- It was almost exactly a year ago to the day that the Halcyon (then Altitude) crew brought out international stars Steve Helstrip (a.k.a Thrillseekers) and Daniel Soto, and it was time for Halcyon to become a global spectacle once again. Matt Darey was the guest of honour on this occasion, the UK trance dj/producer responsible for a number of all-time classic tracks over the years including two of the most powerful vocal trance tracks ever written ‘Liberation’ and ‘Beautiful,’ and he set out to make it a memorable evening for all in attendance.
I arrived customarily early to soak up the tunes of Diggs & Morro, who have been stringing together some very impressive progressive sets of late. Knocking back a couple of beers to the likes of Junkie XL’s remix of Conjure one – ‘Centre of the sun’ and the massive Will Saul – Cliff (Infusion remix) was the perfect way to kick of the evening. They moved into some of the more melodic stuff they have built their names around towards the end of their set, dropping the classic ‘Not over yet’ as well as an as yet untitled track produced by local boy Marek Panasko which sounded great! With the trance kicking in it wasn’t long before the steadily building crowd were pumped up nicely for the commencement of Matt Darey.
After a delayed start, and with the anticipation building, the man we were all waiting to see finally stepped up behind the decks at around 12:30pm (having originally been scheduled to start at 12 – in consideration for all the Uni students out there with exams approaching!) Some problems with the booking agent seemed to be the reason behind this delay, and the guys behind Halcyon and Gas should be congratulated for sorting out this difficult and somewhat unnecessary dilemma as swiftly as possible.
All drama’s aside, Matt Darey proceeded to drop a couple of massive tunes to open up his set, including his own Li Kwan – ‘Point zero’ and Motorycle – ‘As the rush comes’ (Armin van Buuren remix), and took things in very much an anthemic direction from there. Indeed the set quickly became a relentless barrage of classics with Veracocha – Carte Blanche, Paul Van Dyk – ‘For an Angel’, Binary Finary – ‘1998’, and Olmec Heads – ‘Spiritualised’ also getting a run. He was playing 100% cd’s which I have no problem with when it comes to dropping in new tracks, but when you are playing a vast majority of old tunes there is something not quite right with it in my opinion. Call me old fashioned, but it’s nice to see those turntables in action for at least part of an international’s set. His mixing was very impressive it has to be said, but his set did seem to lack structure, which can be attributed mostly to his reliance on anthems. The crowd was loving it though, and it can’t be denied that people are always a sucker for the classics; I know I certainly wasn’t complaining at the time! He also got very involved with the crowd which is always great to see, and was happy to sign records and pose for photographs with people at the end of his set. His closing track was the one I had been waiting for all night, and when those familiar, powerful vocals of ‘Beautiful’ kicked in the night reached its pinnacle for me, and I apologise to anyone who was near me at this point for enduring my attempts at singing along! All in all it was a great crowd pleasing set, and while it wasn’t exactly the most impressive international performance I have ever seen, there were few people without a broad smile on their face by the end of his performance.
Jumping Jack followed up nicely and showed that while he is best known for his hard style he has the skills and diversity to impress and entertain crowds of many different preferred genres (anyone who has seen a progressive set from him will surely agree.) It’s great to see some of Sydney’s biggest names starting to support the uplifting sound, and there seems to be exciting times ahead for this style of trance in this city.
The evening was unfortunately cut short just after 4:30, as the numbers never reached the level that the occasion deserved, but not before Liquid M’s Marlo Hoogstraten stepped up to drop one last track – Liquid M’s ‘Sound of Arena,’ much to the delight of the Halcyon faithful! The lack of numbers was the main downer of an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable evening, but those that were there were as ever among the friendliest group of people you could ever come across, which always serves to provide the best clubbing vibe I have experienced anywhere in Sydney. Big thanks goes out to the Halcyon crew for taking a chance and putting this event on, I just hope that in future more support can be given by punters to reward their effort, enthusiasm and unquestionable passion for what they do.