Elrow
Town breezed into London last weekend in a blaze of psychedelic
colour, animatronics and banging tunes.
It
is now a week since the second day kicked off and the hedonistic
musical mayhem is still fresh in the memory. Great
sets from Claptone, Fatboy Slim and Idris Elba were the order of the
day, seven days ago.
And
last Saturday saw Paul Kalkbrenner, Paco Osuna and Steve Lawler
entertaining up-for-it revellers across the Psychedelic Trip and
Sambodromo do Brasil arenas.
Both
main stages were incredible feats, with inflatable giraffes and other
critters looming over the dancefloor in the Sambodromo and awesome
‘walking’ praying mantises stalking the massive pyramidal
Psychedelic Trip.
The
event, in the shadow of the Olympic stadium, in Stratford, brought a
hefty dose of the surreal to this corner of East London, with smiles
on faces wherever you looked. It was a timely reminder not to take
life too seriously.
Here’s
hoping elrow Town is now a regular feature.
elrow
Town London details
an eye-popping array of captivating features, extensive food
programming and crazy characters for
Saturday
18 and
Sunday
19 August.
Famed
for its immersive production, elrow Town London will set the bar even
higher for interactive, audiovisual festivals when it once again
takes over the Queen
Elizabeth Olympic Park, in
Stratford, London.
The
crazy carnival atmosphere is set to fill the site of the 2012
Olympics with a different brand of fun and games.
elrow
Town London hosts two immersive themes: Psychedelic
Trip and
Sambodromo
Do Brasil.
The former transports townspeople to a hippy commune that's built on
peace and love while the latter plunges you deep into the rainforest
for hair-raising encounters with wild animals, lost explorers, samba
dancers and stranded DJs.
The
roving international two-day event will feature DJ luminaries such as
superstar Fatboy Slim, masked house honcho Claptone, Paul
Kalkbrenner, Paco Osuna and Luther star Idris Elba.
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.
More acts have been unveiled for the Saturday leg of South West Four. Bucket-wearing confectionery fan Marshmello and urban superstar Tinie Tempah will join others including Pendulum, Sigma and Duke Dumont on the Together main stage on Saturday, August 26, at Clapham Common.
Check back for further updates on South West Four 2017.
Join Ocean Beach, in Ibiza, as they start the 2017 season in style with a Soft Opening Party on Friday, April 28.
With free entry to the plush environs of the poolside open air club, what better excuse than to come and soak up the sun with resident DJs providing the perfect soundtrack to your day? Beds need to be booked in advance, but no cover charge applies to all beds booked for this season curtain raiser. Event Times: Noon to 9pm with music starting from 1pm.
As someone who has not only attended, but reviewed each and every
EDC UK, since the first odd affair at the Olympic Park, in London, to
the (we all assumed) spiritual home at the National Bowl, in Milton
Keynes, it was a real shock to learn the planned 2017 event had been
cancelled, writes TopReviews4U editor Paul Christian.
An odd and intriguing statement (above) was released by the US-based event
organisers, Insomniac, which appeared to blame the venue.
It also claimed EDC head honchos were keen to "properly
reimagine all areas of the experience".
Given the sell-out multi-million pound events over the last few
years this seems odd. EDC always drew vast crowds and had become a major feature in the
summer festival calendar.
I first began to suspect the 'Electric Daisies' might fail to
bloom earlier this month when the festival's previous promoters told
me they had nothing to do with the event this year, and weren't
really able to tell me who was dealing with that side of things.
And now it is clear - the answer is: no one is.
While Insomniac's vague statement could be taken at face value -
they could just feel they can't put on the show they want to - I find
it somewhat unsatisfactory.
From what I've seen from the travelling show's US incarnations the
UK event at MK was easily on par with them - but then I always
preferred the trance and house tents rather than the main Kinetic
Field stage anyway.
The rumour mill has, quite expectedly, gone into overdrive.
Suggestions that there are no big-name DJs available is one theory,
or rather more believably, that their astronomical fees were
unrealistic and rendered the event unprofitable.
It is no secret that the likes of previous performers (and
TopReviews4U interviewees) like Tiesto and Steve Aoki are raking in
megabucks for festival sets.
There is also the suggestion that the EDM bubble could be slowly
deflating, in a discordant whomping parp - not unlike the 'music'
itself.
I'm inclined to believe a combination of poor ticket sales and
overhyped DJ fees is at the root of the sorry mess the Electric Daisy
Carnival's UK leg has become.
Asked what made
him bring back Gouryella Ferry
said: “It was
something that I wanted to do for a long time, that whole sound, I wanted it
back.
“In the
last few years I was so fed up with everything that was happening in the scene.
I want to
return to that 99-2000 sound.”
So it is
a case of back to the future for the amiable DJ and producer, who has been
responsible for a gigantic back catalogue of bangers.
Speaking
about the future of trance he said: “I can see almost two prongs to it -
there's the EDM type of trance and there's these guys, a lot of them from
Ireland and Scotland, which is more like the Gouryella style, that people are
really loving.”
Gouryella
was a project that Corsten started with then close friend Tiesto, who has
departed trance and headed for the more commercial EDM akin to the style of young fellow Dutchman Martin Garrix (pictured below).
Asked how
Tiesto felt about the reawakening of one of trance’s most iconic acts Corsten
said: “I haven't really spoken to him ever since [the return of Gouryella], I
haven't really seen him since, even though we play the same festivals
sometimes.
“I've
just released number six - Neba - for Gouryella and he was there for the first
three.”
And on
his former production collaborator’s change of style, Corsten thought for a
moment, then said that he likes to make music for the "art" of it.
He added:
"I know where his [Tiesto's] heart used to be, I may agree or not (with
his new EDM style).
“I went
down that route for a little while and I've got to be honest it was very
inspiring at first, going to the beginning of EDM.
“Punk and
Rock Your Body, Rock were very electro.”
But he
said he was irresistibly drawn back to his roots.
“After
doing that for a while the real trance lover in me really did start to
resurface again,” he said.
On the
strength of his tear-inducingly uplifting performance at EDC UK I don’t think
Ferry Corsten will be moving away from trance again.
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.
