Tag Archives: Eni

Articles, Events, Reviews

Winterfresh Music Festival 2016 Event Review

Saturday, December 3 was the return of Fresh Entertainment’s winter-themed festival to Los Angeles – Winterfresh Music Festival. The night promised to host a variety of styles in separate rooms throughout the venue, from hard dance, house, trance, dubstep and drum and bass -all of which I fully intended to check out at the beginning of the night- but, like a Siren luring unexpecting sailors to their doom, the Hardstyle Arena stage sucked me in at the be-ginning of the night and I remained until the end of the show.

The day had been marked on my calendar since the announcement of Partyraiser’s return to LA and DJ Thera’s US debut at the end of Hardstyle Arena: Raw and Disorder, and my Facebook timeline seemed to be teasing me and building my anticipation for this show. The complete lineup for the Hardstyle Arena stage featured
artists Non Toxic, Eni, Alex Kidd (who unfortunately was unable to perform due to visa issues), DJ Thera, Partyraiser, Lady Dammage, and was to be hosted by the legendary MC Ruffian. I was excited for potential of the night ahead – 2 US premier arists and especially uptempo hardcore!

I walked into the venue and I caught up with some friends from AZ I hadn’t seen in awhile, grabbed a drink at the bar, and then proceeded to the Hardstyle Arena stage where I caught the end of Non Toxic’s set. I looked around and noticed the room had been converted into a winter wonderland to enhance the winter theme of the night. There were snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, large snow covered trees on the stage, Christmas lights, and Fresh had even thought to add a custom Winterfresh Snapchat filter! When Non Toxic finished with their final track my friend DJ Eni took to the decks. I had just interviewed Eni before the show, so I was excited for his performance and was really entertained by his track selection of reverse bass and oldschool to get the crowd warmed up! Approximately halfway through his set, Eni brought up a special guest, DJ Hauyon, and together they premiered their DJ team, the Druglordz, and even premiered their first collab – Dominator (Druglordz Reverse Bass remix).

Following Eni/Druglordz’s performance, MC Ruffian stepped up to the crowd and introduced DJ Thera for his US debut. Chances are if you’ve been a fan of hardstyle or hardcore for awhile you have heard Ruffian’s voice; he was the legendary voice of Qlimax until 2015 and can be heard in countless aftermovies and livesets from shows overseas. Ruffian’s familiar tone of voice paired with the cadence of his speech were instantly recognizable and I was exciting to hear him right in my hometown. Before Thera could perform his first track however, there was a special pause in the action- a marriage proposal! One of the dancers was called to the front of the stage, and the crowd created an opening. Her boyfriend stepped up to her and a banner unfolded behind him asking if she would marry him, she said yes! It was a very special moment in their lives and it was touching to be apart of it.

It was then time for DJ Thera to take the spotlight. Anyone familiar with DJ Thera’s music, or his Theracords label knew that his set would feature a variety of classics as well as raw hardstyle. It was exciting to see him perform and I thought he represented himself and his style well for his US premiere. A few of the tracks that he performed included MYST – Man Bear Pig, The Sexual Thrill, and of course the Winterfresh Anthem ft. MC Ruffian.

By the end of Thera’s set people getting wild, the laser production was on point, drinks were flowing, and looking around I could tell people were having a great time. I also had a feeling that everyone there had prepared themselves to go harder for DJ Partyraiser, and I knew moshpits were inevitable. Partyraiser’s high energy DJ style took the crowd to the next level, and his set include one of his most acclaimed tracks – Sound Becomes One with Destructive Tendencies, as well as his new track with F. Noise under their alias Scaphase – Enter the Snakepit (Snakepit 2016 anthem), but one of the most unique reactions from the crowd that I got to witness during his set was when he dropped F*ck It by Lunakorpz and American uptempo/terror DJ Tim Shopp. I was so proud of not only the recognition of the crowd to Tim’s track, but at the conscious effort of Partyraiser to play it and give a subtle nod to American hardcore during is set.

Finally to end the night, it was the US Premier of Lady Dammage, and I will say I don’t think anyone was prepared for what she had in store for us! Hardcore, uptempo and terror were all the menu and Lady Dammage serve it up relentlessly! I never thought I would get to see Lady Dammage perform, much less in the US! I don’t know if some partygoers even knew what hit them, and for anyone who may have missed it, check out her track with Broken Minds Thunder God (240bpm edit!!), and Fear Me Bitches that she played that night.

In closing, I would just like to say that this night was incredible! Fresh’s attention to detail and the quality of their events should put Fresh events on anyone’s “must attend” wishlist. Ruffian added an element to the party by interacting with the crowd’s energy, and along with the lasers, sound quality, and the banging lineup, I know Thera, Partyraiser and Lady Dammage will confirm that California knows how to party! I really enjoyed myself very much and I look forward to their next event, which will be sooner than you think- Fresh has just announced of the resurrection of another one their retired themes, Fresh Days… stay tuned for more info to come!

Articles, Interviews

Eni – Interviewed

Eni is a Freestyle DJ from Los Angeles, CA and has played at parties such as Arizr, KTRA LA and Hardstyle Arena, and will be playing at Winterfresh Music Festival on December 3rd. Freestyle is one of the fastest growing genres and is relatively new to the American scene. With Hardstyle and Hardcore getting much of the spotlight nowadays, Eni’s Freestyle sound brings much needed fun and freedom to the party. Freestyle by definition means ‘playing without restrictions’, and Eni regularly combines Subground, Jungle Terror, Tekstyle, Jumpstyle, Hardstyle, and any other variations of the hard dance styles, mixed with classic breaks and hard trap.

I know a lot of people ask, so let’s set the record straight- is Eni your real name or is it an alias? How long have you been a DJ?

Eni is actually my real name; it’s a family name from my dad’s side. I’m actually the third- it’s on my birth certificate! I started DJing under the alias Audiofallout back in 2012-2013, but when I started a sound company under the same name people were getting confused. I also had changed my style from strictly Hardstyle to Freestyle so I decided to change my alias to fit my new style and create some separation between my company and myself. I started practicing and learning in 2009 when I bought a pair of belt drive Numark TT1700.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into Freestyle and about what your biggest inspirations in this style are?

I got into Freestyle basically by getting bored of just DJ’ing Hardstyle, hahahaha! For a long time I had been a die-hard fan of Hardstyle and could not get enough, but as time went on I felt things get a bit stagnant and needed some variety. I had always loved the dub-style tracks and cross genre stuff so I started to look for that kind of music more and more. I stated finding really cool crossbreed, some sweet trap influenced stuff, and things that broke down to funky house drops for a bit and I fell in love. I wanted to find the coolest most unknown hard dance and bring that up to all the people here in the states.

Eni at KTRA, LA
Eni performing at KTRA, LA

How does Freestyle tie together with your slogan “Eni Kind of Music”?

Well with Freestyle I like to play the spectrum from hard house and Jungle Terror, to Terrorcore and Speedcore… thus my slogan- playing Eni Kind of Music- nothing is off limits. I’ll mix in a lot of random hip-hop and trap influenced stuff, some Cumbia (dance music popular in Latin America), and other genres just to keep it fun and interesting.

You recently played in San Francisco, how did that go? Is the American crowd receptive to the Freestyle sound?

San Francisco was absolutely incredible!!! I had an amazing time out there. It was my first time playing in San Fran and I couldn’t have asked for a better first show. I had a great set and lots of fun. I really love the energy that the Northern California Scene has, it is very reminiscent of the feeling I used to get when I first started going to raves when I was 16. It’s very vibrant, colorful, and youthful. I also got a chance to work with J-Rod, Kriss, Keiji, Kreation, and Hauyon while I was up there. Leading to some really interesting new projects.

As you mentioned, you have a few projects going right now- you been starting to produce, collabs with other American artists, and you’ve been involved with the Hardroadz Media podcast- what can you tell us about those and what can we expect in the future? Anything else we should be watching for?

My trip up to San Francisco inspired me with quite a bit and I have recently started working on a new collab alias with a good buddy who just moved to California from Chile. We have 2 tracks just about finished and I will be dropping the first one at Winterfresh tonight. I haven’t had enough time to really work on many solo projects but I do have a bootleg in the works. Besides that I have been working with another friend of mine as the new host and engineer for the Hardroadz Media podcast. With the podcast we try to focus mostly on American based DJs and producers. It comes down to the fact that Europe and all of their DJs are already established and set, and for the American scene to grow we need to start supporting and showing up for our homegrown talent. For this reason my friend started this podcast. Each month we feature 30 minutes of hand picked tracks and then a 30-minute guest mix. Recently we got lucky and now the show is streamed live on the Department of Hard Dance every third Wednesday of the month, as well as putting it out on SoundCloud.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers of The Hard Data?

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has given me support over these past couple of years. I have been so lucky and blessed to be surrounded by these amazing support structures. I’m very excited with my Dabscouts sponsorship and collaboration. Their designs are pretty awesome and I have been blessed to have their graphic designer and photographer at my disposal. I’m hoping to do some really cool merchandising with them coming out eventually with a fully Eni Kind Of Music clothing line.

Catch Eni at Winterfresh on December 3rd at Union Nightclub in Los Angeles- get your tickets here