Despite four out of the top five DJs in the DJ Mag Top 100 poll being trance DJs, the term is becoming more increasingly thrown around, and becoming an increasingly dirty word. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for trance, and even if DJ Mag’s ‘King Kong of trance’ had somewhat turned his back on the genre, I was still keen as to seen him.

The Thursday night slot was a bit odd, and after having a busy week at work, like many others I was pretty knackered even after a kip before heading in. One of my gripes with last year was how ridiculously overcrowded the venue was. I arrived at about 10pm and was pleasantly surprised to be able to walk straight in catching the tale end of Family resident Syke ripping it up on the decks with his Deadmau5 style electro. I found myself a comfortable spot beside the DJ booth and had planned to keep that spot for a good part of the night.

At about 10:30 as Syke was finishing with the Andy Moor remix of Ridgewalkers – Find TyDi prepared to step up. The amount of blonde girls wearing an overly excessive amount makeup starting to crowd around the DJ booth was a bit too much for me, and I quickly abandoned that idea and went to grab a beer. Service was surprisingly fast and well staffed for such a big night, but the beers were somewhat pricey. As I was lining up the crowd thickened and Tydi’s first tune was dropped – Hope one of the highlights from my personal favourite artist album Above and Beyond’s debut album Tri State. Tydi’s set varied between melodic and tougher sounds throughout; from the more melodic and slightly older Electronic Elements and Coldharbour sounds to Richard Durand’s remake of the classic Sunhump. By this stage I’d managed to wrangle my way into the member’s area and heard one of the biggest trance tunes of the moment; O’Callaghan’s remix of Agnelli and Nelson’s Big Sky. I’m a huge Agnelli and Nelson fan so was more than keen to hear this taster of a tune on the big system. There was a big commotion around as cameramen dashed outside on the news of Mr van Dyk arriving. As security and roadies escorted him to the booth at around midnight, Tydi began rounding up his set with another huge tune of 2007, the incredibly boring (in my opinion) Gareth Emery Remix of Albert Vorne – Formenta What.

Paul van Dyk kicked things up once he had setup his laptops with Markus Schulz’s Fly to Colours. There were a few other big tunes thrown in, I can’t confirm, but am pretty sure I heard Sean Tyas’s new release, One More Night Out and Ronski Speed’s Love All The Pain Away. He went into a techier electro Deadmau5 sound much to the crowd’s excitement and continued between a melodic trance and techy electro crossover. Paul has, like Sasha, ditched the traditional vinyl/CDJ setup in favour of Ableton and keyboard. His rider was intriguing, two Macbook Pros (both running Ableton from what I could see), two controllers and a Xone 3D mixer. Managing to get a seat from behind the DJ booth, watching him belt out melodies from For An Angel and making chord progressions on the fly, it wasn’t hard to get the impression that he might actually be possessed. The guy’s Ableton skills were unbelievable, as well as belting out tracks and samples on the fly; he seamlessly layered, mashed and dropped tracks in and out leaving people staring at each other in total awe. Definitely the highlight for me was hearing the Aly and Fila Remix of FKN – Why. Other highlights included the Mekk Remix of Alex Morph and Rank1 – Life Less Ordinary and then the Wippenberg Remix of Anjunabeats favourite Super8 & Tab’s – Needs to Feel. Paul van Dyk’s set was unbelievably diverse, and perfect, until he dropped the horribly overrated Filo and Peri – Anthem. Once he was done leaving the crowd gagging for more, he then did his typical encore of classics consisting of For An Angel, Nothing But You, Time of Our Lives and an accapella of his new single, New York City. His Ableton skills really showed through here within the first 10 seconds we heard samples from White Stripes – 7 Nation Army, Underworld – Born Slippy and his new track Another Sunday (which contains samples Ben Lost’s vocals from Probspot – Blows My Mind). Security then escorted Paul to the exit and the amount of surrounding punters trying to get photos made this no easy task, however this was entertaining to watch, and a definite challenge to get a photo. By this stage after a tiring week, it was getting painful to stay awake. It was either go home, or drink more to ease the pain and let the over price local beer stubbies take its toll on my wallet. Keen to see what Baby Gee would pull out of his CD wallet, I went with the latter option.

Gee played an absolute corker of a driving, uplifting euphoric set, the kind of trance I’m living right at the moment. It was time for me to put my notes away, take off my trainspotters cap and let me hair down a bit. Highlights of the set had me put my laser reaching hat on Sophie Sugar – Fallen Too Far, Fragma – Toca’s Miracle (Richard Durand Remix). Again at the end of the night, security had a task getting rid of us, as everyone was demanding a “One more!” Unfortunately the amps had been turned off by that stage and at 5:15am, we can hardly complain about it.

All in all the night was one of the best nights at Family, with lasers and visuals being perfect. The LEDS I’ve seen hanging from the DJ booth and a couple of other places around the venue, definitely looked their best at the back of the stage. And I hope even if not in the PVD array they had for the night, that’s where they remain. Also a special mention should also go out to one of those old fashioned endless lines of people making their way off the dance floor to god knows where, which definitely put the icing on the cake.