Now into its 4th year of promotion, Elation has become a byword for an alternative to the mainstream rave experience. Got to an Elation and you will not hear successive DJs playing the same sound, neither will you get MCs who are more interested in the sound of their voice than entertaining the ravers. At Elation, you get DJs who are booked for their ability behind the decks, their production efforts in the studio and MCs who effortlessly hype the crowd. Its the reason why I've attended every Elation without fail since 2001. This was their 4th birthday celebration and even though it was a forgone conclusion I would attend, the lineup made me anticipate it even more. Sticking to their booking policy, the promoters had put together a lineup to be proud of. Once again, they had gone out of their way to represent Hardcore in all its interpretations. Brisk pushed the upfront sound, Ponder brought classic freeform to the rave. Robbie Long promised an hour of much needed breakbeats, Wizbit bucked the Hardcore trend with an exlcusive DnB set, Uplift would bring his forth his unique sound, as well as the extra dimension of hosting the "Skill Hour". In his Elation Debut, Caine took the first set and I was NOT going to miss that. Neither was I going to miss HB playing the final hour as it is always entertaining. And Luna-C? Well he had the peak time set for a good reason and he has never let me down in the past... It all saw me ducking out of the pre meet early (Despite the class Wild West brawling entertainment) and walking over to the venue. Soon after, I was joined by a gaggle of friendly ravers and a sizeable queue formed. Eventually 10pm came and went and Ozzy shepherded us through the door in pairs and after handing over a very reasonable 12 quid, I was in. Having been to the Elecrowerkz once or twice (!) before, I didn’t need to look around. I was straight into the infamous blokes toilets and got some earplugs sorted. Then it was into the main arena for Caine's first ever Elation booking. I had first seen Caine play out at an STS Free party, during which he distinguished himself by being the only DJ to have a clang free set, despite the less than respectable setup. Since then, I have been a fan of his work and if nothing else, it would be interesting to see what he was capable of when the set up was more DJ friendly. as he had the warmup set, he could hardly be expected to rip into 180bpm freeform, so in an unselfish decision, he kept the pace slightly subdued for the first half, before taking it up to blend with the rest of the ngiht. The second half, IMO, showed off his talents better as he was on familiar ground. Dropping tunes like "A Picture of Devon", a nice remix of "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare" and finishing with CLSM's "Sound of the Future". Together with RizlaDizla on the mic, Caine kicked off the evening with a solid and enjoyable set. However, in typical Elation manner, the party was taken on a different heading by the next DJ. Robbie Long took control and dropped another fine breakbeat selection. Most of the set consisted of unknown tunes for me, but that is besides the point. A rare chance to dance to something other than a kickdrum is never to be wasted. It was all the better for it cos eventually I did manage to ID some tunes, Most of them my favourites too. A comedy remix of "Happy Birthday to ya" to celebrate the event, mingled with "Night to Remember" and my personal favourite "Get Hard", all made for an entertaining set which was up to Robbie's usual high standards. Well enjoyed that one, but then I am slightly biased cos I love the breakbeat sound. Next up after Robbie Long was a DJ who has seen many high profile bookings of late and with good reason too. DJ Uplift took his place behind the decks as Whizzkid joined him on the mic for what had been tagged "The Skill Hour". I wasn’t sure about how much skill the crowd were generating, but if it was anything close to the amount the DJ and MC were putting out, then I am sure it was enough. Playing tunes like a remix of "Generate Electricity" and "DJ in full effect" meant that at last the kickdrum heads had what they wanted. I was more than happy too, especially when the inevitable Tom U4EA comedy tune was dropped for Uplift's final effort. This time? Well, it could only be one really. As the cheesy rip of the "A-Team" theme emanated through the speakers, Whizzkid was in his element. The amount of Skillsnaps from the crowd indicated that they were having just as much fun too. As the night had kicked off in earnest, the decor and production deserve a mention for helping matters along. A new decor crew, Glowbug, had been drafted in and as usual, had turned the main arena into a menagerie of fluro and furry animals. Bonkers amounts of UV lights made it all vividly glow and together with the class backdrops of well drawn animated girlies which mingled with Elation's own efforts, made for a nice visual overload when you got onto the dancefloor. And that wasn’t counting the laser. As usual, the Rez Laser topped the bill in the rave. Going non stop for near enough the entire night, was as impressive as it always is, writing out words on the back wall, name checking the event and bouncing off the glitter balls suspended from the ceiling. Next up was Luna-C, for the 1-2 set. Its always a pleasure to see him play out and I didn’t go away disappointed this time either. Instead of a set, Luna-C put on a performance. Not just mixing one tune into the next, but dropping snippets of certain tunes and vocals from others over the tunes he was playing. Personally, I would have been happy on tune selection alone. Especially ones like "Piano Progression", "Total confusion", "Liberation", "Free to feel good", "Got me burning up", "Serious Hardcore" and "get f**ked". They always keep me happy during a set, but overlaying them with subtle samples like "The Weekend has landed" vocals, the very entertaining vocal into of his set and the vocals he played over the top of "Now is the time" made a good set even better. To spare their blushes, I wont name names, but during his set, ravers were making comments like "Luna-C has to be the best DJ in the world" and "What would you rather have, no sex or no Elations? Tough isn’t it?" Cant say I disagree with them tbh.:) Luna-C has a habit of doing this, but once again he walked the set of the night with alarming ease. I couldn’t stop dancing, even if I wanted to, which I didn’t. The anticipation of not having a clue what he is going to come up with next and loving what he did come up with when he did are what this man's sets are all about. Worth the entrance fee on its on, that set was worth every penny of it and then some. It would have been difficult for the next DJ to top that kind of set, luckily the next DJ was Brisk and he didn’t try to better it either. Brisk just got down to what he knows he does best, dropping an hour long set where chinstrokers were not welcome, just ravers who wanted to stomp their guts out. Ably assisted by Whizzkid and the surprise assistance of Odyssey on the mic, all three got down to business and tore the place to the ground. Tune selection was not designed to make you think "Ooh! thats different", but to say "OMG! I gotta dance to this!!!". "Angel Eyes", "Crazy Love", and that amazing remix of "Free your mind" were all dropped with the sole intention of making the ravers dance. Mission accomplished :) The next set remains a bit of a mystery to me. Wizbit was meant to drop a DnB set for the next hour in a middle of a hardcore rave but I just couldn't get into it. The rolling basslines were something I just couldn't cope with at 3am so I went into the chillout and recharged my batteries while Wizbit did the business. I did try, it just wasn’t happening. The Time was nearing 4am and with most other raves, the next set would be a time killer till the final hour. Not at this party though. Ponder stepped up and took his place for a much awaited classic freeform set. Whizzkid stayed on the mic due to the lateness of Storm and together they put together a set that was anthing but a time killer. I'm not too hot on my Freeform. I love the way its no nonsense experimental side makes me get up and dance, but ask me to name the tunes and I'm stuffed. However, even I recognised "Bodyslam" and "Take me up" when they came on. Thanks to a few clued up ravers, I was also able to pick out "Mind control" too. This set was all about caning tunes that were made to dance to and I was going for it like you wouldn’t believe. All the way through. For the final part of the party, Mark HB was called up to finish of proceedings. Coupled with the arrival of MC Storm, fresh from a pleasant drive from Manchester, HB played a set of mainstream tunes that was the only way of finishing off a party like this. The surviving ravers dusted themselves off and made the most of HB's top notch tunes. Included in his selection were efforts like: "You're love takes me higher and higher", "in 2004, its Hardcore", and my personal favourite "Chemical Love". HB and Storm made sure the ravers went home with aching legs, a smile on their faces and their money's worth from the party. All too soon it was time to go home, but HB snuck in a tasty remix of "4am" and the party went bonkers for one last time, before Storm wished us all a safe journey home like he always does :) Things I liked : Top notch music. Keeping the same party innovative its no mean feat. But this is Elation we're talking about here. Nuff said. :) Decor. Another fine effort by the Globug decor team. Weird fluro animals to enhance our raving pleasure. Fantastic. Atmosphere. Party people in the place were on top form as usual. Patented Elation atmosphere was in the place once again. You should have that stuff bottled. Things I liked less: Sound system. It has to be said that the sound system was not as well set up as last time. Especially with regard to mic level. Attendance. More ravers were needed at this party. For those that didn’t attend I got two words, YOUR LOSS!!!! Despite the drop in attendance (Exams? Who needs em anyway?), the fact remains that this was a great party. The music was spot on and it kept me dancing right till the the final tune. Elation is now 4 years old and as such has gone further than "Bigger" raves with "Bigger" reputations. However, its clear from the promoters attention to detail, lineup consideration, decor spec and atmosphere generated, that the Elation crew don’t do what they do to be the biggest, just the best. Must be nice to achieve what you set out to do.
