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Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance!
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Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works.
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NEM3SI$ - 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!
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The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023!
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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
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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!

Frantic Timeless 8 – totally worth ruining Valentine's Day for...

Reported by SunnyAli / Submitted 22-02-10 23:35

There's something about club nights that fall on the same date as major family celebrations that make them just that bit more fun. Just as Tidy Weekenders in March would unerringly take place on the weekend of Mother's Day, forcing everyone to attempt to phone their mum midway through the carnage, Frantic turned our 2010 Valentine's Day into a night of total, unromantic, mayhem. With a fair few peeved girl and boyfriends around London on Sunday after this particular party SunnyAli got loved up.

We all well know that there's no such thing as too many DJs at a Frantic night – but Timeless, the legendary annual Frantic classics night now in its eighth year, really spread them on thick with no less than 51 DJs old and new in an 11-hour lineup of total nostalgia. The school theme allowed some typically naughty slogans and outfits out of the closet, and Hidden was packed out as clubbers crawled out of retirement to hear some of their more obscure favourite tunes.



Frantic also added to the fun by making the central arena – the Library, as named – vinyl only, so we were treated to favourites such as Skol, Andy Whitby and MDA & Spherical boshing out their genuinely well-worn classic tracks. The night took us from some fantastic hard trance to some proper foot-breaking stompathons.

I must at this point confess that despite my best efforts, I didn't come close to seeing all 51 DJs; I'll try and do justice to those I did catch. All I can say is that my friends and I spent time in all the rooms and enjoyed the music throughout and you can't often say that about a four-arena night out.

A few tunes got an airing several times – my ultimate tune of the night was the brilliant KY Jelly Babies (BK) mix of Access (DJ Misjah and DJ Tim). However, Bliss Inc: Faith, Signum's amazing Coming on Strong and Sssst...Listen (Jonah) were all out there two or three times, it was a proper pleasure to hear them in a club again.



There was some debate over whether bounce should have been played quite so much? Quite a few of the DJs played heavily bouncy sets, but some of my more purist friends argued that neither Frantic nor other major nights (Sundissential, Goodgreef, Tidy) played it that much: they went for hard house and hard trance.

I tuned into the vinyl floor at around midnight, watching the Tidy DJs Sam and Deano play some fantastically old skool bounce classics, digging way back into the past to play Da Boss Track by Rockafellas. A swift reccie through to the girls' locker room next door saw Nathalie kicking some Tidy Trax back – Signum's What Ya Got For Me – and more: Ratty's Sunrise (Here I Am) and the fantastic Dark Monks' Insane all got out there: a great start to the night.



The real masters at work then came on in the main room (the assembly hall; otherwise known as the black room): Technikal & Phil Reynolds treated us to a back to back 90 min history lesson of classics from ancient to the merely geriatric. “I loved every tune and wanted to hug everyone in the room,” enthused one of my friends.

The brilliance included Jetlag (DJ Kim) and 1998 (Binary Finary) as well as some of their own. It's a little funny hearing Technikal tracks played as classics; he's not old enough yet, surely? But we heard Pumping (Phil Reynolds and the Coalition), and The Shout (Matt Williams & Phil Reynolds). They took us back to the golden days of Prime Mover (Feel What I Feel), Panzan (Brookman & Coe), Guyver's Serious Sound and Carl Nicholson: the awesome Blueprint (Tara's Theme).



I missed the last half hour of the set to rush back to the girlie room for the start of Lisa Pinup's set – I swear she gets prettier every time I see her. She was in her element at Timeless as so much of her trademark bounce sound is rooted in classics, and played a fast and furious set of superb old skool bounce for us, including the rather ancient “My Dreamer” and (Throw Your) Hands In The Air (Mr. Bishi) as well as some of my all time favourites from Sundissential days: It's Over For Me (4 Motion) and Coming On Strong (Signum).

We ducked out for a bit when she decided to go off the rails and into a bit of hardstylee territory – not sure what happened there – but kept checking back in; her dancefloor was super-full; a very smooth hour's work.



At 1:30 we decamped back to the assembly hall – move over bounce, here were two of hardhouse's messiest DJs playing real heavy classics: BK back to back with Nick Sentience.

It’s always a pleasure to see BK mixing, as he's always without fail in a complete state. We were delighted to see him flying the flag for wasted DJs around the world – and Nick seemed to be keeping him doing the hard work, handing CDs to Ben to do the mixing. It was a great combination, though – we loved hearing Cortina's Higher, and of course Badass hit the system as well as Legend B's Lost in Love.

Back out in the vinyl room – you can see, this really was a pick n mix of an evening – the superb Skol was bashing out some fun rocking bouncy tunes. He always total balance and control in his tune selection – his set had a really smooth, seamless overall vibe.



He was ably followed by MDA & Spherical – as two of the most respected producers in hard trance, they were always going to play some of Frantic's best-known anthems. They get bonus points for dropping the ultimate classic, Frantic's theme; Phlash! feat. Steve Hill, Get A Life – takes you back, doesn't it? It was an unstoppable set that brought a nostalgic tear to the eye – tunes such as Olive: You're Not Alone, Such A Good Feelin' (Miss Behavin) and Ace of Space's 9mm Is A Classic ruled the dancefloors for literally years back in 2003!

We were all prepped for the main arena's live set at 3am – Nu Energy Collective, possibly the most talented DJs in hard house AND hardcore put together, were dropping in to entertain us with classics put together in front of our eyes.

Before that, we grabbed a look-in on Strange Dave, one of our favourites from back in the Sundi's days, who was playing out in the marquee, a welcome break from the heat inside. We heard him go for an interesting remix of Lost In Love, and a rather successful mashup of Josh Winks' Higher State Of Consciousness and Tony de Vit's Are You All Ready.



Then it was back into the breach as the two Nu Energy boys seemed to have turned the sound system up to freakish levels – as if they needed to try and get our attention! They sadly had a few techy issues at the start with a couple of short sound cut-outs, but they're pros and rocked the place, with typical big grins on their faces. We reckon we heard bits from Final Destination (Simon Eve) and Insomnia (Faithless) too. The crowd seemed to love it, as did they – Kevin Energy remains one of the most happy and, well, energised DJs you can see out.

Across in the vinyl room, Andy Whitby took to the decks from 3-4am with a mix of his signature bounce and Frantic classics. He developed his cut-together, bootlegged acapella sound from these tunes, so it was a pleasure to hear him play tracks like the legendary Breather – Come On once again.

As Whitby rushed off to take to the stage in the main (assembly) room, we stayed to hear Dave Curtis's vinyl set: despite doing a pretty good BK impression himself he managed to open with Streets of Pain (Ilogik & Bazooka Joe) and hit us with a rather smartly mixed blend of (dare I say it) donk and some proper hard house. Top votes went for two Ingo blinders, Move and Ready 4 Dis and the ever-stunning Rock da Spot (RR Fierce), as well as BK's mix of Access (again) and the brilliant Are you Serious.


We topped off that billing by moving back through to the girls' room for Gem Stone's debut Frantic set from 5-6. She toned down her usual uber-hard filth for a proper stagger down the Vicious classics memory lane. Best tunes of the set were 99.9 ( Mark Gray), Beaver Express (The Alien Thing) and Pure Energy (Defective Audio).

Regrettably we had to duck out soon after – and I'm kicking myself that that I didn’t get to see more of the lineup. Was really sad to have missed K90, Pickup & Rise, Jojo & Mini Minx, Tom Parr and Mike Avery in particular.

But as an ultimate fix of the best tunes you've sung along to in clubs in your formative years, it covered all bases – well worth pissing your other half off on Valentine's Day for.......



Photos courtesy of Teknoman and Wo0. Not to be reproduced without permission.


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Other Features By SunnyAli:
Darude's whirlwind decade
No sleep for Rachel Auburn
In the Presence of Carl Nicholson
It's like Origami, but with power tools..... One Awsum Xmas Party reviewed
Requiem's Not Quite Halloween Ball: Reviewed
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.
Comments:

From: NickSentience on 24th Feb 2010 13:41.57
Was a good night..Lol at the comment about me handing BK cd's..we did 3 on 3 off and when i wasnt on the decks i was VJ'ing as per the Dj VJ set..the reviewer must have been at the bar when i played Wink)

From: DANNY TAPPENDEN on 24th Feb 2010 14:54.39
Well enjoyed my B2B with mr Gilligan, had an awesome night and everyone played blinders, it was frikkin awesome!!

From: Jennie B on 4th Mar 2010 09:35.58
Reviewer:
It’s always a pleasure to see BK mixing, as he's always without fail in a complete state. We were delighted to see him flying the flag for wasted DJs around the world – and Nick seemed to be keeping him doing the hard work, handing CDs to Ben to do the mixing. It was a great combination, though

WTF?????? just who are the ppl writing these reviews???

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