Fear.FM Harder

[Report] Rebirth Festival

Rebirth, the first festival of this season was held on the 2nd of April. A beautiful day for a great party, which was eventually sold-out. A promising line-up in combination with a low ticket price and the fact that it’s a season opener could make this concept a big one!

First, let’s celebrate the fact that the festival season has started again, no more cold dark times but bright warm days and festivals every weekend! Get out your sunburn, skirts, short trousers and sunglasses (this time for the sun, and not to cover up dilated pupils). Rebirth was on the first warm day of this year, it almost felt like it was fate for Rebirth. To quote MC Villain during Wildstylez’ set : “De zomer is vandaag hier officieel begonnen!”(Today, the summer has officially started, right here!) Besides that, the concept of a festival is a great one too I think, dancing in the sun or in a tent, but outside and during daytime. Waiting for the evening to fall or just chilling at the back drinking a cold beer and enjoying the company of your friends. And all of that is filled with the best music from dj’s or bands (considering other festivals). Festivals give you a feeling of freedom, that feeling is expressed by all the smiling guests, all these factors together make a perfect party feeling and a beautiful experience each time you visit a well organized festival.

Okay, enough romanticizing of the festival feelings, it's time to talk about the festival itself! We arrived at 14:25h and were thrilled to get inside! Noisecult was playing, our Fear Fm residents! When we parked our car, just a 100 meters from the entrance, we already heard the pounding basslines of "Walt – Let the music play" when we walked towards the festival grounds, which made us want to get in even faster. There was no queue at the entrance and the check for narcotics and other stuff after it was really good, one of the best I experienced, maybe it was because they just started and there were no people waiting but it gave a secure feeling. Inside we took a locker and held our drink and food tokens, these were only 2 euro’s a piece.

Noisecult 14:00 – 15:00
When we were done with preparing, it was time to get in and enjoy Noisecult's set. I didn’t really know what to expect since im not that familiar with their sets here at Fear FM, but it was a great opening. They spun some great warm up tracks like the '"KYHU original mix", "Houze muzik", "The pressure" and "Fast life". Tracks the other dj’s wouldn’t spin in their sets, but which are great to hear again after a while! Their mix was flawless and a great warm up for what was yet to come.

Frequencerz 15:00 – 16:00
Then it was time for the Frequencerz, always an act which I look forward to. They always bring original sets with a variation of Fusion tracks, older tracks and some unreleased ones which makes their sets a surprise time by time and really enjoyable. Especially when they start off with a mashup of "Dragons lair" and "Skyscraper". I heard some new Frequencerz tracks which sounded promising and the In-Phase remix of "Da Bomba" which made me smile since the boys of In-Phase enjoyed the shit out of it behind me. Other highlights were "Recession", "Copies are faking" and "You try to play me?" Overall a great set which could’ve fit anywhere in the timetable.

Alphaverb 16:00 – 17:00
It got a bit more crowded during Alphaverbs set, let’s call it semi-crowded, he started off with some euphoric stuff like "I feel good", "Like thiz" and his "Keep it coming" remix. His set was really energetic and he mixed a bit faster as the other djs, mixing technically speaking. Tracks like "It’s what we are", "WTF" (with the whole crowd singing along those funny vocals) and "Destination Nowhere" (With trains forming on the dancefloor) really made his set an amusing package. Ending with "No turning back" and "Harde rag" made his set complete and I bet everyone enjoyed it.

Wildstylez 17:00- 18:00
Wildstylez! Time for some Scantraxx and Digital:Age stuff. He started with the "Summer of hardstyle", which felt right considering this is the first festival of the season. After that the first Digital:Age track was dropped: "A different story". Maybe some of you already noticed but I really dig the vibe of those Digital:Age tracks, so I really hoped that Wildstylez spun some, and so he did. The crowd seemed to like his style too since the greater portion was dancing to the music. His set wasn’t really suprising but that’s not too bad, since he just spun his best stuff together with some Digital:Age and Scantraxx tracks, how can you complain about that? Highlights for me were "Back 2 basics", "Give it up", "This is who we are", "Psychadelic sunshine" and the new Black Anthem.

Alpha Twins 18:00-19:00
As most dutch people are used to, we took a break at 6 o’clock to have something to eat. There was enough variation in the food to please everyone I guess. Because of this I can’t describe too much about the Alpha Twins' set. They started with a track with lyrics like "Kick It Back", the Noisecontrollers spun the same track later if I’m correct. Other tracks I could identify where "Breathe", "Oldskool", "Revenge of the dirty motherfucker", "Origins of life" and a new track with vocals like "We bring the new shit". It seemed that the crowd really enjoyed the raw tracks because they were mostly sweating and dancing a lot. The sound felt a bit better than before, but it could be that our different standing point was partly the cause of that. As long as you stood in the line of the speakerwalls left and right of the booth the sound was perfect, in the middle of that it sometimes felt like the bass was gone, but it’s always hard to create the best sound for a one or two day occasion. My favorite track in their set was "Vision".

Bioweapon 19:00 – 20:00
This was the second time I was going to see Bioweapon at an event. So I didn’t really know what to expect. It seemed they got some reactions on their first sets, because on Defqon 1 2010 they behaved different than on this event. Of course, the change is good. The cooperation between the two artists felt a bit Deepack like, in a good way since they really know how to throw a party! Sam, the bald one, often asked Villain for the mic and started MC’ing, in a really energetic way which made the crowd play along with him and party even more. Tracks they spun were "Memento (BW remix)", "Tritolo", a "Derb rmx","Silver bullet (Toneshifterz remix)". As you can see a lot of their own tracks and own remixes, which made it a bit less accessible if you’re not such a big fan such as myself. Besides that fact, they gave me the chills with tracks like "Take me away" and their remix of "Part of the hard".

Noisecontrollers 20:00 – 21:00
The Noisecontrollers always bring a nice variation between euphoric and some harder stuff. Their set began with "Faster ‘n Further", always a nice intro. After that they spun expectable tracks like "Escape", "Summer in the city", "Stardust", "Stella nova", "Bangrindin" and "Big bang". "Gimme love" gave me the chills and I didn’t expect the "Barbara Streisand" track again, neither did I expect "Kingdom (The Pitcher Re-amp)". Overall this was a great set which built up until the harder tracks at the end.

Crypsis Live 21:00 – 21:30
I can’t tell you much about this set either, again my stomach brought me to the food bars and I didn’t mind it that much actually since Crypsis just isn’t my cup of tea anymore. When I walked out I heard a "Jealousy" remix, Zero Vision if im right. Probably all new tracks and hits crossed the gauntlet; I believe I could recognize "Strike", "Tuatara" and "Torture"

Zatox 21:30 – 22:30
The Italian master of Raw style was about to start and I didn’t really know what to expect. He began mixing with his new remix of "Bringing the funk", I really liked the original and this new remix really is banging I can tell you! After that he surprised me with his collab with Coone, with the vocals: “Addicts in the front, haters in the back” Also in this set were these tracks : "Underground Tacticz" (nice surprise) , "Hardbass Anthem", "Kickin Ass", "Loops n Things", "Madhouse", "My World" and "Supertool". His mixing was faster than his usual mixing, I am a real fan of faster mixing instead of the normal intro outro so I was happy with this. His set was better as I expected, and the crowd seemed to love it too!

Psyko Punkz Live 22:30 - 23:00
Their set started with a freestyle by MC Villain, which seemed to be the vocals of a new track for me, "Psyko soldier (ft MC Villain)". Besides this track they opened with some other new tracks and to be honest they didn’t really hit me, besides the "Psyko soldier" vocals and "F*ck you too bitch". Their other tracks always make me smile, things like: "Techno prime PP Rmx", "Voices", "Rock ya attitude" and "Pull your strings" for example. They also spun their new track from the Coone Album!

Ran-D & B-Front 23:00 – 24:00
This set was going to be promising, both artists made the epic Rebirth anthem and are known for bringing barbaric raw style just like a lot of the fans were waiting for. You almost can’t get any harder than their styles in hardstyle. Their set felt really energetic, starting off with the Rebirth anthem of course! Followed up by "In for the kill", "Inner creativity", "Part of the hard (ran-d rmx?)" a new B-front track and "Feel my fire". After these tracks I couldn’t recognize much anymore and decided to go home since we were tired as hell, so we called it a day. Quite a pity because I heard "Gangsta’s don’t dance" while we walked away and also heard that I missed "Magic" and "Under attack". These tracks would’ve made me go beserk! We left around 23:30h. The best feeling of the day, came during "Feel my fire", during the short breaks the people around me started sitting down and I really hoped for a big sit-down moment, since this is just an epic feeling! And that's what the dj’s and MC thought as well. During the main break of "Feel my fire" the music stopped, and MC Villain asked everybody to join in, luckily the crowd was in for it and everybody, really everybody sat down. Then the break was started on a slower pace to build up to that great climax "Feel my Fire" has. At the moment the climax kicks in, everyone jumped up to bang their fists in the air and dance like there’s no tomorrow on this insane track. This really was a moment that will be engraved in your mind for ever if you participated in it, on the way back my friend tried to explain it to his girlfriend on the phone and he couldn’t get a hang of how awesome it was. Of course this was filmed and will probably be in the aftermovie like the MC said.

That’s what I can tell you about the sets, besides the sets there are different elements of a party which makes it complete. Firstly the sound must be good, I had no complaints actually, I had earplugs and when you stood in the front, you can feel your stomach turn around sometimes because of the bass, the rest of the sound is explained before in the Alpha Twins part.

The show is a big element too, containing intros, an anthem, lights and the stage/decoration. There were special intro's for every act, with cool little stories containing funny references to their tracks, sometimes these intro's just don’t make sense or I just didn't understand, but were still really cool I think!

In my opinion, the anthem was perfect for this party, B-Front and Ran-D really put effort in it, to make it anthem-like. I love the changes in the bassline tones they put in the mid and climax. The vocals are very good, maybe even perfect. They succeeded in creating a combination of raw and anthem like in one track, which in my opinion is an accomplishment on its own.

Then the lights, the party was in a big tent what makes it possible to enhance the level of brightness to work out a great lightshow, and so they did. The lightshow was fine, and then during the Alpha Twins the lasers kicked in out of nowhere! Lasers just never lose their magic in my eyes, but they shouldn’t be used too much. Here they thought the same and sometimes at a climax they kicked in at the right moment. To sum up, the lightshow was great.

Then the stage and decoration were good, the stage was more decorated than I expected. To back this up I would like to refer you to the photos our photographer made. Another thing I would like to add is that the organization also put a good thought in how much tickets they should sell. The party was sold out at around six o'clock if I am informed right. But luckily the party was not overcrowded. Some organizations seem to have a lack on regulations and let more people in than is nice to experience. I mean I've been to parties which felt like they were way more crowded and they probably really were. But they were not sold out. Maybe it's extra money for an organization to pump in extra people regardless of the limits, but it really doesn't make the party any better. I would prefer to pay more and have more room then be pushed in an overcrowded area and pay less. But luckily here it was perfect!

This festival was only 20 euro’s for a ticket so I already was amazed by the line-up they managed to come up with with such a budget. If this line up would be a Defqon.1 Area nobody would complain, they would even enjoy and praise it if you ask me. So when you take every element at once, and combine this with the ticket price and token prices I am really amazed how this organization succeeded to make it this good. Everything was perfectly organized, no lines anywhere, the toilets were fine, the line up almost epic, the sound was good, the show was original. I really can’t complain about anything here. I can really say that Rebirth is the perfect opener for this festival season, let’s see what the rest of this season will bring us!

Photographs
If you want to see evidence of this awesome party, I can refer you to the photo’s our photographer made at the event. They can be found here.