At the moment I’ve been into late night, heady and techy vibes. But over the years I’ve drifted from house / techno / disco / balearic / minimal etc. I think my current taste is still inspired by my time in Berlin. Going to clubs like Berghain/pbar as well as heidigluhen and witnessing phenomenal sets that really got the crowd moving no matter what time of day it was. Basically I really enjoy long, extended events because after a certain amount of time, the peak of the party has come and gone/becomes unclear and that leaves room for lots of creativity and new ideas woven into sets, rather than just playing high energy classics. Often with parties in Sydney, certain expectations come with certain set times. For example usually there’s a warm up dj, headliner and a closer. And with those slots come expectations of the energy levels of the set. But when parties go for the entire the weekend non stop; and beyond, all lines become blurred. It’s much more a journey into the unknown and that’s always exciting for me.
Funnily enough, it was a result of going to under age raves. I had quite a sheltered and sober upbringing and so under age raves were really one of the first opportunities presented to me to attend a proper dance party. I was always into electronic music so I guess these parties were a good opportunity to go and see dance music performed live through a DJ set. I had a good dance at them but I was pretty much immediately intrigued by the DJ and how they could seamlessly progress through tracks, energies and moods and keep a heaving dancefloor at the same time. And so the first genres of music I started mixing were happy hardcore and hardstyle! How the times have changed.
I had some truly eye opening experiences over in Europe in terms of clubbing. It was essentially my first time properly partying outside of Australia and is a whole new experience really. One of the main reasons for this is that you can choose to go out at any time of the day on the weekend, and wherever you may choose, and whatever time it may be, there will be a packed out dance floor waiting for you. I was really inspired by the DJ sets I saw that elevated the crowd into a trance no matter what time of day it was - Friday night, Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon (hence the inspiration behind my playlist for this newsletter). To name one, arriving at about.blank at around 5am Sunday morning in a bit of a downer mood after getting rejected from Berghain. The party was Buttons, one of Berlin’s most infamous gay parties I was told. After being showed around the garden by my friend Alex, and seeing some completely naked people strolling around in broad daylight and participating in activities that are a bit naughty to disclose here, we made our way to the dancefloor and within minutes I was snapped out of my downer mood and had an amazingly fun morning dancing. Alex and his partner went home after a few hours and I stayed until around 10am.
Listening to music mostly from home has not really changed the music I’m finding, as despite the fact that we can’t go out and see DJ sets, I’m still listening to the DJ sets that people are recording (and streaming!) from home. It’s also given me more of an opportunity to delve into the backlogs of the DJ’s I love and listening to many or all of the sets that they’ve posted on the internet. But we all definitely have you guys to thank for providing such a brilliant platform for local DJ’s to have a proper mix again - and for listeners to tune in to a fun live stream!
I’m looking forward to a big marathon party on a proper club system! All the local DJ’s and crews have been stifled of their passions, and I have no doubts that when presented the opportunity to once again return to the dancefloor, they’re going to do so with a bang! And even more exciting is the news that Sydney plans to return to being a 24 hour city which is almost just as shocking as it is exciting. So things are definitely looking up once this pandemic calms down.
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