I know what your saying... and I'm not at all saying anything is right or wrong about this... but what I am saying is that as a result the increased accessability to music it takes away a bit of the fun from DJ`ing as far as I am personally concerned.

I don't know if your comments are precisely aimed at me or just generalised but there's a few statements I'm not too happy being pinned against me... so put a response up. Its nothing personal at all so please don't feel I'm saying you are not allowed to think what you want or having a go - it's just a reply based on ironing out points you have made which either you have made or I've just interupted you to be making throuh no prujedice as being a judgement about me.

"if the clubber knows our tunes before we even "get our hands on them" then we must ask ourselves are we really underground or just think we are because we dont buy the latest issue of mixmag to select our tunes."

I feel this is an unfair statement. For example, I don't go out of my way to only buy from labels or tunes which I feel is underground or producer etc... - I simply buy what I like the sound of and can make use of for the effect I want to achieve. Perhaps I should of explained the circumstances a bit better. Basically a certain vinyl sales shop sold a copy of Wildstyle Generation Part 2 before it's release date to a clubber I know who has no interest in using it for DJ`ing purposes... - DJ`ing is about entertaining and if the very musical tool which a DJ uses is being released earlier to joe bloggs for profit then I feel the let down and I love it when I hear a track or mix which is for first time that is brillaint and is of the style/genre I love. Sorry if I'm just taking your point to personally but I just wanted to clarify my position.

I also don't really have major issue with "thinking I'm underground" or "whether I am buying tunes which are really underground" or "thinking I have the latest tunes" which I feel is being insinuated slightly.

"if you wonna be different then the obvious thing to do is ignore the whole hardstyle"

I don't want to be different - I just want to be myself and play what I like, which I do. If I can be pigeon holed or stereotyped that's simply just circumstances. And being that my set's uploaded on web or from times I have played out has been Hard Trance I'm not sure where your advice regarding "Hardstyle" is really relevant to me?

"Its like Mark said, music is 100000 times easier to get hold of these days with the internet & we cant just really on our one stop shop (i.e. germantrance.com) to provide everthing we need & expect to wow the crowd later that month with the same tracks they probably got at the same time as u."

I am really not happy with this statement at all. I visit three local vinyl shops regulary, I have various accounts with online vinyl shops, I contact record labels and producers about there productions/mixes, I read reviews done by Simon Pitt, Soundfixation and Louk (who all review for various websites and magazines for tunes over many diferent labels)... I spend A LOT of time looking and listening in a variety of places for music I like and I find it almost insulting to be pegged as far as I read your words as simply a person who buy's researches and buy's records from one source which I should realise can easily provide anybody the same information and service. So basically I'm just upset at a comment which I feel is trying to belittle the effort I make to researching, listening to and purchasing new tunes as being a sort of an easy, lazy and effortless one dimensional thing that's on par with access for joe public as it isn't and you have no facts to make such assumption.

"They might not admit it but it seems that the big UK labels & DJs watch our scenes more closely than we realise & are alot quicker to pick up on anything they see they can take for themselves. Giving Hardstyle its own name was a VERY big mistake in my books with regards to getting a sound stolen by them"

For starters nobody has "stolen" hardstyle. It DIDN'T BELONG TO ANYONE! :) - It is an expression of a electronic dance music style and is for anybody who wants to listen to it which is you, me, Judge Jules, my gran, your gran, my mate who got wildstyle generation part 2 earlier etc... This point of a genre being stolen by a big dj or label is worse if anything than me simply saying that access, information and purchasing of records before there offical release to public is hindering the chances being able to offer a fresh sound of a genre to have healthy balance with the music you play.

In my opinion... hardstyle being popular or having a name of "Hardstyle" are not the biggest reasons to seeing so much focus and attention to it... it's received so much interest because it was born under the microscope for all to see! - at the point when Hard Trance was saturated... and before it has had to chance to build up a following like other genres have in the past it's had 10000 attempts to produce it, easy access to it and where it's been the natural follow through for your harder edge trance music that it's seen even more attention. Hard Trance took time to become established... it grew underground and saw some of it's best moments in proudctions during this time (i.e Scot Project...) before peaking end of 2001 and throughout 2002. Today Hard Trance is massive... it spans over a huge selection of sound tracks to point where the "harder edge" is now popular and Hardstyle has been born. Technology and internet access per house hold has increased a huge amount to only give less opportunity for something to naturally develop, grow and mature in to something more of it's own than just a somewhere to go as it's a easy business target or challenge away from a very full looking Hard Trance market.

Again... please read this with open mind and not as criticism and I've tried my best to diplomatically point out and explain things I've feel that were unfairly cacluated, prejudged or whatever.

:)