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#006 DEC 14
Dear,
it took us a little bit more than a year to create
six issues of this magazine and I couldn’t be
more proud of this one, that you are holding in
your hands. HardstyleMag is not only for old
school hardstyle or rave fans. I tried to give
everybody the chance to understand our lifestyle and music. In the first part of the magazine
you will find general information about hardstyle, the story behind it and explanations for
the different genres. Since it’s extremely difficult to put music in words, I highly recommend
you to check out the named tracks, albums
and events in this magazine.
Digital Punk talks about his successful podcast and is definitely ready to get unleashed!
Are you? Read our reviews about Qlimax 2014,
every major album and so much more. Find
your perfect job in the hardstyle scene with
our new series “Jobs in the hardstyle scene”
or learn how to smuggle drugs in very creative
ways.
Furthermore, I would like to ask for everybody‘s help. This magazine only represents a
fragment of the variety of hardstyle. Feel free
to be critical about the content and help me
to represent the harder styles of music. The
HardstyleMag crew would be nothing without
your support and feedback.
Let me take you on a trip through hardstyle.
Best,
Maziar T.
EDITORIAL
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INTERVIEW WITH DIGITAL PUNK
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08
06
THE DEFINITION OF:
08
WHAT IS HARDSTYLE
10
THE STORY OF HARDSTYLE
16
WHAT IS EUPHORIC & RAW?
20
INTERVIEW
28
HOW TO:
38
BEHIND THE BLOG
40
BEHIND THE LENS
46
THE BEST OF 2014
QLIMAX 2014 THE SOURCE CODE OF CREATION
HARDSTYLE
DEFINITION + GLOSSARY
2000 - NOW
WITH AUDIOFREQ & THE ANARCHIST
WITH DIGITAL PUNK
SMUGGLE DRUGS
BEING A BLOGGER
WITH DIGITIZED REALITY
THE BEST OF THE BEST!
30
Q-DANCE AT MYSTERYLAND 2014
WHAT IS EUPHORIC & RAW
WHAT IS HARDSTYLE
36
12
DEFQON.1 2014
24
DECIBEL OUTDOOR 2014
30
Q-DANCE
58
QLIMAX 2014
NETHERLANDS
HORNY WOMEN AND HARD BEATS
AT MYSTERYLAND 2014
THE SOURCE CODE OF CREATION
WARFACE ART OF WAR
34
HARD DRIVER
36
WARFACE
42
DJ THERA
44
ZATOX
45
A-LUSION
POINT BREAK
ART OF WAR
TRAINING SESSIONS
NEW WORLD ORDER
OUT IN THE OPEN EP 3
67
CREDITS
WHAT I
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STYLE?
F
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R
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THE S TYLE
HARDS
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10
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HARDSTYLE
GLOSSARY
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GLOSSARY
Before we start you should
read this if you´re totally new to
hardstyle: let’s see what hardstyle is. Learn some words
that we will use on the next
pages and be open to learn
new things. This is just a theoretical definition, which should
give you a good overview.
velopment of the jumpstyle
genre. However, others believe that it is the direct rival of it.
As it developed in the dance
genres, hardstyle has now two
sub genres. It starts splitting
into two different styles which
are rawstyles and euphoric.
These two genres divided the
scene in the year 2008.
great mainstream touch. It
also consists of „cheesy“ lyrics and modern house/big
room elements.
EUPHORIC
It is one of the sub- genres
of hardstyle that was formed
because of the melodic main
part, vocals and mid-intro.
One of the most popular genres in the electronic dance Recently, it has more and dif- RAWSTYLE
music, mostly in the Nether- ferent sub genres all
One of the sub genres which
lands, is hardstyle, which is
is the modern counterpart of
mixing influences from hardthe original hardstyle. It also
house, hard trance, hardcore
emphasizes the usage of „harand hardtechno. This includer“ kicks and raw sounds,
des a hard sounding kick
vocals.
AT IS
H
W
drum, reversed basslines
together with synth/digiFusion of Different Genres
tal instruments. It also
consists of distorted
As the different genres
and detuned sounds
evolve, different genres
and vocals.
made fusions which are
the combination of two
Starting Point
or three genres including
Hardstyle was also known
hardstyle.
as hard trance before. It was
developed due to the influenTEKSTYLE
ce of different genres such as
It is the fusion of tek music inhardhouse and mainly hardfluenced by jumpstyle.
depending upon the mood,
core.
the tempo and other features
Since there was a revolution of the track. Here are the main DUBSTYLE
of different genres of dan- subgenres of hardstyle and It is the combination of two
ce music, around 2004-2006 small definition.
genres, dubstep and hardstyhardstyle already created its
le as the name implies. In the
own independent style which EARLY
early 2010, this new variation
is now called Early. In a result, Is also considered as old of hardstyle was formed.
it was separated from the hard school.It is mostly known
trance genre. It is also the be- for the reverse bass and raw This fusion inclines to have a
ginning of more uplifting me- screeches without vocals.
reversed, wobble basslines
lodies.
in combination with the kick
styling of hardstyle tracks.
Contributions of Hardstyle NUSTYLE
This is usually a 2- step or also
One of the greatest contribu- It started to become one of known as breakstep rhythm.
tions of hardstyle is the de- the sub genres for it has a
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WHAT IS HARDSTYLE
SYNTH
KICK
SHORT FOR SOUND SYNTHESIZER, AN ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.
THE SHORT VERSION OF KICKDRUM. IN HARDSTYLE THE KICK IS COMPRESSED AND DISTORTED.
SCREECH
A SYNTHESIZED SOUND THAT SOUNDS LIKE A SCREAM AND IS MOSTLY HIGH PITCHED.
REVERSE BASS
A BASS ON THE OFFBEAT, THAT COMES AFTER THE KICK.
STUTTER VOCAL
FX SOUNDS
EFFECT SOUNDS OR WITH EFFECTS MODIFIED KICKS.
ANTI CLIMAX
LEAD
A FAST PACED, CUTTED VOICE THAT IS STUTTERING
A MAIN PART THAT SUDDENLY USES A NEW KICK AND MELODIE, NOT IN AN NEGATIVE WAY.
A SYNTHESIZED SOUND USED FOR THE MELODIE OF A TRACK.
DJ INTRO
INTRO
MAINPART
BREAK
BUILDUP
2.MAINPART
BREAK
DJ OUTRO
OUTRO
ACID HOUSE A SUBGENRE OF HOUSE WITH HALF-SQEAKY-HALF-“OONTS“ BASSES. FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDMANT, HEAR IT!
HARDCORE OR GABBER ARE ELECTRONIC MUSIC GENRES RANGING FROM 180 TO 220 BPM.
BIG ROOM HOUSE SIMPLE MELODIES AND A FOCUSE ON THE KICK. FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDMANT, HEAR IT!
ALSO INTERESTING:
Everybody in the rave scene has seen
this logo before – the Thunderdome wizard. But the new generation will never
know what Thunderdome was. A big
part of our rave culture, explained! What
lies behind Thunderdome?
Thunderdome was a hardcore and
gabber music festival by ID&T. Besides events they organised many CDs
and albums. The first ID&T rave had the
name ‘The Final Exam’ and held in the
Netherlands (1992). A few month later
ID&T organized the second rave called
‘Thunderdome I – Thialf in Heerenveen’.
The concept was born and many big raves and CDs should follow, creating a
huge part of todays rave culture. Thunderdome has literally reached a cult-like
WHAT IS THUNDERDOME?
status.
Between 1992 and 2012 ID&Torginized
40 Thunderdomes mainly in Europe:
Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Australia
and Belgium. A ‘must visit’ for hardcore
and gabber fans, since Thunderdome
was the biggest hardcore event with the
most reach.
ID&T and Arcade Records released the
first gabber compilation in 1993 under the same name. According to Arcade Records, Thunderdome Albums
were a huge success and were sold
over 1.500.000 times by 1995. Different
merchandise products are still available
worldwide on the official Thunderdome
website.
20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THUNDERDOME
The oldest and most famous party in the
rave scene got 20 years old on the 15th
of December 2012! In preparation Thunderdome toured through Europe with
huge parties. They visited Germany and
the Nature One, Belgium and The Qontinent, Italy and DiscotecaFlorida and
Switzerland. ‘The Final Exam’ had six
stages and was the named after the first
Thunderdome – the end of a rave legend
was coming and we will remember it as
the most influential hardcore concept in
the world.
WHAT IS HARDSTYLE
9
One of the first and still biggest
hardstyle events is Qlimax. The
first took place in Eidhoven (June
2000), followed by three events in
2001 and since 2003 Qlimax is an
annual event at the GelreDome in
Arnhem, Netherland. Every event
is held around a theme, with a
huge focus on the light show.
Unfortunately, you can’t find
any artwork of the first events.
The first pillars of Hardstyle
where build. Those events
brought the new style
to the people. Certainly there were still smaller
events in Germany, Italy,
UK and the Netherlands
too. The main focus there
was not on hardstyle but
on the rave scene in general.
Even if many would say,
that the origin of hardstyle goes far back to 1997
it’s really hard to find actual evidence like dedicated music or events. So,
we agreed on the year 2000. Hardstyle was born somewhere deep in
the rave scene of the Netherlands.
Producers like Dana, Luna or The
Prophet made Hardcore at first,
but started experimenting with
the music while playing. In the late
90th most artists pitched Hardcore
tracks down to 140-150 BPM. Their
goal was to make the music better
for dancing and without even knowing a genre for a larger audience
was created. Hardstyle also got
influenced by Hard Trance, Gabber and Acid House as you hear it
many tracks, even nowadays.
THE STORY OF
HARDSTYLE
Hardstyle gets more melodious
and longer melodies with saw
leads were characteristic at this
time. Also, many producers started aligning the kick to the bassline using “pitch-shifting”. This was
a major change for the music, adding more dynamic to the sound.
Hardstyle from that time is mostly known as “Early Hardstyle” or
“Oldschool Hardstyle”. Now, it was
a fully dedicated style with his own
defining elements.
More and more labels started releasing hardstyle music, since the scene was
begging for new tracks and
many producers were concentrating on hardstyle productions. Among others, well
known labels like Scantraxx
and Fusion originate from
this time and helped to
establish hardstyle. Short
screeches and vocals
were combined with a bit
dull sounding kicks. Tracks
from that time are mostly known for their reverse
bass or focus on a heavy dominating kick. Hardstyle was slowly
evolving his own style to stand
out from Hard-Techno. Tracks like
“Slaves” by “Tag9” - the first Scantraxx release - are good examples.
Dubstyle is
a mixture of hardstyle
and dubstep. Hereby one uses the
hardstyle kicks and plays them on
the beat of a Dubstep song. The
“wobble bass” from many dubstep
tracks also finds his place in dubstyle. Some tracks are also a mix
of classic hardstyle and dubstep.
„The MF Point of Perfection“ by
Headhunterz and Brennan Heart is
one of the most popular dubstyle
songs.
Rawstyle started to evolve as a new
subgenre. Characterized by dark
melodies and even stronger distorted kicks. Rawstyle is also known as
the modern interpretation of Early
Hardstyle. Even, if the actual word
rawstyle was known since the beginning, it was not used to declare
a subgenre.
The counterpart of Rawstyle is called Euphoric Hardstyle. Harmonic
melodies, but also nuances from
the mainstream music – like House
– combined with most simple lyrics specify this genre. In the early
stages euphoric was also called
nu-style. But the word nu-style is
original coming from “nu-disco”, a
subgenre of house. So, the syllable “nu” stands for mainstream or
house music.
Since hardstyle gets
more and more attention by the public a new subgenre
was created. “Big
Room Hardstyle”
or “140 BPM Hardstyle” are two names for slower tracks with house
elements. The kick is punchy but
the distortion is missing, leaving
just the hardstyle lead and/or the
faster tempo of 150 BPM. Headhunterz as the most famous ambassador of this new style created several cross-genre tracks for
example with W&W. Other genres
that can get used with hardstyle
are Trap, House, R’n’b and Drum
and bass.
A counter reaction was that many
procedures started focusing on
Rawstyle. The hardstyle scene is
now heavily split into smaller subgenres, Euphoric (Nu-style), Rawstyle and the new Big Room House
hardstyle.
Until now, professional vocals were
really rare in this genre. Most vocals
were only used for simple vocal
stutters or clumsy monologues. But
more and more you find quite high
quality vocal parts or even vocals
that still continue in the main part.
“Vocal Hardstyle” was born. One
of the best vocal hardstyle comes
from Audiofreq and Teddy. Amazing
hardstyle and a beautiful voice!
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THE DEFINITION OF THE STYLES!
Is it possible to define one of the two
subgenres, by any characteristics? Of
course you can say that the leads, kicks
and vocals are rougher or softer. It’s not
just the sound that matters, but the impression you get while listening. Audiofreq has a very precise opinion about the
definition of Euphoric:
“I guess euphoric is a description
of the more uplifting side of music. Something that makes you feel
good, warm and fuzzy on the
inside.”, Audiofreq
You can relate to this, right? Standing
in the crowd while the DJ drops a track
like “Imaginary” by Brennan Heart. You
can feel the powerful vocals, the melody, which creates such shivers and the
pounding kick, that makes Euphoric so
special. The melodies and notes sound
happier in comparison.
And what about Rawstyle? It’s definitely
rougher and most of the times dominated by screeches or other high pitched
sounds. The kick crackles more and
the overall sound is moody or maybe
even spooky. But you also find powerful
vocals and tunes, which give you thrills.
Depending on the perspective a track or
a whole genre can be interpreted differently.
“For me Rawstyle isn’t just only
about screeches and extremely
hard kicks. It can be really diverse. It depends on the atmosphere
of the track. Sometimes it can be
extremely dark and rough and sometimes it can be the opposite.”,
The Anarchist
But both styles are similar. The best example is a hardstyle event where you
find both styles on the same floor. Most
people can enjoy the uplifting melodies
of Euphoric and the heavy screeches of
Rawstyle.
SO DO WE EVEN NEED A SPLIT?
I N 2 012 F E A R . F M , A W E B S I T E FO C U S I N G O N H A R D E R M U S I C , D I D A S U R V E Y O N T H E I R S I T E .
P E O P L E W E R E A S K E D A B O U T T H E I R O P I N I O N , W H E T H E R I F I T ’ S N E C E S S A RY T O S P L I T H A R D S T Y L E .
26%
53%
10%
11%
“When there are raw
or euphoric only line ups
and albums, I think people
lose the general overview of the
sound and the whole point of the
style. Hardstyle is and never was
just one thing, but a combination of ideas to create no-nonsense up-tempo dance
floor music.”
“I think it’s important
that people get together
for the thing they live for.
Music is a matter of taste and
by creating different styles
you can separate yourself
from the things you don’t
want to be associated
with.”
A udiofreq
A
fter “What is Hardstyle”, where
we gave you a general overview
of the genre, we finally want to go
into detail. As you might know hardstyle
has different sub genres. Rawstyle and
Euphoric are just two styles of a great
variety of hardstyle music. Don’t worry
we will cover other genres in the next issues. If this is new for you, you should
definitely read the articles a few pages
further TEXT
back and come back afterwards.
16
Everybody recognized the split of hardstyle into this two big subgenres. The
scene, artists and mostly the community are changing, day after day. Time
passed and so did the music. It evolved
around us to satisfy new musical needs
or attract new groups of people. But
what stays if we leave the theoretical definition behind and ask: Why do people
love raw style or euphoric and what makes one style so different to the other?
To answer this question we got us a little help by Audiofreq, a open minded
hardstyle veteran who loves the technical side of music, and The Anarchist,
who can give us a new stricter way of
looking on rawstyle.
hist
T he An a rc
Both are right. On the one hand, you want to be an individual. The taste of music is
a big part of our personality and a split helps to characterize yourself. On the other
hand, we are a unity gathering at big events and enjoying the music together and
not apart. It’s the same force that led you to this magazine and not any other.
WHAT IS EUPHORIC & RAW
17
MUSIC WITHOUT BOUNDARIES?
I know the headline was misleading, but I hope that you understand that it’s quite impossible to divide hardstyle into sections without making somebody unhappy. So let’s see
what lies on the other side. Where are the borders between hardstyle and other genres.
Euphoric can be very freaky, with fresh intros and different effects. Da Tweekaz and their
project “#Tweekay14” shows that Euphoric can’t be pushed into norms. “Telepathy” by
Outlander is a second example where Euphoric is minimalistic and experimental. And
that’s why we picked Audiofreq as the producer between the genres. He’s part of the
“musical revolution”, caused by the evolving scene, which affects people all over the
world and an instantly growing community. But from where did he gets his inspiration to
produce “music without boundaries”?
“ I
make my
music with one goal,
to make something cool that I can dance to. Sometimes it will be a
bit lighter (like Escape or Chase with Teddy) or something extremely dark and rough (Russian
Sleep Experiment with High Voltage). My forthcoming EP on HardWithStyle was definitely not
euphoric at all but it‘s fun to dance to. Sometimes my ideas come from listening to cutting edge
dance music outside of hardstyle. Or sometimes I like taking people’s expectations and deliberately subverting them. Drumz, Volition and BRNFNK are good examples of this where I asked
‘what are the rules that normal people play by and how can I break them in an interesting way that will still work on the dance floor’? I am always searching
for music that makes me go ‘wow, that‘s cool’.”
A udiofreq
MUSIC MADE FOR THE STAGE!
Hardstyle or EDM in general is highly made for events and dancing. Since hardstyle is evolving out of the rave scene dancing
or making music “danceable” was always a huge and important topic because the best way to reach the people is if they
connect the music with great experiences. If we put the discussion about the split aside, there are some aspects, which are
generally correct throughout all genres.
“Raw
hardstyle always gives me some kind of an adrenaline rush, when a
track builds up to a peak and then collapses into a big drop. When
you are standing on the floor and see everyone raising their hands and waiting for the
beat to kick in, that just gives you shivers. What makes a track danceable? It depends on
the drive and the cohesion of a track. If the drop does not fit with the build up you‘ll feel
like you‘re missing something or you will simply not understand what‘s going on.”
T he An archist
The most common extension to raw style is hardcore. We all know this one track where
you can’t even tell if it’s hardcore or just raw hardstyle. The remix of “Bounce & Break” by
Atmozfears is a very good example!
“I think a constant solid, punchy beat is all you
need for dancing and some tension and release to help people get into the mood to dance. The feeling attached to the song doesn’t
matter so much. There are plenty of dark tracks with a good dance floor energy
and others that seem slow and don’t work. The same can be
said of lighter tracks.”
“In one of my latest releases ‘’The Solution’’ you
really can recognize the sounds that come from hardcore
and RAWstyle. Hardcore can be really diverse too, but the thing is,
Rawstyle and hardcore sometimes comes closer together, then you might
think.”
T he An archist
A udiofreq
By making music without boundaries artists can provide us with creative and exclusive tracks
and isn’t that exactly what we want? Listen to creative music without dividing it. Audiofreq
made a point with uploading a sound file on SoundCloud with 21 rawstyle snippets which
sound very similar. We asked him for a statement:
“Let me first
say that there is nothing wrong with rawstyle at all,
just like there isn’t anything wrong with more euphoric and
uplifting hardstyle. I like both and play both. But where there is too much of one thing
at the same time and it literally sounds the same as a whole bunch of other tracks (21
times no less), then I think people would agree that there needs to be variety, regardless
of style or genre. When it all sounds the same, the scene grows stale, people lose interest
and get bored. It‘s not healthy for music to be so one dimensional. That‘s all I was trying
to point out. You see, it‘s one thing for a person to complain that all the music is starting
to alike, but those are just words and are easily dismissed - it‘s another thing entirely to demonstrate it to people by putting a bunch of tracks together. And it‘s only when you listen to
that many tracks back to back that you can hear how much all these things sound alike.
As a DJ, I don’t play the same style tracks one after the other again, I float and change so that
people don’t get bored. I do the same in the studio too. I had a few complaints from raw fans, but
the majority of the people heard the mini-mix and agreed with the fact that there needs to be
more of a variety in what producers are doing - the current formula is old and tired.”
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WHAT IS EUPHORIC & RAW
In the end everybody can do something to support this
scene. Enjoying his preferred music without judging
others. Hardstyle is changing and will continue doing
it, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to enjoy
your favorite style. Hardstyle is moving forward, without
leaving something behind, but taking new elements to
join us in our musical journey.
WHAT IS EUPHORIC & RAW
19
“ARE YOU READY
TO GET UNLEASHED?”
Is the signature question asked by one of the most
intriguing hardstyle producers of today,
Digital Punk.
The man behind the act, Rene de Bruijn, has been
making waves across the world of hardstyle for
quite some time, bringing his personal vision of
music and utilizing this vision in his timelessly
quality productions. Since the origination and
launch of this powerhouse one-man act, Digital
Punk has climbed to incredible heights in terms
of his quality productions and not to mention,
his highly energetic performances that leave
every hardstyle lover craving for more!
It is no doubt that Digital Punk has recently
brought himself to the forefront of the hardstyle world, smashing out some killer releases this year such as “Firestorm,” “Purify”
with B-Front and “Prison of Commercializm”
with Outbreak.
The last two years have brought some incredible opportunities for Rene, as his musical diversity and prolific imagination has
proved to be the perfect combination in
successfully beginning his own podcast
“Digital Punk – Unleashed” which has
grown to practically begin one hell of a
revolution!
I had the honor to catch up with Digital
Punk himself to have a chat about the
success of Unleashed, his musical vision
and just some ordinary banter about life!
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DIGITAL PUNK INTRODUCTION
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U
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A R E Y...
RE AD
U
What are your hopes for the future generation
of productions and also the scene in general?
Firstly, thanks for chatting with me! Can you
give a little insight into what kind of music you
grew up listening to and what transitioned you
into hardstyle?
Thanks for having me! Well, when I was growing up
I had no interest in electronic music and didn’t like
‘rave music’ or better known now as ‘early rave’. I
grew up listening to Limp Bizkit, Rage against the
Machine, Metallica, N.W.A., Eminem… That kind of
stuff. I fell in love with electronic music when I came
in contact with hardstyle.
What led you to start producing music?
At the age of 5 or 6 I was playing guitar and when I
was 12 I was playing the drums too. I knew from back
then that there was only one thing I wanted with my
life, that was music. When I was 17, I went to a school
for producers to learn the basics about production.
This was around 2003 and when I first came into contact with hardstyle. I listened to tracks from The Beholder and Max Enforcer, Showtek and Technoboy.
I decided that this HAD to be my future. I ended up
scoring a contract at Seismic records from the first
track that I created and that‘s how Digital Punk was
born!
What sacrifices have you made, personally and
musically to achieve what you have today?
Well, the biggest sacrifice on a personal level is that
I don’t see a lot of friends anymore, because the music career swallows all of my time. I perform on the
weekends when my friends are off from work. On the
other hand, my best friends are still there and a lot of
my musical colleagues became real friends as well,
which is awesome! The only sacrifice I have to make
musically is that I have no time to make other kinds
of music. The Digital Punk productions and the Unleashed podcast takes 95% of the time I have in the
studio, but I don’t complain. I love what I do, I live and
breathe hardstyle, that‘s what Digital Punk stands for.
As long as I enjoy what I do and still have freedom in
my productions its fine by me!
In terms of producing music, what are the biggest obstacles that you face?
Staying creative.
I have my own style and you’ll never see me “copy” a
track that I did before. Every track needs to have its
own feel to it and has to be a production on itself, also
because this creates variation when I’m playing a gig.
On a technical level, the mix-down is pretty difficult!
I always want to deliver top notch quality and that takes time. Of course making the kicks is challenging
too – but I think that everybody knows that by now
haha!
Tell us three unlikely facts about yourself:
I have 2 little Chihuahua dogs and I do yoga. You
don’t expect that from a hardstyle artist right? Haha! :-)
Three words to describe your music:
ENERGETIC, BOLD & RAW.
What have been your biggest achievements in
music so far?
Getting where I am right now actually. I have achieved so many great things that it’s hard to choose! The
success of my podcast ‘Unleashed’ for example, is
unbelievable and I enjoy doing it so much! The #1 iTunes spot in the Dutch podcast charts, 10 times in a
row is also very special. Also, playing on the biggest
stages at the biggest festivals and travelling the world
is incredible!
22
INTERVIEW DIGITAL PUNK
GE T ”
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...T
D?
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AS
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2014 has been a massive year for you, what are
your career resolutions and goals for 2015?
Expanding ‘Unleashed’ to an even bigger platform, including bigger Unleashed parties and conquering the world with the podcast. Besides that, I would like to play at
mainstages and perform at a lot of festivals and parties.
Production-wise, I would like to follow the same path as
I’m on now – just make hit productions and enjoy what
I do.
From a podcast to parties, how did you come up
with the idea of “Unleashed”?
There were many podcasts around, but I always had the
feeling this was just an extra tool for many artists. I had
the feeling that it could be so much more, a worldwide
platform that provides the best new tracks on a monthly
basis, but also a show full of surprises that fans could
look forward to. By this, I mean special introductions or
takeovers where another artist takes over the show, for
example, the ‘Gunz For Hire’ takeover was an awesome
success! It took us one day to produce ‘the killing scene’
where Gunz For Hire break down the door of my studio,
shoot me and take over the show to play three of their
unreleased tracks. Besides that, Unleashed stands for
quality music, for the very best of what this scene has to
offer through my eyes. People wanted to experience the
Unleashed feeling in real life so we started to organise
parties.
It’s only getting bigger and bigger!
In terms of your “Unleashed” CD, you asked some
other artists to create remixes of your tracks, what
was your reasoning behind this?
Oblivion was my first track on A2 Records and was a very
special track for me. I received so many great responses on the production of that track, which really boosted my career in the right direction. I wanted to choose
a producer who had a truly different ‘sound’ and ‘angle’
to create a remix of “Oblivion”. In my opinion, Phuture
Noize could do that and the result was everything that I
had hoped for! Natural Born Killers was a special track
for Adaro and myself. We wanted someone to remix it
who had a different sound, yet can destroy dancefloors.
The Machine seemed like the right person to do that and
we are happy with how the remix turned out. It definitely
destroys dancefloors!
Any future plans for “Unleashed” that you can share with us?
Yes, we are organising an indoor ‘Digital Punk – Unleashed’ event in December and also a festival in 2015. Besides that, we are working on an ‘Unleashed’ megamix
in December, containing the best tracks of the past 11
episodes. All I have to say is to keep your ears and eyes
open!
Lately there has been a lot of talk about the segregation between raw and euphoric hardstyle. As a
producer of the more raw side of hardstyle, what
are your thoughts on the ‘split’ and the statement
that “the scene is changing”?
I don’t like the ‘split’ itself. For me, all spectrums of hardstyle are still hardstyle. For example, raw is hardstyle and
euphoric is hardstyle. My ideal line-ups incorporate euphoric sounds at the beginning and progressing to raw
towards the middle and end.
The scene is changing and that is something natural.
Hardstyle standing still is not an option, that would be
just boring. Evolvement is natural and something that we
shouldn‘t fight...
I hope the scene will raise the bar again on the quality of the production of the tracks. I feel the bar has
slowly dropped to a level where it doesn’t really matter anymore if a track really sounds top notch or just
sounds ok. I hope a little bit more diversity returns to
the music, like it was a few years ago.
If you could know the answer to only one question, what would you ask?
What’s the meaning of life? (Pretty deep, right?)
Three all-time favourite songs:
This is a question that’s really impossible for me to
answer because I have so many! But I’ll try and name
a few…
1. The Beholder, The Balistic and Max Enforcer – Bigger, Better, Louder (insane production, especially for
the time that it was produced. This is one track that
really got me into hardstyle).
2. Max Enforcer – Loudness
3. Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff (I’m a BIG fan of Limp
Bizkit)
4. Metallica – Master of Puppets
Hmm, that’s four… Oops!
What gig did you experience the most nerves
before?
Q-BASE 2010 definitely! I remember I was so nervous
to play in the famous Hangar, that I felt sick driving
to the festival. When I entered the booth however,
it disappeared in a second. The last time I was that
nervous was Hard Bass 2013. But in a good way of
course, I just wanted to get on stage!
In terms of production, is there anything that
you can announce to us? Any collabs or releases coming up from you?
My remix of ‘Radical Redemption – The Black Demon’ will be released soon, as well as ‘Digital Punk &
Hard Driver ft. MC DL – Crash ‘n Burn’ and ‘Outbreak
& Digital Punk – Prison of Commercializm’. Other than
that I just finished a new track with Frequencerz & MC
Nolz, which is a follow up of our track ‘We don’t give
a F*CK’. I’m also busy with several other things, so
keep an eye on my social media!
One final question, if you could create music
under another alias, what genre would it be
and what would you name yourself?
If I had to produce under another genre, it would be
hardcore. I think that I would produce under the name
‘Hardest MF Around’. Haha! (I have no idea actually…)
Well thanks for catching up with me, Digital Punk!
The anticipation for 2015 and also for the future of
Unleashed is surely building!
I KNOW FOR SURE THAT I AM DEFINITELY READY
TO GET UNLEASHED!
THE QUESTION IS...
ARE YOU ... ?
TEXT
PROMOTED INTERVIEW
23
Hangovers,
horny women
and hard beats.
This was Decibel . . .
AND PUSSY LOUNGE!
E
L
G
G
U
M
S
S
G
U
DR
It’s exactly what you are expecting. We saw it in movies but never thought of doing it. Take a tampon and
put the drug into the open end of it. Slide it with a little
bit of intuitive feel into your ‘private part’ and you’re
done. Keep in mind that the string should hang out or
you may find yourself digging for gold. Many drugs
can dissolve if you don’t wrap them in cling film, so
you should be very careful if you don’t want to get a
dose right up your ass.
For all the men among us! Take a nice deep drill or it
will be a real pain to keep your constrictor tight. And
trust me, if it’s happening it’s hard to explain why a
tampon suddenly fell out of your trouser leg.
An ‘in-depth’ security check will violate your privacy
and can end with a trip to prison. However, it’s important to get high - I guess...
SUCCESS RATE:
INTRODUCTION
It happens every day and everywhere in the world. People inevitably buy drugs and therefore face
the problem to smuggle their expensive goods into
festivals or parties. It can be a challenge to bring
your own LSD or ecstasy inside if you don’t want
to buy it at the location. Finally, we are proud to
present you our best drug smuggling methods!
We consulted the best smugglers of the previous
festival season (not really) and gathered ancient
tricks and tips to get your precious drug behind the
enemy lines! Of course we tested every method (or
not) and rated them in the different categories.
HOW TO SMUGGLE DRUGS
8/10
Take a piece of transparent tape and stick the drugs
under your balls. The inconspicuous gap between
your beloved friend down there and your anus makes
this strategy disgusting and promising at the same
time. Depending on the factor of how much balls
you have, (pun intended) you can smuggle different
amounts of drugs. Don’t be stingy with the tape or
the package will get loose if you sweat a lot.
If you want to look pretty while
smuggling pretty much every drug,
this is your method. Take your long
hair and learn how to make a bun.
It might take a while to master this
kind of hairstyle but no security
will be so cruel and wreck your hair
just to check for drugs. Attempt this
at home until you can’t see any cling
film or foil. Head banging can cause
SUCCESS RATE:
75%
EFFORT:
4/10
PAIN:
2/10
some trouble, so you better keep
yourself still whilst waiting in line!
SUCCES
OTHER POSSIBLE HAIRSTYLES:
EFFORT:
S RATE:
PAIN:
Afros - the only problem you
may face is getting your drugs out!
Wigs - your biggest enemy is the wind!
Fascinators - they look pretty sweet and are
easy to use.
SUCCESS RA
TE:
As long as they don’t X-ray your Smartphone your
case is a pretty safe hiding spot.
EFFORT:
PAIN:
The best option is to use flat, soaked ‘papers’ or ideally ‘powders’. Pills make your case look thicker and
suspicious. Furthermore, it is likely that the pills will
crumble anyway. If you want to go advanced, take
your Smartphone out of your pocket without a demand. Be self-confident and hand your device out,
they won’t open the case or did you ever do it?
Most festivals use the same area year after year. Find
a good place in the area and dig a small hole, put the
drug in, close the hole again. The magic is to do this a
few weeks before the event - now just visit it, find the
spot and dig it up. The trouble is not getting caught
while digging. And you should know where you dug
your hole first. And of course you have to discover
a room to smuggle in a shovel. Maybe try one
of our methods.
30%
28
7/10
PAIN:
Never use duct tape or you will get an unintentional
intimate waxing. Even if I have no clue why you would
use it, for god sake – the same applies to liquid glue.
MENT.
E
S
U
M
A
’S
R
E
E READ
H
T
R
O
F
ON’T
Y
L
D
N
E
O
W
IS
D
E
N
L
A
IC
T
L
THIS AR
Y ILLEGA
L
H
IG
H
IS
HODS!
G
T
E
IN
L
M
G
E
G
S
E
U
H
M
T
S
DRUG
TEMPTS
T
A
O
H
W
VICE –
Y
D
D
A
O
B
L
Y
A
N
G
A
E
L
T
R
Y
SUPPO
YOU AN
E
IV
G
’T
N
A
C
AG
RUGS!
D
O
D
’T
N
HARDST YLEM
O
D
E A ND
SO STAY SAF
95%
EFFORT:
S RATE
SUCCES
:
EFFORT
PAIN:
:
10/10
2/10
60%
2/10
0/10
90%
7/10
1/10
Mysteryland 2014
30
TEXT
TEXT
31
Q-KEELE-Q at Mysteryland 2014
Yesterday was history, today is a gift, tomorrow is a mystery!
Mysteryland 2014 took place on Saturday 23rd
of August at Floriade terrain Haarlemmermeer.
It offered a wide range of electronic music –
from underground, to house and hardstyle!
The first edition of Mysteryland took place in
1994, up to now it’s constantly growing and
expanding. Since 2011 Mysteryland launches
a second edition in Chile! In 2014, during the
Memorial Day weekend in the USA, Mysteryland was held at the Bethel Woods Center
for the Arts.
We were really excited about Mysteryland
2014, especially because Q-Dance was
hosting the hardstyle stage. We always had
an eye on Mysteryland the years before but
the experience this year was beyond our
expectations! With an area so big, that we
needed nearly 20 minutes from our parking place to one of the four entrances.
After we arrived it started to rain for about
15 minutes, but luckily we are not made
of sugar.
At first we decided to have a look on all
stages and things you could do.
It was amazing to see how many details
you could spot on your way through the
area. From a pineapple stage were you
could make your own drinks out of your
own pineapple, a wishing tree and a
gift club, a relaxing area with massages or smooth jazz! In addition to the
great music you got a large selection
of different services to discover and
experience. But let´s talk about the
exciting part:
The Q-Dance Stage!
The design was amazing and colorful.
As always a feast for the eyes! We had
Medusa last year, the year before a Lion
- so what’s coming now? Right! A big,
grumpy chicken head. It looked crazy –
Q-KEELE-Q!
the show – do we need to say more,
just take a look at the pictures and the
endshow! Especially by night Q-Dance
made every second special. Firework
through the whole night and the rooster
sparkled in the bright light.
Big names on stage! Geck-o, Max Enforcer, Toneshifterz, Bass Modulators,
Noisecontrollers, Coone, Frontliner feat.
Katt Niall, Ran-D, Frequencerz Live &
Tha Playah. By the way it was Max Enforcers birthday. I guess we had a lucky
day. What first looked like rain turned
into a bright blue sky. The odds were in
our favor and the weather helped to create an amazing atmosphere. It’s hard to
find the right words for it! The high-quality sound was awesome and
We went crazy when Frequencerz hopped on the stage. They played an incredible 30 minute live set. Tha Playah heated up the crowd and ended his set with
a big bang! Watching this spectacular
endshow while dancing to a fresh new
Frontliner track. And in this moment the
obligatory Q-Dance voice sad “This was
a Q-Dance experience (dramatic pause)
Q-Dance!”. An overwhelming ending for
a great event.
But we also found some negative aspects. First of all 1 1/2h sets are way
too long! And as a hardstyle lover you
need to think twice about Mysteryland,
because there is only one hardstyle stage and the price for a ticket is about 72€.
If you don’t care about that and for those who want to experience something
special, something unique it’s definitely
a must see! If you’re a true hardstyle
lover and only want to party – there are
better opportunities.
All in all we had so much fun at
Mysteryland! They tried to create
more than just a festival. They created an amazing experience.
MYSTERYLAND 2014
33
HARD DRIVER - POINT BREAK
Point Break wouldn’t be a home grown
Dirty Workz album if it didn’t involve the
pioneer of DWX himself, Coone. So what
happens when Coone and Hard Driver
join forces? Magic, an individual quirk
and an appreciation for Nike Air Maxes.
Bringing in MC heavyweight E-Life to
provide that relentless I don’t give a fuck
attitude to the table, this track certainly has a charm and an ability to make
me want to throw my Air Maxes on and
dance.
I first heard Swoosh Fever being played at Sunset Festival and although it
was one of the first times that the track
had some playing time, it evidently blew
the crowd into the next dimension and
that is what a flawless track should have
the ability to do…
“THIS NEXT SONG, IT WILL PROBABLY
NOT GET A LOT OF RAVERS DANCING,
BUT I’M PRETTY SURE, WILL GET
YOUR EARS OPEN. SO GET READY
AND LET’S GO…”
What better way is there
than to showcase one‘s personal
vision and boundless love for music than handcrafting an album? So
here I introduce Hard Drivers first
solo album “Point Break”.
Released on Dirty Workz on the 10th of
October, 2014, this album has already
generated overwhelmingly positive responses from other fellow producers
showing their support of the tracks,
showcasing them on various podcasts
and playing them in DJ sets. However,
most importantly, for all lovers of hardstyle, Christmas definitely came a few
months early!
In terms of the production of Point Break,
Hard Drivers addictively energetic and
powerful signature sound has the ability
to tear down a whole street of houses,
generate swirling hurricanes and most
relevantly, keep you party people on the
dance floor for hours on end.
Extending on the previous comment, I
would like to take you all on a slightly
34
RELEASE REVIEWS
more elaborate journey through this game-changing
album and its secrets.
To kick off Point Break are two tracks that
we have definitely heard floating around
the celebrations of the recently-concluded summer festival season. The first
track on the album, #WUT is one track
that strikes up the perfect balance between standing amongst a vibrant crowd
with your arms stretched out wide and
a smile plastered across your face, yet
not lacking the uncontrollable need to
dance to the powerful beats. Not wanting to throw in the word “euphoric,” I
can definitely say that this track packs a
“feel-good” atmosphere and is definitely
one hell of a track to begin the journey of
Point Break.
Next, we build up… Keep building…
Keep building, until…
“Everything switch, stops and unlocks when my fucking bass drops!”
And then there is an explosion…
Bass Drops is also one track that has
been tearing a new one in crowds throughout the Summer and is expected
to do exactly the same this coming Win-
ter. Offering powerful kicks
and an atmosphere that resembles a
brewing thunderstorm, I think it’s safe to
say that Hard Driver has hit the nail on
the head with this one.
Track #4 on Point Break Razor, was (to
me) another standout on the album. It
reminds me a little of the subdued and
mysterious darkness of the night time,
which conveniently corresponds to the
upcoming array of indoor events. I cannot wait to hear this one live, accompanied by the sensory excitement of a
production.
Now this is what I’m talking about! For
those who have a closed mind (and a
foot up their ass), you can forget about
listening to number 10 on the album,
Ears Open. This track brings versatility
and experimentalism, yet surrounding
the listener with an intense atmosphere
and suitability for private listening. It is
pleasing to hear the balance between
tracks that can be integrated into a performance, yet also tracks that showcase Hard Driver’s sophisticated musical
perspective.
Nothing At All, can also be classed
as a track that is suitable for private
listening and appreciation, yet has the
dual ability to also get those feet pounding on the dance-floor. Reminding me
of an incoming thunderstorm, seeing civilians fleeing for cover, this track swirls
up a positively overwhelming intensity
that has the ability to emotionally evoke
listeners.
The journey takes another turn somewhere around track number 14 as we
Crank It Up once again. Evidently this
is the standout track for me and also my
personal favorite from the album. Why is
that? Because it literally takes you on a
journey! The atmosphere begins mysterious and symphonic with the sole violin, gradually building up until we reach
a point of no return.
The drop is something especially special with the utilization of the beloved
“screech,” which refreshingly follows
a completely different course from the
traditional and the repetitive pattern of
screeches demonstrated in most “raw”
tracks.
I especially love the violin in this one
and that melody has the ability to loop
around my mind for hours on end. The
second drop has that powerful punch to
end the track on a high and also introduce us to the next track Pitch Black
with Frequencerz.
The 16th and final track on Point Break
United From The Start with Radical
Redemption is undoubtedly one track
to blow the experience up in one hell of
an explosion. Demonstrating Hard Driver’s ability to pack an evidently darker
sound in, this highly powerful collab is
one that is sure to make crowds go absolutely crazy. Also ending the album on
the most powerful of notes, these final
few minutes take us on that final journey
into the underworld.
All in all, this album is the full
package and I can predict that
it’s going to be a game changer in
terms of other producers striving to
achieve a similar level of quality in
future productions. As for Hard Driver, from the promising sounds on
this album and the sophisticated
design and artwork, I can only ask,
who thinks that he can top this?
F**KING ROKKSTAR!
SCANTRAXX169 is out now!
The Prophet is a f**king ‘rokkstar’ and proves that he is still
one of the best in his business!
‘Sex, Drugs and Hardstyle?’, I
assume that they couldn’t find
a sample pack with that kind of
vocals.
Even if ‘Rokkstar’ is a silly name for
a track so amazing, I like the theme, the sound design and of course the combination between the
hard kicks and the guitar playing.
The rock part (or should I say rokk)
makes this track outstanding! But I
will forgive The Prophet and his bad
naming skills if he promises me to
keep his good work up! The synth,
screeches and effect sounds are
well made and implemented into
the track, even if I miss a longer
main part melody. Nevertheless, I
like the fast paced sounds.
PS: The vocals and the guitar remind me of something - the old
track ‘The Undersound’. And it’s
not the first time that he is using
that name. The first Scantraxx Silver release was called ‘The Prophet & Wildstylez – Cold Rockking’.
As a direct follow on from Razor, the
next track Cannibal instantly made
sense and the transition between the
two tracks fit perfectly, as if Razor was
almost an introductory track, setting the
atmosphere for Cannibal.
Track number 6, Instigator feat. Diesel
had not fallen short of being yet another
stand out on the album, demonstrating
Hard Drivers knack for producing with a
range of elements that are traditionally
used in other genres. Although there are
some “trap” inspired elements utilized,
this track does not lack quality and drive
(and to be completely honest, it makes
me want to go for a very long run).
TEXT
35
WARFACE - ART OF WAR
It’s definitely not the roughest track on
the album, but it delivers a neat ambiance and a bright, screechy lead. Warface has such a unique and fresh style,
that he brought in the raw-style subgenre! He uses powerful kicks, which will
blow your mind away, a large variety of
breaks, leads and variations in each of
his tracks. His intros are always full of
effects, kick variations, different leads,
breaks and surprising elements which
make every track of the album so enjoyable!
WARFACE - FTP!
Therefore, each track is different. He
perfectly shows that rawstyle not always has to be dark and mysterious.
“Chaos Reign” is one of those tracks,
you can enjoy from the very first second.
Together with Deetox he has made a
sort of track where you can’t stay still. It
just brings you into the mood to dance
to what you and of course Warface lives
for – Hardstyle! Especially on 160BPM
this track is 100% destruction – nothing
to add here!
WARFACE - TOTAL WAR
He combines different topics and themes in his tracks, but still fitting to his
album topic – total destruction! Just to
name a few: “Total War” is one of the
best tracks on disc one. The kick has a
heavy punch and reminds us of “Chaos Reign”. The screeches are just awesome and that moment when the vocal
screams “Total War!” we know there is
no way back!
WARFACE & TITAN - CHAINSAW
With “Chainsaw” we have one of the
craziest tracks on his album. Together
with Titan he created a great track. The
atmosphere has drawn us into its spell
since the very first second! But when
you hear the main part, your thoughts
will be “What am I listening to?!” – a dark
voice is talking, a woman is screaming
“Please Stop” and the massive chainsaw lead!
We guess these are vocals you all know:
”Fuck the police coming straight from
the underground!” – FTP! We think we
don’t have to say more. Siren similar
screeches, powerful kicks and vocals
which creates such a great atmosphere.
This is one of the tracks where you can
literally feel and hear his creativity!
WARFACE & DEETOX CHAOS REIGN
Disc 2 also includes a few remixes.
“Bloodshed” in the Solutio remix is one
of them. It has a dark atmosphere and
nice kick, high screeches and is definitely worth to be on this album! We can
also listen to a Delete remix of “Bring
it to them raw”. This track just hits you
straight in your face. Crazy screeches
and a “god-damn-holy” kick defines the
last track of the album – an end, how it
has to be done!
But also tracks such as “The Revival”
together with Luna, “Leviathan”, “Menace” together with Frequencerz, “Meridian” with Crypsis are just amazing and
are perfectly produced tracks.
WARFACE - CATALYST
It has been an amazing year so far.
So many great events, releases and
of course a lot albums by many great artists. We had fresh euphoric
albums by Noisecontrollers, Coone
and Brennan Heart. Raw and powerful albums by The Prophet, Minus
Militia and Hard Driver. But now it’s
time to add another album to your
collection.
The Spell Of Sin by Radical Redemption,
was released at last year’s event “Raw
Op Je Dak” by Art of Dance! Now, at the
last edition of “Raw Op Je Dak”, which
took place the 8th of November, another
artist had the pleasure to release his al-
36
RELEASE REVIEWS
bum. You had the chance to grab a copy
of Art of War at the official End Of Line
Records merchandise shop or let your
copy get signed by Warface himself.
His sound has its own unique style and
he likes it raw! His live act is just amazing and people are going crazy on the
dancefloor when he enters the stage.
We are talking about an artist, who appears in a soldier suit, soldier helmet
and black skull mask.
With Art Of War you get one of the
best albums this year, but why?
Foremost of all we really want to mention the cover, it has defined the best
design this year. It perfectly represents
Warface’s style. Generally, the hard
copy looks incredibly awesome – not
only the cover, but also the design of the
3-discs suit the energetic, rough beats
of Warface! Let’s take a deeper look into
the tracks! As we mentioned before, you
get 3 CDs full of madness.
DISC 1
Includes eleven tracks, including the
name giving track “Warface & MC
Nolz – Art Of War”. It has powerful female vocals like in “Schizophrenics” and
extra vocals by MC Nolz. The track has
Warface typical elements such as a powerful raw kick, heavy screeches in the
intro and an anti-climax!
The main part gives us
goosebumps everytime
we hear the female voice
singing “Art Of War”.
One of our favorites is “Catalyst”, which
delivers such a unique sound pattern. It
combines a strong, gated kick with an
acid lead and new raw-style elements!
We can’t really describe what makes
this track so awesome – you just have
to listen to it!
Furthermore
we have “Cosmic
Sin” in the Artifact remix , “Warmachine” in the
Hardcraft Remix, which sadly
could have been a little harder
as the name suggest it!
DISC 2
DISC 3
… also includes 11 tracks, but not only
new ones. Tracks such as “FTP”, “Schizophrenics” and “Killer itch” are also included! And yes, we enjoy these “old”
tracks. The first song we ever heard of
him was “Schizophrenics”. The female
vocals are awesome and he uses a lot
of breaks, varieties of kicks and leads
in this track, even a break beat part is
included and shows us why we love his
style and his album!
… is a mix of all 22 tracks
by the creator himself. The
mix is nice and never creates boredom due to long
breaks or bad mixing.
It’s a great third disc and
nice to have all the tracks
combined in one mix! In
the end it gets even harder and faster and will
make you go crazy – promised!
What else can we say? Nothing left,
except that this album is a hell of a ride
through a new fresh sound design in the
rawstyle scene, a massive range of different themes, topics, styles, elements
and producers! Warface did it! He created one of the most wanted albums this
year. It’s a must have and shouldn´t miss
in your collection or on your playlist!
We wish Warface all the best on his
way to become one of the most energetic and highly appreciated producer
and DJ! For all the hardstyle lovers out
there, check out this album and one of
his performances on stage – especially
Warface Live!
“War doesn’t determine who is
right, only who is left”
6:00 AM - We are driving back from the
Netherlands to Germany, Rebirth Festival 2014 was awesome and I’m hardly
trying to fall asleep, the next day will be
long.
BESIDES DJS AND PRODUCERS
15:00 PM - I got a little headache, sitting in front of my computer and reading
my notes. Finding the right words for Rebirth, drinking coffee.
17:00 PM - I finally got my first draft of
the festival review. Writing the organizer
to get some press pictures in the following days, showing them my draft, hope
that they like it. Starting a brainstorm
with my designer to talk about the layout in the mag. Adding the review to our
website, it’s a pain.
I want to be honest with you. For quite some
time I believed that I am not gifted at anything.
Being a DJ or a musician in the hardstyle
scene was one of my big dreams. But as time
went on, I understood that producing hardstyle or playing a live set on stage is more
than just difficult. You need the money to buy
the equipment and of course a lot of time to
master the required skills. But I constantly
desired to be part of the hardstyle scene:
visiting the big events and festivals, meeting
my hardstyle idols and work in an environment, that I enjoy.
Long story short: I’ve tasted blood, in this
case hardstyle music, and I wanted a job in
the hardstyle scene. But what possibilities do
you have, if you are untalented in any sort of
musical works. Hardstyle is all about the music, right? Working in the great branch of the
harder styles is easier than you might think.
21:00 PM - Writing some reviews for the
blog, fixing some issues and preparing
Facebook posts.
Being a blogger or journalist is not always comfortable. Rebirth was one of
my first events as a press member and
since then I had to learn that this occupation needs a lot of attention. You
have to prepare for events, take notes
and write a stunning review for your readers. Today, 1 year after Rebirth, I get
daily E-Mails with promo releases, mail
from all varieties of labels with CDs to
review. It is the occupation of the journalist to filter that information “overflow”
and just write about interesting subjects.
A bunch of backbreaking work just to
combine the love to hardstyle and the
passion to write.
GET STARTED
Obviously you should enjoy writing and
meet people. Media should attract you
and skills to create pictures or videos
are helpful. Be always up to date, information is your “weapon” find the latest
releases at hardstyle-releases.com or
harderstate.com.
38
JOBS IN THE SCENE
If you are starting fresh you should get a
feeling for the past of hardstyle between
2000-2007. This time was influential and
a few important changes took place. But
in that respect are other more abstract
things you might need along your way.
Cassi C., journalist in the hardstyle scene, originally started off writing novels,
scripted plays and both fictional and factual stories. After her first article about
hardstyle and rave myths the ideas for
new articles came flowing. Cassi published the first hardstyle related material
on the music blog “Stoney Roads”. She
had the honor to interview huge artists
such as Ran-D and Angerfist.
Furthermore, finding the right medium
“In terms of skills, to be a hardstyle
journalist you need to have a vibrant
personality in person and in your writing. You also need to have an unbiased opinion towards topics and also a
tolerance to bad feedback from moody
fans. Not to mention, you also need
to be able to stay at least half sober
at events! Ha-ha. One more skill that
every journalist should have is passion,
drive and an ability to keep readers as
entertained as possible!”, Cassi C.
to write can be extremely difficult and
ruin everything since there are just a few
blogs and websites online right now. Try
to write an article about hardstyle in general and ask your local music magazine
or blog to publish it. Find other journalists in the hardstyle scene and contact
with them.
ferred CMS. It’s possible to establish
your own website. The best way to get a
feeling for it, is just to try it. Get your first
articles done and set up contacts.
Cassi sums it up nicely:
“You meet and talk with artists and
most of them are always happy to
set up future interviews and articles
with you!”, Cassi C.
TOOLS FOR STARTERS AND
PROFESSIONALS:
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel), the
all rounder!
- Outlook or Thunderbird
for emailing.
- Cloud Services to access your files, Dropbox or Copy. Google Drive
is a good option as well,
cause you can edit files with different people at the same time.
- Canva.com to create images and
infogrpahics easy, it’s like
photoshop for newbies!
- WordPress, for me the only CMS
that you should use. It’s free, and
really easy to use at the same time.
WordPress and other Content Management Systems (CMS) made it easier for
everybody to make their own web blog.
Find a good theme on ThemeForest.net
and start writing. Even if that sounds
fairly easy you should definitely find out
more about online blogs and your preJOBS IN THE SCENE
39
We asked Jan about his first steps.
What‘s so attractive to shoot at
parties and are there any specifications for succeeding in this job?
We all take photos to retain different
moments in our everyday life. Too look
back on a great event or share our lunch
with friends. Instagram and Snapchat
made it possible for everybody with a
Smartphone to be a photographer. But
there is yet a small group who understands the art behind pictures and is
willing to take it to the next step. Jan
combined two of his greatest passions
about ten years ago.
“For over 10 years I‘m in the hardstyle
scene and the music has always been
enthusiastic for me. My first photographic attempts were on small local hardstyle events by friends. But the events
grew, became more professional and I
have always found more joy in photography.”, Jan S.
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Jan made clear that it’s not just about
taking pictures and pressing the trigger.
A party shooter tries to capture the entire event in a few brief moments, allowing
you to recap the event in your mind, feeling the vibes or just remembering back
to a great time with your friends.
“I constantly try to capture and reproduce the energy and emotions of the
DJs and the celebrating guests and also
the sizzling atmosphere. Only if I can do
that and the viewers of my photos can
feel the evening as if they were there, I
did my job right.”, Jan S.
Of course, it’s easier to execute this
project if you are fully into the hardstyle scene, recognizing when the proper
time is to take a photo.
“It is not only the party photography itself, which I‘m very interested, but also
the scene in which I move. I would not
even call me as a pure party photographer.”, Jan S.
40
BEHIND THE LENS
Basically, you need a few skills to be a
good party shooter. Learning the basics of photography is the key. Acquire
the “basic knowledge of photography,
its equipment, and digital image processing”, as Jan assured us, “With this
knowledge you can eventually try it out
in clubs for the first time. Ideally, you
have a photographer friend who can accompany you.”, Jan S.
How do you keep up the whole night
with loud music and so many party
people?
Do not persist only on the theatrical part
or the camera you are using. “Among
beginners, the sentiment is common
that it depends entirely on the correct
settings or the camera. But it is about
much more than that. It‘s about to choose the right camera settings, the right
perspective and the right moment to hit
the trigger, depending on the surroundings you are currently facing.” Furthermore Jan adds an important rule for
party shooters, “You should get a feel
for whether guests are open for photos
in order to not bother them. Also, it can
sometimes leave a bad image when you
stand on the stage besides the DJ the
whole time, best with three other photographers at the same time. Try to include the audience. But the guest has the
‘right in his own image’ so, rather delete
unwanted images immediately and ask
the guests before they were photographed before you get trouble.”
“For me Red Bull and Cola is actually
sufficient, but I avoid alcohol while working. Actually the positive stress pushes
me the most, the mood, the thrill and
when the party reaches the peak with
the headliners - my fatigue vanishes by
itself”, Jan S.
In most cases the party shooter stays
the whole night. Maybe 7 hours or even
12 on day festivals. Jan enjoys to go out
and visit clubs so it’s easier for him. Generally, you should have an attraction for
hardstyle events.
What is the best software to work
with your pictures?
It’s a little bit expensive, but the Adobe
Suite (Photoshop, etc.) is by far one of
the best software kits to go with “I only
work with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Important is definitely a good
RAW converter with a reasonable workflow and an image database. So you can
get the most out of your pictures before they are processed further in Photoshop.”, Jan S.
A quick overview - What you need:
TIT Y!
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- Basic knowledge about photography,
your equipment and digital processing
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- The right perspective, settings and
time to take a picture
- A feel whether guests are open for
photos or not
What are the best motives to shoot
at events?
You can separate your pictures into three
general groups. Jan sums it up: “Guests
are looking for photos on which they see
themselves. The organizers would like
to have photos where the mood or the
light show is well displayed. And the DJ
wants photos from himself.”. Keep this
in mind, while taking your pictures. If
you are new try to cover the guests and
the DJs. Stage and light show shots are
harder to realise and most of the time
you need a very good camera aswell.
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BEHIND THE LENS
41
DJ THERA - TRAINING SESSIONS
“Tiger
Season”
is a good example
of one of DJ Thera
strengths:
creating
awesome
rawstyle intros. Short and
sometimes
bizarre
sounds in addition to
a punchy kick. Especially the intro lead
just fits the audio pattern!
A
fter one year of working DJ Thera
finally finished his first artist album. The anticipation was going
through the rawstyle scene since the
first preview of Training Sessions and
it’s time to see what lies behind this
man. DJ Thera himself gave us a great
behind the scene with “Behind The Training Sessions”. 20 episodes full of background information about the tracks and
the production of his album. As a result
Training Sessions is more than just an
album.
The first of the 14 tracks is rather
unspectacular but representative of DJ
Thera’s sound. We like the symbolism
that “The Gate” is a gate to the album.
A good start for the album, that brings
you in the right mood.
“Strong” is the first track with vocals
and unluckily doesn’t apply to my taste of music. Yes, featuring guest Yuna-X has her own unique voice, but the
production sounds a bit unprofessional
compared to the others. Moreover, it’s
one of the few tracks with a melodic
main part.
42
RELEASE REVIEWS
Name giving track
“Traning Session” is theatralic and vitriolic. Different saw leads build up to an
epic main part supported by a scratchy,
rough kick. After 12 tracks DJ Thera has
still a lot of “Ammunition”. He surprises
me with more and different main and intro kicks. People with a good hearing
will find all kinds of new details on nearly
every track on this disc.
“I really like kickrolls and screeches”,
that’s the easy explanation by DJ Thera for the three tracks “Crazy”, “Crazier” and the “Craziest”. Each track a
bit harsher and harder. The screeches
are getting higher and higher and after
“Craziest” you are literally crazy because of the extreme pitched sounds, kickrolls, rough vocals and screeches.
WE RECOMMEND:
“The Dome” is a beautiful ending for
Training Sessions. Taking off with melodic vocals and a piano made to calm
you down after the “Crazy Trilogy” - but
still fast paced and raw.
You find all tracks as original edits with
intros and outros. A continuous mix is
not included.
Training Sessions is not an album for
everybody, that’s for certain. But that
is not the point of this album. Raw, experimental and 100% Thera. You will
pick up different sound designs throughout the album. If you are a rawstyle fan, this album grants you classic rawstyle tunes combined with
new approaches that you shouldn’t
overlook. Check out the behind the
scene or the previews to make sure you
like this unique and “raw to the bone”
hardstyle!
DEETOX - STREET MOVEMENT / DO OR DIE
It’s a movement! THER-134
is out now and again: a brutal raw release with killing
kicks and awesome vocals!
One of the few labels left,
which stayed pure raw.
Find Deetox, Delete & MC Livid
on one single release! ‘Street
Movement’ is a dynamic, fast
paced track with a great overall
sound. The rap part is short but
underlines the vocals of ‘Street
Movement’. Besides the music
I think Theracords creates one
of the best release covers in the
scene! You can feel the rebellion just by seeing the cover –
the police lights and the Molotov cocktail in his hand – just
brilliant.
Both tracks have a creepy
touch and especially ‘Do Or
Die’ is enhanced by the detuned screeches and synth
sounds. The vocals from MC
Livid were not properly edited
and so the second track is not
as good as ‘Street Movement’.
TEXT
43
DISC 1
Disc 1 includes 12
tracks. A few singles,
collabs with Hard Driver, Brennan Heart,
Kronos and Raxtor,
which are also signed
at his label and a remix of “Satana” by
Activator & Kronos.
Time flies, the end of 2014 is near
and it was amazing so far! We saw
many great albums from many great artists. Next up is Zatox with his
“New World Order”. Due the fact
that we already heard all the other
albums, we are very curious if Zatox
can stand out from the others.
“New world Order” includes two CDs
with 23 tracks. The design and cover art
is very cool. Zatox himself is standing in
his penthouse, his back to the windows,
looking into the camera. In the back
you can see a destroyed, chaotic city,
burning flames, dense smoke and helicopters. It just fits perfectly to his album
topic – great work!
Before even hearing any of his tracks
you get that strange feeling caused by
the album name “New World Order”
and the design. The title implements the
idea of a change. Maybe something in
the world of hardstyle? Coone’s “Global Dedication” or Noisecontrollers “All
Around” also dealt with this kind of topic. But let’s take a look into the album!
44
RELEASE REVIEWS
The name giving
track “New World
Order”, made with Dave Revan, starts
just with an impact, so it’s not an original. Sadly the other 11 tracks are also
just radio edits, therefore all passionate
DJs have to wait for the single releases.
A short build up, followed by vocals reminding me of a rock band, a deep voice
shouting “This is a new world order”.
Yes, the intro is fresh and firm, so you
get into the mood. Both, the timing of the
heavy screeches and the hard kick are
awesome.
“Be as one” is the next track made with
Katt Niall, she’s one of those singers
we all know. You might know her from
some Frontliner tracks. Her voice is just
amazing and one of the highlights in this
typical euphoric, melodic track. I can’t
wait to see them performing together on
stage!
With “Fight The Resistance” Zatox and
Brennan Heart have already proven
that their musical sights combined into
one track can be absolutely massive.
“Back in the Days” is the next bomb
they dropped. But we really want to
know how Brennan Heart was involved
in this track, because it’s clearly not his
style – a heavy kick and an anticlimax.
Still a track with awesome vocals, which
animates you to put your hands up high,
clap and sing along with the vocals. It
creates this old school flow, getting me
since the very first second.
Hard Driver is known for his outstanding
bright leads and his skill to combine raw
and euphoric elements. The collaborations between him and Zatox offers
exactly this. “Stand my Ground” is an
atmospheric track with with a nice lead
and Hard Driver’s kick.
Furthermore, we have “Fuck That”,
“Extreme”, “Red Alert” and “Santana” as very great raw tracks. All of them
have hard kicks, especially “Extreme”
and “Satana’s” are sounding like hardcore kicks. They are pounding through
the speakers and heavy screeches will
lift you up into another dimension.
I definitely want to mention “Red Alert”,
which is one of my favorites on his album,
because of its ambiance combined with
a crazy kick and bright, screechy lead.
Zatox created a good mix between
euphoric and raw. The tracks are
different, but still fitting the topic,
while their style is unmistakable.
DISC 2
Disc 2 contains 11 tracks and starts with
this year’s anthem of Emporium “Victorious and Glorious” – what a great
anthem! Cool vocals and a great lead,
animating me to feel with it, to go with it!
Zatox and Activator are 2 Italien rawstyle heroes, so both combined results in a
massive club banger.
The anticlimax, effects and they even
used different kicks and leads. It’s surprising and shows us perfectly what a
great producer Zatox is. He brings in his
feelings while producing, the flow of his
songs are so unique and that’s why you
can feel the energy in his productions.
“Never More” and “Faster Than
Time” are two great euphorical additions. Latter reminds me of Wildstylez.
“Never More” is more like his old productions – “Unite” or “It Must Be”.
“Illuminate” is one of my favorites
on disc two, for showing me that
Zatox is such a versatile producer in
either raw or euphoric. It’s creating a
deep atmosphere and lets you dive in it.
The last two tracks are hardcore tracks.
Yes, hardcore tracks! He made them together with Mad Dog and Art of Fighters. Of course they represent the hard
ending of his album with heavy kicks
and screeches. I really like the combination of hardstyle and hardcore – pure
Italian destruction.
To sum it up I want to mention that
“New World Order” belongs to the
best albums of this year. It offers a
great range of styles and elements
combined in its tracks. From euphoric to raw, experimental stuff
and hardcore. He has chosen an
interesting topic, but sadly only
half of the tracks matching it. Disc
two is not bad but I have that feeling the tracks are more random. Of
course you can argue that there is
no obligation to fit the topic, but for
me an album carries out unity. Just
a small negative aspect.
After two forerunners Out in the Open
Episode 3 is the final act and A-Lusion is dropping a huge album, which
deserves your attention! I see it coming. You will hate me for being such
an A-Lusion fanboy. Normally, I would
review this title by title, naming you the
best and worst tracks. This album however is different, because all 19 tracks
harmonize so well. Out in the Open EP3
is a pure artist album and gives you an
80 minutes long experience, which you
should enjoy more than once.
His preview trailer promised us a big
variety of styles and that is exactly
what makes this album so special. Get
everything what you love from euphoric hardstyle: hard punchy kicks, atmospheric vocals, high pitched leads and
great melodies. Incredibly, but A-Lusion does this while keeping his unique
style throughout the album.
Nearly every track shines with great, dedicated vocals and bright, open
leads. „As High As“ is just one track,
where I just can‘t wait until the line
„Hands are as high as the sky!“ kicks
in. More examples are „Untouchable“
and „All These Symbols“.
One of my favorite tracks is „Auditory
Phenomena“. It was one of the first
tracks that I heard from the album and
I love it since then! First of all the reverse bass is just huge. Second the intro
melody adds an extra bit of dynamic
to the track. But the best part is that
buzz sound effect, that you should enjoy in stereo because it goes from left
to right and circles around your head...
and then „it multiplies!“.
The last three tracks are, I would not
say raw, but rougher. Especially there
you can hear the overwhelming sound
design by A-Lusion. He uses countless
sound layers, but still provides us with
a clear rhythmic beat.
Ok, „Sloopwerk“ is maybe a bit raw
with its screeches and minimalistic
main melody. But you will enjoy it, since it‘s a great ending for his album.
So what is this album? It‘s A-Lusion in
his best form and a big improvement
since his last Out in the Open. If you
like rhythmic, dynamic, euphoric, fast
paced and creative tracks with great
vocals - this should be your first choice.
For me, one of the Top 3 euphoric albums this year and I hope to hear more
from A-Lusion at this level!
TEXT
45
NEWCOMER
Keep in mind that we only nominated things
that we got in contact with, heard or visited.
Don’t be surprised if your favorite star or event
is missing and more important don‘t take it
personally.
Our criteria were simple. We asked the following questions: who did something outstanding? What defined the hardstyle scene in
the past year? And these are our results!
HOW TO READ IT:
You find the nominees on the
right side and the winner for
the same category on the next
page, left side. So each right
page indicates a new category.
T
he festival season was an unforgettable experience,
all great producers released their finest albums and
the year is nearly over. It was a great year for hardstyle and HardstyleMag. While working on reviews and
interviews we saw many great movements throughout
the scene, honorable release and awesome personalities. This short gallery will show you our top picks
for the best newcomer, anthem, album, artist and
event of 2014. Maybe you’ll find something new in
it or old returning stars. So, no matter what you
take out of this list, we hope we can inspire you
to recap the year and check out all the mentions.
46
REVIEW OF 2014
OUTBREAK
AUDIOTRICZ
With #bassface Outbreak created
a world wide phenomen thousands of people followed, showing
their dedication to hardstyle. His
track reached a lot of positive feedback by artists like Headhunterz,
Isaac, Digital Punk, Brennan
Heart & more. He also gathered
the community and his fans to
create a unique video of people
showing their bassface and passion for the harder styles.
“Ghettoblaster” was a killing track
played at nearly every major hardstyle event. They even remixed
Hardwell’s track Dare You and
made it into a hardstyle banger
to sing along. Audiotricz has garnered instant support from artists
like Noisecontrollers, W&W, Headhunterz, Brennan Heart and many
others. Two guys with an “infinite
passion for music”.
X-PANDER
DEETOX
Starting from the bottom, he‘s now
signed at A² Records , representing his wild and rough style. It was
a great year for him, he released a
lot of nice tracks and played at major events. He was also featured in
Digital Punks Unleashed podcast
a few times.
It‘s nice to see more and more
Ladys in the scene. This one likes
it raw and had a fantastic year.
Many collabs with great artists
and a lot of cool gigs. Tracks like
„Street Movement“ or „Chaos Reeign“ are just two of her thrilling
sounds. Signed at Theracords and
Platinum Agency she will definitely
rough up the scene in 2015!
But will that be anough to be „Best
Newcomer 2014“?
PHUTURE NOIZE
CRISIS ERA
Their productions are innovative and an approach to break the
boundaries of conventional rawstyle. Supported by Digital Punk
and Frequencerz and singed at
Dirty Workz Anarchy. In 2014 they
released two EP’s “Wrong Attidude” and “The Heat” and got our full
attention! Of course they played
already at events like Defqon.1,
Q-BASE, WiSH Outdoor and Hard
Bass 2014. We see a bright “phuture” for this two.
Two producers from Vancouver,
Canada. Definitely not from a
country that is known for hardstyle
but still one of the upcoming artists. “Loud” was their first release
at WE R Tomorrow, and one of the
catchiest tunes supported in the
Hard with Style Podcasts. Discovered by Brennan Heart at Defqon.1 Australia 2012 and now part
of the WE R Family.
NEILIO
NOISECULT
Maybe you saw him at Defqon 1.,
Q-Base or Bassleader? Or maybe
you experienced one of his tracks
released on Dirty Workz or in the
Hard with Style podcast? This
young man has a bright future with
support coming from big names
like Coone, Wasted Penguinz and
Psyko Punkz.
Noisecult(ure) definitely deserve
to be nominated for the best newcomer in 2014! Supported by
big producers like Headhunterz,
DBSTF, Adaro and many more.
With their showcast at Rebirth
2014 they made the crowd go
wild and showed their passion for
the harder styles. At the moment
they are signed at Dirty Workz and
working on new music. With their
vlog „Noiseculture“ they also gave
us exclusive behind the scenes of
events and their productions.
ANTHEM
FOR CREATING A UNIQUE MOVEMENT AND SHOWING
EVERYBODY HIS OWN #BASSFACE. OUTBREAK WAS
A MAJOR INFLUENCE AND A ROLE MODEL FOR INVOLVING THE COMMUNITY IN THE RAWSTYLE SCENE.
OUR NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR.
48
TEXT
INTENTS FESTIVAL
XXLERATOR OUTDOOR
QAPITAL
Q-BASE
QLIMAX
LOUDNESS
ALBUM
BRENNAN HEART - EVOLUTION OF STYLE
NOISECONTROLLERS - ALL AROUND
DJ THERA - TRAINING SESSIONS
HARD DRIVER - POINT BREAK
THE PROPHET - LOUDER
A-LUSION - OUT IN THE OPEN EP 3
WARFACE - ART OF WAR
FOR CREATING A DISTINCTIVE ANTHEM OF 2014.
B-FRONT AND FREQUENCERZ OVERCAME THE LIMITS
AND CAPTURED THE THEME OF LOUDNESS! “I WANT
YOU TO KNOW. I‘M THE MOTHERF**KING PSYCHO.
DROPPING FAT BEATS, HEAVY SHIT, THIS IS MY SHOW”
50
TEXT
ZATOX - NEW WORLD ORDER
ARTIST
FOR CREATING A VARIED ALBUM AS ONE OF THE HARDSTYLE VETERANS. LOUDER IS A PRODUCT OF YEARS
OF EXPERIENCE AND NOW AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE
SCENE.
52
TEXT
TEXT
53
EVENT
FOR BEING WITHOUT
PREJUDICES AND CREATING THE MOST POPULAR PODCAST IN
THE SCENE. HEADHUNTERZ BROUGHT THE
MUSIC TO THOUSANDS
OF PEOPLE AND DEFINED A NEW SUBGENRE. STILL REMAINING
TRUE TO HIS ROOTS
WITH HIS PROJECT
“ORIGINS”.
54
TEXT
EMPORIUM
QLIMAX
DECIBEL
HARDBASS
DEFQON.1 NL
REVERZE
TEXT
55
56
TEXT
R E A D
O U R
R E V I E W
O N
T H E
F O L L O W I N G
P A G E S .
TEXT
57
QLIMAX 2014 - THE SOURCE CODE OF CREATION
It’s nearly sunrise in Arnhem and my muscles are still vibrating from the
rumbling basses which are still shattering though my body. The adrenaline still lies in the air and yet again we wrecked the GelreDome. It was a
night that nobody will forget, that’s for sure, and for me one of the best
Qlimax’s. 27.000 party people from all over the world gathered this one
night to see what’s hiding behind the curtain this year!
My first step into the GelreDome and I am just seeing these red glowing
cubes in the air. I am counting twelve on each side. A soft, theatralic
music is playing in the background. It was the atmosphere sound
that we know from the trailer or the website. Nothing is happening
right now. A few light beams are shining down. It feels like aliens
want to beam me up. Suddenly the lights are moving, the music
is getting tense, a kick, everybody is looking to the front… but the
music calms down and nothing happens. This fake sweep ups
made me crazy because I couldn’t stand the excitement anymore.
I was walking around the twelve “things” hanging in the air and
just wondered what they can do. After I saw the ropes it was
clear to me. These things can move up and down, hopefully packed with lasers, fireworks and lights. At this moment I had no
clue how low they can get. Six speaker sets on each side of the
GelreDome – I was sure that the sound will be killing tonight.
After a sweep up Qlimax started with an awesome new track
by Technoboy, Tuneboy & Isaac. The first seconds gave it
away, the female vocals from “Digital Nation”, a few seconds
silence, the first reverse bass drop and everybody started
dancing. Technoboy & Audiofreq were announced to rock
the first one and a half hour. Their set was dominated by old
school euphoric tracks. Even Showtek made it into the set
with “Electronic Stereophonic”, of course everybody was
singing along! Some new tracks with big room accents
were also played every now and then. “Ghettoblaster” by
Audiotricz was one of my favorites right before the end of
the set. All in all we got what we expected and a little bit
more. The influence by Technoboy with some old school
bangers was clearly noticeable.
“He is here to guide you on a psychedelic trip.
The one and only, Headhunterz!”
We went crazy after the stage was revealed and Headhunterz dropped his first track “Shocker” in an exclusive Qlimax edition. After the second track it was finally clear that Heady will combine his old classics
with new slower tracks known from Hard with Style.
He released the “Dragenborn” with an epic “Fus Ro
Dah!” (also as a Qlimax edit) and kept the charm and
vocals, but still adding a new, fast paced, big room
house intro. Things got tense while the crowd was
singing the melody of “Psychodelic” or a bit later
the unforgettable lyrics from “Reignite” (Credits to
Malukah) in the mix with vocals from “Tonight”.
And the list of good mash ups or edits goes on.
Headhunterz played 23 tracks in less than one
hour, nearly double the amount of a normal set
and the most tracks in one set at Qlimax 2014.
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QLIMAX 2014
OTHER HONORABLE MENTIONS:
MEGASOUND, I CAN STILL FEEL THE BASS IN MY CHEST.
SUBSONIC, INCLUDING A NEW AND CLEANER INTRO KICK.
SCRAP ATTACK, WITH VOCALS FROM LESSONS IN LOVE AND GREAT DRUMS.
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Six massive speaker sets on
each side provided us with the
perfect sound at Qlimax!
Equipped with four multi-color
LED rings, lots and lots of lasers,
different lights and fireworks!
This DNA strand can move up and down and
rotate around it’s own axis. Equipped with multi color LEDs, light, smoke cannons and lasers.
Definitely the highlight of this year’s stage.
The stage looked like marble and showed a “open
minded” shaman waiting “to activate his DNA”.
Over 27.000 party people from around the world gathered at the GelreDome to witness Qlimax
2014!
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It was his first, but hopefully not his last Qlimax! Atmozfears played
mostly euphoric tracks with melodic main parts and vocals, but also
added some raw tracks in the end. The Qlimax edit of “Starting Over”
was a great example for this mixture. But the real killer was “Just as
Easy” combined with “Attack Again”. Of course Atmozfears played the
interactive A-A B-B game with the crowd and really everybody was
shouting when the fader was down.” This is the time to turn off your
mind… mind… mind”, Reverse Bass? What! One of the few edits
that really got me by surprise, but it was the perfect time for a huge
reverse bass! After “Everybody F#CK!N J#MPed!” here some honorable mentions from his set:
- BOUNCE & BREAK (ATMOZFEARS REMIX)”, ISN’T THAT A HARDCORE KICK?
- THE MADMAN, A PERFECT ROUGH ENDING OF THIS SET.
Frontliner started with a great mashup of “Can’t Hold Us” and
his “Never Come Down” bootleg. After this track it was mainly a
showcase of all his greatest tracks from the last years. With all respect to Frontliner: for me this was the worst Qlimax set this year.
His predecessor just rocked the stage so hard with awesome
mashups, and it was just not enough.
It was time for Noisecontrollers, the man behind the anthem.
Ok, I was sceptical with the anthem of this year, but as I saw
it live at Qlimax it fits perfectly to the theme. Especially the
female choir combined with the kick and wobble sounded
brilliant. “Apollo” was the next great edit on the list. Noisecontrollers added his own vocals from “Gimme Love” and
of course the main melody. But buckle your pants ’cause
the next mashup between “Circles” and “We’ll Be Coming
Back” gave me goosebumps. After that he played many of
his own tracks, keeping it euphoric and “danceable”. Honorable mentions from his set:
- FASTER ‘N FURTHER (BASS MODULATORS REMIX + EDIT),
ONE OF THE BEST TRACKS IN THIS SET!
- THE SOURCE CODE OF CREATION (QLIMAX 2014 EDIT),
YES, HE PLAYED THE SAME TRACK WITH MORE STUTTERS
AND WOBBLES.
After the longest sweep up in my entire life with over 4
minutes of “Wau….Wau…Wau.Wau.Wau. Fake Drop…”.
We finally “faced the darkness with Ran-D”. He
played all the top notch rawstyle tracks and created a
very nice transition between rawstyle and the upcoming hardcore. “Das Weite Land” is one of the few
tracks in the genre where you don’t sing the vocals
but the screech. The results were some raging “Da
da da’s” from the crowd. After “FCK EDM”, one of
his new tracks showcased, Ran-D played an English version of “Big Fat Bass Record” and we “moved to the left and to the right”. The other track in
this mashup is still unknown. Last but not least a
bone breaking raw track and favorite of the night
“Seven”.
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QLIMAX 2014
“Get ready for the ultimate face off with Crypsis!”
Many different rawstyle tracks from Crypsis himself, Outbreak and
Radical Redemption. The only highlight for me was “Psycho” with a
great rap part and different live FX’s from Crypsis (stutter and flanger).
Nothing more to add here – great set and a huge variety of music!
It was time for a Hard Ending. Endymion, The Viper and Partyraiser. 30 Minutes to perform for each of them! Endymion started with
melodic tunes and ended with faster, rougher tracks. The transition
to hardcore was well made. The edit of “Raging In The Dancehall”
was awesome! Both The Viper and Partyraiser were introduced very
quickly, as the intros got shorter and shorter, played mainly old
school hardcore tracks and brought everybody to his limit! Q-Dance and Qlimax sad goodbye with a big bang!
The sound was perfect, the low basses and high leads. At Qlimax
you could hear the years of experience that Q-Dance has.
SHOW AND DESIGN
This year’s stage broke the wall between audience and DJ by
including twelve big DNA replicas arranged in the middle of the
GelreDome hanging in the air, above the crowd. Together they
represented one DNA strand fitting perfectly into the theme
“The Source Code of Creation”. The stage was showing an
open minded man waiting to “activate his DNA”. If you looked
closely you could spot a small glittering ball behind the head
coming slowly down as time passed. Four LED circles, going
around the head, supported the light show. Lights, lasers and
fire – nothing was missing.
A few highlights were when the LED displays showed 3D
objects flying around or particle coming closer. That gave
me an optical illusion that the whole stage is moving. A fog
full of lasers, mainly in green, flew past me and what you
are seeing in the pictures is not even close to the experience that you make. It feels like they are scanning you and
your whole body is taken by the light show.
Music and show played well together and my huge respect for the light jockeys behind the desks.
The stage was a bit abstract and it took me over three
hours to understand the full meaning behind it. After I
saw the flying double helix I had that “Oh Yes” moment.
Furthermore, the show was missing a real climax and
the ending wasn’t that great compared to the Anthem
Show for example. Still an awesome show and by far
the best in 2014!
Qlimax was an “out of this world” experience and we highly recommend it. Starting with
hardstyle and ending with hardcore. With the
best light show and stage design Qlimax is
outstanding. If you are a fan of the harder
styles Qlimax is absolutely a must. You don’t
know what you’re missing, trust me! And as
always, I leave you with the deep Q-Dance voice: “This was Qlimax 2014 – See you
next year!”
QLIMAX 2014
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