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Samothraki Review
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John
IsraTrance Full Member
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76
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768
Posted : Sep 4, 2003 14:32
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I posted this on the UK Psy-Forum - so apologies for x-postings - but thought some of you may be interested in it...
Just got back from Samothraki last night after one of the more eventful journeys I’ve ever undertaken (but that’s another story…) – great festival only spoiled by a VERY heavy handed police operation. As I understand it – the organisers have the full support of the Mayor of Samothraki – but the Police saw things differently… 200 arrests – mainly just for being unlucky enough to get caught with a spliff…
Anyway… onto the positive – I’ve gone to all three and this was definitely the best musically. Tickets had been limited and this meant that there was a lot more space than last year. The location is amazing with the main stage just off the beach with the mountains in the background, and the chill out area – which looked great courtesy of Tribe of Frogz – shaded in the trees.
Too many good acts to go into – but I really enjoyed Ian Ion’s prog stuff on the first night (until he went break-beaty on the last few tunes), Talamasca who played a great morning set on the Sat morning, MWNN just for Teleport (!), Prometheus, Atmos, Hallucinogen (of course) and GMS (obvious – but they know how to rock a big dancefloor!!) – of course like with any festival who I saw and didn’t was all a bit random!! Interesting to hear Frank E go all prog in his old age and did any one actually enjoy X Dream??
We were camped by the chill out stage and the music here was brilliant all weekend. Top marks to Ott for getting the crowd rocking and on their feet (Ott - it all went a bit random after I briefly chatted to you – so never did get around to having a proper talk…), the Interchill crew who were as chilled as ever, Lenny who did an amazing 5 hr set and almost (but not quite!) got me out of my sleeping bag to dance to the banging house bit of his set , Pathaan who was brilliant (must be too much of a chill out train spotter as I woke up and thought – that sounds like Pathaan & sure enough it was…) and Sam Chaishop for playing some completely different – but totally great chill out stuff.
The crowd were nice – give or take the odd Euro super cool attitude (but generally people were fine if you talked to them). There were some of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen (think it took until day 3 to get out of almost-walking-into-lamppost comedy distraction), but in talking to the girls with us – sadly the male eye candy didn’t quite match up… the locals were friendly and helpful, and the local tavernas had some great veggie food (sadly lacking on site). Nice to have such beautiful scenery to escape for a few hours into as well – but met at least one waterfall injury!
The Police were complete c*nts – and sadly I think there may be some repercussions from that- but other than that – Samothraki once again came up as my fave festival.
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Hg
IsraTrance Team
Started Topics :
73
Posts :
1076
Posted : Sep 4, 2003 23:13
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Nice review, mate! Glad you came back awrite! 
 cna't find it |
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Rabbitalien
Started Topics :
4
Posts :
216
Posted : Sep 6, 2003 22:46
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I just arrived from samothraki to athens, after something more than 24 hours travelling! 16 hours train , 5 hours waiting in the train station, and a missed boat in 11:00 at samothraki then waiting till 17:30 ..
I HAD GOOD TIME ! 
THE BEST FROM THE THREE FESTS
+
The weather was great !
Amazing environment !
Nice Clean Sea !
Waterfalls!
Lots of heat
some rain in the end..
no enough tech-trance?
good organisation with boat tickets.
Access all areas were there again.
The people were nice & friendly & dancing !
Lots of girls , lots pink advertures
Nice market area..(a bit expensive though)
Nice Sound ! (but i dont think better than previous year)
GOOD MUSIC !
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Lots of Cops..and dogs ...
Lots of Meat , Less vegetarian
Crap Toilets , bad bad bad
Poor Deco!
More info..
Everyone who were in the festival knows about the police crap events so i ll skip this part , for more info visit samothrakiaction.org
Anyway music is what counts
I will agree with John that this year the music was the best from all three festivals.
1 I particularly liked very much Doc's set - dark heavy music, The best greek act ! I want more Doc , where i can find more music , any info ?
9/10
2 Christof's amazing wild full on set (not typical israeli stuff), the best full on dj set in the festival!
Althought i missed Mael and people said he played awesome too!
10/10
3 i also enjoyed the magical son kite live great performance , great music!
9/10
4 Also interested music by Dino Psaras although he played a few bad tracks, but the mix was excellent as always.. The live wasnt so good as the Dj Set..too much funk in his track i missed the old atomic style..
7/10
5 X-Dream (my favorite group) i think played just ok , they could play much better but personally i had very good fun while listening , and also loved these german girl vocalist in the end.
playlist
Psychomachine once again was played , didnt like the mix with the previous track i prefered to start with these intense 2 minutes intro..
Pacemaker rmx (groupied syndrome) bad rmx i ll say..
the great track Out here we are stoned but sounded bad..
thorazin , no process, Peter's Hoover, Radiohead these were nice played
i think they played a rmx of a track called asprin as well , a couple other tracks that didnt recognize..one of them was great!
They ended with two vocal industrial techno tracks , the first one had some nice break beat and melodies but the lyrics sucked big time i think.. The second one was better , i think i heard it before somewhere the riff melody.. I love the singer! but i dont want the new album to be with vocals..
7/10
6) Tolis Q played some nice techy tracks and some nice proggy stuff.. good set overall !
7/10
7) Atmos started very minimalistic but the last 30 minutes of his live were the most beatyfull sounds - patterns from all the groups that played in the festival.
8/10
8) George Barker play quite good both times in the main party and the after party.. first time i listened his set , very nice!!! He played mainly progressive psy , one of the best set in the festival !
8/10
9) Tube Live was for me the biggest suprise in the festival , the played absolutely brilliant full on music , the best night session in the festival!!! (different israeli sound)
9/10
10) Hallucinogen Live was much better than the previous year with much harder kicks and basslines , i dont particularly dance any more with this stuff but this year was top performance!
9/10
11) GMS Scored again , made all the people in the main stage to jump around and scream , i didnt particularly like their music a lot , but certainly i was jumping like crazy with my friends , it was fun! like going in a theme park .. Anyway i hated bansis dj set in the end of the festival...
10/10 fun - 7/10 performance&music
12) Edoardo started very good but after 2 hours i got bored..
6/10
13) Tristan once again played excellent both live and set , i dont think that there was a person that didnt enjoyed his set, once again the best set in the festival !!!
10/10
14) Bamboo Forest started a bit with some softer boring non melodic tunes but in the middle of their set some very morning tracks played that made most people in the stage dance .. i personally didnt dance much because i was completely exhausted by the awesome christof's set!
8/10
15) Graham Wood didnt played a lot but liked most of his psy-psy set , nice strange tracks.. he is good!
8/10
16)I didnt enjoyed much Frank E and Ian Ion any kind of music and sets , ok maybe saikopod was their best appearance , Emok set was boring most of the times , i Dont like Talamasca so i didnt enjoyed his live, even though the guy gave a nice performance with nice vibes. Alien Project live was just like listening to a cd , and Crunchy punchy was boring for me. Never heard Prometheus before i heard lots good words about his music , but i ll have to say that i am dissapointed , too much experimental noises i guess , not my style anyway.. and Space cat played not well , maybe i was too tired at the time but somehow i couldnt follow his music too noisy sometimes without having nice complexity , some nice tunes some bad , some slow , some fast , not balanced set at all..
I was unable to see the rest djs and performances
lack of sleep , food and sanity..
I never went to chill out area.. so i dont know what happened there.. and i now i need some sleep..bye!
?NO LAZERS ?
BYE.
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humph
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
44
Posts :
169
Posted : Sep 7, 2003 17:01
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apart from the police which was a bit of a nightmare. i had an amazing time. totally inspired musically.
Amazing music and sets from Orion, Dino(Dj), Peter Didjital, Frank E, KoxBox. The highlight for me though was Serge`s Dj. Just totally amazing choice of music. he lighted up the dancefloor. New his tunes inside out. dropped each mix perfectly. He really showed others how to dj. Missed lots of people i wanted to see on the main stage but thats the way it goes. Emok sounded really good from my hammock, and missed Psychopod.
Chilled wise. Interchill crew rocked it. Adham shaikh vs. Ishq. Very cool new stuff from Simon P. loved the 7/8 drum & bass psychedelica.
The skys were awesome. the water beautiful. locals friendly. sea clean. I could n`t have has more fun or a better time or been better looked after by the Samothraki team. It was a pleasure to be part of the festival. Thanks guys. |
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solipt1c
Soliptic
Started Topics :
9
Posts :
349
Posted : Sep 8, 2003 01:42
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Summary of my feelings as a poverty-stricken festival non-attendee:
1. VERY JEALOUS!
2. pffff... cops... spliffs... ARGH! it amazes me that we're in 2003, and people still get arrested for small personal use of something which is notorious for making you lazy and peaceful, at worst slightly hungry and giggly. Enough said i think.
http://www.dartrecordings.co.uk/ |
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jon
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
17
Posts :
441
Posted : Sep 9, 2003 16:31
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hmm it is hard to ignore the police side of the festival for me cos two good friends of mine were arrested and treated like dirt, and a 3rd friend-of-a-friend in fact got 5 years in jail...... whichever way you look at it, it was a big black mark on the festival..... I dont blame the organisers necessarily, but the _authorities_ successfully trashed the atmosphere for several days....
as for the music, there were some great sets - i am happy to say i agree with humphrey and the highlight for me was serge.... even though i am a progressive junky i was totally blown away by serge's set... it was incredible. After that i enjoyed peter digital, emok...... hallucinogen was a disappointment - felt like it should have been listenened to sitting in an armchair rather than on dancefloor... also i preferred x-dream when they were at rex....
a HUGE shock was how much i enjoyed GMS!!! i mean i hate gms like everyone else (hehe) but they totally tore the place apart on the final day. Somehow they whipped everyone up to a frenzy. By far the best live i have seen them do. Similarly Tristan was really good....
hmmm not sure about this GMS money for nothing remix.... the kind of tune that makes you laugh when you first hear it, then sticks in your head and pisses you off for the next month Played at least 3 times during the festival....
I stayed on for the after party (actually i just got home about 1/2 hour ago). It was 48 hours of solid tunes in the main festival's chillout area.... there was some really excellent music especially James Monro's DJ set and peter digital's reprise..... both occurred on the first afternoon of the after party when there was a great atmosphere, beaming smiles, maybe a couple hundred people - it was like an extremely good english outdoor party. The second day was not so great, and everyone was a bit knackered. George Barker pissed off some people by playing the billie jean remix ..... and the whole shebang was ended with voodoo people remix (much better way to end than the money for nothing remix which ended main festie!!)
The festival was extremely friendly..... I met some lovely people.. with a party this long you really get the chance to get to know folks....
So much else to say, but Ill stop.... on the whole I had a really amazing time, just with these (rather major) blemishes due to the persistent raids by Greek police gorillas.
well thats my summer hols over!!
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diana
Started Topics :
2
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5
Posted : Sep 9, 2003 18:20
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diana
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
5
Posted : Sep 9, 2003 18:26
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jon
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
17
Posts :
441
Posted : Sep 9, 2003 18:50
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hehehe hullo diana! yup that is me it seems... i wonder who took the photo..... i think it is not me who is the focus of the piccy but maybe s. posford who is sitting behind me with the white shirt:) i think this was during otts (amazing) live set just before simon posford's set when the place was absolutely rammed and not at all chilled.....
you can also see duncan next to me who was something of a legend at the party.... with impromptu dances on the chillout stage etc.... 
yes you were missed at the party! i had a lovely time hanging out with a certain greek girl we both know and her friends....
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diana
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
5
Posted : Sep 9, 2003 20:29
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jon
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
17
Posts :
441
Posted : Sep 9, 2003 21:11
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hjmmm tsk tsk you'll have to watch it or you're gonna get Moderated most likely hehe!!!!
not sure why the links sometimes work,sometimes dont... oh well.
Oh I wanna go back to VooV!
i forgot to mention about the queue on the way in to samothraki : they said they'd open the gates at 4, then postponed it till 6pm.... so a massive crowd built up. Then they let people in 1 at a time!! it took some people 3 hours or so in the blazing sun before they got in through the gate.... it was actually dangerous with the pushing and the possibility of heatstroke.....
Contrast with the VooV - took 2 minutes to get in..... 4 or so parallel queues.....
On the plus side, the decor in chillout area was awesome by tribe of frog..... loads of multicoloured butterflies. I hear they were stolen after the party, which i find shocking to be honest.
hehe after the after party i went up into the town Therma (it has hot springs in it)..... it was funny cos the town was full of hippies zipping around on scooters / selling stuff by the side of the road.... nice place to live
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diana
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
5
Posted : Sep 10, 2003 01:50
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do u mean that greeks r ..disorganized?? no way, i'm sure they just wanted to give a good suntan to white english people
and about the butterflies, i think they flew off to new homes  c things from their bright side! ..+don't compare us with germans, we have different qualities..
Immerse yr soul in love |
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John
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
76
Posts :
768
Posted : Sep 10, 2003 21:22
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I'm in the red hammock in the top left hand corner!! Twas a great place to have a hammock...
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elvenlights
Started Topics :
0
Posts :
8
Posted : Sep 11, 2003 17:37
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Yeah, the police were shit. 
Had a wicked time and didn't sleep at all. Met some beautiful people. Oi oi. Shame it's not happening next year... 
For me the best set was Peter Digital's awesome tripped out slow stuff. Great to dance to something slightly different....
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micheru
Psychedelic Vocalist
Started Topics :
14
Posts :
121
Posted : Sep 12, 2003 14:18
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serge's set was awesome and trizzer and GMS really rocked the trancefloor. eat static's bpm was a bit fast for my mellow mind but x-dream pulled their finger out and reignited my interest in them, especially as they spiced up their live with the cyberdominatrixchick. Ott's live set was a beauteous experience and i much preferred Simon's chill set to his mainfloor thang which felt like i had heard it many times before... the highlight for me was saikopod which drove me into a state of drug free ecstasy. george b was a real crowd pleasah and adham sheik and ishq live in the chill space liquified me. ian ion played one of my tunes with Violet Vision as the last track in his set and i am deeply honoured and james monroe played a tune i made with sub6 but sadly i managed to just miss them both! dj odo lit up my festi in so many ways! i had an amazing time both as a punter and for my first festival dj set. thanks to the organisers who did a stellar job in my view. amazing decor. beautiful people(a babefest indeed!)i was one of the lucky few to miss out on the police hassle altogether. whoohoo & thank you!!!xxx
In the depth of my soul there is a wordless song. |
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