Culturally Xposed: Transcend get ready for the next chapter with their biggest line up to date

It seems slightly incredible that almost another year has passed since Transcend celebrated its Third Birthday with four hours of Manuel Le Saux. For us as a brand, 2016 has been another year that we can look back on with a great deal of satisfaction.

We've had two very memorable events that have both provided something uniquely different. Two events may not seem like a lot, but we've always focused on quality rather than quantity in our four year existence as purveyors of fine dance music.

On top of that, our residents have continued to tour the country playing for old and new brands alike - including Godskitchen, Wax Format, Xstatic, Equinox and Pulsate. Everywhere we've gone, we've continued to develop our multi-genre philosophy, showing that we won't be hamstrung by genre-labels and closed-mindedness.

For UK clubland in general, 2016 has been a relatively disappointing year. In fact, from a couple of perspectives it has been, at best, disheartening and, at worst, soul-destroying.

Within trance, one of the most important brands in the scene - and a brand that once upon a time were very much a multi-genre experience - waved goodbye with its last ever event. There was a great outpouring of emotion when Godskitchen hosted their Last Dance events in June this year and it undoubtedly signalled the end of an era for many loyal lovers of the brand. For some, it was a sad sign of the shifting times.

Beyond trance, something more significant and uniquely unsettling happened - something that continues to send shockwaves across our own city, London. The legendary London club, Fabric had its licence revoked in acrimonious circumstances and became the most prolific casualty in the capital city's chronic loss of venues in the last decade.

For anyone with even a modicum of passion for nightlife culture, the manner of the closure was especially difficult to take. The reasons seemed less than ingenuous and it felt like clubland yet again losing out to the march of the property developer. In the aftermath, the Save Our Culture campaign continues to fight the good fight.

The long-awaited Night Tube was meant to be a great 'shot in the arm' for nightlife in London. It remains an extremely exciting development for London promoters like ourselves - especially since our venue is situated at Vauxhall on the Victoria line. But many have posed the question - what is the point of a Night Tube when venues continue to close?

Anyone who has read my articles here in recent times will notice repeated themes of cultural metamorphosis and, it has to be said, wistful pessimism. Faced with the twin calamities of EDM dollar bills from across the pond, newly shaping the artistic form across the globe, and an establishment at home indifferent towards the plight of afterhours entertainment as gentrification continues unabated, our own values are feeling exposure to the elements.

But this stormy climate of change has been all important in shaping the direction of Transcend in recent years. We remain as passionate as ever. We feel a sense of obligation to continue playing our part in protecting all aspects of our culture. And to keep doing things the 'Transcend' way.

There was a period in our recent history where 'clubbing' became a mainstream pastime. Its slowly starting to return to the underground again and, in many senses, this suits our values in terms of rekindling the 'purist' feeling of old. Despite styling ourselves as a trance brand in the early days, genre is less and less important to us as a concept. The whole experience should be fluid, varied and inclusive.

For our Fourth Birthday on November 12th, trance still plays a central role. We've booked - not one - but three headliners, all with tremendous pedigrees within trance music. We've chosen each of these very carefully. Each brings something different to the table, providing a good balance between the old and new. Once again, it's a nine hour event and we've given two of our headliners 3 hours sets to really take our crowd on their own unique journeys.

Unlike our event in April, we have brought back the two room experience and this is all important too. On top of these extended sets, it's given us the opportunity to bring in some tried and test support who will explore a plethora of other sounds and styles - in keeping with that varied and inclusive philosophy. Multi-genre, extended sets in an intimate, underground venue is really the essence of Transcend.

In April, we welcomed Dan Stone for a 3 hour set and building other styles around an extremely uplifting central pillar helped create one of the best atmospheres we've ever had.

This time we welcome Allen & Envy who, like Dan Stone, have gone from strength to strength in the last 12 months backed by a trademark uplifting sound. Their output of productions has been absolutely relentless, with releases on Pure Trance, Discover, Critical Uprising, Grotesque, Amsterdam Trance Records, Digital Society Recordings their own Together Recordings in 2016 alone. And the quality has been relentless as well. With them fast becoming the UK's premier uplifting trance artists, we felt it's about time they were given a 3 hour set to express themselves - a UK exclusive.

If Allen & Envy are the 'new', our next headliner, Signum represent a bit more of the 'old'. A veteran of two decades, he presents a never-before-seen concept called Xposed - a world 3 hour exclusive. We asked the main himself what the concept is all about:

"XPOSED is all about a journey. A journey through the best trance records of past and present, encompassing different genres, and some of my personal and fan favourites."

And a journey through different genres is exactly what Transcend strive to achieve. Nobody understands that better than Signum.

We are very proud at Transcend that, for a brand of our size, we have kicked off some big touring trends. We were the first UK date on Manuel Le Saux's Destiny album tour only last year. In early 2015, we were the first to give The Thrillseekers a 3 hour extended set - his first in a decade - before his '15 Years Of Trance' concept started touring the world later that year. In Xposed, we are proud to introduce yet another first - not just in UK trance but the world over.

Our final headliner, Radion6 again provides further contrast with a sound that encompasses everything from tech trance, modern house/trance hybrids and full uplifting trance music. With recent releases on Armind and Flashover, he's been a real one-to-watch in the last year. He's even been remixed by our guests, Allen & Envy! Very surprisingly, the Dutchman is yet to perform in the UK which makes this debut with us hugely exciting.

And our support DJs are all names we know and trust to provide the symmetry and variation the night needs. All of our residents are on their own journeys of musical rediscovery, as are our guests and long-time friends, SMX Project from Trickstar.FM, Brighton. It's certainly our biggest line up to date, showing we are as committed to our core values as we are keen to celebrate our birthday in style.

It's not all doom and gloom in clubland! The reason we do what we do is because we believe there are people out there, from all kinds of musical backgrounds, who feel the same as us. We are ready to fly the flag for our culture on November 12th.

#Transcend4 #SaveOurCulture

Line up:
Signum presents Xposed (3 Hour Set)
Allen & Envy (3 Hour Set)
Radion6 (2 Hour Set)

Support From:
SMX Project
Arran Roberts
Ben Dursley
Calvin Karass
Phil Dickinson
Scotcha
Enix
Rath

Venue: Union Club, 66 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall, SE1 7TP

~Transcend HQ

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