Home News What's On Annual Poll Photos Forums DJs Features Music Venues Reviews Links

Features Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna

Frantic XMas Ball - Review Reported by billy boy / Submitted 11-12-01 21:39 According to the rules of Formal Hard Dance Logic: Frantic + Camden Palace = Epic Party. This rule was proved to spectacular effect on Saturday night. Camden Palace is definitely one of my favourite venues anywhere. It has style, and it has character and it also has a grungy feel to it by virtue of its age, which differentiates it from so many of the newer venues. Put Frantic inside and I cannot enter that building without a palpable wave of excitement and anticipation getting the better of me. Arriving slightly before midnight, we checked our gear in (as quick as was feasible with the typical C.P. winter cloakroom queues) and surged into the main arena. Pulses quickened further as the anthemic beats of the closing phases of Knuckleheadz set washed over us. We had a quick cruise through the balcony levels before the need to crank it out on the dance floor got the better of us and we piled onto the main floor. Next to step up to the wheels of steel was Steve Hill. A stalwart of Frantic and the hard dance scene, I can’t remember the last time I heard Steve play a peak time set and was keen to hear what he would come up with. To be honest, I’d forgotten just how good this bloke is. He delivered a truly awesome set of hard dance music – a selection of energetic, danceable hard house and hard trance, built around timely chosen anthems to really whip up the crowd. When he slapped on ‘Spectrum’ (Harry Diamond & The Mexican) at just the right moment, I was laughing out loud while I was dancing – it was sooo good!! We continued thrashing away in the main room as Spencer Freeland was passed the baton. With Spencer calling the shots, the music took a distinctively harder tone, though still punctuated with well chosen floor-fillers to keep the place near boiling-point. Several times we began to head upstairs to check out the top bar / dance floor, only to have to turn back hastily and take a running leap back onto the dance floor as another unmissable anthem came screaming in. Finally, we tore ourselves away and made the dash upstairs to the top bar. This involved negotiating stairwells full of charging dancers, floors strewn with the bodies of those too overwhelmed with excitement or too exhausted to dance just now, and the familiar winding staircase – walls awash with perspiration – to the very top of the Palace. The atmosphere here was less intense and had more of a party feel to it. A small, happy, bouncy crowd of revellers were urging on Tara Reynolds B2B Danny Gilligan, whose set we caught the very end of before James Lawson stepped in for a three hour session behind the decks. Tara and Danny were working well together keeping the smaller dance area kicking along and the crowd pushing on as they built it up towards the end of their set. The party feel continued with as James laid on a set of totally danceable tunes that kept the room in perpetual motion. A special moment of the set was when he dropped Ali Wilson’s new track ‘Dirty Trancing’ into the mix, with Ali himself going nuts in the DJ box at the same time. Ali was all anticipation as he handed over his precious new tune on CD. Once the breakdown arrived, the crowd were jumping, and Ali (Santa hat included) was bounding away along with the best of them and you’d have been forgiven for thinking he might have been enjoying himself. Camden Palace is all about the atmosphere, so eventually we made the trek all the way back downstairs to get back to grips with proceedings in the main room. We caught the closing phases of Spencer’s set before the Tidy Boys took charge of proceedings. I hadn’t heard these boys play before and really didn’t know what to expect. I am extremely pleased to report that they delivered what can only be described as a storming, stomping set that you would wish you were there for had you known what you were missing !! As much as the tune selection, it was the amount of effort they put into the mix that really impressed – changes of pace, unfamiliar samples, and a few off-the-wall tracks made it fun as well as being hard and uplifting. For me, the highlight of the set had to be when they had the crowd going mad already and they then worked in an extended sample of N-Trance’s ‘Set You Free’ (vintage ‘93 !), before dropping in Tony de Vit’s ‘The Dawn’ right at the build-up – the place absolutely exploded, I can assure you – NICE !!! Things were going this well and we still had Phil Reynolds to look forward to !!! Sometimes – just sometimes – life is very, very kind. The moment Phil’s first tune came banging in, his signature hard, uplifting style was apparent and with the first few tunes, the set initially looked to take the kind of relentless shape we have come to expect from him. Interestingly, though, he then took it a notch or two harder and deeper than usual. For much of the set it had the ebb and flow of an Andy Farley or BK closing set – hard banging house, with occasional surges of more uplifting hard trance. We knew he was going to tear the lid off sooner or later and he saved his best ‘til last. With about 15 minutes to go, the place was about as ready to explode as super-fried TNT. When the familiar early strains of ‘Khemikal Imbalance’ started filtering into the mix, those knowledgeable in the crowd were screaming, whistling, jumping around and waving their arms in the air long before the build up got properly underway. These moments are what Frantic is all about, 5.45am and the entire Palace charging harder than it had all night. Who would dare leave before then with such a finale on the cards??? Standing just in front of the stage and doing a 360 as I was dancing at a frenetic pace myself, the atmosphere was almost too much to take in. Revellers on all four or five balcony levels were on the charge and the whole main floor and stage behind were a mass of arms in the air and leaping, pounding euphoric clubbers. ‘Khemikal Imbalance’ wound down and barely had the first shouts of ’MORE, MORE, MORE !!!’ rang out than the familiar opening beats of one of the other anthems of the moment were detected – on came Paul Glazby’s ‘Beautiful’. ‘How did that go down?’ you might ask – ’OH MY GOOODDDDD !!! GET THE F*CK RIGHT IN !!!’ was all I could think of to scream out at the time… In typical Frantic / Camden Palace style, the lights stayed up for the final tune in order to allow us to witness the rampage in all its stark ferocity. The moment was almost too much for one ecstatic soul beside me – varying between standing almost still in near-spiritual amazement and dancing as hard as any of us – at the very end he had both arms wrapped around his head and looked ready to burst into tears of joy – bless ! And that was pretty much that ! Apart from some cloakroom carnage at the close (which we cunningly managed to avoid the worst of by pulling our bags out before Phil’s set), it was another top, top night in every respect – great venue, great event, great DJs, great music, and fantastic crowd. The revelation of the night for me had to be the Tidy Boys, although I haven’t heard Steve Hill play a set I enjoyed quite as much as that for some time either. Well done Frantic ! – a truly wicked party – and harderfaster will be back for more next time !! See you all out there !! Billy Boy Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By billy boy: Synergy Anthems - Review Tasty 2 - The Valentine's Love Dance - Review Frantic Valentine's Ball - Review Interview with Matt Clarke Fevah - Review The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments:

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Text Mode