Welcome to the 15th edition of OTR's monthly Beat Therapy radio show.
This months edition comes courtesy of OTR residents Hiddenagenda and our special guest Signum ahead of his performance at our 4th Birthday event on Friday 18th February.
SHOWTIME: THIS SATURDAY 22nd January on
Leading Trance Radio - Afterhours
20.00 - 22.00 GMT / 21.00 - 23.00 CET / 15.00 - 17.00 EST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIOs:
-------
HIDDENAGENDA
Hiddenagenda are the Sheffield based trance duo behind some of the most uplifting, euphoric and powerful trance sets you will have heard in recent years!
Danny Taylor has followed trance for years and as a self taught DJ had already secured sets at events such as the hugely successful Kubik in Liverpool before he first met Richard Pitts. They met in early 2005 and shortly after Hiddenagenda were born. Although relatively young, they both possessed a wealth of knowledge and talent, which only became stronger as the pair joined forces. The amalgamation of sounds harmonised perfectly and their styles benefit hugely from each other. Their combined knowledge of tune selection, their immaculate mixing ability and their extensive experience of the clubbing scene makes them one of the strongest teams about.
Both keen clubbers from an early age, and part of Crashers loyal following, they have seen and learnt exactly how to get the most out of the crowd. Frequenting plenty of dance floors over the years has armed them with experience and knowledge that allows them to create their own energetic and electric atmosphere every time.
They found musical inspiration originally from the likes of Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Matt Hardwick, Markus Schulz and Jon O’Bir, and over time have used this to create their own cutting edge sound that continues to destroy the dance floors around the country. Their style represents the trance genre as a whole and as such they can be relied upon to adapt their sound to play anything from progressive early sets to their now legendary uplifting, euphoric, driving and melodic peak time sets, right through to the tougher tech-edged late sets. With a genuine enthusiasm for the music driving their sets and keeping the energy on the dance floor at a constant high, they will take you on a musical journey that will leave you gagging for more.
Years of mixing and hard work have really begun to pay off for this dynamic duo. Only in their early twenties they have already featured on lineups alongside some of the finest DJs/Producers on the scene. Having made their name at Gatecrasher’s infamous Howard pre-parties back in 2005 and with appearances at one of the North’s fastest up and coming trance nights, OTR (Off The Rails), this pair really exploded onto the scene. Becoming firm favourites with many clubbers they have gained a mass of followers and after a memorable performance at the first Noize event in Sheffield in July 2008 they were asked to return as residents for both Noize and its mid-week sister night Statik.
With these residencies secured, 2009 brought a string of high-profile gigs, the highlights being numerous bookings for Nu-Passion, Leeds based trance night Digital Society, and Derby’s Amplified, not to mention an Ibiza debut. On the back of this success OTR snapped up the duo as their newest residents for their much-hyped return to the scene, a duty which extends to hosting the club brand’s monthly radio show, ‘Beat Therapy’, on the internet station Afterhours.fm. Add to this their competition win of a set at the prestigious Trance Awards, hosted by Trackitdown at Ministry of Sound in London, and 2009 really was a hugely successful year!
Coming armed with some of the most up front tunes, some forgotten classics and the ability to create an atmosphere like few others, be ready for a night to remember!
-----------------------------------------
SIGNUM
Signum is the combination of two talented producers in the European music industry. They are Pascal Minnaard, ( age 29) and Ronald Hagen (also age 29).
Both live in Zoetermeer, a little city nearby The Hague, there home base in The Netherlands.
Pascal & Ron first met each other in high school. This was the place were they found out that they had the same interest in making music, and started to do some work together. Although they lost contact, they both continued making there music.
During that time, Pascal got a record contract at the Dutch label/agency BPM Dance. Here he made his first track, under his own name on the label 4-Play (Inside a Rainbow).For his second release ("Flow of Knowledge”,” The Other Side”,” Adapter"), he started working under the name Signum, on the label Jinx from former company BPM Dance.
At this time Pascal met up with Ron again. Ron also signed up with BPM Dance and they started producing together again. Not knowing that this turned out to be a huge success. Because when they released their first track together, in 1997 on the JINX label, called "What you got for me", the record became a huge club anthem. And with it's re-release in 2001 (on TidyTrax) it even got the nr.36 position in the UK Top40 !!!!
"What ya got 4 me" turned out to be, what you now a days call a true "Trance Classic".
In de mean time they did a remix for "Travel" called "Bulgarian”, which also did well in the club charts and was well received by a lot of Dj's.
Under their own names, Ron Hagen & Pascal M.. they did other releases. Such as: "Forever"," Take U There" and "On Stream".
British producer/DJ Scott Mac was interested in working with Signum. So they teamed up and out of that collaboration came "Coming On Strong" which also became a huge clubhit.This established their name as Trance producers.
After that they were frequently asked for a lot of remixes, such as:
Lost Tribe- " Game Master"(Hooj Choons )
Blank & Jones - "After Love"
ATB - " 9pm (Till i come)" (Ministery of Sound)
KayCee - " Escape " (Additive)
Straydog (Dj Tiesto) - " Mirror " (Black Hole)
Alice Deejay & DJ Jurgen - "Better of Alone" (Violent Records)
Yves the Ruyter - "To the Rythem" (Bonzai)
Spacebrothers - " Shine " (Manifesto)
And many more............
After finishing all these remixes they started focussing on their own productions. They came back with "Solar Level " and after that even stronger with "First Strike", which received support from many leading DJ's/producers including, Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten , Dj Tiesto, Marco V, John 00'Flemming and many more!
This hit was soon followed by some more,"Cura Me", "Second Wave" & "Third Dimension" , which where all released on Jinx.
(All tracks were frequently played in sets of the worlds leading Trance Dj's!! ).
They also produced another massive track called "The Wrong Shake" under the alias "D-Factor" Which was also being hammered by all the Top DJ's.
Pascal & Ron a.k.a. Signum thought that the time was right to play their own tunes in front of crowds, and started focussing on a DJ career.
In July 2001 they made their U.K. debut with a three hour set at Gatecrasher. Since this impressive debut they've played in U.K.'s best clubs, such as, "Godskitchen", "Gatecrasher", "Passion", "Slinky" and of course not forgetting the great festivals, "Global Gathering", "Homelands", & "Summer Sound System”. Since this debut they've visited and set crowds on fire in many countries, such as: Australia, Spain, Japan, Ibiza, UK, Ireland, Canada, Africa, Swiss, Germany, Mallorca and Malaysia.
2003 was the year that BPM Dance stopped existing as a record company, and Ron & Pascal needed to find a new record company. They didn't need to search for long, because a new company was founded in June 2003: ARMADA MUSIC. Armin van Buuren, Maykel Piron and David Lewis joined their forces to combine label management, publishing and artist management.
"Push Through" was the first release of Signum, on the new label called "A State Of Trance" named after Armin's immense popular radio show, and the beginning of a new period. "Push Through" was very well received by the public as well as the DJ's, and has reached a couple of nr.1 positions in Dance Charts worldwide!!
In 2004 Signum teamed up with vocalist Anita Kelsey, and out of that collaboration came "Come Around Again", a beautiful vocal trancer, Ron & Pascal described it as the track they've always wanted to make, Shortly after that release "The Timelord” saw the light of day and again they had done it, a massive trancer that was played by almost every trance DJ, "The Timelord” was selected as Future Favourite on Armin's radio show, again reached several nr.1 position in Dance Charts worldwide and even ended at the nr.14 spot in the Dutch Year board, being one of the best tracks that year!
Remixing wise, they've given Delerium - "Truly", Laura Turner - "Soul Deep", Misja Helsloot - "First Second", Dj Danjo & Rob Styles - "Duende" the Signum makeover, and with a lot of success....
2004 was also the year that Ron & Pascal decided to re-release "First Strike & "Second Wave”. There still was a really big demand for the original tracks, but to release them again without something extra wasn't an option, so the invented the "Signum Signal" guise, which was more tech-trance orientated.
Signum's sound of Trance, Techno, Tech-Trance, and Progressive have won many admirers up & down the World!
We can say that Signum are becoming one of the most favourite DJ’s of the Trance crowd. And you'll be seeing and hearing a lot of them and so their rise to the top is just beginning !!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Links::
HIDDENAGENDA
Home of Sheffield Based Trance Duo Hiddenagenda
OTR
http://www.otr-online.co.uk
Afterhours
Leading Trance Radio - Afterhours
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOWTIME: THIS SATURDAY 22nd January on
Leading Trance Radio - Afterhours
20.00 - 22.00 GMT / 21.00 - 23.00 CET / 15.00 - 17.00 EST
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MISSED IT?
Don't forget you can download all shows from the OTR website 48 hours after airing.
http://www.otr-online.co.uk
Enjoy the show
OTR TEAM x
