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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! |
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“What are you doing? Checking your e-mails?” DAVE the Drummer speaks out!
Reported by Gordon Darley
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Submitted 11-02-08 13:32
It’s a well known fact that London is world famous for its music scenes and there is one scene in particular within dance music that has remained so strong that it is as healthy today as it ever has been, remaining underground where people refuse to let it dwindle. Obviously I’m talking about techno, and in particular the tougher sound of UK techno championed by the Stay Up Forever Collective and a certain Drummer.
On Saturday 8th March, the true lord of the underground will be gracing the main stage at SEOne for the 4th Birthday celebrations of the ever eclectic Party Proactive with a mixed live set comprising of old and new material played on a truly classic set-up. This could be no-one but DAVE the Drummer.
There isn’t another name out there that springs to mind as quickly at the very whiff of hard techno, so who better to represent it on the night, and who better to tell us about the scene, the music and who the Liberator of preference really is.
You were on the line-up at the first Party Proactive to be held at Turnmills back in 2006, what can you remember of the night? What were your initial thoughts on the night, and how did you feel the mix worked?
Well….good question.
I have to be totally honest here it was my first time for Proactive then and I’ve not played there since so I can’t really call myself a veteran of pro-active parties. But it did give me an opportunity to play at Turnmills which was great and to see Andy Farley again who is a great guy and I don’t get to see often enough. That really sums up my experience I’m afraid, but I had a good time playing and as far as I can tell I got a god reaction to the hard techno I was playing.
Techno has always been seen as a forward thinking genre that refuses to die, whichever form it takes, from minimal to acid and beyond. What do you feel is the main drive behind this attitude and what changes have you seen in the last couple of years since your last jaunt at Party Proactive?
Techno for me has always had a punk attitude and I don’t mean sex pistols, ring through the nose, cider drinking punk. I mean the D.I.Y. ethic that was always bubbling below the surface of punk and the interest in originality and musical statements that shaped the mould of punk music. Techno is about identity and originality, it is about being brave enough to try something that may or may not work and standing behind it if you feel it does. In this way techno has not changed one bit, nowadays it just depends what you call techno in the first place.
On the subject of change within the scene, would you say that your sound has changed much since your last Party Proactive experience? If so how has it changed and what have been the main influences for this?
My sound has evolved a fair old bit, but to be honest I’ve just been going back to the music that got me into techno in the first place, which was minimal and electronica, things like Aphex Twin and Warp Records, Guerilla Records and Orbital. I was much more into that than hard dancefloor stuff at first, I learnt about the harder stuff later on when I started working with the Liberators. So these days the minimal/electro resurgence has allowed me to get back to some old ideas and put a fresh take on them. Something I’m enjoying a lot with my new label Mutate To Survive.
Where do you see the sound of techno as a whole going to? Do you think minimal will continue to devour all in its path, or is there another off-shoot sitting round the corner ready to pounce over the next 12 months?
No, because most minimal records are a load of crap! They are boring, pointless, self centred, over-serious, arrogant, musical doodles that serve no-one other than munted clubbers who don’t know any different because that’s what they are being force-fed by the closing ranks of the music industry who are sh!tting themselves about record sales and worried that their cars might be repossessed.
Sure, minimal has its place and some of the recent tunes are really great, but come on be serious. Are we really all destined to listen to a kick drum and hi hat plod along at 123bpm all night?
I hope not.
Unfortunately, there are some pretty uneducated views on the UK techno scene, namely that there are some people out there who presume it is all just about old men who should know better, stumbling around a grubby venue and listening to over amplified distortion. What would you say to these people to reassure them that this is not the case?
It’s true and if you don’t like it you know what you can do!
No seriously, if you want to chat up girls or drink cocktails and wear dodgy wide boy shirts or look pretty in stilettos and boob tube then a techno party may not be your thing. But if you want to hear some good solid music that you won’t hear bleating out of Radio 1 all bloody day , with no bad gangsta attitude, and maybe meet interesting people who might just wind up to be your best mates then do it!
It’s no secret that you play all over the world, at some pretty different events and venues. In the time you have been doing this, which venue has left you completely gob smacked?
It’s a toss up between Florida 135 in South Spain, Barcelona area. Fuck me, It’s a street party in a club! And Lov.e in Sao Paulo where I played Rage Against The Machine and I thought the people were going to jump through the roof!!
It seems a lot of people are moving into playing live sets these days. But this is something you have been doing for years. What do you enjoy doing more and why?
I still enjoy playing live a lot. It takes the edge off the beat matching thing, but it does need other skills to keep it under control. Doing a complete live mix can be much more difficult than just putting a record on. I would say I enjoy the thrill of DJing and live equally!
Now to keep the geeks happy: When playing live, what set up do you use, and how does it compare to the setup you would have used at the start of your career?
Live sets in 1996 used to be a proper pain in the arse; I use to take an Akai S3200XL sampler, 16 channel Mackie mixer, 909 drum machine, 303 x2, Pro One synth, SH101 synth, several fx units and a massive 66Mhz PC computer with full size screen! Plus loads of cables, power leads and converter boxes to wire it all up! Try getting all that in the back of a morris minor!
Nowadays you just pick up your laptop and wander into the club 5 minutes before your set, p!ss off the DJ by leaning over him and plugging in your sh!t and skipping his last tune with your elbow, well that’s what they always do to me with their f!cking Serato Scratch bullsh!t!
I had a girl come up to me while I was playing live from a laptop and ask me, “What are you doing? Checking your e-mails or something?”
That just says it all really.
Music is all about a bit of showmanship , you don’t need to be throwing your arms in the air like a complete twat all the time but at least give people the impression that you are doing something interactive and genuinely creating something on the fly for them. That’s why I’ve agreed to get the old kit out for this pro-active party and do an old skool / new skool live set.
With the introduction of great live software such as Ableton (which keeps getting stronger with every new version to hit the shelves), it seems that playing live is getting easier to do, is this the case? Can you see the number of live PAs getting so high that we’ll start to see a trend of too many artists giving it a go, much like there seems to be too many DJs wanting sets?
Well like I said before, a bloke and a laptop on a table, a liveset does not make.
Okay, now time for the generic quick-fire round (it had to be done, sorry!)….
Cubase or Logic?
Whatever.
Warehouse or Field?
Warehouse in winter, a field in summer.
London or Amsterdam?
London for the music, Amsterdam for everything else.
Acid or funky?
Both, depends on my mood.
Vinyl or Laminate?
Vinyl.
Chris or Aaron?
Both.
And finally, please can you tell us why we need to make our way down to SEOne to hear you play at Party Proactive’s fourth birthday?
It’s gonna be a bit special ‘cos I’m dusting off the 909 and 303s and I’m gonna put together a very different liveset to the one I’ve been playing for the last couple of years. Come and see me make a complete arse of myself with a microphone!
Photos courtesy of DAVE the Drummer and the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced wihtout permssion.
PARTY PROACTIVE: THE 4TH BIRTHDAY
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On:
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Saturday 8th March 2008
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At:
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S.E.One [map]
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From:
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21.30pm - 07.30am
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Cost:
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£8 / £10 / £18
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Website:
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www.proactivepresents.com
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Ticket Info:
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Ticket Information
£8 Very Limited Early Bird Tickets – only on sale till Sunday 27th January
£18 Standard tickets
More on the Door
Ticket Outlets
Proactive HQ (no bf): 07814179946 / brainless66@hotmail.com
Ticketweb: www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08700600100
Clubtickets (Buy 5 and get 1 free): www.clubtickets / 08702462050
Antiworld /Antidote909: www.antidote909 / e303power@hotmail.com
Mama Maria: Maria@toomuchbutneverenough.com / 078113684399
Viewtickets: www.viewtickets.co.uk
More On the Door: www.moreonthedoor.com
Cyberdog (Camden Market): 0207 4822842
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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Well, well, well has it really been that long…?
Time flies when you’re having fun and we at Party Proactive HQ have certainly been having a lot of fun! With Party Proactive kicking off 4 years ago, starting as a weekly Saturday night at the legendary Purple Turtle, to say our journey has been colourful and full of surprises is an understatement!
4 years in the making, a mind blowing 2 year residency at the world famous Turnmills, voted the Number 1 party in London by the users of Harderfaster.net, YOU know the PARTY PROACTIVE 4TH BIRTHDAY is UNMISSIBLE! This is not just another party or just another birthday club night, it is THE party of 2008!
And with every new chapter comes exciting changes and this time we have picked the incredible SeOne as our venue of choice. The SeOne is an underground London clubbing institution, drenched in clubbing history, and we are going to give it the Party Proactive makeover!
To celebrate our 4th Birthday Party we have carefully hand picked a selection of some of the best musical moments in our fabulous 4 year history and the best of something new. With stalls and a chillout space with massage, healing, tea and tons of love, colourful décor and production and courteous security, we hope you will join us for our biggest and best party to date!
Come Colourful, Courageous and Ready to Party!
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Flyer:
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 - 
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Hard Trance. Psy Trance. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Tribal House. Electro House. Tech House. Techno. Breaks. Electro.
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DJ's:
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MAIN ROOM – Psy / Techno / Hard House and a bit of breaks and tribal to get us in the mood
DALI – LIVE featuring guitarist AMIT OFIR
Proteus (Finland)
D. A.V. E. THE DRUMMER – LIVE SHOW (Hydraulics Records, UK)
CHRIS LIBERATOR
Andy Farley B2B Pete Wardman
THE *Ting* B2B Ed Real
Joanna McEwen
Steelo
DJ D4RK
Ben Skinner
ROOM 2 - TOUGH TRIBAL HOUSE AND BREAKS
Jonty Skrufff
JACOB MOSS
Jack Michaels
YIANNIS BALKAIZAS B2B JUSTIN COOKEE
TIM GALE
In association with F.A.B.
DJ Felix UK / DJ Martin Sharpe / Darren D / Kris / Midge / DJ Dyl
ROOM 3 - HOUSE / ELECTRO AND MINIMAL
Chris Rayner
In association with ELECTRO! FREAKS N’ GEEKS AND DB3!
Luke Laudan, Tom Lennox, Bignuts b2b Karl b, JAY R, ChicanoLive! (Hybrid set), Julius (Vertigo/Codex), ROB T and BRADLEY C
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Other Features By Gordon Darley:
A breakfast date with Andy Farley (and a free mix!)
The Organ Donors performing in nothing but marigolds? It must be Puzzle Project!
HarderFaster interview with Olly Perris and Andy T of Addiction Digital
Interview with John Kelly
An interview with Ben Bennett
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.
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Comments:
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From: ~deleted1390 on 11th Feb 2008 13:40.53
Wicked interview. Nice to see someone shoot from the hip.
From: WEBBO on 11th Feb 2008 18:30.28
"dusting off the 303 " i like the sound of that , bring on the 8th March , top interview
From: K8-e on 11th Feb 2008 18:33.02
Agreed! Good work.
From: Mizz_behavin on 11th Feb 2008 19:26.42
Totally agree with his comments about minimal, roll on Proactive 
From: Disco Diva on 11th Feb 2008 19:33.07
Wicked interview & seriously looking forward to seeing & hearing Henry play again
From: Mizz_behavin on 11th Feb 2008 19:34.05
Henry? Name dropper Ms Diva 
From: KrAzB on 12th Feb 2008 00:00.37
Minimal, what a load of bollocks! Wicked interview Gorden!
From: Matt Smallwood on 13th Feb 2008 10:41.26
A refreshing read and great attitude towards the scene. Big up the Drummer 
From: paul jack on 14th Feb 2008 09:36.18
really very excited about this chap coming back to pp - it was awesome the first time round and that was just a dj set!
From: MR_S on 14th Feb 2008 10:20.43
I am so wet at the thought of this PP, I cannot wait!
From: Neats on 14th Feb 2008 12:09.39
Bring on the techno!!
From: Coops on 14th Feb 2008 13:58.40
Legend, a great booking.
I'm supposed to be working that night, what time is he on?
From: sunvisordude on 15th Feb 2008 10:19.06
squats or clubs - this man has 'carried' me through so many parties. thanks again
From: paul jack on 15th Feb 2008 10:53.31
hi coops
he wont be on till late - 4ishj i think - am going to work out set times this week.
Sunvisordude - its about time u made a welcome return to PP and helped us celebrate our birthday!
From: DMX on 19th Feb 2008 22:16.29
"Nowadays you just pick up your laptop and wander into the club 5 minutes before your set, p!ss off the DJ by leaning over him and plugging in your sh!t and skipping his last tune with your elbow"
Ha! It's funny cause it's true. Get some media that doesn't skip ffs!
From: Andy on 19th Feb 2008 23:48.40
i think he's played at lov.e club many times but if he was referring to the all-night set he did recently then i gotta say i dont think ive ever seen a crowd go sooo mental for a DJ, it was packed from open til close and he was treated like a hero in there and the place just blew up. wicked producer and good interview gordon
From: BR3EZE on 20th Feb 2008 17:28.55
Wicked DJ, sound guy, roll on Pro-Active
From: Gordon Darley on 20th Feb 2008 18:39.13
Cheers or the feedback on the interview guys. I can't wait or this, DtD and SEOne go hand in hand. I remember seeing him there at Convergence and it made or such an amazing atmosphere, his sets are always a real eye opener into the world of techno!!
From: twist on 21st Feb 2008 20:41.40
lol- classic comment about minimal.
Great dj and bloke.
From: Neats on 15th Mar 2010 12:27.07
Ave it!!!
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