Month: August 2022

Albums that Changed Me

In 2001, House Music was everywhere. And I, a seventeen-year-old fool, was completely obsessed with it. Immediately a connection deeper than perhaps the ones I’d make with the humans of this planet, although, I suppose a lot of us can say that, can’t we?
The music was and is the love of my life, and this is one of the moments that showed me that.

It started the same for my partner and I. Go to the bookstore, buy a new CD, listen to it on the way home as we smoke weed, make out for a little bit, and then talk about what we heard. It was a fun experiment, and one I suppose we still conduct now.

With Rooty it was a bit different, though. With Rooty you could tell things had changed. House had gone to the next level. I suppose there’s always another level, though. Always trying to get to the top floor, only to realize there isn’t one. Just the sky and the stars.

The album itself, released on June 21st, 2001, was the second album by Bassment Jaxx. Who I personally had no idea existed before that moment, and yet I suppose that’s why it was so much fun. Although, looking back, I think I first read about them in a music magazine, which I wish were still common those days.

DJ Mag, Mixmag, MIXER Magazine, I loved all of them. They spoke about electronic music from all around the world, and they showed me this planet was way bigger, and so was our house music scene. It’s like finding something you love, and thinking you’re the only one, then suddenly realizing, it’s everywhere, and everybody loves it. It’s an amazing feeling, and I’m so happy that Basement Jaxx helped me feel that.

Many people know the album from it’s first single, and I will discuss that in time, but to me the first song, ‘Romeo’, might still be my favorite, not just of this album, but of perhaps any song the duo has made since or before. Often times people think of the single first, and yet, when listening to an album, your first impression of an artist will be with that first track. Whether you hate them or love them, you will always connect your first memory with that song.

If that is the case ‘Romeo’, lives up to it’s name, as it’s funky, soulful, melodic, and a new style of house, that I didn’t even know was considered house. It has such inspirations in Rnb and that 90’s sound I grew up with like Lisa Lisa, but at the same time, as we continue on into a song like ‘Jus 1 Kiss’, you hear influences from Prince, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, and even bands like the SOS Band.

That isn’t to say they are trying to sound like any of them, but rather the opposite. This is a new sound made from the influence of the ones that inspired us, and it’s a sign of how the future of House Music would be a much more eclectic sound than just what’s heard on the dancefloor. House is something you can go home and listen to now, as well as something you hear at the club or the festival.

By the time you get to the middle of the album with songs like ‘I Want You’ and ‘Get Me Off’, you hear a bit of a punk 80’s synth vibe, and an adult oriented theme shows the dirty and sweaty side that House Music will always have. We’re always going to want that moment where things are hot and heavy to the sounds of funky beats, and Bassment Jaxx gives us a chance at that nearly nonstop.

This is also where I can see the influence this duo will have on fellow future U.K. acts like Gorgon City, Disclosure and Rudimental. That funky bounce that you seem to feel in the streets. What I love so much about House music is it can start at home with places like Chicago and New YORK City, and you can take it all around the world, and when it gets back it will be so different, but still it will have that soul that makes it what it is.

That is why House Music is eternal. It will always change and it will never die.

After that comes the hit of the track, ‘Where’s Your Head At.’ It’s so hard to explain how big this one got. I’d say it was on a daft punk level for a bit there. At the very least it changed my life, and that was long before I ever saw it on MTV, which I did. Back when MTV still played videos, at least.

Well, actually, I think this would only get played on MTV 2, but you get the idea.

No matter where I go, or what crowd I’m in, if this song comes on, there’s always a reaction, and it’s most definitely a good one. It’s catchy, and groovy, but it’s also a hot mess of a masterpiece. There’s so much going on that it just works, and I can remember thinking it was what the inside of my mind sounded like sometimes. Random backspins and all.

It’s the song that will forever represent the duo known as Bassment Jaxx for the rest of time, and I will jam it loud and clear until I’m 80 years old, living in a nursing home, and losing my hearing. It was not only better than any song on the radio from that year, but it was also as original a song as you’ll ever hear.

Plus, watch the video of you really want your head toyed with a little.

From there the album starts to slow down, and it eventually plays perhaps the most upbeat song of the album, ‘Do your thing’, which is such a mix of sounds that we know so well that I’m not even sure what to call it. Swing House? Soulful? Funky? Disco?

No, I don’t think its disco, but you get what I mean. It’s just one of those songs that represents where the sound has been and where it’s going, and that’s why it hits so good.

It’s a celebration that House is winning, and not as way of rubbing it in, but rather to say, that in this house there’s always room for more, but when you’re here, we’re all here, and I’m so happy that they know that in the U.K., like they know that in Chicago, like I hope we know that here in New Mexico.

House is a feeling because it’s meant to be shared, and I know without thinking twice that I was forever changed by this album and the music that came blasting out of the speakers that Summer when I was 17, and still naïve to the world.

I hadn’t seen yet what I have now, and still, looking back I suppose I felt the same way I do today. I knew I had house music and that was going to be enough to get me through.

The point of sharing this album was to show what house music has done to me in the hopes that one day it may save you too. But only if you let it.

Enjoy the ride you take to find the music that will change you.

See you on the dancefloor. Or not.

It isn’t always easy admitting you need a Do Over, both with music and with love, but that is exactly what’s on the horizon for Our Dancefloor in the next two weeks. A chance to try it again. But will it work this time? Do we still have the magic?

I have a million questions going into this stretch and I suppose even more doubts, but as I’ve learned over the years, doubt will only cause you trouble. The countless trips, and festivals, and warehouses, and nightclubs, and all the moments we can’t have back, they were all made possible mainly because in the moment of truth I had no doubt. I simply just acted, and in many ways I was rewarded for that.

Destiny rewarded my boldness.

And yet, as soon as I type that, I still must admit, it wasn’t always a smooth ride. Not every trip went exactly the way we wanted, and not everything was as rosy and pretty as you’d think from the pictures. There were a few shows we never made it to. In fact, a lot, and many of them I still regret now to this day. Juliet Fox at Incognito, Carl Lio on a boat, Sonny Fodera and Dom Dolla at Sound, Green Velvet and Disclosure in Las Vegas, Movement this year. Hell, Movement every year.

Plus, it’s not like every single trip or show I made it to went perfectly either. In fact, most of them had at least one thing go wrong, and it even got to the point that I began to expect it. We look back at these trips and we pretend they were just one big dream, and the reality is that many of them were just good moments mixed in around decent ones.

But that’s the deal with this life. You have to settle for the insignificant just like you have to be ready for the miraculous. As things go up, they’ll also come down. You can’t expect a magic weekend nonstop. Sometimes you’re just gonna have to be okay with the bad stuff too. It’s just the way it goes.

That’s what I think about with two trips we’ve taken over the years that just didn’t go the way we wanted. Sure, we had a blast, and made memories that will last forever, but deep down I think both my road mate and I know, we just didn’t have a full experience like we had at all the other places.

All the trips and in the end, there are two places I suppose we wish we had a do over with, and I guess that’s why we’re really going back to New York and Chicago. It’s time to try again.

First, is New York, which makes sense because it’s the first trip we took between the two the first time as well. November 2019, just before the pandemic and the quarantine. To say the world was a different place is a massive understatement, but I believe it must also be said that we were very different as well.

I guess in the grand scheme of things that trip was supposed to be the climax of our lives on the road, and in many ways it was.

Finally going to the Big Battery, as I like to call it. Finally seeing the melting pot. The epicenter. The place where all artists go to become something better. I can’t explain the excitement I had in getting there.

New York City was my dream. I was ready and prepared. My years of travel and evolution on the road had taken my fear of such a massive place away, and replaced it with the ability to survive no matter where I went. Within the realm of a raver’s life, of course.

With the love of my life by my side, I was ready for it all. There was only one problem, though. As soon as we got there, my partner got sick. Really really sick.

Now, we can’t officially prove it was Covid, because it was before people started freaking out, and honestly, I think it was before they even had Covid tests, but deep down we both know it was Covid. It started with a fever and the body aches the morning after our first night there.

I told her it was just because we were drunk and wandering the bowery and Manhattan like at 3 in the morning the night before, and she was just recovering, but after that she kinda just got worse. I tried to make it better. Tried to let her sleep as much as possible. Took care of her like we were at home even though we were really in some hotel room in the Bronx.

And she was a trooper beyond compare. Pulled it together. Went to Central Park with me. Made it to the festival we were there for. Did her very best, considering how sick she really was. We gave it the best we could, and we survived it. I can still remember the way she passed out on the airplane with her mask on, and two layers of jackets even though, she wouldn’t stop sweating. And her breathing got bad. It’s like she was suffocating slowly. It was awful. It really was.

I appreciated her strength and her commitment, but I knew then just like I know now, that we just didn’t have the trip we wanted. Didn’t see everything we wanted. Didn’t experience everything. Heck, even Central Park was in the middle of the night, and she could hardly walk by then. It was fun, but again, we both left feeling the same. We needed a do over.

So that’s what we’re doing on August 26th. We’re having our Do Over, and this time we’re finally going to Brooklyn. And not just Brooklyn, but also the Brooklyn Mirage. To see Charlotte De Witte play all night long.

Charlotte is a polarizing figure in the techno world and you’ll find nearly every techno lover has an opinion about her music and the new wave of techno she seems to represent. On one hand she’s commercializing something not meant to be commercialized; on the other, she isn’t the one who started this. Business Techno. It’s everywhere.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of the business techno wave, and yet at the same time, I can’t deny I love Charlotte De Witte. She plays a lot of Acid Techno, and I love that so much. Plus, she’ll play anywhere at any time, and she lets her music do the talking. Whether you love her or hate her, you at least know who she is, and she’s earned that.

I’ve seen Charlotte live as much as any DJ I can think of, and still, I’m very excited to see her again, but not for the reason’s you’d think. This time it’s not for the music. It’s the excuse but not the reason. The reason this time, is love.

Our love needs a do over. All the years of life together, it starts to take a toll. You create these spaces between each other, and you ignore the fact that it’s happening, and before you know it, it’s like you’re so far away that it feels like you lost each other at a festival again. It’s not the easiest thing to admit, and yet that’s why we as humans start to turn on one other. I’d rather blame you than admit my own fault. It’s just the way we are.

But thinking about Charlotte, I think about the first time we went to San Diego together, my hometown. And how we heard her play at the city steps, the same city steps I used to sit at many times as a child. Such a circle it felt like.

I also think of Detroit, and how we saw her for the very first time at the underground stage, where she just amazed us from the jump. Although, I’ll admit that first time we didn’t see anything. It was so dark, and crowded that all you could do was dance and enjoy. I suppose that’s always how the underground stage is, though, isn’t it?

I can also remember that next year how she played the mainstage out in the sunlight, and how she captivated me so completely. Smoking her cigarette, playing that Techno to the masses. It was an outrageous moment surrounded by an outrageous weekend that showed me just how global this movement really was. She was an absolute punk rock star to me. I suppose she still is.

I also remember going back to EDC together in October and hearing her again. Seeing how big she had gotten and how she controlled the crowd and the music so well. Charlotte is as much a star of techno as there is, and to deny her power is to deny the truth I felt on that speedway as the floor rumbled with the heavy beats and acid sounds.

Charlotte always delivers, and I’m happy to see her all night long at such an amazing place as the Brooklyn Mirage. Especially because what this promises is a chance to experience the environment as much as the music.

We’ve seen her before, and she’s playing all night. We don’t have to be so obsessed with the dancefloor. We can go wander and have fun, and check out the cool food court, and just be in the moment again. I need the moment more than I need the dancefloor. I guess our love does too.

After that, the next night, we’re going to Basement NY and seeing a DJ who gave us one of the greatest nights of our lives. Luke Slater.

I won’t say much about that one, because frankly, some memories I like to keep to myself. For now, at least. But I will say that leaving the Eric Morillo shit show at the Avalon, and going to a warehouse to hear Luke Slater was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life and it changed the course of the next few years I’d spend on the road.

I went into that trip a House head, and I left it a disciple of Techno, which is what I still find myself to be now. With the Basement we are given the chance to have a full techno weekend as Umfang will be playing as well, and again the environment has as much of a reputation as any DJ could.

I’m not sure what I’m gonna find in Brooklyn, I just know I have to go first, and then I’ll know. We have to give the music and our love another shot. We owe it that, at least.

And this isn’t saying things can’t go wrong, or even that they wont. It’s not even saying that our love is saved, because I don’t think that’s how this works. Whatever we’re gonna be, we will know what we are when we get back on the plane after that weekend is over. Ready to return to our lives we have here.

But, I know I have to get there first. I have to go see the Brooklyn Bridge, and I have to go back to Central Park, but this time in the daytime. Finally get a pretzel and a hot dog. Go see all the art at the Met. Or maybe the Empire State Building. Be a tourist for just a little bit.

Be the person I once was and may be again. Be the person that doesn’t care about who’s playing, but about who I’m there with. Be the person I used to dream I’d be when I’d lay in my bed and dream about going to Brooklyn.

Be the person that lets himself have a do over. And please don’t let anybody get sick this time.

Plus, I want some pizza. NY Style Pizza. You can tell a lot about a city based on how they make their pizza. Don’t forget that one.

I’ll be back to talk about Chicago, but until then, big ups to Brooklyn, and to trying again.

See you on the dancefloor.