glide

Just got back from a two week trip to Europe. I managed to get in a good deal of clubbing while I was there, with the highlights definitely being PVD at the Gallery on Fri. the 16th and the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System on the 17th. If you are ever in London and you get a chance, make sure you go to Turnmills (or the Gallery as the party is called on Fri.) It's a pretty small club (they only let in 750 people) but inside there's lots of room and there must be like 12 different rooms to hang out in. Really cool club-but tough door which made for a good crowd. Couple that w/ Tall Paul and PVD and you have an amazing night out. Tall paul was ok-i don't really like his cheesy style and I think his mixing sucks ass, but van dyk was unreal. He played from 2 until 5:30 and was in the zone beginning to end. I was really surprised to see how differently he behaves in europe as opposed to his sets at Twilo. In Twilo he's usually pretty calm and just kind of stands in place in the booth and does his thing (w/ the exception of the last time i saw him in may), but in europe, he really gets the crowd going, dancing in the booth and really getting into it. The setup of this club was pretty cool too, with an elevated dj box that was totally sealed off but there was a window right next to him so you could go up and knock and he'd acknowledge you. I brought a Twilo sticker w/ me and when he saw it, he opened the door and signed it for me, w/o me even asking him. Plus the brits are all really cool. Very friendly. So Turnmills was awesome. I caught maybe 2 hours of sleep and then off to gatecrasher. Gatecrasher was held at Turweston Airfield, in the middle of no where, about an hour train ride north of london. The festival started at 2pm on sat. and went till 6am on sun. They had five different indoor arenas and an outdoor soundstage sponsored by radio 1 where they broadcast the whole show live across the UK. The weather on sat. was amazing-sunny and 70 (not what you'd expect in england) which made the day so enjoyable. They had a whole carnival set up w/ rides and everything. All in all, gatecrasher really did a fantastic job w/ everything. Most of the top DJs (or at least the ones i wanted to see) were in the main Gatecrasher tent which was also filmed for MTV. It started off w/ Matt Hardwick who I missed, then Guy Orandel who was great. He really got the crowd going. What was nice was that you could either go in the arena and dance or you could just hang out in the warm sun and hear the music perfectly...so that's what we did for a while. After Orandel was Scott Bond. I think this guy is fantastic. I loved him at GC2000 and he was in my opinion prob. played the best set of anyone the whole time this day too. The highlight was the Sara McLlocklin (sp?) tune that is on S&D's NEIII import. I don't know the name but it was great. Unfortunately the DJs didn't really listen to each other's sets b/c we heard it 2 more times in the same tent later that night. After Bond came John Kelly who also put on a great show. He really gets into it, dancing around and just feeding off the crowd. This is when things really started getting going-around 6pm or so. Kelly was followed by Judge jules who I personally hate. I think he's a fag and his sets are way too mainstream but he wasn't bad. I kind of used this time to rest a little b/c I knew I had a long night ahead of me. Following Jules was PVD who was actually a little disappointing. I say this only b/c just about every song he played, he had played the night b/f at the GAllery. So I just felt like I was hearing the same stuff. But it still sounded really good. During PVD's set they kept giving updates on the Euro 2000 game b/t England and Germany and when England took a 1-0 lead, the place went crazy. They actually broadcast the whole game on this huge video screen outside. Van Dyk was followed by Oakey who played a really solid 1 1/2 hr set (all the DJs were basically alloted 1.5 in the main arena). He sounded like the old Oakey, not the one who played at the Roxy in March, which made me happy. Oakey was followed by Pete Tong. I had never seen Tong and thought he was so so. I think he's much more of a house dj and he tries too hard at gatecrasher to spin trance which is what most people wanted to hear. After a half hour or so, I decided to leave to head over to the progressive arena to see Dave Seaman, Sander Kleinenberg and then a 3 1/2 hour S&D set, Twilo style. Unfortunately, and this is my one complaint for the day, they fucked up the schedules that they handed out to everyone and also the map showing where all the arenas were. So we went to the wrong arena and i'm waiting for dave seaman to come out and finally i asked someone which arena it was to find out i was in the wrong place. Then we're walking all over the place to find the right one, b/c the map is totally wrong (i think 2 of the 5 arenas were in the right place) and the security people have no idea what's what. By the time i found the right arena i walked in to hear the end of Kleinenberg's set. Apparently everythng got shifted up an hour or so so I totally missed Seaman and missed most of Kleinenberg which pissed me off. But I got over it, b/c 10 minutes later, Digweed came out and started spinning while sasha was finishing up a set in the main arena. He was later joined by sasha and they kept switching just like they do here. Apparently this was a big treat for the Brits b/c they rarely play together. The two of them were having the best time, smiling, dancing, and joking around on stage. They went until 6 when the thing ended. In the middle I decided to check out deep dish which was playing in the bed arena. They were really solid, but I only stayed for a little bit b/c i wanted to get back to to hear the end of S&D. Man did that day go quickly. I think I sat for a total of an hour. Gatecrasher did such a great job. The effects in the diff. arenas w/ video screens, lasers, great lights etc. were awesome. They even had these huge lasers outside the main arena that were pointed all over the place and looked incredible late at night. Getting home was a bit of a nightmare, as traffic was a bitch and the shuttle bus which was supposed to take us to the train station was impossible to find, but eventually we made it back. eric

I never miss PVD at Twilo. His 6+ hour sets are the only way to truly experience his music. And every single time I have seen him there it has been better than the last. For trance i pretty much only go to twilo. When I go out to hear good music, Twilo is the place to go. There are some annoying aspects to the club but they def. bring in the best djs. When Oakey is in town though, he never plays at twilo. He had a falling out w/ them a few years ago. He's gonna be in town on July 13th (week b/f PVD) at the Roseland. Never been there for a clubbing event, only for concerts-it's pretty cool. Once in a while the Roxy is good. eric

I downloaded it from napster the other day and can't stop listening to it. Beginning to end, this cd is sick. The best part about it is that unlike his other cds (w/ the exception of disc 1 of vorsprung) it's mixed and not sequenced. I'm going to london tomorrow and i'm def. picking up the official copy. it supposedly has a bonus disc that has some totally diff. tracks and a video of Tell me Why. It's not coming out in the US till the 20th. Definitely a must have for any trance fan. And I agree, my respect for PVD and his talent as a DJ/Producer just keeps growing. ------------------

First time seeing either Seaman or Deep Dish. I have all of Seaman's CDs and was pretty excited to see him, but Deep Dish I didn't really know what to expect. Anyway, got there at 11:30 b/c i didn't want to miss any of Seaman's set and the place was totally empty. No one was in the booth yet. Around 12 he came out and didn't start playing for a little bit. I thought his set was pretty awesome. He did a great time building up the energy and getting the crowd into it, as the place started to get a little more crowded. I felt bad for him at first. Here's one of the world's best djs playing to an empty club in NYC. By 3 when they made the change the place was pretty crowded though (not like S&D or PVD crowded though). I really liked Deep Dish. The music was exactly what I was told it would be like and even though every song kind of sounded the same w/ the same basic bass line, they varied just enough to make it interesting. I stayed around until 6 when I was just too tired and had to leave. All and all a very fun night. It was so nice to not have to deal w/ a packed twilo. You had room to dance and space to just chill. Also I had a great time w/ the people I went with-first timers to Twilo who had the most amazing time. ------------------

I recently downloaded a bunch of individual MP3 tracks that I wanted to burn to CD. So I converted them using WinAmp. It worked fine but what was 73 mins of mp3 music that could fit on one CD turned into like 750 megs of wav files that is more than a single cd could handle. So when i burnt the CD, i had to eliminate a track. Does Audiograbber decompress MP3s more efficiently? Also how do you use it-do you need to get any of their plugins. I was looking through the help file and it's pretty confusing. Finally-how the hell do you eliminate the gaps between tracks when burning CDs. Do you have to burn it using Disc at Once? Any recommendations on good programs for this? Thanks for any help in advance. I really appreciate it. Eric ------------------

Just checked out amazon and they have the complete track listing for Communication. The clapton song is Get Lost (David Morales Stero Dub). They say it's only one disc but they have 20+ tracks listed-it's gotta be 2 right? Comes out June 20th in the states. eric ------------------

It's just like a palm pilot (the guy who invented the palm pilots spun off his own company). It looks a little cooler though and it has this slot for add on applications. I think they even make an MP3 player for it. It's worth at least $300-not bad. eric ------------------

A while back someone pointed me to a site that had PVD's set from Giant in LA on it. I listened to some of it and loved it. But it's in real audio and my internet connection isn't the greatest. I know a way to make it play more smoothly w/o all the buffering and I want to transfer it to MiniDisc. Is there any way I can convert the real audio to MP3 first on my computer so that I can copy it to MiniDisc at some later point or do I have to hook my MiniDisc up to my soundcard and record on the fly from the real audio? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Eric ------------------

anyone who thinks trance is dying was obviously not at PVD a couple of weeks ago or if they were, they weren't paying attention. i never saw so much energy at a club at 8:30 in the morning. it seemed as if almost no one had left. i love going to S&D but i think these days, PVD is the best thing twilo has going for it. and if $35 keeps some of the crowd away and makes it easier for me to enjoy myself then i'm all for it. my $0.02. ------------------

i was joking around about sasha playing at the roxy. and if pvd is not coming back to twilo why did their most recent email from like 2 days ago say he's gonna be there in July? ------------------

Well I guess Sasha and Digweed couldn't take it anymore either b/c around 6/6:30 they left!!! I had just gotten into the VIP room and they cleared everyone out so we went downstairs only to find that S&D had both left the booth. The guy who spun for the rest of the night (people said it was JImmy Van M but it def. didn't look like him) was pretty good-he at least threw on some prog. trance records. All in all i was totally disappointed by S&D. First Digweed played like half of the records that he played on Weds night to the same fucking crowd. Sasha was totally off-i was totally bored by the music-i tried to dance but just kept finding myself stopping and standing in place. And then to just take off so early, i mean c'mon. Fortunately I really enjoyed the company of the people who I went with and still had a good time. Hey you know what i heard...i think one of sasha's people got into an argument w/ twilo mgmt (apparently his girlfriend got harassed by some of the twilo goons) and he's not spinning at Twilo anymore. He's gonna be spinning at the Roxy every 6 weeks. Sound familiar ------------------

Just got the weekly twilo email and it shows PVD for July 21st. I knew all that talk about him leaving in a huff was bullshit. Still 2 months is a long time to wait. How good was Digweed last night? Insane!! eric ------------------

does anyone open for him? it opens at 10 so does he go on right away? ------------------

Scott Bond is pretty tight. I saw him at GC2000-he was one of the last guys to go on and I thought his set was better than anyones-PVD (his was interuppted but the fucking idiot who climbed the scaffolding), Oakey, Sasha, etc. I'm gonna see him again this summer at Gatecrasher. Hopefully he'll come to NY sometime soon. eric ------------------

I've never been to Twilo's Y2K Lounge on Fri. and was just curious how they run it. Is it held only upstairs? Do they open up the VIP room? How late does it go? Pretty psyched to see Digweed by himself esp. on a Weds. w/ 21+. Thanks eric ------------------

I think it's supposed to be released on June 6th. eric ------------------

how do you have out there and back already? isn't it supposed to be released in late june? ------------------

I don't buy it. I was standing by the booth for the last 1/2 hour or so and he didn't look flustered or anything. He was lovin it. He threw on his last record and took off pretty quickly but it had to be to catch a flight. I even shook his hand and spoke to him briefly on the way out-which i doubt he'd do if he was pissed off at management. ------------------

how about that argonauts song-that was the highlight for me i think. the place just exploded. ------------------

Does seaman always open for deep dish or is ever the other way around? seaman seems way too good to be opening for anyone. ------------------

I didn't think the crowd was too terrible for PVD. Granted, it's a lot more crowded than the club ever got a few years ago but let's face it, Twilo gets the best DJs and everyone wants to see the best DJs. But I didn't think this past PVD was nearly as crowded as some of the other times I"ve gone. You were able to walk aroudn the place pretty easily and i had no trouble dancing all night. ------------------

Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion but were those people who thought PVD wasn't insane the other night at the same club i was. You can't expect every single track to be your fav. and I agree that that Sexual/Everytime mix kind of sucked (although he was just experimenting) but i'd say friday night was pretty close. And I thought the crowd was as into the music as I have ever seen a Twilo crowd. I mean the place was mobbed at 8:30 and this isn't S&D where you know they play till 10 or later. I had an amzing time and thought van dyk was at his best. ------------------

are you talking about the last 30 minutes or so? i think the next to last song he played was tell me why (the riddle)-it's his new single. and the last song he played was called Alive. ------------------

What a weekend!! Saw PVD twice in two nights-can't beat that. Let's start w/ Philly. He made his first ever trip to the city of brotherly love which isn't surprising considering the club scene in philly sucks ass. He played at this club called Space (the same place Oakey played last year when he made his 1st and last trip to Philly). The club has some potential but there are so many little kids there, it makes me (i'm 21) feel a little old. Also clubs usu. close in philly by 2 so he only played from 11-2. But boy did PVD make the most of his 3 hours. His set was fantastic. Filled w/ nonstop energy beginning to end. He played a bunch of pretty sick songs-including a really funky version of For an Angel, Another Way, Tell me Why, Alive and a bunch of songs I couldn't ID. The crowd got really into it, and for the first time ever, I had a good time at a club in Philly. The one cool thing about space is that the dj is up on stage which is pain b/c you can't go hang out near the booth, but you can see what he's doing from anywhere in the club. The best thing for me was listening to the comments by all these people who were seeing van dyk for the first time. Most were blown away. At 2:00 it was all over, but fortunately I knew I had 6+ more hours of PVD the next night. The only word to describe Twilo was INSANE!!! Van Dyk's set was the best set I have EVER heard by ANY dj. The first half hour was a little slow but after that, it just took off. I couldn't id most of the songs b/c i had never heard them b/f. He played this one song about 1 1/2 hrs in that just had the most amazing bass beats. And, contrary to what I had read about or heard, PVD's style, while a little harder, is still pretty trancey. Just about every song he played all night had unreal buildups and huge climaxes. The crowd was so into it too. Everyone was moving in sync, it was just amazing. It was pretty packed but not terrible-still some room to dance. So about 2 hours in, my only thought was...there's no way he can keep up this pace, or if he does, I don't think I'll make it until 8:30. Fortunately I was wrong on both counts. PVD didn't let up at all. And interestingly, he didn't play too many of his own songs. He played Tell me Why (a couple of times) and Another Way but no Words, Angel, etc. One highlight for me was when he played Xpander. Xpander isn't my fav. but the way he played it...it just sounded so good. Sasha never played it like he did. Besides the music being great, van dyk was totally into the whole set. He usually doesn't dance too much in the booth, but on Fri. he was really getting down. I think he felt how special his set was and how much the crowd was enjoying it. So it's like 6 and I'm waiting for the crowd to clear out a little bit, but it never happened. Until the end the place was packed-more so than I've ever seen (except for some of the special S&D nights). I think everyone just felt like they could not leave...the music was too good. At 8:30 (after 6 1/2 hours of nonstop amazing music) PVD finished up w/ that song Alive, which has these great female vocals. He seemed in kind of a hurry to get out of there-i'm guessing he had to catch a plane to LA. B/c no one wanted him to stop-i'm sure he would have kept going if he could. The way I saw the night, it was PVD's message to all those people who keep talking about trance being dead and everyone changing styles, that it's as good as ever. That being said, his style of trance is definitely different than it used to be-not as dreamy and melodic. This proved to me once and for all that PVD is the best dj in the world. Oakey is good, but I don't think he could have done what van dyk did the other night. I mean he only plays 3 hours. Hands down the best time I've ever had at twilo. Even security wasn't annoying. Fortunately I don't have to wait to long to see PVD again. I'm going to London in the middle of june and I'll catch him at the Gallery and then the following night at Gatecrasher-should be good. What did eveyrone else think? Eric