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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! 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!

The Big Chill: Reviewed Reported by Adam Symbiosis / Submitted 24-08-09 16:58 Put your feet up and make a brew, just make sure not to bother the deer. Instructions for our correspondent Adam Symbiosis as HarderFaster sent him off to the hills of Herefordshire and Eastnor Castle for The Big Chill 2009 Music festivals are almost always about the biggest names they can get, the longest they can go on, the most profit they can achieve at your expense. Many of them are infested with food vans that only differ in the signs on their front and the slops they serve out, fit not even to serve your worst enemy, let alone something you might need to force down after a night heavy with drink. Many a festival goer has been assaulted by the idiocy of the security guard or steward, bussed in for the weekend, light on qualifications for the job and lighter on brain cells, filing you in confidence for your safety and security. Many people subscribe to the inevitable these days. That it is cheaper and more exciting to fly off to the continent for a weekend or even in some cases a week of festivities – proper music, great weather and easy on the pocket. They wouldn’t be far wrong and it’s the money grabbing nature of many of our festivals which has landed our scene and even the environment in this unsustainable mess. However is sustainability that important to the average muntered dance-in-a-fielder after two days of straight partying or does it all go out the window in a rush of endorphins and watered down cider? With my festival season severely limited this year I had to pick one good event, one that I was sure to have a good time at and so I crossed my fingers and went for one I hadn’t tried before: The Big Chill. A festival where sustainability rides high on the agenda and that runs with the tagline, Leave No Trace. With their headliners being Orbital (this was the first event they announced their comeback for) alongside David Bryne and Basement Jaxx as well as a list of DJs, artists, comedians, talks, shows and more, I went with a sense of excitement and wonder that all this could be given to you in a festival away from those muddy shores of Glastonbury. With the horrors of the Hammersmith Gyratory far behind us and a tent pitched lovingly (and surprisingly well considering it was 10pm), we headed off to the main area. Almost instantly we were hit by the sights and smells of a cornucopia of food areas and shop stalls. Berber BBQ tussled with curried goat or Argentine steak for my attention, while hats and wings, bags and books and god knows what else called to be bought; this was going to be no ordinary festival. People had already set up at the campsite and had been enjoying the rain since Thursday. Luckily for us as we sailed past the Castle Stage, playing host to a live AV set from Chris Cunningham, the sun had won though during the day and had left the site spongy but dry. At the main Open Air Stage, the Jaxx were doing their thang. Since their days on the circuit down Brixton way they’ve grown to be world superstars with tracks like Red Alert and Where’s Your Head At and up on the stage it was a veritable riot of colour and sound as singers and the band collided to pump out the tracks. We stuck around to hear a few but actually got bored very quickly. But then something unique and magical happened. Wandering around the massive site and up towards the Enchanted Garden we found a stage not much bigger than my living room playing host to a ska, blues and alternative band from London called Buster Shuffle. Now it’s not for me to examine the irony of travelling four hours outside of London to hear a band I could probably go to see a walk away from my house, but what is important is that they did in fact rock and quite hard too! From their amazing interaction with the small handful of music lovers in front of them, to their “just one more track” which turned into a half hour encore, I tried to decide what was better: their music or the fact that this unmarked minor stage was a major find. Further on in the site we found the Film4 tent, an ode to quirky, fun or interesting films, movies and documentaries. A shoes (or wellies) off affair, inside the dark tent we found D-Fuse performing his live AV production Endless Cities. An amazing combination of eye popping visual manipulation and vistas and live audio, this was almost a re-imagining of seminal movie Baraka and I would be surprised if he hadn’t taken at least a few cues from it. It was a shame that there wasn’t more comfort in this tent, perhaps a few cushions for people to rest their weary bones on – though maybe they were adverse to people sleeping rather than watching? The next day the sun and our tent conspired to cook us, much like the wretched frog in the proverbial pan of slowly boiling water, and so there wasn’t much sleeping done. Breakfast consisted of one of the best pizzas I’ve had outside of Italy and it boggles the brain that I can eat crisp stone baked pizza in a field near Tewksbury yet the selection round about the office is dire to say the least. Guardian papers came with free bags, fudge and wet wipes and tea was being served hot while cool grooves were being laid down at the Mr Skruff Tea Tent. This was the chill out part of the day as people slowly woke up; bodies relaxed in the sun by the lake, or on the hill, or with a book from the book fair. It was an idyllic scene; all we needed were the park’s deer to stroll gently through the mass of people, nuzzling on an earlobe here and there. Saturday day passed much, as did the night, in a slow, resolutely chilled blur. We spent more time at the Film4 tent and much fresh lemonade was drunk (alongside plenty of other wet substances). The key to the whole day however was Orbital and at midnight their show exploded, littered with their classic hits, Halcyon, Belfast and Satan among others in the 90 mins electronic music extravaganza. The audio visual aspects of the show were just as impressive and bloody bright! As the hour mark hit we made our way to check out some more of the festival and some more of the drinks. £22 for a cocktail jug seemed almost acceptable considering some of the other prices, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they had made a pretty penny on the £5 jug deposits. Warm, spicy cider hit the right spot (once it had cooled down enough not to burn my hand, my arm, my leg - damn them for not having a lid) as the whole area lost lots of heat after the sun went down. Another “boutique” cinema elsewhere in the festival area, this time complete with massive cushions and mattresses, played host to many a destroyed soul, while Apocalypse Now screened at the front, though I was disappointed to learn their proposed showing of Ghost In The Shell had to be cancelled. With the cider and cocktails quickly multiplying in my belly it was all I could do to stagger round the site once or twice more before heading back to the tent to revel in unconsciousness. The next day featured more random music – a one man band set up in the sweet spot between Castle and Main Stage, while we set up on the hill opposite the festival site under an old tree and let the wind dictate what sound we heard. A mash of the Beach Boys, Rude Bwoys and Bhangra floated over the rolling hill and transported me to Brixton’s Peace Park after a most heavy night, though of course without the hassle, skanks and weirdos. The taste for the day was elderflower cordial, chilled and served in a compostable pint cup – ah yes the sustainable nature of the event was in full force wherever you looked. Bins were split into different recyclable items – paper, plastics, glass, waste etc and people were actually taking the time to choose the right bin. In the campsites black bags for waste and green bags for recyclables were provided and used. All around, and round people’s necks on the programme lanyards, were reminders to leave no trace and while, as I mentioned before, the thoughts of a thousand clubbers at three am were not quite in tune with Mother Nature there was certainly much less waste dumped around on the floor and in the campsites. Norman Jay was the star for Sunday but before him were White Tree an amazing collaborative effort which seeks to combine classical music with electronics. The epic nature of their sound built wonderfully to crescendos which washed over the mass of sunning bodies. It was perfect Sunday afternoon music and as with Buster Shuffle, I’d definitely recommend you check them out, especially if you like to hear something a bit more diverse. I think that’s really what this whole weekend was about. Across the three days I was there I saw more differing styles of good music then I’ve had chance to the whole rest of the year. Of course some of you might say that, in fact, that is the whole point of a music festival, I guess I’ve become accustomed to the rather more limited selections of The Big Chill’s competitors. With little touches like for example massive cutout flowers poking out of hedges, mist pumped onto the lake at night, Big Issue sellers given an opportunity to sell programmes alongside their magazines, lock ups for your valuables and showers with hot water, not to mention the amazing food, the ability for the less physically able to rent a mobility scooter, the bric-a-brac and the more interesting buys and the extensive yet still manageable site with its multitude of musical offerings, while with other festivals there’s always a level of consumerism, my weekend was repackaged as consumerism with a cuddle and it felt good. I wanted a festival where I could enjoy myself and experience great music. I wanted a festival where I could meet new people. I wanted something different from my weekend and hard earned money. In fact I got all of this and more. I was very impressed with the Big Chill and you should be next year too. With many thanks to the guys at Idea Generation. For more pictures on this event and other festivals and to contribute your pics check out www.myspace.com/festivalannual Photos courtesy of Adam Symbiosis. Not to be reproduced without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Adam Symbiosis: Godskitchen Xmas Party: Reviewed Tiësto at Victoria Park: Reviewed Lilly Allen: Reviewed Digital Society May 2009: Reviewed Losing The Music? Sign This Petition! 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: STACE on 25th Aug 2009 08:47.08 Gutted i couldn't go to this. From: Pathfinder on 25th Aug 2009 19:42.21 Great review. Glad the weather held out for you. From: Andy_B on 26th Aug 2009 08:57.02 Great read - I was considering this and ended up going to Global .. sounds like I made a big mistake From: Matt Church on 3rd Sep 2009 09:42.17 Great review. Went a few years back and loved it!!! Great to find something that little bit different from the norm!! From: Just Badger! on 3rd Sep 2009 18:50.08 Awesome read, count me in for next year!! From: crazy-frenchie on 7th Sep 2009 06:48.23 Good read, I met someone in Glade who went last year and this year and she highly recommended me to go !

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