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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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When Timez are Hard… interview with Phil York
Reported by Scott C
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Submitted 27-04-05 22:48
For those that can’t get enough of the tougher edge of trance, prepare to get excited. Very excited. The electronic music industry relies on new music to keep the fire burning and Phil York (Hard Timez/Nuklear Puppy) is about to come up big with the launch of… not one… not one and a half... but two brand spanking new labels serving up release after release of pure glory! In this feature you will get all the information on the labels to date, including a sneak peak at their first releases. Before we do that, let’s see what information we can get out of label owner Phil!
Arguably the biggest and best name on the Scottish hard dance scene, Phil has been bringing his personal blend of music to people’s eardrums for almost 10 years! Phil is commonly known as one of the driving forces behind the biggest clubbing promotion on the Eastern side of Scotland, Nuklear Puppy.
We could be here all day if I was to list all of the quality names that have graced the turntables at the event but to name a few: Fergie, Judge Jules, BK & Yoji Biomehanika. The success of NuklearPuppy is evident through its numerous nominations for some of the most prestigious awards in the clubbing industry including Best Scottish Club & Best Small Club in Britain.
Phil’s style and technique is reflected in every set that he plays. His diversity between hard trance and hard dance is the driving force to his own brand of music. His immaculate production talent just puts the icing on the cake! Believe me when I say ‘His discography speaks for itself!’. Releases on labels including Nukleuz, ReCharge, Phantom Trax and Redemption prove that the name Phil York is a name to not only be taken seriously in the music industry but a name to look out for in the future as this 22 year old lad from Bonnie Scotland is going places!
Phil, thanks for catching up with us for a chat. You must be busy these days!
Really busy, is all good though!, Things are really hectic here at the moment, we’re in the process of lining up our first 6 releases for Tranzlation as well as shifting our usual 4 releases a month. We take care of the majority of the distribution of all our labels in the UK, which seem to take up a lot of my time and my partner Rick’s time, contacting shops, packing up records, etc. I am also very busy in the studio at the moment doing remixes for Tranzlation and HTUK and also trying to come up with something very special for Hardtimez no 10.
On the Nuklear Puppy front Jason and I have been in talks with venues across the east coast of Scotland to launch at two new cities over the coming months, plus we have just confirmed were hosting an open air bus at coloursfest this year!
As not only one label but two labels is a big step up the dance industry ladder you must have some great motivation.
I would definitely like to think so; the driving force behind these two new labels is the style of hard trance we are putting out on them, both labels describe perfectly the sound that I am pushing at the moment. I am trying (especially with Tranzlation) to cross boundaries between the UK and European sounds of hard trance.
Playing a two hour set of one or the other can get a bit monotonous after a while so I find its best to mix it up between styles. There are clear differences in the sounds, i.e. the phattness of German trance baselines and the rapidness of the rolling baselines used in most UK tracks. You can change the pace of a set by switching between styles using it to build a set where you won’t feel like you have heard the same sound for 2 hours.
If you had to choose five words to describe the Translation label what would they be?
Good question… would have to be euphoric, diverse, energetic, massive and fresh.
Can you play the bagpipes?
Not many people know this but myself and Jason Cortez moonlight on Saturday mornings on Princess Street as the Tartan Twosome, fully kilted up piping out hard house anthems to the locals at 9am! Just kidding, I’m not of Scottish origin; I am a Geordie at heart (ended up here after studying at Edinburgh uni for four years) so all the Scottish traditions like eating haggis and bagpipes are given a wide berth!
With the debut release on each label going out so close to each other, is there a particular release you are looking forward to?
We have put a month gap between the launching of the labels now, Tranzlation launching at the beginning of April and Distinkt launches mid May, so for now I would definitely have to say I am getting very excited about the launch of Tranzlation. The first release is ‘Mad & Confused’ by Technikal & Marc French with an awesome Guyver remix, which I have to say is the best thing I personally think he’s done in a long time! Both mixes have been getting a lot of airplay across the UK and beyond at the moment with the likes of Anne Savage, Rob Tissera and Andy Whitby supporting them heavily.
I am also equally excited about future releases we have lined up. The second release on Tranzlation is ‘Faith’ by Nick Rowland, best described as a very ‘London’ sounding hard trancer very much like a lot of Edison Factor material. I have done a more pumping UK style remix for the flip which I think is my best production to date. The third release is where we start to mix things up a bit, I have just completed a track with the provisional title ‘Glide’ which is very UK ‘hands in the air feel to it’; to complement this on the flip we have a massive Dark by Design German trance remix.
Tranzlation number 4 is ‘Running’ by myself and rising star Chris Hoff, again very UK sounding and we have Mr Paul Maddox beavering away in the studio as we speak to work his magic under his ‘Azure’ guise for the remix.
My personal favourite of your productions would have to be your collaboration with Gaz West on ‘Save our Souls’. Do you have a personal favourite within your productions?
I have to say that ‘Save our Souls’ has to be up there, it was the first track that Gaz and I ever did together and definitely stands out with a very distinct vocal. There has been talks to remix this for 2005 with Devotion; both tracks received so much attention the first time round I think it’s fitting to get remixes done, watch this space.
For original productions at the moment I am torn between two collaborations I have recently finished. The first is a track called ‘Step Back’ which I have done with Colin Barrat for release on Hardtimez, its not what you would usually expect from me, and Colin’s influence is evident though the wicked groove the track has throughout, the vocal is very spine tingling and the riff, all I can say is Orgasmic! The second collaboration is ‘Running’ which I have done with Chris Hoff, this is the first collaboration we have done together and we are both very proud of it. Running has a lush female vocal in it, lots of tinkly pianos and a euphoric riff which kicks in at an awesome pace.
Remix-wise it has to be my new remix of Nick Rowland’s faith coming out as Tranzlation No. 2. That I am very proud of followed closely by my remix of Evolution – Ayla for the first release on Distinkt. I absolutely love remixing classic trance tunes, brings back all my clubbing memories from back in the days of Gatecrasher! Another remix that is definitely worth a mention is Skydive by Jason Cortez and me which has been getting cained everywhere at the moment - due out in a couple of months!
For promoters across the UK, what can people expect from a night in of music provided by yourself?
A mixture of harder-edged trance music, mixing between UK and European sounds with a lot of my production thrown in for good measure. Expect to hear energetic uplifting tunes and see lots of energy behind the decks as well. I find crowds feed off DJs giving it some behind the decks; nothing better than seeing a DJ who loves what they do really getting into what he/she is playing and interacting with the crowd.
The style of hard trance/hard dance I play also depends on whoever is playing before or after me, as being a promoter myself I understand it is best to build the music throughout a night instead of just stepping up and banging it out for an hour. For example, if I am playing before the likes of Jules or Scot Project then I will mainly play European style whereas if I am on to play before harder DJs or on the last couple of hours then it will be mainly UK sounding, more pacey hard trance, even going into some hard dance, mainly off my Hardtimez label and Nuklear Puppy records.
I try to keep a lot of my fresh material exclusive to myself to play out for the first month or two before I start to send it out to other DJs. This means that when I get booked to play I will have tracks to play that no-one else will have, so there is no chance of me playing all the same records the DJ before has which seems to happen quite a lot nowadays. Expect to hear a lot of new releases on all my labels plus a couple of cheeky bootlegs thrown in for good measure.
With playing some of the hottest events in the UK have you got any favourites? Any favourite moments? Preferably ‘clean’ moments…
Well, obviously Nuklear Puppy events have to be up there as it is very satisfying playing to a full house of people knowing all the hard work we put in has paid off, my favourite of which has to be our home in Edinburgh. We get such a wicked, up for it, friendly crowd in and I have to say all the guests we’ve had over the last year have rocked it. Out with Puppy I would have to say Lashes at the arches in Glasgow, what a venue, dirty, dark with a crowd that is so vocal and in your face, how could you not love that!! Drum in Aberdeen is the same kind of atmosphere, a very messy club with proper up for it clubbers! Also Hard House Academy has to be up there, I was so privileged to play and hopefully will go back to play again in the near future.
With two record labels in tow you sound like you aren’t finished yet. What do you aim to do next?
My main aim outside of the labels and club at the moment is to push myself more on the DJing front both south of the border and abroad. Due to the success of the labels I am now getting more bookings on the south coast as well as in the midlands area which I am hoping will lead to more gigs in the capital as I haven’t played in London for some time!
My plans for abroad are shaping up nicely now, I am going out to Montreal in Canada at the end of May, Ibiza at the end of July and am also organizing a tour of Australia and New Zealand for December with my partner in Nuklear Puppy, Jason Cortez. There is also talk of monthly Nuklear Puppy nights in Ibiza this year, which I am very excited about.
Thanks Phil!
Be sure to check out www.hardtimez.comfor sound samples of each release!
All photos courtesy of Phil York.
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Other Features By Scott C:
Wid & Ben's rollercoaster to London
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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