Transmission, how I love thee…let me count the ways…

Firstly, the venue. The State Sports Centre is my all time favourite dance party venue. It has it all. The big room atmosphere, which somehow manages to remain intimate. Plenty of seating that allows you to rest your weary feet, but still experience the music and lasers. And you would not have wanted to miss out on the production. As usual, Chromatic and his team had done a sterling job. The production was reminiscent of a Q-Dance event and, let me emphasize, that the sound system (especially from down the front) was eargasmic!

The first international Sean Tyas kept the pace slow by opening with his remix of ACDC’s Thunderstruck. Cheesy yes, but it definitely captured the crowds attention. His set, a nod to the trance origins of Transmission (before the harder music took over), included his reworkings of Robert Miles’ Children and Rank1’s Airwave. His own song Lift understandably got played, as did Oxia’s Domino. As a debut Australian set it was a solid set that showcased Tyas’ production work, and built the atmosphere for what was to come.

Jowan, for those of you who don’t know, is part of the Donkey Rollers. Whilst they play hardstyle, he plays tech trance in his individual sets. Technically, this guy is spot-on. Picking the crowd’s mood well, Jowan mixed up popular favourites ( Expansion got one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night) with some tunes that had me scratching my head going, “what’s this song?” Bas & Ram on the other hand played slower than expected. They dropped some of their own tunes – Alien Threat, The Bells and MDMA.

By the time the Donkey Rollers took to the stage, I was hankering for some hardstyle. Moving front and centre to experience the Transmission sound system, perfection itself, allowed me to witness their live show (well worth the walk through the crowd). I am generally averse to MCs. They tend to mutter inane comments over breakdowns. Not so MC DV8. Pumping the crowd up, DV8 showed excellent stagecraft. Donkey Rollers opened with Revolutions and proceeded to include much of their back catalogue in their 45 minute set. I’d forgotten how awesome some of their older tunes are: Evil, Hardstyle Rockers, Motherf**k and so on. Props to them for playing Showtek’s phat remix of No One Can Stop Us. And heck, I even jumped along to Fusion of Sound (my least favourite of their tunes).

Let it not be forgotten that Zany is master of his craft. I will say straight up that his set was the best set of hardstyle I’ve ever heard. And I’ve heard a lot! The amount of incredible tunes in this set just blew me away. He was fairly light-on with his classics, the only one played being Disco Stuff. He dropped tunes by Builder ( Her Voice ), Tatanka ( Mess Up ) and Blademasterz ( One Blade ). The highlight of his set was Annihilating, his latest production collaboration with The Beholder. After hearing this tune on YouTube, I was eagerly awaiting him to play it at Transmission…and boy, it was definitely worth the wait! Some other fantastic tracks you included Dutch Masters Get Up, Showtek Early Sounds and The Beholder & Ballistic remix of Stumpah. This set was worth the admission price alone and, for me it clearly cements Zany’s position as the #1 hardstyle DJ.

I pity ASYS for having to following Zany, yet he took to the challenge with relish: opening with his best known tune No More F**king Rock and Roll. Although he was billed to play back to back with Nik and Amber, they sensibly allowed him his own set.

Of course there was whole host of local DJs entertaining those who took refuge in the side rooms. Utilising the training room was a major new development for the latest Magic City. Here the likes of Mark Dynamix, PoxyMusic and Deepchild played house and electro for those who found the harder stuff, well… too hard. Locals lucky enough to play in the main room included DJ competition winner The Horror Patrik Vs Slim, and Transmission closing set stalwarts Nik Fish and Amber Savage. And proving that Transmission still cares about up-and-coming DJs, there were three rooms devoted to locals, all of which were pretty packed throughout the night.

Transmission, I do love thee. The second Magic City has only increased that love. And I am eagerly anticipating Transmission Aloha in September. For those of you who have been living in Siberia, the lineup includes Scot Project, Public Domain (live), Marcel Woods, Filo & Peri, Vandall and Brennan Heart. Bring it on!