Day #26: Trance Troopers

Trance Troopers..

Yep, I came out with that idea about about a year ago or so. Trance Troopers is Aonyx's trance music signature event. The first Trance Troopers was held last year, on February 27, 2010. The event took place at Barcode, Jakarta. Lots of people came and we partied like crazy.

It's been almost a year after that. We finally made the sequel of Trance Troopers. On January 15, 2011, Trance Troopers Chapter II is held. Still at the same place, Barcode, Jakarta. Even though the club area is now known as Lunar Club.

The energy of the crowd was barely down from last year!! That's what I love the most of this event. What I regret is I don't take any photographs from the first event.

With this chance, I'd like to thanks Aonyx's friends from the first event, DJ Noxx (M1/43), DJ Ready (Synan Recordings) and DJ LTN (Spinach). And from the last event, DJ Noxx (M1/43), DJ Resty (M1/43), DJ Ditox (Trance4Life), DJ Bunny and The Cat, MC Giri (Spinach) and Indonesia Trance Community. Also Aonyx and Barcode family that help me realize my idea.

This is the energy from the crowd that feeds me on the deck. Thanks for coming, guys!!! Hope to see you again, soon!!!

Day #15-a: Destiny is Finished!!!

Crap.. I spent all-yesterday to finish Astral Escalation's remix of Destiny..

So, I forgot (again) to update my journey in #30harimenulis :(

I have to post another entry later this day..

This project was started in November 2010, pardon my memory. I was shamelessly introduce myself to Dina Dellyana and asked her BlackBerry pin. I desperately wanted to have a collaboration with one of my favorite band, Homogenic. But, after chatted a while via BlackBerry Messenger, the collaboration was put on hold due to Homogenic and Dina's tight schedule. (I'm still hoping for this to happen sometimes in the future, though :p) Instead, Dina offered us (Aonyx) to remix one of their song. So I pick one of my favorite song from their latest album (Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom), the song called "Destiny".

Soon after that, Grahadea (one of Homogenic's member) sent me an email. That email consisted of Destiny's song materials. I listened to the materials, I was surprised because all the files were vocal files of Amandia and some backing vocals also. So I guess, we have to create a whole new song for these vocals.

I was really on fire with this project, in total (until now) there were three different approach for the remix. But, the trance version from Astral Escalation was the first one to the finish line. I'll upload the song to Astral Escalation's page on Soundcloud and Myspace, soon. The link can be found in the right panel of this page, labeled "Alter Ego".

Hope you like it. Thank you for this opportunity, Homogenic and Dina Dellyana. :)

Here are the lyrics for "Destiny (Astral Escalation Remix)":

Destiny, here I am

Giving all my days

I never felt so in love before

Forever is not enough

Nothing can tear us apart

To be at your side,

To be in your heart,

To be at your side,

To be in your heart

Nothing can tear us apart

Day #13: Astral Escalation

Let the narcissism begin..

Now , I'm going to talk about my first project in Electronica Dance Music scene, Astral Escalation..

It all begin in Summer 2008, when I started to enroll in Spinach DJ School. Along the way, I figured it out that the only trance-base DJ that enrolled there just me and a guy named Rama (Irsan Ramadhan). Rama's got the first gig before I finished my term. We were joined in 180 Management, a DJ management that was built for the Spinach DJ School's student after they're finished their enrollment.

On the late 2008, I've got my firstgig in Musro, Borobudur Hotel, Central Jakarta. Because Rama and I were the only trance DJs, so we got the last turn in that night's rundown. So, we decided to play back to back. The same taste in music got us decided that it's better for us to be joined forces. At first, we took 'Astral Plane' as our project alias. After a while, we've been informed that 'Astral Plane' is already exist. So we changed our alias to 'Astral Escalation'.

We got pretty steady gigs for a while. Until around February or March in 2009, we were kind of figured out that our vision wasn't the same as our management. So we decided that it's better to be resigned form 180 Management and started to create a new management with our own vision.

It was Rama's idea to took Oscar Erdiansyah as our allies. And briefly, Aonyx was born in April 2009. You can read a brief history about Aonyx in my previous entry here.

Since Aonyx was born, Astral Escalation carries a mission to be the best trance-duo in Indonesia (wishful thinking.. Haha). And also with the help from Oscar and Jaya of Aydra & Oscar, we started to produce our own songs and remixes, which you can check in our myspace page here.

As we get stronger on the internal relations with Aonyx, we started to look for another trance management as our friends and allies. So far, we've got a good relationship with Spinach Records, Synan Recordings, M1/43 and recently, Trance4Life.

With so much going on in EDM scene, we hold a high hope for Astral Escalation to strive forward to reach our dream, to be Indonesia's top trance-duo in International EDM scene.

Wish us luck, guys!! :)

Cheers, Trance Family across the world!!

Day #3: AONYX: We Are The Drugs

It was around March 2009, Irsan Ramadhan/Rama and I (as Astral Escalation), decided to leave our old management. I was thinking to form a new management, at that time all I was thinking is to form a new DJ management and small event organizer for our own event. And Rama suggested that we recruit Oscar Erdiansyah as our comrade. Oscar was also a member of our old management.

After we told Oscar about our intention, he tagged along Jayarindra Sigit, because they got a project together that called Aydra & Oscar. Technically, we had oral agreement to form a new institution. But, we still had no idea how to form it. So, we ask for a guidance from one of Indonesia's top DJ and an owner and founder of Spinach Records, Riri Mestica.

Basically, Riri supported our intention. We met up a couple of times, and thanks to him, we got the courage to found a new management.

And AONYX was born in April 2009.

Aonyx's name is taken from a rare animal species, Aonyx Cinerea (Oriental Small-Clawed Otter). It was Oscar that came up with the name. Main focuses of Aonyx was (and still are) created some good songs and create great performances. And not long after the name was chosen, Oscar tagged Anissa Nuradi Putri/Icha along with us. With her specialty as graphic designer, she's the one we entrusted with all creative designs for Aonyx.

Along the way, we created some club events, befriended with some people within the industry. Even Aydra & Oscar become a finalist for LA Indiefest Remix Competition in 2009. Everything was revolved around Electronic Dance Music scene until April 2010.

An offer to perform at brewww!, Kemang, was received. So we (Oscar, Jaya and I, also with some help from additional vocalists, Charita Utamy, Leona Agustine and Muhammad Pandu of PAL/NTSC) prepared some electronic music to cover and play them live. In total, we performed two times as electronic band. We were not satisfied with our performance and decided to put this live music project on hold.

In late 2010, Dmust Akira or as known as Akira As Astronughty (Trax FM Jakarta announcer and former member of 1945MF) joined us. We knew Dmust since 2009, so he wasn't a stranger for us. With Dmust as our comrade, the live music project was planned to be back on track on 2011. We will also help him to launch his solo album under (coming soon) Aonyx Records.

From the moment that we formed Aonyx in April 2009, we got couple allies too. I personally would like to thank Spinach Records, Synan Recordings, M1/43, Trance4Life, No Signal, Indika FM and Trax FM Jakarta, also Barcode, Buddha Bar, Kampus, 365, Domain and brewww! for all the supports for Aonyx.

Watch out for us, 2011. Caution: too loud is not in our vocabulary, and we are addictive. Haha. Wish us luck, fellas.

Cheers..

(from left to right: Irsan Ramadhan, Jayarindra Sigit, Dmust Akira, Oscar Erdiansyah, Anissa Nuradi Putri and me)