Ourdancefloor.net

When I was younger, and full of life and love, I’d dream of Chicago. And I’m not sure what I’d actually dream of, because I had no way of knowing what the windy city actually looked like, but I guess I used it as something to hang on to.

Something to work and try and struggle for. All the other stuff would be worth it, because one day I’d finally get to go to Chicago.

Looking back now, I laugh a bit, and I see how naïve and full of youth I really was, but I’m glad I had that to hang on to. How, could I tell myself, though, that yes, you’re going to get to Chicago, but you’re gonna have to take the long way, and it’s just not gonna be the city you thought it was going to be. It’s going to be something so much more real. Something you never had the heart to dream about.

I say all this because in just under two months I will return once again to the city, and I will go again for House music. Arc Music festival is nearly upon us and with it a long list of amazingly unique DJ’s playing in the city that made this sound we love so much.

Last year was as emotional and life changing a trip I’ve ever had in my life. It tested me in ways I didn’t expect, and yet at the same time, I know even with my failures, it was what I needed it to be. But now that we’re a year later, I’ll admit I wasn’t at full capacity.

Our first festival since the end of the quarantine, it was challenging in only a way Chicago can be, but then again I didn’t know that until I got there.

With other cities it’s not the same. Say, New York, it’s so big you just feel like an ant, and you just go about your business.

Detroit’s the kind of place that you just get lost in. Everybody forgets it’s there, and yet when you’re there you can’t let it go. Then when you’re flying back, you think, how am I gonna ever convince the rest of the world, that the best city on the planet, is Detroit. It’s so insane that you accept the outrageousness of it immediately, and you move on.

But with Chicago it’s different. With Chicago there’s the reputation of a Metropolitan, and yet a cultural history unmatched by nearly every city in America, outside of New York. But New York, it affects everything and everybody. Chicago speaks to the house in you.

You can feel it in its walls when you walk the streets. Or the people sleeping on the sidewalk as these giant buildings tower over them all. How can there be such a distance between the two? Such poor surrounded by such wealth? How did we become this?

Chicago forced me to see that as much as any city I’ve ever been to. You can feel the gap between the rich man and the poor more than anywhere I had been before. I went for the music and I was given a lesson on society. At least in this country.

I’m not sure what I’ll find this time, and yet I know I must go again. The plane tickets are bought, the hotel is reserved, and we have no reason to turn back. Again, Chicago. Again, for House music.

When looking at this lineup I can think of one set that cannot be missed, and of course it’s the b2b of Mark Farina and Derrick Carter. There are no two DJ’s that have introduced House Music to me more, and being able to see them together, in the city that made this sound, is more than a dream come true.

It’s a chance at hearing it exactly the way it was meant in exactly the place it was made. Any chance you have at seeing each DJ, you can’t overlook, but now to see them together is something that I’ll say again, just can’t be missed.

Another dope name on the lineup is the one and only Norman Cook, also known as Fatboy Slim. I cannot believe, after all these years, I am finally going to see Fatboy live, and it’s gonna be in Chicago. How does life turn out like this? How are the planets lined up to create such a moment?

I can remember being a teenage boy, and hearing ‘Praise You’ for the first time, having no real idea what it was, and yet knowing, it was something good. Something I still cherish now. I have never seen Fatboy Slim in my life, and yet that will change in September. And what if he plays the Elrow Stage?

From there the list goes on, with Honey Dijon at the top of it, another Chicago Legend, the mega duo that is Get Real, Ricardo freakin’ Villalobos, Carl Cox, and Paco Osuna. Along with some great British house DJ’s in Gorgon City, Skream and Chris Lake.

I LOVE CHRIS LAKE!

Don’t think Chicago can’t do Techno either, because included in this lineup are some techno titans in the legend Richie Hawtin, Brazilian powerhouse Anna, and two Italian maestros in Enrico Sangiuliano and Joseph Capriati. Also, don’t forget the great German duo, Pan Pot.

Last year’s Expansions stage was heavy on the techno and I expect it to go even further with these amazing DJ’s all agreeing to meet in Chicago. I’m beyond excited to see how the Techno goes.

If you have the chance to go to Chicago, go, and don’t just go for the music, go for the culture, and the life that goes on within it. Such an epicenter. Each building so unique.

And the Riverwalk. Or the House of Blues. Or maybe go get some spaghetti at Portillos. If they’re open.

Finally making it to a Cubs game even though deep down all I want is a black white sox hat. Feeling alive just one more time. Chicago, again. Chicago. Just like I dreamed of.

Maybe I’ll see you there?

There are very few things you can absolutely count on when the summer starts here in New Mexico. First, it’s gonna be hot. Really hot. We are, after all, in the desert. Second, there’s gonna be house music everywhere. I mean, everywhere.

It’s like when we harvest Chile in the fall and it has that same smell no matter where you go. We’re just a part of it. House music in the summer, Chile in the fall. It’s a New Mexico thing.

Nobody understands that more than Timm Reynolds aka the Rev. I’ve written about the Rev multiple times, and I don’t feel any shame in admitting that because he’s as much a part of New Mexico House music as anyone.

As a DJ for nearly three decades he has managed to bridge the gap between the crews, and cliques, and companies that populate our culture in a way that always puts House Music first. Because of that, he has inspired the work of other artists, so consistently, that I feel it’s fair I should share some words on his art.

Specifically, his latest release ‘Stay Hot’, out now on Traxsource, and all platforms in the near future. Here’s a link.

New Track! Stay Hot! Out Now!

The song is listed as Jackin House, and although I hear that jackin bounce to it, what I like about this one is that in the 4 minutes and 45 seconds of its duration, I hear at least three different styles converged into one song.

It has that pop and shuffle to it that all jackin house has, very similar to another track the Rev released called ‘Oasis’. Sort of like futuristic funk, but mellow and groovy. Letting you ease into the beat instead of throwing you in.

House music is different than the other styles in one specific light, and that is the fact that when you hear it live you don’t build and build and build, say like with techno, or something.

You just catch it. And ride it wherever it takes you, and you can’t go back once it starts, because that’s just not how House Music is. It’s always looking forward, while still carrying the weight of what was left behind.

Then about a minute and a half in there’s a switch up I just didn’t see coming. A futuristic synth drop layered in with sounds that frankly, I didn’t even know the Rev had in him, and I freakin love it. I am a huge fan of music with synths in them thanks to the work of bands like Depeche Mode and Dystopian Cinema like Bladerunner.

Putting that style right in the middle of a house song, while still maintaining that house groove is not so easy to do, and yet the Rev does it here with ease. A true sign of how far he has grown as an artist.

I don’t think the Rev in the past would have done this, and yet that’s what’s so good about it. Who the artist is now is not who the artist was when they began. Isn’t that true for us all, though?

There’s also another style in this track, and it’s very much a tribute to that original house sound, in that there’s this sample of a track, and I just can’t put my finger on it. I know it will come to me one day, probably when I’m on the dancefloor, lost in the beat, but not today.

I can’t recall it today, and that’s the nature of house music, I suppose. It’s going to always keep you moving and reminding you of something you’ve seen or heard or felt before, and yet when the time comes to remember, you just can’t. It’s a melancholy reminder that not all memories last forever.

It’s very much reminiscent of an earlier track the Rev did in the past that was a sample of an Isley brother’s song I love so much, called ‘Jackin For Sheets’. A balance between old school sounds and new school styles.

I don’t feel my point is just about Nostalgia, though, as you can feel his efforts to bridge the sounds, and perhaps the people that represent them.

It wants to be played in the warehouse, like it wants to be played in the mountains, like it even wants it be played in the nightclub. I expect you’ll hear this track a lot this summer and rightfully so.

I also feel a direct connection between this and another recent release of the Rev’s called ‘Rainbow Sherbet’. This eternal optimism that house gives us, and yet still providing a subtle rhythmic bounce to it at the same time. House music wants you to keep going. It wants you to endure.

It’s definitely my wish for the Rev to read these words and to see them as a sign to continue on with the art he’s making now. I can sense him telling an overall story, and I feel this track is connected to something bigger than just a release. My hope is that we can hear the entirety of the Rev’s original work in a live setting one day, or at the least a DJ set of only his original music.

Moving forward there are many chances to see the Rev in person all summer long as he is playing a special tribute set to the late great DJ Ohm alongside two House legends in DJ Eldon and Gene Farris on August 5th, and he’s also playing a great local house music show on July 23rd called House Proud, with two other great DJ’s I’d love to write about soon.

All summer long the desert skies of New Mexico will be filled with beautiful stars and the sounds of House Music. House Music that has been kept going by the efforts of DJ’s like The Rev. But now its time to grow and be something better. Something with a bigger story to tell. Something we can always go back to.

Please, buy this track, bump it at home, play it at shows, but most of all, support the culture. Much love to the Rev on this one, and I’ve only got one question left.

What’s next?

See you guys in that summer heat.

When I was a teenage raver growing up in the warehouses and deserts of New Mexico, there was always an agreement that no matter the style, no matter the crew, and especially no matter the genre, you all had to share the stage.

House had to be willing to mix into drum and bass, then drum and bass had to be willing to mix into techno, and if this guy wanted to end with a trance set, then just deal with it, because everybody was included. Everybody.

Having all the genres play together on one stage with one crowd and one experience was kind of the whole point for a while there. It was a chance for the crews to come together, to dance together, to celebrate the moment. To rave without shame.

The variety was a huge part of the fun, and yet even with saying that, I have to admit, there was one genre that was always given a bit more respect. In fact, especially in the warehouses, it went even further. No matter who threw the function, there always, I mean, always, had to be a jungle room.

Had to be. No question. Now, granted some people went with a chill room, and some trip hop, but for the most part, it was always the same. Jungle Room. Always the jungle room.

It was a simple set up too. DJ grooving and vibing, jungle crew all bouncing and moving to their own rhythm, the rest of the world completely unaware of what was happening in this dark, hidden room off in the back of the warehouse.

It was as much a religious experience as anything I’ve ever come across. You were in that jungle room because that’s where you belonged, and yet you didn’t know that until you got there.

The reason I say all this is because that’s the feeling I get when I listen to this mix that femme.antics did for subsequence radio. It feels like I’m back in the jungle room. Back when it was still natural. And true. And real. But that’s the beauty of music. It has a way of coming back to you.

This mix and this DJ represent a new horizon for Jungle music in New Mexico, but also a return to the beginning. In one hour it says more than my words ever could.

Soulful, Rhythmic, Jazzy, Organic, and with that subtle bounce. The one you catch and you seem to just keep grooving with. Over and over. Even when the music stops. This is the kind of Jungle you go outside and can still hear in the life all around you. It’s not just a representation of our culture, but a part of it as well.

Saying I am impressed by this DJ is an understatement. I started this wanting to write about a genre I love dearly, but have disconnected from, and yet I found so much more. A DJ with an understanding of how to play it right in a way you just can’t be taught. I am very excited to see where this DJ goes from here with some really unique shows coming up.

To start, femme.antics will be playing twice this upcoming weekend, and each time will be unique to that setting and that crowd, which is something I am noticing, is the standard these days. You have to have your own style, and play it well, but you also have to be diverse in your sound and crowd. Don’t settle for just one, and that shows not just in what femme.antics plays, but also in who she plays with.

On July 8th she’s playing the Effex rooftop with Mary Droppinz, who recently played the Desert Hearts Festival, and also with New Mexico house ambassador Ana M, as a part of a very solid run of shows of We house Fridays from Mr. Afterhours presents.

Then she and Ana M are both switching up their styles again for the MIXXD show at Insideout on July 10th. Where Madam X will also be playing, and I can’t state enough how excited I am for such an eclectic DJ to be stopping by here.

Two nights in one weekend to hear quality sound by top level DJ’s, and both are set under the desert sky we love so much. I even heard that at the MIXXD show every single DJ will pay a different genre, and if you aren’t paying attention, I kinda dig that.

From there femme.antics has perhaps her biggest show to date, as she is playing at the very well-known and very well respected Denver Club simply known as the Black Box. She will be opening up the lounge as British drum and bass legend Fabio headlines the main room.

A major night to remember for everybody involved. Sharing the bill with such a respected DJ shows that femme.antics is getting the attention of those who know what proper jungle is, and I’m happy to be able to witness it.

As the mix itself progresses it stays at a very top level and tempo, reminding me of perhaps my favorite Jungle DJ, Shy Fx, both in its ability to signal back to sounds I heard from the past, and yet still representing so much more.

You could hear her saying something here, and after talking to femme.antics I learned that this mix itself is a tribute to the late Patrick Uno, a longtime member of this New Mexico Rave scene, and someone I met as a teenager long ago when we were both still young and carefree.

Patrick Uno wasn’t just a part of the Jungle and Drum and Bass scene in New Mexico, he was very much the heart of it, and his loss has left a hole I don’t feel we are meant to ever have replaced. But part of why I say this is because you can absolutely hear his spirit and influence in the next generation of the Jungle Crew, and I know that is shown most with femme.antics aka LJ Enriquez.

I’m thankful to LJ not just for carrying this feeling forward for the rest of us, but also for being an honest person during a time when we’re all trying to hang on to what’s true. And as with this mix, some things will never be truer than some solid Jungle bouncing out of the speakers surrounded by the people who love it.

I feel very confident you will have many chances to see femme.antics all summer long, but until then, bump this mix, show some love, and keep it going for the ones who just can’t go to the show anymore.

And as always,

See you in the Jungle Room.

It occurred to me today that it has been over six months since I have last been on the road, and although to most people this wouldn’t seem like long, to me it feels like a lifetime.

Granted we did have a quick trip half way through to California, but that was so a DJ could make their gig, and the state of mind was different than the normal one I have when getting out on the road.

Usually when I’m headed out on the road I’m ready to get lost, on purpose. Ready to let whoever I was before, die, and to be reborn as some crazy new dude who lives now. It’s sort of like a multiverse. The universe I left before the trip is not the universe I came back to, and there’s nobody else who will never know that but me. It’s really heavy stuff.

What I’ve come to call it over the years is Mondo Journalism, as a subtle tribute to a hero of mine in writing, the late Hunter S. Thompson. Although, I know deep down the person I was out there wasn’t any type of Mando at all, but rather Montez. Montez took over for a while. I suppose he still does.

Hell, most people I have met out there still know me as Montez, and frankly I have no interest in ever changing that. I am as much him as I have ever been myself, and that comes with the territory of traveling and living on the road for as long as I did.

Back and forth. Here and There. Always planning the next one. It was a good life to live while I lived it, but as with anything else it had to stop. It just had to. I said this once and I’ll say it again, not every payment made will be in gold, and the road is the place that teaches you that the most.

The goal is to get to the show, obviously, but also a bit more than that. I have to be able to see the trip back home while still taking the trip out there.

The ability to know and consider all the details and scenarios is not something you just have. You learn it. The old fashioned way. The way I like.

So with that I’m happy to say I’m hitting the road again, and this time it feels different, but then again, it always does. I have spent the last six months committed to this city and this culture in a way I don’t feel I ever was before.

I’ve written about shows I suppose I didn’t expect to write about, and I’ve interacted with DJ’s in a way I never expected either. It’s been truly great writing about them and seeing their reaction to what I say. Especially because I’m not writing these things for acceptance or profit.

I’m doing it because I’ll never be able to spin a record properly, or paint a picture with a steady hand, or even throw a show like I see so many do so well. As I learn and evolve I don’t see the need to do everything, but rather to support what I can with what I have. And what I have right now are my words.

I don’t have the arrogance I had when I started out on the road, but then again I’m not so naïve or immature. I’m not allowed to be. I have been forced over and over again to swallow my pride and face my own demons, and yet that is why I wish to share my words with this city and this culture.

New Mexico has to face its own demons as well, but don’t be so quick to assume you are the only ones. This process happens over and over across everywhere you go. We are simply next in line. Next to see who is ready to move forward. To carry on. To start again.

I want so badly for this scene to come together, and to be what I believe it to be, so with that I will share my optimism and hope with you. I will keep seeing the good in you, and my hope is that you will live up to the words that are written. If I take the time to write them you can take the chance to live them.

I can’t go out like I used to, though. I can’t let go in this city like I once did so many times before. And it’s not cause of one person or two, or even anything that they or I have done. Because we’ve got to all let go. Let’s allow each other that.

The reason I can’t go out anymore in this town is because I see too many ghosts on the dancefloor, and I just can’t handle that at this moment. I’ve got to wait for the time the universe will allow it, and until then you’ll have my words.

I’ve got go back on the road, again.

This time It’s an all night long with Patrice Baumel in Denver. Then another in Brooklyn for Charlotte De Witte. And then Hernan Cattaneo and Nick Warren the next night in New York. And then back to Chicago. Oh, Chicago. I have so much more to say about Chicago, but this isn’t some grand speech.

It’s merely, me, Mando, checking in with the rest of you. Saying, I see you guys, and I hope you see me too. And I want you to keep going. I’ll keep writing and you keep doing what you’re doing, and maybe I’ll see you soon.

Maybe I’ll be able to make it to one of these nights I write about. Maybe I won’t. I just can’t say. All I know is I’m going on the road again. Let’s talk when I get back? Maybe we can do something in a warehouse? Or that play? Or maybe I’ll find the guts to finally go back downtown. Maybe not.

See you on the dancefloor.

I just don’t know which one it will be.

Do we ever?

I’ve been a fan of Green Velvet since I was 16. Although, back then he was still known as Cajmere, and he’s from Chicago. I didn’t hear I’m live for the first time, though, until years later at the Santa Ana Star Casino here in New Mexico.

They had this nightclub in the back of it called the Stage, and although it’s not the place I imagined seeing such a legend for the first time, looking back, I don’t think it matters.

What I learned that night, and have been reminded many times since, is that the place or time or even crowd doesn’t even matter when it comes to some DJs. Some DJ’s just know how to bop. And this DJ is the best at that.

There are two images I remember so clearly from that night and I’ll try and explain them now. First, was the image of Green Velvet himself standing up at the decks right before his first track. His green Mohawk clear and bright, along with those futuristic glasses he always wears. He looked like a super hero up there. I’ll never forget that.

And then he dropped the beat and everything started vibrating. I mean everything. The floor, the walls, my drink, the inside of my brain. He absolutely hijacked our senses from the get go, and he knew exactly what he was doing the entire time. It was a fabulous display of sound and vibrations, and it’s still one of the best nights I’ve ever had on the dancefloor.

The second image I have of that night was when it was over and they kicked us freaks and weirdos out of the club, and into the casino. We were not yet ready to go, and yet I can’t imagine anybody had the power to even gamble. As I walked slowly out into the open game floor I found my fellow ravers lying out and against anything they could. I was not the only one who had been affected by this DJ.

It was similar to after a festival where everybody is so tired they can’t go home yet, and yet that’s usually after a full day of music, thousands of steps, and multiple sounds attacking multiple senses.

This was just one DJ. How could he overwhelm us so? How could he be so powerful, and so in control, so outrageously, that he literally left us sprawled out on the carpet after he was done. How? And who? With the answer to both being the same. That’s Green Velvet.

Green Velvet is the definition of legend. House music is like a tree. It started from one seed, and from there grew many many roots. All of those roots help makeup what our culture is now, and in that light, Green Velvet isn’t just part of the culture. He helped create it. He isn’t just a DJ. He is a teacher, and his lessons are with House Music. His classroom is the dancefloor.

The second time I saw Green Velvet was at EDC and it was for a night he was hosting at the neon garden that he called LA LA LAND. I can still remember the anticipation for that one.

“I’m going to La La Land. I’m going to La La Land.”

I felt like a child, and yet our friend, who had not seen him before, didn’t quite understand yet. She needed to hear and feel it for herself. Somethings you just can’t explain. So that night we welcomed her into the neon garden where Velvet played with The Black Madonna (now the Blessed Madonna) and Gorgon City.

I’m sure there were other DJ’s but that’s all I remember, because they played before Velvet, and once he went on it’s like everything else went blank.

It started the same, though. Dancing in the crowd. Lost in the garden. Surrounded by thousands of other house and techno lovers just enjoying the moment and the empty desert sky. I can even recall him walking up to the decks, with that same smile. This time I knew, though. This time I was ready.

Then I turned to our friend, and then to velvet. As if to say, get ready. And then he dropped the bass, and he smiled, and everything started vibrating again. Out there on that dancefloor, just like back home in New Mexico, once Velvet played, everything changed.

I’d say maybe three or four hours passed by before we even realized it after that, and yet the only thing I can remember pulling me out of it was the sunrise over the speedway as we tried to recover. Wasted from the lesson we were given that night. The way only this DJ could. And when they asked, who did that to us, we all said the same. It was Green Velvet.

Now, I could go on about other times I’ve seen that DJ, and how the experience is always the same. A lesson on house as well as one on what a real DJ is. Green Velvet is timeless, and yet every time I hear him I am reminded why we will always return to that experience. He is the standard. We simply have to find a way to meet it.

This weekend, July 2nd Green Velvet is coming to New Mexico again, and he’s playing at the historic El Rey theatre downtown. Playing alongside him are two excellent house DJ’s from New Mexico in a recent favorite of mine Varsity Acid, and a quality old school House Head in Swift Money.

These two DJ’s are a bridge in styles that represent the vastness of sounds here in our desert oasis. Varsity Acid is ever changing and reacting, and Swift Money is that quality B Boy Scratch House DJ we know and love. They represent what we are, and I’m happy they were the two picked to play alongside such a talent on such a night.

So please, go early stay late, and when that fuckin bass hits for the first time, and he smiles, and you realize how much has changed so completely, I want you to turn to the person next to you. Whether they are your friend or just some perfect stranger in the night. And I want you say out loud without out even thinking twice. This . . . is Green Velvet.

See you on the dancefloor.

On Sunday, May 15th, there was a full lunar eclipse, and because of that I decided to go into the desert with not one, but two House and Techno DJ’s from New Mexico, and our goal was simple: Techno under the moonlight. Always for the techno.

We were invited to attend something I feel we may never have the chance to experience again. And I’m not just saying that because it was right in the middle of the White Sands National Park, but also because it was Techno being played by one of the best DJ’s in the Southwest, Dustin Holtsberry, for a special set under the Blood Moon.

When the invitation was first sent to us, we had no expectations of going. I worked that day, gas was up near four dollars a gallon, and the drive was nearly four hours away. There were just so many reasons why we shouldn’t have gone. I was gonna say no.

But then I thought about it and I thought, this is my one opportunity at a moment like this, and If I miss it I may regret It, whereas calling into work and spending some extra cash is something I’ll never think twice about if it’s for the right reason, and this was great reason. And I’m not just talking about the eclipse either.

Anybody from the El Paso/Las Cruces area knows one thing about Dustin, the DJ. He’s got it. Whatever IT is, he has it, and you can hear that when he plays. For the blood moon he played close to four hours of hard, dark, and heavy techno, and yet the part about that stands out the most about it all was how easy he made it look. He plays techno like it’s his nature, which is something that can never be denied.

In years he is fairly young, and perhaps that is a good thing because he isn’t as jaded as many DJ’s at my age. He’s still aware of the sound he wants, while still bringing enthusiastic professionalism to his sets, which I feel is a sign of the next generation of Techno.

And that isn’t to say my generation isn’t serious about it, it’s just simply saying that in Dustin I see the future of techno, and after hearing him steal the show away from the blood moon while surrounded by white sands dunes for miles, I could see that the future is now.

We started the night at a favorite spot of mine, and it has nothing to do with techno, but rather with Chicken. Don’t ever forget to feed yourself before you go into the darkness. You have no idea what you’re gonna find there, and this night already had that magical feel since it was the eclipse.

I can still remember the image of that giant full moon traveling right alongside me on the lone empty highway between Las Cruces and Alamogordo, and as the eclipse slowly began, I could feel the music getting closer and closer.

That’s the secret about Techno, you know? Most people pay attention to the sound, but the reality of it is that you feel it far before you hear it. And the more time goes on, the further away you can feel it. It’s an energy very similar to the one felt from the eclipse, so having them as counters for this night would be an experience unlike anything before.

If you’ve never been to White Sands before the best way to describe the journey is that it’s a slow gradual change. You go from typical desert wildlife. Cactus here, Cactus there. Some birds. Bushes. Dirt. A lot of dirt. Hot as hell, but still very much alive.

But then as you get closer it slowly starts to grow still. Not as much wildlife, not as many bushes or cacti. It levels out, and you can feel the changes. Both unnatural and natural. White Sands itself is as much an example of that as anywhere in the world.

The sand dunes are natural, and have been there for longer than we know and yet the testing of the Atom Bomb during WWII, along with the missile range that still stands there, have changed the area beyond compare.

I wondered that the deeper into the dunes I got. Eventually the dirt turns to sand and the sand turns to white powder. The bushes are still there, but then, after you pay your fare, and are finally in, you go over one hill, and then it’s just white sands for miles and miles and miles. While that, and darkness.

As expected, the park was packed for the eclipse and since we found ourselves trying to find our DJ in the darkness, we reverted to our old raver skills and just followed the sound in the night. We did it all the time as teenage ravers in the deserts of New Mexico, and it worked most of the time. Most of the time.

Just go into the desert, and take your chances, follow the energy, and the vibe, and eventually the sound, and if you find it, you’ll know you were meant to find it, and if you don’t, well, that’s always gonna be one you never made it to. Happened to everybody back then.

And you couldn’t just call somebody who was there and ask for directions. Either you made it to the map point on time or run the risk of wandering the desert all night long.

Happened to me in the Santa Fe Mountains a couple of times, and I still can’t let that go. Especially the one with Donald Glaude. I think it was called the Prophecy. Yeah, I never made it to that one, and that was twenty years ago. Trust me. These things you remember, one way or the other.

The good news is we did, in fact, finally find the DJ, and yet don’t get it twisted, we had to really find them. Hidden behind a curved dune back at the end of the loop, it was an amazing sight to drive up to, and even more amazing once we finally walked up and found what we were looking for.

If it never goes away when you don’t find the party, it also always stays when you did. This was one of those moments. The image of walking up to Dustin playing that hard, real Techno hidden behind that spot, with the blood moon clearly above us, and people dancing all over, will stay with me for a long time, and I knew immediately that first moment right there was enough.

The music, the people I was there with, the people who invited us, the people I didn’t even know, and of course the DJ, we all had that moment together, and it’s one we will never get back, but then again, we don’t have to. Living it once was enough for it to last.

We danced and celebrated a new moon as we all responded to each sound, and rattle, and beat drop as if it were a natural reaction; because with techno it is. I suppose from there the shrooms we ate at the car finally kicked in, and we just spent the rest of the night wandering around those dunes, under the blood moon, to the sounds of techno. It was better than I expected, and yet exactly what I needed.

That area of this state, and the people I met from it, will always hold a special place in my heart not just because of the time I spent living there and going to school, but also because of how real the connection still remains. They believe in this music, and it’s not just something they do, it’s something they are. I can feel that when I hear them play, I can feel that when I talk to them, and I can even feel it just by being on the dancefloor next to them.

El Paso is an electronic music epicenter, and it shows that every single weekend with unique and real environments like the one I experienced at white sands. And now with Dustin they have a DJ that I feel is on the verge of something big, and my only hope is that he remains committed and true to this sound I can tell he knows so well.

The best DJ’s don’t say it or even write it, like me. They just go and do it and I feel moving forward you will see for yourselves what this DJ can do. Techno is not something you learn as much as it’s something you know, and Dustin knows Techno. Because of that I feel very confident with where he and other DJ’s will take it next.

What I also hope for is sometime in the future we will be able to experience a Paradigm night here in Albuquerque. I want nothing more than for my El Paso Techno Fam to finally and once and for all connect with the Albuquerque crowd. A connection that is already there, we just need to notice it already.

Paradigm is Dustin’s own creation and I feel we are at a point where we need to allow DJ’s to evolve into something more than just the set times they are allowed, and I feel what he is doing with these shows is a great example of that.

Next for Dustin is a very exciting show for everybody as he is playing at a world famous night club in Juarez, Mexico known simply as Hardpop. Dustin is playing an all night long b2b with another DJ who I have been a fan of ever since I heard he play at the Essential Mix at Exchange in Los Angeles. Lee K.

Lee K is another DJ who I know is both the right now and the future of where Techno is going. I have been blown away by her music at every stop, and I believe the two already played together for a CRSSD after party with another El Paso DJ we all know so well, the outstanding, Raul Facio.

The night is warming up to be a very epic experience as Dustin and Lee K are given all night long, so if you’re in the area, please go, and witness this for me. A turning point for us all and a moment I feel will show how good both DJ’s are right now.

In closing, what I’ll admit stood out to me most about this DJ and this night was something that you notice from the real DJ’s that you find yourself supporting more than others, and it has nothing to do with musical ability, although, again this guy has a whole lot of that.

What I liked is that after he was done playing, Dustin helped break down the setup and even thanked us all one by one for coming. I know this doesn’t seem as much to most, but to me it was such representation of both this DJ, and this corner of the world.

He played amazing, and I’m sure he was exhausted, and yet no ego, no focus on the next day. He was a part of it as we were a part of it, and it matters so much to us on the dancefloor knowing we have a DJ who feels that way too.

I wish to say thank you to Dustin for the great music and the great night, and also to Mark for the hospitality and the great conversation every single time we’re down there. The moments I share with this part of the world are moments I cherish and I don’t feel that has anything to do with a blood moon.

This started as a story about an eclipse, and instead it made me realize one thing. Eclipses come and go, more common than we realize. But being able to see a DJ on the verge of something big, that never happens, and yet it happened that weekend under the blood moon. We saw the future, and the future is Techno. Duh!

See you on the dancefloor.

The first time I heard Ana M play was in a warehouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I could tell immediately that this DJ had something different. She has a commitment to her sound, and an ability to change and adapt to the environment it’s being played in. Which is still exactly what I hear when I listen to her DJ now, but with a bit of evolution.

She has confidence, awareness and an understanding of what it takes to be a truly unique DJ. The road she has taken since that very first night I heard her play has changed her, but then again, so has mine. Isn’t that the point, though? Don’t we want to hear the changes? Isn’t that why we’re here?

Some things haven’t changed, though, which is why I’m happy to see that for the next month we will have two chances to not just hear Ana M the DJ, but to also experience the vibe created by her shows known as MIXXD.

What I always like about these shows is the fact that they’re created with the intent of blending not just sounds, but styles and perspectives. When you go to a MIXXD show you get variety in an environment that is more focused on the vibe than on anybody actually playing.

The first stop in the MIXXD X 2 month is this Sunday, June 26th at Insideout where she has gathered a lineup of six different DJ’s, all playing their own form of House and Techno, or somewhere in the middle.

Included are two of my favorites. Xkota, who continues to show her own ability to stand with the best techno DJ’s in the southwest, and also Varsity Acid, who always plays well, no matter where I see him or what sound he plays.

What I like about Varsity Acid is what I like about Ana M and her Mixxd shows. They can each play whatever whenever, and the environment allows for the adaption and evolution of their sound.

The last time I heard Varsity Acid play was alongside Christoph at Electric Playhouse, and I’ve been dying to tell him how much I enjoyed his sound that night, but then again, like I said, the next time I hear him it will be something different. I love that New Mexico will always be about that.

His sound was driving and powerful, and if I’m not mistaken he even found a way to mix in some Acid just before handing the reins over to the other DJ. I can even remember seeing him in the crowd and wanting to tell him I enjoyed it, but being too embarrassed. So now I’ll say it in print. Thanks for the good night. We needed it.

Rounding out that lineup are Ana M herself, of course, as well as Ruby Rhodd and Ulione, to complete an all local lineup on a Sunday night, which I hope will become a common occurrence, since so many people love hanging out in the cool desert air and listening to the music they love, with the people they love.

There’s no excuse not to go. Be there before 8pm and the price is only $5, get there after and still its only $10.

What I hope for this show is a return to the roots of the local connection to house music, and the reminder that no DJ is above the mix that is our culture. I’m excited for all the DJ’s involved, but most of all I’m excited for New Mexico, and the hope that this is only the beginning.

From there MIXXD has another show on July 10th, at Insideout again, and I’ll admit I’m very excited for this one. Coming to town is one of a kind Madam X, and the description of her fits very much in line with what I can tell Ana M is doing as well.

Madam X will play anywhere from Breaks, to House, to Techno, to anything experimental that she likes, and the eclectic DJ’s will always be my favorites. Often times DJ’s fall into the trap of playing what people expect of them and Madam X will never be one of those DJ’s.

She takes you on a journey and the possibility of seeing her in such an intimate environment as Insideout, where the stars are the ceiling, is one I hope every electronic music lover in New Mexico will at the very least consider.

The New Mexico electronic music scene is at a crossroads right now, and I feel Ana M sees that as much as anybody, which is why it’s so important that she’s bringing unique DJ’s to such settings, while still including the sounds of our local scene as well.

Included on the lineup are two DJ’s who play solid sounds of their own in Femme.Antics with Drum and Bass, and Wyatt Lawson with Dubstep. Both belonging to different genre’s, and yet at the same time, what difference does it really make? If you can play you can play, and these DJ’s can play.

Along with them are again, Ana M and another local favorite Conrisa, as well. Causing the overall amount of DJ’s playing on both nights to be an even ten, with nine of them being different locals who play different sounds, and yet believe in this scene as much as the next.

For this one the price before 8pm is $10, and after its $15, with both shows going from 6pm-12am. Both on Sundays, and I can’t say enough how excited I am to be having events all weekend long again. You can go out Friday, and even again Saturday, and still have Sunday to recover with good music. This is a great step for the music scene in our city.

So in closing, I’d like to tell Ana M how much I am enjoying her evolution through sound and I look forward to hearing where it goes from here. I feel this DJ may very well represent where New Mexico is going next, and if she blows up don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Included is a mix from Ana M Herself so you can hear for yourself, but again, don’t forget to go early and stay late. Plus, tickets only sold at the door. So you’re not getting in unless you get in. I love that.

Anyways, see you on the dancefloor, and all that jazz. It’ll be a real Mixx.

You see what I did there?

Life during the first decade of the 2000’s was very strange. It was post 9/11 and we were right in the middle of a war nobody wanted. Yet we were told by our leader, over and over again, that it was necessary for survival. Although, we still don’t believe him or his Texas accent, do we?

We were at the beginning of the Mass Shooting era, and unfortunately we’re still not out of it. In fact, it’s actually gotten so much worse that we hardly even acknowledge all of them anymore, and it’s heartbreaking to admit that. So much death, so much destruction, and still we must carry on. But it’s okay cause Britney Spears came out with a new song.

And don’t get me wrong, we loved Britney, and the Backstreet Boys, and all that other TRL stuff, it was fun, but we were at a point where we needed more. We needed a response to the pain and suffering happening all around us. We needed our Art to reflect our life. And that’s when Kanye West arrived.

These days you think of Kanye and you get the image of ‘Ye’, the guy who started his own religion while dealing with his own insanity. Married Kim, became a billionaire, moved to Wyoming. Lost himself to the power, and money, and attention, and greed. It’s a story we’ve heard a million times, and yet, even with saying that, I still can’t deny, I miss what he was. I suppose I always will.

The first time I heard Kanye West was on 106th and Park one day after I got home from the local community college that was still called TVI back then. MTV had stopped playing videos all together, and VH1 was for old people. The only place to hear good music on the television was on BET, and my wife’s brother had it bumping all day every day.

Hip hop was going through a weird phase. We had nothing really to hang on to, or to believe in. It had been a few years since DMX released his albums, and nearly a decade since Tupac died. Sure, we had Jay Z, but it just wasn’t the same. He was a business man. Still is. We needed somebody whose words would inspire us. I needed that. That’s when I heard Kanye’s first album, ‘The College Dropout’.

He was different from the jump. His sound, his look, his words. They were just saying something else. He was focused on other things than the culture that was in place at the time. He saw ahead of us. Into the future. Into what we’d become. Do you think he’d know what he’d become, though?

From that first track he just ran with it. An intellectual still aware of the streets, he managed to do something very hard to do. He combined the sounds, and the world loved him immediately.

It’s tough to know he has since tried to claim it was just for show, because it felt so real, so genuine. He was rapping from a place we all lived, and yet he used the words we never could. It was clear he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder. As his albums continued to evolve.

By his second album, ‘Late Registration’, he wasn’t just focused on his own journey, but rather the one we were all on. Suddenly, as if completely expected without preparation, he became our voice, and I feel he used that power properly, for a bit.

We loved him and what he said. We loved that he was from Chicago, and that you could hear that in his music. We loved that he was already struggling with demons he is still struggling with now. He wasn’t perfect but we didn’t need him to be. It made it more real that way.

His third album, ‘Graduation’, was a turning point, and you could hear it. The struggle he preached about as a backpack hip hop kid was now long gone, and so were his worries. Or so he thought.

But you could hear the hope on this one. The belief he had that somehow this would all work out. Both for him and for us all. I loved his optimism even in the face of adversity. He always seemed good at that. And then things changed for him.

This was the moment where Kanye began to learn the lesson all artists everywhere must face. The better your art gets, the more it takes from you. It just keeps taking and taking, and you don’t mind, because you love what’s coming out of it, but there’s also an understanding that one day the price is gonna be far greater than your ready to pay, and still, you will have no choice.

You can hear that in his fourth album ‘808’s and Heartbreaks’, where he’s starting to pay the price in a way he never imagined with the loss of his long time love, and then finally, the passing of his mother; the support and inspiration he always had in his corner. You could see the pain he was in and yet just like the rest of us, he tried to tough it out. Tried to channel it through his art.

Still creating too. Still trying to evolve. Trying to understand. Trying to be better. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is admit that you’re not okay. Kanye was not okay, and still we expected the hits. Still, he was meant to carry on.

Then came his fifth album, which may always be considered his final masterpiece, ‘My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.’ This one he managed to combine it all. Style, sound, substance. He had reached the top of the mountain. Now there was nothing left to do but climb back down. Which is easier said than done. And that’s when we lost the old Kanye. Forever.

After that he still made good music, I won’t deny that. Even now he still has flashes of greatness, but let’s agree, it’s just not the same. I tried hanging on. Tried staying behind him. Supporting him and his vision, but I, like so many other people, got off the ride when he started to support political figures I hated. What’s worse is he seemed to be saying hurtful things on purpose, just to get attention. A clear sign of insanity, and a trait I myself struggle with daily.

But then came his divorce from Kim, and I’m not her biggest fan, but nothing justifies having to see him harass her the way he did when she decided to divorce him.

Watching him spiral without shame or sympathy for her, the mother of his children, reminded me again, of how much we had really lost him. And this isn’t meant to be about his relationships, or his behavior, or even his sanity, but it is frustrating to admit that I hear more about that stuff now than I do his music.

To add on to that, he’s not very good at music anymore either. Granted, I’ll never be able to make the music he makes, but I can hold him to that standard, and in that sense, he has not reached it in years. In fact, I don’t know if he ever will again, and perhaps, maybe that’s a good thing.

For all the good music he made in the past, it doesn’t justify the madness now. Although, in Kanye I see an ultimate truth about art and life that we can’t deny.

We lost Kanye to greed, like we lost Tupac to violence and DMX to drugs. The bigger each of them got, the less we recognized them, and the less we felt that connection. Granted with Tupac, he was murdered and had no say, and with DMX, even until his dying day, we still loved him. We still struggled with him. We still do now.

With Kanye it’s different. We can never go back. And neither can he. He has been taught the ultimate lesson that in return for the art he made there is a price to be paid, and it’s not always going to be in gold.

To make the music he made from 2004-2011 Kanye lost himself, and by doing so, we lost him as well. So now I see him, and I wish him the best. I hope he gets help. I hope he faces his demons, and I hope he leaves Kim alone. She deserves it. But even if he releases something good, and true, and real again, I will still always be that guy who often says, Man, I miss the old Kanye.

Don’t you?

And,

Do you think he does too?

It’s a strange thing saying there’s Techno in New Mexico coming up, but that isn’t to say that we don’t love it here. It’s just simply that it comes and goes.

There have been some great techno DJ’s to come through this city. Juan Atkins, Joey Beltram, Frankie Bones, Richie Hawtin, Sian. All talented and unique in their own way. All belting out their own style and sound of techno that has taken them and so many other DJ’s all around the world.

New Mexico loves techno. But with that said, we just don’t get it very often, and the techno heads know that. Which is why most are committed to traveling around the world to get the best forms of it, and I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with that.

That is the true nature of techno. If house music is your home, techno is what you find once you leave it. It encourages you to go out there and find it. Whether it be in some dark warehouse, or at some festival, or even here in your own city.

Every step you take with techno takes you to the darkest corners of this planet and back again. Back here, where you want to hear it the most. At home, which is why I’m very happy to know that Techno is coming to New Mexico Again.

On June Saturday, June 18th at Insideout, Octopus Records’ own Juheun is coming to town and with him he is bringing a quality and proper form of Techno that, to me, represents the next step for the sound and culture.

As I sit here listening to him now I am reminded that Techno has many different forms and styles. Juheun chooses a style that still has the driving and high tempo energy of Techno, but also has the second layer of progressive moodiness. It’s Techno with emotion and I can feel it from the first beat drop.

To the generation that Juheun belongs to it’s a chance to use Techno to tell you a story while still getting you to the end of the night with unrelenting energy and power. I wouldn’t call this Industrial, and yet I can tell he formed this sound by hearing where techno is and wanting to move it forward into the future. A more modern sound for a crowd that has seen the places that techno will take you.

I have seen Juheun once in my life, and yet I’ll admit to you, I don’t really remember it. And that isn’t to say that he wasn’t amazing, it’s just simply that it was in Detroit, for Movement Music Festival, and there’s this thing that happens when you get off the plane.

You hear the music from somewhere and you just catch the rhythm and the beat, and you just keep moving and shaking, and from there it just starts. Everywhere you go you’re dancing to that hypnotic beat that the City seems to make naturally without even trying.

Then you go to the festival, and an after party, then back to the festival, and then another after party, and so on and so on, and before you know it, you’re back at the airport, getting back on the plane. Still Moving.

I saw Juheun at my first after party my first year of movement as part of the Octopus showcase at Club Bleu where he played alongside somebody I heard is also coming to New Mexico soon, a personal favorite of mine, Carlo Lio.

It was an amazing night where we danced nonstop even though we were beyond exhausted, we ran around looking for a spot to sit in one of the many secret rooms they had there, and just enjoyed the moment. The moment made better by the music of Juheun. He is one small connection to Detroit for me, and now he is coming to share that energy with the people here. Helping them feel what Techno is trying to tell us.

Along with him this time Juheun brings fellow Arizona Techno DJ Mullen to help keep the tempo going, and along with them one of the best Techno DJ’s in New Mexico XKOTA will be starting the night off bringing the style and power on the decks only she has.

Aside from the DJ’s playing this show represents a positive step for the New Mexico Electronic Music Scene. Mr. Afterhours Presents is right in the middle of a very impressive run as a promoter, bringing talents this city has never had the chance to see. Tara Brooks, Gene Ferris, Second City, and as previously mentioned, my guy Carlo Lio have all been brought here due to the efforts of Ata Bahadir, and he should be given love for that.

I look forward to seeing who he brings next, and also where this next show helps our techno scene go from here. I know Ata has been to the Techno Mecca known as Detroit, and I know he understands where it comes from and where it hopes to go. I am excited to know this is the beginning of something that may become more consistent and correct. This city deserves it.

We love techno and we are very knowledgeable about it as well. Showcasing a night with a next generation talent like Juheun is making the statement that this city is ready to have a steady flow of techno coming to our town, and we don’t need to be obsessed with the headliners playing the massive festivals every weekend.

If the techno heads want to go see them we’ll go see them, and yet still, we will always be grateful to come home and listen to real talent like Juheun, underneath the beautiful New Mexico stars surrounded by friends who are now our Techno family.

So please, go early, stay late, support the culture. A culture made stronger by shows like this.

Also wear black, but remember, you don’t have to. And maybe next time can we get Drumcell? Maybe?

See you on the Techno dancefloor.

Event page for A Techno Affair