How many tracks have you heard in the last couple of years with those “White Noise” blasts, or a song that just builds and builds?  Well we’ve heard lots and Dubfire is the man thats been credited with starting it all (the White Noise that is). Resident Advisor, even  ran an article on him last month discussing this. Hundreds of artists have since copied this technique. Its all thanks to “Emissions” and its  hard to believe was released way back in 2007!

Dubfire – Emissions

Another track that inspired others like it with its “Slow Rise”, and endless building and building is Christian Smith & John Selways “Total Departure”. Its another 2007 release on Adam Beyers Drumcode Label, and as John Selway himself says

“We originally created the track as both a simple and effective DJ tool and for elements we could use in our live sets. We never expected how it would blow up the way it did, we were really surprised!“

Christian Smith & John Selway – Total Departure (Original Mix)

Be sure to check out the Cirez D remix of “Total Departure” as it to is a monster, and even more techno orientated. It had huge support from the likes of Ivan Smagghe when it was originally reased. Massive!

And here’s a track that fuses both the “White Noise” and “Slow Rise” to perfection… We remember first hearing this when Sven played Tripod April 2008. It blew us away, we got a crappy recording of it on one of our phones and after several days trying to Track ID it, we found out it was coming out on Svens “Cocoon Compilation H” , happy days. And of course Dubfire had a hand in the production of this too!

Oliver Huntemann & Dubfire – Diablo (Original Mix)

Wow, where do I begin?  The Serb’s are Mental! The Fortress where Exit has been based for the last 10 years has to be the best naturally designed venue for a festival i’ve ever been to. Each stage is set below in a gigantic mote that runs around the fort, and each stage has to be seen to be believed! Every morning around 5am the sun would come up and the crowd would go mental.  It’s an unbelievable fortress that would make scaling the walls of Helms Deep childsplay stuff!. A man actually died on the 3rd night after falling off one of them! The Serb’s said it was nothing new as someone usually dies once a year ! There are over 20 stages scattered throughout the fortress, with most of them the same size and set amongst the moat. The Main Stage is pretty bland which we didn’t bother visiting once,although we heard The prodigy rocked it! But we came all this way for one thing only… Richie Hawtin and the legendary Exit Dance Stage! It’s a perfect amphitheatre that captures everything, giving off incredible sound. First night we got a bit of Lee Burridge and Steve Lawler who wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea but they were actually quite good. Actually i think even tiesto would ‘ve sounded good to me at that stage such was the pumping sound coming out of the speakers. What you do is you come down these two huge temporary steps on either side of the dance stage, that’s basically scaffolding where you can see down to the bottom, once you get down and turn your looking right down to the dance stage which just looks evil whilst taking your breath away, the place never stops and just goes on and on til 8am in the morning.

Personally i would’ve rather have seen Richie work his magic on his own as he’s one of the most hands on Dj’s out there and with Ali Dubfire still being a bit of a NOOB to the whole minimal sound, that’s not to say i don’t love the guy. There’s photo’s even of richie taking over Dubfire’s rig and showing him what to do!! It was only early last year when Ali was in Dirty Deep Dish, and i remember reading an article where he said how much he idolised Richie all these years, so I’d say it was a special night for him I’m sure. Either way it was special! The heavens opened about halfway through their set and i mean absolutely bucketed down! which started a mass exodus from the place, it became a mudbath with bodies sliding everywhere. Apparently it never rains which was a pity because Loco Dice and Magda were on next. Another pairing that should never have been but together and didn’t work. Just to explain about the pairings, it was Exit’s tenth anniversary so they decide to do all the Dance Artist’s back to back (b2b).Next year i’m bringing jeans and wellies as its not nearly as warm as you’d think! Here are a couple of vids when the rain was coming up, there was no sun that morning!!

(Sorry i’m just gonna cut in here and name drop… The reception Lady in our hotel recommended this restaurant called Salsa 137 for dinner one night and who was sitting beside us?, none other than Richie himself, my personal highlight of the whole week, nice guy. He said have fun!)

I’d Recommend the trip to everyone. Flights were 250 Euro Return, Exit ticket was 80 Euro, we stayed ****star Hotel for 50 euro a night. Taxi’s are never more than 2 Euro and 1 Litre of Vodka is 5 euo and 20 smokes 75cents!

Here is a pretty good quality video of Steve Angello and Sebastien Ingrosso dropping  Billie Jean to the delight of the crowd.

Here are some sets that i haven’t heard yet but i’m dying to as i’m still stuck in Budapest. They were ripped from a National broadcast of the festival so i hope the quality is ok.

Steve Lawler b2b Lee Burridge Live Exit Festival,9.07.2009

Gui Boratto – Live @ Exit Festival (Serbia) (10-07-2009)

Steve Angello b2b Sebastian Ingrosso – Live @ Exit Festival (Novi Sad,Serbia) (11-07-2009)

I also got some great video’s of Surkin and Das Glow that i’ll post up when i get home as i’d like to get a track ID for a few of their tracks!