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Features
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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 |
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Back2school
Reported by AlmostEddy
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Submitted 21-08-03 14:37
With the fridge’s Saturday night fever spot closing its doors to hard dance munters with not a care for the bar and all its alcoholic pleasures Frantic hard dance educators line us up for room and boarding at most clubbers' first port of call Camden palace for Back2School. Will this be a slingshot into a spanking new term for hard dance or a catapulted gobstopper though the window of the head's window, only ending in with d10sion with old cranky Ms Crabapple?
Back to school, for a lot of us this idea has been done to death with its somewhat sick sexual overtones and English repression stamped across most of these affairs of the same name, but this is Frantic hard house’s mothership, not some fly by night outfit that’ll lift up our skirts and run away leaving us red in the face. And what ever anyone may think about the Frantic promotions team, they always try to please with their nights.
I must have reach the doors by about 12 o’clock or so and although there was a queue it was not far reaching and, thank heavens, no masses of school uniformed punters singing 80s classics--all I needed was another prick in the wall telling me 'Wot no tie'? It had been a hellish week. As I strode down Camden’s entrance hall the ringing in my ears signalled the start of a lesson in build up dance as DJ Guffy, well attuned to his times tables, sharpened up today’s pupils to what was to come. Guffy’s style really is from the new school of mixing, with intricate tweaks on the mixer and different level changes that really make you shut up and dance--and what better way to do that than dropping a tune like Killer Dance, which had the subdued main room slowly stepping up the stomp.
Now Camden Palace is a great club to rave in but it can be as hot as hell and with HHA just gone and the huge bank holiday weekend coming up, lots of people must've been saving their grants or washing cars to supplement their pocket monies this weekend. So Camden was almost a state-of-the-art air conditioned venue, but there was a nice atmosphere and room to dance. Then the palace slowly half filled as DJ Shan put together a set that completed the course we applied for this night and as he mixed up a treat with the help of not just two decks but three, that was it, it was 'schools out, lights off, lets go f…ing mental', and with the smoke machine going it seemed like the last day of your school term when the eggs and flour fly and you scream in the summer holidays. Plans went out the window and djs ran screaming, it was a main room lock in with David Holmes’ Sweet Dreams in full affect and with Steve hill up next I was happy enough standing next to the speakers and letting Steve take me places only he can. Steve’s going to be sorely missed when he packs up to give the auzzies what he’s been spoiling us with for all this time (don’t miss his last set at Timeless, I’m sure he’s gonna do something special for us).
Mr Maddox seems to have been around for a good while now, but I guess he’s still a part of the new wave of young djs--but when he came on and dropped an absolute old school classic remix of Please Mr DJ go Heavy on the Bass he proved to me that he knows all about the old school and I’m sorry if you don’t know the rest of that song's lyrics, as my memory of it is far too hazy to recite the rest, but take it from me, it’s a real lecture to dance floor trollied lemmings lost in waves of ambience, a right sterling number. This was the highlight of his set for me as I feel he’s warming up for the big Tidy gig so his music choice catered for the northern hard dance scene.
It was now time to step up a grade with James Lawson, a very hard working student of the mixing world who has gained top accolades from most promotions he’s worked with, which pretty much covers the whole of the hard house scene. James always brings a smile to his face which in turn helps you to feel good about the music that you hear. But this term it seems that James has taken it upon himself to claim the deputy head role here in the school of light, Camden Palace. As he rose, we all sat up to hear this animated man lead the assembly in a raucous dance. The tracks seem to resonate from his heart, along his arms and flowed out his fingers, in an electrifying sonic boom as we let our arms ring out way above our heads in appreciation: “o da dj law go son”, top sight of the night.
So as James’s set was coming to an end, it was time to take the register. It turned out that many of the djs had played hooky, so the headmaster chose to close off some of the building, which may well have been a master stroke as many of us would have been in two minds about which room to be in, as lots of people are really warming to the sounds that Donna Birt, Zana Mills and (who cannot want to hear) Dirty Bitch are playing in clubland at the moment. But Caroline Banx wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to show how smart they are up north and that they're not just grim coal fetching monkeys, as some down south may well think. It’s very hard to describe Banx’s set as it’s different to what I’m used to hearing down here, but mainly because I got dragged off to the bike sheds for a loved up snuggle by my just arrived partner (I knew there was something I was missing).
This was it--no more kindergarten. This was what all this cramming had been leading to: the make or break in the school of hard beats and we were in for a treat as Karim was poised to let rip in a crash course in the harder way of life. Now I’m far from being a Karim fan, but tonight there was no hiding his master class and boy did he give me and everyone in ear shot a lesson in Dark Hard Doomsday Dance. He took my head off its shoulders with the hardest fastest mix of an old school classic French Kiss, but not the Scott Project mix that’s been out for a few years--this was his very own fire bomb of a mix and when it hit the dance floor, it just ignited like he had filled the playground with petrol and thrown his Zippo lighter down into it. This track had me straddling fellow clubbers to try to cling on to the top off the speakers--I take it all back Mr Karim, you so have tons of va va boom! This set had us kicking out of school, out of our sodden sweaty shirts and ties, into a stomping session of thrills and spills and hedonistic time of play that had most of us bleeding from the ears and begin for d10son. This was a hard dance lesson and well worth re-sitting. Frantic an education in itself.
The next Frantic event is Frantic presents Timeless: History Edition on Saturday 23rd August - for full details click here.
With thanks to mrbicgit for the use of his photos
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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.
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