Could it be out of this world any more than it is?
Could a line-up like that fall underneath any expectations?
Could psytrance ever be better than this?
Sometimes I feel it doesn't matter anymore. Doesn't really matter to switch on a PC and go mad over a party for I knew what to expect and how will it be delivered, knew what Antiworld are able to pull out in terms of organization and what the line-up can throw at us in terms of music. Last night marked the official launch of Infected Mushroom 6th album: Vicious Delicious celebrating 10 years of mushrooms, my seeing Silent Sphere and Psy Craft live for the 1st time, being shot through the roof, slammed into the walls of the venue, and tossed across the dancefloor so mercilessly yet passionately, so brutally yet softly, so heavenly yet... it was as usual: Wicked.
Eyal Yankovich tossed it.
Silent Sphere flung it.
Sub6 shattered it.
Infected Mushroom battered it.
But Psy Craft literally ripped it.
April the 1st was Psychedelic Academy 003
The Carling Brixton Academy is the largest most infamous venue in London. An old theater that is now transformed into a stage that hosts acts from all over the world, of all different genres of music. A stage that the likes of Madona have stepped and packed the four floors of that oval building was yesterday a battle field for 5000 psyheads going out of their tits in another inevitable combat with aural wastage, another battle with whatever could be seen and not, another battle with the desire to get more and more and more...
Five live acts, four floors, three rooms, two psy labels, one organizer... 5000 psyfreak.
The journey started from Gloucester Road to Brixton Underground Station. Had to wait for my best mate Angelo to show up after getting off work at 10, we met up at 10:40 and had to wait till 11:30 for another mate to show up but he never did. Off to the academy, the queues, and then the cloakroom - we were finally on the dancefloor. Upon entering, I had a quick look around: the main dancefloor is a huge brick-walled circle, wooden floors, the stage up-front with the traditional psy installation: performance deck and the DJ deck separately. Four monitors (a pair for each deck) two massive speakers at the foot of the stage, and two other yet even larger speakers dangling from the roof and tied up to the wall at a 45 degree angle. I've never seen something like this before, and they perfectly did the job. This was the best sound installation I've ever seen - effective and literally flawless. The stage was decorated with a dangling silver dragon, two huge 5-celled hexagonal flower-looking sheets dropped from the roof for the visuals and the lights and lasers behind that all. The VJ panel was at the far centre of the dancefloor, three bars laying a few feet behind it, and two sound-proof doors at the back. Open the doors, no audible clashes - pure kick arse prog-psy pounding in the Discipline Room. Two staircases at the end of the room and up to the loos and the Circle - The Circle is a large balcony that spreads above the main dancefloor laying the stage all open and more than two thirds of the dancefloor within sight: beautiful view!
Another floor for the Clockwork Prism Room and then the cloakrooms lay on top of that. Having done that, I quickly returned to the dancefloor and filled my spot: front line.
Silent Sphere were pulling a hell of a set when I 1st got in, superb exquisite performance always up to the expectations mounting up to 145 bpm. Playing mainly from their latest album Mind Games (released last year) and prepared tunes for their upcoming third album, the Swiss duo Simon Weber & Adrian Schaller from Medium Records, threw an astonishing one-hour set to the fast mounting dancefloor. There was still room for more and more people - after all, it was only 12am and the queues could easily stretch to the city south if it wasn't for the clockwork security boys. Simon & Adrian played a good load of tunes and also performed other tunes than theirs, something which truly surprised yet pleased me: a live performance is supposed to be consistent of the tunes of that performer since he can't perform other artists' tunes as good as they can do it themselves. Silent Sphere proved me wrong, and the boys to play afterwards made a better explanation by following a similar pattern: last night's psy was not limited to the bands' own tunes; the bands were performing other artists' tunes with a bit of their touch ('live remixing' might be the right word?). The only pull I had on psy performances is the similarity of the sound in the artist's performance since he can't adopt multiple sounds at once, but Silent Sphere shredded this concept by spinning Infected Mushroom - Shulman and another Atomic Pulse tune. The boys were buzzing, and Eyal Yankovich was moving in to the top deck with his trusty Seinheiser headphones.
I reckon it was about 1:15 when the HOM-mega owner spread his jelly belly over the decks, pounding class-A psytrance: dustless DJ set by Eyal, flawless mixing, and top notch track selection - kept it a bit quiet at 142 BPM by unreleased tunes of Astrix, Delirious, Silent Hill, and Silicon Sound. Played a deal of MFG and Xerox & Illumniation as well which didn't fail to shred off the (now full) dancefloor. Eyal must have access to a huge pool of tunes: the man is the owner of the largest and most famous psytrance record label on the scene: HOM-mega.
Eyal played four times last night: opening set, one between Silent Sphere & Sub6, another between Sub6 & Infected Mushroom, and a forth one between Infected Mushroom & Psy Craft and smoking an average of three cigarettes whenever he took the deck for 30 minutes. Dressed in a black HOM-mega shirt, the four-eyed fat bastard mastered the decks like none other of his kind. A set by Eyal is a must which is why he was there in November, last night, and will be with Astrix in May.
I was so looking forward to seeing the two southern-Israeli brothers Golan & Ohad Aharoni for I haven't seen them for over two years and boy how glad I was to see them again! Teamed up with Jah Nathan, the Aharoni bros threw in a set whose sound swam across techno, tech house, prog-psy, breakbeats zone, and finished off the last 15 minutes with full-on. The only pull I had on the set must be the presence of that clown MC Jah Nathan. Although his lyrics were all remastered by Golan at the deck behind and send off to the floor with a mainly electrified effect and we couldn't really understand what he was chanting, but I just found him 'getting in the way' of an excellent set. The boys played many of their released and unreleased tunes, and Psy Craft's kickarse tune from their latest album Computech: Bad Girl. Then it was time for On the Ground, dancefloor? - Chaos for this tune! Played towards the end, Droid who Saved The Queen kicked me out of my mind for this tune is a firm favourite of mine (and Wizzy Noise did an excellent job on the remix) it was just what I needed in that set. Sub6 knows exactly how to tease it up at the dancefloor, Golan was setting it up from the laptop, to the mixer, then to Ohad who twists it up at the korg and kicks in it to the dancefloor. Towards the end of the set, the security boys were moving slowly at their spots, the Antiworld organisers couldn't remain seated and most importantly, Infected Mushroom and Psy Craft were smacking fists with the basslines, smiles up to the ears, to then pick up their laptop and approach the deck.
Seeing Duvdev & Erez this time was a bit different than last time from my side: I'm having thoughts about their sounds and have been wondering how could they perform so good back in November and then release the stuff they're been working on lately. It was pretty controversial for many psy freaks how can such a combination occur when they can still fill up arenas anywhere in the world with an excellent set then release some average tunes. I was happy seeing them last November - I think they were great - but was it only that one fling? Or are they always good live, and is like that every time?
Hell yea.
As soon as the duo stepped the stage, a rumbling cheer pierced every ear and went straight up for them, two Brazilian flags were hung at the bottom of the stage and Infected Mushroom strengthened their bonds with Brazil when playing a new tune featuring Portuguese vocals. The Mushrooms were in top shape last night playing mainly tunes from their new album and some of the older tunes such as the intro Cities of the Future then I'm the Supervisor & Break Muse. Duvdev & Erez were as good as ever - filling the 26th position in Miss DJmag 2005, the boys (along with a guitarist that wasn't Erez Netz by the way) threw in an hour of top-notch instrumental psy madness. Towards the middle of the set and after finishing of their tunes, Duvdev calls Psy Craft on stage. I was puzzled here: Psy Craft are not featured with Infected Mushroom, they're supposed to play on their own, it's not a joint set. Duvdev then saved the day by finishing his statement and adding 'to perform the next tune with us'. I exhaled. The Psy Craft boys walked up and were welcomed with a huge cheer. I was so looking forward to this for I haven't seen a live collaborated performance before. Alon Algrasi & Nir Sidon walked round the deck, Nir snatched the guitar from the other guitarist with Infected and Alon continued his way behind the deck. Music's on: Electro Panic. I stood there in amazement: how can they set this up? Four boys playing one tune. Each of them playing his part: Duvdev at the laptop, Erez at the korgs, Nir at the guitar, and Alon at the mixer. This was the best part of Infected's set: Psy Craft vs Infected Mushroom - Electro Panic. Astonishing precision, unbelievable control, and an out-of-this-world sound. The dancefloor? Mental.
The HOM-mega boys took things over after the mushrooms when done. This is the moment I was waiting for, this is the most primary reason for me to be there in that party: seeing Psy Craft is something I've been meaning to do for long time ago but never could. Alon and Nir moved in, and I flipped in my spot: my second favourite duo are playing… I have to take off ... my journey into the unknown has just started. Alon was handling the laptop and the mixer, while Nir was behind the korgs with the guitar's belt across his chest thus sticking the guitar to his back. In a minute he plays his part at the korgs, in the other he slips his easy-access guitar off his back and plays it and in other times loses control on himself, abandons the korgs, walks to the front stage and teases 5000 out-of-their-brains mothafuckers with this fingers sliding across the guitar and that cancerous 150 bpm! I was lost at that point. This was ultimate. That was the cream pie I've been so eager for. Psy Craft was ripping it appart with all what the word means and the dancefloor was toasted. I climbed up one of the speakers at the bottom of the stage, totally ignoring the security who gave up talking me to get back down soon after concluding that I'm not actually there anymore. No conscious left, no sanity left, no brain functions. I stood for two seconds scanning the dancefloor from that pit: mental sound waves shocking everybody off their feet, electrifying pulse smashing everybody's head off this universe. I so wanted to join them - but was I not one of them? Was I not maybe ahead of them? Am I probably flying into the stars even faster than they were? I loved them. I loved them all - two floors of non-stop moving human figures. I joined them, jumped back down, back to the floor and on with the flinging action. Slamming kickarse beats, killer basslines, and loud filthy bombings across the floor.
Security? Dancing.
Antiworld organisers? Dancing.
The artists? Dancing.
Photographers? Dancing.
Earth underneath us? Dancing.
Demons? Fuck... Dancing!
Psy Craft, Psy Craft, Psy Craft...
If only I could see the dancing particles in the air above us.
If only I could see the atoms of every single brick of those walls banging its head off.
At every breakdown we screamed: 'Come on! Kick it in!'
At every build-up, impatient screams pierced for that loud fast-approaching sector.
It was inhuman, it was filthy, it was techy, it was edgy, it was bangy... it was psy!
Front line of Israelis, Japanese, & Brazilians. The three psychedelic corners of the world... and one Lebanese! I was a god, I was powerful, I was beautiful, I was the walking spirit of psytrance on this planet. I dare you to inject this into me with any music other than psy, I truly dare every breathing human on this planet to shoot me off this universe like that, to knock my head off my shoulders, to smash my brain into pieces, shoot it into the stars and put it back again in a split of a second... I dare you.
(hope ur all doing alright, miss you guys
will be back with photos and a video, but I'd still be away afterwards
)
