over the hearts and minds of Southern California’s thriving tech house community, it only makes sense that HARD and Insomniac would include Kyle Watson in their line-up for HARD Summer 2019.

HARD Summer will be celebrating its twelfth year on August 3 and 4 at The Speedway in Fontana, California. This year’s headliners include Major Lazer, Alison Wonderland, What So Not, RL Grime, Claude VonStroke, Kid Cudi, Loco Dice and more.

Kyle Watson is currently touring the US and will make his stop in Fontana on August 3. Ahead of the event, the South African superstar has taken the time to share with us his 10 “iPod favorites” at the moment to give us some insight as to what he’s been tuning into between sets.

Check out Kyle Watson’s track choices and tour dates below.

Buy tickets to HARD Summer 2019 here.

“This record was a huge influence on my earlier music, and so was Switch. This pretty much got me into the scene. It came out around the time I started taking music seriously and has remained one of my favourites since then. Sometimes when I’m feeling nostalgic I drop this in my sets.”

“From a producers point of view, these guys are definitely in my top three. They have truly mastered synthesis. The sounds they create in this track are just phenomenal.”

“Flume is the absolute master of weirdness. Once again, one of my top three producers! It’s hard to explain but all of his sounds have textures layered up on top of each other that you can almost feel when you listen to his records.”

“I love the weirdness of this track, it stands out from anything else in this genre. Also, Kaytranada’s drums are unmatched!”

“I listen to a lot of movie scores, and this one is my favorite. It’s from Game Of Thrones – the motif Ramin wrote for this is so powerful and I love the way he uses it in different ways to build tension throughout the whole length of the piece.”

“I don’t listen to a lot of house music outside of the club, but when I do this is one of the tracks I can listen to over and over again. I love its uniqueness, and those trademark KiNK shakers pull the track along so nicely!”

“I’ve been listening to a lot of rock from this era lately and I can listen to Rage’s albums over and over again without getting bored. I love their energy and anti-establishment messaging behind their lyrics, and this is one of my favorites from them.”

“You can’t go wrong with any of the tracks off this album! Timbaland and Missy’s production is awesome on this, and the way they sampled sounds to make their melodies inspired me to write my track, ‘The Sample‘.

“This is my all-time favorite electronic record. There’s nothing more I need to say about this one really, it’s one of the best pieces of electronic music ever written in my opinion.”

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“I’m big into Jungle and their songwriting, they’re probably the only artist who’s falsetto I actually like. I like to put this on when I’m zoning out and looking for easy music to listen to while I work.”