When I heard Mad Maxx was coming in from Spain to play a live set of full on psytrance in Vancouver this Hallowe’en, I couldn’t wait! In the last few months I’ve rediscovered my psytrance roots, and really been loving some of the new stuff. Mad Maxx stood out as one of my favorites and I’ve featured his tracks most notably on my Journey to Here episode. (I thought I had featured him more, but am a bit excited to see that I haven’t overplayed his tracks. Maybe I’ll feature him in the Hallowe’en podcast.)

Anyways, Mad Maxx is actually Max Peterson who was born in San Diago but spent time living in France and Mexico before moving to Spain where he is currently based. In 2000, Max teamed up with Samy Guediche (CPU) and Nicolas Oesch (Mekkanikka) to create a group called Biodegradable. After the success of their album, Phaser, Max joined up with Davina Elmosnino and created the Trance Project formerly known as Sirius Isness.

Don’t miss tomorrow’s show at 23 West in Vancouver! Event info is on the Facebook Event page. You can find a little more about Mad Maxx on the Mad Maxx MySpace page. And watch for more Mad Maxx on Trancendance very soon!

Where: Club 23 West - 23 West Cordova, Vancouver, BC 
When: July 18, 2008 - 10-3am

$20 at the door, Limited Capacity

Eskimo (aka Junya) is one of the most promising of the new generation of trance producers out there. Having released his debut artist album “Can You Pick Me Up” aged 17, Eskimo was almost immediately catapulted amongst the trance elite, add to this his scorching DJ Sets as DJ Junya, that he had been playing worldwide since he was 13, Eskimo is without a doubt one of the most exciting British artists today.

His unique production skills and ability to put together a class-A belter saw Eskimo’s tunes begin to show up in the sets of psy trance DJs across the globe. By the time he performed his first live set 6 months after the album dropped his repertoire had trebled and so had his ability. Landmark remixes, many still unreleased due to copyright wrangles, from this time included some of the scenes biggest players such as Infected Mushroom and Skazi, but it was his unofficial remix of The Prodigy “Voodoo People” that sealed his reputation on the global dance floor. When this struck everyone knew who Eskimo was.

By the summer of 2004 Eskimo dropped his second artist album “Take A Look Out There” a mind-altering collection of tunes let loose on an unsuspecting world including the near legendary “Party Pooper” a track sampling the police shutting down a free party. In November 2005 the release of Balloonatic Part One, a genre busting masterpiece redefined the standard of studio trickery yet retained a firm grip on the dance floor.

With the release of Balloonatic Part Two, Eskimo looks set to seal his already unassailable position as the most original and one of the most popular artists working in dance music today.