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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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Interview with the Nu Energy Collective’s Mark Ashley
Reported by Allan McGrath
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Submitted 10-10-05 22:59
As anyone who has heard the head-twisting ‘Waves Of Desire’ remix will attest the Nu Energy Collective’s Mark Ashley is on something of a roll right now. But not content with updating one of the most seminal Nu Energy tracks of all time into a modern freeform masterpiece, he’s complimented his place on the Nu Energy 50 picture disc with the racing Nu Energy Limited track ‘The Tormentor’. An epic collaboration with man of the moment Eryk Orpheus, the track encapsulates the essence of Mark’s hardcore stance perfectly. Purist yet euphoric freeform that races with all the serotonin-pumped energy of a 4am rave floor. Something, we’re quite sure, Mark is well-heeled in. A long-time raver, the eccentric DJ is always up for a good party and following a stormin back to back session alongside Sharkey at Lakota, was recently found whippin’ an outdoor free party into energised freeform mayhem with Eryk Orpheus. With his uplifting 400% Nu Energy CD ready to drop as the latest in the Nu Energy Collective’s affordable in-house CD series, we caught up with Mark to get the lowdown on one of the Nu Energy Collective’s longest standing members.
Hi Mark, I guess an obvious place to kick off would be your forthcoming 400% Nu Energy mix. How do you feel the mix turned out and what do you think the stand-out moments and features are?
Well the final mix is actually version 2, I submitted a previous mix but unfortunately I included 2 tracks from previous albums and had to do the whole thing again. To be honest it wasn’t such a bad thing as the second mix is rocking and by far the better effort!
Is the mix very much representative of what you’d play out on the ravefloors right now? If not, how would things differ?
I like to play a set that starts off at the lower end of the tempo scale and work my way up to screaming 303s and pounding kick drums so in that respect it’s quite an accurate representation of the type of set I would play in a club. I think it’s important to play a mix of new material and current releases as ravers like to hear tracks they know as well as the upfront stuff. All of the tracks are my choice so they are all tracks that get me moving and I’m sure would get a party pumping.
What sort of tracks are currently filling your box and are there any producers in particular that are really standing out at the moment?
Pretty much everything I am playing is in-house, the production and talent within the collective is second to none so I don’t really need to look any further. In my opinion the one to watch at the moment is Deviance, he’s written a couple of great tracks for Nu Energy, ‘Energized’ and ‘Human Nature’, and he’s learning the whole production process with breathtaking speed. He’s writing some really great riffs and once his production skills are properly polished I think he’ll be up there with A.M.S, K Complex and all the other great producers I haven’t mentioned!
What dancefloors have you been tearing up in the past few months? Have you got any funny or interesting anecdotes from your recent travels?
The last major event I played was HTID on new Years day which was amazing, by some strange twist of fate I ended up playing before Kev so I set him up just nice! The crowd were awesome and I was privileged to have MC Odyssey for the duration of my set. I played in Hamburg earlier in the year and after the gig I ended up being taken to the red light district, having been awake for a good 28 hours and smoking a number of ‘herbal’ cigarettes I founds myself in a club full of transvestites, camp as Christmas men and women who to be honest looked more like a man than I did ! I spent four hours trying not to look gay which is a lot harder than you think!
Within in the DJ field what is your main ambition for the next 9 months or so? Are there any events in particular that you’re really gagging to play?
I’d like to play at more raves as opposed to club nights, I find ravers a really great crowd, full of energy and totally dedicated to the music they’re stomping around too. I grew up being a raver so I have a much greater affinity with the rave scene, that being said, if I got the chance to play the Brixton Academy, Astoria or Koko then I wouldn’t turn it down!
On the production front, I hear you’ve just remixed the classic Nu Energy release ‘Waves Of Desire’ which is probably the track responsible for hooking me into the freeform sound. How did the chance to remix the track? Do you feel you’ve done the original justice and was it a daunting process?
Waves of Desire is one of my all time favorites, ever since I heard it I dreamed of putting together a Mark Ashley version, not that there was anything wrong with the original ! I’d been to talking to Kev about it for a long time, the years went by and my production efforts improved so the next time asked Kev said go for it! The remix is a joint affair between myself and K-Komplex, I think we have done the original plenty of justice, maintaining the original elements but adding a few of our own to the pot to create something that is up there with the current freeform sound. Kev likes it so that’s good enough for me!
If there is one other track, of any genre, that you could get your hand on and stamp with the Mark Ashley sound what would it be and what would you do to it?
That’s a tricky one! What springs to mind is a track called ‘Hustler’, another one of Kev’s! From the same era as ‘Waves of Desire’ it’s a great tune that could with a 21st Century remix, watch this space!
On the subject of future original productions, have you got any other studio dates booked in for the coming months? What sort of direction are you taking your production in – can we expect more energized freeform in the vein of ‘Atomic Orbital’ and ‘Atom-E2’?
I’ve got a couple of future dates lined up with Eryk Orpheus. We always work great together and our latest number ‘Tormentor’ is fierce to say the least. As for the direction my production is taking I think I’ll still continue to make tracks with a more ‘purist’ freeform feel to them, I like tracks that are a little bit different to the norm, a bit like me really!
From the electroid breaks n’ bass section in ‘Frenetic’ to the ethereal choral breakdown in ‘Atomic Orbital’, your freeform material always tends to incorporate sounds and influences from other genres… how important do you think it is to keep the sound fresh and mixed-up?
I think it’s very important to bring in elements from other genres otherwise we would all be doing the same thing and the sound would stagnate. As the name suggests, ‘Freeform’ is music free of form so you can pretty much throw in whatever you like! I hear things all the time I think would make a great addition to a track, I need to start writing them down though! I would like to try and bring in some hip hop elements to freeform as well as guitars, we had a little play around with that in ‘Atom-E 2’ as did Sharkey with his HardLife album and I think the results were great. Outside of the freeform genre there are too many names to list that do it for me, at the moment I’m really enjoying listening to a psy trance CD given to me by an Aussie DJ called Marty Martian, he gave it to me a year ago and it’s still blasting away in my car, one of my all time favourite CDs!
Your first track on the NEC’s in-house labels was your ‘Levitation’ collaboration with Kevin Energy — the first release on hard trance outlet Dynamix. Have you got any plans to make more hard trance or hard dance speed material or is it full-on freeform all the way these days? If the latter, what is it about hardcore tempo tunage that really gets you going?
I’ll be sticking to the Freeform sound for now. For me it seems everyman and his dog are making hard dance which isn’t a bad thing as there’s a huge range of material out there. But there’s not so many of us writing freeform so tracks you release are eagerly anticipated and can be easily identified with you and your style. As I mentioned earlier I spent many weekends traveling around the country raving so I’ll always be more partial to the higher tempos!
You’ve previously worked with the likes of Kevin Energy and K Complex although you and Kevin haven’t been into the studio for some time now. Are there any plans to reunite your powers once again and are there any untried collaborative projects lying on the horizon?
Definitely. As ever it’s the age old problem of time and the lack of it! Kevin is a busy guy so taking time out from the day to day running of the NEC is tricky as it is for me with my job. We have been talking about hooking up in the studio more recently so hopefully we’ll both be able to take some time out in the near future and write a classic!
There’s also more dates planned with Eryk Orpheus — we make a great team and recently played back to back at an outdoor free party in Canterbury. When we took to the decks the dancefloor was a few clusters of mates shuffling around the edges, when we left them it was a seriously raging mosh-pit of havin it ravers... but then that just emphasises the power of quality freeform!
In a dream world who would your perfect studio partner be?
I’m not to sure to be honest. All the people I have worked with in the past have been great and I’m always up for working with them at the drop of a hat. I’ve been meaning to take up Marc Smith (he’s a total nutbag!) on his offer of heading to the other side of the wall and writing a track at his place, in fact I think I’m going to give him a shout when I’ve finished this!
So what do you when you’re not glued to your decks or creating racing freeform tracks? Do you have any bizarre hobbies Mark? Are you a serious book worm, do you collect vintage confectionary wrappers or do you just like getting smashed, watching football and going out like the rest of us???
I’m quite boring really, I mess about with computers a lot, I seem to have become the guy that fixes all his mates and families computers. I’m a bit of a technology head so that suits me. I surf (very badly) and when I can get the time off I try and get away somewhere to snowboard. I’m also a dab hand at Fifa and regularly thrash Matt Style and Vinny (The Green Man!) which I do with great pleasure! Last but by no means least when the sun’s up I love a barbie!
Finally, some quick fire questions:
Your 3 current favourite tracks?
1. Mark Ashley & K Complex — ‘Atomic Orbital’ Live Album Mix
2. Mark Ashley and Eryk Orpheus — ‘The Tormentor’
3. K Complex & AMS — ‘Echelon’ (A.M.S. Remix)
Your 3 favourite tracks of all time?
1. The Prodigy — ‘Your Love’
2. Energy 52 — ‘Café Del Mar’
3. Lost Tribe — ‘Game Master’
Your 3 favourite albums?
1. 400 % Nu Energy !!!
2. Cold Play — Rush of Blood To The Head
3. Sasha and Digweed — North vs South
Star Wars or Lord Of The Rings?
Star Wars all the way !
Jam or honey?
Jam for me, strawberry does the job!
Cheers Mark and I’ve gotta agree strawberry jam tends to go down a right treat in my kitchen n’ all!
For a sample of Mark’s DJ talents check out Mark spin later this month alongside the Organ Donors and Ali Wilson at Puzzle Project’s Club 414 rave up on Friday 14th October or grab an exclusive copy of Mark’s awesome 400% Nu Energy mix, available only at http://www.nuenergy.co.uk/cd
Also keep an eye out for the Mark Ashley & K Complex remix of ‘Waves Of Desire’, which will be featured on the landmark Nu Energy 050 picture disc. Audio for this scintillating remix and all other Nu Energy 50 tracks can be found at http://www.nuenergy.co.uk/new/musicEvents/discography.php.
Photographs courtesy of Amy Carter; artwork courtesy of Vince Peersman. Not to be reproduced without permission.
PUZZLE PROJECT! FREE B4 MIDNIGHT!!
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On:
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Friday 14th October 2005
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At:
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CLUB 414 [map]
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From:
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22:00 - 06:00
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Cost:
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FREE B4 Midnight, £10 after
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Ticket Info:
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Free Entry B4 Midnight
See Hooked On Records for more info
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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We're all proud to announce that the launch of Puzzle Project was a massive success, and as a treat we are giving you the opportunity to see one of the worlds finest live acts for FREE!
The Puzzle Project theme is simple, offer the best line up’s for the cheapest prices, and you don’t get much cheaper than FREE!
Friday October 14th gives you the chance to get face to face with what could only be described as inspiring!
Heard of Organ Donors? If not, what rock have you been hiding under?
Scott & Matt aka, Organ Donors are inviting you to join them at the London’s newest and most fresh event….. PUZZLE PROJECT!!!
Joined by Ali Wilson giving you an insight into the newly launched TEKELEC label and Mark Ashley doing what only a Nu-Energy Collective member does, you are sure to be swept off your feet and taken to a whole new level of late night parties!!!
The myth of FREE ENTRY is no longer a myth! Be there before midnight and you are guaranteed a wallet pleasing time!
Keep your eyes open for set times, giveaways and more info on how to become part of the future of clubbing!
You have been warned!!!!!
www.puzzle-project.com
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Flyer:
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Other Features By Allan McGrath:
Kutski gets ready for his brand new residency @ Tasty - Love Muzik
Hardcore Euphoria preview: Bonkers about Arkitech
Mark Ashley vs Eryk Orpheus: the festive show down
Freeformation Chris-Mess Rave-Up Preview With Type 1
Tasty preview with Roosta
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: phil lankester on 11th Oct 2005 00:32.30
Legend!!!!!
See you on Friday at Puzzle Project!
From: Letty Bird on 11th Oct 2005 03:58.09
NICE INTERVIEW SIR!!! 
From: Mark Ashley on 11th Oct 2005 07:08.21
Roll on Friday, woop woop !!!
From: Gordon Darley on 11th Oct 2005 10:00.47
Roll on Friday indeed!!
From: anushka007 on 11th Oct 2005 11:32.31
not long to go till Friday now  looking forward!!!!
From: Mark Ashley on 11th Oct 2005 16:30.36
Hope you lot can keep up with the Freeform sound !!!
From: Eryk Orpheus on 11th Oct 2005 16:56.43
Excellent interview monsieur and I'll do my best to be there on Friday! 
From: *cheeky chick* on 11th Oct 2005 18:08.12
do i know you? 
nice one Mark,hope to see you soon
From: k-complex on 11th Oct 2005 23:05.24
yay 4 mark!
From: DANNY TAPPENDEN on 12th Oct 2005 12:03.57
oi oi keep it up m8, gotta drag myself away from brixton one weekend to see ya, got some gr8 ideas!!
see ya soon 
From: DANNY TAPPENDEN on 12th Oct 2005 12:05.26
rippin it up at a free party with eryk orpheus freefom stylee
(love it) all for leukaemia research as well, they forgot the reason u boys came & had it large!!
From: Tin Tin on 12th Oct 2005 14:22.13
Love ya work fella and a total gent to boot!
From: Matt Style on 13th Oct 2005 12:19.31
Who the f**k is Mark Ashley??
From: Mark Ashley on 13th Oct 2005 13:55.58
Your just jealous cause i wopped you at FIFA the other night, again...... ha ha
From: bennett on 14th Oct 2005 11:18.39
see you tonight mark! nice interview
From: Mark Ashley on 14th Oct 2005 11:21.05
BRING IT ON !!! Can't wait for tonight, picked up some new tunage yesterday and it's all rockin !!!
From: Matt Style on 14th Oct 2005 15:25.35
I let you win so you didn't keep getting the hump...
From: Daf on 14th Oct 2005 15:49.15
One of the funniest things I've ever seen was Mark trying to mix on Numark decks that had a funny pitch control thing, on a boat party, where the boat was out on the Solan and starting to rock side to side quite significantly!  Clubbers were moving from 1 side of the dance floor to the next with each wave but Mark somehow kept it together
From: Mark Ashley on 15th Oct 2005 16:42.56
Ahh yes, i remember that, the decks where on a painting table as well, well dodgy setup but we held it together, just about !!!
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