Dina Psaras – It was the 1988 underground Acid House party scene that kick started fifteen year-old Dino into DJing. Then, with an eclectic set of drum ‘n bass, Detroit and Belgian techno and Acid House music, he further satiated his passion for playing to dance hungry crowds in Brighton, Bournemouth, London and Bristol, alongside Sasha and Digweed. The early nineties saw him DJ at hardcore techno parties with the likes of Mr C, Weatherall, Groove Rider, Todd Terry, Tony Humphries, Adamski and Carl Cox, whilst enjoying a monthly residency at Baba G’s (Massive Attack) Bristol club and regular bookings at DIY festivals and Tonka parties. In 1992 Dino was invited to go on Primal Scream’s Screamadelica tour with Paul Oakenfold and Mark Moore. He was then voted amongst the Top 20 up-and-coming House DJs in the world by MixMag. The next year, Dino travelled to India where he discovered Psychedelic Trance – a catalyst for change in his musical direction. Back in London he met Youth who made him the first Dragonfly DJ. Whilst at the label Dino also met the other signed talents of Martin Freeland (Man With No Name), Ben Watkins (Juno Reactor) and Simon Posford, and determined to not only play music but to create it as well. Under the three different monikers of Phreaky, Cydonia and Ayahusca, Dino collaborated to spawn his own brand of trance. Ayuhusca ( with Joti Sidhu and Steve Ronan) remixed ‘Rise’, the first release by Paul Oakenfold on his Perfecto Fluoro label. It wasn’t long before Dino was recognised as one of the best DJs in this scene.From 1994 onwards Dino DJ’d around the globe: in Australia at the first Rainbow Serpent party, in America at Burning Man ’95 and ‘96, at the Berlin Love Parade and at indoor venues and outdoor parties in South Africa, Brazil, Russia, Paris, Belgrade, Israel Japan, Yugoslavia and Goa. Not forgetting of course back home in good ol’ Brighton with Sven Vath. In London he started his own club, ‘ACID – A Concept In Dance’ with Ian St Paul (Spectrum, Future) and Mike Maguire (Juno Reactor), which was acclaimed as one of the first trance nights in London. A legendary label of the same name sprang up to release the first tracks of artists such as Man With No Name, Paul Jackson, Universal Sound, Cydonia, Ayahuasca and Psychaos. The label’s eponymous album ‘A.C.I.D.’ is one of the highest selling trance albums to date. It was around this time that Dino bumped into an old friend from Brighton, Simon Gahari to whose boss at B&W, Robert, Dino introduced most of the major artists in the scene: Juno Reactor, X Dream, KoxBox, Total Eclipse, MWNN – the Blue Room label was born. Along with his brother and two other partners Dino established his own Atomic label in order to differentiate and evolve his sonic preferences. His intent was to achieve high quality sound as opposed to what was then called Goa Trance music, which had little production and was in danger of sounding like the same track over again. Atomic released tracks from artists such as Tim Schuldz, Morphem, Semsis, MWNN, Cydonia and Tortured Brain (Dino’s first solo project) before closing down due to the typical malaise of distribution difficulties. Nevertheless, the label managed to release an initial compilation entitled ‘Kiss The Future’ along with nine albums spanning chill-out to techno. Dino’s first solo album is entitled ‘Dino Psaras – Lick It’, released on Ocktava Records; a collection of varied tracks to be both savoured on the sofa and pumped out at parties. Most are solo ventures but there are collaborations with MWNN, X Dream and Raz Helalat, as well Keith Emmerson’s (ELP) son Aaron on keyboards. Current projects include ‘Mosquito’ (with Raz Helalat and Ian Rive (Cydonia)) who are working towards an album that harnesses the vocal talents of Diane Charlemagne (Moby) on one of its tracks and Val (Groove Armada) on another. The trio also have a Tech House album coming out with Visionquest, one of the biggest trance organisations in Japan.
