Cyberfunk 10/11/2002 - Guest: Astrix

Night Review

Author: Sequential-X
Date: Nov 10, 2002
Views: 2135

   

November 11, 2002 - Text: Sequential-X

After a loooong time I visited a Cyberfunk party on Sunday. The Cybefunk team has moved from C.T. Plus in Akadimias Street back to the more familiar place of +Soda in Ermou Street. The guest Dj of the night was Astrix following his promotion schedule for his new album "Eye to Eye" out now on Homega Productions. Astrix will be heading next to India and then Japan.

 

We arrived at the party (the ticket was just 15 euros including a drink, which I believe is a very reasonable price) at around 11:00 and there was no queue at the door (the party had started in 19:00). We got in instantly and Astrix was at decks at that time. The party was crowed but not packed leaving some space for some fancy dance moves or just the odd block of fresh cooling air. Astrix was using a strange way of mixing tunes, with heavy use of EQing, he was trying to create breakdowns that the crowd so much love. I believe at times that worked at times it left the floor hangin'…

 

Music-wise he played the typical Israel sound that it is not exactly progressive or uplifting or full-on but a blend of all this in true Israel style. Personally that sound is not my style but I must say that the tracks were quite danceable with mainly the floor in mind. The crowd seemed to have a good time and there was a very little amount of people that didn't' t dance. I had a couple a dance moves under my wing too, especially when one of my all time favors popped up, "Gamma Goblins" by Hallucinogen even in a remix form, can still do some good floor damage :)

 

Later on Kostas Om took the decks and his set (at least the first 30 minutes I had the chance to hear) was a lot harder than Astrix with fat bad-ass leads. Another thing is that the electric guitar by doing some guest appearances every now and then, can still rock a trancefloor easily judging from the reactions of the crowd.

 

At around 1:00 I had a chance to have a little conversation with Astrix (Avi Shmailov) who has been involved in music from his early days as a teenager. In Greece is something of a regular and well-known figure as he has been played for about 20 times in our country and has worked with Mike Verros in the past. By collaborating with Alien Project on Alien's debut album "Midnight Sun", Astrix built a good reputation and after that a strive of collaborations with big names of the Israel scene followed. Impressive is also his agenda of music releases, as he has worked for labels such as Automatic, T.I.P World, Homega (his current label), Transient etc.

 

Right now his first album "Eye to Eye" is out, with eight dancefloor oriented tracks, an ambient one and a more slow groovy track. B.N.E his distribution company have a good faith in him and have scheduled a monstrous marketing campaign for him part of which is his visit in Athens. Astrix also told me that he has begun working on the second album (already finished two tracks) that will follow the same pattern as "Eye to Eye" and hopes that the third one will be a more complete album with more styles explored.

 

When I asked Astrix about the venue and how he felt about it, he told me that he liked the crowd reaction but he was not completely satisfied with the sound-system. Furthermore he told me that in Israel there is partying everyday not only at the end of the week and that there are no police problems anymore, something that proves the healthy state of the scene in Israel.

 

Finally when I asked Avi about his influences the names of Infected Mushroom and Simon Posford (akA Hallucinogen) popped up, plus some influences from outside the scene such as Dream Theater, Depeche Mode and Pink Floyd.

 

Overall I had a good time having the chance to party for the first time after the festivals in the summer. The crowd seemed O.K. having a good time and enjoying the music. At this point I would like to thank Andreas for his great hospitality and devotion to the scene when many people just accuse but do nothing.

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