|
No images
|
Passion vs Storm - 06/03/04 Back in 1998 when the trance scene exploded I wasn’t really into clubbing (except maybe the local Ritzy), my love for the music stayed in the confines of my bedroom where I’d recently began DJing. Late 2001 I had my first experience of “serious” clubbing at GateCrasher where Paul van Dyk played for a lengthy 6 hours. I have to say that I didn’t really enjoy it. It wasn’t until July 2002 before I shook off the bad experience and ventured into the realms of a real club again. Destination? Passion. By a stroke of luck the planned night (unknown to myself) was a classics night, arguably the best night of the year. I loved it. The 6 or so hours I was there I’d officially made Passion my new home. For roughly a year or so I’d spend my weekdays struggling to find a lift to Coalville on the following Saturday just for 6 hours of dancing and socialising at my favourite venue. Then like all good things one abuses, the novelty wore off. I found myself not going half as much as I used to, first once a fortnight, then once a month, and now I frequent on the odd occasion. Don’t get me wrong I still love the club and have yet to experience a bad night, but it takes something extra special to raise my eyebrows and phone around for a lift. That something special always comes in the form of Piet Bervoets, aka Rank 1 (or one part of it anyway). Piets last visit was back at the beginning of February, a line up that included Marc West, Judge Jules and JFK. It was a good night, the fact I was missing my house warming put a bit of a downer on things but still, myself and friends had a great time boshing away to the surprise back 2 back between Rank 1 and JFK. The run up to Saturdays antics at Passion were very indecisive. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends of late and was pretty run down, moving house is far more expensive than I could have imagined and I wasn’t quite sure how I was getting home. Just as I decided to bail on the whole idea I heard a knock at the door, my lift had arrived. Great. Whilst they got ready upstairs I wired myself up on copious amounts of Red Bull, I felt on the level for some trancey goodness. It didn’t take long to get to Coalville, we arrived in time to catch the last 20 minutes or so of Dan Platten's set. Making his début in the blue room tonight, I last caught Dan at Baby Passion early January where he played an uplifting vocal set rinsed with some of the biggest tracks the scene has to offer. I know Dan was a bit sceptical about playing tonight, he’s received an awful lot of grief on the Passion forum regarding his DJing career and his relationship with Passion. Admittedly there have been times when even I've thought to myself, “if you didn’t work there, would you still be playing?” Needless to say he silenced all critics. A nice blend of progressive beats and chilled sounds made The Emporium a pleasure to walk into at such an early time, was only a shame there were few people there to appreciate it. Finishing on Way out West – Mindcircus couldn’t have been any better if it had been the last track of the night. It’s safe to say Dan has a future in the world of DJing. Whilst it’s obvious he’s been pushed along by JFK perhaps to soon, Dan's enthusiasm and love for the industry will ultimately help him shake off any negative feedback he’s currently receiving. Well done young man, I look forward to hearing you again. Matt Darey took to the decks next… Since early 2000 my opinion of Matt has slipped from production genius to worthless gimp who doesn’t know when his time is over. I find it really hard to understand how anyone could slip so badly, with tracks like M3 – Bailmous under his belt you’d think the ball would continue rolling till he hung up his headphones. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case, the incredibly dire track with Marcella Woods – Voice of an Angel was an insult to 4 beat music, a crime I'm unlikely to ever forgive him for. To be subject to 2 hours of CD mixing I felt id be better off in the Red Room with that noise some folk call hard house. Needless to say Matt made me choke on my own words. In fact not only did I choke on my own words, I almost died on them. I wasn’t just impressed, I was flabbergasted! His mixing, set structure and choice of tracks, everything was beautiful. Even in my state of extreme tiredness and anger towards the man I still found myself bopping away by the DJ booth with a smile on my face. It almost pains me to say this but if Passion were to book him again, I’d go purely on his name. Tragic I know but he really was THAT good. The clock struck midnight, even with roughly 6 cans of red bull digesting in my stomach I was shattered. Not what you want when your idol steps up to the 1210s really! I forced myself onto the podium as Rank 1 opened with the B side of Mac J’s latest and greatest offering on ID&T (available June time). Dirty, heavy, fierce and fantastic, four essential ingredients that make a peak time track, exactly what the Dutch God had to offer. For the next 20 minutes or so I pushed myself to dance to what can only be described as a work of art. See that’s what I love about Rank 1, you never quite know to expect. There's no guarantee he’ll play anything you know but there’s every guarantee you’ll enjoy the majority of his set. Tonight was no different. Piet wasn’t just banging them out, he was BANGING them out. There were uplifting tunes, vocal monsters, filthy hands in the air jobby's and much much more. And then there was a Red Bull crash which hit me like a freight train. I felt crap, my natural state of exhaustion along with the down side to a hell of a lot of caffeine kicked in and I was rendered one of those assholes that lingers around the side of the club doing nothing all night. Eventually even that got too much for me and I had to find a spot to perch my backside on. This made it extremely hard to enjoy Rank 1’s set. There were definitely some classic moments during his 2 hour slot, some vocal tracks that border lined anthem/cheese, yet how can one really appreciate it when every time I moved a muscle it felt like some one was kicking me in the back? What was more frustrating than missing the majority of his set was the fact I came out of the grotty feeling no sooner than he finished. JFK came on and I felt on form again. Bugger! Around the DJ booth I whored and to my surprise I was bouncing off the walls enjoying myself. You see JFK IS Passion, and Passion is that great thing I've had too much of. For JFK to impress me it takes a HELL of a lot of work and by heck, JFK impressed me. He played the right blend of filthy trance and all perfectly timed. There was no track out of place, no tune that didn’t belong, everything was as it should be. One specific track (name and artist unknown to me at the time) featured some kind of disco 80’s breakdown which had the bulk of the crowd standing gob smacked in amazement (later told to me as a white label by an unknown artist called ‘Someone’s Watching My Set’). The last track of the night came far too soon, however what a last track it was! Rank 1 back on the case for the Sensation anthem, this time there was no fluff, no euphoric break, no hands in the air energy, just a driving bassline, twisted synths and a haunting riff that firmly establishes why Sensation is the biggest indoor event in the world. So there we have it, a very bizarre night. I only went for Rank 1 yet it was almost as if the whole night were some how reversed. Dan Platten played far higher than expectations, Matt Darey left me gob smacked. Whilst I enjoyed Rank 1’s set I found it silly hard to appreciate it like I should of and JFK, well, JFK reminded just why I labelled Passion my new home. Nights like this remind me of why I love that place. |