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Features 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!

PvD - In between tour: Reviewed Reported by Toxic / Submitted 12-11-07 18:43 The trance scene is a funny old thing – whilst regular nights keep on falling by the wayside and the amount of crossover tunes diminish by the week there’s one thing that is guaranteed – people will flock in their droves to see the top 4 trance DJs in the world – Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten and Armin Van Buuren. This was proven again as the Paul Van Dyk juggernaut hit Koko, formerly known as Camden Palace, for the first time. The queues were snaking round the block when I arrived at the venue at 11 and was told that it was taking some time for people to get in. This seemed due to the rather strict searching that was going on, whether this had been imposed by the venue or by the council I do not know. I entered the venue whilst Gary Optim was warming things up nicely in the main room with some techy house and prog. Now, most of you will probably remember the Camden Palace of old – great atmosphere but the state of the club left A LOT to be desired, overflowing toilets one hour into events, poor soundsystem , sweat dripping from the ceiling and a carpet that looked dirtier than Silvia Saint in a particularly compromising position. Thankfully, in its new carnation ‘KOKO’ many of these problems seem to have been resolved – yes the carpet is still a bit rank but the toilets have been improved, it’s cooler than it used to be and it’s been given a thoroughly good paint job - all in all it looked rather spanking. The soundsystem has also been massively improved; the sound was amongst the best of any system I have heard in London. After Gary Optim came Lush resident Col Hamilton who really built up a great atmosphere pre-PVD with some excellent electro and progressive house including John Dahlback’s Everywhere and Deadmau5’s superb Not Exactly. The place was really filling up this stage with what seemed to be a very wide range of nationalities - Eastern Europeans, Antipodeans, South Americans and oh yeah, some English people too. However the perennial problem of the male to female ratio at trance events raised its ugly head again as the amount of men far outweighed the women. Clearly women aren’t heeding the tagline of one of London’s other trance clubs urging people to get a bit of trance in their lives. After Col Hamilton’s excellent set it was time for the main act, PVD. Voted number one DJ in the world for two years in a row Paul Van Dyk is a DJ at the top of his game. I’ve always been a massive fan and his sets back in the days of Gatecrasher at Heaven still rank in my favourites of all time. But I have to say that the last two times I saw him, at SW4 and in Australia, have been a disappointment. I was hoping for him to restore my faith in not only him but trance music as a whole at this event. I find a lot of the newer trance tunes these days just too over produced – engineered to within an inch of their lives – and so very little now stands out for me. He started at a quite banging pace and continued on this vein for the first 2 hours – if you look at his set lists over the past year all the sets are very similar and feature virtually the same tunes. Tonight he seemed to be playing a lot of new tunes that I had never heard before and he interweaved these with some really good classics such as the utterly fantastic Don’t You Want Me by Felix and Camisra’s Let Me Show You. Of course there was a healthy smattering of his own tunes with a live mix of For An Angel and extended remixes of Nothing But You and Crush. The pace of the first 2 hours was typical PVD –relentless. This highly danceable trance with huge kick drums was having a great affect on the crowd at KOKO and with its multi layered structure it really was a great sight to behold – such a good venue for trance! The production was very good as well with strong lighting and an imposing stage set up. The relentlessness unusually did not last though and the last hour of PVD’s set was well, a bit flat if truth be told. Amongst the odd cracker like Dubfire’s Roadkill there seemed to be too many filler tunes and too many tunes from PVD’s new album. Too many emo style male vocals mixed with meandering melodies and boring breakdowns. There were just enough moments to keep the crowd hooked but I felt he could have driven it home more than he did. Still the set was a huge improvement on the ones I had seen from him lately and the first 2 hours really were enjoyable. Following PVD was London’s grand master of trance, Ian Betts. Ian kicked off his set with the Greg Downey remix of Heaven Scent and promptly followed that with Quench’s seminal Dreams- What a start! He continued to fire up the crowd with one and a half hours of high octane trance. It’s always hard for DJs to follow such big acts as PVD but Betts kept the vast majority of the club in rapture and on the dancefloor. Finishing the set with one of my favourite ever tunes, Saltwater’s Legacy, was inspired and the throbbing masses lapped it up. Lights up, time to go home but not before Betts gave the crowd one more – the instrumental of Agnelli and Nelson’s Everyday, nice to hear out what is clearly the best mix of this trance classic. Unfortunately, an overeager sound engineer or other nameless culprit cut the tune in the middle of the second breakdown – boo! Those in attendance clearly weren’t happy about this but the club management wouldn’t relent and so we were sent on our merry way. I haven’t been to a proper trance night for literally years, I used to go to nothing but, and so I was dubious as to whether I would enjoy it as much as I used to but these fears were thankfully mostly unfounded. Excellent warm ups from Gary Optim and Col Hamilton eased me into it well and I thought both PVD and Ian Betts were excellent, with a great atmosphere in the club to match. I was really impressed with the venue and the soundsystem and the level of busyness never got to ridiculous levels like I was expecting. Were there any bad points? Well, the crowd was far too dominated by men and this resulted in some rude behaviour and some interesting body odour (wear Mitcham you rank bastards!) and the event didn’t change my mind regarding the trance that is being produced these days. I didn’t hear one new tune that really made me sit up and go ‘wow!’ and all the tunes I loved the most were old tunes, covers of old tunes or house tunes but that maybe more a reflection of where my personal tastes are at rather than the actual merits of new trance music itself. All in all, an excellent night and one I stayed at till the end which is a rarity these days. Well done LocknLoad for putting PVD in a venue that really suits his style and giving us Betts to finish it off in true Bettsy style. I’d love to see more events here with DJs such as Armin Van Buuren and Carl Cox, London really lacks clubs that give you that big room feeling at the moment and when a club this big goes off as it did on this night there is little to match it. 9/10 Photos courtesy of Frank van Greunen. Not to be reproduced without permission. For more info: info@frankvangreunen.co.uk. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Toxic: SouthWestFour 2008: Reviewed Bedrock: Reviewed southwestfour: 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: Carine on 13th Nov 2007 18:35.58 Why are people surprised/annoyed that PVD played so many tunes of his latest album? He is promoting it therefore it is to be expected! As for the other sets of the night - I also thought the 2 warm up dj's were excellent and Bettsy at the end couldn't have played a better set. Great atmosphere at the Palace despite the unacceptable time spent queuing... As for the men/women ratio, it seems to be the norm these days... From: Alan-Banks on 14th Nov 2007 13:11.26 Not bad for you then hey Carine the male/female ratio! I had a great time. After seeign PVD play one of the worst sets at the Cream closing in Ibzia this was much better!!! Koko really does suit a large name DJ and a large name Dj does suit the grandure of Koko - More please From: garyoptim on 16th Nov 2007 00:16.23 lol he looks well stoned in that first pic :P From: onthebass on 4th Dec 2007 04:03.58 Great review. Off to see PvD on the Gold Coast, Australia this Thursday night :P I'd give my left nut to see him play @ Camden though! From: Carine on 5th Dec 2007 12:17.28 Indeed more men than women is always a good thing!

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