Here was a totally brand new event put on by the people behind the Higher States of Hard Dance website. It was held at the Adelphi in Sheffield, formerly the home of Revolution, Uprising, and even Gatecrasher at one time. New events in the hardcore scene are always a good thing and so I was curious to see how this one would work out. The promoters had decided to give free entry before 11pm as an introductory offer. The night started at 9pm but I had to work and couldn’t make it there till 10:15, so I missed Martin Space’s set on first. As I arrived at the Adelphi there was no queue there so I walked straight in. I was given a pretty thorough search by the security; I dropped my coat off in the cloakroom and then headed inside. The Adelphi is a well-arranged venue and so there isn’t necessarily a need to spend loads on production for an event here. The promoters had set up a video screen next to the stage on which they showed a rave video from Doncaster Warehouse, Star Wars, and a virtual reality computer simulation. The sound system was good and I didn’t notice any problems with it during the night. The first set that I saw was Jake Nicholls, an up and coming DJ who is making a name for himself around the Yorkshire area. He played a bouncy techno set that was a bit cheeky in parts, and had an older feel to it. It reminded me of sets by Paul-O, the Uprising promoter and much loved Yorkshire DJ. After Jake at 11 came Dodgee and Wotsee for an hour set. I’ve been impressed by these two when I’ve seen them before and here they were also very good. Dodgee played some old freeform like “Powerjam”, “Desensitize”, “Little Mermaid” and the “Back to the Top” remix, and also some brand new stuff like “Say it again”, “Identify the Beat” and the brilliant “Chemical Warfare”. He also added some of his wicked scratching. Wotsee was good on the mike too. I rate him a lot as an MC because he seems to have a real understanding of when an MC should speak and when they should be quiet, which many other MCs don’t always seem to understand. Overall I thought that this was the set of the night. After Dodgee and Wotsee came Jay Prescott for a techno set. His set was hard but not rock hard by Techno standards. Some of the tunes he played had nice breakdowns in it and his set was good to dance to. I went for a wander after this and so missed a lot of the next set, which was Spinner. Spinner was playing the bouncy style of hardcore which he is known for, and he played “Joining of the clans part 1”, “Love me too” and the newest “Now is the time” remix. I like Spinner’s sets because they have the bouncy feel that older hardcore sets used to have, without him having to cane really old anthems. Last set of the night was Scott Brown, playing from 2-3. In his set he played a few Evolution tunes like “Elysium” (with a new sample in), the new “Power of love” remix, and “Turn up the music”. He also played some nu-style gabba such as “Cold as Ice” and a few really dark sounding gabba tunes I’d not heard before. His set was quite good but it was let down slightly by him playing three trance rip-offs, which were of “Be Angeled” by Jam and Spoon, “Catch U” by Kosheen, and another big trance tune that I don’t know the name of. Come on Scott, I thought that you were above all that malarkey ? :( Scott Brown was still playing at 3:10 but I had to dash off because I had booked a taxi thinking the night would have finished by then. I’m not sure how many more tunes he played after that. Overall this was a really good night considering it was a first event. The DJ line up was good, they put on lots of MCs, and the night managed to get in a reasonable amount of people. There were more people here than Revolution used to drawn in to its later events here. The Adelphi is a nice rave venue with plenty of space to dance or sit down and chill out in. It’s a little bit out of the way from Sheffield city centre but it’s worth the ride out there. The next Total Noise Therapy event is on Friday April 26th and they have an even better line up for that one, consisting of Hixxy, Brisk and Sharkey. It’s once again on till 3am and this time the price is £5 with a flyer or £6 without. Keep an eye on this event because it has started off well and could really be going places in the future. :) Shouts go out to Lang-E, Part-E, Rich B, Lee UHF, Martin Space, Lindsey, Steph, Dodgee, Jexxy, Wotsee, Alarm, Kerrie, Jake Nicholls, Sam, Mike Sureal, Impulse, J.O. , Trigg, Shame, Hirsti, Spinner, Banksy, Ashley Speight, C-5, Ben Uprising, Invader, Kleiny and Tracy. :)
