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Features
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| 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! |
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Nick the Kid looks forward to three great promotions - Escape From Samsara, I Love Hard Beats, and Hard Trance Europe - and their collaboration on one great event - Elevated State!
Reported by Matt-Endemic
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Submitted 25-04-17 17:15
On April 28th Escape From Samsara, I Love Hard Beats, and Hard Trance Europe are joining forces to put on one of the biggest underground line-ups seen in London for a very long time.
We caught up with Nick The Kid, the promoter behind HTE, for a chat before the big event - Elevated State.
Nick, you’ve been in the promoting game for a long time now. Give us a quick rundown of when it all started, why you got involved, and how you’ve ended up here.
Yes, it's 20 years of DJing this year I believe and it's been one hell of journey! I first heard a rave tune when I was about 11 years old, my schoolmate Peter played me a pirate mixtape that belonged to his older brother and explained to me what a rave was, I was absolutely fascinated by what I heard and coming from a musical background already (I was attending the Yamaha school of music at this time) I just knew I had to get involved. A few years later someone gave me a cassette copy (of a copy of a copy) of the Prodigy's Experience and that was that! I was hooked, ridiculously oversized clothes and all! My folks bought some decks for me and we started hiring out all the local village halls to throw our own after-school 'Discos'. We got banned from pretty much all of them and then decided to charge our teachers to do the school disco instead and let them handle the clean-up, damages and spent fire extinguishers. This was around 1996/97! I left college (after just a few months) at 16 and began promoting small events at a local nightclub, (thanks to the owner Robin Furby) in my small home town of Tiverton in Devon. Over a few years, I was able to cut my teeth in the world of promoting and book all my favourite oldskool hardcore acts like Sy, Slipmatt, Dougal, Hixxy, and also some house guys too like Mike Cosford. Plastic Fantastic ran very successfully for a few years and then I moved on to promote the first few Hindsight events at the much larger St Georges Hall in heart of Exeter. The rest on that front is History! Nick The Kid was a name I adopted quite easily from friends based on the fact that I looked about 12 at the time so no real mystery there! A lot has of course happened in between now and then but we are looking forward to a sold-out Hindsight reunion back in Exeter later this month and I can't wait to see all the old faces from this area once again! Peter (My old-school mate) now also works alongside me at Trackitdown.net which is a nice touch to the story. Always remember your roots ;-)
Hard Trance Europe is a new party that you are launching. Why now, what's the ethos, and what can we expect?
I've always been very involved and passionate about the more energetic and underground side of the trance music spectrum. Seeing DJs in the mid to late 90s like Carl Cox, Billy Nasty, Blu Peter, Tony De Vit, Man With No Name, Mark EG & M-Zone inspired me to start Hindsight but as the years progressed the music ended up in a place where I could no longer really relate. Hardstyle arrived and for a while I got swept along with it; when you have an event you have put your heart and soul into for over 10 years, you not only have to listen to what your regulars want but sometimes you just can't always control the musical direction. I slowly wound down the events and moved on to running very successful Hindsight group holidays from the SW to Ibiza (alongside Ibizan Heat / Radical Escapes) which then led onto DJing at most of the Island's biggest nights and eventually living and working in Ibiza for Judgement Fridays, Captured Festival, Sunk, Driftwood and Connect.
I am now settled back in London full time and running Trackitdown.net which gives me a great overview of what is going on each week across all styles of dance music. I've loved watching certain trance DJs embracing the harder trance sounds once again, artists like Sneijder, Indecent Noise, Askew, Patterson, Peter Plaznik, HP Source, Ben Nicky, Will Atkinson all still hit the spot for me with their productions and sets. Aside from this there is a real sense of community brewing from the classic European guys and it's great that the likes of Scot Project, S.H.O.K.K. Space Raven, Andrea Montorsi, Luca Antolini, Wavetraxx and others are all giving us powerful hard trance on a more regular basis again!
I guess with HTE I want to create a platform that bridges the gap and fuses this end of the trance spectrum without being restricted by too many rules. Just quality productions that could be classed as harder trance music! I was absolutely gobsmacked when Black Hole liked the idea so much they agreed to become the exclusive distributor for the project and I can't wait to unleash the first few releases next month!
The launch party is of course at Elevated State, Fire, London on the 28th April and I'm looking forward to showcasing all the new material in our very own arena. Also watch this space for some HTE tour nights in the UK this year ;-) It's all really exciting at the minute and coming together nicely!
There’s some absolutely slamming names in the HTE room at Elevated State. In fact, it’s probably the most varied I’ve seen in a long time. Give us a quick overview of the artists playing - what can the crowd expect?
A lot of lineups here in the UK rely heavily on the same names and conforming to a certain musical blueprint. I personally really wanted to attempt something different and put people on the same bill that don't usually play together but aren't a million miles apart musically either. I appreciate some may question this type of programming and some may embrace this. Either way we wanted to break the mould and offer a first-class selection of harder trance acts! I think after we've done a few events the ethos may become much clearer! ;-)
How did you meet the guys behind ILHB and Escape From Samsara? Had you been to their parties before?
It's all a bit of a blur to be honest haha. I believe I met most of the guys when we used to all appear or get down and dirty at Freeformation - man they were such good parties to be involved in, proper fun raves!. We recently all caught up again and as we share a lot of common ground, I think it was only natural that we would begin working together in some capacity.
We recently did an all dayer at Cyberdog in Camden and this is where I met Tim from Samsara for the first time. Lovely guy with some fascinating stories from the London heyday and I guess this event is where we all decided to collaborate on a big London party - one that fuses all our interests and experience. It's been great fun already and we haven't even opened the doors yet!
The last time Escape From Samsara & ILHB joined forces it was pure carnage!
As well as promoting, DJing, and working at Track it Down you are also producing your own tracks. What have you been working on, who have you been collaborating with recently, and how would you describe your sound?
I've been working with lots of people recently including S.H.O.K.K, Space Raven, HP Source, Ali Wilson, Nicola Maddaloni, Jake Nicholls, RDK, Costa Pantazis, Rowetta (Happy Mondays) and lots more! As Nick The Kid I've always strived to create feel-good trance melodics over a harder bed of sounds, I'm a huge fan of acid lines and take huge inspiration from the classic European sounds that I have followed over the years.
I'm also a massive fan of lots of music though and do house stuff as Nick Coles (You can check out my show on Ibiza Sonica Radio every Monday) and I've also started working alongside Bill Borez as Zero B. It's busy times and I grab as much time in the studio as I can! I just wish there was more of it.
You’ve played at some ace clubs and parties including the Gallery @ Ministry, Amnesia and Space. Which has been your favourite to experience as a DJ? Which has been your favourite to experience as a clubber?
Easy one!. There is one night that will always be very special to me, I had the incredible opportunity to warm up for Sander Van Doorn main stage at Cream Ibiza. We had around 100 Hindsight heads there and everything that night just clicked. I really enjoyed my set and despite absolutely bricking it, the adrenalin kicked in and I loved every second! The buzz that came after was so great it had me front and centre until 7am, I'd not had a night like that in years. SVD was off the hook that night and listening back to either his or my set is quite an emotion kicker for me! One of the best nights by a country mile! Cream Amnesia 30.06.2011
Sausage Otter: Yes? Or not Yes?
Not yes!? Ha!
There are some amazing DJs and producers playing across all three rooms at Elevated State, covering everything from 120 bpm - 175 bpm dependent on the room. Who are you really looking forward to seeing and why?
Well, I've banged on enough about trance, I am seriously looking forward to seeing Phutek and Chicago Loop the most, I'm a huge fan of their productions! Also Nu Energy Collective D&B PA and also the Samsara oldskool legends Beamish and Mark Sinclair if time and logistics permit!
We asked 100 people “what would you ask 100 people?”. What was the answer?
Have you ever asked a thousand people what to ask a hundred people?
You were a regular at the Freeformation parties and I Love Hard Beats has been keeping that party ethos alive. As you can imagine, we’ve seen a lot of weird and wonderful things happen inside our parties but what’s the strangest thing you have seen at a rave or club?
My mum and dad!!! LOL. I decided to have a free party in their field when I lived at home around 2000, the Exodus party crew found out about it and turned up en-masse! It got a bit out of control, almost Project X kinda thing lol, I will never forget seeing the sun come up and my dad mingling with all the ravers in his Wellington boots and barber jacket! Thankfully they didn't throw me out and laugh about it now. See picture below ha!
Which producers are you feeling recently? What’s been your stand out track this year?
On the trance / hard tip - John Askew, Scot Project, Sneijder, Will Atkinson, HP Source, S.H.O.K.K, Space Raven, Renegade System, Wavetraxx, Sneijder, Indecent Noise.
Others - Viktor Ruiz, Spektre, Spartaque, Chicago Loop, Montel, Paride Saraceni, SEFF, Chus & Ceballos, Grum, Eelke Kleijn, Hot Since 82, Alan Fitzpatrick - there is just so many! If it's good music it's good music.
A track that blew me away recently was the Viktor Ruiz remix of Moby - Go and I'm still thrashing Scot Project's - W5 from last year too!
Thanks for the interview, I stumbled across an old interview while compiling this feature that is over 10 years old now! Can I just say, a big hats off to everyone involved at Harderfaster for being on the case for this many years!
Catch Nick at Elevated State on the 28th April at Fire @ Lightbox.
Images courtesy of Nick The Kid. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Hard Trance. Hard House. Dark Drum and Bass.
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DJ's:
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Hard Trance Europe
Sneijder / Scot Project / S.H.O.K.K / Guyver & Amber D / Rob Tissera / Nick The Kid
Ed Lynam / Laith
Escape From Samsara
Phutek / Chicago Loop / K90 / Thermobee / Tim Samsara / Beamish / Mark Sinclair / Matt Deegan & Gold Smyth
I Love Hard Beats
Scott Brown / Kevin Energy / Nu Energy DnB Live PA ft. Blaze 1 & Jasmine Knight
Alex Prospect / Transcend LIVE / A.B & Finnbarr / Rikki Arkitech & Greg Peaks / Solution, Cyrax & Nick235 / DJ Paul Cumbum & MC WANK
Hosted by Obie & Smythy
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