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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! DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! Goa based party animal and artist extraordinaire Nirmal talks punk concerts, metal sculptures, flying and rippin' it up on a High Tide! DJ Wired talks to us about the Rise of the Hope and parties, ahead of his upcoming set at Tribal Village on 14th January 2022!

Carving up hard house with Butcher Boy Reported by K8-e / Submitted 09-02-09 08:00 Dale Fairbairn aka Butcher Boy may be better known to some of you as one third of the almighty Omega 3. Sailing the hard house seas with Captain Tinrib and "Scuba" Steve Arnold, Dale has had an amazing 18 months with the anthem Fishy Situations being played by everyone from Justin Bourne and Andy Farley to Dave in his bedroom, signings to Vicious Circle, appearances on Tidy compilations and of course the release of the Omega 3 album. But Butcher Boy has been making some waves of his own with solo releases on Oktane, Toolbox, Deprivation and Mad Cow and running his hugely popular Carbon Recordings imprint. I thought it was about time we met the man behind the cleaver! So Butcher Boy is quite an unusual name – there must be a story behind it, so where did it come from? Well when I moved from New Zealand to London back in 2000 I was actually a trained butcher; all my flatsmates at the time where calling me DJ Sausage which was a real worry haha! So that's when Butcher Boy born. How did you originally get into hard house and when did you start djing? Well at the time of coming over to the UK in 1999, I moved into a shared house with loads of other Kiwis and Aussies, we used to have massive house parties in North Finchely every month really. So I had kind of had no choice really, from then on I had the Hard House bug. How long have you been producing tunes and what inspired you to create music rather than just play it? I had been playing for nearly 3 years at the time, and to be honest I never really thought about making tracks as I was playing a lot and was doing well. It wasn't until I meet Dan Madams and had a good talk I realised that all I need to do was book some time with a engineer to get the ball rolling. So I booked some time with DMF and me a friend made a track with him. After that I wanted to learn myself and started the long road to learning the programs and buying the gear I needed to get going. And I did a course in London to learn how to use Cubase. I read you engineer all your solo work (tracks like “Its like that”, “The Gateway”, "Puma Remix", On & On Remix for Deprivation) – what are your weapons of choice in the studio? Do you have any favourite pieces of hardware or VSTs? Logic 8 is what I use as my platform. My favourite VST's would be Sylenth 1, Ableton 6 and Korg Legacy. Of course sticking with your productions people will also be familiar with your Omega 3 guise where you, Scuba Steve and the good Captain Tinrib came together and created the album Lost at Sea when you were all in New Zealand last year. Were you surprised at the frenzy your tunes were generating this side of the world, in particular Fishy Situations became somewhat of an anthem and was signed to two Tidy Weekender CDs and played by just about anyone who was anyone? Yes Steve and I where both blown away by the response, people like Justin Bourne, Paul Glazby and Andy Farley playing our tunes was a dream come true as we used to go out in London to see these guys play years ago. It was very hard being in New Zealand when getting emails from DJs telling us where they played our tunes, we just wanted to see it for ourselves. We ended getting 5 tracks off the album on different compilation CDs. Its all seemed a little surreal at the time to be honest. I know the question is on a lot of people’s lips so do you have any plans to work together as a trio again? Good question! Well Steve and I would love to carry on with Omega 3, but I guess we will have to wait and see. Of course Fishy Situations then went on to become the first release on your much acclaimed label Carbon Recordings. Were you always planning to start Carbon with something like Fishy Situations from your own production bag or was that just fortunate timing? I had always been interested in starting my own label. And how it came about was that Jon had originally planned on releasing a picture disc on Tinrib recordings of some of the Omega 3 tracks, but decided against it last minute. So I saw it as the perfect chance to start my own label, I made Steve A&R Manager and I run the day to day of Carbon, which works well. What do you look for in a tune when signing it to Carbon? It's a tough one, but in general we look for a track that has a uplifting feel to it, top quality production and no hoovers! I think if people want to make something for our label to look at signing they really just need to listen to the tracks we have signed already. As I understand it Carbon in still very much a vinyl label but this year has seen many changes on that front with scene heavyweights Tidy, Vicious and Flashpoint moving to different delivery models to serve their customers – what are your plans in that vein for Carbon? Carbon is a vinyl label still although we always knew that vinyl wasn't going to last that long when we started Carbon. We have a couple more vinyl releases sorted, we will be looking to change totally to CD and digital by the end of 2009 though, there really isn't the demand for vinyl like there used to be. How is the upcoming Carbon schedule shaping up – what releases can we look forward to in 2009? Well first up in 2009 is our first compilation which we are doing with Spinball records which we are very excited about as its something new for us. CBN07: Carl Nicholson and Jody 6 - Just Let The Music Take Control + James Lawson Remix CBN08: Butcher Boy - Mind Control + Dective Audio & Hifreak1c - Slow Vibration CBN09: James Nardi & Scott Genetik - Gridlock Groove + Butcher Boy - Elation Tell me more about the compilation Spinball then - it sounds pretty special!? Very special! It's a CD compilation for both Carbon and Spinball and it's a double CD. The first disc is mixed by Defective Audio and myself featuring the best new tracks from both labels, a fourteen tracker. Then the second CD is a 10 track CD of unreleased material from both labels and there's some seriously good tunes on there. We will see this released at the start of February 2009. Velvet Hammer Mixed By Defective Audio & Butcher Boy (CD 1). 1. Defective Audio & Steve Gillen - Mutha Boosh (Spinball) 2. Defective Audio & HiFreq1C - Slow Vibration (Carbon) 3. Richard Toomz - Chorizo (Kaktai) 4. Butcher Boy - Elation (Carbon) 5. Defective Audio & The Tom - Norton Effect (Spinball) 6. BenTownsend - Matt's Song (Carbon) 7. Andy Farley & Base Graffiti - Jibberjab (Carbon) 8. Butcher Boy - Mind Control (Carbon) 9. Defective Audio & Butcher Boy - (Spinball) 10. Defective Audio & Karl Davis - DJ Rave (Spinball) 11. Defective Audio - Loganberry (Spinball) 12. Scott Genetic & James Nardi - Gridlock Groove (Carbon) 13. Defective Audio, Weasal & Firefox - Twisted Mission (Spinball) 14. Base Graffiti - Code Jam (Spinball exclusive) 15. Equinox - Bronx Boppers (Carbon) Velvet Hammer Unmixed DJ full Tracks CD 2. 1. Dave Curtis - Weekender (Carbon) 2. Carl Nickolson & Jody 6 - Let The Music Take Control (Carbon) 3. Butcher Boy - Elation (Carbon 009) 4. Scott Genetic & James Nardi - Gridlock Groove (Carbon) 5. Ben Townsend - Lost (Carbon) 6. Defective Audio - Bad Guy Smoked (Spinball) 7. Defective Audio & The Tom - Norton Effect (Spinball) 8. Defective Audio - Nice Move Son (Spinball) 9. Defective Audio & Butcher Boy - Dirty Dog (Spinball) 10. Base Graffiti - Code Jam (Spinball exclusive) You started your djing and clubbing career in the UK then moved to New Zealand until last year when you moved back over here, but now I believe you are/were living in Sweden. You must have itchy feet! What are your plans for 2009 – will you be back in the UK? Yes I have been moving around a bit lately, had a lot of fun in London while I was back, got to work with a lot of people while I was there. The time I spent in Sweden was just with my wife's family really, way too cold there for me! I'm back in New Zealand now which I am really happy about. I am planning on coming back to the UK near the end of the year for about 3 weeks. How was the Swedish hard house scene – is there one? Mmmmm Hard House I don't think they even know what that is haha, if there was a scene there I couldn't find it. Who have been the stand out producers of 2008 for you and who do you think are the ones to watch in 2009? James Nardi since he started engineering I think he's at the top of his game at the moment; another one for me would have to be Ben Townsend he's just getting better and better; and I couldn't forget Dave Curtis, he's coming along way too. Dom as always can't be faulted, he's a machine. All these guys are going to rock 2009 for sure. With Justin Bourne and Marc Johnson both hanging up their headphones last year times are certainly changing for the shape of hard house as we know it. What do you think needs to happen for hard house to weather the storm and come through stronger on the other side? I think Hard House needs to change format to digital and embrace it, move with the times and people's buying habits. It is sad to see guys like Justin Bourne and Marc Johnson go, but life does go on and there are loads of great djs and producers coming up though the the ranks. I think the things that is holding Hard House back a bit is the fact that its got so fast, when Hard House was bigger its was a lot slower indeed. I know in 2009 I will be making tunes more around the 140 -145bpm region not the 150bpm I was doing in 2008. Any final words? Please check out my new tunes on http://www.myspace.com/primecuts and Carbons tracks at http://www.carbonrecordings.co.uk. For those of you down under come and see me at Born2Bang in Auckland on 7th March! Thanks Dale! Photos copyright Dale Fairbairn, not to be reproduced without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By K8-e: The One and Only Eddie Halliwell PunchFunk & Geushky Presents "Let's Make Rave" with Ian Void & Chris Vaux Cream @ Amnesia - Ibiza 2010 - Reviewed Pure Gold: Interview with Will Gold Turning the Corner - Interview with IAMX 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: karl davis on 10th Feb 2009 19:11.45 Top bloke and great cd from himself and the master Dom!! keep it rockin' dude. kd From: pocock on 10th Feb 2009 19:21.30 savage read dale mate hope to catch u soon man be good. From: kevsey.d on 12th Feb 2009 16:36.07 Great read... From: dave curtis on 12th Feb 2009 18:25.26 wicked stuff mate, thanks for the mention! although - no hoovers? you have heard weekender haven't you?! haha! From: Stevi D on 13th Feb 2009 09:47.52 Wicked flyer buddy! From: Ringleader on 13th Feb 2009 19:20.24 Butcher boy sounds about as gay as Ringleader lol good shit dale From: Neats on 16th Feb 2009 18:22.33 Born 2 Bang flyer - yay nice one Tania M

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