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Euphoria at Heaven - Review

Reported by bunny / Submitted 11-12-02 23:01

Anyone who’s heard the new Extreme Euphoria album will have more than a hazy idea of what a night of euphoric hard dance is going to sound like. But Euphoria at Heaven isn’t just for those of us who hanker after some hardcore hard dance action; tonight the main room is dedicated to the most uplifting house and trance, while the hard house bangs out its business upstairs and to top it all there’s a sanctuary of blissed-out vibes to drift away to in the Bedroom.



Walking into the club the first thing that strikes you is that it’s a very different crowd to a hard house night. The atmosphere’s noticeably less hectic, a lot of people are chilling and chatting (although the dance floor’s far from empty) and there are almost no alarmingly-coloured clothes in sight. It comes as a bit of a shock to the system to us lot – who’re more used to chucking our stuff in the cloakroom and then hurling ourselves headfirst into the thick of the already sweaty stompers – but it’s by no means a nasty one. After you manage to wind your mind down a couple of notches from its usual manic night out mentality you get what Euphoria’s all about... Tonight you’re going to give the middle-finger sign-off to stress, as you unravel all your fears and worries across the dance floor and gently grind them away to nothing.

The little hand might be just teasing 11 but the scene inside the main Uplifting room’s humming, with light and funky beats flowing out of the speakers, courtesy of The Man Adam, over a room filled with people easing their way into the weekend. Apart from the weird’n’wonderful neon Euphoria sign above the stage there’s little in the way of decoration, but when you’re presented with a laser display that looks like it was designed by M C Escher in psychosis, no one’s paying much attention to the walls Smile



By the time the clock hits 12 the bass is beginning to thump it out as the music rises on a steady wave of soaring strings and voices. With the arrival of John ‘00’ Fleming the pace picks up again and hands start reaching for the lasers – and pretty much don’t stop all night until the final breakdown at 6am. A beautifully trancey-funky mix of God Is A DJ gets the rush-factor racing through every level of pleasure but we’re now in the witching hour so it’s time to head on up for a spell in the Extreme Euphoria room to catch the first hard dance set of the night from the masters of messiness, the Tidy Boys.

Taking full advantage of the upbeat tone of the crowd and night, the Tidy Boys hurl all attempts at seriousness straight out of the window and indulge in the fun-loving atmosphere with a set that’s bubblier than a champagne cocktail. Energise, Hands Up, the mental mix of Firestarter (what a tune but apparently only 5 copies in existence!) Tony De Vit’s I Don’t Care and a big bow-out to Music Is The Drug are just some of the highlights from an excellent opening set that promised good things for the rest of the night!

Considering that Lisa Lashes is on next and her first track is the Steve Hill remix of DJ Meister’s Can you Feel It, you kinda get the feeling that the Extreme Euphoria room isn’t set to deal out any empty promises tonight. Then when We Come One follows it up and Mr Haven’s Such A Good Feeling, you KNOW this isn’t going to be the case! The crowd go from wild to wilder as the corners of each and every mouth rise up as far as they can go. Tonight the Lady Lashes is back on superior form, showing off the kind of mixing skills that make all the aspiring DJs in the place go wistful with appreciation (and that’s a pretty tough call when you’re boshing your brains out). The banging mix of Stalker and Serious Sound keep the exhilaration steaming on through the night but the air- conditioning appears to have temporarily gone AWOL so we head back downstairs for (what we expect to be) a less intense stomp and to check out the sounds of Dave Pearce.



By the time we reach the bottom of the stairs we realise any chances of a light reprieve down here are, well, completely screwed cause the main room’s going at it hammer and tongs (dancing that is). Dave Pearce is spinning out a set of pure euphoria so high it’d make K2 look like a trampled molehill. To someone who’s pretty unfamiliar with the softer side of trance it’s a hell of an introduction and a world away from the processed cheese you find clogging up the top 40 every week. Unfortunately I can’t give you any tune titles (despite interrogating virtually everyone on the dance floor) but what I can tell you is that it was exactly the kind of set you’d want to hear as a first-time experience of one of Britain’s most recognised DJs.

4am and we realise we’re running out of time to check out the Best of Euphoria. Step inside the Bedroom and you’re left in little doubt that this is the place to go to give a sugar-sweet kiss goodbye to the last of your cares and sink deep into a sea of soothing vibes. The floor’s covered in chilled-out clubbers taking it easy like a Sunday morning, while a scattering of dreamers groove verrrrry slowwwwly to the idyllic funkiness of Simon Webdale’s heavenly set. It’s paradise in a party but there’s a real danger that once you get comfortable, you’re never going to leave so after half an hour we manage to haul our lazy asses out of there and into the only place to go for the perfect wake-up call – yep, Extreme Euphoria’s calling Smile

Dean Peters is on decks and on hand to barrage our brains and senses with the required level of speaker-grasping insanity as a full and frosty dance floor (that air-conditioning is back with a vengeance) make the most of those final few precious mangled minutes of stomping. Before you know it the two sideshows are over and it’s time to head back down to the main room for the last of Anthony Dean’s end of the night set. After grabbing our gear from the cloakroom (queues not too bad yet but not looking too good either) we’re back on the floor in time for the last fifteen minutes. Thank God we made it in time. The music’s risen to the very heights of trance but just fallen short of the Hard stuff, the room’s filled with a warm wave of hands and bodies and as the last breakdown melts away, a roar of applause pours in to replace it.

After over a year of almost exclusive hard dance clubbing, something like Euphoria definitely comes across as quite unusual. But as a break from the norm, or if you just don’t think you’ve got the energy for another mental one, I’d certainly recommend it. If nothing else, you get to experience a different side to clubbing and a different style of mixing – plus the chance to give your eyeballs a weekend off from the retina-reducing fluorescent stuff Wink


With thanks to JidS for the use of his photos Thumbs up
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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: totty on 12th Dec 2002 19:55.35
COOOO, what a top review,big up to you all areas covered,it was definatley one of my better but differnet nights.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From: VOID on 14th Dec 2002 10:00.09
I went to the 1st ever Euphoria.. but that was when I was into all the trancey stuff.. was an amazing night and from the sounds of your review its still made of the same stuff.. Me thinks I may have to go again 1 day, take a trip down memory lane. Smile

From: chiwi on 31st Dec 2002 07:21.40
Bunny you rock, great review and great to see you trying out different club nights - thou the extreme room couldn't be that far off from our usual hardhouse nights now would it? Wink

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