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Trade – The All Night Bender (Documentary)

Here’s something interesting to watch: a 1997 Channel 4 documentary about Trade, the infamous gay after-hours club night that used to run from 4am to mid-day (and beyond!) at Turnmills in Clerkenwell. As far as the development of the UK’s hard dance scene goes, Trade was probably one of the most important clubs, if not the most important – it’s dj resident roster, including Steve Thomas, Ian M, Pete Wardman, and, of course, the almighty Tony de Vit, was pretty much a who’s who of crucial figures in the development of hard house. I never went personally (I’m straight and at the time I was into the acid/hard trance sound being pioneered at nights like Pendragon and Escape From Samsara), but Trade’s musical influence is hard to overstate. So from that perspective this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of one of London’s most important ever clubs, as well as being an interesting time capsule to 15 years ago, which, although it doesn’t really seem that long ago, kind of is.

In particular it’s quite amazing to think how quickly the popular acceptance of homosexuality has advanced over that time!

The documentary of course covers the scenes at Turnmills, but also shows the Trade tent at Gay Pride, as well as Trade’s tour events in South Africa and Mallorca. Plus the documentary also includes interviews with Trade clubbers, such as the gay fireman who celebrates his marriage to his (straight, female) best friend with a night out at Trade, and a couple hoping that the New Labour government would give the South African half the right to stay in the country, plus a few younger guys, including a teenage boy from working-class Braintree, Essex, who is struggling to come to terms with being gay. Needless to say, the documentary also features some vintage killer tunes, including ‘Underrave’ by The Disciples and ‘Let’s Rock’ by E-Trax. How often have tunes like that gotten an airing on British television?!?

A must watch!

Other Trade stuff to check out if you’re interested in finding out more:

Andy Farley talks Trade – An interview with legendary Brummie hard house dj Andy Farley about his memories of Trade as a punter and dj
Andy Farley’s Trade Memories and Andy Farley’s Trade Memories 2 – Two amazing sets of tribute mixes to Trade by Andy Farley, each containing eight (!) full-length mixes, building from funky US house through to pounding nu-nrg. Over 16 hours of incredible music. Don’t miss out!
Us Boys Together Clinging: One Night in a Gay Club – 1994 feature about Trade from Gay Times, reproduced on the DJHistory.com site. An excellent read!

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The Seven Dimensions of Euphoria

7D The Seven Dimensions of Euphoria 6

So, a bit of exciting news – I will be contributing a banging acid techno mix to the next edition of the mighty 7D – The Seven Dimensions of Euphoria! To check out the previous mixes in the series, visit the 7D website (also, make sure you like their Facebook page too). There’s an almost comical abundance of awesome free mixes to check out. You won’t regret it!

Look for my mix a little later in the year, but for now here are a few of the acid bangers I’m thinking of including …

What say ye?

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Krafty Radio: Freeformaniacs this Thursday the 21st

Yes, it’s that time again!

Nova ScotiaI’m back on Freeformaniacs this Thursday, where I will be very proudly premiering Rampage Turbo 12, which I whacked together in one frenzied hour of high BPM mania over the weekend (of course, being over thirty and a middle-class family man, I made sure to do so while my wife was out with my daughter at Gymboree, natch). The mix goes from M-Zone’s magical trancer Subsonic Mass to DJ Eclipse’s gabbatastic Energize in just under an hour … reach for the lasers territory, for real.

If you’re interested in my mix from the last round of Freeformaniacs, go grab Rampage Turbo 11, and you can grab the rest of the Round 3 mixes from the Freeform Forum here. To grab the Round 4 downloads (or at least some of them), go here. I’m going to try to have Rampage Turbo 12 up for download here by the end of the weekend, but no promises!

As ever, the show will be kicking off on Krafty Radio at 10am on Thursday morning.

In other Freeformaniacs news, the Freeformaniacs album Freeformatted is now available for free download from the Ruff Beatz site – check it out here.

Enjoy!

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Interviews

Running a record store back in the day: An interview with Jay Equinox of Elite Records

Elite Records Victoria
The first incarnation of Elite Records … Jay Burgess at the far right

I love vinyl, always have, and I’ve always been a fan of record shops. In my teens and early 20’s I whiled away many happy hours in record shops digging through crates, listening to new tunes, and chatting with the guys behind the counter (see my discussion of record-buying memories here for more on that topic). Sadly, over time I have had less time and less disposable income to devote to record shopping, so to the extent that I still buy vinyl it is mostly online, and predominantly through Discogs.

One of my favorite record stores back in the day was Elite Records in Victoria, which I used to frequent for its excellent selection of new and back catalogue freeform hardcore, hard house, and hard trance, as well as for the laid-back vibe that was fostered by the two guys who ran the shop, Mike and Jay. Elite was open from 1996 to 2002, and was set up by Jason Burgess (aka Equinox) from Bromley, South-East London. As someone who spent many a pleasant afternoon at Elite (as well as a very healthy sum of money!), I thought it might be interesting to catch up with Jay about what it was like to run a specialist dance record store in the 90’s/00’s, back in the days when vinyl ruled the roost, way before digital downloads became the de facto standard for club dj’s. Happily, Jay has agreed to answer my questions, so read on for a fascinating insight into the ways of the old skool record shop:

(Obligatory internal marketing pitch! Check out some of Equinox’s tracks on my mixes Dreadnaut, Twist & Shake, and The One Last One, as well as on Tyssen’s Pendragon Tribute and Girdler Synthetic’s Frantic Classics … ok, you can carry on now)

Pearsall: To start with, when did Elite Records open, and where did the idea to open a record store come from?

Jay Burgess: I opened Elite Records in February 1996, a couple of years after I’d started casually running over the idea. I was a keen record buyer for many years, and, like many, I would do the rounds of various record shops in London and the South each week. I couldn’t walk past a record shop without going in – I’m sure others can relate to that!

Haha, I definitely can!

In essence, I thought having my own shop would be perfect.

Was there any significance to your opening in Pimlico/Victoria, or is that just where you found a space?

Absolutely. I had worked in Victoria for about six years managing a relative’s video rental business when a large chain store opened on the same street. While it wasn’t too damaging, it did make us question the long-term viability with such a rival close by and of course the changing media format at that time. It was decided that the video store was to close which then enabled me to take on the lease of the existing premises. It definitely made the transition more fluid in terms of having to search for the right premises. As much as it was an exciting prospect it was in equal measures a very real and daunting commitment at 21.

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Two weeks to grab them, two weeks to grab them all …

okonomiyaki
An okonomiyaki (Japanese omelette) bought from a street stall on Leather Lane, Clerkenwell … a little weird for my tastes, if I’m being completely honest

(Forgive me the cheesy Lord of the Rings reference, my wife and I spent last weekend re-watching all three movies)

So, as it turns out, I need to clear some room on my server in order to continue serving you up with fresh chunks of delicious, delicious electronic music. Given the huge number of mixes this site now hosts, I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but, well, I was surprised.

Obviously I don’t want to delete any mixes completely, so what I have decided to do is to delete some of the mixes in zip pack form, leaving only the single mp3. I’ve talked before about my preference for listening to split mixes, but a recent Facebook poll I conducted showed that I was pretty much alone on this one. This being the case, I’ve therefore decided to clear out some space by deleting the zip packs that accompany my old Rampage series of mixes. To give those of you who haven’t yet grabbed them a chance to download them, I’m going to keep them up for another two weeks, deleting them at around lunchtime on Sunday the 17th of June. Can’t say fairer than that, right?

Of course, you’ll still be able to get them as individual mp3’s.

Anyways, here are the mixes that I will be removing the zip files from:

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Dom Sweeten’s new blog (plus other news)

Dom Sweeten

Attention budding producers!

Hard house production hero Dom Sweeten (subject of my One True Dominator tribute mix) has just started a production blog called 404 Studio Blog, which will feature tips and tricks for getting the best out of your digital music productions. Worth a look if you’re interested (I’ve always been more interested in being a dj, but I did dabble a bit when I was younger, although it was mostly not very good haha).

In other news, I’ve got some exciting new bits of content to come soon, including a new hard house mix by Girdler Synthetic, and an interview with Jay Equinox, who ran the excellent Elite Records in Victoria for a number of years. Plus I have a bunch of new mixes, and some other exciting news I can’t yet unwrap and share with you all yet until everything is totally confirmed.

Finally, I’m holding a vote for my next acid mix on Facebook. Vote here if you’ve not already done so.

There are three options:

  • Stay Up Forever tribute
  • General London acid techno smashup
  • European hard acid techno-trance

Get voting!

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Krafty Radio tomorrow morning

For those of you who like really really hard stuff in the mornings, check out my Rampage Turbo 11 mix, which is premiering on the Freeformaniacs show on Krafty Radio at 10am tomorrow morning UK time. It will be up here on Friday/Saturday.

Enjoy!

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New Facebook Timeline Page Installed

Facebook timeline

So I’ve just switched my Facebook page to the new Timeline format, featuring autobiographical snippets of my life as a dj, raver, and music fan going all the way back to 1995, featuring such memories as when I started mixing, my first squat party gig, the start of Rampage, the end of Rampage, and more …

Make sure to have a look!

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More Finrg goodness

Berlin traffic lights

For those of you who enjoyed Rampage Turbo 10, here are a few other Finrg tributes for you to check out; first up is this mix by Rebuild Music’s Thumpa:

Secondly, a mix by the Finnish scene’s boy wonder, Substanced:

Make sure to check out his new album When The World Collapses!

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Mind Over Matter Tune ID

Just chopping up Kevin Energy’s My Freeform Journey Part 2 mix at the moment, and have filled out the tracklist properly for the rest of the tracks, but am stumped on the first tune, so I’ve uploaded it to Soundcloud.

It’s a hard trance track, apparently on Chris C’s Mind Over Matter label, and although I recognize it I can’t quite place it. I used to have quite a few tracks on MOM, but I’ve sold them off over the years, so these days I only have The Final Hurrah, Plymouth, and Tell Me What’s Wrong. Unfortunately, it’s not any of those, and I can’t quite place it (and YouTube, my usual first port of call in such matters, isn’t much help either).

If you know what it is, either leave a comment here or on Soundcloud, and I will loff you forever! 😉

Updated, February 18, 2011: Cheers to Alex in the comments for identifying the tune as Monsoon by Madam Zu & The Doktor. Thanks Alex! If you want to grab the completed cue, it’s here.