Returning to Morden Park over Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th August, Eastern Electrics will include a pool party, vamped up VIP area and a host of top DJs.
These include heavyweights like MK, Goldie, Orbital, Skream, Claptone and more.
This weekend will again see the construction of the impressive Switchyard stage and a host of other arenas catering to varied electronic tastes.
With variety in mind, day two will have a garage vibe with legendary UKG jock DJ EZ leading the charge, joined by DJ Spoony, Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont and many more.
This year will also feature an after party at legendary London venue, Fabric, which will feature a DJ set from M25 rave icons, Orbital.
Weekend tickets are priced at £57.50, plus booking fee, Saturday-only tickets are from £39.95 and Sunday from £20.
Two years after leaving Hatfield House, Eastern Electrics may finally have found a place it can call home, writesTopReviews4U editor Paul Christian.
The roving festival, which has previously pitched up at Knebworth as well as in Hatfield, seemed settled in its Morden Park residence, a year after moving there.
This felt like it belonged, with room to breathe, reasonably far away from residents and with a knowhow brought about by learning from previous experience.
Gone was the hated RFID pre-loaded payment system, which seemed to make the bar experience far more relaxed and leaving your stresses at the gate should be what festivals are all about.
Also this year a second day was added on Sunday, featuring more urban acts to compliment the underground house and techno fayre, as EE added a third 'E' - expansion.
But some things never change, thankfully.
The epic Switchyard arena was still a central feature and was packed full of up-for-it ravers under sunny skies.
Also the ever-present Star of EE 'pub' was still there and always busy.
The excellent new Defected tent was like a separate venue, with its entrance tunnel building anticipation, before a stepped dancing stage, the whole length of the marquee, came into view and quality house music filled the plush setting.
The main stage offered some of the cream of the crop including Hot Since 82 and Jamie Jones.
But it was in the plethora of side stages where EE really excels with variety both musically and aesthetically.
Everything just felt right at Eastern Electrics this year - long may it continue.
South West Four continues to go from
strength to strength, with increasingly impressive light shows –
and DJ sets -making this wonderful event an audio-visual feast for
dance music fans.
Scroll down for videos
That is helped significantly by
headliners Luke deadmau5, whose entire schtick is the awesome
marriage of breathtaking incandescent stage decor and whomping
synth-laden aural fodder.
But support acts also pitched in, with
Markus Schulz's terrific Dakota concept bringing visual storytelling
alongside his riff and bass heavy neotrance madness.
On Sunday's headliner – deadmau5 has
maintained a bleeding cool edge in an era of throwaway EDM and a
proliferation of festivals – much like SW4 itself.
His set was a tour de force uptempo
crowd pleasers like Ghosts N Stuff were tempered with euphoric
dreamstates like Phantoms Can't Hang, and some hip-hop and DJ
tool-like samples were thrown in as the Mau5 pitched it up as well as
down.
Deadmau5 makes you work, he won't throw
you euphoric bones track after track and the overall effect is that
he creates a mood, a nose-thumbing meta journey, where occasionally
you're in on the joke and occasionally you're the butt of it – but
you don't mind either way.
His set here was quite simply
fantastic.
I also particularly enjoyed Ferry
Corsten's set in The Gallery tent, where the Dutch maestro appeared
to revel a greater freedom to play his beloved trance to an equally
ecstatic crowd.
Honourable mention must also go to Gareth Emery.
The main stage was also busy throughout
as top talents like Martin Soveig, Example and DJ Wire and Sub Focus veered closer to the
overground.
But is simply too much to list in terms
of the stellar line-up, so I'll concentrate on my overriding
impressions.
South West Four has never felt so sure
of itself to me, it is how an event like this should be – no unnecessary gimmicks, just solid entertainment aimed squarely at the punters.
With the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Milton Keynes Bowl just a few weeks away TopReviews4U editor Paul Christian caught up with one of the main attractions – Egyptian trance superstars Aly & Fila.
- SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Here the duo answer our questions ahead of their appearance at the one-day festival extravaganza on July 9. When did you first get into trance and what was the experience like? (Fila) My father worked in Europe a lot in the early 1990s so I used to travel a lot with him to Germany, it was here I discovered Paul Van Dyk and would go to see him play and also bring back tapes of PVD to Egypt where Aly and I would listen to them. Paul Van Dyk was our biggest inspiration. How big is trance and dance music in general in Egypt? The dance music scene in general is very big in Egypt, every week clubs in Egypt are busy and we also have Sharm el Sheikh where Space, Pacha and Privilege are. Trance music has grown over the years, our weekly Radio show FSOE is on Nile FM in Cairo and also our record label has many Egyptian artists on there from Mohamed Ragab , Fady & Mina , A&Z , Omar Sherif to name but a few, this creates more awareness of the genre within Egypt itself, also we host each year our FSOE Celebration in Egypt, in 2016 we hosted FSOE 400 at The Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, that created huge awareness within Egypt and worldwide for us, the genre and the Egyptian artists who performed that night.
What is your favourite trance track of all time? Paul Van Dyk - For an Angel. How does it feel to be playing EDC in Milton Keynes? We are really excited, we have heard great things, and EDC / Insomniac / Dreamstate is a partner of ours so we are very happy to be a part of the festival. What do you like about playing in the UK? The crowd’s intelligence and energy is amazing. How has trance changed over the years and do you think it is as strong as it was? It has changed a lot, every genre goes through cycles where it is more popular than it was at a certain time.
We have been touring now for 10 years and we see worldwide every year how popular trance is and especially since the social media and internet age came in, where people can connect with each other , there are ‘trance families’ all over world, it’s like a worldwide family, we are very proud to be a part of this.
Who are you future heroes in dance music? We are very happy to have some great names signed to our record label Future Sound of Egypt, names such as Ferry Tayle, Dan Stone, Darren Porter, Arctic Moon, James Dymond, ReOrder, Mohamed Ragab, LTN, Alex Ender, A&Z, Ahmed Romel, Bjorn Akesson, Alan Morris, Niko Zografos, Omar Sherif, Jonathan Carvajal, Monoverse, to name but a few, there are several others also.
What has been your career highlight? To become the first Electronic Act since Jean Michele Jarre to play at The Great Pyramids of Giza, in Egypt and also to host our own FSOE 400 Celebration there, we will never forget that moment. There are many other career highlights like being in the DJ Mag Top 100 Top 50 since 2008, being voted ‘Tune of The Year’ on ASOT 2011 with ‘Aly & Fila feat Jwaydan - We Control the Sunlight’, also having released several artist albums - Rising Sun, Quiet Storm, The Other Shore, The Chillout Album and various compilations including Trance Nation for Ministry of Sound. Also being Voted No.1 DJ in the Trance Podium Awards two years in a row.
Other headliners at the EDC UK include Avicii, Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Eric Prydz, Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella, Paul van Dyk, Martin Garrix and Pendulum.
A night of upfront funky, deep and
soulful house delighted revellers at one of London's coolest venues
last week, writes TopReviews4U editor Paul Christian.
Let There Be House's fantastic event at
McQueen, in Shoreditch, was eagerly-anticipated and did not
disappoint.
A fantastic crowd lapped up the
beat-driven party vibes at this unique and very stylish venue.
DJs on the night included Groovepunk,
Glen Horsborough, Fatfly, Mister H and Carl Hanaghan.
The event returns to McQueen in August
and TopReviews4U can't wait.
Uber-cool London venue McQueen, in
Shoreditch, will play host to a funky and soulful explosion tomorrow
night (Saturday, April 23) as Let There Be House bounces in.
The eight 'til late party will feature
DJs including Groovepunk, Glen Horsborough, Fatfly, Mister H and
Discopolis Recordings' Carl Hanaghan.
TopReviews4U will
be there on the night and will review the action on social media and
on this blog afterwards.
London's iconic Camden Palace (now
known as Koko) will play host to banging electronic beats and soaring
soundscapes once again next month as trance titan John '00' Fleming's
J00F Editions sweeps into town.
Mr Fleming (pictured with TopReviews4U
editor Paul Christian) will be joined by psytrance star Astrix as
well as Steve Arnold for a night which promises to showcase the
bleeding edge of trance and progressive music.
TopReviews4U will
be there on the night and will review the action on social media and
on this blog after the tumultuous tunage has subsided.
The
event will take place on May 29 and the combination of the
ultra-atmospheric dance music and the fantastic, historic setting
makes for a mouthwatering prospect.
Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance rolled into London on Saturday night - and it was the hottest ticket in town, writes TopReviews4U editor Paul Christian.
The Dutch maestro was ably assisted by compatriot Ruben de Ronde, whose floaty and driving set provided much more than just a warm up for the man himself. AvB's banging set was what ASOT fans have come to expect.
And the pounding trance was perfect for the cavernous O2 Brixton Academy. The walls reverberated to the sonic onslaught and the whoops and cheers of the crowd grew louder as the night went on. Aside from the music the venue was fantastic, with bars aplenty and there was even a warm up DJ in the entrance hall - courtesy of Elevation Audio - and a spinner playing at the cloakroom.. Brixton is quickly becoming the heart of London clubland, with sell-out gigs here and last month for ANTS at the Electric down the road. I for one am looking forward to more shenanigans in SW9.
Headliners and supporting acts have been announced for
London’s long-running SW4 festival, writes TopReviews4U editor Paul Christian.
The event, on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 August, will see the
cream of global dance music descend on Clapham Common once more.
Chase & Status, will be performing alongside deep house stars
Gorgon City and MK and D ’n’ B chart-botherer Rudimental appearing on the
Saturday.
There will be four arenas on the first day, called ‘Welcome
to Gorgon City, ‘Together’, ‘RAM’ and ‘SW4 Live’.
The Sunday also sees an eclectic mix with massive headliners
the Chemical Brothers, trancers Above & Beyond and Cirez D, Paul
Kalkbrenner Sven Vath and Sasha.
The festival is set to be bigger than eve with enormous
arenas and stages.
A spokesman said: “From solo performances to full touring
bands, each and every performer will bring Clapham Common to life in a London
festival exclusive. Immersed in astounding production to create a breath-taking
experience, the gigantic stage will add a new dimension to SW4.”
