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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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HarderFaster interview with Cardinal Difference
Reported by VinDiesel
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Submitted 01-08-06 15:31
There are many dynamic duos in the music scene: the Edison Factor, Type 1, Section 2, and Lennon and McCartney, to mention but a few! But there can’t be that many that combine hard trance with filthy hard house into one. Take two guys regularly on the scene and from different ends of the country and bring them together to produce the latest dj talent called Cardinal Difference.
After the release of their widely acclaimed demo, they have been practising hard and playing around the country. This Saturday 5th August sees their biggest gig yet when they make their London debut at Intervention alongside a very strong line up that includes Nikki S.
They decided to take out time from their very busy schedule to chat to me about their backgrounds, music and the difficulties of production.
Ok first of all tell me who the hard trance man is and who is the filthy hard house dj?
Raf E is the hard “filthy” house man and Sebastian is the hard trance dj.
How did each of you get into djing?
Raf E: Sebastian got into djing through playing under 18 parties in his home town of Folkestone, with the promoter getting to know him and letting him mix a few tracks together as and when he could and it just went from there, playing at many large town clubs in Kent. Hard house was just a natural progression for his dj career.
I got into djing about 6 years ago sitting in my mate’s loft watching his brother practice for hours. That summer I went to my first ever outdoor festival and saw Paul Oakenfold rock the crowd and that’s when I decided what I wanted to do. Around 4 years ago I got my first pair of decks and started doing it seriously 3 years ago.
How did you guys meet up?
Sebastien: We met up at Wildchild vs. Frantic, November 2004. It was the first ever hard house night I’d been to, I’d had been asked along by Eduardo Herrera to sample the scene for what it was like. I was then introduced to Raf and a few others, we hit it off straight away, and have now become good friends and in December 2005 Cardinal Difference was born.
What made you decide on this unusual combination of hard house and hard trance?
We both have our preferred style that we like to play, so we thought we would combine it to make a new Cardinal Difference style. We want to be different and somewhat unusual; this will bring something new to the scene. The only way that you can start to get noticed is if you try something different and you are are not afraid to push the boundaries. Also, this way we would appeal to the hard trance and the hard house clubbers, instead of just one particular genre.
How do you structure your sets and demo? Is it 50/50 hard trance/hard house, or is it built more on progression?
Sebastien: Yeah it is to do with progression, but also choice of tracks. See anyone can mix a set or a demo but it’s all about what you put into it. We try and put tracks in that people are going know and enjoy listening to, but also tracks where we can show both our styles. We always try to mix tracks that people think won’t go together to bring more energy onto the dance floor.
You guys live at opposite ends of the country, Sebastien in Leeds and Raf in Hampshire. How the devil do you get time to practice together, living so far apart?
We try and get together at least once a month for a weekend so that we can go through new tunes and think about how we going to mix our next demo and play our upcoming sets. We both have full-time jobs so getting time off at the same time can prove to be difficult at times. Now that Sebastien has moved back to London thing are a lot easier and also this way he can afford to get around now and again as he doesn’t need to spend all the money on travelling.
Also getting to meet promoters including Will from Frantic, Steve from Twist, Craig Paxton, the Most Wanted Crew and Yogi and Colin from Cyberkitten also takes time and money, but we are loving meeting all these well known people within the industry and getting feedback from them.
How did you come up with name Cardinal Difference?
We both knew that trying to put both of these styles together would be seen as a bad thing or a cardinal sin in many people’s eyes, but would also be very different from most of the duos out here at the moment. So the name Cardinal Difference was born, but the name is not being two separate djs, it’s about creating a new sound as one.
Who for you are the leading lights on the hard house scene at the moment?
Raf E: There are far too many to mention at the moment as there are so many great djs and producers out there, but for pure entertainment and show abilities, for us it’s Proteus. Also our top dj of the moment is Cally Gage, this girl has heaps of talent and just seems to get better and better by the minute and is a great person as well.
This has been a defining year in your fledging careers, including the launch of your first demo, ‘The First Sin’. How long and complicated was the process of putting this demo together?
It was our first demo so there was a lot of experimenting with the tune selection and the way we were going to structure the whole layout of it. We both knew that this was going to be a hard process. The way a hard trance track is created and the way that a hard house tune is made are very different to each other. This was a big learning curve for us to try and combine and mix both of them together. We recorded seven different versions of it, all with different tracks, before we decided which went together well and made the demo stand out with its own different sounds and structure. In a way we wanted to confuse people with the difference of it so that it would stand out from the rest.
What has been the feedback from people about this first demo?
We have had some excellent feed back from our first demo. We don’t think a lot of people at first thought that it would work and that we were crazy for trying to put something like that together, but after people started to understand what we were trying to do with this demo and understood that ethos behind our genius (ha ha) we were accepted from both sides of the hard house and trance genre.
You have a second demo produced. Tell us about that?
Sebastien: This one was great fun to make. Even though there was a lot more expectation around it, we tried to pull out all of the stops and give this demo a more technical critique, so don’t forget to come a get a copy on the 5th.
Can you mix each other’s styles, i.e. Raf mixing hard trance and Sebastien doing the filth?
Raf E: Yes we can, Sebastian started playing filth after Cardinal Difference was born and also through other hard house djs.
Sebastien: Raf is also now getting into the hard trance mixing and exploring the sound of hard trance more in depth. We both feed of each other when we play our sets which always make things more interesting.
August sees your debut at Intervention-UK Time to Dance London, where you will be appearing alongside some big names such as NikkiS. How did you get this first break in the big smoke?
Raf E: It really came about after our first demo. After giving it Little Gem and the Wildchild crew we were contacted by Steve from Intervention about playing a set for one of his nights. So, thank you Little Gem. Result!!
Are you excited or nervous (or a mixture of both) about your London debut?
We are both very excited as it’s our first ever time playing in London as Cardinal Difference. Sebastian is very excited but as this is Raf’s first ever time playing out in London, he’s both nervous and excited, but tell you what, we will bring the house down! With our energy and fun we create on the floor you’re all in for a great night!
Hard trance material is now gradually continuing to be produced more on cd and mp3 formats with vinyl production fading out. Hard house is still widely available on vinyl, and djs still play out on records. Do you see hard house going down the digital route?
Sebastien: It seems to be, with a lot of labels now going digital or even starting out as digital labels such as Addiction Digital. It’s where we think the formats are going to be going in the future. There has been a lot of debate in the last 12 month about vinyl dying away altogether. In our opinion we don’t think it will go away as quickly as a lot of people seem to think, vinyl will around for many more years yet but cd/mp3 has been playing a big role in the way music is produced and distributed and we think this is the way forward for a lot of smaller labels and producers.
Raf how has the hard house scene changed and evolved for you since you’ve been clubbing and dj’ying? Is the material coming out still fresh and grabbing you as it did 5-6 years ago?
Absolutely, if anything its getting stronger in my opinion. 5 years ago, labels such as Tidy and Nukleuz ruled the world of dance, but now there’s so many with different styles and genres as their fortes. These days it’s not a battle of record labels but a battle of tracks that are being produced. We are also seeing more up and coming djs breaking through which brings more strength to the scene. A lot of promoters still fill clubs on a monthly basis and everyone in the scene is still very much enjoying themselves which it’s all about.
Compare the current state of the hard trance and hard house scenes at the moment?
Sebastien: From the end part of 2005 to the early part of 2006 the hard trance scene had started to diminish but was changed by the likes of Technikal, Olly Perris, The Innovate Team (Nick Sentience and Nicki S) Andy T and the Addiction crew, who brought back the hard trance genre back to the fore. Well Done!
Raf E: The filth part of has really taken off in the last 12 month with great names like Steve Maynard, Lucy Fur, Tom Basquil and Tim Clewz smashing up same great sets left, right and centre. This has set the standard and the pace of hard house on the scene for all new up and coming djs including us. These days the harder the better!
Do you think the way forward for promotions to succeed and survive is through the combination of hard house and hard trance sets?
In our opinion the bigger promoters have already been doing this is the last 12 months with some great effect. These days there are a lot of different music styles being brought to an event to give clubbers a wider choice of music they want to listen to when on a night out.
The London after party scene seems to be dominated by hard house. Why do you think there is a lack of hard trance featuring at these after parties and do you think hard trance after parties would be as successful?
Yes we do, a lot of people we know love trance or hard trance coming at them at after parties. In our opinion people would like more chilled music after a hard night clubbing. Having djs like Cally Gage and Spencer Freeland playing at Twist in London always goes down really well.
With the greatest name in the after party business being Twist a lot of clubbers associate Twist with the harder side of the hard house scene. With there not being any after parties that relate more to hard trance, the after party scene seems to be loosing a majority of the clubber who like the hard trance sounds. If such names as Innovate and Heat were to put forth their own after parties which would include a full line up of hard trance djs then the clubber that are being lost to the after party scene would now have a party to go to.
We are not saying that Twist are doing anything wrong, far from it, In fact we admire and love the Twist vibe and family, but this way the clubbers would get more choice and variety.
What are you plans for the next 6–12 months? Do you want to build yourselves up by playing for smaller parties or intend to play out at some of the big events?
Raf E: Playing the smaller parties is where we will are looking to start off in London. As we know it is hard to break onto the bigger scene with so many big names dj’s already establish on the scene. We have had some great feedback from our first CD (‘The 1st Sin’) from such names as Karim, Tom Basquil, Dr Duzzit and also massive feedback from across the London clubbing scene, so with a bit of luck and some practice (ha ha) we will look to try and get more bookings for the bigger parties in the future.
Sebastien: Also were looking to start our own productions in the future, so watch this space. Having been asked by a few promoters about what we do and how we play and whether we would like to play for them is excellent. So look out in the next 6–12 months, we’re coming . . .
All images courtesy of Cardinal Difference. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Intervention-UK Time To Dance London
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On:
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Saturday 5th August 2006
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At:
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3rd Base [map]
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From:
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10pm to 6am
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Cost:
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£8 quid for harderfaster.net members
£10 quid all night if not a hf member
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Ticket Info:
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PAY AT THE DOOR FOR INDSTRY GUEST LIST EMAIL OR PM STEVE PRINCE
elevationpromo@hotmail.com
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More:
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With Co Hosting a back room at wildchild we have done for the last 2 events, Intervention-uk would like to say sorry for the venue change, this event will no longer be a 12hr event as we are not at the 414, also we would liek to say sorry for the date change too
Intervention-uk would like you all to be there at the new venue, it might be less time but not going to stop us from having a wicked night still got the same dj line up with one or two changes,
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Flyer:
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 - 
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Other Features By VinDiesel:
Bioshokk Triplicity: Matt Melody speaks to Webbo, with VinDiesel taking notes to make the magic three
Across the divide - It's Alex Mac and Zeebra Kid
Alf takes the Technikal View
Cheers! ReFre5h is 2
Get attracted to Magnetix
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: *cheeky chick* on 1st Aug 2006 15:45.12
nice interview.
good luck on saturday lads 
few very good pics used there,wonder who took them   :
From: ajay on 1st Aug 2006 15:46.24
Get in lads!!! Good to see you getting out! Have to catch up again soon.......
From: lizard28 on 1st Aug 2006 16:05.35
Nice one Guys
From: HannaHard on 1st Aug 2006 18:19.06
IS this for real??
From: treesa on 1st Aug 2006 19:48.22
cool, good luck on sat 
From: Disco Diva on 1st Aug 2006 19:49.26
why wouldn't it be Hannah Hard?
Great interview fellas & all the best with Intervention
From: Lx on 1st Aug 2006 19:56.53
I haven't came across the bit about Miami...suppose that wasn't that important...
fun guys
From: Maria on 1st Aug 2006 20:29.46
Hi babes! Love you all! Keep it hard! mwwhhhhhaaaaa
From: Redrum on 1st Aug 2006 20:39.35
Nice interview. Hope you two go a long way. Best of luck on Saturday Boys.
From: ORPHEUS on 1st Aug 2006 21:41.38
nice interview guys....no mention of your Debut gig with Orpheus & Friends.....boo hoo
anyhow, good luck to ya both
From: Claire99 on 2nd Aug 2006 07:56.08
brilliaint read , good luck you two, I look forward to hearing you play soon xx
From: Cardinal Difference on 2nd Aug 2006 09:04.13
thanks for all ur great comments, watch out for us were coming.............
From: Baby Kat on 2nd Aug 2006 09:24.53
Good luck for Saturday guys xxx
From: suzy-q on 2nd Aug 2006 12:56.57
 go guys go!!!!!!!! looking forward to seeing you on Sat night :-)
From: sexyminx on 2nd Aug 2006 13:04.21
Wicked interview guys, well done  Love your cd keep up the good work
From: brad duke on 2nd Aug 2006 14:56.37
hope all goes well guys - sure you'll be the mutts nutts!!
From: little gem on 3rd Aug 2006 08:14.46
Good work guys!!! Nice one!! Gem xx
From: J_T on 3rd Aug 2006 10:59.27
Good luck for saturday, soz I cant be there, hopefully catch you at twist soon,,
From: Sooty on 3rd Aug 2006 23:10.20
whoohoo! good luck sweeties!
From: Missnaughty on 4th Aug 2006 06:35.39
Ahhh my boyz Fab interview, Only one more sleep till Cardinal Difference are unleashed @ INTERVENTION...cant bloody wait 
From: Ashley James on 6th Aug 2006 15:36.28
Well done lads.
From: stew on 6th Aug 2006 19:48.25
Nice one.
From: Steve Prince on 8th Aug 2006 14:53.18
thanks guys toped my night off
From: Mark. on 9th Aug 2006 00:30.06
Well done guys.
All the best.
From: SEBASTIEN on 15th Aug 2006 16:29.52
thanks everyone!!
From: Dr DUZZIT on 18th Aug 2006 16:12.45
get in there Son and use the Force
From: Batch on 29th Aug 2006 16:59.13
wkd to see u at the weekend
... i will never forget what u did 2 me just b4 i went on stage at supernova lol
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