FEVAH NZ

05 April 2002 - 0 Comments

Indoctrinated into the hard house scene during 1997 – 1999 in London, Christchurch-born Blair Hawker AKA Hawkes and James Colebourne AKA Pooley became involved in Fevah UK after an interest in learning to mix records led to opportunities to play for Fevah UK, among other club nights.

When their visas expired in 1999 and they returned to the land of the long white cloud, it seemed only natural to bring Fevah back to New Zealand audiences. And after holding their first Fevah party in Christchurch in December 1999, they have regularly attracted thousands of avid hard dance fans to parties at all the major centres.

This week, FEVAH NZ will release their first CD. Fittingly, the double CD brings together two key DJs driving the Fevah sound, one from where the Fevah story started – UK born and bred Ian M mixing the hard house disc, and one from where many of the Fevah core nucleus call home, New Zealand born and bred and Fevah NZ co-founder Hawkes mixing the hard trance disc.

Ian M, who is also a resident at Trade, the club that pretty much kick-started the whole hard house genre delivers a set of punchy, no-nonsense hard house on his disc with all the usual drum rollin', 909 kick-druming, hip-hop sampling madness that makes hard house such a genius dance floor sound.

Hawkes’ disc on the other hand is strictly hard trance, a carefully selected sample of tracks, many of which have never been released in New Zealand before. There’s plenty of atmospheric breakdowns and melodic riffs, but still with that essential Roland 909 kickdrum sound that makes dance music such a floor- filler.

Hawkes hopes the double CD encapsulates the Fevah sound and what has been a “very fun two years” running Fevah nights up and down the country. He says the main reason for releasing the CD is because there is because he feels there is a huge gap in the market for this type of music.

“I’m not aware of any other CD currently on the New Zealand market which features this type of music. You can always buy your Gatecrashers and other compilation type CDs which are the more commercial end of things, but you can’t go out and buy what’s being played at the clubs right now,” he says.

In the two years since Hawker and Colebourne have been running Fevah in New Zealand they have hosted a huge line-up of hard house and trance DJs including Lab-4, Phil Reynolds, Skol, Steve Hill, Andy Farley, Steve Black, Oberon, Captain Tinrib, Max Alien, Sj and Baby Doc, Roosta, Ian M and of course all the other mad FEVAH London DJs – Riksta, Matt Clarke, Si Fevah, Skol, Steve Ryan, Raymondo, Owen B, Aaron and Eammon Fevah.

Accordingly, both discs in the new release contain numerous tracks from Fevah's own label “Fevah Records” which has been going for a year and a half (DJ Riksta - Don't Touch Me; Raymondo - Win The Crowd, Win Your Freedom; Eamonn Fevah - Your Turn; among others), as well as two gems produced by Hawkes himself – Panic and Strange Events.

Hawker travelled to the London and spent four days producing his two tracks with Steve Blake during May and June last year. From an initial run of 1500 records with his tracks on, so far he’s already sold over 100 vinyl copies in New Zealand and hopes to sell more in conjunction with sales of the new Fevah double CD.

Copies of the Fevah CD are available at Soundz, The CD Store and Planet Jack stores throughout New Zealand as well as at Real Groovy stores in Auckland and Wellington. It’s also available for purchase online via smokecds.com. See the New Zealand music section or simply search “FEVAH” ensuring you check the “title” option in the search bar. There is also a full track-listing and sound bites available on the site.

Vinyl copies of Hawkes’ two tracks Panic and Strange Events as well as the Fevah CD are also available at the following vinyl specialist stores:

Auckland - Central Station, Needle on the Record, Criminal Records
Wellington – Firm Records, Flipside
Christchurch – Asylum, Bunker Records

If you're interested in finding out what hard house is all about and like to support the local aspect, buy this CD. - SmokeCDs.com

The next Fevah events are:

Fevah Auckland - Fevah Records Tour Night

Saturday 4th May @ Staircase
11 pm till 7 am

Main Room
11 till 12.30 Seb DuRush (Decadance)
12.30 till 2 Jazz
2 till 3.45 Jo Shiva
3.45 till 5.30 Steve Blake
5.30 till 7 Hawkes B2B Pooley

House Room
11 till 12.30 Tapan
12.30 till 2 Warwick Jones
2 till 3.30 Radley
3.30 till 5.30 Andy Vann

Tickets $40 advance or more on the door, available from Burgerfuel, Real Groovy, Route 66 (NewMarket) & Red Ticket outlets

Fevah Wellington - Fevah Records Tour Night

Friday 10th May @ SubNine and Curve Bar
10 till 6

Main Room (Sub 9)
10 till 11.30 Tony K
11.30 till 1.00 Andrew Innes
1 till 2.45 Jo Shiva
2.45 till 4.30 Steve Blake
4.30 till 6 Hawkes B2B Pooley

Firm Room (Curve Bar)
10 till 12 Asher
12 till 2 Shane
2 till 4 Andy B
4 till 6 Ryan

Tickets $35 advance or more on the door, available from Hound Dog, Firm Records, Flipside Records, Tommy Gun, Colorado and Alcatraz Palmerston North.

Thanks to www.fevah.co.uk for this story.

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