Fevah NZ Release their first CD
This week, FEVAH NZ will release their first CD. Fittingly, the double CD brings together two key DJs driving the Fevah sound, one from where the Fevah story started (Ian M) and one from wherewhere many of the Fevah core nucleus call home (Blair Hawker).
4 Apr 2002
Indoctrinated into the hard house scene during 1997 - 1999 in London, Christchurch-born Blair Hawker AKA Hawkes and James Colebourne AKA Pooley became involved in Fevah UK after an interest in learning to mix records led to opportunities to play for Fevah UK, among other club nights.
When their visas expired in 1999 and they returned to the land of the long white cloud, it seemed only natural to bring Fevah back to New Zealand audiences. And after holding their first Fevah party in Christchurch in December 1999, they have regularly attracted thousands of avid hard dance fans to parties at all the major centres.
This week, FEVAH NZ will release their first CD. Fittingly, the double CD brings together two key DJs driving the Fevah sound, one from where the Fevah story started - UK born and bred Ian M mixing the hard house disc, and one from where many of the Fevah core nucleus call home, New Zealand born and bred and Fevah NZ co-founder Hawkes mixing the hard trance disc.
Ian M, who is also a resident at Trade, the club that pretty much kick-started the whole hard house genre delivers a set of punchy, no-nonsense hard house on his disc with all the usual drum rollin', 909 kick-druming, hip-hop sampling madness that makes hard house such a genius dance floor sound.
Hawkes' disc on the other hand is strictly hard trance, a carefully selected sample of tracks, many of which have never been released in New Zealand before. There's plenty of atmospheric breakdowns and melodic riffs, but still with that essential Roland 909 kickdrum sound that makes dance music such a floor- filler.
Hawkes hopes the double CD encapsulates the Fevah sound and what has been a "very fun two years" running Fevah nights up and down the country. He says the main reason for releasing the CD is because there is because he feels there is a huge gap in the market for this type of music.
"I'm not aware of any other CD currently on the New Zealand market which features this type of music. You can always buy your Gatecrashers and other compilation type CDs which are the more commercial end of things, but you can't go out and buy what's being played at the clubs right now," he says.
In the two years since Hawker and Colebourne have been running Fevah in New Zealand they have hosted a huge line-up of hard house and trance DJs including Lab-4, Phil Reynolds, Skol, Steve Hill, Andy Farley, Steve Black, Oberon, Captain Tinrib, Max Alien, Sj and Baby Doc, Roosta, Ian M and of course all the other mad FEVAH London DJs - Riksta, Matt Clarke, Si Fevah, Skol, Steve Ryan, Raymondo, Owen B, Aaron and Eammon Fevah.
Accordingly, both discs in the new release contain numerous tracks from Fevah's own label "Fevah Records" which has been going for a year and a half (DJ Riksta - Don't Touch Me; Raymondo - Win The Crowd, Win Your Freedom; Eamonn Fevah - Your Turn; among others), as well as two gems produced by Hawkes himself - Panic and Strange Events.
Hawker travelled to the London and spent four days producing his two tracks with Steve Blake during May and June last year. From an initial run of 1500 records with his tracks on, so far he's already sold over 100 vinyl copies in New Zealand and hopes to sell more in conjunction with sales of the new Fevah double CD.
Copies of the Fevah CD are available at Soundz, The CD Store and Planet Jack stores throughout New Zealand as well as at Real Groovy stores in Auckland and Wellington. It's also available for purchase online via smokecds.com. See the New Zealand music section or simply search "FEVAH" ensuring you check the "title" option in the search bar. There is also a full track-listing and sound bites available on the site.
Vinyl copies of Hawkes' two tracks Panic and Strange Events as well as the Fevah CD are also available at the following vinyl specialist stores:
- Auckland - Central Station, Needle on the Record, Criminal Records
- Wellington - Firm Records, Flipside
- Christchurch - Asylum, Bunker Records
<i>"...if you're interested in finding out what hard house is all about and like to support the local aspect, buy this CD. - SmokeCDs.com "</i>
<b>The next Fevah events are:</b>
<b>Fevah Auckland - Fevah Records Tour Night</b></br>
Saturday 4th May @ Staircase
11 pm till 7 am
Main Room
11 till 12.30 Seb DuRush (Decadance)
12.30 till 2 Jazz
2 till 3.45 Jo Shiva
3.45 till 5.30 Steve Blake
5.30 till 7 Hawkes B2B Pooley
House Room
11 till 12.30 Tapan
12.30 till 2 Warwick Jones
2 till 3.30 Radley
3.30 till 5.30 Andy Vann
Tickets $40 advance or more on the door, available from Burgerfuel, Real Groovy, Route 66 (NewMarket) & Red Ticket outlets
<b>Fevah Wellington - Fevah Records Tour Night</b></br>
Friday 10th May @ SubNine and Curve Bar
10 till 6
Main Room (Sub 9)
10 till 11.30 Tony K
11.30 till 1.00 Andrew Innes
1 till 2.45 Jo Shiva
2.45 till 4.30 Steve Blake
4.30 till 6 Hawkes B2B Pooley
Firm Room (Curve Bar)
10 till 12 Asher
12 till 2 Shane
2 till 4 Andy B
4 till 6 Ryan
Tickets $35 advance or more on the door, available from Hound Dog, Firm Records, Flipside Records, Tommy Gun, Colorado and Alcatraz Palmerston North.
<i>For further information about the Fevah CD and future Fevah events, for press comment or for pictures to use in articles contact Blair Hawker on (025) FEVAH2 (338 242) or e-mail: hawkes007@hotmail.com</i>
<b>BACKGROUND</b>
The Fevah story had humble beginnings at the Polar Bear Pub in London's west end on Sunday nights back in 1996. In less than one year the club night went from having 150 to over 3000 clubbers at its events.
New Zealanders Eammon Kilgariff and Wayne Hart co-founded Fevah UK and began an institution on the London club scene.
Fevah UK now holds events every Friday and Saturday, a monthly Sunday club, bank holiday parties exceeding 4000 people, and various special events including the Tony De Vit Memorial Trust charity event at the Brixton Academy.
Fevah Records, Fevah's very own record label have released over 20 CDs, nine hard trance and 12 hard house discs since they have been going, which are sold worldwide.
Fevah has indeed grown to be one of the most successful HARD DANCE clubbing brands in the world.
<b>BIOS</b>
Name: Blair Hawkes
Age: 28
Born: Christchurch, New Zealand
Music style: High NRG trance and hard house
Hawkes interest in the scene began from running club nights in London. Through going out every weekend and loving the music he was then introduced to mixing by Fevah UK DJ, Riksta. Riksta took Blair record shopping about three years ago and it all went from there.
Blair played at his own club night in London called "Charged" and from there had the opportunity to play for Fevah, Fahrenhite, Odyssey, Just Grooves, Provocation, Embrace, Fresh, Sid's Bar, U4RIA and Fusion. When his visa expired in London, Blair returned home to set up Fevah in New Zealand with friend James Colebourne.
In 2001 Blair did a stint in Tokyo and then visited friends in London and produced a few tunes with Fevah UK resident, Steve Blake.
Name: Ian M
Age: Older than Hawkes
Born: UK
Music style: HARD hardhouse
Ian M is one of the big-name DJs in the hard house scene and has played throughout the world including South Africa, USA, Hong Kong, Australia and Japan. Some of his current UK residencies include Trade (eight years), and Storm (two years), as well as regular guest slots at clubs such as the Torture Garden at Fabric and Mass.
He is renowned for his unique DJ sound, and is generally regarded as the "hardest" of all the Trade residents.
He has recently set up his own studio, Nexus, where he produces (with Paul Janes of UK Gold and Untidy Dubs fame) originally tracks and remixes for the finest dance labels in the UK - Tripoli Trax, Tidy Trax and Mohawk.
<b>SO WHAT'S HARD TRANCE AND HARD HOUSE???</b>
Dance music now is like a giant orange - once you split it open there are so many segments to choose from that you don't know where to start first! Here's our definition of the genres covered in our latest release to set some records straight....
<b>Hard trance: </b>
Hard Trance, as the title suggests, blends traditional trance sounds and structure with harder elements more reminiscent of Acid and Techno. The tempo is generally increased to between 145 and 150 beats per minute and the kick drum and bass is usually a focus for a clubbing audience. All kinds of trance share floor-pounding kicks intertwined with other elements of electronic instruments essential to all forms of dance music. Its evolution and popularity attest to its strength as a genre, and its ability to carry a crowd dancing into a euphoric communal state we believe will carry it onward and upward to its next incarnation.
<b>Hard house:</b>
Hard House is a relatively new style of music hailing from the UK (approximately 1997) and combines elements of several established genres to create a hard and fast club-oriented sound. Owing more to Trance and Gabber (a derivative of Hardcore Techno) than it does to House music, Hard House combines elements of both these styles with more than a passing nod to the Rave culture and Happy Hardcore days of the early 1990s. The "godfather" of Hard House is widely recognized as Tony de Vit and it has been pushed further into the mainstream clubbing circuit by DJs coming out of the Trance scene and looking for a way forward.
