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Electronic Sessions: Reviewed

Reported by Andy Dunford / Submitted 26-03-08 10:36

When it comes to trance, things in London have become more and more limited over the last couple of years. A few years ago, there appeared to be a party to cater for the genre on every week, nowadays clubbers have to be a little more choosey. However, with the line up on offer for this particular night, Electronic Sessions, going was a no-brainer, despite feeling a little under the weather. With nights such as Generation and Supernature also enjoying success recently maybe the corner is being turned.



I first went to Electronic Sessions (ES) back in October 2006 and have been to several since. Each one has been different and Ross, Greg and the team clearly take pride in remaining one step ahead of the rest and showcasing new talent. So far the likes of Andrew Bennett, Mr Sam, Re:Locate and Bryan Kearney have all played for ES and UK debuts at that. After 4 sell out boat parties during the second half of last year it was back to Hidden for their birthday party - this time the 2nd, a good landmark for any night.

I had been to Hidden for the 1st birthday last year and remember 2 things standing out. First, it was the same day as my birthday and was a great way to spend it - the quality of the music was excellent – and second, the third room wasn't really being used. Therefore, having got there just before midnight, I was pleasantly surprised to see only two rooms being used and a subsequent improvement in the atmosphere around the whole club.

As people who know me know, I'm more of a trance fan than house but ES do house and electro really well and the atmosphere in the (very full) middle room was electric. I managed to get there in time to catch the end of Markus Buhmann and Matt Dahl's set and was really enjoying what they were playing - I've always been impressed when I've seen these two, whether alone or together, two DJs I should probably see more of I think.



One of the only downsides of the night was the difficulty in getting a drink. Due to the Crystal room (as I think it's sometimes called) not being used, this reduced the number of bars from 3 to 1 and with the middle room being so busy this didn't make it easy. There also didn't seem to be any extra staff at the one bar that was in operation but that may have been a space issue. Anyway, minor gripe and only a small one really - especially as I pretty much managed on a bottle of lucozade all night.

On and into the trance room which was a change from last year and in my opinion a good one. I always get mixed up between the red room, blue room, purple, rainbow room or whatever colour they are all called so let’s just say the darker of the three rooms - on the right as you enter the club. By this time Niklas Harding was well into his set and was building it up nicely with some great electro house and things were already well under way.

Jon O'Bir is one of my favourite DJs and delivered a storming set, moving through it at quite a pace too. Starting with the Moonbeam mix of Beyond The Shadows and moving on through the likes of Rex Mundi's Sunrise In Ibiza, he was soon into his stride, dropping several big crowd pleasing tunes such as of Above & Beyond's Oceanic and his own mash up of Nimbus. There are some sets which are just relentless and this was one of them!

It's worth noting at this point the type of crowd ES attracts. I'm not sure what their marketing techniques are but they do seem to attract a different crowd - I've noticed particularly on the boat parties a lot of people I don't recognise from anywhere else. Having said that, the crowd seem to be one of the most up for it crowds in London and this was clearly evident in both rooms. In the trance room where I spent most of my time, people seemed to be in full on party mode pretty much all night. The uplifting trance genre gets consistently slated in some quarters but for sheer euphoria it wins every time. At the end of the day, music isn't supposed to be clever, it's supposed to make people feel good and that was one of the key things about this particular night - all the music in both rooms made me feel good!



Taking over from Jon O'Bir and headlining the night was Rich Mowatt from Solar Stone and a DJ I hadn't seen before. He was given little choice by O'Bir but to slow things down a little and I thought he did a great job, bringing things down a notch with some more groovy stuff before moving into the more familiar trancey stuff, notable highlights being Solarcoaster and a fantastic remix of Synaesthesia - one of those tracks I got tired of hearing about 5 years ago but not this mix!

During Mr Mowatt's set I moved back into the house room for a while to catch a bit of Lizzie Curious. I've got immense admiration for what she has achieved over the last 3 years; not content with DJing or even with producing as well, she's also a fine vocalist and has just produced an album of all her own work. It's called Different Things and for a debut album it's pretty damn good! Lizzie was in her role as DJ here and appears to be someone who can't fail to rock a crowd and most probably the reason she was asked to be resident some time ago now.

Back to the trance room and another favourite of mine had just taken up the reins, Mark Pledger. Given only an hour, he had to get into his stride pretty quickly and did. Highlight of the set was Lemon & Einar K's Anticipation, probably my favourite tune at the moment. It appears to be one of Mr Pledger's as well because he appeared to bump his head against the ceiling while dancing to it! It was great to see a headline DJ enjoying himself so much though and this seemed to be a consistent feature with all the DJs - notably Jon O'Bir - they all seemed to be up for it and this clearly had an effect on everyone who was there.

Mike Foyle has played for ES before - at a party in Cheltenham last year. He must have impressed as he was back again here and took things down a more techy route and did lose the crowd a bit to be fair. After nearly 4 hours of mostly uplifting stuff it seemed a fair direction to take but the crowd didn't seem to be going for it. From a personal point of view I quite enjoyed the set, apart from one track he kept things really groovy and eventually brought things back up again in time for Alan Banks to close proceedings with a full on anthems set.



With the introduction of one of the biggest tunes of recent times, the Cosmic Gate remix of Fly Away, suddenly everyone's hands were in the air again and the carnival atmosphere returned with classics such as the Above & Beyond remix of What It Feels Like For A Girl and PVD's mix of 1998 providing a fitting end to an awesome night.


Electronic Sessions are back on the Thames on 5 April with a line up including Mike Koglin, Mark Pledger and a rare London appearance by Pulser.

Photos courtesy of Andy Dunford and the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced without permission

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Other Features By Andy Dunford:
Spangulation: Reviewed
You can bank on Alan Banks
Knowwhere preview with Alphazone
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: Alan-Banks on 27th Mar 2008 16:00.46
Nice review Andy - Had an awesome night

The ES boys know how to put on a good party

From: sullivan on 27th Mar 2008 21:08.44
Wicked Interview Andy, explained exactly what ES is all about.
Nice work

From: roscosulli on 28th Mar 2008 23:00.51
Bring on the boat party this coming Saturday guys!! SELL OUT!!

From: Stu Cox on 29th Mar 2008 07:55.37
Cool review, it was an awesome party!

From: Lizzie Curious on 31st Mar 2008 11:40.43
That's a great review Andy! And thanks for the feedback on my album :-)

Roll on the boat party - another sell out for ES and deservedly so!

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