Pleasuredome '94 - Best party ever?

Everyone has a party they look back on as a favourite.  For me, it's Pleasuredome '94.  It was absolutely massive but retained just the right illegal, warehousey feel.  It was the third party I went to and I'll never forget first walking in and wondering why so few people were dancing.  It was a mad surprise realising the small group I could see was just the very back of the dancefloor, and there were about 4,000 more happy ravers going nuts just around the corner.  And with sparklers, everyone seemed to have sparklers.

What an awesome night followed - the huge chillout full of old, street-side lounges; a pumping, intense hardcore room up the back, and particularly memorable sets from Pee Wee, Jade and a little, unknown group named Infusion.

The UK's DJ Slipmatt headlined the night and first introduced me to the UK breakbeat style, a style it baffles me never really took off in Sydney.  His set covered all the big, breaky numbers of the day - all four SMDs, "In Effect", "In Complete Darkness", "Ool Lortnoc" and many more.

Adelaide's Maestro D is on MC duties and, despite my general distaste for MC'ing, I really enjoy it.  His style really carries forth the idea that you were in that moment, in the midst of something epic, a true Australian raver aesthete.

There were more Pleasuredome tapes in existence.  I had the Pee Wee set on loan at one point and would love to track it down - or any other sets from the night for that matter.  Can anyone help?

Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side A
Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side B
Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side C
Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side D

Who the f*** is DJ Apex?

I have no idea who DJ Apex is but this might just be my favourite hard trance tape ever.  I lost my copy back in '96 and have been trying to find it ever since.  Happily, through this little blog it has once again come my way! 

The tape was originally picked up in '94 and as far as I can remember had a prism with light passing through it on the cover.  I also seem to remember being told Apex was DJ Fenix using a different moniker for his trance sets.  Can anyone confirm or deny?

The tape flies along around 170bpm and, unusually, gives barely a nod to the predominant happy-hardcore sound of the day.  There's the odd scattering of anthems like "Enter the Arena" and "Wizards of the Sonic", but for the most part this tape is all about the underground, with a hard trance sound that's somewhat bigger and dumber than the more popular Hi-Shock tapes of the day.  I say that in a good way as this set really is a lot of fun!

Click here to download DJ Apex - Spectrum Side A
Click here to download DJ Apex - Spectrum Side B

DJ Jade - Liquid Everything

So I'm going to do some tape ripping of my own this weekend, but in the meantime I've discovered the one and only DJ Jade has posted her entire back catalogue for download on Facebook.  "Liquid Anthems" is my pick of the bunch, distilling the best of the other tapes into one sweet 90-minute mix.

I purchased three copies of this tape back in the day.  The first I lost along with a prized Walkman.  The second was part of a long-running argument with my girlfriend at the time, to whom I was adamant I'd loaned the tape while she was adamant I hadn't.  Needless to say, it turned up at her house some months later.  Total win for her 'cause she got to keep the tape since I'd already bought another.  Smart girl.

Click here to check out Jade's back catalogue on Facebook.
(You don't need to be registered with Facebook to view this page, but seriously, is anyone not on Facebook these days?)