Resentment is a Bitch

I'm undergoing post-techno depression. This happens every time I return from one of those big electronic music festivals. This time it was Decibel in Seattle. Good times were had by all.

I do have some festival regrets, however. Like I didn't get to see any of the Opticals. Okay, so most of the performances didn't get rave reviews, but I would have liked to see some of them anyway. My absence from said Opticals was mostly due to the unfortunate overlapping of events. It makes me appreciate the Mutek method of scheduling the Nocturnes after the A/Visions are completely finished. This kind of programming basically says, "We will schedule events with enough time in between to catch a disco nap or grab some food and you won't have to miss anything because every artist we book is awesome and you don't want to miss a single minute." I prefer this approach. It's very confident. Like a great dj who knows that she/he can pull any record from that case and it's going to be killer. At Mutek, I got to see Biosphere perform live with mind-altering visuals and then hop, skip, and jump over to catch Polmo Polpo playing his euphoric nautical beats with those haunting slide guitar melodies.

Also, I missed seeing Stewart Walker perform live, which really pissed me off and was totally not my fault. I wanted to go earlier (before it was impossible to get in, regardless of any pass), but my twin soul forced me to wait for her. I still don't understand this one. I stated without any vagueness, "If I miss Steward Walker I'm going to regret it and I'll resent you." Was she trying to make me cry? Seriously. This loss will never be forgotten. What's worse, Madame Soulmate forced me to leave early before the festival was over. For no good reason other than...she had to leave early? Fuck if I know. I had to leave my front row seat at the Ambient Showcase to catch a bus to the airport. I missed the final performances as well as the Decibel afterhours. For no good reason. Again...resentment. I suppose I'll have to let go of this irritation eventually. That would be the healthy thing to do, after all. But for now, I'm a bit raw from being rubbed the wrong way.

By the way, I'm on a new program where I'm limiting the number of records I buy every month. Upon returning from Decibel, I stuck a post-it note to my computer:

October
Records
(Limit 20)

Elitist Techno Honky Buys More Records

I got my order from Zion's Gate the other day :

Random Logic - Numrebs EP (Tehnika) (12") 4.99
Premature Wig - Endless Dub (Skor Records) (12") 6.99
Flow.Machine - Class Of '96 (10") 4.99
Robi Uppin - Fade (12") 9.99
Paul Mac - Push Came To Shove (2xLP) 8.99
Soultek - Paradigm (12") 11.99 11.99
Polycubist - Echo Life (Skor Records) (12") 6.00
Sven Väth - Strahlemann Und Söhne (Rmx) (Virgin 9.99
Murcof Utopia Remixes 9.99
Subtotal: 73.92

All good stuff. A few gems. Note Robi Uppin's "Fade" on Driftwood, a label that didn't last long enough to completely satisfy The Lovers. Oh well. Perhaps greatness should take a bow before any hint of weakness surfaces.

If you have questions about any of these releases, hit me up. They're all incredible. Except maybe the "Strahlemann Und Söhne" twelve. I only got it for the Soul Capsule remix, which has this really strange, haunting sound on it. (I like strange. And I like haunting.) Soul Capsule is Thomas Melchior ("Productions") and Peter ("Baby Ford") Adshead. This is straight up Perlon-related goodness.

Also, if you're very familiar with Tehnika, Flow.Machine (Thor of "Aliens Don't Boogie" fame), or Skor Records, give yourself a big fucking pat on the back. You're elite.

'Fuck Ya'll Lookin' At?!?

I've been bad about keeping up with this blog thing that I started.
Oh. Fucking. Well.

I saw Tropic Thunder today. I was laughing so hard tears rolled down my cheeks. And that was before the actual film even started. You'll know what I'm talking about if you see it.

Latest order with juno.uk :
FREUND DER FAMILIE Konig Der Welt EP 12"
PROMPT Evolve 12"
PROMPT Elephant 12"
PROMPT Toucan 12"

Prompt, much?
Again, the shipping charges fucking killed me. I hate having to order from overseas. But who the fuck has these records in the U.S? Anyone...Hello...?

My credit card debt has passed the $15,000 mark. If I were to buy absolutely nothing throughout the next year, not even gas or pay my rent, I still wouldn't be able to pay this off entirely. Is everyone in debt a slave? Or can we dictate our freedom regardless of what we owe? Money certainly gives one more options. Like I can't just get on a plane and fly to Berlin. Well. Actually. I could. I'd pay for it with one of my credit cards, like everything else I buy. Credit limit exceeded? No problem. Get a new card.

Selector Selectivity

I'm buying fewer records now, which is good. But overall, each record is costing me more. (Which is bad.) I just got this order in the mail from juno.uk :

CHEVY/LEMOS: Woman's Key (Be Chosen Germany)
MOUNTAIN PEOPLE: Mountain 005 (Mountain People Germany)
KOI: Deaf Torero (Styrax Leaves Germany)
CARL, Aaron: Crucified (Millions Of Moments Germany)
NUBIAN MINDZ: Afrika Man (Delsin Holland)
BOLIVAR, Pablo: Gold Series (D Press Industries Spain)
WLADIMIR M: As The Leaves Fall From The Trees (reissue) (Eevo Lute Holland)
FREUND DER FAMILIE: Sark EP (Freund Der Familie Germany)
SLICES: Slices: The Electronic Music Magazine Issue 2-08
Subtotal $93.14
Insurance $1.20
Shipping $39.06
GRAND TOTAL $133.40

And, as usual, I'm very upset that I have to buy these records from over-fucking-seas. I should be able to get all these from a U.S. Internet retailer. Note that the shipping and insurance accounts for more than 30% of the entire cost of the order. (Plus Paypal and credit card companies charge additional fees for foreign currency transactions.)

These ridiculous costs aren't helping me reduce my credit card debt. But GODDAMN HAVE YOU HEARD THESE RECORDS?!? If not, you better git on like you been shit on. All these are essential listening. And if you actually buy music, they are essential purchases as well. "Why?" you may or may not have asked.
Well...

The Chevy and Lemos collaboration is just damn solid and a standout among those hundreds of sound-the-same samples I listen to every week, via the weekly new release e-mail I get from juno.uk.

Mountain People deliver yet again. Mountain People "003" is one of my favorite records. Ever. and "005" is damn good as well.

Koi. On Styrax Leaves. If you need further explanation, research the label immediately. Wait another minute and you'll miss yet another limited sick/deep/gorgeous-as-fuck techno release. Don't like it? No problem. Wait a few months and you'll be able to sell it for double what you paid.

Aaron Carl's "Crucified" gets the re-release treatment but this time it's accompanied by remixes from Quantec and Rod Modell. Thank god. And it comes on pink vinyl too!

I had to listen to the Nubian Mindz record a few times. I've been buying fewer records like this lately, but "Techno Love" is straight-up Underground Resistance-influenced shit. All the releases on Delsin are very Detroit. Which is a good thing; Delsin is a pretty consistent label.

Pablo Bolivar. If you aren't familiar with his output (including Pulshar), then please make the acquaintance. In no time you'll be cozying up next to this 12" with the dubby Beat Pharmacy (Brendon Moeller/Echologist) remixes. Very very good stuff here. VERY GOOD.

"As The Leaves Fall From The Trees" is a repress from the legendary Eevo Lute label. I wonder if this repress is going to piss off all the people who paid $75+ for this record. Yeah, well, I just got mine for $15, bitches. (And apparently this is remastered as well :)

And lastly, The Freund Der Familie label is definitely one to watch. These releases are extremely limited, so WAKE UP AND HEAR THE FUTURE OF TECHNO! Don't sleep on this shit.

Sure, there's a lot of kids out there copying the formulas and following the "minimal" trend down to its boring template. But it's okay, guys. Techno innovates. Always. As soon as you start to feel that tinge of jade coming on, just know that there is something out there, right now, that will blow your fucking mind. You only need to make it a full-time job, wading through all the filler crap music, to find it.

Or you can just read my blog.

DETROIT ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL 2008

Movement: DEMF 2008? Awesome.
For all the haters who said this festival was better 5 years ago or whatever: You're probably right, you bastards.
Whatever. Nothing is perfect.
Nevertheless, spending a few days in the hollowed downtown of Detroit--the city which inspired some talented and ambitious black kids from the suburbs to create a hybrid of Chicago house and Kraftwerk--is about as close to a 'perfect' vacation as I can possibly experience.

Did some things really suck? Fuck yeah. Here's a list :

• Jimmy John's didn't accept my 'Free Sub' coupon.
• Police-cops enforced U.S. narcotics laws. (Always bullshit.) I can't believe people still get arrested for smoking grass. Are you kidding me? That's way less dangerous than that drunken idiot over there...
  
• The M_nus Records afterhours ticket was nearly as expensive as the DEMF Weekend Pass. Yes, Hawtin's set was reliably good, but he sounded just like he did last time I saw him. I don't plan on going to the M_nus afterhours next year; these days I need to hear djs who take more risks musically instead of obsessing over new technologies that don't enhance the audience's exprience. And I want to hear djs who play real vinyl records. You know: environmentally-unfriendly plastic discs that have energy and some surface noise. (Personality goes a long way with me.)
  
• I bought a crap dime bag. Joe Drug Dealer's blunt was great, but he pulled the ol' let-him-smoke-my-personal-stash-so-i-can-sell-him-the-shit trick on me. Asshole. And yeah, I know it's my fault for buying drugs from a stranger at a fucking techno festival, okay? I know.
  
• The Beretta Grey afterhours party...Fuck, where do I begin...? First, we get there at least a half hour before 1 a.m. (at which point the price of entry is only $5.) However, the line isn't moving at all. Not a fucking inch. Then, magically, as 1 a.m. comes around, Mr. Venue Employee comes out to inform everyone in line that the entry price has gone up from $5 to $15. And...oh look! The line suddenly starts to advance and it takes us less than five fucking minutes to get inside and give them ten extra dollars. The RIGHT (ie: ethical) way to have done this would have been to cut the line at 1 a.m. Everyone already waiting in line pays $5. Everyone thereafter pays $15. Beretta Grey: You owe me ten bucks. Wait, I'm not done yet. Then after being inside for a while, enjoying the kids playing their laptops in the backroom, digitally train-wrecking a couple times, I make my way back to the front room to see the man who brought me to that afterhours: MARKO FUCKING FURSTENBERG. Amazingly talented artist. But the sound system kept cutting out. $15 cover. Waiting until 4 a.m. for my man. And the bulk of the sound system isn't even working for more than half his set. Un-fucking-believable. But did I throw a tantrum and bitch? Hell no. I stood right in front of him and listened to his magic through the monitors he was using. That's how fucking hardcore I am. (I know it's not cool to call oneself "hardcore" but if you know me you'd understand. You would understand that you are so much less hardcore than I am.)
• I dropped $30 on the ground. Probably lost it to one of those beast girls. Ouch! Thirty bucks is 6 used records, 4 new domestic records, or 2 import records from Juno.uk. AND I FUCKING LOST MY GODDAMN FESTIVAL T-SHIRT THAT I PAID FOR. FUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!
  
• DEMF is getting LESS Detroit every year. Other than Carl Craig on the main stage, there wasn't any real focus given to Detroit artists.
  

But there was great stuff too:

• The Real Detroit stage was incredible. And given the acoustic space--all concrete walls, floor, and ceiling (highway overhead)--it was the best sound system. It was right next to the bathroom, and every time I went to take a piss or fill my water bottle, I was drawn to the Detroit sound. Didn't matter if it was bangin' techno, ghetto tech, or soulful house, all of it sounded so fucking good in that space. Hey, all of you who didn't bother to go down into that concrete pit and experience real Detroit: You done fucked up! Big time. It wouldn't have hurt you to pry yourself away from the Beatport stage for a half hour to broaden your funk a bit more.
• Deepchord Live. Sure they played at like 4 p.m. and there were only a few heads there. But dealer got me high and deep dub paradise was afternoon delight.
  

p.s. ~ I can hardly wait to be as rich and famous as that Dubfire guy (from Deepdish) so that I too can have pretentious publicity photos taken of me. No really. I'm not kidding. (Seriously. No joke. I REALLY want pretentious publicity photos of me looking like this whole 'techno thing' is very serious. I'm serious!!! Can you not see how serious I am?) Eh. Won't happen anyway. I can't contrive accessibility. Love cannot be manufactured.

I Rock Techno

Forced Exposure still hasn't stocked Mathew Jonson's "Symphony for the Apocalypse" so i gave in, paid the couple extra bucks, and got it from dancerecords dot com instead. I played it three times already tonight. I wish the middle section didn't get so "Return of the Zombie Bikers" but it's still an excellent track. I mentioned this in a previous post, after listening to the mpfree, but now that I own the vinyl I'm very satisfied. Sounds so much better.

I recently set aside some time to throw a mix together. I don't plan this shit. I basically pick out the first couple tracks, the last track, and then improvise everything in between. I don't like mixes that sound too planned and perfect, like they're mixed by a robot playing Ableton Live. I could give you some examples here, but I can't afford to piss anyone off yet. Not until I'm famous. Then I'll feel very free to call out all the toy djs. (And there's A LOT of them.)

Anyway, my recent mix features "Symphony for the Apocalypse" along with a couple handfuls of more dope tracks that you need to buy if you don't already own them.

Download here :
http://www.stephenganser.com/discjockey/discjockey.html

P's And Q's

So I just watched that "trailer" for this year's Movement 2008 / DEMF (Detroit Electronic Musical Festival) . In case you didn't know--I'm hoping you did know, but if you didn't--that track is "Music People" by the estimable Kenny Dixon Jr., aka Moodymann. If you want to get this track on vinyl (and you SHOULD because your life will better for owning this) you have a few options:

The best option is to get the full 9+plus-minute version on Silentintroduction. But if you aren't willing to pay the $50 - $80 that this album may cost, you can get a shorter version via the "I Can't Kick This Feeling When It Hits" twelve-inch, available in several pressings, some with 2 tracks and others with 4 tracks. A 4 track version will be much harder to find. As far as I know, none of these 12" versions have the full-length "Music People" that is available on Silentintroduction. If any of them do, please let me know. I'd be very interested in knowing which one.

The last option to acquire "Music People" is to get the The Silence Is Broken bootleg. However, unless you're a die-hard, slitting your wrists completest for 3 Chairs Detroit House, I wouldn't recommend buying this. Sure it has tracks that you will never find on vinyl. And there's some tracks for which you would have to shell out a couple c-notes to acquire the original pressings. And that's all cool and everything. BUT HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE WORST-PRESSED VINYL EVER. I really think this is my worst-pressed record in my 7500+ collection. It's that bad. So, like I said, unless you're a KDJ mega fan, avoid this one. Oh, and does this crap bootleg have the full-length version of "Music People"? I don't know. I could check. It's sitting about 10 feet away from me on a shelf. I know exactly where it is. But I don't feel like pulling that record right now. It creeps me out.

If I want to hear nearly ten minutes of "Music People" I'd rather just grab my copy of Silentintroduction. I bought it from that piece of shit 'doctorfugazi' seller on Ebay. He's a scumbag. He didn't send my record until after I filed a Paypal complaint, so I got it about 50 days after I paid. Now, okay, I can forgive that kind of negligence. It's stupid, but forgiveable. I'm a very patient person. What WAS NOT forgiveable was that he described the condition as "immaculate" and then delivered a record in 'VG-' condition. What a fucking git. Seriously. Not even 'very good'. No, this was worse. Maybe even 'good+' worse. Anyway, his name is Steven S Grange, and when you see him you can say, "Ohhh... you're that incompetent dicksmack who shouldn't be selling records on ebay."
That's right, fucker.
I'm calling you out, Grange.