- Misja Helsloot is rapidly developing a name for himself as one of the leading progressive trance/trance dj’s in the world, and I was sure to take up the opportunity to see him on his first tour of Australia. The Dutchman first exploded onto the international scene in 1998 with the release of his compilation cd “In Trance we Trust 001” on Tiesto’s Black Hole label. Since then he steadily built up a strong name for himself in his native Holland, and began to dabble in production. It is his productions that have perhaps propelled him the most into international recognition, releasing “First Second” in 2002, with popular support from all the big names, and he really has not looked back since. I was quite excited to catch the man in action, and so it was that I found myself heading into Progress to see what he could dish out.
I arrived at Gas nightclub quite early to check out Cameron O’Shea, who ‘Halcyon’ and ‘A Night of Trance’ regulars all know well. He is held in quite high regard within Sydney’s relatively small uplifting trance scene, and on this occasion he showed once again why, warming the crowd up perfectly for the night ahead. After opening up with some nice progressive tracks, classics like ‘Adagio for strings’ and ‘The eternal’, along with a stack of new releases, really set the tone early on in the night. By the time Jumping Jack took over at 11:30 the dancefloor was already filling up nicely.
Jumping Jack is known for the most part for the harder edged sound he has been pushing for so long at his Sublime residency, but recently has been playing more and more uplifting sets and I have really enjoyed his performances the last few times I have seen him. He played another solid set this time around, with tracks like ‘Mojada ft Mr Sam – Naranja’ and ‘Rapid Eye – Circa Forever’ the standouts of the set for me.
1 o’clock arrived very quickly and before I knew it the man I was there to see was stepping up behind the decks. By this stage Gas was pretty full (but by no means one of the busiest nights I have seen there) and the dancefloor was pumped up for the headliner’s set.
Misja gracefully acknowledged the warm reception he received from the crowd before launching straight into his set. He is known throughout Europe for opening his sets very much on the progressive side of the spectrum, and has indeed stated that his true style is really a combination of both progressive and trance, but unfortunately the setting on this occasion, and the short duration of his set meant that this wasn’t really possible. He did however manage to drop in ‘Probspot – Blueberry,’ one of my favourite progressive tracks at the moment, early in his set and I couldn’t help but go nuts right up the front to this one! He picked up the pace pretty rapidly after this however, and went a little too hard too quickly for my liking. He was still playing some great sounding tracks though, the vast majority of which I hadn’t heard before (this is always a good thing). The highlights of the set that I could name would have to have been ‘Tiesto ft Bt – Love Comes Again,’ ‘John Askew – Introspection,’ and the Neo & Farina remix of ‘Evanescence - My Immortal.’ He then closed with his own track, which was co-produced with Shane 54 – “Back from your past,” which I can’t say I was a fan of at first but it sounded great on the Gas soundystem, great way finish up. Overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable set but it was just too short! 1.5 hours for an international is just not long enough in my opinion.
Archie opened up with Ferry Corsten’s genre defying hit “Rock your body rock,” which went down a treat, but from there things strayed quickly into hard trance territory and I lost interest. The crowd was still going nuts by the time I decided to leave, however, and it showed that Archie definitely knows how to please the progress crowd! He is another who is rapidly rising in stature in Sydney and with the launch of his first cd there is no doubt that he is well and truly on his way to gaining the full recognition that he deserves and has worked so hard for.
I left Gas having had a good but far from sensational night, and despite Misja playing a nice set I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in how short he had played for. Considering that the cover charge was a considerable $35, I think the punters deserve more than that (and after speaking to Misja he made it pretty clear that he would have been more than happy to play for longer – and who actually stayed and partied the night away with the crowd after his set – it clearly wasn’t his decision to have such a short set) Having said that thanks has to go out to the Progress crew for actually putting him on at all, and for continuing to support the uplifting trance scene in Sydney by bringing out yet another of the “lesser known” international trance dj’s. Long may this support continue!