Posts tagged ‘Shy Fx’

September 11, 2017

Reading Festival 2017 Was Another Year of Triumph [Review]

Reading Festival as always brought hoards of festival goers over to the Richfield site. Still clinging onto to it’s Rock roots, the festival now also caters to pretty much all music tastes from Grime to Hip-Hop, Indie, House and Drum & Bass, it’s a festival where no one can adhere to one genre.

 Arriving quite late on the Friday, we managed to catch a bit of Sub Focus, Shy FX and Mist over at the NME, Dance Stage and BBC Radio 1Xtra stages. Sub Focus had the stage packed dropping their own classics such as ‘Endorphins,’ whilst Shy FX as always impressed with his D&B sounds playing his own classic bangers including ‘Feelings,’ and Congo Natty’s ‘Junglist.’ Mist smashed his performance full force with his hit single ‘Karla’s Back’ amongst others.

 

Saturday began in the BBC Radio 1Xtra tent watching South London artist Cadet who hyped the crowd up with his DJ first then exploded onto the stage with a mad energy. 67 were up next and the crowd seemed to know all of the lyrics to the Brixton Hill rap crew’s tracks.

The highlight though of Saturday night had to be Major Lazer on the main stage and of course Eminem. Major Lazer brought a pure carnival theme to their set for everyone who was missing out the fun at Nottinghill over the weekend. As darkness descended we were treated to their full electronic party sound, which had all of the fields of the outdoor Main Stage dancing whilst the lights flashed across us. The dancers on the stage gave festival goers extra ammunition to party harder too.

 Around 80,000 people flooded to the Main Stage to watch Eminem the headliner of Saturday night. He got everyone to chant ‘Fuck Trump’ before playing a quite large set list including ‘White America,’ ‘Solider,’ ‘Real Slim Shady,’ ‘Stan,’ and much more. He walked off stage and some people left, whilst others are crying for him to reappear which he did ending his set on ‘Lose Yourself.’ The rap icon will never disappoint.

Sunday began with Birmingham Grime emcee Jaykae at the BBC Radio 1Xtra stage who impressed us with his energy and passion at his early set of 1.30pm. He performed his well-known tracks ‘Pull Up,’ and ‘Toothache,’ which was recently featured on TV show Power.

The king of Sunday had to be Giggs though who performed on the Main Stage at 5.30pm. He opened with ‘3 Wheel Ups’ spitting his verse of the Kano tune and JME’s ‘Man Don’t Care’ getting the crowd really buzzing. Then out jumped Drake for ‘KMT’ and more people had run across the field to catch the Canadian star. It was a big moment, but Drake hopped off the stage letting the main man Giggs take care of his set that led onto his old skool tracks ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’ and ‘Talkin The Hardest.’

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June 8, 2016

WE ARE FSTVL 2016 DELIVER ANOTHER STELLAR SHOW [Review]

We Are FSTVL made its return, for its fourth year last weekend for the late May bank holiday weekend. Bespoke Mag made it’s way down for the Saturday along with 50,000 other House, Drum & Bass and electronic dance music lovers. Held in Upminster, Essex  the festival dealt with a real treat in the sunshine with the biggest names in Dance  gracing the stage including headliners Fatboy Slim, DJ Fresh and Sigma on the main stage.

The first DJ we saw shelling down Shy FX at 6pm in the UKF tent and unfortunately with the tent being so busy we were stopped by bouncers as we made our way inside so had to find a spot outside. Surprisingly, he opened his set with Giggs “Look What The Cat Dragged In” which we wasn’t expecting from the legend, but we wasn’t complaining! He went into another Giggs classic before mashing up the set with a mixture of Grime, Jungle and Drum & Bass like a true master.

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We made our way to the main stage to watch Sigma shut things down. The sun was still shining as the guys played to a busy crowd with the best in Drum & Bass with tunes such as Chase & Status’ “No Problems” their tracks “Lighters” and “Nobody To Love” and more. They killed it for the ravers, especially the Drum & Bass crew with their banging tunes.

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Preditah, the Birmingham DJ, who is known for his harrowing Grime beats, but also dabbles  in House amongst other genres was the next act up. The UKF tent was still so packed we remained in our nice spot outside. We listened to some of the best tracks in the sunshine of a mixture of beats such as Kano’s “Garage Skank” and Solo 45’s massive festival tune “Feed Em To The Lions”.

We headed to the main stage again to catch the headliner of Saturday’s We Are FSTVL; Fatboy Slim. Known as one of the most prolific and in-demand dance DJs his set was one not to be missed. As we touched the outdoor arena of the main stage we heard the huge track “Eat Sleep Rave Repeat” and the crowd was going absolutely wild. We also heard a re-worked “Praise You”, The Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache” and more whilst lasers blasted across the sky above us and smiley face balls were descended across the crowd.

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July 16, 2015

Electric Daisy Carnival 2015 [Review] (@edc_uk)

Over 35,000 people headed to the Bowl,  a large space that allowed festival goers to explore free at the Milton Keynes setting. As we entered, the looming Kinetic CATHEDRAL stage, that was shipped-in from America was set at 90 foot tall and 240 foot wide with blazing flames, waterfalls set on the stage, and the symbolic owls with their glaring eyes that moved every so often watching over the ravers.

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EDC isn’t just about the music, it’s literally a playground of fun with carnival rides  art installations which mold glass, fire, metal and lights into interactive displays with performers such as dancers, stilters, aerialists, circus performers and more.

Arriving at 3pm we managed to reach the circuitGROUNDS hosted by Bassrush to firstly catch half of Mistajam’s set where he played old skool classics and some cheese, warming everyone up for the drum & bass sets to come. Shy FX then came on to bring the classics such as “Feelings”, “Shake Your Body” and more with host Stamina. Drum & Bass duo Sigma then touched the stage playing hits such as “Nobody To Love”.

We headed to the main KineticCATHEDRAL stage to catch Dutch electronic dance act Sick Individuals who have had No.1 singles worldwide who played a pretty astonishing set living up to their credentials as rising stars. Rushing back to the circuitGROUNDS stage to catch one of my favourite DJ’s Friction. He smashed his set playing tracks such as ‘Kingpin’ which features P Money & Scrufizzer.

Welsh DJ High Contrast was up next on the same stage who is part of the Hospital Records family and produced one of my ultimate favourite tracks ‘”If We Ever”  which he played half way through the set made the crowd stay still hyped after Friction and smashed track after track. I left after that track to catch a bit of Steve Aoki from North America at the main stage who mellowed the tone after the D&B playing his famous house tracks.

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Only a few acts left and I headed back to CircuitGROUNDS to watch Sub Focus and then back to the main stage to watch Tiesto who mixed up his set with an Ashanti beat and played Drake’s ‘Crew Love’ in between dance classics. The setting on the kinceticCATHEDRAL while he was playing was magical, as the lazer show kicked off through the hour set in the sky and the whole stage was lit up as people swarmed to the main arena. The lights were captivating and everyone was up dancing watching the fireworks which went off all throughout the set.

August 12, 2014

MTV The Wrap Up: Global Gathering 2014 [Review]

Global Gathering returned to the pretty, historical town of Stratford-upon-Avon to bring us the best in electronic music in two days of partying. The festival has been going for 13 years now, and each year festival goers can listen to 12 hours per day of music, this is definitely for the hardcore ravers.

Main stage acts included the legendary Andy C who literally played tune after tune on his hour long set on the Saturday, keeping the drum & bass ravers exceptionally happy. Jaguar Skills brought his mixing skill to the table blending hip-hop, funk, dub, drum & bass and everything in between. Major Look warmed up the sitting down crowd nicely with his early 1pm set getting everyone up. Annie Mac also smashed the main set in pure dance style that only she can do. Netsky was a firm favourite of mine on the Friday and Chase & Status who headlined on Friday completely smashed it with their light effects and music.

Apart from the main stage the UKF tent, Hospitality and 1Xtra tent was where I spent most of my time. Wilkinson played to a rammed UKF tent with an exceptional set playing well-known tracks such as ‘Afterglow’ and ‘Too Close’. Friction also played a standout set as always but unfortunately no special guests were present. I also caught a bit of Matrix & Futurebound and Digital Soundboy’s Shy FX who played a pure class set of jungle and drum & bass.

Hospitality set up on the Saturday too and I ventured over various times to watch and listen to the sounds of High ContrastSigma and Camo & Krooked. Sigma played their single which has taken over the airways ‘Nobody To Love’ getting the crowd singing along to every word, and showcased some other great tunes. Welsh drum & bass producer and DJ High Contrast played a fantastic set to a highly lively and energetic crowd for an hour.

I also managed to catch a bit of Toddla T and Mungos Hifi over at Ram Jam. Overall the festival was one of my favourites of the year so far, full of energy and a great crowd, and managed to keep me up on my feet dancing for pretty much the whole time. See you there next year!

February 24, 2012

B.Traits – ‘Fever’ (Toddla T & DJ Q remix)

The first lady of Digital Soundboy, B.Traits, teams up with legendary vocalist Elisabeth Troy for Fever, her debut single release, out 25th March on Digital Soundboy Recordings.

In a male dominated scene B.Traits AKA Canadian Brianna Price, is one girl who can more than hold her own with the likes of labelmates Breakage, Redlight and label boss Shy FX. Since moving to the UK she’s been stealing the show at Digital Soundboy’s parties and now she taking over the studio too, ripping up the rulebook as she goes.

Her debut single Fever makes no apologies for what it is, a sure fire party starter that tips its snapback cap to those classic rave and garage anthems of the past whilst still sounding utterly fresh for 2012.

Featuring the vocals of UK Garage royalty, Elisabeth Troy, who appeared on MJ Cole’s biggest hits, ‘Fever’ perfectly showcases the talent that grabbed Shy FX’s attention, capturing the energy of B’s live shows and showing just why she’s become an integral member of Digital Soundboy’s inner circle.