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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! 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!

southwestfour: Reviewed Reported by Toxic / Submitted 05-09-07 18:25 Festival fever has never been stronger in the UK, with every weekend during the summer seeming to have had some kind of mass knees up located somewhere in the country. London, over the past few years, has become a firm leader of this trend with events from the Wireless festival in Hyde Park to Lovebox in Victoria Park and the grand finale on Clapham Common, SW4 and Get Loaded. SW4 is four years old and concentrates firmly on superstar DJs as opposed to live acts or bands. The first event was a huge success, but as I have been away for the past three years in Australia I have not been witness to the huge growth this day out has experienced and in 2005 and 2006 I read that it had grown massively and was now firmly established in London’s part calender. My main concern leading up to the festival was the weather; who would have bet that the bank holiday weekend in August would give us anything else but grey permacloud and drizzle based on the terrible summer we’ve had thus far? In the week leading up to the event we were promised by the weather forecasters that the sun would come out but it looked as likely as Sydney having a white Christmas. But lo and behold waking up on Saturday morning revealed a stunning day — clear blue sky and heat in the air. Hurrah! I arrived at the site in South London at 1pm and in no time was through the gate. The queues for the main entrance were substantive but seemed to be moving quickly. The size of the SW4 site seemed to be exactly the same as when I went in 2004 but there instantly appeared to be more people there than then. The place was already fairly busy and Roger Sanchez’s appearance on the main stage had attracted a crowd of thousands eager to get into it. He played fairly obvious tunes but with the sun out and the dancefloor expectant it seemed like a fairly good choice to play some anthems to get the day started — tunes I heard included the new electro mix of ‘Born Slippy’ and Digital Therapy’s excellent ‘Wasted’. Next it was off to the Bedrock to see one of the DJs I was most anticipating — Sander Kleinenberg. The Dutch progressive maestro recently released the third in his series of ‘This is’ compilations and his set represented this sound, starting with smooth, deeper progressive beats and ending on an electro tip. The tent was fairly full already by this time and the heat of the sun had turned it into a bit of a sauna with sweat pouring off people. Still better that than a day of miserable rain and cloud — this was a day to toss that classic English capacity to moan about the weather aside and just enjoy yourself. I then wandered off to the Ibiza Underground tent to catch a bit of Argentinian DJ Hernan Cattaneo. He was playing some really lush progressive house, but the sound system let him down a bit and the music didn’t fill the tent as it should. This problem was an affliction across the whole event and it seems to be a problem that English festival organisers just cannot overcome, whether this is generally due to council restrictions or the skinflint nature of the promoters is not clear. I know that Lambeth Council place very strict noise restrictions on this event and the promoter has little choice but to comply. Regardless, it is an issue that prevents DJs from connecting fully with their crowds as the systems never do justice to the music. The DJ I was most looking forward to was Swedish House Mafia superstar, Eric Prydz who is simply one of the best house music producers in the world. Over the past six months his sound has developed into more of a techy one and his set was reflective of this. I really enjoyed it and it contained lots of really good moments, but I do feel it would have been better in a club with a booming sound system as a lot of the techy stuff he played got a bit lost due to the weak sound system. He really built the set up well though and reached a crescendo with an edit of ‘Sweet Dreams’ and his own productions ‘Ironman’ and ‘Armed’. By this stage it was 5pm, the whole place was rammed and the sun was beginning its descent. Everyone seemed to be in a fantastic mood and there was a nice atmosphere about the place. I ventured over to The Gallery/HF arena to check out Judge Jules. An unfairly maligned DJ but one who always does the business — namely, playing huge peak time floor filler sets. The tent was again very hot and very busy and those present seemed to be appreciating his tougher brand of techy trance. I haven’t really been into trance for a year now but really enjoyed this and found the tunes and Jules’s on stage antics entertaining. With an event with as many DJs as this it is impossible to catch them all — I missed a lot of people during the first half of the event that I would have liked to have seen Steve Lawler, Pete Tong and Tall Paul, to name but a few. But to see everyone is to really see no-one as you’d spend your time getting from tent to tent rather than immersing yourself in the music. Therefore I’m afraid I don’t have much more to add on the Gallery, Ibiza and Bedrock tents as the last four hours for me were all about the main stage. First up was Sasha who really set the first event here alight with his closing set in 2004, this time he was penultimate and played some excellent techno, house and progressive — Prydz’s ‘Ironman’ was one of the highlights of the set and it was perfectly suited to the location and the time of day. Thousands and thousands of people were now dancing in the open air and the hedonistic vibe was infectious. SW4 has had never had a trance DJ close the main stage before and even though my trance days are almost over, I think a trance set is the perfect closer to a day of house and progressive. Paul van Dyk was the DJ chosen by SW4 to close and for the first hour this seemed like the right decision. The start of the set was somewhat harder than I was expecting but sure had everyone dancing — tunes included the brilliant Wippenberg remix of ‘Need To Feel’ by Super 8, DT8’s ‘Murder Was The Bass’ and Filo and Peri’s emo trance tear jerker ‘The Anthem’ — the latter being an acquired taste it has to be said. The energy levels were high but the set did seem slightly oddly put together veering from boshing techno to fluffy vocal trance. All was well however and as darkness fell the stage looked magnificent with green lasers ablaze and PVD dropped in some live versions of his anthems, ‘For An Angel’ and ‘Nothing But You’. But then during the final 30 minutes it all went horribly wrong — PVD seemed to suddenly forget that he was the world’s premier trance DJ and instead believed that he was a cheesy German pop star and out came a procession of really bad German vocalists who had sung songs on his latest album, topped off by a live PA of ‘Time Of Our Lives’. This really did ruin the finale and most people in the crowd looked distinctly unimpressed by this X Factor-esque take on trance. A real shame as I, and 10,000 other people, were expecting PVD’s relentless high octane trance and techno. I was also not that happy to hear the usual anthems from him like ‘For An Angel’ and ‘Born Slippy’. He used to only play ‘For An Angel’ every now and again, but for the past few years he has played it in every set which reduces its impact. I really enjoyed this year’s SW4 — it was organised well, there were bar and toilet queues of course but nothing out of the ordinary and I didn’t see any trouble at all in the crowd which was no doubt the main reason why the security seemed to be relaxed and friendly. The music was good* but not outstanding — I enjoyed Kleinenberg and Prydz the most but the sound systems did let them down somewhat and that was what I was most disappointed in during the day. But overall this was a fantastic day. 28c sunshine + good music and great DJs + an up for it crowd + a festival setting that’s in the same city you live in = a winner! Roll on the next one! * I must give special mention here to SOS who played at the Academy afterparty between 12–3 and absolutely rocked it! Far and away the best music I heard all day. Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster Archive. Not to be reproduced without permission Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Toxic: SouthWestFour 2008: Reviewed Bedrock: Reviewed PvD - In between tour: 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: Andy Dunford on 5th Sep 2007 21:16.52 You're right about PVD - second time I've seen him and he was rubbish again. One day I might realise what all the fuss is about but I doubt it. As for Judge Jules - he did the business and got the crowd going so he did a good job but it wasn't trance he was playing. But enough of the cynicism - I had an excellent day at SW4, the organisation seemed really good for a big event and the weather was fantastic! From: tarmeem_2006 on 5th Sep 2007 21:26.06 oh wish i was there,coz am far away of that,yesh big up to judge jules,am a big fan of him,yyyeeeaaahhhhhh From: Filoxera on 11th Sep 2007 09:15.27 Hi everyone, I'm in maui for almost 2 years. My next stop is Australia but so far, I didn't see any festival as good as SW4. Believe me, short 1 day, concentrate, intense, good people, amazing venue & music choice. I just did burning man so it's another one totally different & crazy. I did SW4 in 04 & 05, I can't wait to come back for 08. BYE From: Matt on 23rd Sep 2007 20:25.27 This year's SW4 was excellent, best one so far. Favourite set was Ferry Corsten, wasn't impressed with PvD but I wasn't in the crowd so maybe I missed the atmosphere.

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