DJ ntranced is coming*
(*Ok, close but not really)
No idea when I'm actually going to make DJing happen but I've started off with a single piece of equipment, a mixer. Picked up a lovely Pioneer DJM-3000 4 channel professional mixer from a GraysOnline auction this morning and fired it up to make sure it all works and it does!
Pioneer DJM-3000
Don't have anything to compare it with really, but on first impression, it was heavier than I had expected. The rotaries feel nice and solid and the faders are quite loose but don't feel cheap. Pretty happy.
It's a shame I can't do much with it at the moment as I don't have any CDJs. But nonetheless it's a start 
. Check back in the near future when I'll hopefully get a pair off CDJs and a set of headphones and can start mixing up some trance.
Blast from the past – Max Graham ft Jessica Jacobs – I know you’re gone
Went through my music folder to find some tunes to run along to and came across a rather old compilation, Global Gathering '05. This song's the first track from the second CD and I heard this song again for a long time and just thought wow, this stuff was amazing. Such a mellow and beautiful tune.
Youtube video:
Might go through my song collection some more and dig up some old gems. So nostalgic.
Lyrics after the break:
Godskitchen 2011 – A Space Odyssey
So the announcement was made last week about the lineup for this year's Godskitchen. I'm quite pleased with the lineup and it seems like it's gonna be a hard night with the international headliners being:
- Marco V
- Richard Durand
- John Askew
- Ben Gold
It's at the Hordern again on Sunday the 2nd of October, not to worry, the Sunday falls on the long weekend and you'll have the Monday to recover before heading back to work/uni or whatever.
Godskitchen 2011
Should be a good night and if there's one thing I'd be looking forward to, it'd be this epic remix of an epic song:
Richard Durand's remix of Art of Trance's Madagascar. Still brings chills down my spine.
Roger Shah ft Moya Brennan – Morning Star
Came across this song today on youtube today and absolutely love it! You may recognise the voice from a past trance hit known as Saltwater by Chicane. Sounds absolutely beautiful, almost heavenly.
Watch/Listen below:
Group Therapy now featuring Mat Zo and Jaytech
Above and Beyond have just announced word of two supporting acts to their highly anticipated Group Therapy tour coming down south in September this year. As quoted from the Above and Beyond website:
Fresh from the success of their "Group Therapy" album, Above & Beyond have announced the full line-up for theirSeptember tour of Australia. Joining Jono, Tony and Paavo on the tour will be Anjunadeep's mainstay Jaytech and the ever-innovative Mat Zo
Can't wait for that night to come, it's gonna be epic! Also can't wait for some remixes and a remix album to emerge.
Read the rest here: http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/news/Above_and_Beyond_Group_Therapy_Australia_Tour_-_Line_Up_Announced.htm
Magic City 2011 – It’s Showtime – Photos
So after snapping over 1800 photos, I've been able to cull that down to a lovely 250 or so for your viewing pleasure. It was a much better night than I had expected (probably because the hardstyle started later than usual.
Click the image below to see all the photos:
Thanks for looking.
Magic City 2011 – Preview
Last Saturday night I was one of the photographers working at Magic City and it was a rather awesome night, usually not my kind of music, but this time it was pretty good. JamX aka DuMonde brought back a lot of memories, especially my younger years when I started listening to trance, quite a few songs I never thought I'd ever hear played again so that was rather awesome. I don't know why I always seem to clock up some many photos with these events, always makes going through them so difficult, especially when they only want 100-150 photos.
So here's a little preview of the shots from the night.
Production
Lasers from the ground
Lasers from the air
Crowd
On stage
Other thing that was particularly special about the night was this shot...
View from the roof
Yes, that is from the roof of the Hordern, spectacular view there. Guess that's the privilege of being a photographer, and getting your own dressing room is nice too 
.
Photographer's room
The best kind of therapy is Group Therapy
This morning something exciting happened, tickets were released to see Above and Beyond's Group Therapy tour come down under. I've got mine, have you got yours?
The Group Therapy album is already shaping up to be a very fine piece of work with certain songs already released, such as 'Sun and Moon' which has had a massive reception across A State of Trance 500. I personally cannot wait for it to be released and the eventual remixed album. It's one to look out for.
One of my favourite tunes at the moment is their own, 'thing called love', watch the video below:
For more updates and snippets of the Group Therapy album as they're unlocked, visit the Group Therapy Hub:
http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/grouptherapyhub/
More information about the Australian tour at the following link:
Last moments of 2010
So the last days of 2010 went by rather quick, first and foremost a lunch outing with the majority of the crew that did BIT or ISM starting from 2007 (God that was a long time ago) to celebrate their final days of Uni (not me though, because i'm special). It was a nice lunch courtesy of Christine, our course coordinator who's helped us through hundreds and thousands of emails and queries. It was a a nice gathering and good to see everyone before we all parted ways.
- bitism lunch
Once back from my trip and having a few days of long away rest and sleep, it was time to be out and about again, firstly, a BBQ at Lily Tran's house to celebrate Christmas. Nothing better than spending a nice summer afternoon with friends around the BBQ with a drink or ten. No one ended up too drunk and with my fairly okay drink count, I was still quite good.
Christmas at Lily's - 2010
No summer is complete without a fishing trip of sorts, so early one morning we make the trip up to Clifton for some fishing action. There were quite a few people there already so we couldn't get prime position, but we pushed on anyway and hoped for some luck. But as you can see from my album title, it was somewhat fail, ended up catching 2.5 fish (one of them was a tiny bream). Nice thing about getting up early is catching the sunrise and I've finally done some sunrise photography.
Lovely sunrise
One of the final set of photos for the year was from my younger cousin's birthday who despite his size, is only 12.
Wilson and family
So these photos represent the final days and weeks of my 2010, but it was such a thrill being able to spend the transition into 2011 with an all night party with the number 1 DJ, Armin van Buuren. Such a great event and you really can't top seeing Armin for 9 hours straight, still remember the climatic countdown with the drummer just hammering away, almost as though he couldn't keep it up. Small glitch in the countdown but it was one hell of a night. Spent the next few days exploring a bit of Melbourne which was quite fun, but definitely gotta plan another trip down soon.
Well that wraps up 2010, I'm a step closer to getting this blog updated and getting the rest of the photos up.
Chicane – Giants
So one of my favourite Trance producers Chicane has released a new album and while I've only heard previews of it so far, quite digging the sounds I hear. It seems to have a very chilled laid back sound and will definitely be my choice of music on a lazy spring or summer afternoon. It features some tunes released a while back like Poppiholla and Hiding all the stars. Give it a listen if you're into your soft melodic Trance. Listening to bits of it just make me wish I could see 'em again as their last appearance at Stereosonic in 2009 was a bit disappointing due to the poor sound.
Here's a youtube video sampling all the songs from the album:
GODSKITCHEN in 3D
So the long weekend is quickly approaching and that means one thing for me, the night long party which is Godskitchen. It's been so long since a decent trance event has been on the Sydney calendar and there are some high expectations after the epic that was the Boombox, the same time last year. This year the Boombox has been packed away and the 3D trend is continuing on, with no idea what to expect, I'm quite excited. This year's line up is pretty good again with Andy Moor, Marcel Woods, John O Callaghan and Wippenberg representing Sydney's lineup (supported by locals VLN and Thomas Knight). It's a shame that us Sydney-siders miss out on Binary Finary but it's still a strong line up none-the-less.
Just to get you in the mood, I've linked some youtube videos to some tunes produced by the artists playing and will be what I'll be looking forward to.
Armin Van Buuren ft Sophie Ellis Bextor – Not Giving Up On Love
At first when I heard this song I thought it was quite cheesy and too poppy, but I found it grew on me and despite its cheesiness, I love it. Love the bassline and the drum overlay of the original. Hope you enjoy and see you at Armin Only in NYE 
Lyrics:
My 21st (B’day) Trance Mix
So I made a Trance mix for my 21st b'day party, sharing it around for all of you to enjoy, right click the link below and save as. Mixed using Mix Meister Fusion (yes i'm a noob).
Tracklist:
- Ferry Tayle & Static Blue - Trapeze (Arty Remix)
- Arnej - Strangers We've Become (Blake Jarrell Remix)
- Ben Preston ft. Susie - Remember Me (Daniel Kandi's Flashy Tribute Mix)
- Armin Van Buuren vs. Rank1 ft. Kush - This World is Watching Me
- DJ Shah ft. Adriana Thorpe - Who Will Find Me (Original Summer Sunrise Remix)
- Sophie Sugar vs. Sunlounger - Lost Together (Armin Van Buuren Mashup)
- Armin Van Buuren vs. Cosmic Gate - F.A.V. Rain (Armin Van Buuren Mashup)
- Cirez D. vs. Armin Van Buuren ft. Sharon Den Adel - On Off Love
- Tiesto vs. Deep Dish - I Will Say Hello (Myon and Shane 54 Mashup)
- Rank1 & Jochen Miller vs. Yuri Kane - The Great Escape Right Back
- Rank1 vs. Lisa Miskovsky - Symfo is Still Alove (Orient Mashup)
- Oceanlab vs. Gareth Emery - On A Metropolis Day (Myon and Shane 54 Mashup)
- Tiesto vs. Lange, Andy Moor & Komytea - Lethal Stadium Four (Gareth Emery Re-Edit)
- Tiesto - Traffic (Richard Durand Remix)
- Sander Van Doorn - Riff (Original Mix)
- Marcel Woods - Lemon Tree
- Olive - You're Not Alone (Paul Webster Remix)
- Filo & Peri ft. Eric Lumiere - Anthem (John O Callaghan Remix)
- Jer Martin vs. Armin Van Buuren - Ten Minutes of Burning Desire (Andy Van Hall Mashup)
- Jochen Miller vs. Armin Van Buuren ft. Sharon Den Adel - In and Out of Love Connection (Armin Van Buuren Mashup)
- Ferry Corsten - Radio Crash
- Alex MORPH & Rank1 - Life Less Ordinary
- Wippenberg - Chakalaka
- Binary Finary - 1998 (tyDi & Dennis Sheperd Remix)
- Simon Patterson - Taxi
- Tiesto - Louder Than Boom
- Kyau and Albert - Hooked on Infinity (Club Mix)
- Cosmic Gate - Exploration of Space
- Art of Trance - Madagascar (Richard Durand Remix)
- Veracocha - Carte Blanche (Richard Durand Remix)
- Dustin Zahn - Stranger (to Stability) (Len Faki Podium Remix)
Jose Amnesia ft Jennifer Rene – Wouldn’t Change a Thing
This one's a bit of an oldie, but just heard it and remembered how nice a song it is. Jennifer's voice is just one of the best in the trance scene and it adds a lot to the song. A song like this just gives me that euphoric feeling and makes me glad that I love trance music, just the plain versatility of having calm relaxing tunes such as this to heavy driving trance anthems which just make your feet wanna move. Another nice mix of this tune is Retrobyte's Bounce Back remix.
Lyrics:
Close the door
Turn the light off
And before you drop come to me
I’ll be here when you wake up
Please don’t ever stop
Stay with me
If I could do it all over
I wouldn’t change a thing
Wouldn’t change a thing
I will spend my life trying to make you love me
Whenever you breathe
Whatever you need