Perfect Stranger / BLT (Iboga, Israel)

Hey Yuli, how are you mate?

Very good thanks !!

You’ve been quite a long standing member of the scene with your project BLT. Tell me a bit about how you first discovered trance… Who were some of your early influences?

I discovered trance in 1991, at that time it was Ramirez stuff and the likes that I actually found very danceable but wasn’t too much impressed by… I was an art rock fan ( and still am ) so it was a descent stuff to dance to, but I disregarded it as real music… I was travelling India and got to Goa in beginng of 1993, stayed there couple of months and as u can see I started to like trance quite a lot. My influences on making music are coming mainly from my early love to art rock and blues – bands such as early Genesis, King Crimson etc.. are real groundbreakers in my opinion even these days, and can give a lot of inspiration to anyone.. In the trance scene definitely X Dream, Juno reactor, Koxbox ( The Great Unknown CD ) but the list is too long, u know u can get inspiration from a great many things around.

I don’t see many BLT releases anymore… You seem to releasing a lot as Perfect Stranger though. Why the change of project?

As with all things in life there is beginning and there is an end. BLT project managed to produce quality trance music for 7 years, but most of the time it was too full on for prog heads and too progressive for full on heads. BLT was steady in that matter and had a distinguished sound and musical formation. To start something totally new, u need first to get rid of the old.. So BLT had to die.

Tell me about the new sound of Perfect Stranger… I’ve only heard a few tracks, but it seems to have a very characteristic sound…

Perfect Stranger is progressive psy trance that ranges mostly around 130 to 135 speed. It is phat and bouncy, based on tight groove with tribal elements, melodic at times and fit to be played in both clubs and nature parties.

I hear that you are compiling a compilation for Iboga later in the year… Can you tell me a bit about that? Who will be on it?

You heard right. It will be my second compilation made for Iboga and I am very much satisfied with it at the moment. The general idea from the beginning was to bring more Israeli artists to start create progressive music, and with the previous compilation it was obvious that something happening here, altho it had some prog to full on moments to it. In the compilation about to come we will dive more into the deep sound to change the ‘plastic Israeli sound’ stygma. The final lineup of the compilation is not yet accomplished but it will feature: Fish, Ace Ventura, Aussie Sun Control Species ,Perfect Stranger, Yotopia, Morax, Ajax and more.

What’s it like being a progressive artist in the full-on oriented Israel? Does it make it hard to get gigs?

I made a change last year going more and more progressive, and indeed it is harder to get gigs especially when one is used to play events at least once a week. Having said that, I have to mention there is a major growth in populartity of progressive psy these days in Israel and some outfits such as 3d Empire can gather a crowd up to 1000 ppl for a 12 hour session of proggy music – which was basically impossible to do 2 years ago.


What other releases are in the pipeline? Any on other labels apart from Iboga?

There is a PS track and BLT vs Danni Makov track to be released in the new Dance Connected German/Japanese label, compiled by Tobias. I think it supposed to be out mid July… There is a PS track that will be released beginning of September by the Swedish Moonflower records… What’s the Lineup track was just released on Set:5 by Iboga and it’s been remixed by Antix at these very moments so I guess u can expect that remix in the remixes CD to be released by Iboga this fall. These days I am in the middle of making the PS album which I should finish by October I guess and be released beginning of 2006 by Iboga.

You used to collaborate with Danny Makov with BLT… Which other artists have you worked with? Any that you’d like to?

I worked with PsyCraft, Cosma, Future Prophecy, Ziv Matushka, P. Cok, Quantum, 40%, Morax, Realistic and I guess there are more I havent mentioned. These days I am in the middle of collaboration with Ace Ventura, which is a lot of fun and flows nicely. I would like to work with Peter Gabriel but it’s not so likely to happen… basically as long as there is flow in the co-operation then it is a great thing to do since u gain a lot of knowledge in the process and it is fun to work with people.


Have you played many parties overseas? Which countries have you visited, both in and out of your trance career?

I played in Germany, Japan, UK, Bulgaria, Brazil, Portugal, India and Greece. It is good fun to play in parties overseas, meet new people and new cultures. Besides I have visited Nepal, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, Japan and more on my travels

Did you enjoy your time down under? Where was the favourite place you visited?

I spent a year in Oz split in two major drinking sessions… One in Sydney for half a year and the other one in Melbourne for another half a year. In both cases Bundy & Coke vs Carlton Cold was involved very strongly… That is why my sightseeing was very poor and the only places I got to visit were The Three Sisters and The Great Ocean Road with it’s 12 Apostoles… But I really loved my time in Oz, it has wanderful free spirit to it and its people, great looking women and the ludicrous Lunapark in St. Kilda!!! ROFLMAO!!!

Which artists do you admire right now? Who do you think makes innovative sounds, and who is influencing your music these days?

I would say that I am really impressed with Beckers these days, altho I am not into singing in trance, but his concept of sound engineering, and his extra phat music cannot be disregarded… Last Antix album is a killlllaaaaaa and Sun Control Species is damn impressive with his stuff especially the new tunes I heard from him. Keep it on Drew!!!

What does your studio setup consist of? Do you have much hardware, or are you mainly VST/DX based?

I used to have a full hardware studio, but I sold it 4 years ago and moved to work with software.

What do you think of the Aussie trance that is coming out lately?

I like it a lot!!! You could notice that from my previous answers heh… Oz is strongly on the map in music generally not only trance speaking. I guess you have the right atmosphere in which artists can evolve, and they indeed are evolving as we speak.

Any last words, thank-yous or people you’d like to mention?

I would like to thank those people that do not categorize and just listen, and stay open minded and open hearted. Thank you Jesse for that interview.

Be Good!!

Thanks man, good luck with your new projects. Keep up the amazing music!