Transmission – Digital Madness

O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
Saturday, November 19, 2011

On November 19, the biggest trance event in Czech Republic was held at O2 Arena in Prague. Massive event counting a crowd of more than 15,000 people partying in one hall and once more, the biggest trance night in the heart of Europe was celebrated by appearances by Markus Schulz, Ferry Corsten, Gareth Emery, John O’Callaghan, Above & Beyond and Michal Poliak (warm-up). This year, Transmission counted it’s eight year anniversary and let me tell you, the crowd is getting bigger and bigger by every year, it will not take much more years for Transmission to get completely sold out. This year, the DJs took us on a journey through the world of "Digital Madness".

My clock was showing 3:31 PM and I was boarding the quickest train to Prague. Journey went well, and I arrived there at 5 PM. Took a short ride in the subway and there she was, O2 Arena right in front of our eyes! We grabbed some food at KFC and shortly after 6:30 PM we were drinking beers at a bar near the arena.

At 8 PM, we were leaving the bar towards the arena. To my suprise, everything went pretty well at the press entrance. United Music (organisators of this huge event) are known for not liking press members. The first problem came right after me and my friend got through the press entrance into the corridors of this massive hall. We were walking like lost children throughout the corridors, not knowing by which door we can get to the dress-rooms. Any organizer we met didn’t know where to send us. It took us about 15 more minutes of senseless running throughout the floors to finally get onto the dressroom floor. There were a lot of dressrooms, but 3 staff people against a huge wave, countings hundreds of people at every dressroom? Seriously?

By 8:30 PM we got onto the dance floor and visited one of four big side bars. The first thing that hit my ears on the floor was the clear and quality sound! Funktion One sound system was really great as expected, the bass was really tearing up the guts inside my body, but they weren’t destroying my ears – perfect combination!

I really wasn’t looking forward to hear Michal Poliak again. Didn’t like him at ‘Prague 11‘ release party, and I didn’t like 75% of his set here too. Playing typical house/trouse tracks at an event of pure trance religion? No way, this DJ was fairly choosen for this task, he probably got into the lineup only thanks to his close relations to the owner of United Music.

After the end of this house warm-up, the whole Transmission got officialy started by a massive intro, and the first DJ star was introduced to us, also by a very well done intro. As expected, Gareth Emery started off his set in a bit of a trouse mood, he played some nice new tracks (IDs for now), also a very suprisive mashup of Ashley Wallbridge’s remix on Gareth’s great track "Arrival" and a absolute classic of the 80s – "Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams". I remember how I was exchanging various kinds of looks with my friends, all of them looking like "WTF, is he serious?" But after a few moments, we cought the right feeling of this mashup and yeah, it fits pretty well. When Gareth’s set reached its half, we really started to catch the right spirit. He started dropping some really nice and epic tracks, starting off his second half of set by a new remix on legendary "Lethal Industry" by Tiësto. In that moment, my surrounding friends (me too of course) went completely ape shit, hands in the air and we were jumping around, screaming like teenagers. Rest of the set was very decent, some nice vocal tracks, "On A Metropolis Day" got it’s place in Gareth’s tracklist too of course, some breathtaking moments.

Markus Schulz was the next artist. As a resident of Transmission, his intro was extremely good and special, all the lasers got turned on, I can’t even describe it, it was something you would have to see with your own eyes. Starting his set with the official theme of this years Transmission ("Markus Schulz – Digital Madness"), he set a very good direction for his set. Many tracks I didn’t know before, got played by Markus and it was something incredible. I couldn’t stop till the complete end of his set, a complete massacre by him, 1 hour 40 minutes of pure tech-progressive and tech-trance ectasy. Cruel beats, break downs weren’t uselessly long, just pure bliss. I probably won’t ever forget about the moments I had with my friends during his set, all of us completely crazy, partying like never before, we couldn’t even go get a drink at the bar thanks to those perfect party tracks Markus dropped at us. I must confess, I never did such dance creations before, my body got completely taken over by the music, unbelieveable.

When Markus ended, I managed to get my dance-offed ass to one of the bars, where I quickly filled up my body with a big supply of water, because Above & Beyond were about to begin. Nice intro for their entry too, they were representing the more emotional side of that night by the first look of it – sexy dancer saying things about passion, love, seduction, very nice indeed. As expected, their set was sounding in their new sound direction, not one of the old productions got played, which was a bit dissapointing, but still, I’ve enjoyed that set a lot. Mat Zo & Arty’s new collab called "Mozart" started off their set, and even the new Ronski Speed remix on "Megashira" by Kyau & Albert with Marc Marberg tore up the dance floor. Some massive tunes from ‘Anjunabeats 9‘ and of course, many emotions from their latest album ‘Group Therapy‘ found there place too. Although they haven’t been playing any of their older emotional tracks, it was a very strong set for a person’s musical soul. Strong, sweet vocals of Zoë Johnston and Richard Bedford all the way through the set, my soul was flourished by a wave of spiritual heat, I even saw some people crying there, a memory for a lifetime.

I started to feel the first signs of exhaustion by the end of their set (2:30 AM), my legs started to complain, and my thirst was getting bigger and bigger, BUT! It was time for the 30 Minute Transmix, a time for the special VDJ team to take over. Vission Impossible added very nice old school tracks to their visuals, and it was something mesmerising, lasers were blazing all over the large hall!

After their laser show, I was having serious problems with my fatigue, my body started to protest against my dancing mood, and I was hoping that Ferry Corsten will convice it to find some power to dance some more. I was so wrong! A legend as big as Ferry, and he completely ruined the whole gig for many people. I counted about 2, maybe 3 trance tracks in his set, everything else? Trouse/House garbage. Now, I don’t want to offend anyone’s style, but this wasn’t the Ferry we were all looking forward too, many people (including our group) were just standing there, on the dance floor, not understanding what is going on, why isn’t Ferry playing some much better trance tracks. By the end of his set, he gave us something as a consolation prize in a form of his track "Beautiful", that was the only moment worth enjoying in his set. Probably the biggest disappointment on a trance gig in my life.

After Ferry, I was hoping that John O’Callaghan (as a last DJ of the night) will save the gig for us, but there were just too many negative factors already. JOC tried pretty well, BPM about 138-140, massive beats… but his uplifty melodies and vocals just weren’t the right thing to end a gig with. Exhaustion started to take over really badly, and the music was just not right anymore. Me and a couple of others were leaving for dressrooms by 5 AM. Of course we wanted to go grab some nice breakfast and maybe a cup of coffee for the road home, but a massive problem ocurred. Staff in the dressrooms couldn’t find our jackets. Unbelieveable! United Music failed me once more in that preparation for a large gig like this. Luck was on our side though, and after 15 minutes of searching, we found them.

Overally, Transmission has been a very great action in its first half, thanks to Gareth Emery, Markus Schulz and Above & Beyond. Second part of the night was a complete disaster, and the organisation wasn’t too good either.

7/10 – Only because it was my first time there, and thanks to Markus and Above & Beyond.

Reviewed by: Zdenda Břečka
Event courtesy: United Music

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