Music is the answer
Some YouTube playlists I have:
"Have you ever heard of Cercle?" It was sometime in the fog that is Spring, 2020. I was texting with a friend about how we were spending our time and the subject turned to our music preferences.
He sent me the link for ZHU playing at Hukuba Iwatake in Japan. "Watch this on your TV, it's part of the experience."
At first I was confused. Why is a French music company filming this guy playing on the side of a mountain in Japan in winter? I kept watching and became more and more mesmerized. I was hooked and started watching older videos Cercle had produced.
Artbat in Brazil:
Boris Brejcha in Paris:
Lee Burridge in Bali:
Over time, I've watched the sets on my Cercle Favs playlist a combined 3, 500 times. Obsessed is probably an understatement. I like these full sets because you can get a sense of flow and hear music as an artist intended for it to be heard. Songs that you might otherwise not notice may stand out when sequenced properly. People go crazy when the camera swings around, adding a whole new element to it.
Cercle has become famous for these sets. Their All Cercle Shows YouTube playlist has 166 videos that stretch back to 2016. They've become popular enough over time that they can take emerging artists and make them huge and take huge artists and make them massive. There's something on there for everyone.
There comes a point in your house and techno journey where you start hunting for track IDs. You peruse the comments section, looking for the one from the random hero who has pieced it all together. You dive deep into 1001 Tracklist, a site that pulls together sets and the songs that were played in them.
I kept watching and found videos other production companies were putting out during covid. A lot of creative stuff came out during lockdown: Stephan Jolk in Solevenia for Time: Code; Above & Beyond on a boat in London
In March 2021, one of the most insane sets I've ever seen was released. You just gotta see it for yourself.
March, 2021: YOTTO performs from the frigid tundra in Lapland, Finland
It hasn't really stopped since the lockdowns ended. Check out my latest obsession, Keinemusik for other.experience at the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt in early July, 2024:
July 2024: Keinemusik performs for other.experience in front of the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Here's the thing: I don't enjoy small chat events that much but I'll happily go to a rave at 3am with 1,000 other people at a random warehouse in Brooklyn. Grey Area; Teksupport; Free Radical Design Group; ZERO. All great NYC production companies that put on banger events every year. ("But what about the Brooklyn Mirage?" No.) In a large crowd, you can lose yourself. For a moment, you can forget the difficulties of the world and just have a good time. You find a flow, meet strangers, have bizarre and beautiful moments.
I recently went to Ibiza, Spain for the first time to celebrate the birthday of a close friend of Mao-Lin. While there, I got to check out Hi Ibiza , which has been voted the best club in the world three years running. It honestly lived up to the hype. The sound system is out of this world and the air conditioning system is top notch. I saw KOROLOVA perform as the special guest of Vintage Culture's famous club room residency.
All of this is to say: music is an important part of my life. It's shaped who I am and who I will become.