::::Travel slowly::::

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From wherever to Berlin, end of a blastin Summer 2007
What do parties tell you about live, an excurs in every night philosophy

Traveling and meeting people is a big part of DJing and music. It gives inspiration, because people listen to your stuff with fresh and different ears. It gives contemplation for yourself, cause traveling brings always new insights and lets you wear the other`s eyes and ears, so its a good moment to readjust one`s own thoughts. To me its very important to check out who are you and are you still close to what you think about yourself, thats where luck and a happy and content life is from. This summer was good for some discoveries that weren`t so new to me but they had to be rediscovered to become precious again.

Experience number one: The role of music.
Experience number two: Travel , how and why?
Result: Be lovely, be happy be radical.

The role of music.
Where minimal is starting to take over the world at this point and every DJ chick who owns tow records thinks its the latest, I am getting really sick of it. Berlin knows only black and white, and techno is for suburban and country kids and minimal is for the hip crowd. Well , I don`t mind if you are really into this stuff, there is lots of good stuff, but a lot of minimal gets played because its sort of a common thing and I hear a lot of DJs tell me: "well I play more minimal now, coz people like it." This is from DJs who used to play the cheapest Technomusic one can imagine. So the end result is: its heartless, people do not work with the tracks and create a mood from it, they play it , just like the they played commercial Techno before. Next consequence of this: music is really boring at the moment, not that there is not many good productions out there, but since the essence is about playing contemprary mainstream music , everybody plays the same boring records. There is lots of others but like in all discussions about taste, its to exclude and include and this is rarely avantgarde.
In Portugal it was amazing to hear what influences can end up un minimal, which I would not even call minimal any more, its much to fat produced and its much too tasty than to be what people used to play as minimal in Berlin. For my ears it was more the old beatscheme of tribal house mashed up with noisy glitsch sounds, very deep , very groovy. So it endet up in a misunderstandung, DJ Toze and some other portuguese folks were talking about deep house and I thought deep house was what deep house is considered here: boring, slow, commercial handbagmusic for cheap crowds. Well, in Portugal deep house seems to be very funky, dep nice minimalhouse, not so new, but the way it was made definitely worth listening to it. Second funny discovery: they all buy their records in germany from a distribution one never heard of here, and with artists who do not get featured in our countries propaganda, like the magazines, but they are german ! So lesson number one: diefferent labels for great musik and you have to go abroad to find out about your own backyard in music.
Kaliningrad was nice but talking about music its very british.Everybody thinks that UK stuff is THE latest. Not that I do not like it, but its the stuff like Azzido the Bass produces (he is better though, just to give an idea of the sound) , you heard it before and its not new. Its cool for the fact the energy in the music is great and its fun to see it work on a large crowd, but I thought that DJ Oleg and Polina (from Russia) play much more interesting music then that boring british headliner (no names here !), who (thats a fact! ) just played down a copy of his Itunes list on CDs.
In sweden I got an old school lession which was great. The swedish scene is so small, that there is no discussion about one style, but there is different styles of electronics within one scene. So people can play dubstep, just like weired hard techno, to noise and disco. That`s a great experience with so much open minded ness, still everybody knows how to choose the right records and how to build up a set without being offended as too open. And if you don`t like one DJ the next will definitely not play the same music like the one before, so you just wait. In Berlin if you don`t like one DJ then please change the location, otherwise there will not be much hope for you.
So what is the essence of all this ? Haven`t we suspected already for a long time that Berlin is hype and boring at the same time ? Yes, thought so, and a lot of people do not go out to party anymore, well, now we know there is a reason to it and the key is the music, too many restrictions by taste discussions and too many drugs in the clubs. Consequence: make your own party, choose the clubs you play even more properly than ever , then you end up with a good experience.

Travel , how and why?
In DJing for a lot of people traveling means to get fast from A to B. Well, if you are playing three gigs a weekend in four countries, yes, that is what you need. Just like fast food, you can have the convenience of not being hungry again and feed yourself, just fast. But the experience tells you that some dishes won`t taste good unless you made them cook for hours. And its the same in eating: it depends on your approach to it , slow food culture teaches that a nice meal needs time.
This was summer`s travel experience, it was the first time in years that I had a lot of time and I really enjoyed taking time and not trying to be back in town on monday or tuesday. Without time I would have nevre discoverd all these beautiful spots and people in sweden, portugal, poland, russia and and and . It felt like a youngster having all you need in a backpack and find a home in any spot you where. It was great to hang out in the nature and to the camp we took a five hours bike tour with all our stuff. This is why and how I produced the International DJ Bums ep, it was all done in this summer outdoors. And coming home was good too, cause the studio was the perfect place to master everything and to be home again after such a long time of not being there.
Most interetsing is the fact that travelling slow is not even cheap or reasonable expensive. I wanted to see all the way from stockholm to berlin, so I took a train, a ferry and two other trains, to see a ot of the swedish coast and the change of the landscape on the way. Even though the ferry was from poland and this is a cheap country compared to sweden my long way home was 2,5 as much expensive and took three days instead of three hours. But it was great and I would do it again, and finally I know a lot more about poland. If I had not been that exhausted and if not another gig would have been there I think I might have stayed for some more time in poland, Danzig is a beautiful place and I love the bakeries only the sausages....hmmmm see the photo........well...?
Consequence: travel more and slowly with your backpack before your ass gets too bored and ugly for it.

Result: Be lovely, be happy be radical.

After this summer I was so exhausted but happy that I made some radical decisions. I canceld a number of gigs, and I worked on a lot of stuff that had been waiting for me a while. You never think that DJing and a Label is so much office work untill you do it. Bookings have to be organized and even if you have a real good booker for that job it takes effort and time, coz you got to check travel, conditions and write bills. Same on the label, aromamusic has been growing steadily, so at this point where we finally make some money and can offer goodies, its a hell lot of work during the daytime. So following the rule of being radical and do only what you really want to do I decided to play less, then its more fun if you play. Also I want to go to places in nature and not being forced to do something, that is more stress then its worth, because beyond the line if you are honest, DJing is more than just playing, its a lot of preparation, thats what nobody thinks of. And I must admit that I haven`t thought about it in years, but its time to do it, and I so I will go to snowboard in January and not do anything else, c u back in February.

Peace !