John FUCKING Askew @ Sleepless (Biel, 5-5-2007)

[Genesis]

^ Has he?
I really hope he'd pop down to Beirut this year. It's about time to be honest.
It's also about time you swap that crusified piece of crap in your avatar with
the legend bald Brit.

I was sleelping when you called! And I did wake up only to know that you
didn't bother trying to call again!!! And I, being the loving buddist that I am,
tried to call you last night but Nooooooooooo... why pick up?

Psy will hit you with a whammy someday - and I don't see it very far.

[ZG1AppOlyOn]

that nite was truly awesome.

finaly a decent trance event, i've been waiting for this for a long time, and after the andy moor fiasco i really needed this.

Amadeus was like always brilliant 3anjad he keeps getting better and better everytime i go to an event .

as for askew well i can't say anything but it was a great surprise, i went expecting to listen to some tech trance ( i actually was looking forward to amadeus not askew ) but instead askew played a mind blowing set that included progressive , uplifting, and tech .

ya3ni 3anjad fashit khili2.

[TranceFusion]

John Askew.
Here's a guy who later will become a legend in Trance music!
I remember going in 2002 to a very small trance party during the International Day of Music and for the first time in my life i heard the music (that i've been listening to for some years in my room before) in Lebanon at the downtown of Beirut. I was there with my classmate of high school and didn't know who the DJ was back then. When i registered at TH 6 months ago i saw this --> http://www.trancehits.com/viewtopic.php?t=6108 (the first ever international DJ who came here). I really loved the set that night!
8 July 2006. I saw this name on the flyer and i really looked forward to listen to his set! I was then aware about him. Unfortunately my friend had a different opinion. For him Askew isn't known here so he was afraid that the DJ would suck... and since we took his car, we came to BIEL 15min before PvD's intro. Since then i've been going with my car to gigs.

5 May 2007, a little bit less than a year later, we came at 11:30pm and as usually the place wasn't full then. Nothing new with the decor, except 2 green (again ) lasers. And the toilets remained unchanged THerz were gathered next to the bar, enjoying the music and getting warmed up by Amadeus. Once again our #1 Lebanese DJ played a very good warm-up set! Everyone was loving the tracks selected but personally i needed more time to feel warmed up enough! Why? Cuz the night before i stayed 4hours at the Black Diamond listening to a very intense and powerful music: Psy-Trance! I felt a little weird in the first minutes on Saturday because of the lower BPM and deeper sounds Among the very last tracks of the warm-up, Amadeus played a track produced by C-rouge & Amadeus: Firefly. What an amazing production!! We all loved it and congratulated our young dj and friend Serouj who was among us with a large smile showing all the happiness inside him during the warm-up John Askew was sitting at the VIP section enjoying a couple of drinks.

1:05am. We've been waiting many weeks for this moment, when we, the loyal Trance Addicts, would witness the only Trance DJ of the Sleepless Events! Until 2:30am it was mostly Tech-Trance being played, exactly what we expected but the guy (who really loves Lebanon btw!) had a couple of surprises for us.
First, at 2:30am, Dan Harper announced that Askew would record the following set for his next album! And the opening track made me the happiest one at BIEL!! Here's why: Krzysztof Chochlow - Reserve Midnight. A Polish DJ ranked #8 at the number one Trance portal of Poland, www.ftb.pl. When it started i was right in front of the DJ booth taking pics of "Johnny Boy" in the mix. This uplifting track hypnotized me to the point that i said to myself "fuck the camera i wanna dance to this!", and honestly made me forget about the psy power of the previous night (Yes i'm still a loyal uplifter!! <--- to those who started having doubts ). As time was passing by we were reaching a higher level of the state of Trance! But it wasn't the highest as you'll see later on. Came the moment when i had to film the whole track, one that was my favorite in February, Duderstadt - Smile (Duende Dub Mix)!! My arm was begging me to stop killing it but i ignored the pain When Dream of Peace (Askew Remix) started, we all jumped with joy and yelled like maniacs!

4:00am, the set finished. And he started a new one. Track after track, John Askew was getting more and more active body-wise! His interaction with the crowd is really amazing! Every DJ's attitude is unique. The way our guest DJ interacted with us is so different from others! I give it a 10/10 without hesitation Dionysos and Raneem were identifying the tracks they knew. I came up with a few too. Some THerz started leaving for many reasons. I still had energy, although after i got back in (had to get stuff from the car) i sat down on the floor to rest a little bit... There's one track that made me stand up in a second. One track that i heard the week before, at BIEL too, during Andy Moor's set. The bassline alone reloaded my batteries! Andy Moor vs Orkidea - YearZero (Andy's First Light Mix) and i haven't stopped from dancing or even moving since then. As morning was getting closer, John was still throwing at us killer tracks (whether it is uplifting or tech!). There were less and less THerz as the sky was shifting to blue again. Dionysos, Roland, DJ_Tracid, Moudy and I were still there!

And here comes the time that made our jaws hit the floor and our ears get shocked with what was coming out of the speakers!
5:15am. Dionysos and I were in the back (there was more open space) still dancing and suddenly we heard something different. John Askew played PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE!!! Is that possible?! We couldn't believe it, but we had (and wanted!) to accept the reality! After 4hours of amazing, fantastic and magic uplifting beauties and techy filth, we reached the HIGHEST STATE OF TRANCE !!! The BPM made us dance without even thinking of stopping for a tiny moment... why anyway? We didn't want to stop! Dio and i were literally out of control! 2 or 3 tracks were played, we had to take advantage of those 20 to 25min of mad music!! Moudy joined us at the back and we enjoyed the psy power! Afterwards a couple of uplifting and one techy tracks were played. We expected Sean Tyas - Lift to be the closing track, but there was another one after it

At 6:10am, Amadeus came again to take over for the afterhours set. But before he started, they hugged each other as good friends and chatted a little bit I'm sure that Amadeus played a very good set for the pleasure of the ravers who stayed!

In the end, i guess that John Askew realized he's the only Trance DJ of the Clubbing Experience and decided to take us on an amazing marathon set (of 5 hours btw ) so that we could go back home fully satisfied!
1 set. 5 hours. 4 styles (uplifting, tech, psy, some vocal) = Full Satisfaction!
Like Robert (DJ_Tracid) said, John Askew made a promise that he would kill us with the set and he did! And you're right, it's gonna be nice telling people that we were there when they hear the album

However, there are a couple of negative points i wanna say here. First, the guys at the entrance should have better communication between them. We were told that the regulars don't get this thingy around the fist. When i got out, they attached the thingy and when i came back in, they asked me questions and i was afraid that they wouldn't let me in. Second, the bar was empty at 5:30am or even sooner. After the psy madness we needed water and they didn't have anymore. That thing already happened during Paul Van Dyk's gig...



lebanese_raver: I'm not sure if i understood well the part after "understanding Trance music", but i didn't really appreciate the part "understanding Trance music". The thing is, imo, that there's no established Trance culture in Lebanon. Personally i like to say that Lebanon is France's little brother cuz of its House culture I think that here it's more a clubbing scene than a house scene anyway. Ravers go to all kinds of events and night parties whether it is Trance, House, Electro, etc...


C-rouge: damn that sucks security guys are really stupid at those events. They push people in a vulgar way when they wanna pass through... acting like a mafioso's gorillas... they piss me off too at times!

Dionysos and Genesis: I love your replies to each other



Pics coming tonight

[Raneem]

^ why im not mentioned in ur review bitch ?

[TranceFusion]

^ I added you too now bitch

[Raneem]

^ good boy

[Nino]

LOL BITCHES>>>i love ur review guys...hope u had fun
cya around

[lebanese_raver]

[c-rouge]

Just have to add to ur beautiful review, "Firefly" is a track produced by both of us, Amadeus + C-Rouge. Hell yes, amazing feeling seeing the crowd hands-in-the-air on a track u working on since months

Regarding the securities issue, I really hope that organizers will take into consideration!!

[mzy]

[Immy]

[TranceFusion]

[Immy]

Has Armin played there yet?

[Johnny]

[Raneem]

^