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Features 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!

Fifty thousand miles of funky. GrooveBar: Reviewed Reported by SunnyAli / Submitted 03-03-08 17:12 Funky house isn’t my usual musical fare of choice, but I couldn’t wait to get my ass down to GrooveBar for the 4th birthday bash. Slick flyers and billboards on streetlights promoted it far and wide. It had DJ Fresh topping a lineup that included some of the South Africa’s best DJs. It promised 4 floors, motorbike stunts, and more, in a venue I’d not yet been into. GrooveBar makes for a very classy club. It lives next door to “superclub” Truth in Midrand, and has a similar feel, mixing dimly lit wide low rooms, sexy décor and lots of bars with outdoor dance areas and sofa seats. The two main indoor dancefloors were separated by a third outdoor DJ booth and dancefloor, and for this event they’d installed a fourth room in a side marquee: think beach party meets cocktail bar. It was a good-looking playground and the crowd was pretty good-looking too – the beautiful people turned out in force and the club filled up with a very clean cut and well presented bunch of partygoers. The flyer listed the four rooms as a main arena, a funky floor, a deep house floor and an electro-tech room. The only snag was that once we’d explored the venue, we couldn’t work out which was which. I wandered out of the marquee where the DJ was bashing out a funky remix of Bob Marley’s Sun Is Shining to cheers of appreciation from the crowd, into the first indoor room, to hear the DJ play the same Bob Marley tune to pretty much the same reaction. A quick straw poll of the audience in all rooms didn’t shed much light, though it did reveal that many of the people were at the club for the first time – a really good sign, particularly as everyone I chatted to was both friendly and up for a great night out. Eventually a helpful girl in one of the DJ booths came to the rescue: it was Mike Delicious playing funky in the first indoor room, and the marquee was the electro tech floor. The outdoor space turned out to be the main headline arena and we stepped out to find Ryan Dent easing the crowd into the night from about ten till twelve – timing was sketchy as I couldn’t find a running order in the rooms anywhere. He played a superb set of bouncy funky house, dropped a brilliant tune sampling the U2 classic New Years Day, filled the dancefloor and got the crowd jumping and shouting along. Midnight came with a bang – fireworks and some stomach-churning motorcycle stunt artists flipping off their handlebars. It was a fantastic show and went down a storm, though I’m not sure DJ Fresh, who had to hold up his set for half an hour to make room for it, appreciated it quite so much. Fresh, a Five FM household name, was the big draw of the night and played up to expectations. He played an übercool RnB-tinged funky set that packed the area, despite the dropping air temperature. My funky house-obsessed friends gave him the big thumbs up and stayed rooted to their podium for the set, but the previous two hours had pretty much hit my funky saturation point, so I sloped off to the deep house room to hear something new. Capetonian duo Southbound hit the decks there at 1am, playing a fresh, delicate deep house sound, with tight mixing and great attention to detail. They’ve got jazz and blues live music influences layered into the tunes they play, a lot of which they produce themselves. They worked the set up to more bouncy jackin’ tracks by the end and had a good crowd on the dancefloor – a welcome change from the thumping funky house a la DJ Fresh outside – before handing over to Matt Suttner at 3am who kept up the good work. I wandered from this into the electro tech arena in the marquee, which had Swurv and Mcmurdo playing, among others. Despite knowing little about the music or the DJs I had a great time rocking about to the tunes, which were kind of speedy electro with great bouncy basslines. It was around 3:30 – 4 am that I ended up wandering aimlessly around the club, a little dissatisfied with the music in any of the rooms. It was at this stage that my friends and I began hankering after another level of energy in the music on offer: trance or something equivalent would have been great for us to keep on dancing. As it was, we ended up on the incredibly comfy sofas next to the DJ booth in the funky room. This arena had packed to the rafters at 11pm and stayed that way for the night, so obviously DJ Lloyd and co had been doing a grand job. We wandered as Small Paul was rocking a full floor with a classics set before handing over to Kirsti with Ryan Dent. They closed the night with a full-on cheesefest that included funky remixes of Back Once Again (Ill Behaviour) and Toca’s Miracle by Fragma, which had the crowd singing along and was stuck in my head for a full three days afterwards. For a non-funky-house appreciator, eight hours of the stuff was a lot to take and I left GrooveBar wishing there had been a bit more musical variety on offer. As an event, though, it was great entertainment – and hopefully all those first-time visitors I met will be coming back to the place for more. Groove Bar 4th Birthday – Sat 9 Feb 2008. Groove Bar, Midrand, Johannesburg Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced without permission. 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: From: *antixa* on 5th Mar 2008 07:57.23 A Ha!!! yeah, Toca's Miracle is back!!! .... :teehee: Cool review

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