After a long and very successful campaign from the NYC TranceFamily, Aly & Fila decided that New York City‘s Hammerstein Ballroom would be the perfect setting for one of the Future Sound of Egypt 350 celebration events. This announcement delighted North American trancers near and far, and the cries of joy were heard even here in Toronto. We were all on the edge of our seats waiting to find out which artists would be on the line-up. Check out the official flyer and promo video below!
One of the headlining artists couldn’t get his paperwork through in time and was unable to come, so they had pushed the doors to 8 p.m. We all were very sad you weren’t there Bjorn Akesson, and hope to hear a live set from you again soon. We arrived at the Hammerstein Ballroom around 8 p.m. to see the doors still firmly shut. Dylan (our photographer) and I made our way in the media entrance and asked why the doors were not open yet and were told that they were having some issues with the lighting. We made our way to the entrance to the ballroom, and after a short wait, the doors opened and we were allowed inside. The venue was still very bare as they were just now allowing the fans inside, but wow, what a gorgeous venue. I would have to describe it as a fancy opera house look, but with a Mod Club feel. The bars were at the back of the room, below the balconies, and a lower level with washrooms and sitting area. The front of the venue had a big stage, a giant LED screen with visuals, lasers, and a white pyramid structure on the stage with the DJ booth inside of it.
Phase Difference – Utopia
Pryda – Axis
Active Limbic System – Karahana (Alexey Sonar Remix)
Valency – Wormhole
Sied Van Riel feat Adina Butar – 8 Decades
BT – Force of Gravity (Daniel van Sand Remix)
Solid Stone – Furious
As the club started filling up, I took note of how people were dressed. The event page was filled with confused posts about dress code, so even though I knew I could show up in kandi bracelets and fluffy legwarmers, I wasn’t sure if I would be the only one. There were gorgeous pharoahs and beautiful egyptian costumes on many men and women, some with just the headdress, and others with skirts, sandals and more accessories. There were the usual adorable girls in tutus, fluffies, and rainbow colours around the room as well. I was event able to trade bracelets with a few other kandi kids in the room.
As Sied and Monoverse were finishing up their set, Max Graham could be seen milling about and starting to connect his gear to get started. The set ended, the DJs all exchanged bro-hugs.. and Max began. Let me tell you, he really didn’t hold back at all. By the third song in, I was thinking “Holy crap, Max, this is a whole new level!” and that is when you know a set is actually really killer. It takes you on a journey. I danced my face off for Max’s entire set, to his own tracks like So Caught Up, and FYC and the gorgeous Above & Beyond – Sun in Your Eyes (Mark Sherry Argentinian remix). One fan brought a totem with a giant photo of Max’s own Abyssinian cat “Sophia” on it, so even Max was taking photos during his set, of the sign! He was laughing so hard, and so were the rest of us when we saw it.
Solid Stone & Jennifer Rene – Not Enough
Gal Abutbul feat. Sivan – Siderea
Solid Stone – For The Moment
Max Graham & Maarten De Jong – Lekker
Solid Stone – Furious
Cirez D – On Off
Tomas Heredia – Way Out
Max Graham feat. Neev Kennedy – So Caught Up
Pfirter – The Dub Track
Above & Beyond – Sun In Your Eyes (Mark Sherry Argentinian Sun Edit)
Max Graham – FYC
Jon O’Bir feat. Fisher – Found A Way (Joint Operations Centre Remix)
Cristian Varela – Pornogames (Alex Di Stefano Remix)
ID – ID
Max Graham – Purple
Max Graham feat. Ana Criado – Nothing Else Matters (Aly & Fila Remix)
I ran into Kaeno who is currently doing some touring with Cosmic Gate on their “Start to Feel Tour”, but alas, he won’t be on the line-up at the Toronto event at The Guvernment. He updated me that he had been in London for a while, working on his music. It was really quite nice he recognized me and remembered me from – well go see the first photo album EDMTOR ever posted of Tritonal at Pacha in NYC. That night he closed for the venue. He was in NY for the music, not to spin. It’s always nice to see other artists at events supporting trance music. Keep an ear out for tracks by Kaeno in the future.
Next up were two UK legends: Andy Moor and Lange. I don’t think I had seen Andy Moor live since 2011, but I had caught Lange at about five events in the past year, so I knew what I was in for! These two played all sorts of styles of trance music, starting out with Mark Sixma and Chris Schweizer‘s The Saga and took us into Tangle‘s Firebird and then bam, right in our faces, Above & Beyond presents Oceanlab featuring Justine Suissa‘s Satellite to bring us to our knees. Probably the most underrrated set of the night, as social media has been buzzing about Solarstone and the Arctic Moon vs Bryan Kearney sets.
Mark Sixma & Chris Schweizer – The Saga
Tangle – Firebird
Above & Beyond pres. OceanLab feat. Justine Suissa – Satellite (Ilan Bluestone Remix)
Andy Duguid feat. Jaren – History
Shogun – Zanarkand
Keyworth – Raze
Paul van Dyk & Ummet Ozcan – Come With Me (We Are One) (Paul van Dyk Festival Mix)
Lange – Hold That Sucker Down
Armin van Buuren pres. Gaia – Empire Of Hearts
Markus Schulz – Remember This (Mark Sherry Remix)
Mark Sherry pres. Outburst – A Star Within A Star (James Dymond Remix)
Robert Miles vs. Maison & Dragen vs. Mark Sixma & Fisherman & Hawkins – Children (Lange Mashup)
Svenson – Sunlight Theory (Richard Durand Remix)
The room suddenly seemed to get a little more vibrant as Arctic Moon and Bryan Kearney took to the stage. This isn’t a usual B2B for the TranceFamily to witness, and we were excited. Little did we know we were about to witness the set of the night! It was a crazy ride from start to finish and nobody was left untouched by this set. Arctic Moon played his track Adelaide to the delight of some fans dancing near me, and a few IDs were snuck in as well. The Kearnage was real as Bryan threw down some of my favourite tracks including Te Amo and his own Plumb – Need You Now (How Many Times) remix which I heard at Luminosity Beach just one month ago for the first time. I would love to see another B2B between these two in the future.
Coming Soon & Bryan Kearney – Activate
Paul Webster & Jordan Suckley – Help! (XGenic Remix)
ID feat. Noire Lee – unknown
Arctic Moon feat. Noire Lee – The Resistance
Sneijder & Bryan Kearney – Next Level
Gareth Emery feat. Bo Bruce – U (Bryan Kearney Remix)
Nero – Satisfy (Talla 2XLC Inf3rno Rework)
Arctic Moon – Adelaide
Bryan Kearney – Te Amo
Adam Ellis – Agent Orange
Arctic Moon & Paul Webster – Valhalla
Mark Sherry pres. Outburst – A Star Within A Star (Alex M.O.R.P.H. Remix)
Max Graham – The Evil ID (Mark Sherry Remix)
Plumb – Need You Now (How Many Times)(Bryan Kearney Remix)
Arctic Moon & Bryan Kearney – Dreamers & Dreams
Arctic Moon – Starships Over Alice (Paul Webster Remix)
The Toronto TranceFamily was holding down front left strong, as usual, although a few braved front-center (I’m looking at you, Nelson!) and others were scattered around the room. Serious shufflers were near the back of the room where there was ample space to stomp it out. There is such a unity and love at trance events, and I think I added ten new friends to my network at this party. I have a really great connection to NYC since I first ventured there for Electric Zoo 2011. It was there that I made some of my very best friends, and connected with David Guzman who is the owner and founder of the EDM ATG brand. I’m proud to be able to say I’m an honourary member of the NYC TranceFamily.
Mister Pure Trance was about to begin, and I could hear the excited chatter all around me. Solarstone is the one man that the trance purists can depend on for a purely uplifting trance set. They weren’t disappointed, even though you would guess otherwise by the amount of tears flowing through the venue. This man can induce happy tears in only a few notes of play. I felt a tap on my shoulder and as I spun around I saw my very best friend Patty from California standing in front of me, and until this very moment we had never met. Whoa. What an emotional moment and it couldn’t have been more perfect than to meet my trance bestie during Solarstone’s Pure Trance set. The crowd sang along to his tracks like Jewel (Pure Mix), Solarcoaster, and his Pure Mix of his song with Jes entitled Like a Waterfall.
London Grammar – Wasting My Young Years (Solarstone Pure Mix)
Solarstone – Solarcoaster
Jam & Spoon – Find Me (Odyssey To Anyoona)
iKo – Heart Of Stone (Solarstone Pure Mix)
Winkee – Awakening
ID – ID
Solarstone feat. Jes – Like A Waterfall (Solarstone Pure Mix)
ID – ID
Mark Sherry – A Star Within A Star (Solarstone Pure Mix)
Solarstone & Clare Stagg – Jewel (Daniel Kandi Emotive Mix)
Neptune Project feat. Pink Floyd – Shine On The Dark Side of The Moon (Neptune Project Out There With Pluto Mix)
Solarstone – Lovers (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix)
Orjan Nilsen was next to enter the pyramid structure on the stage. He opened with his collab with Cosmic Gate, Fair Game, and played many of his own tracks like Burana, Xiing, and Violetta. Just a few days earlier, Orjan was headlining at Maison Mercer in Toronto. Dylan also took photos at that event, and he said this set was very similar to the one in Toronto. It was during Orjan’s set that I ran into Naz, a trance friend from the UK that I had met at Luminosity Beach Festival just this summer. How surreal is that?! Near the end of his set, I was shocked to hear Orjan play a fan favourite of his called Between the Rays, which released in the summer of 2011, as he’s rarely dropped it at events I’ve attended. The feels were set in motion, and my heart sank a little knowing the final set was just ahead.
TRACKLIST:
Orjan Nilsen & Cosmic Gate – Fair Game
Alexander Popov – Quantum
Orjan Nilsen – The Late Anthem (Way Too Late Mix)
Orjan Nilsen – Burana
ID – ID
Ferry Corsten – Festival Crash
Orjan Nilsen – Mafioso (Mark Sixma Remix)
Orjan Nilsen feat. Christina Novelli – Hurricane
Orjan Nilsen – Xiing
Armin van Buuren – Save My Night
Orjan Nilsen – Violetta
Orjan Nilsen – Between The Rays
Andrew Rayel – Dark Warrior
Eye 2 Eye, Aly & Fila’s FSOE350 anthem track with Sylvia Tosun started to play and as I was singing along I realized I should be looking at the stage because she was supposed to be there, LIVE! There she was, in a beautiful Egyptian costume and singing so perfectly that it sounded almost like recording quality. It’s really too bad she didn’t sing more of her own songs. The crowd was ready for this B2B set between Fila and John O’ Callaghan, more than ready. We all went hard with what energy we had left for the remainder of the night, dancing to amazing tracks like Will Atkinson‘s Victims (which just hit Number 1 on Beatport this week), the Interactive Noise remix of Coming Soon‘s Become One (a personal favourite), Next Level by Sneijder and Bryan Kearney, and Luke Bond featuring Roxanne Emery – On Fire.
Aly & Fila & Roger Shah feat. Sylvia Tosun – Eye 2 Eye (FSOE 350 Anthem) [Live vocal performance by Sylvia Tosun]
John O’Callaghan feat. Jennifer Rene – Games (Ian Standerwick Remix)
Aly & Fila & Sneijder – Full Throttle
Will Atkinson – Victims
Aly & Fila – Altitude Compensation
Will Atkinson pres. Darkboy – Atkinsane (Mark Sherry Remix)
Coldplay – A Sky Full Of Stars (Paul Webster Remix)
Sneijder & Bryan Kearney – Next Level (Sneijder Psyneijder Remix)
ID – ID
Flynn & Denton feat. Audrey Gallagher – Say My Name (A&Z Remix)
Mungo – Summer Blush (Aly & Fila Remix)
John Askew – Plush
Aly & Fila – Underwater
John O’Callaghan vs. Cassandra Fox – The Saw vs. Touch Me (Indecent Noise Luminosity Mashup)
Giuseppe Ottaviani & Aly & Fila – Brilliant People (Mark Sherry Remix)
John O’Callaghan feat. Audrey Gallagher – Big Sky (Joint Operations Centre Deconstruction)
Luke Bond feat. Roxanne Emery – On Fire (Aly & Fila Remix)
Giuseppe Ottaviani feat. Alana Aldea – Heal This Empty Heart (John O’Callaghan Remix)
Coming Soon – Become One (Interactive Noise Remix)
John O’callaghan & Timmy & Tommy – Talk To Me(ID Remix)
ID – ID
Randy Katana – In Silence (Omar Sherif 2014 Remix)
Aly & Fila feat. Karim Youssef – Laily (Photographer Remix)
John O’Callaghan & John Askew vs. Nadia Ali – Stressed Rapture (Alex Vlasov Mashup)
Aly & Fila feat. Jwaydan – We Control The Sunlight
John O’Callaghan – One Special Particle
The announcer’s voice signed off on the event, and the lights started to come on, but we weren’t ready for this to end. “One more track!” was what we wanted, and they delivered with Solarstone and Aly & Fila’s Fire Island (Aly & Fila Uplifting Mix). The room sang along to every note, loudly, as Fadi and John waved and smiled proudly.
Thank you to Aly & Fila, Stuart Roberts, the FSOE Recordings team, Esscala, EDM NYC, David Guzman, Spin Artist Agency, Twenty 4 Seven Management and all the staff at Hammerstein Ballroom for an incredible event. Even with a few snags as we started, it was all made up for during the event with all the hard work you all put in.
Keep your ears and eyes open for the campaigns to begin for FSOE400, which we really hope makes it to Toronto next year! Thanks for having us New York City, we will be back!
LINKS:
FSOE Recordings
Esscala
Aly & Fila
John O’ Callaghan
Orjan Nilsen
Solarstone
Bryan Kearney
Arctic Moon
Lange
Andy Moor
Max Graham
Sied van Riel
Monoverse
Bjorn Akesson
Adele Desloges – EDM TOR
