Another Strange Attractor

August/September/Burning Man Podcast 2009

And…. I’m back.

Where did The Chaosthetic go? Yeah I have been asking myself that a lot lately…. Let’s start at the beginning.

So I promised an August mix, a Burning Man mix, and a September mix. None of that is happening, well sort of. Im sorry. Oh well. Deal with it. This mix is worth the wait, I promise.

In August, I said goodbye to my family and the town I grew up in, the space where most of these mixes were conceived. At the time, I convinced myself that absolutely nothing would change in this musical universe, despite being on the road for almost a month. This was a lofty, practically unattainable goal - I tried to throw something together one day in the car, but Yellowstone was approaching and honestly, it was way more fun to bump crazy acid breaks while watching the Wyoming mountains roll by than staring at the grey geometry of Ableton. And now (two months later!) I have finally found the time, space, and introspective stability to make music once again. And damn, it feels good.

I started this mix before arriving at Burning Man. It is both in anticipation of the event, a critique and reflection afterwards, and a general musical collage of tracks I feel really embody the event. I attended for the first time in 2008 with an army of hopes and dreams (aka misconceptions). Much like the absent minded rave-dreams I had as a teenager, I had spent a lot of time experiencing Burning Man vicariously, through pictures and video, blogs and aquaintances. I envisioned a sort of utopian electronic music paradise with no boundaries. In my eternal search for an honest “temporary autonomous zone,” Burning Man represented the holy grail. Could it actually exist? I had to go. That, and someone once told me that Burning Man was overflowing with acid-squiggly breakbeats. I mean, come on, didnt Bassnectar forge his (now overblown) notoriety caning what is now considered “playa-breaks to thousands of dust bunnies?” Sigh… once again I feel as though I was born a decade too late and now all that remains is dubstep. Freakin’ dubstep.

Just to clear things up: I enjoy dubstep. I have danced my ASS off to dubstep. But one can only take so much of a good thing (unless it comes out of a 303, in which case, bring it on!!). I have this terrible premonition that dubstep will eventually bring about the demise of rave culture in America. I have faith for places like Britain (the motherland of this genre) and further abroad as their underground has been infiltrated by the commercial media for almost two decades now and shows no sign of dissipating. Stuff that turns hard and brutal here in the US usually takes a more musical, less serious vibe in the UK - maybe a testament to the lack of gun/gang violence in that sleepy island country. But here in the good ol’ US of A, there is something called hip-hop and it attracts a certain crowd with a certain mentality who all dig a certain tempo and certain drugs. Coupled with the current hyphy fad sweeping the nation (get dumb!), crossover hits like Kid Kudi, and the slow re-ghettoization of America (yay economic depression) dubstep is primed to grow too big for its own good. Again, don’t get me wrong: I love hip-hop (stay tuned for my October mix). What I do not vibe with is popular hip-hop culture. No matter where it came from, hip-hop today is associated with violence, posturing, ego-stroking, and unconscious bulls&*#. When these activities become manifest in a scene built upon Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect, I get angry. Too much too soon? Maybe, but Im an idealist and not afraid to say so.

Dubstep is the perfect weapon of mass destruction. 1. Tempo: dubstep is technically an off-shoot of drum and bass (try double-timing your typical grungy Skream track), with elements of dub, reggae, hip-hop and jungle (some might argue two-step garage…). It appeals to a wide variety of traditional e-music heads, while also attracting a crossover crowd from the “urban” music (ha! I hate that term) world. It keeps the intensity of drum and bass while rocking basslines at tempos suitable for the seratonin-impaired. 2. Texture: all these various genres have the same sad common denominator - dark, abrasive, militant aesthetics. 3. Crowd: dubstep attracts a similarly dark crowd: the junglists, the hip-hoppers, the kids in camo, the dealers of coke, speed, and ganja. 4. Sound: dubstep is heavy, overwhelming even. The prevailing motto here is “more bass makes better music.” At times this sound can feel brutal, violent, and evil. It channels an incredibly primal energy, a sensation you feel in your stomach more than your head. But more often than not, dubstep just channels darkness - I have seen it happen, time and time again. The dance floor will clear out, the kids with the dark hoodies, the paranoid eyes, the hip-hop attitude and the designer kicks will emerge from the shadows. Dark energy is addictive - especially when it comes wrapped in shiny urban machismo, but it doesnt lead anywhere - deep down we dont really enjoy darkness for too long - especially when channeled at 70 BPM (yawn….). That and vitamin D deficiency kicks in eventually….

Maybe I’m being too harsh on dubstep. One could have almost the exact same sentiment towards drum and bass or jungle. The problem with dubstep does not lie in its emphasis on the dark and brutal. It lies in the message, the intent behind the beats. Why is this music so popular right now? Why is it that whenever I mention electronic music lately, people automatically respond with either “Bassnectar?” or , “oh, like dubstep right?” (pretty much the same thing anyway) And even more bewildering - if this music is now mainstream, commercial and no longer fueled by creativity (I mean, come on. LFO + filter + resonance + saw wave. genius.), why would every sound camp at Burning Man and their mother be forcing this stuff down our throats? Have those in charge of music at this party finally succumbed to the assumption that in order to have a good time, one must pander to the greatest common denominator? This is not a good way to channel creative energy folks. 99.99999% of the time, what the mob is into is not that interesting.

I spent hours and hours this year at Burning Man wandering between stages in the hopes that I might find something above 100 BPM that wasnt electro (dont even get me started) to wiggle my butt to. One night, I passed by 7 stages on my way out past 10 o’clock before reaching the Deep End and watching the sunrise to some wicked latin house beats. In 2008, this problem did not exist. It seemed as if this year every camp, no matter their focus, had at least one night devoted to dubstep. I understand that Burning Man functions much like a normal city of 60,000 where fads and trends develop out of the underground…but for some reason I thought BM was the underground. Oh well. Mostly I think I’m pissed because I had so much fun dancing to Bassnectar last year, and suddenly all he drops is dubstep….and hiphop….and more dubstep.

On the flip side, one cant really complain about this at all. When something blows up like this, its the natural progression of people enjoying something en masse. There is nothing wrong with that, and for an event like BM, where nothing is pre-programmed, people bring what they want to bring, etc… its not as though some organization decided that dubstep would be the only music allowed. It just happened. And thats where I get nervous. This thing is blowing up. And unlike the 1999/2000 era when trance was king, this time the populace is vibing off dark, angry music. I never thought Id say this, but I long for the days when Tiesto was king and Paul Oakenfold rocked American stadiums……

The one saving grace of this year’s burn? MR. PROJECTILE!! OMFG All I can say is this, and if you dont understand, well, that sucks: 2 hour 6-8AM set, all analog gear, TB 303 (or something similar), crowd full of people with giant rubber balloons on their heads. Yeah. Fucking awesome.

So I guess this mix is my way of taking back what once was my idealist vision of the playa-breaks sound. I start things off slowly, even throwing in what could be classified as (gasp!) dubstep (KnowSleep), but the desert just calls for faster, squigglier, funkier music. If you have attended the burn at any point, please let me know what you think. Having only been a few years, this mix just scratches the surface of what must be a long legacy of amazing musical experiences. Hopefully there will continue to be more….. Enjoy!

peace, love, + fat beats.

*****I had to delete the two tracks and the two oldest mixes to host this one…. dedicated server is next on the priority list, so dont fear. You will have full access to everything by the end of the month!