EVENT REVIEW: Aly & Fila @ Muzik 19-06-15

The Toronto Trance Family took over Muzik Nightclub this past weekend as Aly & Fila made their much awaited return to Toronto. A special thank you to Vibrations and Embrace for such an amazing night!

This was my first time attending an event at Muzik, so I was not sure what I was in for. The event hosts had decided that the event would be moved indoors, as opposed to the outdoor pool party, due to the colder temperature, which I think Fadi of Aly & Fila may have been appreciative of since he hails from the heat of Egypt. I arrived and made my way towards the heart of the club. I was quickly impressed with the set-up of the venue; it was classy and elegant, and spacious enough for the TTF takeover that was occurring. The unique glass dome ceiling, with a disco ball hanging from it, was definitely the centerpiece of the venue. The lighting tech often directed the lights towards the disco ball, creating visually appealing and colourful reflections throughout the room.

At this point, Andy Ares was on the decks. Unfortunately, I arrived towards the end of Andy’s set (I would have like to have been there much earlier!). My apologies for not being able to catch more, but I’m sure it was a great set. As I walked in the doors, I realized things were already in full swing. The venue was gradually filling up, but the music was already reaching full force. I don’t think there was all that much easing into things, but Toronto has never been a city to hold back.

Next up was Saad Ayub. He came out to a cheering crowd and a number of Toronto Trance Family flags. It is very clear that Toronto has A LOT of love and pride towards their local trance DJs, especially Andy and Saad. I loved seeing the crowd support these two as they led us into the night. Saad played a great set, filled with a variety of sounds including tech-trance, psytrance, and some uplifting trance that I personally loved. Some of my favourite tracks that Saad played were Craig Connelly’s Shipwreck, and Gaia’s Tuvan. The crowd absolutely loved his set and could not contain their enjoyment.

 Also, a highlight of the night for me was Saad’s visuals. Props to whoever was responsible for putting that together. They were abstract, geometric, organic, colourful, and utterly mesmerizing. They were quite possibly some of the best visuals I have ever seen and paired extremely well with the music.

I will admit (and I hate to do this), but I do think the opening sets may have been a little higher energy than usual. Not to say they weren’t amazing sets, because they were, but I think we could have used a little more musical foreplay before building up to those 138 sounds and before transitioning into Aly & Fila. With that being said, I would love to see both these artists at a resident night where they are the headlining acts.

Around 12:05, we began to see glimpses of Fadi backstage and the anticipation grew even more. Around 12:15ish (maybe slightly later), he took over the decks. He brought the bpm a little lower than what Saad had ended off with and started off with a more progressive opening. We were treated to some more tech-trance and psytrance as his set continued. It was the kind of trance that you just have to dance to. As the night progressed, Aly & Fila played some of their classics and their remixes. We slowly transitioned into more uplifting and vocal trance (my favourite!) towards the middle of the set. This is where we heard trance beauties such as Aly & Fila’s The Other Shore (Fady & Mina Remix) and OceanLab’s Clear Blue Water (Ferry Corsten Remix). At this point in the night, I was “shazaming” every other song because I loved it so much (or to remember it for the sake of this review!).

 The energy inside the venue was pretty good as well; better than I was expecting for Muzik to be honest. It may not have reached Guv (R.I.P) levels of crazy, but there were many positive vibes nonetheless. I think we had a combination of both the trance fanatics and Muzik’s regular club-goers filling the venue. At times I would look around and see a few confused faces or people standing around, and actually noticed quite a few people taking selfies- I don’t think I have ever been to a club where I witnessed so many selfies being captured! Despite this, I think the crowd came together to enjoy the night.

Another shout out I wanted to make was to the presence of the Future Sound of Egypt 450 (FSOE450TO) flyers that were being handed out and held up proudly. I think we showed Aly & Fila that Toronto does in fact love them dearly and we want that tour to stop here.

Overall, I think it was a great night, filled with great music! Thank you again to all those who made this night happen and thank you to those who came out with their good vibes, ready to enjoy the night! I can’t wait until the next Muzik Pool event with Ilan Bluestone and Super 8 and Tab coming up.

LINKS

Aly & Fila
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Saad Ayub
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Andy Ares
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Nicole Robertson – EDM TOR