Molecule @ Syrup (31/08/02)
Reported by Tristan Sunday, September 1 2002
MISSION COMMENCED
TIME: 0945 29AUG02
PLACE: Secret FD HQ
Codename FD Fugitive: Your mission should you choose to accept it is to review and conquer, the event known only as Molecule, the natural progression from Particle to be held at Syrup this Saturday, featuring 11 Local DJ?s and two national live trance acts.
Codename Tristan: I need more information, what type of opposition will I face?
Codename FD Fugitive: Well, once you have infiltrated through the outer cordon of local stars, you?ll reach Sugar and Great Leap Forward who will be armed with a blend of freaky beats, disco loops and psychadelic sound scapes as well as a sound comprised of a fusion between psy, progressive and tribal trance with a percussive focus.
Codename Tristan: Mission Possible and accepted.
With this difficult, yet achievable task in mind and masked by the cover of darkness, this FD secret agent penetrated Syrup?s friendly security at 2330 with special tools notebook and pen. First to face me on the top floor was Damon, playing progressive house on the deep end of the scale. While the set wasn?t overpowering, an early warm up shouldn?t be the one to tear the roof off.
Eventually proving to be the most troublesome of the Molecule contenders, Gillie burst onto the stage hitting back with some melodic deep tech progressive house and lots of bassline driven nu-skool prog. Quickly building up an army of followers who emerged from nowhere onto the dancefloor, this warrior had many tricks up his sleeve including playing with the channel volume fader during breakdowns to rev his frantic dancefloor followers up even further. Whenever I thought I had him beaten, he came back with quality tribal and hard progressive. After fighting dirty with Slam?s ?Virtuoso?, I knew this man was invincible and I was forced to find another avenue of approach. But as all looked lost, during the mix out of Slam, it was cut too early leaving the incoming tune to take too many phrases to establish itself, and I seized this opportunity and won the battle. Later I realised this was a very brave move as Gillie had not dropped his guard and was simply signifying the move into trance to allow Sugar to take over.
Nothing ventured nothing gained however, so I moved ahead to forge a path through the Molecule defences. Post mission analysis indicates the confrontation with Gillie was the most dangerous as it all got easier from there. Starting with some unfulfilling by the numbers psy trance, Sugar was somewhat of a pushover but the slave who got his shirt signed ten minutes into the set obviously had more faith and confidence in his ability than me. Playing a rather monotonous set consisting of a form of subdued epic psy trance, he always promised to explode out of the blocks, but after a number of letdowns I moved downstairs to mop up any remains. From then on accomplishing the mission was a mere formality as Chris B informed me he had already played, depriving me of any possible challenger for what remained of the mission.
Craving a challenge, I headed back upstairs and spent the time sparring with Sugar until Great Leap Forward (GLF) came on. Catering to the crowd, GLF kept the pace up keeping the melody minimal and beats solid and consistent. Gillie?s minions had stayed on the dance floor and were dancing around clearly loving every second of the sound being produced.
Now anyone reading this, take a deep breath and make sure you are seated. At this stage, deep into the mission, when faced with a choice between SpinFx playing breaks downstairs and GLF upstairs, I made a choice to confront SpinFX?s dancefloor cavalry. Yes I chose breaks over trance, and what was more shocking ? I enjoyed it!. This unforeseen eventuality forced me to form a contingency plan, which was quickly put into action and after a quick yet casualty ridden battle, he was over powered and I moved back upstairs to finish GLF off.
With the GLF sound containing more stabs than Ghostface inflicted upon Randy in the TV van, the mission took a decided turn for the worse as GLF begun to win me over and take control of my body on the dancefloor. However even though I did start to get into it, the break in concentration to phone Tas Rail to enquire about a runaway train, never permitted his harder energetic style of psy trance and tribal psy trance to offer me enough to make me drop my defences.
Syrup?s visual and aural tools consisted mainly of some good psychedelic swirly patterns and some at times excellent lighting. While the sound was clear with plenty of punch, it did lack depth to a certain degree, leading to the conclusion that while a good venue for big club nights, for events of this style and size then perhaps other arena?s need to be scrutinised.
Time: 1515 01SEP02
Place: Secret FD HQ
Codename FD Fugitive: Congratulations on another successful mission. The one by the moniker of Gillie seems to have a very effective style, I think we?ll have to keep an eye on him in future. Any other problems?
Codename Tristan: Yes, while Sugar and GLF posed no challenge to me, they do have a large frenzied following in the Hobart area. Ensure the sources track their movements as their aural appeal may well confront this agency again.
MISSION TERMINATED
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