Journey @ Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Fri 6 Mar
Despite what you might have read about Warp’s Lorenzo Senni ‘reappropriating trance breakdowns’ and the likes of Bicep playing pitched-down Gatecrasher classics, trance isn’t back. Because that would suggest that it actually went away – and it didn’t, as the queues of punters who go nutty for the likes of Armin van Buuren and co around the world will attest. And nobody in Cardiff probably knows that better than Journey, who’ve been holding it down in Clwb for some time now.
For this edition of their party series, they welcome well-traveled Sicilian Gai Barone, who deals in the polished, melodic and proggy end of trance’s broad spectrum.
Joining him will be south Wales’ own Will Rees, who’s been causing quite the commotion from his base in Swansea, a city which has a long history with trance thanks in part to enormous raves of the past at Escape and its notorious annual festival in Singleton Park.
Last year was something of a banner one for the producer, making his Creamfields debut and getting a litany of bookings across the UK and Europe, rubbing shoulders with undisputed big dogs of trance-like Ferry Corsten along the way.
South Wales, for all its many qualities, doesn’t produce many breakout electronic acts, so go and show your support for one of our own who’s on a seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory.
Tickets: £15. Info: 0239 2023 2199
words KRISTIAN DANDO