Axel Karakasis Gets Proactive
Reported by Joanna McEwen
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Submitted 24-04-09 16:20
The lights are turned down low, colours flicker intermittently and the powerful, uplifting bassline turns the dance floor into a satisfying, body shaking mass. That was Party Proactive in March 2007 at Turnmills when Axel Karakasis, hailing from Greece, listed in DJ Mag’s Top 100 in 2006 and one of Europe’s leading DJs of the harder edged techno that we love, took to the decks.
It’s not often you get to see a DJ like this - at the top of the game, with tracks on compilations including Extreme Euphoria (Ministry of Sound), Cream Ibiza and I Love Techno in a club; who’s played across the globe from Womb in Tokyo, Rex Club in Paris, Switch in Amsterdam and Party Proactive in London, regularly touring countries including Spain, Italy, Korea, France, Croatia and the Czech Republic. He’s also rocked top festivals including the massive Awakenings in Holland, Globedance, Sola Luna Festival, Rabac in Croatia and the Apokalpsa in Czech Republic. Lucky this is exactly what you’re going to get at Party Proactive’s 5th Birthday on the 2nd May at Area. A club with a cutting edge sound system and lighting rig, jammed to the rafters with wild and abandoned clubbers. A coming together of the perfect elements of clubbing. I can’t wait!
In a time when world has gone minimal mad, it’s sometimes a struggle to get to listen and dance to music that’s tougher, harder and just bit more, well, dancier. Know what I mean?! Music produced to a crisp and solid standard with more heart and colour and exuberant energy than the clicks and bleeps of its more down tempo brother (not that it doesn’t have its place but sometimes). Music like that played by Axel Karakasis - his distinctive, energised techno picks you up and carries you along till you’re dancing with easy abandon. When Party Proactive was first conceived it came at a time when a pounding bassline at 145bpm was expected from beginning to end. Putting house, techno, psy trance and hard house into a musical journey was considered weird, along with the mix of people, and, quite frankly, people didn’t really know what to make of it!
Now, five years later, Party Proactive is still doing its thing of putting on world class techno DJs like Axel, Marko Nastic, Valentino Kanzyani, Marco Bailey, Misjah and D.A.V.E. The Drummer, alongside psy trance stars including Dali, Eskimo and now current hot property, Dejavoo. We’ve had the brilliant Filterheadz, DJ Preach, Phillipe B, Pagano, Shane Watcha and Fabric K together with PP’s very own Pete Wardman, Andy Farley, Jacob Moss and The *Ting*. It’s a mix of the bold and the beautiful, the shameless and the coy - people of all persuasions. As we like to say at PP HQ – it’s mahoosive and inclusive and we love it. And those that come agree.
Axel Karakasis is a DJ who typifies PP with his broad love of dance music, citing influences from jazz, blues and the original 80’s golden oldies, and has gone from strength to strength since we saw him last. Currently globe trotting, record bag in tow, he’s quietly been promoting his party sound, one eschewed by many other European DJs in favour of something slower. Not bad for someone who almost single handedly put Greece on the map for techno. DJing electronic music in small clubs in Athens since the 1980s, by the mid 90s techno began making waves in the Greek dance scene and he took up a residency at the Battery Club. In 1996 he began promoting the now infamous Bubble parties at the Piraeus Iguana club, gaining huge support and started to push the techno sound to the fragmented Greek dance scene, playing clubs from Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos and all over Greece.
In 2000, Axel met Marco Bailey and seized the opportunity to release his tracks on Pornographic, Marco Bailey and Christien Varela’s label, with further releases on top labels from Carl Cox’s Intec, Marco Bailey’s MB Elektronics, Naked Lunch, Discover Dark, Yin Yang amongst others. To put it in his own words: “I’ve always wanted to create the music I had in my mind…”. The Minimal explosion led to his joining forces with old friend and collaborator Spiros Kaloumenos who he had met during a radio interview many years before and they set up the well received Omega Audio Recordings, whose tracks are consistently rated by downloads sites such as Trackitdown and Beatport. Taking artistic control meant Axel was able to maintain his unique sound and style.
His recent solo project of Remain Records, has gained support from Carl Cox, The Advent, Marco Bailey, Industrialyzer, Tom Hades, Cristian Verela and Jon O’Callaghan amongst others. A love of exploring different sounds and technologies, his all time favourite piece of equipment continues to be the digital drum percussion (well, he is a techno producer after all!) with 3 decks often being employed in his sets. Axel’s hard work and dedication to providing party music of the highest quality has never waned, regardless of what the commercial world is doing. Much like PP.
From the Purple Turtle bar in Camden to events for 1500 plus people at the best clubs in London – including Turnmills, SEOne and now the incredible Area with it’s well designed layout and twenty-first century sound and lighting – Party Proactive aims to create a party of the best music for everyone to enjoy, with a few extra touches to make it really special (past parties have seen a magician, chocolate fountain, trapeze artist, tea stalls, films, tarot reader, spiritual healer and masseur – you’ll have to wait to see what the 5th Birthday has in store!). And, as ever, when you do come, Come Colourful, Courageous and Ready to Party!
Photos courtesy of Party Proactive and Alex Karakasis. Not to be reproduced without permission
PARTY PROACTIVE: THE 5TH BIRTHDAY
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On:
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Saturday 2nd May 2009
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At:
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Area [map]
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From:
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21:00 TO 05:00
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Cost:
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£8 Early Bird - SOLD OUT / £12 Advance / £14 Standard / £18 - £20 OTD
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Ticket Info:
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Ticket Outlets
£8 EARLY BIRDS / £12 ADVANCE / £15 STANDARD - £20 OTD
Ticketweb: www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08700600100
Viewtickets: www.viewtickets.co.uk
Moreonthedoor: www.moreonthedoor.com
Access All Areas: www.accessallareas.org
Clubtickets: www.clubtickets.com
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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PARTY PROACTIVE PRESENTS THE 5TH BIRTHDAY
SATURDAY 2ND MAY, AREA, VAUXHALL, LONDON
9PM THE END!
The above may make you sit up and wonder, what the bluebell has been going on at PP HQ all this time?! What’s happened to PP since their last sell-out event at the SeOne - the spectacular 4th Birthday Party?!?
For those who’ve been following our adventures you’ll know we were within a hare’s breath of launching something suitably stupendous on you last year, but at the last squeak our Vision was whipped away from us (carried off by a band of salacious imps and, from all accounts, had a thoroughly nice time).
Last year was one of those crazy, exciting, ride-that-pony kind of a year with loads of projects on the go. But, you know us – it’s all about the Party – and we’re never satisfied until we’re happy we can do things As They Should Be Done.
So…….
We are ready, fully charged and ready to unleash one of those rare and unmissable Party Proactive sessions. And being our 5th birthday (our baby is growing so fast!) we wanted to do something truly special, which is why we’ve chosen to do a party on one of the biggest dates in the clubbing calendar – Saturday of the May Day Bank Holiday Weekend. Forget about partying like it’s 1999 – this is 2 May 2009, Baby! And man, we’ve missed you x
After much debating, looking at venues and imaging what the party would be like with us all dancing our pants off in there, we’ve decided upon a club we know is going to deliver a top quality intimate atmosphere, superb sound and lighting, 3 proper rooms, chill out space, relaxed outdoor area, courteous and discreet security and enough space to fit 1500 crazy clubbers!!
This will be the first Party Proactive event since March 2008 so we expect our advance tickets to sell-out in record time.
Early Birds SOLD OUT
Ticket Outlets
Ticketweb: www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08700600100
Viewtickets: www.viewtickets.co.uk
Moreonthedoor: www.moreonthedoor.com
Access All Areas: www.accessallareas.org
Clubtickets: www.clubtickets.com
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Flyer:
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Trance. Acid Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Nu NRG. Hi NRG. House. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Prog House. Electro House. Acid House. Tech House. Acid Techno. Deep Techno. Funky Techno. Minimal Techno. Techno. Breaks. Electro.
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DJ's:
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Main Room: TRIBAL / TECHNO / PSY / HARD
(9PM TO 6AM)
AXEL KARAKASIS (GREECE)
D.A.V.E THE DRUMMER
DEJAVOO - LIVE SHOW
Andy Farley
Paul Glazby
Pete Wardman
DAVE MURTAGH B2B Dave Irvine
DJ D4RK B2B Rhyd B
Andy Force
Room 2: HOUSE / TRIBAL / ELECTRO
(9PM TO 5AM)
Jonty Skrufff (PACHA IBIZA / BERLIN)
2 PhUnKeD uP
JACOB MOSS
Steelo
MUZZ KHAN
YIANNIS BALKIZAS
STEVE NOCERINO
BEN 70
Room 3: HOUSE / TECH HOUSE – IN ASSOCIATION WITH COMEUP AND AUDIOFUNKT
(9PM TO 5AM)
ZOE HART (THE *THE *Ting**)
TIM GALE
PAUL LINDLEY
Cush
ANDY COLLINGS
JAYDA FUNK
Ash PAINE
NICKY BASHMENT
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Other Features By Joanna McEwen:
Ticon the matter seriously
Riding the frequencies with Hertz
The Many Faces of Paul Maddox
Proactive Gets Dejavoo!
Proteus: The Master Of Darkness!
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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