From Irene McC Sent Mon, Feb 1st 1999, 16:06
*** If THIS is trance, why didn't I know I liked it? *** In what has come to be regarded as the pinnacle of the South African outdoor trance/rave scene's calendar, Vortex promoters again brought out Matsuri's Tsuyoshi Suzuki for this annual event. I hadn't attended any of the previous ones, but since it attracts a cross-over crowd, all of whom have given favourable reports, I decided to go on Saturday 30 January, a placidly warm and windfree night in a perfect setting +- 35km's from Cape Town, across some fields, down a rough dirt track and amongst bushes and blue gum trees near a little river. There were a few pre-erected teepees with disco balls surrounding the open-air dance area, which the organisers had previously doused down with water, to stop a dust cloud. The DJ's doing the early sets were playing mainly ambient verging on psychedelic, while people scuttled about, finding their friends, setting up tents, spreading out blankets. One adventurous mix that made me look up was Little Fluffy Clouds criss-crossed with Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here }:-<> I am elated to report that Suzuki rather surprised the die-hard trance heads by playing a 5 hour set of basically knife-edge hard techno!!! He went on at 2am, scheduled to go till 6, but only ended his set at 7am, even slipping in a track from local musician Jorge Carlos' recently released album (Trip of Africa), which got the crowd cheering like crazy. The sound was amazing - he ripped up the full moon night air with clean shimmering stabs like clear icicle shards. By about 4am he cranked it up to a huge throb and just kept pushing warp speed ahead into the realms of deep space. The whole place was well laid out and decorated : the rig built up around the stage to form a huge pyramid topped with lasers; Hare Krishna food stalls, day-glo paintings of the pre-requisite alients and mushrooms, screen-saver Mandelbrot-type visuals mixed off two computers projected onto a screen etc. The smell of Tiger Balm encroached on the dope smoke - a fine combination, it turns out. There was also a techno area. That was further down the fields : very popular, loaded dance floor with some excellent choons, but booming bass and clipping speakers, uncomfortably loud for the cramped bush enclosed space they were using. (I heard this morning that they blew two bass speakers :-> ) By the time we left at 9:30am, they were all still storming and stomping. But by then it had veered very definitely to full-on trance which I was pleased not to have to endure! (Tristan of 21-3 & Flying Rhino had the morning set.) Major props to my ahead-thinking friend who had brought along cold watermelon - the early morning taste explosion is worth passing on as an insider tip :-) I *