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Features 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! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! Goa based party animal and artist extraordinaire Nirmal talks punk concerts, metal sculptures, flying and rippin' it up on a High Tide! DJ Wired talks to us about the Rise of the Hope and parties, ahead of his upcoming set at Tribal Village on 14th January 2022!

Full P.H.A.T.T.: Nukleuz’ trance adrenaline-packed South African tour Reported by SunnyAli / Submitted 19-11-08 17:59 He hails from Africa, but dance prodigy Pierre Pienaar has made more of an impression on the UK club scene than most Brits. He’s one of a handful of defining dance producers who began making music very young and he’s emerged as a leader with an immense natural talent and sensitivity to catchy, uplifting and euphoric trance sounds. He first caught the ears of the industry as a maker of UK hard dance, the bouncy trance-with-a-hard-house-kick style, but as he’s gained ground and grown up, his primary love of all things trance has guided him back to more original anthemic sounds. Like his peers and cohorts Technikal, Guyver, and Gaz West / Dark by Design, Pierre is a prolific producer with a stream of releases to his name and has developed his DJ career as the second string, unlike most others in the industry. Perhaps due to his ease of producing across a range of sounds, over the years Pierre has played with a number of production aliases representing his full spectrum of ideas from hard dance releases under his own name and as ReBirth, to the trancier P.H.A.T.T. persona. His latest alias, Melodia, is allowing him to push his musical boundaries still further afield to take in house and electro influences, while maintaining his trance fan base. Pierre is still moving up the ranks of sought after and highly acclaimed producers and 2008 has seen him spread his wings in all directions: as manager for trance label Nukleuz Green; as a more sophisticated producer, and as a performer at live events including on South Africa’s national stages at the spectacular waterpark festival H2O and at Johannesburg superclub Truth. At the end of the year, Pierre is mixing the Nukleuz CD Trance Adrenaline – a collection of the label’s finest releases of the year – to create the defining sound of trance for 2008. December will see a Pierre / P.H.A.T.T. tour South Africa with a supporting cast of both South African and UK DJs to promote the CD and the best new sounds in the hard dance arena. Long running top venues Traxx in Durban and Submission in Johannesburg will play host to the big event on 12 and 13 December respectively. Ahead of the high-flying action, I dragged him away from his busy schedule to get the lowdown. 2008 has been a busy year for you – what have been your biggest high points? Yes it’s been pretty busy, but I’ve loved every moment of it. With the platform of Nukleuz I’ve been allowed to solidify the sound I’m known for, which is a combination of high energy, uplifting melodies, but at the same time cultivate and experiment with new sounds and new ideas, such as the production I now do under the alias Melodia. I fuse everything from trance to house to electro and whatever else I fancy into the tracks under that alias and it’s helped me grow as both a producer and DJ gaining good support from the likes of Carl Cox and Paul van Dyk. Highlights on the production end include being on remix duties for the likes of S.H.O.K.K, JamX (formerly from DuMonde), Mauro Picotto, Basic Dawn, The Angry Kids feat Bob Marley, Fonzerelli, BK and Beam among others. The collaboration with Lost Witness (Ministry of Sound, Nebula, World of Trance) was also another great experience. DJ-wise I took it a lot slower this year on big international tours to concentrate on my production work, but it also gave me time to fit in more dates for gigs closer to home which was great. Being the first international DJ to play at Traxx in Durban was something special and also playing at super club Truth and being invited as a special guest for H20 Africa in front of 15,000+ people were truly fantastic moments. I also had guest slots on radio shows hosted by Sean Tyas, Judge Jules and Tiesto. So looking back, it’s definitely been a good year! Musically what have been the achievements of Nukleuz Green under your control this year? Who have been your biggest new signings, and have you had any unexpected big hits? I think the return of S.H.O.K.K. is definitely one of the bigger things to happen in the scene for a while. I had them remix my track Damage Control and it shot to the top of download charts all over. My track This Is Where We Are was somewhat of an unexpected hit with big support and compilation requests coming from all angles. Which new artists have you collaborated with or been influenced by? I’m not one who is particularly fond of collaborations but currently I’m working on a project together with Nico Perrottey (DJ Space Raven, S.H.O.K.K.) and I’ve been talking to Fubar from Ibiza Knights as well as Jason van Wyk / North Star on doing something together as well. This year I only did one collaboration, which was with the legendary Lost Witness on our track Sanguine. As for influences there’s just too many to mention and from a very wide variety of music genres. I can listen to a pop or rock song and there could me a small element that inspires me for a trance track. You’ve played South Africa’s biggest dance events, Truth and H2O, in recent months – how did you present the music to this pretty commercialised crowd, and do you think trance is coming back into SA’s mainstream? I was very surprised at how receptive and responsive the South African crowds were. Trance is not only coming back to South Africa, but worldwide – it’s been down and out since the glory days of the 1999 era and for a while it was pretty dormant and uninteresting, but lately trance has been given a kick up the backside and this year presented some of the best tracks that I’ve heard in a long time. So yes, it’s definitely clawing its way back with a vengeance! Are you personally heading out of the hard dance scene more into trance? What style of music would you say you’re producing at the moment? Trance has always been my first love, but I started out as a hard dance DJ and producer, doing stuff for the UK hard house and UK hard trance market under my ReBirth alias. But then I slowly started to integrate more trance elements into it and that’s where P.H.A.T.T. was born. I moved away from doing UK hard trance and just did pure hard trance. For everyone’s reference, I have to clarify the difference between UK hard trance and hard trance as it’s something that gets thrown around a lot. UK hard trance pretty much falls under the hard dance category and is essentially from hard house origin. The essence is hard house but it contains trance elements and melodies. Hard trance on the other hand is essentially a full on trance track, bit toughened up, so it has all the little arpeggios and sweeping pads to it at the same pace as a normal trance track. The best examples of UK hard hrance would be Technikal and Guyver. Hard trance would be DuMonde, Flutlicht and Cosmic Gate of old. Anyway, as I progressed to hard trance, I eventually went on to also produce pure trance, the kind I grew up with, anthems like Gouryella – Gouryella, Paul van Dyk – For An Angel. Those kind of tracks inspired me to do softer, but more uplifting trance. The first track I did was the remix of JoBabe’s Follow Me Away on Nukleuz, and from there it just went on. [/b]You’ve run a series of remix competitions recently – what standard have the responses been like? Are you looking for the next big talent for Nukleuz?[/b] The standard of production on the entries has been, for the most part, of very high quality. We’re always on the lookout for new talent and so far there’s been good producers coming through, such as Will Atkinson as well as South Africans Daniel Loubscher & Illyra and Jason van Wyk aka North Star. For the remix competitions we keep a very open mind and instead of looking for a particular type of sound, we go on production quality, originality and something that can widen the Nukleuz audience. How much do you get contacted by South African trance / hard dance DJs and producers? What advice can you offer them on how to access and get known in the international scene from here? I’m in contact with quite a lot of African producers and get contacted on a daily basis for advice. The best advice to give is to listen to a wide variety of music and draw inspiration from them, then set out to do your own thing. Sign up to various music production forums on the net and get your music heard. It’s also a good source to learn from and get feedback on your work and see where you can improve. The next step would be to send demos of your work to top DJs and get a vibe from them. From there you can start hitting record labels. The net is a wonderful tool to get yourself out there…use it! Are you spending more time remixing or making your own tracks these days – and why? It’s about 50/50. My record contract had me delivering one single a month, and then I get in a fair bit of remix work as well – some months I get about four remixes in. Apart from that I always have side projects going on, so it’s pretty much in the balance. You’re going on tour in December to promote your new Nukleuz CD, Trance Adrenaline – what style and feel does it convey? What influences does it have, and is it all your own production or are there other artists? It conveys some of the scope that Nukleuz Green is all about. Ranging from stripped down, slow, groove-based trance infused with house and electro, then up to vocal based trance and uplifting trance, then moving onto the harder and darker side of things with tech trance and hard trance. There’s a lot of tracks and remixes from my own studio, but also includes artists from the likes of Mauro Picotto, S.H.O.K.K., Fonzerelli, JamX, Bas & Ram vs Ralph Novell, Steve Morley, Ibiza Knights, BK as well as Daniel Loubscher & Illyra and legendary South African DJ, DerekTheBandit & James Nelson. What’s prompted you to make this album? We want to emphasise the Nukleuz brand and what it’s all about – quality music with quality production. In some cases going back to move forward, but ultimately creating music that moves you. That’s what the Trance Adrenaline compilation represents. Any final message for the fans in Durban and Johannesburg you’ll be seeing in December? Parents, lock your daughters away! Haha, well I’ll be bringing full on dancefloor mayhem and judging from the supporting line up, Johannesburg and Durban are going to make all the other cities in South Africa very jealous! Trance Adrenaline is available to buy now at the online Nukluez Store Photos courtesy of Pierre Pienaar and Nukleuz. Not to be reproduced without permnission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By SunnyAli: Darude's whirlwind decade No sleep for Rachel Auburn In the Presence of Carl Nicholson Frantic Timeless 8 – totally worth ruining Valentine's Day for... It's like Origami, but with power tools..... One Awsum Xmas Party 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:

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