busted knees, techno music and starchy goo
I left y'all hanging in the middle of a party in the mountains two weeks ago!
It sounds like the start of an epic adventure, but in truth the past couple weeks since my last entry have been uneventful. The party continued, i got to dance just enough that i left satisfied, even if it wasn't really my favorite style. It was good enough.
One funny set started out featuring a bunch of hardcore anthems of the early to mid 90s. Even for people who aren't familiar with Rotterdam Terror Corps and friends would instantly be able to place the mood of the set when one track featured a lengthy sample from Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise and another Marilyn Manson's cover of Sweet Dreams. But just when i was expecting the DJ to bust out Apotheosis - O Fortuna or some equally corny gabber classic, he smash cut into full-ass drum'n'bass. With Barrington Levy samples. So still corny, but jungle. You know. Wub wub wub.
Deekline & Specimen A - Murderer
It's really interesting to me to see the trajectory of electronic music and how genres build up a mythology of progressing from one into the other, which is then reinforced by all the DJs and selectors who come after, dropping in sequences of "classics".
I am far from a drum'n'bass expert, but the mythology of that genre goes something like... it's a UK-birthed mash-up of Jamaican reggae with the loud and crunchy hardcore rave sounds coming out of Belgium and the Netherlands in the early 90s. Somehow breakbeat emerged from all that, people sampled The Winstons' Amen Brother, turned it to 11 and here we are. That genre continued on into dubstep and grime and a lot of today's popular EDM.
Meanwhile psytrance - the primary genre of this party - has its roots in the Goa hippie scene, and in particular the trend of DJs on the beaches there playing synth pop and industrial music - Belgian EBM with a tranced-out backpacker spin. A surprisingly large number of people in the early scene had a background in goth and post-punk bands of the 1980s.
My own favorite genres follow different progressions... Techno, famously born in the bedrooms of Kraftwerk-listening, Afrofuturist nerds in the Detroit suburbs before crossing back to the German club scene. Or house, which can probably draw a line all the way back to disco, but which really came into its own thing as part of the Chicago gay scene then jumping over to the UK by way of Ibiza.
Even though everything has cross pollinated by now, you can still see traces of these myths influencing the modern aesthetic. Techno events are serious, chinstroking affairs full of capital-A Art types. The releases feature blank sleeves with unknown artists. Maybe there's a hand-illustrated robot or a black and white photo of a factory. Meanwhile house events have that exuberant and free party vibe. Full of joy and color, they're never afraid to add some pianos or vocals or crowd-pleasing hooks. Psytrance has turned dark and introspective, a strange mix of woo with DIY post-apocalypse fashion. And drum'n'bass? Fuck, who knows, i ain't got time for events that play that shit all night long.
This weekend there's a techno festival, but i am taking it slow again. I injured myself a few weeks back, you see. The pedal came off my bike exactly as i stood on it to climb a hill, and i took a big spill that opened up my knee and planted a huge bruise in my groin. Annoyingly - probably because i was already in so much pain - a couple days later i slid off a share bike on the way home from work in a rainstorm, which made the injuries even worse. But i went to the rave anyway, with a sprained toe so bad i could barely walk, because i wanted to dance, damnit!
Last weekend was my first weekend back home with nothing planned, though. No company event, no party, just a full weekend off. So i had a bum day extravaganza, stayed in bed the entire time. I watched a bunch of TV, had a long Skype call with R, and just unwound, letting my body and my spirit heal from the stress and injuries.
I'm tempted to do the same this weekend. My body is back in alright shape, but i am tired. Work is mentally exhausting and i don't have enough annual leave to recover. All i can do is persevere.
There was a fun thing that happened at the party i didn't mention yet, and it was from the fruit juice guy, who was the only one who had coffee in the early mornings at this event. I asked him about the 中式熱甜品 "Chinese-style hot dessert" he had listed on the menu, and he tried to explain to me what he was offering. After a bunch of back and forth where the closest i came to understanding was "something like mochi, but not that", he said he would make me one for free, because it was early so he had the time. He added some powder to a bowl then put a little cold (or hot?) water, mixed in some sugar, let it sit for a while, then meticulously added a different temperature of water, mixed a bit more, let it sit a bit more, then presented me with a bowl of mysterious, transparent gel.
It turns out this is a Taiwanese treat from the dictatorship era when parents needed to make something sweet for their kids but they didn't have access to luxury ingredients, so they took taro or cassava starch and conjured jelly out of it. The timing is important, he told me, because if you get it wrong then it won't set. The combination of it being difficult to make and the historical association with poverty means people don't really eat it any more. This guy, however, was very proud of how much he had practiced to get his method right, and said he made sure to give it to his kid whenever his kid had an upset stomach. I can't really explain the taste or texture. It was something like (but not the same as) the tapioca pearls in bubble tea.
It's actually one of the best things i've eaten in Taiwan. I don't think the dish even has a formal name, although i now know one of the powders you can use to make it is called 太白粉. I really love these simple foods that just strip everything back to the most basic starches that keep billions of people alive every day. It's that vibe when you're cycling past cornfields or rice paddies and realize that you're actually in the center of human civilization. These staple crops are the engine that fuels our whole society. It's awesome.
So what else is there to say? Let me leave you with a song i recently bought on Bandcamp, an exceptionally beautiful piece of techno with the sort of cheekily undanceable percussion that makes IDM fans wet. If you love robots and factories and the idea of a UFO from Detroit crash-landing in Cornwall amidst of flurry of bendy synth noodlings, then this is the song for you.
Erell Ranson - And Then There Were
It sounds like the start of an epic adventure, but in truth the past couple weeks since my last entry have been uneventful. The party continued, i got to dance just enough that i left satisfied, even if it wasn't really my favorite style. It was good enough.
One funny set started out featuring a bunch of hardcore anthems of the early to mid 90s. Even for people who aren't familiar with Rotterdam Terror Corps and friends would instantly be able to place the mood of the set when one track featured a lengthy sample from Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise and another Marilyn Manson's cover of Sweet Dreams. But just when i was expecting the DJ to bust out Apotheosis - O Fortuna or some equally corny gabber classic, he smash cut into full-ass drum'n'bass. With Barrington Levy samples. So still corny, but jungle. You know. Wub wub wub.
Click to viewDeekline & Specimen A - Murderer
It's really interesting to me to see the trajectory of electronic music and how genres build up a mythology of progressing from one into the other, which is then reinforced by all the DJs and selectors who come after, dropping in sequences of "classics".
I am far from a drum'n'bass expert, but the mythology of that genre goes something like... it's a UK-birthed mash-up of Jamaican reggae with the loud and crunchy hardcore rave sounds coming out of Belgium and the Netherlands in the early 90s. Somehow breakbeat emerged from all that, people sampled The Winstons' Amen Brother, turned it to 11 and here we are. That genre continued on into dubstep and grime and a lot of today's popular EDM.
Meanwhile psytrance - the primary genre of this party - has its roots in the Goa hippie scene, and in particular the trend of DJs on the beaches there playing synth pop and industrial music - Belgian EBM with a tranced-out backpacker spin. A surprisingly large number of people in the early scene had a background in goth and post-punk bands of the 1980s.
My own favorite genres follow different progressions... Techno, famously born in the bedrooms of Kraftwerk-listening, Afrofuturist nerds in the Detroit suburbs before crossing back to the German club scene. Or house, which can probably draw a line all the way back to disco, but which really came into its own thing as part of the Chicago gay scene then jumping over to the UK by way of Ibiza.
Even though everything has cross pollinated by now, you can still see traces of these myths influencing the modern aesthetic. Techno events are serious, chinstroking affairs full of capital-A Art types. The releases feature blank sleeves with unknown artists. Maybe there's a hand-illustrated robot or a black and white photo of a factory. Meanwhile house events have that exuberant and free party vibe. Full of joy and color, they're never afraid to add some pianos or vocals or crowd-pleasing hooks. Psytrance has turned dark and introspective, a strange mix of woo with DIY post-apocalypse fashion. And drum'n'bass? Fuck, who knows, i ain't got time for events that play that shit all night long.
This weekend there's a techno festival, but i am taking it slow again. I injured myself a few weeks back, you see. The pedal came off my bike exactly as i stood on it to climb a hill, and i took a big spill that opened up my knee and planted a huge bruise in my groin. Annoyingly - probably because i was already in so much pain - a couple days later i slid off a share bike on the way home from work in a rainstorm, which made the injuries even worse. But i went to the rave anyway, with a sprained toe so bad i could barely walk, because i wanted to dance, damnit!
Last weekend was my first weekend back home with nothing planned, though. No company event, no party, just a full weekend off. So i had a bum day extravaganza, stayed in bed the entire time. I watched a bunch of TV, had a long Skype call with R, and just unwound, letting my body and my spirit heal from the stress and injuries.
I'm tempted to do the same this weekend. My body is back in alright shape, but i am tired. Work is mentally exhausting and i don't have enough annual leave to recover. All i can do is persevere.
There was a fun thing that happened at the party i didn't mention yet, and it was from the fruit juice guy, who was the only one who had coffee in the early mornings at this event. I asked him about the 中式熱甜品 "Chinese-style hot dessert" he had listed on the menu, and he tried to explain to me what he was offering. After a bunch of back and forth where the closest i came to understanding was "something like mochi, but not that", he said he would make me one for free, because it was early so he had the time. He added some powder to a bowl then put a little cold (or hot?) water, mixed in some sugar, let it sit for a while, then meticulously added a different temperature of water, mixed a bit more, let it sit a bit more, then presented me with a bowl of mysterious, transparent gel.
It turns out this is a Taiwanese treat from the dictatorship era when parents needed to make something sweet for their kids but they didn't have access to luxury ingredients, so they took taro or cassava starch and conjured jelly out of it. The timing is important, he told me, because if you get it wrong then it won't set. The combination of it being difficult to make and the historical association with poverty means people don't really eat it any more. This guy, however, was very proud of how much he had practiced to get his method right, and said he made sure to give it to his kid whenever his kid had an upset stomach. I can't really explain the taste or texture. It was something like (but not the same as) the tapioca pearls in bubble tea.
It's actually one of the best things i've eaten in Taiwan. I don't think the dish even has a formal name, although i now know one of the powders you can use to make it is called 太白粉. I really love these simple foods that just strip everything back to the most basic starches that keep billions of people alive every day. It's that vibe when you're cycling past cornfields or rice paddies and realize that you're actually in the center of human civilization. These staple crops are the engine that fuels our whole society. It's awesome.
So what else is there to say? Let me leave you with a song i recently bought on Bandcamp, an exceptionally beautiful piece of techno with the sort of cheekily undanceable percussion that makes IDM fans wet. If you love robots and factories and the idea of a UFO from Detroit crash-landing in Cornwall amidst of flurry of bendy synth noodlings, then this is the song for you.
Erell Ranson - And Then There Were