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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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Going ClockwiZe with X-noiZe
Reported by Tara
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Submitted 03-11-10 01:04
When Barak Argaman and Nadav Bonen released their first album as X-noiZe - ‘Mental Notes’ in 2005 - even they were not prepared for the huge global impact it was going to have. 2007’s ‘Revolver’ further cemented their place in the psy trance scene, leading to more international tours. The boys have just released their third album ‘ClockwiZe’, which they’ll be showcasing at the Halcyon Warehouse Party on Friday 19 November alongside the album launch of HOMmega Records label mate Astrix. With their first London gig in well over two years fast approaching, HarderFaster tracked down the lads for an exclusive interview...
It’s been over two years since we last caught up, what’s been happening in your lives since then?
The last two years were dedicated to hard work, there wasn’t any break. Even when Bonen got married (twice hahah… once in Mexico in May and once in Israel in June, to the same Mexican girl) we nearly didn’t have time to breath. We’ve worked hard in the studio and continued touring all over the globe. We demand from ourselves more and more, due to the fact we’re looking sideways and see that things in psy trance are moving fast or even faster then we do… So we’d better not get behind.
The music business is proving to be demanding more then ever. 2008 was the turn — definitely a year that marked a change in the market and with it big changes in music and work habits.
Please tell us a bit about yourselves and your backgrounds. What first inspired you to start making music? And what inspires you to continue making it now?
Well to all who don’t know us: when we met we both were DJs back in 2003. We’ve both always liked music with “balls”, that’s powerful, has originality and is well produced. Our backgrounds were electronic groups from England and the US such as The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fluke, Orbital, Future Sound of London, Front 242, Nine Inch Nails, Daft Punk, Massive Attack, Tricky and Bomb the Bass, along with the stream of psy trance that came from ’98 till 2003. We were inspired by groups that were legends back then, like X-Dream and Hallucinogen.
Then the cross over to “full on psy trance” — such as the music of Astrix and Infected Mushroom — gave us the tone. And we’ve got all of this inspiration in our music. After attending some major festivals and parties in Europe and Israel we knew back then what we wanted to do and we did it. We aimed high and were accepted by HomMega Records, the best label for psy trance. We had a vision and we fitted it the psy trance of that time, with some useful advice from Eyal, HomMega’s label manager. The same things that made us do what we did in music back then are what still lead us today: the passion to rock the dance floor, to see people enjoy and appreciate your sound and music. We’re doing it because we love it.
Can either of you remember what the first record or CD you bought was? And the first track you learned to mix properly?
Bonen: The first record (vinyl) I bought back when I was seven was maybe Michel Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ (1982). After that I become more rocky and bought Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin records and some Police, Sting and Dire Straits stuff. The electronic love only came when I was 16 years old and started to go out to clubs and was exposed to underground music.
My first mix was with no CD players or vinyl, it was with DAT cassettes and MD, the way psy trance was played back then. In Israel I was one of the firsts DJs to learn to beat mix trance back in 98–99, and that gave me a big edge playing with CDJs and vinyl. Soon enough all DJs were “beat mixing” and I wanted to move on and create music myself.
Why the name ‘X-noiZe’? How did you first think of it?
During a track we did we were using samples of voice and we found a plug that reduces the noise called ‘x-noise’. We’d been looking for a name for a while and thought that would fit, because there are lots of ways to interpret it. We came up with the “Z” on the noise to make it even more strange — X-noiZe.
Your new album ‘Clockwize’ is due out on 17 November, your first full album since ‘Revolver’ (2007) and the ground-breaking ‘Mental Notes’ (2005), which both converted loads of people to psy trance. Given the success of your first albums, did you find it hard to start work on ‘ClockwiZe’?
There was (as I said before) a turn in psy trance music in 2008, which got us thinking: “What will we do next?” We knew that most people were doing more commercial music, but deep inside we felt we just couldn’t. We need to do what we love and what our fans and listeners fell in love with in the first place.
We decided to do what we do best and that’s what’s brought us to this stage and status quo, although we surely got affected by other styles like techno and progressive trance, since that’s what we heard more and more in the parties we play at. But never-the-less, X-noiZe will always be what it is! We reinvent our music using the roots of psy trance elements.
One of the first tracks we did after the ‘Revolver’ album was ‘No Mishaps’, a 140 bpm psy trance track, deep, groovy with dark tension and atmosphere. When that track got sold to a Ministry of Sound CD a week after we’d finished it and the feedback came in, then the four times sold ‘Gangster’ track right after it, we got our confidence and kept that line all the way to the album concept. So overall, starting the 3rd album was hard, but it got much easier. As time passes we upgrade ourselves and stretch more and more the boundaries of our tracks.
Why the name ‘ClockwiZe’? Is there an overall concept behind the album?
The name ‘ClockwiZe’ is of course going clockwise in a positive way. The “Z “as on X-noiZe — for those who still write our name with an “S” on flyers… hahaha! Electronic music is evolving and moving all the time, the last two years were crazy. The concept relates to the style of music of course — going clockwise and going the right way.
‘ClockwiZe’ contains a number of collaborations, including tracks with Techtonic, PTX, Illumination and Guy Salama, as well as Tom C doing vocals, plus you experiment with some new styles such as minimal. How would you say the X-noiZe sound has changed over the years?
The sound always progresses, the techniques with it. What always stays the same is the techno elements that appear in all electronic streams. As big lovers of techno we wanted to experience some industrial and minimal techno. In one track, ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’ — clearly anyone can hear that momentum and power were kept; the X-noiZe “print”. In other tracks it’s not so hard to hear the techno inside — ‘By Any Means’ and ‘Dymethltryptamine Remix’ or even ‘Losing Control’.
In some tracks the emphasis is more on the psychedelic, such as the ‘Machines’ remix or the track with PTX. The collaboration with Techtronic contributed some progressive. And Tom C’s vocals are used differently, compared to how we used him in ‘Mental Notes’ or ‘Revolver’.
For ‘Deep Fried’ with Illumination we went and did a retro Goa track with a psy trance vibe in the sound of today and a trippy Terrence McKenna voice sample talking on mushrooms.
Our sound is always getting affected by other styles but forever will stay the X-noiZe sound.
‘Losing Control’, ‘Deep Fried’ and ‘Dymethltryptamine’: there seems to be a theme! Is it safe to say that you make music to party to
These tracks were produced over a one and a half year period. The first one was ‘Losing Control’ and about six months ago the ‘Dymethltryptamine’ remix, then finally the last track written for the album was ‘Deep Fried’. I guess that’s the perfect answer for what X-noiZe is: three completely different tracks, one more full-on, one tech progressive and the last one Goa psychedelic. But all of them will do the same thing on the dance floor — they’ll be powerful and uplifting. I guess we like to see people sweating.
Now that you’ve finished the album, what’s next? Are you going to take a break from the studio and focus on touring, or do you have more productions planned?
We never take a break from the studio, we try to spend most of our time producing new stuff, but we’ve still got some more places to perform in before this year will end, such as Brasil, Mexico, London, Portugal and Japan.
We’re planning to start a new progressive project called ‘Vortex’, with lower bpm, around 130–135. We’ve already got some tracks warming up in the studio: an X-noiZe remix of Liquid Soul and a remix of Neelix by Vortex.
The results of the DJmag Top 100 DJs poll have just been leaked and Infected, Astrix and Skazi all remain in similar places as 2009. It’s interesting that all the psy trance representatives in the Top 100 are from Israel — why do you reckon this might be? Who’s on your Top 10 list?
For a long time, psy trance was the main electronic music in Israel and still is today. It’s because a lot of young guys and girls travel to India (Goa) right after the army. There they’re exposed to Goa trance parties, and they come back with hunger for more. Infected Mushroom started their way in India. Skazi and Astrix came later on… It’s no secret that they’re the best known acts in psy trance today.
Between us we’d already predicted the rise of David Guetta — we thought he’d be a decent 2nd place, but wouldn’t pass Armin this year, since Armin’s got even stronger. At No. 3 we thought Tiesto, and 4th for us was deadmou5. We loved this year’s Dash Berlin work, and Eric Prydz. Another predictable result is the growth of house producers such as Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and the Swedish House Mafia. And all psy trance artists hoped that Infected Mushroom would get a place in the Top 10 too…
Till now we didn’t promote ourselves in that category. Maybe next year we’ll be ready to make an effort — who knows… hope so!
What have been the highlights of the X-noiZe journey so far? And where do you hope it will take you in the future?
Highlights are the big raves in Brazil with 20,000 people in attendance. We’ve also had very good raves in Mexico and we’re heading to two raves considered to be the biggest this year in November in Mexico City and Guadalajara. Other beautiful parties to remember were in Japan and all over Europe.
We hope it will take us to more places, new territories with more crowds to love and support us. Growing up means also playing more —getting into more people’s ears that will be tuned to our music.
Looking at your tour schedule you spend a lot of time touring the world, including South America, Asia and Europe. Do you enjoy life on the road or are you starting to wish you had more down time? What do you like to do to unwind?
We enjoy traveling when it’s possible on work time, as we enjoy being in a lot of places and changing your place of work is the key for not getting bored of the job. The flights are the downer and we always wish we had more time at home. We love working in studio, therefore we try to make tours as short as we can at the moment. At home we work very hard and allow ourselves less time to do other stuff.
We’ve a lot of time to relax on tour. Barak loves to bring his Xbox and connect it to TVs in hotels and play with friends online. Bonen loves to play chess and try to get down in weight — but it doesn’t work for him… hahaha!
What would your dream rider consist of?
Fly in a private plane of course. A pick up right on time and in a sports car (the luggage can go on different car!). Getting to a very good hotel quickly. A free mini bar and massage to relax (not by a man). Getting to the party in a helicopter. A backstage VIP area with 90% girls and a sound system that makes you want to cry when you hear it. A very happy loving crowd and the place has to be packed full. Isn’t that the dream list of any DJ?!
For the nerds reading this, what’s your favourite piece of kit in the studio right now?
Our unbelievably powerful computer that never crashes, that’s the first thing of all! Other then that, we’re a computer freaks and we do it all with the best software we can get.
Playing at so many big events around the world, you’re constantly exposed to the best dance music around. What DJs and producers do you rate at the moment?
We love deadmou5 and David Guetta, as they can do any style of music they want and it all sounds very good. Their versatility is outstanding.
And what have been the top parties or festivals you’ve played at over the last few months?
Kaballah (Rio de Janiero), Alien Trip (SP), Monday Bar Cruise (Sweden) with Andy Moor, Astrix and John Flemming. Insanity Floripa (Brazil), Synthetic Dreams (Russia), Equinox Rave Festival (Mexico City) and a full band show we performed in Israel with Tom C (vocals) and Tal Kening (guitar).
You’re returning to London on Friday 19 November to headline the Halcyon Warehouse Party alongside Astrix, Hallucinogen, Dejavoo, Prometheus , Logica, Liquid Ross, Libra 9, Avalon, Zeus, Beckers and more. Can your fans expect to hear tracks from your new album, or do you also plan on throwing in some classics?
Our live act consists of 9 of the 10 tracks from the album, a live version of ‘Revolver’ from the 2nd album, and a few more classics, that’s a must no?! So yes, you’ll all hear the new album!
Will you be sticking around to party after your set or is this strictly a work trip? Is there anything else you hope to do while you’re in London?
In order to catch a jet to Porto (Portugal) at 12:00am, we’ll have to get some rest, but not too much – this is a massive line up, with a good party vibe. We don’t see ourselves “running” so fast, we’ll sleep in Porto before our live act there early Sunday morning – or even better, sleep when we get home after this weekend! We hope that the party will be wicked and people will respond well to our live act.
Thanks for your time and looking forward to seeing you again on the 19th!
For more info about ‘ClockwiZe’:
http://www.hommega.com/hommegaShop.php?curSubj=&artistID=&curPrdID=138&prdCat=albums
http://www.hommega.com/albumsWimpy/myWimpy.php?queryWhere=album&queryValue=138
For more info and updates from X-noiZe:
http://www.facebook.com/XnoizeOfficial
http://www.twitter.com/XnoiZemusic
Photos courtesy of X-noiZe. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Halcyon
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On:
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Friday 19th November 2010
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At:
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EWER STREET CAR PARK [map]
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From:
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22:00 - 06:00
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Cost:
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10 /18
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Ticket Info:
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Very Limited £10 Tickets for this event ON SALE NOW / Standard Price £18
http://www.accessallareas.org
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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HALCYON WAREHOUSE PARTY
FRIDAY 19TH NOVEMBER 2010
EWER STREET, LONDON SE1 0NR
10PM TO 7AM
After taking a break through the summer Halcyon once again cranks it up to provide you with what will be the definitive psy trance event of 2010. Spread across 3 rooms of music, in a truly underground warehouse location, Halcyon returns with its biggest and most exciting event yet.
Hallucinogen Live from Twisted Records and Astrix Live celebrating the HOMmega 13th Birthday are only a taste of what to expect from this very special event…
Full event details to be revealed soon…
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Flyer:
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Psy Trance.
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DJ's:
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HALLUCINOGEN LIVE
ASTRIX LIVE
Libra 9
Dejavoo Live
Liquid Ross
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Other Features By Tara:
Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast!
Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project
A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden
Telling Cosmic Tales with DJ Strophoria
Tom Psylicious aka EarthAlien takes 50 Spins Around the Sun: Raising Awareness Through the Power of Music
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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