15th February 1999
Errh ... sydney ... the city of paranoia and music-category-snobbery!...
it would be nice if people here would stop wasting energy trying to copy what certain magazines promote as "trendy overseas" and slagging off anything that doesn't fit in into that... its no wonder there are so few regular club nights that don't play depressing semi-mainstream soap-opera oriented house! ... for me most of that in-between-ish repetitious stuff that most places seem to play is BORING ...
Then there is the self proclaimed "anti-trance-brigade" vs the "trance-only-brigade"
- GET OVER IT!...
Ok we have had lots of people in Sydney playing music boringly (by sticking to too narrow a range for their whole set) and sort of turning even the "trance parties" into yet another little "scene" ... but there is some wonderful music coming out on the fringes of trance (and other styles like jungle, electro, other forms of techno, house, etc)... don't be blinkered by the narrow range we usually hear at Sydney parties!... instead ... how about looking for music based on the vibe it could create, and the freedom it could help people to find ... forget about categories! - and avoid those yucky "upmarket" hollywood/tv-stle sexual stereotypes (except to *carefully* mock them!)...
Sorry, promoters ... I have been around too long and am too bored of things here in Sydney to COMPROMISE the music I choose to play!...
Another pet hate at the moment is "vinyl snobbery"
Turntablism has given djs some wonderful tools and ideas to use but it isn't all of DJing!
... don't confuse the two!
Whats more important to you?
... convenience for mixing of a media or playing/hearing interesting quality music?
btw - I use vinyl AND CDs and occasionally other media as well... I mix with ALL OF THEM!
Also .. your player (for vinyl, cd or whatever) doesn't HAVE to be of certain brands that are hyped up to be "the only thing djs should use" ... forget the sales hype - you can use anything you like - ... sure if you can the afford equipment that is designed for the "dj market"... that is nice... and some of it is very good... but if you can't afford that equipment there are
lots of other workable ways to do it (particularly if you have some knowledge of electronics)...
Even the fully commercial "video hits" type stuff has moved on and is improving (despite their cliches and formulaic approach... and at least in those places there is less "scene snobbery")...
yet much of the scene here seems to be stuck in a kind of depressing "worst of the late-eighties and early ninetees" sound....
Also ... can we have a bit less repetition PLEASE... good party music should encourage
all the people to be involved in the party, not just those in certain states of mind!
There is lots of good new interesting playful wierd fun stuff around ... so why do we have so many DJs reverting to endless repetition of the same boring sounds and endless regurgetation
of the same depressing ideas? ... don't they ever think about why people go to parties?
If you want me to play music that I do not not personally enjoy then you would have to pay me a lot more!... sorry...
Why should I support anything that seems to be limiting the freedom of shy people like myself?
... sure ... a few years ago I played exlusively vinyl too ... but
I now see that there is much good music that can't be obtained in that format ...
and I can also see how "vinyl snobbery" is holding back the quality of music at parties...
lets face it - it is VERY expensive to press vinyl ... and distribute/transport it...
so why not open up to other ways to obtain music ... local cd-compilations where the costs are shared by lots of people, home-made CDR releases, dat/mp3/md/tape demos, etc are providing ways for artists to get their stuff heard without the big money of getting vinyl pressed. ... we need to reduce the pressure on artists to make their music "commercially viable" and give them more freedom of expression ! ...
It would also be nice if DJs supported local artists (or any artists that are doing interesting stuff) a bit more!
Lack of money must not be allowed to be a barrier to expression!
SUMMER DREAMING - very nice ! ...
Lasers in the sky ... wow!
I wonder if they got any ufo reports! :-)
- Willy (Nephilim)... most wicked set ... full-on and playful... ...some tasty bits from Andrew Till, Adam Ohana & Nick Taylor too... and lots of others...
- the burning face... and the laser dancers... and Antara's Kundalini dance (an excellant way to start off second night - promoters should consider this kind of thing more often I think!)... - and a real chill... ...and a varaiety of food...markets...swimming...and more...
a whole weekend's worth of fun!
X-Dream - Sydney chapter - Palladium - pretty nice...
- the music much of the night in the main area was kind of like clubby energy-acid-trance
there was a very nice vibe in the crowd... somewhat hot and sweaty though...
the best bits were Lunar Orbit in the main room and pretty much all the DJs downstairs in the "chill".
Universal Love - a return (after four years) to the "Acid Raindance" beach...
a very nice spot... music seemed to be retro (some classic 1991 tracks) when I got there...
then there was a period of fairly ordinary 1993 style acid ... but after a while that changed into some very nice acid-trance-psychedic-trance... then in the morning (the highlight) - Daniel from Ju Ju Space Jazz played some really tasty hard-to-classify stuff in the morning.
(starting off with wicked breaktrance/jungle then moving to funky-twisted-clubby)
afterwards the party continued with nice breaks and drum&bass and finished up with nice mellow dub sounds...
overall - a pretty nice party in a great location that was not too hard to get to!
FOR MORE INFO ON SYDNEY EVENTS GO TO THE SYDNEY WHAT'S-ON PAGE
recommended vibey club nights:
In case you haven't noticed them already, don't forget to check out the message boards:
Previous Mike MD's report
Send a message to Michael MD
Snail Address for demo material: SPRACI c/o morpH imc.
P.O. Box 255
Randwick 2031
NSW, Australia
Some links related to recent events
with Terence McKenna
TeknoWorld
