Godskitchen is undoubtedly one of the highlight events within an ever expanding clubbing calendar. This year’s event, as ever, generated unprecedented hype upon the announcement that Richard Durand, The Thrillseekers, M.I.K.E. and Rank 1 would be headlining the main Godskitchen arena at Metro City on Friday the 28th September, 2007. A generous helping of euphoric and tech trance was in the offing and as such, I did not want to miss it for the world.

After what had been a very hectic day indeed, my friend and I arrived at Metro City at just after 10:30. I had every intention of catching Kenny L & John Paul’s versus set, but in truth I was lucky to arrive as early as I had. Suffice to say, I was glad to get into the venue swiftly as I did not want to miss more than half of Richard Durand’s set. This young Dutchman has taken clubland by storm with his remixing talent (a favourite of mine being his reworking of Tiesto’s “Lethal Industry”) and his abilities behind the decks. Absolutely nothing could have prepared me (and the crowd as well) for the ninety-minute aural onslaught that Richard Durand launched. Listening to his set was like hearing a tech-trance version of a turntablist performance in that Durand played around with effects whilst dropping in bits and pieces of hit tracks such as “Born Slippy” by Underworld and of course his seminal remix of “Lethal Industry.” Many people came away from Godskitchen with the opinion that Durand’s set was the best of the night.

The Thrillseekers took control at 11:30, much to my delight. I had enjoyed Richard Durand’s unique performance, however I yearned for sounds of a more euphoric persuasion. The Thrillseekers have (or should that be “has”, given that The Thrillseekers is just one man who is known as Steve Helstrip to his mates) taken the UK by storm of late as he has landed key performances at major club nights such as Gatecrasher. Indeed he is best known for the classic anthem “Synaesthesia” and his remix of “Need to Feel Loved” by Reflekt). I was quite eager to hear The Thrillseekers again, having seen Steve Helstrip perform two years prior at Ministry of Sound’s 2005 Hard NRG gig.

The highlight track of The Thrillseekers’ performance for me was undoubtedly “Amsterdam” by Luminary, a track whose melody and vocals are simply heart-warming. It seemed, however, that my friend and I were the only people in the audience who wanted to hear melodic trance as the crowd apparently wanted more edgier tech-trance. As such, The Thrillseekers shifted his set into that very direction. Towards the close of his set, The Thrillseekers dropped Cosmic Gate’s remix of “Fly Away” (Vincent de Moor). Unfortunately for me, it would be a while yet before my deepest desire for hearing trance of its purest variety would be fulfilled again after that, but the upshot of this is of course that every DJ instinctively knew what the crowd as a whole wanted, which makes for a great atmosphere all round.

The first of two Belgian trance legends; M.I.K.E., took over from The Thrillseekers at 1am. I had no idea what to expect from M.I.K.E.’s set as lately he has been dabbling in the world of tech and electro-trance. A couple of years ago he produced two of my favourite tunes for that year; “Massive Motion” and “For Always In My Heart,” but it was unlikely that I would hear either given their age. M.I.K.E. knew exactly what the crowd wanted and delivered with gusto a piping hot selection of tech-trance. It was at about this time I needed a break from dancing, so my friend and I decided to head up to the balcony for a quick beer and some fresh air. When we arrived, the doors to the balcony were closed and hoards of people were stood there waiting to go out. Rumours were circulating about what had happened, but I was more interested in the music and frankly didn’t want to miss a beat of it, so this revelation came as something of a blessing.

M.I.K.E.’s set drew to a dramatic and euphoric close as he cued up Greg Downey’s brilliant remix of “Heaven Scent” (Bedrock) as well as a couple of PUSH tracks (PUSH is of course one of M.I.K.E.’s many aliases). At 3am M.I.K.E. gave way to a reportedly very tired looking Rank 1 (who had endured a very long and arduous journey to the most isolated capital city in the world). He commenced his set with a number of classic tracks including “Cafe del Mar” by Energy 52 and “For An Angel” by Paul van Dyk. My friend was talking to another friend of his, so I decided to head down to the main dance floor. I lasted for all of about ten minutes down there as Rank 1 dropped both of those aforementioned tracks, the reason being that the crowd down there was not getting into the music nearly as much as the rest of the audience who were dancing the night away on the upper levels of Metro City. I had someone’s heel dive into my forefoot and that for me was the final straw before I headed back upstairs. On my way up I asked myself; “why do girls wear high heels to an event where DJs are likely to play tunes whose BPM averages at about 140” and “why was the dance floor being used for anything but its intended purpose?”

No matter; I was soon back up on one of the top levels where the dance floor real estate was plentiful and club posers were few and far between. Up here the atmosphere was electric. Rank 1 set about taking his set from the past to the present as he dropped “A Life Less Ordinary” and “This World is Watching Me.” I had to feel for Rank 1 though; by all accounts he looked extremely tired following his delayed flight schedule and as such, his enthusiasm didn’t match that of his audience.
Before I even knew it, the night had reached its final hour. Piet El and Markus took over from where Rank 1 left off as they set about closing out the night with a thumping selection of tech-trance (a notable highlight of their set came by way of a mashup of “Flight 643” and “As the Rush Comes”, a strange combination but one that works well no less). At 6am, Godskitchen was over for another year and what a party it was. Every single one of the two-thousand or so punters left Metro City with memories of a superb night of tech-trance fuelled dance floor mayhem. One can only wonder who will headline Godskitchen 2008.