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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! |
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Happy Birthday TranceGeneration... Be Part Of It
Reported by josie
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Submitted 05-04-05 10:54
TranceGeneration, a small but perfectly formed event, is one year old this Friday. Held monthly at cute, intimate venue The Soundshaft, the night consistently delivers stellar line-ups, mixing up established talent like Matt Darey and Above & Beyond with rising stars like Simon Patterson (aka Dogzilla) and Ben Lost. The birthday line-up, reuniting the same names as the very first event, comprises Scott Bond - the man at the helm of new promotion Ahead, London boy Matt Hardwick, and duo Solarstone, all with long and glittering careers both as DJs and producers.
To get the inside story on the year that’s passed, and a look ahead at what’s to come, I met up with residents Ehren Stowers and Gary Ramsden, and promoter Nigel Lewis, and made them tell all on a chilly night at a table outside Heaven. The guests on the night - Scott Bond, Matt Hardwick and Solarstone - were let off with short, but tough phonecalls. Want to know what TranceGeneration has in store for you this Friday and in the future? It’s all here.
Have you really only been going a year?
N Yeah since 11th April 2004. The last twelve months have been great, we’ve done all we intended to do, and over the next twelve months it’s going to be even better.
Who has been your favourite DJ?
E It’s really hard to say, there’s so many of them. Personally I was very impressed with Adam White last month… tune selection was top-notch and a great guy.
N For me it was Graham Gold. He’s been in the industry so long and when I heard his name I was thinking ‘is this the right move’ but he was brilliant.
G Agnelli & Nelson. The thing I liked was if you heard their set in the context of the sets on the same night - Scott Bond, Matt Hardwick, it just fitted really really well.
Over the next twelve months who do you think we should watch?
N These two!
E Gavyn Mytchel is already on the rise. He's going to play for us this year. He’s been doing great things down at The Gallery. Also Ben Gold is producing some really great stuff.
What about more producer style people like Factoria or John O’Callaghan?
E John O’Callaghan definitely is one to watch, he’s already got gigs coming up.
N Corderoy.
E Yeah and Robert Nickson, we’re hoping to get him down as well. Thing is, there’s so many good producers out there at the moment and so much good material it’s unbelievable.
Are you thinking about a venue change in the future?
N We’ve got a couple pencilled in that we’re going to look at… I can’t really talk about it at the moment. People say ‘you could do an event next door at Heaven’, we could do if we wanted but moving from the Soundshaft to a bigger venue - we’d gain something - more people in, more money, but we would definitely lose something… that intimacy.
Resident Gary Ramsden
G The thing we love about TranceGeneration is that it isn’t that big. It is a little bit underground, people don’t know about it so everyone you get in there is there because they know about it, or they’re friends of friends. You don’t get any wanderers or passers-by, people are in there for the right reasons. We get so many DJs and producers that turn up there, it's becoming an industry haunt as well. We get loads and loads of tracks before anyone else - when Adam White played for us he debuted the follow-up to ‘Ballerina’, and Matt Darey’s done that as well.
N It’s a place where you could just reach out and touch the DJ you're so close. At first we thought let’s have security, but we’ve spoken to all the DJs and they don’t seem to mind, and people want to say hello and have their picture taken. What other club in London can you do that in? Also the visual side of things - what we have in there is what they have in major clubs. At Crasher last week, great night and everything, but one laser… we have four sometimes.
G We’re moving towards getting bigger names. In May we’ve got John 00 Fleming, Matt Darey and Darren Tate, and the digital sessions project. We’re broadcasting live at the Soundshaft to over 80 countries. It's completely cutting edge. People can buy what they hear… never before heard tracks online. It's f*cking huge. Digital sessions will be huge. Everyone’s going to want to be part of it. It’s a completely new technology combining record sales with the live event. The fact we’re doing it from somewhere so small is just amazing.
N I don’t think the big guns - Armin, Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, are that far out of our reach. What would be perfect one day would be to have someone like Paul van Dyk playing at the Soundshaft. If I was them I’d want to play somewhere like that, I bet he plays little places in Berlin. Just as a one off… it would be 500 of his true fans and he’d love it as well.
So… first birthday party… what are some big tunes you’re going to play?
G I’d quite happily label myself as a big tune DJ… I’ll play stuff that is new but that people will have heard for the birthday. Definitely ‘Dark Roast’ [by Sander van Doorn], I know it’s not exactly a new tune but everyone loves it, and for every two or three people you've got that are out hunting new tunes there are seven or eight that are little bit further behind. Also some of the new stuff from Euphonic - Paul van Dyk’s playing it and it's superb. Ronski Speed’s got a new one out as well [‘2 Day’].
N Rumour is that Solarstone are going to do a new remix of ‘Seven Cities’ for us.
E Couple of big tunes for me - ‘Shiver’ by Armin van Buuren, also there’s a new one by Locust - ‘Aerospace’, which sounds really, really good. That’ll go down well.
Resident Ehren Stowers
Ever found anything amusing left at the end of the night?
N We’ve had knickers left, and shoes. We had one stiletto shoe at one party… someone’s walked home like that! And a chicken fillet…!
Do you ever catch people at it in the bathrooms?
N Yeah, but I'd leave them at it, unless there was a long queue. But usually by that time security will come along and have a polite word, but in hindsight when you think about it… if they conceive, that could be a TranceGeneration baby… and maybe it could get to play one day!
Being residents do you get hit on by groupies?
N I get hit on just to get to them!
G A lot of people just think I’m the photographer!
N I tell them I’m Gary!
G We don’t mind getting our hands dirty…!
So do you guys hope one day to give up your dayjobs and devote yourself full time to the industry?
E Yeah of course!
G My perspective has changed a lot over the last year or so, I don’t see a great deal of money in trance, just the few right at the top, so my aim now is just to enjoy every minute… and I do. It’s not about the money… it's never been about that… we love what we do.
SOLARSTONE
It’s been twelve months since TranceGeneration started, what’s your best clubbing memory of the last year?
At the weekend just gone actually on Boracay island in the Philippines. We played to 2000 people on the beach - lasers on the sea, amazing sound system, tropical paradise, it was incredible.
How has trance fared over the last twelve months?
Clubwise things are definitely getting better, numbers are going up and there’s some good new clubs popping up here and there. Saleswise things are probably worse than they’ve ever been. We run two labels, Deep Blue and Made In England, and sales are pretty appalling, mainly due to the mp3 download problem. However, we’re fighting back, and we’ve just launched a brand-new online store. The quality of trance is getting better as well mainly due to the fact that a lot of the kids who started off using programs like Reason are graduating up to using real synths and the sound is becoming much more organic-sounding as opposed to that linear, digital sound.
How do you see the scene going in the next twelve months?
A lot of boundaries are being blurred, a lot of genres are being crossed over, so there’s a lot of DJs playing trance… and prog trance… and tech trance. It's all merging together, which is kind of cool because it's taking things back to how it used to be back in the early days, when DJs felt free to play pretty much anything they wanted.
In the next twelve months when you come back to TranceGeneration what new talent would you like to see on the line-up with you?
My favourite DJ at the moment is a guy from Singapore called DJ Yukun. He’s an amazing DJ. He’s just done a guest mix for us on the Made In England radio show. There’s some really good Malaysian DJs as well. I think it would be really good to bring some people like that over to the UK, because it's all getting a bit incestuous.
Do you like small clubs like the Soundshaft or do you prefer bigger venues.
I like big venues that are independently organised but I prefer smaller clubs in the UK definitely. I’m not really interested in playing at the superclubs because the people behind them are not interested in the music, they’re only interested in the money.
Some big tunes for you that you're definitely going to play at the birthday.
Most of our biggest tunes at the moment are on our own labels… surprise surprise! We’ve got some brilliant new remixes of some back catalogue tracks, including a remix by two Israeli guys called Zehavi and Rand of a track called ‘Release’. We’ve also got a fantastic new track by Ronski Speed called ‘2 Day’, that’s a wicked track, and we’ve got a really good track by Fat Kid called ‘Voca Me’.
Are you going to hang out there on the night?
We hang around for a while… it really depends on how pissed we are!
What should clubbers not say to you?
Err… ‘get off’, or ‘have you got any Mickey Finn’!
I hear you have a story for the TranceGeneration massive… something about ladyboys in Singapore…?
You’ve been talking to Ben Lost! Err… there are a lot of ladyboys in Singapore! That’s all I’m saying!
MATT HARDWICK
It’s been twelve months since TranceGeneration started, what’s your best clubbing memory of the last year?
Gatecrasher 1 in Sheffield last Sunday. It was because it was a classics night… it was like going back three years in time. The atmosphere was amazing, people were jumping around and the club was absolutely rammed until 6.30 when I finished.
Some big tunes for you that you're definitely going to play at the birthday.
‘Shiver’ by Agnelli & Nelson. They use an Irish vocalist - a guy from Belfast - with a really distinctive voice, and it's just a really cool record. It’ll be a good summer record I think, and no one else has got it. Also a Serge Deviant track, I can’t remember the name but it’s the Probspot remix!
How has trance fared over the last twelve months?
There's less commercial pressures on the scene, because it's no longer a mass thing… it's no longer the favoured night out. It means it's gone more underground, which has been reflected in more experimental-type music coming out. It’s still trance but people are trying to push boundaries… push the envelope a bit, and young producers are coming through and getting a chance.
Where do you see it going in the next twelve months?
I think it’s going to stay the same - there’s no bubble to burst. I mean a few years ago, a night like TranceGeneration wouldn’t be monthly, it would be weekly, and there would be enough support for them to do that.
Do you like small venues like the Soundshaft or do you prefer bigger ones?
Small ones, definitely. I can be so much more experimental with what I play. At a big venue you have to play anthems. It’s twenty anthems…and ‘who can play the biggest tracks’.
Are you going to hang out there on the night?
Yeah I always do.
What should clubbers not say to you?
Nothing really, I’m quite easygoing. Although it’s a bit crap when they talk to you and they’ve got the wrong DJ!
Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?
That’s a tough one.
I assumed guys would just say ‘Kylie’ or something.
No no no! I’d go for someone I could really get something from on an intellectual level… someone really madly successful like Bill Gates or Richard Branson, and try and get it out of them how they did it. Really find out from them, from the horses mouth, exactly how they did it. Or yeah… Kylie!
Scott Bond, doubtless a very busy man, wasn’t available to speak to us, so in true ‘Have I Got News For You’ stylee (remember Roy Hattersley and the tub of lard?), we’ve suggested some answers he might have given…
Best clubbing memory.
I saw Posh and Becks at Madrid airport in December, that was a party to me.
Worst.
Judge Jules didn’t recognise me last month, I cried in the toilets for half an hour but I don’t think anyone saw.
Big tunes?
The new Kelly Llorenna track… I don‘t like some of this dance music though, it vibrates like mad and makes me feel like I need to go to the toilet.
Do you like small venues or big venues?
Anywhere that’s got an NCP carpark.
Vinyl or CD?
Pardon?
I think you have a story for the TranceGeneration massive - something about shadowboxing in a hotel?
I TOLD THE HOSPITAL THAT WASN’T FUNNY! Right that’s it, I'm getting my f*cking lawyer on you.
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Other Features By josie:
It's the Generation game featuring Agnelli & Nelson, The Thrillseekers and Lange
Peach at Heaven: Reviewed
The Gallery at Turnmills: Reviewed
The International Indoor Festival at SeOne: reviewed
The double ender: interview with trance legends Darren Tate and Mike Koglin
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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