Monday Morning Mix
Week 1: Girl Wunder
As we loaded up our car, and made our way up into the Sandia Mountains, I started the first mix we wanted to review in the series that for now is called, the Monday Morning Mix, but don’t get used to that title.
The idea is simple. My partner and I will drive around for at least an hour, with no specific destination in mind, we will listen to music, we will get stoned, and we will talk and share what we thought. Which is something we’ve been doing together since we were teenagers, and yet never have we applied that to the music of those around us. Never towards New Mexico. Never until now.
Now, we want to share our thoughts on the DJ’s that populate New Mexico and beyond, and we want to do it solely based on what we hear together in their music. The first DJ we chose was Girl Wunder, and I’ll admit we know very little about this DJ, and yet that’s what we liked. We liked the mystery. We liked the unknown. But what we really wanted to know. Was it techno?
What is techno, though? To me, there is no one sound that represents Techno, although many people these days will make you think otherwise. Over the course of my travels, I have come across multiple groups that have had this discussion, and although many of them have an answer, it’s usually based around what they already believe.
Some think its hard and industrial. Some think it’s soulful and deep. Others think its minimal and scientific. I’ve really heard every point of view on this topic, and yet at every step I know for a fact, they are all wrong. Well, sort of. They’re only half wrong.
They are each also half right, though. Techno is hard and industrial, and it is soulful and deep, and it is minimal and very scientific. Sort of like a concoction made up in a lab or maybe a magic potion made by some magical wizard. There’s really no limit to it, which is truly the answer to what is real techno.
What is real techno? Everything.
That’s the first thought I had when listening to the start of Girl Wunder’s new weekly mix on halfmoonbk.com named Glitch Mode. Over the course of one hour, I heard at least four different styles of techno and yet every single one flows smoothly and with intent towards the overall story meant to be told.
Which I suppose is another point that must be made about this mix. Some DJ’s mix just to play tracks, and I have no intention of saying that style is wrong, but I will admit, it’s not the one I prefer. I prefer the DJ’s who want to tell you something every time. The ones who want to take you on a journey with their music.
It starts with these glitchy breaks, staying true to the name of the radio show, and yet setting a tone that reprograms your rhythm immediately.
My partner and co-reviewer, DJ Sonya G, made the amazing point of stating that New Mexico Electronic music was always based around three genres when we first discovered it. Breaks, Jungle and House Music.
The other genres like Trance and, in this case, Techno, eventually sprung and evolved here, just like everywhere else, but for us, a rave wasn’t considered a rave unless they had one of those three. Breaks, Jungle, or House music. This mix has all of those and then some.
Starting a mix with breaks is a way of catching the attention of the listener, while still showing there is more to go, and that is what happens as the mix progresses from where we started to where we are evolving. This time to what feels like a mix of bass, jungle, hip hop, and again, those breaks we noticed right away.
Evolution, itself, is an important part of techno, as every student of it will one day eventually learn. There is no one style to represent it because it is the one genre in the world that has no limitations or boundaries.
Techno is expression through industrial, and even digital frequencies, and through that we must embrace all sounds. No one thing represents techno because all things represent techno, and as house represents the home we come from home, Techno represents the world that will change us.
This mix caused us to discuss these concepts, and yet, what I also like about it is that you can hear that Girl Wunder has different influences, and not just in sounds, but also in places.
There is this moment, at around twenty minutes, that I can only describe as some kind of Brooklyn Bounce. It has funk, and soul, and yet it still has that upbeat tempo we know so well. I’m not sure what to call it, but it represents a sound so unique that I know she earned it by living it. A lesson about music we all learn sooner or later.
The music we play isn’t just what we love. It’s who we are. It’s refreshing to hear a DJ aware of that fact again.
At the halfway point the mix transitions into dark experimental techno that sets the tone for the rest of this mix. The techno picks up and its now a race instead of a walk. I’ve often said that many times I put techno through the test on whether it can be played over a movie about a dystopian future where there’s a chase scene. Can you picture that chase to this soundtrack?
Yes. Yes, you can.
Then the mix plays perhaps my favorite type of Techno. Acid Techno. I love acid techno and I will seek it out at every place I go, and yet what I like so much about how this DJ is playing it is that the bpm is at such a mellow tempo that it allows you to absorb and embrace the music in a much different way than when heard in the warehouse or even at the festival.
It returns me back to the discussion I’ve heard about what real techno is. Acid techno is a sound that I hear more and more as time goes on, which I love, because it’s a signal to where we began, but often times its played at faster rates with a quickened pace.
This is a final reminder that this DJ is trying to take you on a unique path with this and every mix. In a digital world where music and DJ mixes are released every single week the focus must always be on the evolution of sound through each track played.
By the end that is exactly the way you feel with this DJ and with this mix. Where you started is not where you finished and yet it ends with such finality that all you are left to do is wonder when the journey can be taken again, and more importantly, what will be played on that one?
I look forward to hearing what sounds Girl Wunder plays next as she has dates coming up in both Brooklyn, Denver, and of course New Mexico. For those of us here in New Mexico she will be playing alongside Chicago House Legend DJ Colette on June 11th, at the original Meow Wolf, and then at Sol Sunday’s Free Music and Wellness Festival named Get Free on July 3rd at the Railyard Water Tower, both in Santa Fe. And you can catch her Glitch Mode radio show every second Tuesday of the month at halfmoonbk.com.
It was a pleasure taking a drive and listening to this mix, and I appreciate Girl Wunder for giving us the chance to share with the world how we feel about her music. The ideas shared were a combination of points discussed between both Sonya and Mando during a drive into the Sandias we took together.
A beautiful landscape set to a unique sound in a magical place is what we have been experiencing our entire lives, and the only thing I can say in closing, is that I look forward to the next drive, the next mix, and of course, the next conversation. Please, bump this mix, show the DJ some love, and as always, support the culture.
See you on the dancefloor.
Colette @ Meow Wolf Event Page
Ourdancefloor.net 