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benz
Starting Member
United Kingdom
18 posts
Joined: Sep, 2006
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 Posted - 2006/11/15 : 10:18:23
HappyHardcore.com member benz takes a look at Hardcore live performance (PA) groups, talks to a few of the best and clears up a few questions ahead of the UK event Tasty's 5th Birthday Hardcore Live PA Extravaganza:
MCing has always been an integral part of the hardcore scene. From day one, a hardcore DJ has almost always been backed up by the vocal musings of the MC, and it's in part this long-standing tradition of vocal accompaniment that has laid the foundation for the rare, but increasingly popular hardcore PA.
PA stands for "public appearance"and is used to describe when a track will be performed "live". The "live" basically means that the vocals are sung live, while the music is usually just played off CD/record underneath. As time went on and technology developed further, it has become possible to create a fully live experience - where the music is actually programmed in real time on a computer by the producer, as well as the vocals being recreated there and then. There can be PAs without vocals, but generally in the rave scene it's this combination which is used.
Live hardcore pioneers The Nu Energy Collective have been doing their stunning live show for a good few years now, and have sent waves through the hard dance and hardcore scenes with their innovative approach to live dance music. The 4 members Kevin Energy, K-Complex, Sharkey and Arkitech work together to seamlessly blend pre-programmed drum patterns, samples and basslines with live keyboard playing, scratching and vocals. They also proved that it's easily possible to overlap the boundaries between hard dance and hardcore, often going from 150 BPM to 180BPM in the course of just one hour. Seeing 4 of them all working together in synergy on stage is vastly more visually exciting than just seeing one guy pissing about the a laptop, and their stage performer Vinny definitely helps in that department. "We've got a super secret stage show idea we've been working on with our dancer and Green Man Vinny" K-Complex tells us. "It's going to be an interactive piece so look out during our next big show!" He's also positive about the wider situation with the evolution of the live PA in dance music. "Recently there's been a lot of innovation going on (think [hard dance stars] Greg Brookman's guitarist and Michael Jackson impressionist...) and we certainly don't think it's enough to just stand there and prod a laptop."
CLSM (a.k.a. Jon Doe and co) have been another of the true innovators in the hardcore PA scene. Back when he was focusing on hard dance in the early Noughties, he used to painstakingly put together has live show on Cubase - which wasn't exactly designed for live performance like the now-industry standard Ableton Live is - and with the help of Lee James scratching away over the top of his set, he created a truly exciting live experience that would eventually lead to his even more impressive CLSM live shows. At their fullest, these performances would combine his awesome hardcore/dnb/trance hybrid music with live vocals from the likes of ex-Hollyoaks star Stefan B and Nikki Mak and bizarre stage performances. No-one has yet matched these guys for the sheer madness of their performances, and it's going to be a pretty mean feat to top what they have done in the past. They have even thrown intimate parties in caves Ebut let's not go into that right now...
V.A.G.A.B.O.N.D. emerged as one of the most exciting, eclectic talents the hardcore scene has produced in recent years, and he's recently been performing his live show across the country. "The way I currently work it is to have a series of stripped down tracks sequenced together" he says, "with gaps in the mix for vocals, main keyboard riffs, pianos etc. I have worked with MCs Casper and Wotsee on a lot of tracks, so I take their samples out and let them do their thing over the top. Thankfully, Tess [the vocalist] is a superb singer and highly experienced with live performance so we don't even bother having a backing track to fall back on." Feedback has been very strong from the few live PAs that he and his merry crew have performed, not least from the totally rammed Hardcore Heaven event at Koko recently. "The last gig, at Koko...was the smoothest yet. The crowd seemed to love it and there was a lot of positive feedback. It's always good fun to be on stage playing the keyboard and banging out my tunes to a club full of up-for-it ravers."
Meanwhile a more recent addition to this small group of 'ardcore pioneers are Paradise - a group known more for knocking out big vocal trance anthems of a rather commercial nature. With the help of some remixes from the likes of Sy & Unknown, they are slowly making the transition towards the hardcore scene with some massive euphoric reworks of their tracks. The originals are hardly miles away from trancey vocal hardcore, and naturally the remixes work a treat. They will be performing some tracks live at Tasty's 5th Birthday, and from the sounds of their reactions to seeing their tracks dropped by DJs in clubs - they are pretty excited about this prospect. "It's such a huge huge buzz! The hardcore scene's ravers are so energetic and up for it, so to see the reaction to 'See The Light' when it's dropped is phenomenal! 2,000 party people signing the chorus, that's special! Onwards and upwards, look out for much more to come in 2007... "
There's been a few others in recent years...Dougal's Essential Platinum Live PA springs up every now and then with great results for instance...but I don't think I'm alone in saying that it would be great to see more artists sticking their neck out and trying to do something different at raves rather than just playing a succession of CDs and vinyl. Now that the technology to perform such sets is easy to get hold of, there's no reason not to...
If you're lucky enough to be in the UK, Tasty's 5th Birthday takes place on December 2nd at The Renaissance Rooms in London, UK. Featuring Live PAs from Paradise, CLSM feat. Nikki Mak, Darren Styles feat. MC Junior, DJ Unknown feat. Lou Lou and many others. See http://www.tastyuk.com for more details.
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Edited by - benz on 2006/11/15 10:20:45 |
Hardcore4eva
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1,518 posts
Joined: Jun, 2004
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Posted - 2006/11/15 : 10:26:02
surprisingly enough I actually cant be arsed to read all that!
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I think you have got me confused with someone that actually gives a FUK.....................
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benz
Starting Member
United Kingdom
18 posts
Joined: Sep, 2006
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Posted - 2006/11/15 : 10:31:45
erm it's really not that long mate.
It's a front page article.
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Spoone
Senior Member
United Kingdom
334 posts
Joined: Feb, 2006
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 Posted - 2006/11/15 : 15:40:48
good stuff. You have a decent writing style
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Yes its time, time for the bassline!
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benz
Starting Member
United Kingdom
18 posts
Joined: Sep, 2006
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Posted - 2006/11/15 : 15:55:54
thank you sir - it;'s my job!
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Leelo1
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
825 posts
Joined: Jan, 2003
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Posted - 2006/11/18 : 18:42:02
thats smooth that m8 good read an opened up al the elements to a "live PA" 2me i had a ruff idea but thats prettie in depth .cheers !
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OI
Dont tell mom am double dropping
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