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Flyers for events photographed in April 2004 appear below. A link to the associated photo album appears beneath that. 04.02.2004 In And Outta Sight featuring Painting & Sculptures by Michael Patrick Moore The Infinite Sun Artist's Space Kansas City, MO 04.03.2004 Awakening featuring Angel Alanis, Stan Doublin, Daniel Palmer vs HTHPM, 4Star, Andrew Bowie, & Ray Pena Knights of Pythias Hall Independence, MO 04.07.2004 Wednesday Perk featuring cQuence & SL8R Cup & Saucer Kansas City, MO 04.09.2004 Frisky featuring Miss Honey Dijon, Pat Nice, DJ Shad Kabal Restaurant & Nightclub Kansas City, MO 04.10.2004 Life ... As We Know It featuring Reid Speed, Kid Icarus, cQuence, Frooky, Blue, & The Professor Knights of Columbus Hall Kansas City, MO photos by todd & joe 04.16.2004 UP featuring Breakbotix, DanP, BoBo, N.9 vs Omen and Fitzroger A Warehouse Manh...

Interview by Brent Crampton ~ Photos by todd ~ Sydeburnz has been a mainstay in the Kansas/Missouri scene for the past couple of years. Having made a rapid rise to regional fame, Sydeburnz has been turning heads with his signature style of “Bangin’ NRG” hard house along with his recent indulgence in the occasional deep tech house set. Sydeburnz is an eccentric man of ambitious character with a down-to-earth personality. His stage presence commands the attention of the dance floor while his crafty mixing techniques leave trainspotters entertained. I took some time out to chat online with Sydeburnz and here is what he had to say . How did you get into DJing? Well, kind of hard to really pinpoint the exact time. But I remember going out to the teen clubs as a spectator at first. I used to hang out at “The Swing,” some dive hole in the wall club on 72nd and Blondo (Omaha, Nebraska). They played mostly early hip hop and alternative dance anything from Guy to Sinead O'Connor. So ...

Interview by Brent Crampton ~ Photographs by Pete, Remi Abayomi ~ Nimbus is home to Oli Beale, Pete Bannister and Jon Shanks- three ambitious producers/djs who have a taste for all things deep, dark and techy. From the hypnotizing bassline of “Entron” or the headturning synths of “Purple Dawn,” this trio is producing quality deep tech house that is getting noticed. With their masterpiece “Vector,” recently signed to the Swiss label BitBoutique, the Nimbus crew is making a name for themselves. When the crew isn’t traveling around, they reside in Brighton, England. Read on to see what the crew thinks about life, love and everything inbetween the beat. How long have you been doing your thing and how did you get into it? And what's your affiliation to house music? Pete: I've been producing for almost 7 years now, but its only in the last few years things started to all fall into place. I started out learning to play keyboards when I was about 11, but wasn't particularly i...

interview & photos by todd ~ Recently on a Sunday night, I was invited down to the Grand Emporium to check out an act that he was really excited about called Tortured Soul. Hailing from Brooklyn, NY this trio of musicians played an evening of excellent House music to a tight little crowd. What makes these guys so different. They don't use vinyl, CDs, MP3s or even Final Scratch. It's all live instrumentation. Christian on Percussion, Jason on Bass and Ethan playing a vintage set of keyboards that add an interesting flavor to their sound, their sound is so good, even my good friend Harvey couldn't be kept away from this show. ( Click here to hear his comment ). After their set, I had the opportunity to sit and chat with them for a minute. Here's what they had to say. When did you guys get together? We met about 3 1/2 years ago and we were playing in a bigger six piece band and the three of us enjoyed playing more as a trio than the bigger band and I (Christ...

by J. PhoenixThe Synthesis article is still in the works; it's such a big subject that we're breaking it up into four parts, and The Bench will see each of them released one at a time. It will cover the basics of synthesis, which is much more complicated than the term implies. This month we'll take a short break and discuss staying fresh. These are my top ten ways to stay fresh and renew inspiration with whatever activity, art form, etc. you are pursuing: 10. Read a Biography Before You Start a New Project Bonus points if you pick a biography on someone whose work is totally unrelated to your work, but still inspires you. The idea behind this is that if you look at the trials, tribulations, and successes of another who inspires you, what happened in their life may prepare you for something in your own, or may give you a new insight on what you are about to do. And even if it doesn't, at least you'll have learned a bit more about the art you enjoy. 9. Find Ano...

Preview by Brent Crampton ~ photo courtesy of AM Only ~ It may take a British man to do it, but Adrian Basford is determined to bring back the old-school party vibe to Omaha. ADB, “Absolutely Defining Best Entertainment” is backed by the infamous MC ADB, otherwise known as Adrian. On Friday, May 7th, ADB presents “Stimulus.” Bringing in a taste of Buzz, Scott Henry along with the highly praised DnB dj - Stakka will be headlining the event. Regional talent includes the innovator of Technomaha himself, Dr. Mindbender operating on the crowd with his signature rolling-base style of Goa trance, Omaha’s hardcore guru - Durian and transplanted breaks courtesy of Troy180 from Des Moines. For those of you who are not familiar with Scott Henry, he has traveled the world playing the best clubs with his deep, dark and tribal style of house and techno. His weekly club night in Washington, D.C. - Buzz, has been voted as America’s #1 weekly event in URB magazine for the past 6 years! Stakka is by...

Review by Brent Crampton ~ Nasty . . . Scary . . . Wet-my-bed kind of Scary. The first release for Wreckless recordings is all of that and more. Wreckless is based out of Omaha, Nebraska and is the brain child of Lunatik, aka Aaron Godbout and will focus on hard-hitting tracks with a dark appeal. Making its debut at the WMC, this record company is bound to put Omaha on the map for dance music! The first release, “Addicted” has the original by Trinity Sound System a “Lunatik Rework”. Trinity Sound System is producer James Passolt and vocalist Chad Carper. The track is a 4-to-the-floor stomper with a heavy and chunky high end and one hell of a nasty bass line. Throughout the track is the sampled line, “I don’t care - I am addicted” and Passolt puts a nice touch on it when he begins to chop up the vocal and tease the dance floor with it. The track is pretty original considering it uses a four-to-the-floor method with a DnB bass line. Overall, it is very dark and sure to appeal to the ...

story & photos by todd ~ Is it really fair to charge people for one of the Basic Essentials of Life? Would you charge people to breathe the Air in your house? While at the Ultra Music Festival, a came across the typical outrage. The Price of Water. As the photograph shows to the right, the price that was being charged for a 24-ounce bottle of Coca Cola's Dasani Bottled Water was $5. You know, a lot of people try to downplay this issue. I am sure that everyone has heard the arguement come up at one time or another. Many will say that it is irrelevant, but it really is becoming a growing concern at festivals such as this. Add to that, various unfounded accusations by the Department of Justice that Rave promoters are intentionally marking the price of water up to unreasonable amounts and you have to eventually ask, "OK. We've identified this problem, but when is there going to be some sort of action to prevent it from continuing?" This particular event was a...

too much of a good thing ~ story & photos by todd ~ Hopping a plane in the late morning hours of Thursday, March 4, Tim (DJ Solaris) and I started our little adventure to Miami, South Beach and the Winter Music Conference. Neither of us had actually gotten the "pass" in to the conference. Tim said you really didn't need it and everyone else I talked to essentially said the same, so I didn't bother with it either. We arrived rather late in Miami due to a small issue with weather in Dallas that delayed us an hour and went out for a walk around 11 pm and just kind of soaked up the balmy evening. It was 70° and absolutely perfect for a stroll down Collins Ave to get a feel for the layout of the streets and whatnot. We ran into a couple of girls from Holland desperately seeking a certain party and decided to just walk them up to where they wanted to be. We thought about going in, but decided to conserve some energy for the upcoming events and just headed back up t...

As I sit here writing this, listening to Andrew Boie's "Dead by Dawn", I have had a lot of time to reflect back on the last couple of months and some of the places I've been, such as Miami. I had only been here a week after Mardi Gras when I was suddenly wisked off to a world where DnB and Techno seemed to be in control. That was actually ok though. I can get plenty of house in Kansas City. Most of the photographs taken this month were in Miami. This one, of me and my favorite SuperModel Shandi was taken at the Syde-Sho Anniversary Party in Mid March by Kourtney Anderson. This was just the beginning of a series of parties that took place this month that seemed to swell with every event, up to and including Awakening, just last weekend. It's really good to see the masses growing. The energy seems to be rising again. This coming summer could prove to be quite an interesting time. Until Next Time! ~phocas~

april 2004 editor note wmc 2004 water 4 sale wrecklessly addicted a little stimulus the bench staying fresh tortured soul nimbus sydeburnz event photos