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Divas and Renegades in Johannesburg Reported by SunnyAli / Submitted 22-02-08 11:02 Tinnitus? Check. Sore knees, back, sides? Check. Hoarse throat, lingering red-bull-acid tummy ache? Check and check. The aftermath of a great night out is always abundantly clear and this was just that. Hard house paid a one-night-only visit to Boksburg venue Ramp Divas, ordinarily Johannesburg’s gay Mecca, and it rocked. The club itself is a great piece of work. The main arena features a high rise circular DJ booth overlooking the immense dancefloor, accessorised with huge metal chunks of podium and bars running down the longest sides. An upper level balcony with metal-mesh floors and walkways gives panoramic views and a fair amount of vertigo, while a giant ladder climbs to a midair podium dance space apparently permanently populated by beautiful, semi-naked and very gay boys. It’s a huge contrast to the Truth model of lowlit, cocktail-lounge style open-air spaces, but is far more functional at hyping the crowd and allowing everyone to eyeball the DJs. There’s also a second room, surreal garden areas with concrete patio furniture, and non-gender specific toilets; as the barman put it to me, “This is a gay club. We really don’t worry about male and female loos!” All well and good and as soon as the owners ditch the rainbow rotating spotlights and install a proper laser show, it’ll be a truly great venue. While not packed to the rafters, the place was pleasantly lively; the podiums were full and the dancefloor busy, but there wasn’t too long a wait at the bar and you didn’t get elbowed in the face. The main arena was dedicated to funky house and electro that ranged from cheese – I Like To Move It; to trance – a considerably slowed down remix of Adagio for Strings for example. The ghetto fabulous MC was on top form, yelling at the crowd and throwing free CDs about. This all seemed to be standard fare for the crowd predominantly made of regulars, but as a hard house special event there was a way to go. Aside from the lack of publicity and the lack of information on the DJ playing order for the night, the main problem was the sheer lack of appetite for the stunning hard trance dished out by Pretoria-based unit the Renegade DJs. They started work at 2am and pushed through until five, but despite their superb selection of tunes and popularity at regular hard house nights around the country, few people made the trip to see them play and most of the watchers drifted in and out, taking only a vague interest in the sounds. Admittedly the UK influenced euphoric hard trance scene remains niche and underground here, but with a bit more marketing, who knows? Regardless of the poor turnout, the guys put all their energy into three hours of top notch surging hard trance drifting into harder and faster hard house by the final moments. Their signature style is chopped up, remixed and sample-infused hard trance, with the rolling basslines and magnificent kick-ins that standard South African trance just doesn’t deliver. It’s an addictive, high energy sound with a strong international following that is just starting to make its name in South Africa and is definitely the sound of the industry’s future. Their set was a mashup ranging from nostalgic old numbers to new tracks from emerging talents. They dropped new mixes of old favourites, like the totally tranced-up remix of classic Music Is Moving and the ancient but still awesome Faith by Bliss Inc. Newer classics, like Technikal and Kym Ayres’ More And More also took a hammering, while the Steve Hill tearjerker Alone was well received. There were a suspicious number of hard house remixes of UK hardcore tracks: Darren Styles’ Save Me was slowed down to 154 bpm, as well as the Recon remix of It’s All Getting Better. The killer three hour set didn’t faze the DJs, though it did wreck the watchers and only after some persuasion (begging and pleading) did the guys close it down, ending on the immense Leigh Green remix of Tony de Vit’s I Don’t Care. DeeJayCee, selfconfessedly modelled on Frantic (London) resident Andy Whitby’s infectious cut-and-paste, vocal uplifting style and clearly influenced by UK hardcore, has been mixing for ten years, several of which were spent in London playing out at legendary (notorious?) hard house venues like Club 414, Brixton Academy and The Fridge. He brought that experience back to SA and is now making a name for himself playing hard house solo and with the other Renegades. Vinnie-V brings production expertise to the quartet (Renegade Number Four sadly absent on Saturday night) – he started life scratching vinyl and got his first residency in 1999 at Pretoria’s Club @. He’s moved through hardstyle to his current love of mixing and producing soaring trance and hard house tunes, and is working on his next release, out soon on digital download. Big grins too for Wezley J, who honed his skills mixing surging, uplifting hard trance to entertain the clubs and beach parties in Cape Town before moving up to Gauteng in 2006. He’s played alongside UK Tidy and Lashed resident Phil York at Club Evolution (Pretoria), has turned his hand to hard house events promotion and is now scouting new tunes and playing out as one of the Renegades. There are still glitches with the setup for Ramp Divas – Boksburg is a way out of town, making it hard for timid or non-drivers to get to the club, plus the drive back to Sandton is pretty sketchy – special thanks to South Africa’s dismal safety and public transport efforts there – but at least the parking at the venue is safe. It was a shame that much of Joburg’s hard house community missed out on this excellent night out, probably from simply not knowing about it – but hopefully with a little persuasion and some hardcore promotion, Ramp Divas can be hard house’s top talent showcase for the future. Ramp Divas – Boksburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. Saturday 2 February 2008. Photos courtesy of Wesley Jeftha and the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reporduced without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By SunnyAli: Darude's whirlwind decade No sleep for Rachel Auburn In the Presence of Carl Nicholson Frantic Timeless 8 – totally worth ruining Valentine's Day for... It's like Origami, but with power tools..... One Awsum Xmas Party reviewed 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: From: Gem Stone on 24th Feb 2008 17:40.54 Nice review Ali! xxx From: HouseGuy on 29th Feb 2008 10:32.22 Well done Alison... this is fantastic - watch out for more from this talented journalist! From: *antixa* on 5th Mar 2008 07:50.48 You know your music ey!! From: DEEJAYCEE on 31st Mar 2008 14:43.12 thanks for the review Ali From: Wezley_J on 10th Apr 2008 15:35.05 Finally got around to signing up. Thanks a mil Ali, you rock!!

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