Since my first Cypher last September, I had seen DJs as highly regarded and influential as Scott Brown, Mark EG and Jon Doe all grace the main stage turntables, but this event saw the assembly of their biggest and most exciting event yet. In keeping with previous events, Cypher opted for the successful combination of hard dance in the main room and an intimate old skool back room, which promised a rare two hour Fantazia style set from the original scratchmaster Sy. Entering the familiar surroundings of the uniquely underground Leeds West Indian Centre, the pounding beats of the main room soon found their way to my ears with the venue once again superbly decorated. Lasers, Cypher banners and a psychedelic visual screen behind the main stage, once again proved that there is no reason production standards at the smaller rave events can’t be up there with the big boys. As I quickly the dispatched my coat and obtained a trusty bottle of water I was greeted by the sounds of Cypher resident DJ Ginge, who was warming the ever filling dancefloor up nicely with a tasty selection of funky and twisted techno tracks. For me this set was a perfect start to the night, but not the last we were to see of Ginge, and lead perfectly into the evil yet funky sounds of acid techno veteran Ant. This guy has had some really strong releases on a number of well respected labels and certainly didn’t disappoint. His set even featured some nasty old skool style stabs and even some rough breakbeats laid over funky techno basslines. In desperate need of a breather I took the opportunity to sample the atmosphere in the smaller old skool room. The vibe in here was really kicking off and indeed the room was packed just about all night. The crowd, as always at Cypher, was brilliantly diverse, with students, crusties, cyberkids all happily raving away together, the young and old both well represented. Meanwhile the main room lasers were in full mind bending flow and the pace had picked up those vital few bpms with Slammin Vinyl regular Sarge taking to the decks. Playing it slightly more euphoric than some of his recent Slammin Vinyl bookings, I can only describe his set as a hard and nasty selection of nrg-ised trance, with tough beats and soaring synths taking the enthusiastic crowd of smiley ravers to the next level. The atmosphere in the main room really was among the friendliest I’ve encountered and was certainly aided by the sensibly liberal security on duty throughout the night. Back in the old skool room the excitement generated by a certain DJ Sy’s appearance had boiled over to ridiculous levels of raving antics, with the now rammed dancefloor forcing an army of insane ravers to take to the table tops to express their appreciation of the set. It was certainly justified as in a refreshing change from hearing the same old rave anthems being bashed out, Sy treated the crowd to an hours worth of classic piano house before journeying into more familiar old skool territory. With table top dancing and general mayhem in the back room you would have thought that the vibe in the main room would have suffered. However as DJ Energy, founder of the groundbreaking Nu Energy Records, took to the decks, the ravers were as enthusiastic as ever. Carefully building his selection from the harder end of trance right through to full on freeform and hardcore, Energy unleashed a set of true quality. Energy showcased a wide range of new tunes from his increasingly successful Nu Energy Collective (including a new hard nrg remix of “The Baptism”), before weaving in a number of classic tracks, such as “Take Me Up” and “In Deep Trouble”, at the peak of his set. Despite the line up times indicated the final main room set (Energy) to finish at 4, in true Cypher tradition the versatile DJ Ginge resumed his place at the decks for an extra hour of madness. Starting with ‘Tranceformation’ by Lab4, Ginge worked up into some classic Evolution tunage, as the hardcore collection of ravers still raving danced for their lives. All in all another top night at an event that continues to grow and grow whilst still sticking true to it’s original ethos of putting on a varied, underground and ‘up fer it’ hard dance rave.
