URN

Name a Tomcraft song, go on, I dare you? Tick tock, still struggling? What if I said Loneliness. I bet you’ve just tried to finish off the first line of the song in your head, “something something happiness”, at least now you’re on the right track if you pardon the pun.

That’s actually the sentiment that sums up German producer and DJ Tomcraft in a nutshell, continuously on the right track but always lacking that final breakthrough. It’s been 8 years since his electro cult club smasher topped the UK chart, and very little else has found itself to our fare shores since, revelling in the German techno/trance market where he’s seen as a guru among his peers.

His first smasher of 2011 it unlikely to grace the UK charts either, but in DJing terms it’s a strong tune. A driving rhythmic baseline more characteristic of a techno song than the supposed trance release Beatport has classed it as, a funky progressive melody that pounds home in the same way as his previous monster hit, and with the German born producer Eniac’s remix comes the unique and eerie vocals from the worst film I’ve ever seen, Sideways. Don’t buy the film, buy the song. And for that matter. don’t fear, the vocalist is not behind you even if the subtle use of echo suggests this when played over a loud sound system.

As far as I'm aware, the After Dark blog isn't usually used for album reviews. I thought I would change this with a cheeky review of Michael Cassette's debut album 'Temporarity'. There's no point trying to write an amazingly wordy review trying to describe it - after all, you have to LISTEN to music to appreciate it - no number of words can possibly replace that.

Michael Cassette - Temporarity

Michael Cassette isn't one man- it's Finnish duo Erkka Henrikki Lempiäinen & Matti Tapio Heininen. Influenced heavily from the warm analogue sounds of the 80s, they fuse everything that was good about those classic synth days with the very latest progressive house...and it works brilliantly.

Being a massive fan of theirs already, I pre-ordered the album as soon as I was able to. And on this fine, snowy, morning the CD popped through my door and it was on the hi-fi within a matter of seconds. All I can say is WOW. Everything about the tracks is perfect- the sound choices, the faintest hint of the 80s, the plucky melodies, the errie atmospheres...

Stefano Miele, aka Riva Starr, says if you give him lemons, he’ll make lemonade. So when you give him a track, he not only fizzes it up, he changes its form completely bringing an entirely unique style to the world of dance. He doesn’t make a remix, he takes a minute sample from a track and performs major surgery on it creating a bombardment of weird and wacky sounds.

At the heart of it though is the beat. Starr relies heavily on influences from tribal house and minimal techno, marrying the two to create a powerful bass driven track, sometimes entirely percussion. Growing up in Italy he was a DnB DJ, hence the often quick progressions between phases in his tracks, he often jumps between tempos and chords.

Whilst it may not go down well in your Oceans or Oceanas, the likes of Annie Mac, Pete Tong and even Deadmau5 regularly drop in a Riva remix to throw the crowd entirely off balance. It’s comic relief, the audience can’t help but stop and laugh, and that’s probably his most useful tool. There’s no doubting the power a unique sound can get you in the business, and Riva Starr can now be called the most powerful alternative house DJ in the world bar none.

So it’s the new term and more importantly, it’s summer, which as everyone knows dance music comes to the front of our audio spectrum. Whether it’s jetting off to Ibiza, lounging around on a Greek Island for a week or like me, hitting the worlds biggest dance music festival Creamfields late August, there is no escaping from 130+ bpm for the next few months.

So to mark the best time of the year, we have a new feature, artist in focus. Each week myself and Simon will highlight either a new rising star or veteran DJ who you will be hearing big things from this summer. More importantly you’ll be able to work out who the hell makes that song you keep hearing everywhere. Poor old Sydney Sampson, no one really knows who he is, yet Riverside fails to go away. So we’re going to give you a head start and show you who’s got the sound of summer 2010.

As exclusive parties go, Lost in a Cave has to take the biscuit. An eclectic mix of music lovers gathered Friday night for some hardcore house music which started off in a pub of all things. So I know what your first thought is, doesn’t sound like much of a rave, but oddly enough there was certainly a tension in the pub. A palpable air of excitement was clear, mainly because no one knew what to expect.
God that’s a posh paragraph to start off with, lets get back into some more Progression Remixed talk.

For a pub gig, and don’t worry it did progress, the dj’s were fantastic. A really strong set from the warm up guys included some strong funky house that was only let down by the fact there was just one guy dancing. Poor guy, poor djs.

So then it was time to move to the infamous caves. With glow sticks in hand, the party of us, around 60, headed next door, to another pub full of bikers (proper old school rockers with leather jackets) and straight through to the basement. And then the magic began.