Progressive Monkey has done it once again with the return of a Psytrance legend, Perfect Stranger. With lots of deep, minimal sounds and groovy beats, Perfect Stranger, along with the support of the local heroes Sara Dopstar, Mythrophan, MYDÄ and Animatrex kept the night extra funky.
It was 9:30PM when I entered Club 120 and immediately noticed the psychedelic decor throughout the venue. This time they had less decor than their previous event, and the art pieces were the same but had been rearranged. During the night, I had heard some of the Toronto Psyfamily mention, and I quote “the deco never changes much”. The music is different at every event, but not the visuals. I personally would love to walk in to a venue and be able to say “Wow! Is this the same club from before?”
The duo Ina Matrex and Animalium stepped up onto the stage at 10PM to start the debut of their new project, Animatrex. They began with a steady pace of 138BPM, just slow enough to be groovy but fast enough to feel like dancing. The sounds consisted of very progressive and groovy basslines and evolved into more complex and full-on melodies as the duo progressed. They played tracks such as Mad by Coming Soon and Vini Vicci and Serbiana by Freaked Frequency. At around 11:15PM Animatrex was pumping out the hardest tracks they had at a butt kicking 145BPM. It was 11:20 when the crowd had just started to roll in and Animatrex was ending their set, leaving the decks nice and warm for the next local hero Mythrophan.
Mythrophan played a variety of tracks ranging from groovy tech trance to progressive trance, which was a very interesting style; different from what I am familiar with. The existing crowd came out of the shadows they had been hiding in during the previous set and began to dance, along with the emerging crowd that was slowly filling up the club. Unfortunately, the audio got cut out during his set, due to a technical mishap. After fixing the problem within a couple of minutes, Mythrophan started over and grabbed the crowds attention once again playing tracks such as a remix of Ace Ventura’s Serenity Now by Pspiralife and a remix of Hedflux’s Catharsis by Grouch. After Mythrophan’s outstanding performance the groovy psychedelic journey continued with the addition of Däana on the decks to form the amazing duo, MYDÄ.
MYDÄ started their set off, transitioning smoothly from Mythrophan’s set, avoiding any interruptions of music. It was perfectly planned and it allowed the crowd to continuously dance and enjoy the soundscapes without even noticing a change. Their set consisted of the same groove and style as Mythrophan’s but the sounds were far more spacial and complex. It was a very zenonesque type sound and it set the mood perfectly for the headliner. MYDÄ played lots of original tracks such as Life Oscillations and a remix of Zentrix’s Dust.
It was 1:00AM and the crowd had already dispersed a bit away from the dancefloor and into the other sections of the spacious Club 120. The sounds were very groovy and mellow, which set a good mood for more socializing and less dancing. Half an hour later as MYDÄ was wrapping up, the crowd began cheering in anticipation as they knew this meant the headlinger was coming. Perfect Stranger quickly jumped on, greeted the crowd and began his set.
Perfect Stranger started where MYDÄ left off keeping the vibe social and groovy. After about an hour into his set, the beats started to turn more to a minimal techno style and very simplistic progressive trance. Some of the Toronto Psyfamily commented that the previous event’s headliner seemed to be a bit more energetic and fun, while this one was more laid back and a bit slow, which a few of them admitted they didn’t like as much.
2:15AM arrived and the crowd had filled in a lot. It appeared that Perfect Stranger noticed that there was still a number of people that were sitting to the sides and decided to shift into a higher gear as he started playing more aggressive and melodic progressive psytrance. The crowd swarmed in as he played tracks such as Afrika by LOUD and Technologies by Zen Mechanics, along with a lot of original tracks of his own such as the remix of Captain Hook & Astrix’s track Bungee Jump. The whole crowd was on the dancefloor by the end of Perfect Strangers set and were ready to hear the return of their own superstar, Sara Dopstar.
Sara Dopstar took us to new levels after the amazing performance we had just witnessed by Perfect Stranger. She didn’t hesitate to bring out the full-on psytrance explosions she discovered on her travels to european psytrance festival with tracks such as Super Nova by Electric Universe and a remix of Ticon’s Hopes of Hades by Vini Vicci, the crowd went wild for it. After an hour of insane melodies and hard driving basslines, the owners felt sleepy and asked Progressive Monkey to end the night at 5:30AM. Sara played her last song and closed another chapter in the Toronto Psytrance book.
At the end of the night, I asked a few members of the Toronto Psyfamily about their experience that night, including the minor setback that had occurred. From gathering their opinions, you could say this event wasn’t Prog. Monkey’s best, but it was definitely not their worst either. A lot of new faces came out and the crowd seemed to be even bigger than the previous event. The music was enjoyable and groovy enough to dance.
Will Progressive Monkey step up the decorations bit more next time? We will have to wait and see when they bring double the trouble on December 12th, 2015 with the return of Major7 and X-Noize.
Be sure to check out Edu Carvalho‘s photography for TeamEDMTOR at this event on our Facebook Page.
LINKS:
Perfect Stranger
Website
Facebook
Soundcloud
Sara Dopstar
Facebook
Soundcloud
Mydä
Facebook
Soundcloud
Animalium
Facebook
Mixcloud
SoundCloud
Ina Matrex
Facebook
Soundcloud
Mixcloud
Phillip Pereira – EDMTOR
