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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!

Dave Randall Past, Present, Future Part I Reported by HarderFaster / Submitted 11-04-07 16:11 Techno is back in a big way, with warehouse parties, tracks here, there and everywhere and a large slice of HF DJs subscribing to the way of this very diverse genre. Dave Randall has been at the forefront of the techno scene, if not the dance scene in general, for untold years. In fact he’s been around so long we’ve decided to do a two part past, present and future special on this driving force behind music, so come with us as we probe the inner workings of one of the UK scenes hardest working men. Hooking up with someone as busy as Dave Randall was always going to be a challenge. With gigs all over the country — and indeed, the world — a shop to run and crucial studio time to fit in, as well as running the Kinetic room at The Gallery at Turnmills on monthly Friday nights, Dave really is one of London’s very own superstars. But, fortunately for me, even techno heroes have to front up to work some time, so after several days of stalking, I finally find myself on the way to Kinetic Records one brutally cold Wednesday evening… Kinetic Records is on a small side street off Great Portland Street called, funnily enough, Little Portland Street. You’ve got to love the originality of London street names! No doubt there’s a lane and a road of the same name nearby just to confuse the tourists, but I digress… Dave is one of the main men at Kinetic Records, a musical haven for record collectors down a few stairs at number 15. After a failed attempt at finding somewhere near-by for a coffee, we end up back at the shop for a beer. So, I’m here with a living breathing techno legend, one of the original Trade residents, headliner in the techno room for last years HF’s Xmas Party and Kinetic’s One Night in Brixton NYE party, before coming back in the new year for the next instalment of the Kinetic room at the Gallery where Kinetic teamed up with Intec for a massive technofest. There must be few DJs around who can boast to have held residencies over such a long period, especially at Turnmills. “Yep, Turnmills is great! Maybe I feel at home there because I had a residency there for years, for Trade and FF. I even still know some of the staff! FF was the first, the most debauched Sunday night in the country. It was all the people who’d been to Garage on the Friday, then Trade. Basically it was all the people who were buggered from the weekend but were still going hard core.” He’s had a long and diverse musical career, but where did it all begin? “I actually started DJing in pubs in the late 80s and from there it carried on as a hobby. Then I opened a company called Club Net, an independent plugger. I’d be given records before a release and strategically place them with the movers and shakers. We had a lot of success — six top ten records, including S-Express, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Neneh Cherry, Seal, The Beloved and it was the number 1 independent plugger at the time. Rhythm King Records with ‘Beat This’ was the highest entry of any label and S-Express went straight to no 1. Mark Moore played it to me on cassette and I knew straight away it was going to be a massive tune. By the time it was released there were 27,000 presale orders so it went straight to the top!” “I was also playing out most weekends. I had a residency at Night Red at the Zap club with Eric Powel. It all went hand in hand, as it was my business to get out to all the clubs with Club Net. We had an office in Ladbrook Grove with 5–6 staff and I had a great relationship with the record companies. I was out planning releases with all the major labels and they were flying out the door.” It must have been an amazing time with such great tracks from the early days of dance music? Dave nods: “Yes it was great. At that stage I’d been covering all the A&Rs and my job was to advise on remixes, sleeves, we were kind of a pre-release service, in a similar sense to the way Power Promotions are now.” “Think about how it’s changed! Dance labels are now happy if they sell 500 copies. In those days we’d get sent 2000 promotional copies and they’d be pissed if they didn’t sell 5000.” So, I wonder, in Dave’s opinion, what happened? When did the arse really start to drop out of dance music? “What happened was Thatcher and the big recession. About a million businesses went down, all the record companies decided it was cheaper for them to bring in their own staff and do it in-house and so all the contacts dried up, but it’s nothing new to me, this wave of negativity!” “I closed down the business, started putting bits and pieces together. Neil Cain and I combined our studios and went about producing 5–6 tracks and played it to some of the record companies. ZTT gave us a publishing deal, which gave us a nice income to sort the studio out. We brought a lot more kit and loved it. The first release we had was out on Aura Surround Sounds and it was called, ‘Gotta Get (Loose)’. It really did it for us because it sold 16,000 copies!” “That opened a lot more doors as we got a lot of support from people like TDV and Mern. Lots of people were playing the music, even Tall Paul. I got asked to FF and out of all my DJing experiences that’s had to be the most full on! The music was that very hard European / Rotterdam sound and it worked really well for me. It appealed to a certain kind of people; well to be honest it was full of DJs. It was the only place open on Sundays for DJs to come and go so the music was important. I used to stop off at record shops over the country to make sure I had the records for it. It worked really well and I was resident for a couple or years.” “We were full on producing at the time and got a lot of Radio 1 support as Renegade and Phantom. Then I realised I wanted to start my own record label, so I started Chug’n’Bump records. We were producing at such a rate that we decided to launch three labels including South Coast Records as I had my residency at Zap (it’s in Brighton - Ed).” “As Club Net developed, we were working with all the small independents. The larger labels saw us and called on us, such as Sony. We found ourselves in all sorts of strange meetings with all sorts of artists. We got the opportunity to meet Elton John and Paul McCartney, that was the best. We got a call from his agency as he was interested in releasing a dance version of one of his records, so we went along and gave him some advice about releasing some mixes on the US market. As a consequence he was also keen to do all the press with us. We then got another call saying that he wanted to see me and Tim Jeffries from Djmag. We went up there and sat in a caravan with Paul and Linda and heard all about how he loved dance music and was keen to get more involved.” Interested in techno from an early stage, remixes for other seminal artists like Depeche Mode would follow, but it was the connections he’d built up through Club Net that really gave that boost to the fledgling star. “The first records I put out were given a lot of support from Radio 1. At the time Club Net was responsible for a whole host of more independent labels and that got us in the door with people like John Peel and Pete Tong. I released Renegade and Must, which did really well abroad, got licensed to some established labels in Holland, then the DJ bookings started coming in. I was getting gigs at small underground parties in Holland and I began to get to know a lot of people in the Netherlands — I really miss that scene.” “Anyway, I was busy producing and playing. One weekend I went over to play in Amsterdam at the Melkweg. I was made aware that there was this party called Dance Valley going on as the person who’d taken me there knew the DV crew. I was doing my usual thing and the people were intent on getting me smashed, so they asked me at 10pm if I was interested in playing at this new outdoor festival because Danny Rampling couldn’t make it! I said “Oh well, we’ll see how it goes in the morning” then of course got utterly smashed. The call came and we went. I got to the top of the hill and went “Oh my god!” I got on the stage and I was cacking it! I was absolutely terrified! I got up on the stage, did my set, then just before the end of it, MC Marksman pulled out a spliff from behind him and like a fool I had a big drag.” “The Marsksman then comes to me and says that the next DJ had missed her flight so I had to keep playing. All of a sudden I found myself as stoned as you like and I’d played all the records in my set! I had to play all the b-sides and the more underground stuff and I played out of full terror! But the spliff had done its job and I still get people talking about the 1st set versus the 2nd. The first they were pleased with but with the second I’d taken it on a underground direction and it was because of that I became a resident for HQ and all their huge festivals: Impulse, Rooms in Rotterdam, The Ahoy. Suddenly I went from playing in small little venues from around Amsterdam to finding myself in front of 50,000 people on stages! But that day I came off the stage and I was shaking like a leaf. That’s also how I met Billy Nasty, he was on next and he gave me a lot of confidence. This went on for years, twice on the main stage of Dance Valley! I had to do a set before Carl Cox. This led to me playing 5–6 major festivals and 20–30 smaller clubs. I was jetting over to Amsterdam every other week, it was great.” “At the same time I was doing loads of producing (Check out Discogs) and Chug’n’Bump tracks ended up on around 35-40 international compilations. I got fed up with the Trade sound, so Bombay was the first outing into something a bit different. The outcome was a track that really crossed over. Before that the hard house was just something a bit faster than your Detroit techno. The Bombay thing broke a lot of barriers and went further. A lot of underground DJs like Carl Cox jumped on it and it gave me the opportunity to go with stuff I was doing in London and all over the world; Japan, Columbia, South America.” “I’d went to Oz, South America, Japan once or twice a year. Later on I did some fantastic festivals in Capetown; in Eastern Europe with Umek; at an outdoor castle in Poola, I’d tour the coast of Croatia and would start in Zagrab then travel down the coast over summer and play some amazing techno parties. I also played at a huge festival in Johannesburg called The Ice Festival.” Of course the past is what drives us as people and what makes us stronger. In part two we’ll look at the present and to the future with the legend that is Dave Randall but to close for this section having played so many places around the world, Dave’s tour stories would surely be a book by themselves?! “Here’s a quickie for you then; Colombia. I’d been asked to play San Fran with the Nukleuz people. I had this gig in Colombia, and didn’t realise the promoters had seen me at Dance Valley and had a six month campaign, I was on posters all over Bogata. What I thought was going to be a small gig led to me being on children’s TV, being interviewed on a white luminous box about playing at techno party on the outskirts of Bogata!” Dave Randall on Playschool, now there’s something you’d never thought you’d see! Photos supplied by Dave Randall. Not to be reproduced without prior permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By HarderFaster: HarderFaster Awards 2016 - The results are in! HarderFaster Awards 2014 - The results are in! Lashes, Dimples and the Brighton Music Conference HarderFaster Awards 2013 - The results are in! HarderFaster Awards 2012 - The results are in! 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: TEK-DJ Management on 11th Apr 2007 19:38.12 Massive respect to Dave, one of the greatest ever in the dance music scene and what a top bloke he is! It's a great pleasure to know you ;o). From us all @ TEK, wishing you a great time ahead. From: karl davis on 11th Apr 2007 21:41.01 top dude From: jFrantik on 12th Apr 2007 00:51.54 Absolute legend! We had him over here in AU back in '03, wicked geezer! One of the nicest & down-to-earth blokes around! Plus he's always up for a getting right on it! haha From: Janie Mac on 12th Apr 2007 08:01.35 A brilliant DJ - one of my all time favourites from the Superfish days. Nice work Mr Randall. From: Neats on 12th Apr 2007 09:17.17 oi oi goooo Dave!!! From: K.A.R.L. on 12th Apr 2007 09:45.52 Massive respect for one of the nicest people in the business. Good work Dave. From: John Nutter on 12th Apr 2007 11:56.11 Great interview, great DJ, great bloke. See you saturday at Breathless, Dave! :o) From: James Terry on 12th Apr 2007 12:04.47 Top bloke whos given so much! From: NickSentience on 12th Apr 2007 13:03.43 Dave the rave no less, Looking forward to some tunage sessions.. catch ya soon mate. Nice pics BTW u superstar U!! From: Devo on 12th Apr 2007 13:47.08 Legendary producer. From: James Nardi on 12th Apr 2007 14:13.26 Legend! From: theviceroy on 12th Apr 2007 17:34.24 A real credit to the scene and an inspiration to those just starting out, his Kinetec room is a real asset at The Gallery. Wicked feature From: James Jaye on 12th Apr 2007 19:14.36 Chug 'n' Bump is still one of my favourite labels. Got the complete collection and they still work so well today. Great label and great DJ! From: Dj Brad Lee on 12th Apr 2007 22:08.14 Respect to a Legend From: Bosch on 14th Apr 2007 08:25.35 FF - blast from the past! I was one of those that went Garage, Trade, Villa (DTPM) then FF - formidable lineup of clubs! From: Lx on 14th Apr 2007 21:58.37 nice one! have to check the 'london techno' more often, keep forgetting some good stuff comes from here too From: dimitry on 16th Apr 2007 08:38.58 Nice one Dave! quality DJ! From: Lx on 16th Apr 2007 18:59.05 just one lil note: techno isn't back. techno never went away From: sunvisordude on 19th Apr 2007 08:31.49 ...techno is back in a big way...???????..erm..who wrote this article? From: Andy Dunford on 19th Apr 2007 11:15.53 Not being into techno and having only been djing a year (so not having the vinyl history) I can't add much but what I will add is this - one of the arguments of "vinyl junkies" on the ever more popular conversion to cd is they miss that initmacy of going to the record shop, having a rapport with the owner/manager and him being able to know exactly what you like and lay 10 records down for you to listen to in the blink of an eye. Going to the Kinetic shop the few times I did helped me completely understand this point of view, despite Dave not knowing who I was initially and me being into trance, we chatted and I felt like a valued customer from the off. And bizarrely he seemed to recognise us the second or third time we came back. A really genuine nice bloke, good work From: sexyminx on 19th Apr 2007 20:54.40 OI OI mass to you Mr Randall Thanks again for playing at my Sexyminx birthday party last year @ 414. You rocked Have only heard you play a few times, yes where have I been Am well looking forward to hearing more of your sets. Keep up the good work All the best for 2007 & the future xx From: Neats on 23rd Apr 2007 10:29.22 Dave on playschool From: Guanche on 25th Apr 2007 14:58.24 Wow!!!! Lots of respect to you Mr. Randall!!!!!!! From: Ian Edwards on 26th Apr 2007 23:53.34 your a top bloke dave, Thanks for putting up with me at Kinetic.. he he.. From: Captain Tinrib on 29th May 2007 05:12.55 Rave Dandall... What a nice lad!!! See you when we're over in July/ August for some devastation!

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