Saturday 30 March 2013

The Phil-Harmonic Podcast Episode 52


Well, what a weekend it has been already. The Easter weekend is never a dull one and this year has been no exception... and we're only at Saturday. It's hardly begun.

On Thursday night I made my DJing return at Brighton's Cube Bar for Transcend's Bank Holiday special, warming up for J00F Sessions signed psy-merchant, Dan Ascherl. It was a another milestone for me in the sense that it was the first time I've been on the bill with what you might call a 'recognised' name in the scene.

The crowd down at Transcend are always excellent value and, as me and one of my fellow DJs were saying to each other on the night, it's a night that genuinely has the potential to grow into something special and significant. I'm grateful that I've been able to be involved from (almost) the very start of it. 

Oh, and my set went really well. I still have learning to do about the best ways to warm up a crowd for a main act, but some of the compliments I was getting afterwards were, nevertheless, out of this world and hugely appreciated.

The very next night I slipped down to Ministry Of Sound for some casual raving at the hands of Super8 & Tab and Norin & Rad. One of the many beauties of now living in London; there is now Friday night trance on tap a short Tube journey towards the river.

The podcast returns in it's new weekly, 1 hour format. I say, 1 hour - this one has ran over slightly this week. In terms of this new format I'm still working out what fits and what doesn't, so probably unsurprising that an early episode has become ever so slightly extended.

As denoted by our red artwork, this is our more uplifting, driving end of things. There was plenty to fit in and, my word, picking a 'Tune Of The Episode' was very hard this week. I'll let the set do the talking because it really is a belter. Enjoy!


THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST EPISODE 52

1. Allure feat. Emma Hewitt - No Goodbyes (Lange Remix) [Black Hole Recordings]
2. Solarstone – Seven Cities (Thomas Datt Remix) [Captivating Sounds]
3. Sean Tyas & Greg Downey - Dark Before The Dawn (Classic Mix) [Tytanium Recordings]
4. Luke Bond – Dropzone [Monster Tunes]
5. Super8 - Alba [Anjunabeats]
6. Gareth Weston - Checkmate (Ian Standerwick Remix) [Digitized]
7. Darren Porter - Spellbound [Monster Tunes]
8. Solis & Sean Truby feat. Sue Mclaren - Closer To The Earth (Club Mix) [Infrasonic Recordings] <<<(Phil's Tune Of The Episode)>>>
9. Paul van Dyk feat. Michelle Leonard - Lost In Berlin (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix) [Vandit]
10. Suncatcher - Simplicity [Enhanced Recordings]
11. Mike Shiver - Morning Drive [Anjunabeats] <<<(The Phil-Harmonic Golden Oldie)>>>

All for now, kids. See you next week.

Sunday 24 March 2013

The Phil-Harmonic Podcast Episode 51


<<<THE SECOND PHASE>>>

We've passed 50 episodes; now we press on into a new phase of the podcast with some changes to freshen things up.

I've felt for a while that the format of TPHP needed a shake up. My output has been solid of late, but after a number of specials and milestones, mixes have been very long and there’s an argument for saying a bit of focus and drive has been lost. It’s quantity over quality, as I just bombard amidst a wave of enthusiasm.

The first plan was actually to make the podcasts marginally longer and include a single ‘non-trance track’ at the end as a little ‘night cap’, as it were. I was going to call it ‘One From The Vault’ and it was going to encompass everything from breaks and drum & bass, to ambient and alternative EDM. All genres I have a lot of time for.

After some thought, I decided this was both a self-indulgent attempt to ‘show off’ how broad my music taste is and a move that would just be asking for bigger record labels to cause me more regular copyright infringement headaches. My own journeys into the likes of pure ambient and off-beat psychedelic music have been very personal, and ones I can’t just assume all trance fans will open up to. Trance fans are many many great things, but they’re not really known for open-mindedness musically. And there’s absolutely no hint of understatement intended in that last sentence. I genuinely just mean, we’re not known for it.

So – idea shelved and, in the long run, probably binned.

So where to go from here? Well, I’m now going to post weekly sets but reduce them down to an hour a piece. So everyone will still be getting the same 2 hours of music every fortnight and, in theory, I won’t really have to change my podcast ‘creation routines’ that much at all. I’ll just be breaking it up and uploading and posting more frequently.

Now, I love taking audiences on a rounded 2 hours+ journey. In essence, that extended journey is what DJing is really all about. With that in mind, I’m going to commit myself to doing reasonably regular ‘specials’ that do take the audience on that more engaging, drawn out trip. And in a sense, that will make specials more…. well, special… without being ridiculously long. (The 4 hour Ibiza Special last year was indeed ridiculous.)

Those specials could be anything from deep and funky Ibiza mixes through to sets that do just about everything and anything up to and beyond my usual 140 BPM ending point. These will be the episodes where I’ll really set out to surprise and shock – if I can. How often I’ll do them – I really don’t know yet.

For regular offerings the switch to an hour is quite a simple theory and it’s all about how most people are able to fit their weekly listening into their hectic routines. Most people, including myself, listen to music to and from work. And when you consider that most peoples’ daily commutes don’t exceed more than about 30-40 mins (my own currently being almost exactly 40 mins from door to door – 25 mins actually on London’s Tube), it can often be hard to fit in a 2 hour set into that travelling. When you come back to a set, paused for 24 hours or longer, the intended flow is completely broken. A longer set is all about momentum – that is completely wasted if it’s not consumed in one hit.

By splitting it down the middle, I hope it can be a more neatly packaged, more consumable offering and that it forces me to think a little bit more creatively to keep things interesting. One episode will be from the slower more progressive end of the spectrum (denoted by the yellow cover), while its sister episode (denoted by the red artwork) will be more for the trance purists. But there will be an element of crossover. Getting that crossover right will be the new challenge.

The other advantage of all this, of course, is that each single episode will tailor more directly to people’s tastes and moods. Even I, as a self-confessed lover of all trance’s many varieties, doesn’t always want to hear thumping 138+ stuff on a Monday morning train with a 2 day hangover.

In the long run, it will probably also help me cut down the length of my blog, and I’ll keep the longer entries for when I actually have something important (DJing-wise) to write about.

The other thing you will notice in the podcast in future weeks is that I’ll start playing a lot more old music. Whereas before I might have had a max of 3 older tracks in 2 hours (sometimes only 1), now it’ll be 2 or 3 per hour long episode.

As a group, most of my friends are acutely aware of the obvious differences between today’s trance and that of old. Some things about our more club-orientated trance music of today is great, but I’m keen to blend that with the rawer, often more subtle, feel of old on a more regular basis. It’s all about those mixing combinations. Also, I’m a firm believer that a tune you've forgotten about can have as much power as a great track you’re hearing for the first time. Maybe even more so, considering the power of attached memories

So, there’s the theory… let’s see how it works in practice. Let’s rock...


THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST EPISODE 51

1. Mell Tierra – Glazer [Tone Diary]
2. Vibrasphere - Purple (Jaia remix) [Tribal Vision Records]
3. EDU - Just One Pill [Napa Recordings]
4. Marcel Woods ‎– Lemon Tree [High Contrast Recordings]
5. Arisen Flame - All The Way [Arisen Music] <<<(Phil's Tune Of The Episode)>>>
6. Wamdue Project - King Of My Castle (Sander Van Doorn Remix) [CDR]
7. Super8 & Tab - Teardrops [Enhanced Recordings]
8. ReOrder & First Effect - Prometheus [Silent Shore Records]
9. Heatbeat - Game Over [Mainstage Music]
10. Aaron Camz - Cryptogram [Coldharbour Recordings]
11. Orkidea ‎– Beautiful [Sential Recordings] <<<(The Phil-Harmonic Golden Oldie)>>>

I'll be back in a week delivering you a higher tempo offering of material. Enjoy your Easter weekends. Catch you soon.

Sunday 17 March 2013

The Phil-Harmonic Podcast Episode 50



Without me even realising it, The Phil-Harmonic Podcast had its 2nd birthday a few weeks ago and, not long after, it reaches the arguably more significant milestone of 50 episodes.

In many ways, I think an unnecessary amount of fuss is made over milestones in some of the big trance podcasts and radio shows. I mean, no one is saying reaching 600 episodes of A State Of Trance, for example, is not staggeringly impressive, but when you’re doing an ever increasing number of live shows in just about every major city to mark the passing of 50, you start to wonder what is special about each milestone. (And surely, once you get to 500 the next milestone worth shouting about is really 1000.)

I said in this very blog at the end of 2011 that it was uplifting to see so many people engaging with ASOT 500 via mediums like Twitter on such a colossal scale; the buzz it created for trance was almost unprecedented. Yet now, while I hate sounding cynical, it almost feels like these things are becoming as annually predictable as Christmas and Easter on our Western calendars. It feels like killing the goose that laid the golden cultural egg.


That said, and despite my underlying cynicism, it would be very unlike The Phil-Harmonic Podcast to reach 50 episodes without doing something tenuously special. I don’t really need an excuse to leave my usual format and do something different. I would have loved to have hired out a bar somewhere here in London, put on a party and shared the resulting sets with the world to mark the occasion. But, while also making the preceding 2 paragraphs smack of hypocrisy, this would've obviously been getting way ahead of myself. Let’s not run before we can walk.

Now that the podcast is 2 years old, I can’t help but get nostalgic. I don’t mean nostalgic for the records that I've played on TPHP since it began. That wouldn't be particularly nostalgic for a start. I didn't want to do a review podcast as such. No, approaching 50 episodes actually got me thinking about my musical life before the podcast – particularly that window of years 2 or 3 years just after taking up DJing in 2007.

For so many reasons those years were a mixed bag. In fact, late 2008 and 2009 were tough years for me personally. Without going into any detail whatsoever, my point is that music was the only thing keeping me from going insane in that time. 2009 in particular was an incredible year for trance music – I was at the height of my Last.fm blogging period and consuming music as fast as ever. And the DJing was just about coming together. It was a welcome distraction.

As well as taking up DJing in 2007, in the same year I started doing overall ‘Reviews of the Year’ on Last.fm. Just like my Year Mixes now, they were called ‘That Was...’ (I never actually did a proper Year Mix in 2007, that came the year later.) These reviews included a Top 20 rundown of my trance and progressive favourites of the year.

For Episode 50, I've simply gone back to those charts and plucked the Top 4 from each - no editing; just exactly how the charts were when they were compiled. This is interesting, because it’s brought up the question of how well these tracks have stood the test of time, both for myself and other people.

By including 2011 in this equation there is some podcast overlap. But I stopped short of including 2012, simply because That Was 2012 has barely left my SoundCloud page.


2007
1. Re:Locate - Undercurrent
2. Above & Beyond - Home (Club Mix)
3. Ronski Speed, Stoneface & Terminal - Soulseeker (Stoneface & Terminal Remix)
4. Daniel Kandi - Child

2008
1. Sander Van Doorn - Apple (Marcus Schossow Remix)
2. Simon Patterson - Smack
3. Georgia - Ode To '99
4. Mike Foyle - Pandora (The Blizzard Remix)

2009
1. Jochen Miller - Brace Yourself
2. Richard Durand - Into Something (Fall Down Mix)
3. Sander Van Doorn presents Purple Haze - Bliksem
4. Randy Katana - The Hype

2010
1. tyDi feat. Tania Zygar – Vanilla (Ben Gold Remix)
2. Armin Van Buuren - Full Focus (Ummet Ozcan Remix)
3. Marcel Woods - Tomorrow
4. Super8 & Tab feat. Jan Burton - Empire

2011
1. Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (Chris Schweizer Bootleg)
2. Sander Van Doorn presents Purple Haze - Timezone
3. Bobina & Betsie Larkin - You Belong To Me
4. Marcus Schulz & Jochen Miller - Rotunda


The likes of Brace Yourself, Into Something and Apple, in particular, are tracks that when they make a return it’s like hearing them for the first time all over again. They have stayed with me always. (That in itself sounds like a contradiction, but you know what I mean.) Brace Yourself is actually one of the few tunes that gives me goose bumps every single time I hear it. Definitely, and without even a moment to reconsider, my favourite record of the last 6 years or so. 

Some are just clubbing memories that will be part of me forever. Like completely losing my shit (and I mean completely) to Vanilla at Creamfields 2010, Sander playing Bliksem in that 2009 Global Gathering set or hearing Smack twice in one evening seeing PvD at Nation in Liverpool in 2008. Soulseeker and Undercurrent instantly transport me back to being stood in my room at 3rd year Uni, in front of those Pioneer 100s – probably annoying the shit out of the couple living downstairs.

That only covers 2 hours though. And for some reason I felt uncomfortable leaving it at 2 hours. The set needed an extended period of more up-tempo stuff. I've handpicked a few gems, again with more than a few nostalgic touches.

Paul Miller’s remix of Spinning is one that me and my mates Nick and Si used to absolutely hammer in our little Friday night mixing sessions. So euphoric. On A Mission is a very personal choice, but was a highlight from my still talked about 7 hour set for Marc G’s birthday house party almost exactly 3 years ago – I vividly remember looking up as the riff played and everyone was smiling. Magic moment. I was definitely on a mission that night. (I say ‘still talked about set’ – I mean, I still talk about it a lot.)

Since I like to play a big “classic” at the end of each regular episode, I also thought it might be quite nice to play my favourite of the ones I've played in Eps 1-49. There were many good ones. Ferry’s remix of Adagio For Strings, Heaven Sent and Chakra – Home spring to mind. The one from Episode 49, Voller Sterne, was one of the best even. But Goldenscan – Only With You from Episode 11 is now pretty much my definition of the perfect trance song – and it grows on me with every passing year. Incidentally, it’s the oldest track in the set.

I can’t leave without a mention of our closing trancer. Why Altara? Where has that come from? Well, again, the whole idea of identifying your favourite tracks in a given year and then seeing how they stand up to the test of time is interesting. I look back at my yearly charts and still think “my, there are some quality tunes in there.” I wouldn't change much at all, if I'm honest. One thing that has definitely changed in the last 3 years is my love for Altara, which looking back, should really have been my Tune Of 2010 over Vanilla. This track has begun to speak to me in ways I can’t even put into words.... so I won’t even try.


THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST EPISODE 50

1. Super8 & Tab feat. Jan Burton – Empire [Anjunabeats]
2. Mike Foyle - Pandora (The Blizzard Remix) [Armind]
3. Sander Van Doorn presents Purple Haze feat. Frederick – Timezone [Doorn Records]
4. Jochen Miller - Brace Yourself [High Contrast Recordings]  <<<Phil's Tune Of 2009>>>
5. Sander Van Doorn presents Purple Haze – Bliksem [Doorn Records]
6. Marcel Woods – Tomorrow [High Contrast Recordings] 
7. Richard Durand - Into Something (Fall Down Mix) [Magik Muzik]
8. Bobina & Betsie Larkin - You Belong To Me [Maelstrom Records]
9. Above & Beyond - Home (Club Mix)  [Anjunabeats]
10. Marcus Schulz & Jochen Miller – Rotunda [Coldharbour Recordings]
11. Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (Chris Schweizer Bootleg) [CDR]  <<<Phil's Tune Of 2011>>>
12. Armin Van Buuren - Full Focus (Ummet Ozcan Remix) [Armind]
13. tyDi feat. Tania Zygar – Vanilla (Ben Gold Remix) [AVA Recordings]  <<<Phil's Tune Of 2010>>>
14. Sander Van Doorn - Apple (Marcus Schossow Remix) [Doorn Records]  <<<Phil's Tune Of 2008>>>
15. Ronski Speed, Stoneface & Terminal - Soulseeker (Stoneface & Terminal Remix) [Euphonic]
16. Randy Katana - The Hype [Reset Records]
17. Georgia - Ode To '99 [Levare Recordings]
18. Re:Locate - Undercurrent [Fundamental Recordings] <<<Phil's Tune Of 2007>>>
19. Daniel Kandi – Child [Anjunabeats]
20. Simon Patterson – Smack  [Reset Records]
21. Activa & Giuseppe Ottaviani – Long Way Back [Discover]
22. Luminary – Amsterdam (Smith & Pledger Remix) [Anjunabeats]
23. Ferry Tayle & Static Blue – Trapeze (Daniel Kandi’s Emotional Remix) [Enhanced Recordings]
25. Graeme Harrison – Xanthe [Flux Delux]
26. SoundLift – On A Mission [Blue Soho Recordings]
27. Bobina – Spinning (Paul Miller Remix) [Maelstrom Records]
28. Goldenscan – Only With You [A State Of Trance]  <<<Phil's Ultimate Oldie Of Episodes 1-50>>>
29. Adam Nickey – Altata [Anjunabeats]
30. ENCORE:  Carbon Based Lifeforms – Frog [Ultimae Records] (Taken from the album Interloper )

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one fine episode of The Phil-Harmonic Podcast. Consider this relatively modest milestone well and truly celebrated. The format is changing ... You will find out how next week. Until next time!

Saturday 2 March 2013

The Phil-Harmonic Podcast Episode 49




"The time has come to show people that nobody is nobody."

Hello all,

I don’t want to ramble on too much this week. One because life is hectic at the moment and, after getting royally smashed up by Bryan Kearney at The Energy Box last Saturday (and then going to MoS again the following Friday), beauty sleep is in high demand. And secondly, because I was lording it up about gigs and special episodes, I wrote enough last time out to cover two or three blogs. So let’s keep it short and sweet for Episode 49.

I have to hold up my hands up this week and say this particular episode is a little rough around the edges. Maybe just a few mistakes here and there that might be more noticeable than usual. But it more than makes up for that in terms of the tunes on offer. 22 tracks coming in comfortably within my current 2 hour marker; this episode is jam packed!

Episode 48 was a while in the making; I had a lot of big tunes building up in the background while we prepared the collaboration. In the end, I had an absolute f*ck tonne to choose from, really scaling the big room EDM spectrum from front to back. There are tunes in this that I’ve been patiently waiting to unleash for quite a while.

A fitting touch this week comes in the form of Skyfall as our opening track - since the DVD of the film was released very recently and Adele managed to pick up an Oscar for the music last weekend. I’m not really a fan of Adele’s output generally and I thought the film was generally quite overrated. But, this theme is a cracker and a stirring way to start the episode.

Other personal highlights are W&W’s new single with Ummet Ozcan (a lot of debate amongst the group about that one recently), a great return to form by Ferry Corsten with Kudawudashuda and the inescapable A State Of Trance 600 anthem. A slightly shorter uplifting part this week, but with some absolute gems all the same.

We end on a couple of belting, unmistakable classics, the second of which I've been trying to sneak into the podcast as our ‘final oldie’ for something like a year. Finally I've got it in. The ambient version of Voller Sterne has been my wake up alarm for a while now. It breaks my slumber at 6.30am every weekday. The Super8 remix is, for me, a defining and timeless trance record, one which elevates this episode onto another plane.



THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST EPISODE 49

1. Adele - Skyfall (Mark Eteson Remix) [CDR - Free Download]
2. Jochen Miller - Damnit [Big & Dirty Recordings]
3. W&W & Ummet Ozcan - The Code [Revealed Recordings]
4. Sebastian Krieg & Jerome Isma-Ae- M1 [Jee Productions]
5. Beat Service feat. Neev Kennedy - Not This Time [Beat Service Audio]
6. EDU - Evil Inside [Alter Ego Progressive]
7. Lange - Hold That Sucker Down [Lange Recordings]
8. Ferry Corsten - Kudawudashuda [Flashover Recordings] <<<(Phil’s Tune Of The Episode)>>>
9. Mark Sherry - Trailblazer [Reset Records]
10. Matt Davey - Neutrino [A State Of Trance]
11. Skytech - Out Of Nowhere [Coldharbour Recordings]
12. Richard Sander - Divorced People (ReOrder Remix) [Insight Recordings]
13. Johann Stone - Proton [NTR Blue]
14. Bjorn Akesson - Gunsmoke [Future Sound of Egypt]
15. Armin Van Buuren & Markus Schulz - The Expedition (ASOT 600 Anthem) [Armada]
16. Natlife – Space Colonization (Dima Krasnik Remix) [Redux Recordings]
17. Sonic Element & Solar Movement - Icewall [Borderline]
18. Robbie Van Doe - Drop Out [Discover Digital]
19. Chris Cockerill & Phil-Lee - Nobody Is Nobody (Darren Porter Remix) [Monster Tunes]
20. Matt Bukovski feat. Ellie Lawson - Breathe In Breathe Out (Uplifting Mix) [Adrian & Raz]
21. Ron Van Den Beuken - Sunset (Ron Van Den Beuken Remix) [Liquid Recordings]
22. Mirco De Govia - Voller Sterne (Super8 Remix) [Euphonic]


That’s all I’m saying this time around. You may be shocked to hear that this is in fact the last ‘regular’ 2 hour episode I’m doing for the foreseeable future. There will be many more podcasts; there will be 2 hour mixes among that. But the format is changing. If you haven’t already guessed, I will explain all in 2 weeks. See you then!