Karen Helletsgruber
Cape Town
The dance floors of Cape Town have been my playground for the past 25 years,
In the summer of 2007, I realised that this was becoming serious, and that I needed to let the magic of music become a more profound part of my life. As the trance scene in the Cape was evolving, and the music was flowing into a more progressive and percussive tribal energy, I finally found my sound. After years of driving everyone crazy I was finally given my own pair of CDJs and Djane Special Kay was born.
Soon thereafter, I became resident to the Garden Route Trance Mafia and played at several local forest parties in that area over the years, honing my style and building my audience in my quest for full electronic nirvana.
Much of my style is based on a driving gallop of a bass-line together with a powerful melody or vocal message in the intro as well as in the breaks. It is my way of bringing awareness into a dance floor space. My sets are full of groove and always interactive, making it impossible to leave the floor. A journey from deep tribal rhythms to uplifting melodic progressive trance with a psy twist - always very danceable.
From 2011 through to 2016 I have travelled to and played at several international and local festivals, ranging from urban indoors to tropical outdoors to dusty deserts….and even aboard a luxury yacht!
In 2011 I played at the infamous Kit Kat Club in Berlin at an event called Mystic Rose Fridays.
In Europe in 2012, I played a sunrise set at the Spiritual Healing outdoor festival in Germany. Back on home soil that year, I had the privilege of playing an evening set at one of Cape Town's favourite festivals, Earthdance, where I built up the dance floor with melodic progressive tunes and positive energy.
In 2013 I was invited to play a daytime set at the debut event of the Mzuka Music Festival in Zanzibar in Tanzania, where I had the opportunity to play my more deep percussive sounds that was much loved by the locals and travellers alike.
I started 2014 off with a bang by playing my first gig in Asia at Ban Sabaii in Kho Phangan, Thailand. This led to me ending my year again in Asia, having been invited back to play a set at the Experience Festival in Koh Tao before the legendary E-Clip for new year. In-between these international gigs, I played at several indoor and outdoor events in the Cape that year, Altered States, Aloe Roots, Sub Concious Butterfly, Equinox Experience, Summer Camp, and PsySailing e'Scape aboard the 40 ft yacht "Serenity".
I have played at the 2 most recent outdoor Vortex gigs in Cape Town; Open Source in December 2015 and Phoenix Festival of Fire in June 2016, where I played a closing set.
My desert set at AfrikaBurn in 2016 was one of my most memorable to date.
Radio 1, an online radio station broadcast internationally from Cape Town, hosts me monthly to play a PsyProg set.
As my sound matures and my audience grows with me, I look forward to delivering more quality sets that are full of emotion, that allow me to connect with my dancers, and that will be remembered long after the party has ended.
Djane Special Kay’s tracks
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