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Armin van Buuren hits Brixton Academy Reported by Agnes Klos / Submitted 20-06-11 19:08 One of the capitals most iconic venues, the O2 Academy, Brixton is renowned for hosting some blistering events. With Armin van Buuren making his greatly anticipated return to the UK and performing there on Easter Saturday 23rd, the venue once again added another historic date in their dance music calendar. The 5000 capacity building welcomed the party goers and united them together for the love of trance delivered by the worlds current No.1 DJ and in the name of house with an outstanding host of supporting acts. The potential was there for the event to be out of this world; Agnes Klos made a trip to Brixton to find out if the party delivered what the PR promised. Armin van Buuren, the world’s current voted No.1 DJ, made all his fans excited when he announced that he would return to the UK during Easter to embark on an exclusive two date tour taking in shows in London on Saturday 23rd and in Glasgow on Sunday 24th April. Despite the fact that I had already had a chance last year to see Armin perform a nine-hour set during his Armin Only Mirage show in Utrecht, Holland, I felt drawn to experience Armin’s magic once again, but this time in the city that serves as my second home, London. I always get a thrill when visiting Brixton Academy as it is it is truly a one of a kind venue on the London clubbing circuit. It combines the feeling of an electrifying arena size atmosphere with great views due of its sloping floor, upstairs balcony and incredible possibilities for production. The proof of its popularity with fans and the media alike lies in the fact that Brixton Academy has scooped the NME “Best Venue” award an incredible twelve occasions between 1994 and 2007 and in 2009 it received the Music Week ‘Venue Of The Year’ Award. The unique features of the venue include its magnificent art deco interior and Europe's largest fixed stage. Undoubtedly there is a magic touch to the venue and it provides me with an injection of adrenaline whenever I walk through its magnificent door. The party kicked off with a warm up set from a Dutch DJ, Jochen Miller. In 2000 Jochen became the first ever resident at Nijmegen’s widely renowned Matrixx club. His cool image is immediately associated with Holland’s more underground venues and he made a name for himself with his style, charisma and authority behind the decks. In his home country he has been successful at huge events including Trance Energy, Mysteryland and Dance Valley. Another success on Jochen’s list is getting signed to the David Lewis Productions DJ agency, home to A-list DJs including Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz and Gareth Emery. Now he can add to his achievements playing a mind-blowing set and doing an excellent job of hyping up the audience before Armin took over the decks. Jochen thrilled the clubbers with his engaging crossbreed of progressive, electro and trance that made the entire crowd beg for more. Armin’s performance started with a light pulsating in the middle of the background screen adjourning the stage. With the tension and excitement hitting the roof, the man everyone had been waiting for appeared behind the decks. A roar of applause and ear splitting chanting ‘Armin, Armin’ spread through the air like a huge wave. Armin welcomed his enthused fans with a huge smile on his face, arms wide open in a proper trance God way and started clapping with the rhythm of music that made the crowd shriek with joy. Armin who has been named number one in the prestigious DJ MAG Top 100 poll four times in a row (as the first DJ in the history of the DJ Magazine) is definitely on top of the game at the moment. He has taken his music to the four corners of the globe, headlining the world’s leading nightclubs and festivals. One of the most mesmerising moments of last year’s summer was Armin’s performance at South West Four. His finishing set blew the party-goers away and I doubt that anyone has forgotten the spectacular moment when Armin climbed on the DJ box to the beats of his beautiful tune ‘In and Out of Love’ (ft Sharon den Adel). Being the World’s Most Popular DJ is just one of Armin’s many achievements. His Armada Music record label is now one of dance music’s premier and most respected labels, his debut artist album ‘Mirage’ is already a huge success and in addition, Armin’s ‘A State Of Trance’ radio show has become the most popular on the planet, attracting more than 30 million listeners every week across a remarkable forty worldwide FM stations. “I can’t wait to return to the UK for two huge nights this Easter; one in the North and one in the South! I have a great new show that hasn’t been seen before and that I can’t wait to reveal to you all. This is going to be very special indeed,” said Armin van Buuren to the press before his show. No wonder Brixton Academy was packed on Easter Saturday. Each of his fans wanted to get a glimpse of the legendary trance figure. Armin’s four hour set at Brixton Academy was loaded with crowd pleasers such as ‘We Control The Sunlight’, ‘This Light Between Us’, Arty and Mat Zo ‘Rebound’, Laura Jansen ‘Use Somebody’ (AvB Rework), Above & Beyond ‘Sun & Moon’, Armin ft Sophie Ellis Bextor ‘Not Giving up on Love’, Ferry Corsten ‘Punk’ (Arty Rock n Rolla remix) and Armin ft Winter ‘Take a Moment’. As the crowd started to build up in the mainroom, all that could be seen was an ocean of elated bodies. Lasers cut through the smoky darkness in harmony with the beat of each track and the lights surrounding the stage created a real treat for our eyes. Smiles abounded on the dancefloor and the madness ensued each time when Armin dropped in another throbbing bassline. Apart from the sensational array of lights and lasers, the additional feature of the show that added the intense emotional effect was the display of the words from some of the tracks on the gigantic screen behind Armin. When he finished his set the silence fell upon us but it didn’t last too long, suddenly in the darkness surrounding the crowd there was a one-word sign on the screen: More? It was exactly what the punters needed at that point. A roar of whoops, cheers and claps filled the space. Armin came back to the stage, playing one additional tune for a mass of his fans literally clambering in front of the speakers. The closing set belonged to Jochen Miller again who kept Brixton Academy stomping hard till 6am in the morning. In the other three rooms revellers were completely consumed by the fusion of epic house, euphoric floor-fillers, breaks and electronica. Bootleg Social Room downstairs with the likes of Momentum DJs, Sick Vibez, Cape Town House Mafia and many others served quality house throughout the entire night with swaying arms raised in the air whenever I passed by. Retox, an already well established brand across the UK which stormed onto the London electronic dance music industry over the last 7 months caused a serious mayhem on the first floor. The line up included Retox founder and resident, Gareth Matthews and fellow promoter and resident Craig Chaplin plus a host of other guest DJs. Meanwhile, the third room played host to Spinning Quickly, a hot young label with a very bright future on its horizon. With the aim to serve the music that breaks the mould, DJs such as Hilton Caswell, Future Filth, DJ Chen, upcoming DJ talent Shaun Stylz and many more served everything that underground house has on offer. The special mentioning should go to Sick Vibez crew who played a smashing set. I managed to grab a minute of Sick Vibez founder, Shane Cookes time, who shared with me his thoughts about the event: [“From the moment I walked through the door the atmosphere was electric. You could feel the tension in the air of people wanting to see the world’s No.1 to hit the decks. Jochen Miller already had the crowd hyped up and bouncing away and could have easily been a headliner in his own right as he is an outstanding talent. Throughout the night I met a whole lot of really great people and overall there was a great sense of unity apart from the odd idiots who may have gone a bit too far on the alcohol! My highlight for the night was the entrance for Armin Van Buuren. There was a great build up and created a wonderful sense of euphoria. When the drop hit I could feel the base in my body and from then on I was taken away by the trance. I could say that I was in a state of trance." "I think 99% of the boxes were ticked and most of the night hit my expectations. The only thing I could say was that I thought to myself that the production for the world’s No.1 DJ and light show could have been better with pyrotechnics etc. and maybe a few surprises thrown in as it was just pretty average all night". “With regards to the music, it was fantastic quality not only from Armin but also from Jochen Miller. All the sub-promotions in the other rooms were really top notch too. Although at some parts of the night, for a very short amount of time, I did think if I wasn’t with the great people I was with, it may not have been so amazing. Then suddenly the whole room would blow up again and I was sent back to that state of trance, locked on to Armin!” All photos courtesy of Agnes Klos. Not to be reproduced without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Agnes Klos: Back2Basics - 10 Years of Party Productions & Tomorrowland Stage Hosts Atmosphere Records - The opening of IBIZA 1936 Entering the world of Waldfrieden in Germany with DJoanna Piracy is not a crime – sail away with Feestgedruis! Progressive flavours with DJ R'Deem ahead of Neelix party 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:

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