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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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Getting All Technikal
Reported by Sam Townend
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Submitted 17-02-09 20:09
Spend more than a few moments perusing the pages of HarderFaster and sooner or later you'll come across the name Technikal. A firm favourite and somewhat prolific producer in the hard dance scene both here in the UK and internationally Alf Bamford probably needs little or no introduction, so I'm not going to waste your time with anything more. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we give you Technikal.
So Alf, it’s been a long time coming but your debut artist album is finally here, can you give us a bit of an insight into the project?
Indeed it has been a long time coming, I feel like I’ve been threatening putting an album together for years! The concept for the project was ‘working together’. I’ve always collaborated with other artists but I felt it would be great to pull together a select group of fifteen different artists, some of which I’ve never worked with before and then create a record with each of them which displays a coming together of different sounds. So of course all of the records have my distinctive vibe to them, but also take the shape of each artist I work with. I wanted each artist to cover a different part of the album, so I chose my fifteen collaborators with the musical progression in mind.
Who have you collaborated with on the album?
In alphabetical order I worked with: Andy Farley, Andy Whitby, Anne Savage, Gammer, Lisa Lashes, MC Whizzkid, MDA & Spherical, Nick Sentience, Paul Maddox, Phil Reynolds, Phil York, Rob Tissera, Rodi Style, Steve Hill, The Tidy DJs.
Track by track take us through the album and give us the low-down on each single.
Technikal feat. Lisa Lashes - Stop The Noize
A dark and moody trip through hard dance. This one sets the pace nicely, slamming back in quite unexpectedly!
Technikal feat. The Tidy DJs - The Power
Chunky hard house meets soaring hard trance melodies. A real clash of sounds in this one.
Technikal featuring Phil York - Cosmoclasmic
Combining Phil's European flavours with my trademark sound was the order of the day here. A beefy side chained bass line compliments the euphoric side of things!
Technikal featuring Nick Sentience - Lose Control
Forward thinking uplifting psy-dance.
Technikal featuring Paul Maddox - Free Your Mind
Paul's raw production style really comes through in this one, with a cheeky vocal hook and unexpected kick back.
Technikal featuring MC Whizzkid - 20XX
One of my favourites on the album, this was the only track I wrote solo and then collaborated it with Whizzkid's awesome vocal talents. Classically inspired hard trance.
Technikal featuring Rob Tissera - Don't Say Goodbye
Big room vocal monster, exactly what you'd expect from me and Rob. Straight to the point and with a really memorable hook.
Technikal featuring Steve Hill - God's Child
Bouncy hard trance inspired by the Hard House Academy days, with that classic vocal sample!
Technikal featuring Anne Savage - Give It to Me
Anne brought down a really quirky ska vocal to use for this. I totally doubted that it would work, but I was amazed at how it fitted into the vibe of the track. Snarling bass lines and European influenced riffs are on the menu here.
Technikal featuring MDA & Spherical - Turn It Up
A chop-tastic, crazy, totally unnecessarily over the top jaunt into hard dance! When we three get together we always end up trying to out do each other with our little tricks. This track is the product of that!
Technikal featuring Andy Whitby - Hard House Slut
What started out a funny idea at an after party, actually ended up on the album! This one's a rocket charged, 100% full on hard house anthem inspired by housewives of the 1950's who just love going out til 6am every weekend.
Technikal featuring Phil Reynolds - Reflex
Me and Phil tried to reignite the 2003 London hard trance sound that we loved so much in the past. It's a lot grittier than our past work, but still has that Reynolds & Technikal vibe about it.
Technikal featuring Andy Farley - Tantrum
Mine and Andy's first time we'd ever collaborated and hopefully not the last. Combining the classic Farley funk with my uplifting edge, we've created a real oddball track but has absolutely ripped the clubs apart every time we've dropped it.
Technikal featuring Rodi Style - Listen To This
Probably the hardest record I've ever worked on! Rodi is no stranger to tough and evil beats, and this is certainly no different. A real heads down stomper.
Technikal featuring Gammer - Finalé
With our two styles both varying greatly in BPM; we decided to meet halfway in the middle to deliver the final moment of the album. It's hard trance core if you'd like a name for it!
‘Klubbed Together’ takes inspiration from all the different sub genres of Hard Dance, which is your favourite ‘sound’ at the moment?
At the moment I’m really not concentrating too much on the different musical walls and barriers so to speak, and have been simply trying to blend them altogether into something that appeals to me most. If I had to name a favourite though; good, solid, imaginatively produced and original vocal hard trance. Not really a “sound”, but tick all those of those boxes and for me you’ve got a winner!
The album is released through tidy in the UK and also Masif in Australia, how do the scenes compare between the two countries?
Both are going through a real resurgence again at the moment. Clubs are getting busier, new events are cropping up again, and the music is getting really exciting again. I don’t think there’s too much to compare any more except of course the line-ups look very different. They have major players very much like we do here, and DJs such as Steve Hill, Suae, and Amber Savage can fill a venue in much the same way as Lisa Lashes. In Australia they have a fantastically passionate local scene of DJs, much like we do here. The great thing about hard dance at the moment, no matter where you are in the world, is that everybody’s got a shot at doing what they want to do. Opportunities are a lot more abundant for newcomers than in other scenes.
You have a tour coming up in Australia to support the album, tell us a little more about this and any key dates your really looking forward to.
I’m over in Australia for a month showcasing the album. I love going to Australia, it’s where my girlfriend is from so we make a point of going over every year. It’s great to see how the scene operates over there and it’s just good to experience how the music industry works in another continent. I’ve got 5 dates in Australia and 2 in New Zealand. I’m really looking forward to playing for the Masif Bender party for the first time in Sydney and can’t wait to go back to play for the Matrix boys in New Zealand as the last time was a hoot.
Any plans for a UK tour?
The UK tour is currently having all the details worked out but there definitely will be one, so expect to see me showcasing ‘Klubbed Together’ soon at a club near you!
What else can we look forward to from Technikal over the coming months?
Now that the album has been finished I’m going to be focussing my energies back into writing some big tracks for my record label Technikal Recordings. It’s been a little quieter since taking on ‘Klubbed Together’ and we’ve sourced more tracks from other up and coming producers to fill the gaps whilst I’ve been working away on other projects. This has been great and some of the records from these new comers have sold really well and really helped them get some recognition. I haven’t had a solo single on Technikal Recordings for well over a year now so expect a new EP from me soon.
Also on another tip I’ll be working on a lot more Technikore hardcore. I’ve just had my latest track signed to Breeze’s Futureworld label so things are looking quite exciting on that front too!
And after a few months of this, I imagine I’ll start work on my next album as I had so much fun doing this one!
You’re a bit of video games fanatic, what game is rocking your world at the moment?
You are quite correct there, I’ve been an avid gamer since the late eighties, which is quite impressive as I was only born in 86! The best game I’ve played recently is Fallout 3; I didn’t want it to end. A few niggles with some individual elements but as a whole I couldn’t really fault it. More recently than that my girlfriend bought me the Band in a Box version of Guitar Hero: World Tour . . . and I’m currently in the process of working through the drum levels on expert! Fantastic fun.
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Other Features By Sam Townend:
It's an Ideal World for Andy Whitby
The Tidy DJ's are Bang Up For It!
Stevens and Style tidy up
Steve Hill goes International
Is Rob Tissera The Happiest Guy In Dance?
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: carl nicholson on 18th Feb 2009 12:14.15
Legendary Bloke! Well done Lord Bamford!
From: K8-e on 18th Feb 2009 16:00.32
Liking the artwork! Looking forward to hearing some of the tunes!
From: STACE on 18th Feb 2009 16:37.47
After this, i am and always will be a "Hard House Slut". 
From: luke warner on 23rd Feb 2009 22:38.55
Looking forward to it!
From: suzy-q on 1st Mar 2009 21:24.25
I saw this CD in the shop yesterday along with about 5 others I want to buy as soon as I get paid! I want I want I want!!
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