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Features 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! DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! Goa based party animal and artist extraordinaire Nirmal talks punk concerts, metal sculptures, flying and rippin' it up on a High Tide! DJ Wired talks to us about the Rise of the Hope and parties, ahead of his upcoming set at Tribal Village on 14th January 2022!

Hard House Academy 2nd Birthday - Review Reported by bunny / Submitted 30-10-02 17:47 Saturday, October the 26th 2002 and it’s Christmas time already. No, not the ho ho ho, mistletoe and wine, Phil Spector on the stereo and turkey on the table traditional yuletide antics but the clubber’s Christmas, the child of Frantic’s birthday Yep, today’s the day when Hard House Academy turns two and it looks like every up-for-it nutter in London (and beyond, apparently a coach-load of Amsterdam-ers have made the pilgrimage) has turned up for a night of avid worship at this most sacred of services... hehehe, let the festivities commence!! 9.15pm and there’s got to be at least 500 people inside and easily another 200 milling around outside. Hard House Academy is one of those rare events where everyone wants to get there on time, we’ve got nine hours of guaranteed good times ahead away from jobs, bills and mundanity and we’re not gonna waste a second of it! As usual, there’s an atmosphere swirling around the place that could short-circuit the national grid, but this time there’s an extra edge to the excitement, because this isn’t just any normal Frantic event (does such a thing exist anyway?)... Nope, tonight we’ve been promised a ‘very special guest’ and the rumour mill has spun off its axis with all the speculation over who it’s going to be. Some say Mauro Picotto, some Anne Savage – a few extremists are even suggesting Tony Blackburn (although I’ve gotta say the mind reels at that one)!! Whoever it is, one thing’s for certain; they’d better play a bangin set cause these stompers are chomping at the bit for some full-on Hard House damage! Opening tonight’s service is DJ Uto, dishing out a promising warm-up set with a distinctly techno-based flavour. This is the first time I’ve heard him play, although unfortunately I didn’t actually get to hear very much of his set as I was scampering around the Academy trying to take in everything + say hi to everyone all at once. But what I did hear I liked; solid, pounding beats with filthy undertones gently enticing everyone into the twisted world of Hard House. And so it has begun... Frantic’s really made an effort and pulled out all the stops for their birthday celebrations. You’re used to being overwhelmed by a full-scale visual and aural explosion when you walk through those big black doors into the main room, but up to now there’s never been anything like this. The backdrop of the stage is draped in ruffled curtains and what appear to be intergalactic starfish spin happily across it all night long, drawing peacefully munted smiles from many a spaced-out clubber The all-new lighting rig in the middle of the ceiling gives the impression that the Starship Enterprise had a bit of a wobbly moment somewhere around the Milky Way and decided to make an emergency pit-stop in the roof of Brixton Academy... I could make all kinds of lame Star Trek-related puns around now but I’m not going too, I’m sure you cannae take it, cap’n (I’m very, very sorry...) And of course there are the lasers. Back from their hiatus (they were missing from the last HHA) and with a vengeance, they’re spitting out slivers of green light as if the future of mankind depended on it. You don’t know whether to look deep into the light or gaze reflectively at the amazing patterns it’s etching on the back wall. Either way, it’s an absolute knock-out, so gold stars all round to whoever was in charge of visuals, you did a top job! A quick trip into the foyer and Shan from 4clubbers is well into his set, playing some real funky Hard House beats that are preventing more than the odd couple of ravers from making it into the main room. That’s the thing about Hard House Academy – so many DJ’s and so little time! If only you could do a Michael Keaton in Mutliplicity and make a few clones of yourself so you could catch every set, instead of scurrying about catching half a set here and another half there. But at least there’s something to keep everyone happy, if you’re not having it in the main room then there’s a choice of three others to get you moving. Back in the main arena it’s 10pm and time for the Disco Brothers, another act who’ve been a bit quiet on the London scene recently. By now the crowd has pretty much reached maximum capacity; walk into the main room and the whole dance floor stretches out before you as one vast, rippling sea of stompers. The Disco Brothers are introducing a lighter edge to the music, spinning out some fast, trancey numbers to get the metabolism moving. Highlight for me was a new trancier mix of POS51 (yes, it IS the new Revolution) which got everyone working up the first big sweat of the night. Speaking of Revolution... this had a few outings during the night but refreshingly everyone opted for remixes or samples, and so cruelly denying anyone the opportunity to do the roll-eyed tut of ‘Not this one AGAIN’. The Disco Brothers’ version laid out a funky/tribal turn on the tune and spurred everyone into bouncing like Mexican Beans that have become rather too fond of Pro-Plus. Good one guys! And now comes Steve Hill. Firstly, have to say: set of the night, if not the month or year. Secondly, have to say: what a nutter!! Hehehe, the energy this guy has made the rest of us more than a little ashamed at our pitiful attempts to keep up with his high jinks. I’ve said previously that how the DJ responds to their audience makes all the difference, whether they acknowledge + interact with the crowd or simply choose to get down to the business of laying down some seriously impressive mixing. Steve managed to do a two-for-one deal and gave us both; I don’t think he could have interacted with us more except by stage-diving into the melee (which looked like it could have been a possibility at one point)!! When he wasn’t hurling euphoric beats and rafter-reaching tunes from the decks he was dashing back and forth and side to side across the stage, making sure each and every raver was MOVING THEIR FEET!!!! Leading us into the madhouse with DJ Mishka’s Access (at least I think that’s the one, a lovely and trustworthy bloke assured me it was), Steve Hill blasts out a truly locomotive set – choon after choon after choon The thumping mix of Olive’s You’re Not Alone combined with white lights and beautifully psychotic lasers meant every tooth on the dance floor was out on display. Then a Hard trance remix of Cortina’s Music Is Moving falling straight into Insomnia left not only your hands stretching for the ceiling but every hair along the back of your neck too. A truly astounding set – Mr Hill, I salute you! Tom Harding enters stage left and it’s Hard House time. Gently coaxing us down from the Gods, Tom offers up a more throbbing beat, justifying HHA’s title while changing the clubbers dance style from waving at the spiky balls (where would Frantic be without them? ) to pounding at the floor. Cutting between Hard House and Hard Trance (Music Is The Drug, a fierce mix of POS51) Tom’s giving it some to the dance floor and we’re giving it straight back. Like Steve he’s not hiding behind his decks and really drawing you into the music, and with tunes as deep as Mark Richardson’s Spectrum there’s a hell of a way to go, hehehe... It’s near the end of the set and one of the tunes of the night is played (although there were many superb tunes played during the night). Volts Wagen’s white label track The Weekend Has Landed features THAT speech from Human Traffic and is an absolute stormer of a tune, pure, blasting Hard Trance that gets you reaching for the lasers and beyond. Safe as... Frantic resident Phil Reynold’s takes over the decks next to take an excited, delighted and ever-so-slightly deranged dance floor that one stomp further Down by the stage and there’s a long line of people just lounging along the front barrier, hopefully ‘feeling the music’. Come on guys, this isn’t David Gray, it’s dance music... the clues in the title. Just standing there while one of Hard Dance’s premier DJ’s spins out a frenetic set of pounding tracks is, well, a bit rude Ok, rant over, the fact is that it was a brilliant set, bouncy as a bungee-jumping pogo stick, fast as Roadrunner the morning after a dodgy bowl of bird seed and happy as, well, as the people he was playing it to With a different, but equally fantastic mix of Insomnia and the always-kicking Bad Ass (a mental track for a mental crowd on a mental night) Phil serves up on a silver platter exactly what we’ve all been craving for... with a little help from the magic finger, of course So here it is, dim the lights and drum roll please...time for the special guests. There’s more than a hint of excitement in the air as the MC churns out a long line in hype. One thing everyone I spoke to agreed on was that we really could have done without the MC. Talking over half the tunes and asking us all to shout ‘Ho-o!!!’... it’s a bit Smash Hits Pop Party. Please no MC next time Frantic, just let us enjoy the music!! When the guests’ identity is finally revealed there’s a mixed reaction. Tidy Boys are well-known for delivering intense, super-charged sets but they’re also quite a familiar feature on the Hard Dance scene, so there was some dispute over whether they could really be described as ‘special guests’. Certainly some people felt distinctly let-down, but then expectations were running so high that meeting them would have been an almost impossible feat. What’s indisputable is that the Tidy Boys didn’t disappoint with their entrance. Pyrotechnics showered across the stage as the intro to the A-Team blasts out around us. Then it’s playtime and Hard House heaven. A awesome tougher-than titanium Firestarter mix marks the peak of the set as the dirtiest of beats stomp across our brains, down our spines and back again, and all thoughts of Mauro Picotto, Anne Savage (and Tony Blackburn) lie crumpled on the floor. Towards the end of the set things take on a trancier edge with the dropping of Signum’s Coming On Strong, and then the Boys’ work here is done. The closing set of Hard House Academy, and it’s never exactly what you’d call a reserved affair, especially when you’re in the experienced hands of a DJ like Andy Farley... and you thought things couldn’t get any messier... Well they can, and they’re going to, cause it’s as hot as Satan’s armpit in here but there’s no way you can cool down now, not when there’s thousands of mad-for-it disco bunnies stomping out their braincells to anthems like 99.9, Bad Ass (different mix to before but still a take-no-prisoners track) and the classic Khemical Imbalance. By the time 4.55am rolls around (clocks changing while you’re in a rave, really not good for your state of mind!) there are more than a few dance casualties littered about the place, and it’s wall-to-wall carnage - but it’s still not over yet. Encore time and the furious breakdowns of K90’s Red Snapper squeezes dry whatever energy and emotion we had left, leaving 4,500 ravers dazed and confused and totally elated. So Frantic came up with goods once more, a line-up featuring some of the most talented DJ’s around treating us to some truly memorable sets. The atmosphere was amazing, the music first-class, the experience... unforgettable. Happy birthday Hard House Academy... and many more Relevant Links Frantic UK With thanks to JidS for the use of his photos Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By bunny: It's about music - interview with Alex Parsons Monkey business as usual: interview with Shaf De Bass Twistathon – Twist’s 12 Hour 1st Birthday Bonanza Zoology's 2nd Birthday - Review! becomeone: Unified in Sound - Review 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: Gordon Darley on 31st Oct 2002 10:24.59 Amen!! Awesome night!! From: Luckyfuka on 31st Oct 2002 12:34.27 Couldn't have put it better myself. Love your zany descriptions throughout the review :-). Well done Frantic overall another top night. From: Jids on 31st Oct 2002 15:28.49 Yikes Bunny. I reckon those who weren't physically present at HHA could very well have been there in mind after reading this. Wicked review hon From: Dog on 31st Oct 2002 17:19.09 Fanfuckingtastic............... brought back the whole munted feeling! From: [Swe]Johannes on 31st Oct 2002 18:20.13 Did I miss Olive’s You’re Not Alone !! That's so unfair!!! The original is a sweet lover for my soul and mind. From: bunny on 1st Nov 2002 09:46.28 Hey all! Thanks for all your comments + really glad you liked the review!! :-) Just remembered though that I'd forgotten to give a mention (big fat, slap-on-the-forehead doh!) to the excellent Tara Reynolds for dealing out a top set of sky-scrapingly stomping tracks in the foyer . In particular a hu-u-u-u-u-u-u-ge thanks to Tara for blasting out the criminally-underplayed Stalker, a tune that kicks like a mule on Red Bull + itching powder - a bit like us lot while we were dancing to it, hehehe! Showing us than gravity can be optional (well, temporarily at least!), Tara laid on a one hour bounce-a-thon that cut through any end-of-the-night fatigue to bring all + sundry together in one big, happy, heaving mess :-) Keep an eye out for this lady, cause I've got a feeling 2003 is gonna be her year... From: Absolutely Fabulous on 4th Nov 2002 14:17.58 Add your own comments about this feature here ! As my very first time as an intergalactic starfish "in the vast, rippling sea of stompers" that was this year's HHA can i just say, from what I CAN remember it was a fRan-fucking-tastic night - and your descriptive and alliterative review filled in the gaps nicely.... cheers sweetie, congtratulate yourself with Veuve n Burb....xxx From: Red5 on 5th Nov 2002 11:04.02 next time please don't build up everyone's expectations with the super special guest bollocks unless it really is going to be special... you could have put tara on the main stage From: blue on 6th Nov 2002 22:13.20 Very impressive bunny!!!!!!! From: Jackie on 12th Nov 2002 10:49.24 WOW!! Awesome review for a fannnntaaassssticccc night, and yes I do agree GO TARA - she can play!!

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