With December finally upon us, and the first day of Summer representing the launch of upcoming musical festivities, Fridays @ Family with their prescription of hard dance certainly gave us just the right dose of Dutch and German relief from this Pharmacy night in the form of major Internationals Scot Project (GER), Marcel Woods (NL) and Kamui (GER).

Arriving at the Family about 11:40pm, entry inside was very quick and hassle-free; there was no line-up outside the MacLachlan St building and passage through to the members area, which was not partitioned off allowed my quick dash through to the balcony area nice and smooth. As scheduled the All-stars trio, the beoved Family residents in Baby Gee, tyDi, and Syke* were spinning in true back-to-back fashion and were belting out the hard trance as only they do. With only about 15 min before they were to make way for the first of the Headlined visitors, the threesome were in fine form delivering the goods, all having an obviously great time gracing the decks together.

There weren’t many bodies adorning the entire Main room area, though the majority of punters were comfortably spread about the Basement dance-floor. Having my first ‘heart-starter’ beverage of the evening, I had a sense of being in a 5-star decked out warehouse –Family had clearly undergone a minor decorative facelift. The mezzanine area opposite the members bar had more space; it appeared to me some of the ceiling rafters were differently positioned – I certainly noticed the addition of the massive mirrored disco-balls and 3 strategically positioned lasers, not to mention the enormous strobe lights! I really couldn’t quite figure out what was different that allowed the more open feeling, but I definitely noticed the amazing visuals and lighting on this particular occasion.

Come midnight and it was time to welcome the guy whose life is typified by ‘Musical Madness’, the ‘tough Tech-Trance’ guru – Marcel Woods. As a very well established producer of some nearly ten years now, Marcel’s presence in the realm of EDM has been demonstrated in the play lists of many top DJs worldwide. The Dutchman whose ‘love of the music, not the spotlight’ has seen his hobby ‘overgrow’ to the point where his popularity as a DJ rates him as one of the fastest movers in the Dutch DJ Awards list, with an entry into the DJ Mag poll at #167. With his rising popularity and growing number of overseas bookings, we were grateful to experience his Queensland debut first-hand, ever so keen for a taste of what spinning style would be delivered.

There was no distinct finish of the Family All-stars last track and the first of Woods’; he was at the helm, but I was rather stunned that his opening number severely lacked impact factor. Then it dawned on me, the track was really just a transition, in-keeping with the flow of the previous style while familiarising with the Family console in the handover before truly making his presence known with his tunnage. Then Gee on a rather muffled microphone made the first of the announcements to “give it up for”; satisfied with a distinct introduction, Marcel introduced us to the first of his altered hard-trance tunes. As an adept producer, one would anticipate Marcel be equally as skilful in his mixing ability; not spinning vinyl anymore, Marcel armed with his CD wallet, delivered with as expected great mixing skills in belting out his distinct sound through the 30K sound system.

As a professional calibre International DJ, his set lacked flow and progression; but with Marcel’s strong stance and aversion to being categorised, he consistently threw down massive big room tunes one after the after. Not really ‘building’ a journey into his set, with the earlier time-slot he was certainly well received by the crowd, as in the early hours of Sunday morning began to thicken. His track listing which consisted of ‘A Life Less Ordinary’, Advanced, Punk, and Café del Mar (Human Traffic soundtrack version), was very disordered with lots of quick builds and drops. It was like waiting for a set of waves to come through, and just making it on every single one, wondering if it’s going to take you but you keep getting dropped off, then finally with the last wave of the set you get a bit of a ride. Many a time I was left stopped in my tracks on the dance floor, which was an unusual feeling; nevertheless I was grateful to have experienced the Woods ‘Madness’!

One and a half hours after ‘pumpkin-time’, the distinctly recognisable Frank Zenker (aka Scot Project) with his trademark thick and full head of dreadlocks, a twenty year veteran and pioneer of EDM hard trance/dance, after an anticipated return again graced the Family decks.With his unique style of German hard trance many fans have come to appreciate and love over the years, he played true to form for the first hour or so, delivering some real good classic melodic driving German hard trance – a fantastic musical journey took us into the mid-wee hours of the morn. Dropping dance floor destroyers such as Marco V’s – False Light, Advanced (again), Punk (again), Addicted to Love, Cocaine, Hands Up In the Air (whatever it’s called), the latter part of Scot Project’s set was up & down with a harder techy edge. It seems just about every long-term ‘pure trance’ DJ (let’s not draw straws over genres here) now includes the ever-popularly growing sound of electro/tech somewhere in their set, and why not if the majority of the crowd positively respond to the tougher ‘cybernetic-like’ edge. One of the most awesome skills Scot displayed toward the end of his excellent set was backspinning the end of some tracks, programming then looping them, it was almost unbearable – akin to nails scratching down a blackboard – but sounded unbelievably amazing!

Scot on this occasion had more than a flawless time at the controls, through no fault of his own; at the commencement of his set I must mention I was a little disappointed that none of the Family hosts were there to ensure a smooth transition from Marcel who used only the CDJs to Scot who clearly was armed with vinyl as well. As it turned out while he inserted the first CD and got the right front turntable going, he actually had to plug in the left turntable to the mixer, finally being assisted by the lighting/visuals guy – something I’d not seen an International have to do before! Also at one point in the booth there was so much activity, with a couple of female fans dancing very happily next to him, the mixer dropped right off its platform into the pit of the DJ console – never seen that happen before either. I must make mention her of the person at the lighting/visuals controls; I’d never seen this young man before, but his driving of the system was one of the best I’d seen at Family. He knew the tunes (or so it seemed) so well, cueing the lighting and lasers perfectly; not to mention the visuals beamed onto the back and side walls – there wasn’t a lot of vibe from the punters, but where the atmosphere was lacking from such, the visuals certainly made up for and heighten the emotive feeling you’d normally feed off other punters in the room.

Leaving the crowd in a high crescendo, Scot Project finished a little earlier making way for two amazingly talented young 19 & 20 year olds in Daminik Felsmann and Patrick Scheidt, who together are Kamui. Together only a few years, the lads from Stuttgart who are now best friends, have made a number of productions signed to a handful of labels, now proudly associated with the likes of Yoji Biomehanika, Yakooza, DJ Sakin, Schwarze Puppen, Derb/Hennes and Cold, and of course Scot Project (Overdose). Having spent the last couple of years heavily in production and experimenting with tunes ranging from progressive trance to hard edged tech trance, Kamui finally concentrated on working on a diverse sound that would be distinctly theirs. With many releases on the way and productions still to be completed, the boys have focused on their DJing for the most part of 2006, and we in Brisbane were fortunate to have been scheduled in their Australian tour.

Unfamiliar with their productions, Kamui from the outset were dynamite! They delivered a solid full-on hard rocking, high energy hard trance set with an amazing melodic electro-trance edge. Watching these guys who on arrival much earlier in the evening appeared shy and somewhat out-of-place dropping their gear in the booth, was something I look forward to hopefully in the not too distant future. Combining both CD’s and vinyl – many of which were their own productions, Dominik & Patrick were amazingly clean and tight with their mixing, superb and flawless! Once they started they captured the entire dance floor and kept it rocking, building upon each track the energy escalated and took the punters to new heights – something many experienced artists of late seem to abstain from. Unfortunately due to further weekend gig commitments I conserved the last hour of energy and for the first time ever, vacated the Family before the last performer had removed the final track. Be rest assured though, upon the return of Kamui next time, there’s no way I’ll be leaving before the end – these guys are on the tip of the wave of the next generation of Class A producers and DJ artists!!