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Features Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022!

Interview with Chris C Reported by Tom Allen / Submitted 05-08-03 12:08 One of the hard house and trance scenes earliest stalwarts Chris C is a name instantly familiar with both DJs and clubbers alike. His 1999 release 'Freefall' proved to be a massive hit on the dancefloors and in his 9 years in the studio he's notched up nearly 80 releases over his own and other's labels. With the pending launch of his new label MOM2 it seemed like a good time to have a few words with him... Tom Allen asks the questions. Tom Allen: Where, when and why did you first get a taste for clubbing? Chris C: I dont think anyone acquires a 'taste' for it on purpose as such, they just go out and enjoy themselves and keep on doing it! I first started going out regularly in the early-80's when I first moved to London from Plymouth - quite a difference!! After living in a pretty quiet part of the country it came as quite a shock to cope with the 24 hour London culture! TA: What inspired you to take the first steps into getting involved in DJing and Production? Which came first for you? CC: Oh DJ'ing and it was completely by accident too! I was living in Derby at the time, around 1984. Because I had a pretty substantial record collection, I was asked to fill in for some DJ who went sick at a one-off club night. It seemed to go well and I ended up DJ'ing in the pub down the road twice a week for the next 2 years! Production didnt come along for another 10 years or so! TA: Apparently your first club residency was partly due to Tony De Vit offering you a one off slot - what's the story there? CC: Yeah, Tony and I had been mates for a year or two and we soon discovered this heavy, exciting stuff coming into the country fom the Continent (mostly Belgium, Holland and Italy). Because I was living down in London and he was up in Birmingham, he used to ask me to go record buying each week in Soho, just around the coner from my office in the West End. I used to grab all the new imports virtually as they hit the shop counters and take em up to his house at the weekend for him to play at his residency in the Nightingale Club. For a crowd expecting the likes of Kylie, Bananarama etc he was taking one hell of a risk!! Anyway, one Saturday night we'd got down to the Gale as usual around 10pm when Tony asked if I'd like to do a warm-up as it was quiet and he didnt really feel that keen to do 4 hours. So, I played about an hour and a halfs worth of tunes and thought no more about it. At the end of the evening the club manager introduced me to the owner of a club in Cardiff who promptly offered me the main Saturday night residency there! The rest, as they say, is history! Thanks Tone!! TA: What's your opinion on the current spate of releases cashing in on Tony's legacy? Would he have approved of all the remixes etc or be turning in his grave? CC: Jeez, put me on the spot, why dontcha!!! ha ha! I havent actually heard the remixes that have been released and I think its a matter of opinion as to whether they are 'cashing in' or merely exposing his work to a new audience who didnt have the good fortune to experince it first-hand when he was with us. I reckon Tony would be absolutely thrilled and flattered to be the subject of such adoration and attention! He was such a modest and down-to-earth sort of person, I guess he may even have felt slightly embarrassed by all the fuss too! TA: Do you work full time on DJing, production and the labels or is this still a part time thing. If still full time, how on earth do you find the time?!! CC: I have a full time job with the Defence Ministry and manage to get everything else on the DJ/Production/Label front done in my spare time. Its not as bad as you'd think actually. DJ'ing always comes at the weekend anyway, studio time is slotted in then too as well as on days off etc. Being able to plan and manage your time is a useful knack and being on a Flexi-time arrangement at work helps! TA: How many tracks have you had a hand in producing? What do you regard as the best tune that you've done and why? CC: At the last count it was approaching 80 releases (dont ask me how many tracks!!). Fortunately I cant think of anything I've released that I wished I hadn't but if I had to pick one track that I'm proudest of both technically and commercially it would have to be a toss-up bewteen 'Freefall' and my mix of Madam Zu & Jon Doe's '999 Matrix (The Red Pill)'. TA: What's happening with the old Mohawk label and why do you no longer have any involvement with it? CC: VERY sore subject! Contrary to what some people would have you believe, I parted company with Alphamagic, (with whom I set up Mohawk 4 years earlier) by mutual agreement last June for various reasons. They offered me the rights to Aztec and Piratewax but kept Mohawk for themselves as, it now seems, a vehicle for Euro Trance imports and remixes. There's still some unfinished business to attend to, including unpaid royalties, but I've now washed my hands of the label and am more interested in future projects. TA: Apache records was launched last year as a replacement for Mohawk. How are things progressing with that label, how has the reception been to your first tracks on it and what's in store for us? CC: Slowly but surely would be a good way of putting it. Apache was launched last November with 'Tokyo Telefon' and 'Boys Do' (which have both been signed up for an X-Box game at Christmas!) and although sales havent been stupendous (they rarely are with a brand new label) the upcoming release schedule looks both healthy, exciting and strong. The second release, 'Vengeance Is Mine' will be out at the end of September. I made it with Paul Maddox up at Tidy's studios and the reaction has been very strong so far. We remixed it wih DMF on the flip so it will hopefully do well. TA: You're launching a new label, MOM2 shortly. Tell us about your plans for the first few releases. CC: Well, I couldnt really have too many tracks backed up waiting release for months on end so it was a pretty easy decision to bring MOM back to life to relieve the pressure! I get asked all the time about the original releases from 5 or 6 years back and the initial plan was to put the trancier/NRG stuff out on MOM2 and the softer tracks on to Apache. However, 'Vengeance' has kind of forced a re-think on that score, ha ha! We have a stonking follow-up ready from Cally & Juice down in Wales, who are primarily known for their Hard Trance sets, which should really get them noticed outside the Principality and beyond! TA: How are you distinguishing the music policy on the two labels? The upcoming tracks we've heard from you are anywhere from trance to hard trance? CC: For now, I'm leaving the labels to find their own level and sound. It'll be a natural evolution in much the same way as Aztec and Mohawk developed. TA: Do you have any plans to release further tracks with prior collaborators like Madam Zu? CC: Absolutely! Actually, Julia and I have never made a track together so its a priority to rectify that particular situation as soon as possible. Now thats she's managed to get Nile Records up and running independently we'll probably end up doing loads of stuff for each other! We've always worked together extremely closely in the past and I consider her one of my dearest friends so its a natural step. TA: Are there any plans to resurrect your old labels Aztec and Pirate Wax? CC: No, not at this point, though who can tell what the future holds? TA: While we're on the topic, why the Indian theme to all your labels? CC: When I was thinking of a successor to MOM I wanted a name which incorporated a link, hence MO-Hawk. And when Aztec came about I just used a 'tribal' connection as a start point! Obviously, with Mohawk's pedigree and history and my starting afresh I'd be stupid not to emphasize the point so I plumped for 'Apache' and put together a striking logo that was 'close enough but far enough away' from the Mohawk logo I originally designed. TA: We understand you have a working relationship with a couple of DJs who've recently risen to a high profile in London with their Frantic gigs, Cally and Juice. What are your plans for working with them? CC: See above! They are really super guys and extremely talented both behind the decks and in the studio. I play their parties down in Wales very regulary and we're now working closely together, along with other DJ's, producers, promoters nation-wide on a new project that will, hopefully, bring them even more into the limelight next year. Expect them to REALLY make a name for themselves in 2004! TA: Your track 'Rise and Shine' with the Coldplay sample in it - is there any possibility of you getting that to an official release or will that one be buried under licensing problems? CC: We actually re-made the track with an original (but similar) piano riff which still does the biz and I even wrote lyrics and recorded a vocal version (featuring Gaylia) in order to avoid that problem! Its not the sort of track I could ever put out on Apache or MOM2 so hopefully somebody might come in and give it the exposure it needs?It was made as an experiment originally but I have to admit to being very pleased and proud with the end result. TA: What plans and upcoming gigs do you have on the DJing front? Anything you can tell us about there? CC: Like most of the 'middle-rankers' at the moment, I'm not as busy as I'd like to be or have been in the past. London is an absolute nightmare to break into and something I've criminally overlooked up till now, to my cost. I would dearly LOVE a residency or two in town at the moment, but the politics of London clubbing always seems to prevent it for some reason! I'm still whizzing up and down the motorways most weekends, though and the foreign trips are still coming in, which is a bonus! I'm off to play in San Francisco and Seattle at the end of September and Australia & Japan in December so no complaints on that score! TA: Which current producer and/or DJ to you admire most and why? CC: Glazby for arriving big time out of nowhere. Good luck to him! TA: Can we have 3 tracks from your record bag which you're really loving at the moment? CC: 'The Sign' - Twi-Tek Project (Apache), 'This Is How It Should Be Done' - Cally & Juice (MOM2), 'Dynamic Boots' - Banjo Worx (Bash) TA: Anything else you'd like to add? CC: Nope, just thanks or the chance to take some space up on your site! TA: Thanks for your time Chris. CC: Thank YOU! Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Tom Allen: Hardhouse Academy Preview: Interview with Nuw Idol The Thirsty DJs Interview with DJChewy Lashed Preview 2: Interview with Charlotte Birch Interview with Nick Rafferty Interview with Jana The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: CheekyMarc on 7th Aug 2003 12:47.43 This is probably my first post on harderfaster in about a year, but I felt I had to share my thoughts on here as to me he's one of the top guys in the hard 'dance' scene. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen Chris play now and it's always been a mystery to me why he's not got a higher profile in London - on the south coast especially Bournemouth he's got a huge following. Complete cliche I know, but he is one of the nicer DJ's on the circuit and is always willing and able to give time to the clubbers that come and see him, which is probably reflected in the fact that so many people tuurn out to his gigs.. and probably also due to the fact of his generousity with the vinyl after his sets!! If you've not heard a chance to hear his back catalogue then I'd thoroughly recommend checking out the two Mohawk compilation CDs he's been responsible for. I see Piers has given him a few run outs down at Milk recently so if you've not had the chance to catch him do so on his next time at 414. Keep up the good work Mr C - Run Amok! From: glen gavin on 15th Aug 2003 19:22.58 massive respect to Chris, he is an absolute star! Chris recently appeared on my radio show - 'the bangers & mash-up show' and he was the perfect guest. He is so down to earth! his tune selection was wicked, & he was nice enuff to give me a promo disc of all the forthcoming stuff on apache & MOM2 (which i've been caining on the show). He is definitely right about cally & juice. They're new tune - this is how it should be done is amazing! it's been in the bangers & mash - up top 5 for three weeks now & looks set for a while longer yet!!!! Hats off to Chris He is the man!!!!!! from Glen Gavin

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