Right, first the bad news – at the last possible minute, Hellraiser pulled out. There was a little bit of confusion as to exactly why, but Zio decided to go with the regular Hell’s DJs rather than getting another emergency backup guest in. It turned out to be a good choice, as although the attendance was nowhere near what it would have been otherwise, all the DJs pulled out the stops to give some great performances. Alongside the dance performances and glowstickers, it was a pretty spectacular event. Thanks to Hellraiser’s cancellation, I was shifted further down the schedule, playing again about halfway through the night (after Raithm/Minagi and before Stanfield).
We had plenty of time to get things set up pre-event this time (even if everyone except myself and VX Pasta were later than expected…), and so no troubles on that front. Warming up the crowd was DJ M.K.T, who played fairly pacy hard house with hardstyle and even gabber elements. I’ve only seen him play a couple of times before, but this was the best of his sets so far and a nice way to get things going.
Raithm/Minagi went for high BPM hard house this time, cutting down on the hard trance elements. The selection was top class, and he brought in some nice euphoric melodies towards the end, really energising the crowd. He’s let slip that he might be happier playing Hard NRG, but with me and KA-NA both at this event it would have been slightly overkill (not that I would have minded). This was house so hard that it wasn’t a million miles from Hard NRG, anyway.
Next up was you-know-who (and the above photo was from last weekend, despite me looking exactly the same as at the previous event). Once again, I was really pleased/amazed how well my set went, and how well-received it was by the crowd, so hurrah for that. This time I had a couple of technical problems to deal with though, as the monitors were centred on the vinyl decks rather than on the CDJ and Mac, meaning they weren’t much help at all – and my headphones decided to semi-die too… I lived to tell the tale, anyway. Guests were a bit thinner on the ground this time, but I have to thank the usual Hell’s crew/glowstickers for dancing away through the set, VX Pasta for some great VJ work, and finally special thanks to Betwixt & Between and Alabaster for coming to hear the set/give some support.
As I’ve just joined Hybridize, I thought I’d use this event to promote some of the new artists and tunes. The tracklist, then:
- Epyx & Cyrez vs Fea – Untitled (Cyrez Hell’s Gate edit)
- DJ Rx – Code of Silence (Sam One remix)
- Alek Szahala – Dryad Machine
- Sam One vs Horzi – Fear of Reality
- Substanced vs Grimsoul – Harder Than U Think
- Epyx & Cyrez – Distant Illusions
- Betwixt & Between – Surendrajit
- Nomic – Chaos Maker
- Alek Szahala – Alanamra
- Betwixt & Between – Matter of Fact
Actually, for a long time I’ve had the idea to get Dryad Machine, Surendrajit and Alanamra into one mix, and the new Hybridize tunes turned out to be a great way to connect them all. I was really happy with the connections to and from Surendrajit, especially, so pretend you haven’t seen this tracklist if I do the same thing in a recorded mix before too long. Matter of Fact was completed by Betwixt a couple of days before the event, and I just managed to squeeze it in. It’s a very nice tune, and classic old-skool Betwixt at his finest. All in all, I was incredibly happy that I managed another decent set after probably exceeding expectations with the last effort.
Stanfield played another dark and hard gabber-style set, but I have to admit that I missed the middle, as I was off with Betwixt and Alabaster in the depths of the Scouse! Tokyo floor. The opening tune was great though, an inspired Star Wars rework which started things off brilliantly. Apparently there was a bit of a technical hitch somewhere in the middle of the set, but I didn’t hear any of that.
KA-NA’s set was as quality as you’d expect, and she has the ‘dark NRG’ side of things covered perfectly (meaning that I’ll have to stick to the more melodic style that I’ve tried out both times now). She started with a dramatically pitched down Anmitzcuacah, a sign of how hard the set was going to be. Following that up with DJ Rx’s Eternal Cannon remix and Proteus, Ephexis and Ting’s Angel of Hell (maybe my favourite tune on his new album), she also played Mirage, Dasein and a good few other tunes from The Nature of the Beast. It was a brilliant set with some classy mixing – probably the set of the night, in my opinion.
Zio played a hard techno/hardstyle set, and definitely kept people going right until closing time. Except for me, that is – my illness of the last week caught up with me a bit, and I had to sit out the last few tunes. Anyway, he began with an excellent tune, something like Hard Techno Requiem? Somwhere in the middle of the set he brought the house down with the recent Super Mario Brothers hardstyle (?) tune. A great performance, even if I can’t wait for the next ‘NRG Zio’ set, if I’m honest.
This was another great event, then, and although there was talk of delaying the next event for a while, it’s possible that there might be another after the usual 2 month gap. Let’s hope so, and Zio and myself have some big plans for an event sometime during next year, so keep a look out for that.
[Many thanks to Soham for the use of the photos here]