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| 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! |
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Chemistry No.5: The Sweet Smell of Success
Reported by bunny
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Submitted 14-02-03 16:16
Event: Chemistry No.5. Place: Camden Palace. Time: Sometime between 9pm and 6am, any further specification unavailable. Turnout: Storming. State of play: Balancing on the edge of chaos – enter with caution if you value your sanity. Condition: Good. 
Down your drink, totter out of the thronged Purple Turtle and head for Camden Palace any time after 9.30 on the 8th February 2003 and you’ll soon find yourself a long way from lonely. Tonight Frantic are indulging London clubbers with the latest instalment in their ultra-successful Chemistry series and it looks like everyone in town is up for a piece of the action! Normally when you out for a night of intense clubbing you don’t really expect things to get going until around 11pm, when everyone’s completed their preparations at their pub/bar/pre party of choice and are jready to take it up to a harder level. But on this Saturday night it looks like no one’s in the mood to tip-toe about in the shallows; barely half an hour after the gig has started there’s already a gently swelling queue outside the venue as Mornington Crescent station exhales a steady stream of hot pants, combats and cyberwear. Yep, tonight we’re gonna strip ourselves of everything that’s unnecessary and dive right in at the deep end of Hard Dance 
Camden Palace is one of those places where no matter how early you turn up, there’s almost certain to be enough people inside to make it feel like a party. I’d recommend pitching up before 10.30, especially on busy nights like tonight, because at this point the cloakroom queues are brief and efficient, you’ve got the time and space to move around the club and suss everything out and there’s ample chance to stake out your spot on the dance floor. We’re outside for 9.45, have our coats and bags checked at in 10 and are on the dance floor around 5 minutes later, which is pretty good going. It certainly avoids standing for ages in the foyer with your big, heavy coat and listening to nothing but the distant reverb from all your favourite tunes…
Plus when you get in there early you get to hear some real little gems trip out of the vinyl. At gone 10 Spencer Freeland’s still going strong in his opening set, despite the fact that his clocking off time has long been and gone. Seems that K90’s been held up so Spencer’s holding the fort in the meantime and doing a damn good job of it. As we were checking things out from the balcony, Baldyraver said to me ‘I think Spencer Freeland’s one of the most underrated DJs on the scene’ and I’ve gotta say I agree with you, mate. Over the past few months he’s been going from strength to strength (who can forget his set at the last Timeless?) and tonight was no let-up, in spite of the pressure he must have been under to deliver a set that was almost twice as long as intended. When we first arrive things are already taking off in fine style, with a sizeable crowd breaking into the first sweat of the night to some tough tribal beats rolling out in the form of the Glazby remix of Recoil and a rare play of Pete Wardman’s The Ying, The Yang, The Young (one of those tracks that comes with some fantastic memories attached). Half an hour or so later and like liquidised diamonds the ethereal vocals of ‘Til Tears Us Do Part soar across the thriving dance floor… suddenly you’re left wondering how, within such a short space of time, the music can take such an extreme U-turn without you even noticing it. To successfully pull off such an eclectic set, and to do so when the length of your set time unexpectedly veers from the definite to the indefinite, is an impressive achievement and one that marks Spencer Freeland out as a talent to look out for.
With the main room set times now decidedly off kilter for a while, it’s pretty hard to say when one DJ comes off and the next comes on. I’m pretty sure though that K90 took over at around 10.45 for what was set to be his first DJ set that I’ve ever had the opportunity of catching. Obviously it came as quite a disappointment that we weren’t going to be treated to a full hour as expected, but regrets aside I was thankful that there was still the chance to see what one of the most celebrated live acts in Hard Dance could do behind the decks. If you’ve caught one of Mark Doggett’s live acts then you’ll be familiar with his inimitable style of Hard Trance, but what kind of sounds could he conjure up without the aid of his trusty keyboards? Well, K90 fans won’t be disappointed with the selection of tunes on offer – although there are none of Mark’s own – as the uplifting, dynamic Hard Trance flies out of the speakers and obliterates any bad vibes that might have been gathering in the place. It’s synth paradise as the set progresses and that familiar feeling develops inside you of your heart trying to grow wings and lift you off your feet. From the middle of the dance floor you can’t see the DJ for the forest of forearms while above and around you on every raised platform, miniature solar systems of glowsticks loop and orbit rapidly.
Unfortunately it’s quite a brief set, only about 40 minutes, so it serves as more of a tantalising taster than a full-on offering and as just as you’ve fully attuned your body to the K90 sound, it’s 11.30 and time for him to step down. Taking over is Steve Hill, who has the unenviable task before him of not so much playing a set as 6 degrees of separation: can he pull off linking K90 to Lab4 in 6 tunes? It’s a tough call for sure but he’s up for the challenge… Kicking off with the ubiquitous Sharkboy’s At Night and then launching into his insanely divine mash up of The Dawn and Come On he might be just a third of the way there but judging by the NOISE!!!!! that’s blasting across the dance floor it looks like things are pretty much in the bag After feeling the momentum rush further and faster with the infectiously bouncy Keep Rockin’, dark yet still dreamy You’re Not Alone and the sweetly sinister Feel What I Feel we decide that it’s mission accomplished and take off for our first visit of the night to the Black & White bar…
…Which is operating tonight under the label of the Almost Famous room, and with good reason. Always the showcase for up and coming talent, at this Chemistry it’s truly shorn off all the unnecessary bits; slimmed down, shaped up and emerged strong, sleek and ravenous for the party. Midnight heralds the beginning of Donna Birt’s set and consequently 60 minutes of excellent tunes, buzzing atmosphere and very impressive mixing skills (due to the layout of the room you get a brilliant view of the decks which lets you study exactly how the tunes are mixed… so I can tell you that Donna can catch a beat better than bikini-clad skier can catch a cold  ). By now most people who are coming tonight have pitched up and the crowd in Camden Palace is not far short of maximum capacity. This means that there’s no fear of seeing any empty spaces in either rooms as a constant progression of people stream across the balconies and up and down the stairs, and so here at the top things are just as electrifying as front centre on the stage below. Of course, you don’t get atmospheres like this simply through sticking a load of people together and hoping for the best – there’s gotta be good music to get us going and this is where Donna Birt comes in. Switching from the frenzied stompathon of 4 Tribes into the dreamlike blissfulness of Café Del Mar was just one of the feats she pulled off to make sure that infamous chequered floor stayed shaking for every second that led up to 1am… then there was the delectably evil Headspace by Todd Tobias and the forever magnificent Black Dogs by Prime Mover to inject into any remaining wallflowers (if such a thing exists anymore) that inescapably itchy feeling where the music’s so good that no matter how hard you try, you just can’t stomp hard enough.
At some point we make a run for the main room to catch some of Lab4’s set which – and this may come as a shock for many of you to hear this – was also kicking off like a rodeo competition in an itching powder factory (and it was just as messy too). It’s approaching 1am and the most frenetic Hard House is rattling the air-conditioning pipes so furiously that down by the front of the stage the constant shower of condensation is making it look more like a shampoo ad than a rave:-P Apart from Kraz’s No Rules I’ve no idea what the tracks were because I was too busy wearing out the soles of my trainers but what I can tell you was that they were all undeniably and disgustingly good!
It’s soon time to head on upstairs again for another audience with the pretenders to the Hard Dance throne but not before we catch a slice of sweet euphoria from one of the present kings, Nick Sentience. Fresh from his storming antipodean gigs, Nick’s back to bring us more of his distinctive highly-charged Hard Trance and if you join me here before the DJ booth and look up and out upon it all, I think you’ll agree that it looks like it’s a most welcome return The dance floor may be as thriving as a tramp’s pants but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to do your thing in (whatever that may be) so we launch into a little light stomping, initially, then it’s free-for-all pogo time all the way through the superb Society. Leaving the wonderfully shambolic pile of sweaty limbs to flail it out amongst themselves, we squeeze our way out of the main room and move on up those stairs once more.
Up here things are only just less heated but that can be put down to the air-con, which is thankfully on efficient mode tonight Guffy’s just easing into his set and it’s a real juxtaposition to what’s playing downstairs. One of the more versatile DJs on the current scene, Guffy seems equally at home with his Hard Dance sets as he does with his funky house ones and to begin with at least he’s chosen to neatly blend the two. In tracks such as the Flutlicht mix of S.H.O.K.K.’s Isn’t It All A Little Strange? there’s the tempo and drive of Hard Trance but underneath it all the subtly catchy rhythms of funky house. It’s quite hard trying to stomp and groove simultaneously but after much practice, I think I’m safe in saying it can be done! In between stomping sessions my stomping partner Diesel Steve + I were having a discussion on different styles of music in terms of what works and at what times. I’ve caught several of Guffy’s sets now (Diesel is an out & out fan) and on each and every occasion I catch myself saying that his type of music might not be my first choice to listen to but the timing of his set and the way he arranges it is so well executed that I always find I can’t help but go for it! Diesel came up with the valuable point that a set of deeper, funkier sounds midway through the night provides a clean and beneficial break to the more intense, manic stuff we’re accustomed to and gives the night overall more modulation; you have to adjust yourself to the changing styles and so you pay more attention to what’s being played. This was certainly the case with Guffy’s set, as through the second half he gradually raised the tempo and mood, layering on harder, trancier sounds through tracks like Kesser’s Skywalker and Guyver’s Trapped to get us ready for James Lawson’s high octane beats at 2.30.
But before that we’re going to pay a little visit on the main room and see how Phil Reynolds is doing at the start of his marathon 3 hour set. Well, the disco bunnies are giving it some, the baseball cap brigade are avin’ it geezaah and generally everyone all over the place is breaking out, coming up and knuckling down That shampoo ad’s still going strong under the pipes while up on the top balcony a soft mist has developed through which the glowsticks far below cast their strange, swirling light like psychedelic lighthouses. Down on the decks Phil’s laying into the Hard Trance treasures with a vengeance with Society and In Your Mind in particular sending nearly every pair of arms in the house on a laser-hugging mission (speaking of which, the lasers are as mind-bendingly brilliant as ever and even from way up here in the clouds they’re making some seriously impressive patterns)!
But there’s no rest for the wicked, or even just the mildly naughty like us, as we steam back into the Black & White Bar of Bliss where James Lawson’s laying little discs of dynamite on the decks and blowing everyone’s minds with the results. His own remix of Alpha Zone’s Stay, and Jonah’s Sssh…Listen are a couple of the big classics he’s lined up for us but it’s his new remix of Drunken Monkey that scores an 11/10 on the filth-o-meter. If this track doesn’t make it big I’ll eat my hat (just as soon as I’ve bought one) cause it’s got everything you want in a Hard House anthem; it’s hard, fast, vicious as hell and totally impossible to keep still to. Featuring the hook from Eminem’s Without me, it’s destined to run rings round your mind for several days after you hear it and doing the hoovering afterwards will never be the same again! Awesome track proving that, as with Energise, there’s plenty more where that came from
Back in the main room again but this time we’re fighting our way right down to the front where there’s that essential extra space to go radio rental in because, believe me, it’s sorely needed. You see, Phil Reynolds might be deep into his set now but there’s no calm in the centre of this storm! Down on the stage all and sundry are doling out merciless punishment upon legs, back and braincells while all along the balconies it’s more a case of STOP! HAMMER TIME! as several hundred people apparently attempt to play invisible tubular bells I’m going for broke before the DJ booth with North (wicked dancer, lovely person) stomping and throwing my hair about cause it’s the only thing that just feels so right (Christ knows what it looks like from the DJ box through, most likely as though some one’s let a ballistic haystack loose in the Palace) and here’s a few examples of why… Phil & Steve Blake’s mix of Christian’s Driving You Mad, Phil’s own Phase II and a little drop of big Hard House noise in the form of 99.9. Mr Reynolds is a seasoned pro at these 3 hour sets now (a task that’s a long way from being a piece of cake) and that’s easily coming through with this one; there’s no uncomfortable lulls or drops in the music, just breaks and variations when they’re needed. Satisfied that all is going appropriately beserk in the main room, we adjourn to the penthouse for a sojourn in the top room, as hosted by the unstoppable Tara Reynolds
And it’s certainly true that tonight there’s no stopping this lady! Just as with James Lawson’s set the room is solid with stompers but don’t think for a second that this is pissing anyone off – just means more boshing partners, so bring it on! Hard House is the delicacy of the day, with thanks to Baldyraver for requesting the all-conquering classic Motherfucker and inducing me to turn into bonkers bunny and show off some of my more, er, interesting moves… well, they feel fantastic and that’s what counts! Hehehe, it’s all about enjoying yourself and having the time of your life and by George that’s certainly the case right now. Keeping the bounce factor firmly on a head-spinning high as Vaccuum Packed hurtles it’s hooks, hoovers and catches with carefree ferocity and I well and truly lose the, erm, thingy, you know…. Starts with a P… had it a moment ago… nope, it’s gone… But as with James Lawson the real jewel in the set is a newie by Tara herself and Paul Maddox. Coming in right near the end, it’s strictly white label at the moment (so fresh in fact it’s yet to be named!) and it’s a bona fide Hard House beauty that’s set to rival Mr Lawson’s tune for future 1st place in the hearts of the harder generation clubbers. Touching on a trancey vibe at times it’s an ecstatic, exhilarating slab of chunky beats and hectic horns that the crowd gorged upon with relish as the whole room got stuck in for a piece of it – looking forward to hearing it out again! After a short’n’sweet encore it’s time to go down into the maelstrom for the closing set of Chemistry No.5.
Andy Farley’s the man who’s gonna supply the goods tonight and this is one thing he undoubtedly succeeded in doing 100%… the difference between what you’re hoping for and what you’re gonna get is like ordering a bottle of Jacob’s Creek and getting a crate of Don Perignon, then being told that since it’s here now you might as well keep it, no extra charge It’s Hard House so totally dirty the makers of Cif are throwing their hands up in despair; it’s Hard House so tough that a dozen wrecking balls would be nothing more than shattered shards around it; and it’s Hard House that’s so fierce it’s inciting the mass of blurred, beaten bodies into a near-riot. But there’s no chance and no hope now of escape, so just do as the track says ‘Please do not attempt to leave the dance floor’ Everyone I spoke to, both on the night and since, have agreed that this was an unbelievable, unmissable set and a continuation of the outstanding work on display at the last Chemistry, Revolution and Convergence. Giving us despite in the encore, it’s a case of saving the very best for last. Now this final track truly is filthy to the point of contamination, It’s a mix of a brutal track that was already pretty mucky to begin with but after this remix someone had better call in a SWAT team. RR Fierce’s Full Metal steamrollers out of the vinyl and into your ears and obliterates everything in between, including sanity, reality and all those other fluffy things we like to wrap around ourselves to keep the universe out. Let the hysteria build high enough and little tears are gonna start appearing round the edges of your world as the music seeps in, so it’s just as well the lights come out and the track plays out in the nick of time, cause who knows what might have happened next…
Chemistry No.5: certainly the sweet smell of success and so much more besides. Many thanks as always to the Frantic team, the DJs and everyone who helped put together the essential highlight to mine and a multitude of other clubber’s week’s and thanks again to everyone who helped me out with tune titles! What’s next though, the 6th esSense? (Yeah alright, I’ll close the door behind me…  )
With thanks to sebastian and mrbicgit for the use of their photos 
The next Frantic event is the Frantic Valentine's Ball at the Camden Palace this weekend, Saturday 15th Feb - for full details click here.
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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!
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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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