An anticipated night of great emotions at Banc Of California Stadium where the London trio celebrated the 500 episodes of the radioshow with lots of new music
ABGT 500 has come at the end of a long marathon of events that Paavo, Jono and Tony have allowed themselves during this 2022 after two particularly difficult years, crossing London and the American West Coast with their two Group Therapy Weekender festivals this summer: only for name a few of these.
The wait, however, was all for the milestone reached tonight at Banc Of California Stadium in Los Angeles, for the event that celebrates the 500 episodes of the Above & Beyond Group Therapy radioshow and we know that the London trio has always preferred to preserve all the musical news to present them in preview every year at the dedicated event.
There was no doubt that it would be a special night, but let’s go in order:
The show was opened by the rising star of Anjunadeep OLAN who dedicated much of his sophisticated set to the debut album “Contra”.
Even those who followed him, Alpha 9, took advantage of the stage at Banc Of California Stadium to announce the release of the debut album “New Horizons” next January 2023, but tonight we already got to taste all the energy by the Russian artist thanks to the remarkable last release “Calling” (vs. Scorz feat. Tom Baley) and many fresh tracks.
The dj set of Mat Zo instead took us back to the release of the exciting 2020 album “Illusion Of Depth”, but many “ID” tracks were played by the London DJ, tracks that obviously we can’t wait to be released.
Andrew Bayer then subsequently took command of the scene with his set almost entirely dedicated to the double album “Duality” and, of course, family colleague Anjuna, Grum, followed him, staging many tracks from his latest album “Unreality” , on them only quality confirmations.
Finally, Above & Beyond with their set, we had the feeling as if they wanted to bring out the best from all the events made in the last ten years of Group Therapy in New York, Sydney, Amsterdam, Washington State, Hong Kong, Prague and London: the piano lap of the Jono Grant Summer Of ’95 Remix of “Screwdriver” and the melody of “Thunder & Sunshine” by P.O.S. (which reminded us a lot of “Prelude” by Above & Beyond) led the way for two hours of music.
A set featuring many new remixes of historical tracks of A&B, by Maor Levi, Genix, iLan Bluestone and a perfectly successful mash-up between “Jam” and “Alone Tonight” (feat. Richard Bedford), as well as the “respray” version of “Satellite” by OceanLab in 2004, the latter two are the work of Above & Beyond themselves; it’s of Above & Beyond also the beautiful Club Mix of “We Find Ourselves” of the acclaimed synth-pop project by Darren Tate and Jono Grant called JODA.
As mentioned, the ABGT events around the world every year are the showcase of the musical innovations that we will carry from here to the next few months: among the many presented, of course, there are the two new tracks of Above & Beyond with Richard Bedford (“Secret Love”) and Zoë Johnston (still ID track), needless to say that they immediately broke into the hearts of all fans of these two historic names.
Many “ID” tracks but clearly by Above & Beyond, characterized by alternation of massive electro-trance pads and very recognizable progressive harmonies similar to their vast repertoire; as often happens, Sunny Lax leaves the trio the task of play preview his new release and in fact “Arcons” is the track presented tonight by the Hungarian DJ; from the Anjuna kitchen, Jason Ross finally sneaked near the end of the set with a return to his classic style with a track that looks like a dedication “A Place Called Home”. The iconic track chosen for this evening was “Thing Called Love”: needless to say, we all know it by heart !
The iconic colored laces, the trademark of the album “Group Therapy” and finally of the radioshow itself, have appeared over and over again in the fantastic play of lights and images that accompanies the events of the legendary Paavo, Tony e Jono each time.
The video of the entire event will be available in the next few days on the Youtube channel: in the meantime, do not miss phase 2 of the celebrations, with the classic day after in the company of Anjunadeep melodies in a few hours or, alternatively, review the Above & Beyond deep warm up set: