The T-Quest crew are working hard to unite the techno and psychedelic trance tribes, and with the rousing success of their latest party, Clairvoyance at the City Hotel, they’re doing a bloody good job of it too. Psytrance and techno have much in common including a being hard and fast music with a relentless beat, a non-commercial and D.I.Y. culture and diverse crowds full of freaks, geeks, hippies, students and guys called Bob. Without trying to sound nostalgic (well, maybe just a little bit) both of theses scenes harken back to so much of the glory days of dance and rave music, with friendly people, a total lack of pretension, an alternative to the mainstream and great, hard music. Rave was born in opposition to daily life, it was a new form of community, a rejection of the values handed us by our parents, the endless persuit of wealth and status. In rave we formed new types of connections, new understandings. It was based on cooperation, not competition, on respect, love and unity. Even to talk of it is to sound like a hippie now, but things have changed, and only in smaller, less-successful “scenes” can you find remnants of this world. The psytrance scene is, for me, foremost of these scenes, with it’s true environment being the forest, the ultimate in non-commercial locations, and it’s psychedelic, inspirational, immersive music. Dance parties form alternative spaces for the communication of alternative ideas, the most fundamental of these being that a society based on cooperation, shared-ideas and mutual-respect is possible, that the values handed us by mainstream society are not the only way to live, are not the only way to organise society, that another world is possible.

I sound hopelessly idealistic don’t I? I go through period stages of jadedness, of dislocation and alienation from the ideas I wish where true for dance music culture as a whole. But they’re not. But they do hold true in some places, at some times, and this is why I have increasingly been drawn to the psychedelic trance scene, why I love this ridiculously-hard music and it’s people. But this is all big-picture stuff, and not really the point of this review.

The point, my friends, is to make everyone who wasn’t at this party as jealous as hell. Clairvoyance is the most fun I’ve had out this year. The venue was great, the music was superb, the crowd was as friendly and appreciative as ever and it all just went to plan, y’know? T-Quest are putting on a very impressive series of parties and developing a real reputation for great music, sound and décor. The City Hotel was the perfect venue for this occasion. Nice central location facilitating pre-party beers at the timeless Century Tavern, two near even-sized rooms with nicely-proportioned dance floors, chill-out spaces on both levels, and good amenities and service at the bar.

The DJ’s and live acts on both stages were superb with headliners Luna Orbit from Byron Bay and Benza from Melbourne, both in the psytrance room, whipping the full dance floor into a frenzy. HPS? did similarly in the techno room with his distinctive hard and fast beats. He was, truth be told, the only act in the techno room who I saw the majority of the set of, as I found it increasingly difficult to drag myself away from the psytrance floor for even a moment as the night wore on, so good was the music there.

All the DJs in the psytrance room were fantastic, with Psyber again showing himself one to watch. But it was the two live acts from out-of-town who really impressed and turning the floor into a churning mess of shiny, happy, stomping people, most with huge grins on their faces as they surrendered to the beat, feeling their body shudder with the tremendous force of the speakers. To be on the dancefloor was a reminder of all that was good about dance music, and a further reinforcement of why I love psytrance, and why I prioritise psytrance parties.

Huge thanks to everyone I shared it with, especially those who finally surrendered and joined us at a psytrance party for the first time (thanks to the additional lure of the solid techno line-up) and were very glad they did too. Let this be a lesson to all of you.