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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! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! |
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Euphoria@Heaven - Review
Reported by Tanya Daly
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Submitted 12-04-03 18:50
After a highly contentious week, this was a totally un-contentious night.
John Askew, man, you looked like you were dying for a pee, you didn’t smile once. But we did!  What a perfect set, this was one for the purists. We were so impressed by your mixing and tempo-up/tempo-down, old/new mixture of tunes. Not bland at all. Often I feel like DJ’s just play for themselves, concentrating just on being creative with their mixing, and forgetting about the crowd. But you successfully managed to be beautifully artistic and please the masses. With just 10 of us on the dance-floor at 10:30, by the end of your set, the room was crammed. As each person came in, they headed straight for the dance floor with all the enthusiasm they could muster, to enjoy one of the highlights of the night.
The dancers added nothing to the atmosphere; they had all the rhythm of an elephant that’s stubbed his toe.
The sound in the main room seems to have returned to its former air filling chunkiness. I am no sound expert, but either they have finally fixed the superior sound system in the main room, or it was because there wasn’t all this inflatable bumph hanging from the ceiling absorbing the quavers that made the music sound as good as it should. Just a theory, but whatever the case, the sound quality has regained its juiciness.
Which meant that when John “00” Fleming came out, it was all-round tingles through the air. Euphoric music has to be played on a brilliant sound system to achieve its beautiful resonance. Unfortunately, most people found that 4 hours of this, was just too much, me included. His set was a mixture of light and fluffy “warm the cockles of your heart” trance, psy-trance, and deep euphoric trance, mostly the latter. Despite his own enthusiasm, it never filtered to the crowd, and it was the first time I had seen more people in the other two rooms than in the main room. There is such a thing as euphoria overkill, your brain becomes bored, and the only people that remained, were the monged out few who spent hours looking at their toes. This was definitely music for the spaced out and obviously since euphoria was the theme of the night, he just had to keep pumping it out to a 1/3 filled room.
Meanwhile, up in the Dakota Bar, was The Man Adam. Well, what can I say about his music? Let me put it this way, he and Dave Pearce should go bowling together. Long time since I’ve heard old classics like System F’s ‘Out of the Blue’ and boy do they sound dated now. There are two rules in life: Never get involved in a land war in Asia and try everything in life once, even if it is cheesy euro pop trance. Everyone was enjoying it because it made a nice change, it was just silly fun, like the kind you are forced to have when Abba is played at a wedding. You know you are both inwardly mortified and secretly enjoying it (although you would never admit it in public) and it makes you cringe later when you think about it. Alcohol helps.
After The Man Adam, Anthony Dean became the Jack-in-the-box, I have to say that this was my favourite part of the night (Sorry, John A). I don’t think we could’ve squeezed another body into the little Dakota Bar. His set was so sweet and lively, just the tonic for the boshing sessions of the past few weeks. What is it about this room that always gets the crowd going? No matter what is playing in here, it’s always going off. Anthony was going wild behind the decks and the rabid madness of it all just permeated through this little carpeted enclave. Haven’t had this much fun and silliness in ages.
James Lawson in da house
But it was also going off in the Star Bar. James Lawson was pumping out powerful meaty tunes and although I may not like the music he plays, I was clearly in the minority here. The rest of you were jumping about like puppets on a spring. Then Lisa Pin-Up broke the chainsaws out, and still the crowd was loving it. This certainly didn’t look like a tame crowd. Pin-Up’s music is so hard; it makes a building site sound like an orchestra. Too hard for my poor wee eardrums, so much damage has already been done to them. I fear 2 hours of Pin-Up’s music would leave me as deaf as a post. Just as well she arrived very late for her set, otherwise we’d all be walking around the next day going “EH, HUH, WOT? Speak up laddy” just like your great aunt Hettie with the hairy mole.
I was surprised that trance-meister Daegal Brain was listed to play after Lisa Pin-Up. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum but Daegal masterfully made the transition from her racket to his more subliminal sounds using an interesting selection of tracks like the 2002 remix of Basement Jaxx’s “Where’s your head at”. Looking at the dance-floor, the crowd was pleasantly surprised. Nicely Done. 
And finally, when all was said and done, it was trance producer/DJ, Matt Darey, who finished the night, and us, off. Musically, the styles were all over the place, and so were we. Well…those of us that are well ‘ard were. Actually there were 4 of us losing it down in front (Hi Emma  ). I couldn’t see what the rest of you were doing because if you’ve ever seen me dance, there is no way I could’ve seen a damn thing past all my hair as it flew backwards and forwards. I just didn’t slow down long enough to look around; I was determined to cram the last few moments of madness in. In the midst of Matt’s dancey trance, he played BK’s “Revolution” which really gave everyone an early morning kick up the ass.
We were lucky to have a very friendly, even if not very large, crowd (everyone saving themselves for Easter?) and each room offered a different feeling. I moved around a lot and I found it easy to keep myself entertained. What it is with Londoners that they don’t really get into the spirit of things. If Gatecrasher in Sheffield has a black and white ball or a blue and white New Years Eve party, everyone dresses to the theme. The dress theme was White! Come on people, have fun with your clothes; you are only young once. It won’t be long before you have to start wearing blue floral frocks and brown slacks. Even if photos of you in luminous pink will drown you in embarrassment in years to come, they will inspire you to be that little more outrageous now. Silly. Yes. Tacky. Yes. Fun. Definitely!
I wasn’t given any champagne or sexual favours for this review.
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Other Features By Tanya Daly:
Interview with Tomcraft
My dog's a DJ - The John Askew Interview
Heat:Evolution - Review
Swamp @ Bagleys - Review
Future @ Ministry of Sound - Review
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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Comments:
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From: Not Marcus on 13th Apr 2003 17:24.39
yeah, about right, good review
From: timmyd9 on 13th Apr 2003 19:02.02
Spot on about comparing dancing to System F-Out of the Blue tune with dancing to Abba at weddings
From: Luckyfuka on 14th Apr 2003 10:05.40
nice little comment at the end
From: Richard Launch on 14th Apr 2003 10:18.53
Lisa Pin-up or Lisa Lashes....?????
From: Stevie on 14th Apr 2003 11:04.15
Great to meet you Tanya, your comments on Anthony and Daegal are spot on, definitely my high points of the night. I felt the place couldve been a bit busier. Gotta say I loved Lisa Pin Up though, took me right back to the Bagleys days!
From: Little Miss Twisted on 14th Apr 2003 11:07.31
Pin Up for sure
From: Joe Black on 14th Apr 2003 11:44.04
a) Was Pin Up
b) Class review
c) Pity about the sexual favours 
Y'all behave now
Ciao ciao
From: Bagel on 14th Apr 2003 11:44.17
"and the only people that remained, were the monged out few who spent hours looking at their toes"  !!!!!
Nice review and really enjoyed the night
From: Shaun on 14th Apr 2003 17:13.57
"Out of the Blue" ? - A trance classic no less. As for Jon 00 Fleming, people just didnt have the patience for his set IMO, if you have 4 hours you cant just bang out anthems for 4 of them.
From: Dee on 15th Apr 2003 18:08.07
I think thats a pretty fair review. Can't believe the gall of Pin-Up - arrived 45mins late, tried to run into Daegal's set, and then had her coat on and bags packed before her last tune had even finished!! :rude:
From: Dee on 15th Apr 2003 18:09.20
Oh, and thats an *awesome* pic of James Lawson!
From: DMX on 16th Apr 2003 01:41.29
I really couldn't get into the trance room at all. The final set there wasn't too bad, but that was mostly thanks to anthems being belted out (Binary Finary, For an Angel), which while not being a bad thing, isn't particularly inspiring. I was very impressed with the hard house room. There was not a bad set in there IMO. Lawson, Pin-Up and particularly Daegal had me going at it all night. Spot-on with your comment on "Where's your head at?" - it went off in there when that was dropped.
The main room seemed to be full of people who turned up because it was Heaven, rather than they actually wanted to attend Euphoria. Had the same sort of feeling as at Fabric. Hard house room was definitely one for the more hard dance-motivated amongst us.
Overall, not a bad night at all. Was a bit gutted for Daegal as he had to cut his set considerably short due to the room being closed early.
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