very true words …
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Sounds like exactly the kind of change in mindsets/situation that got me out of DJing when I moved to another city. I just stopped hanging out randomly at record shops with people because of work and lost those informal connections that somehow very naturally formed some kind of network without actually having to work on it.
Now. Everyone is working really hard to be seen. It sucks to compete with that. So I rather don’t.
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Love to hear this! I never got as deep into a scene as you did, and that’s my only real regret in life. I knew all the cool people but mostly admired them from afar, only making music with a small group of similarly-introverted friends.
But there’s a LOT to be said for protecting your hobbies, and keeping finances/survival out of your art. It’s usually not a recipe for fame and success, but it can definitely be a recipe for long-term contentment.
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I love this so much! Took me right back to those times!
My band got a gig 5 hours away at pretty big festival through a friend of the family! It was a blast! Ended up partying and losing our drummer for the night! Dude slept on a park bench! Still don’t know what assholery he got himself into!
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I never got as deep into the scene as you did
Oh man, I hope i didnt portray myself as somebody super cool and connected or anything haha. I just had friends doing stuff who were part of a network of their friends and friends of friends and stuff. Although maybe that’s all The Underground or The Scene actually is? Regardless, I never felt like a major insider or anything. Just lucky enough to spend some time with like minded people supporting each other.
Also different specifics but this conversation always makes me think of this lol
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“I made a name for myself
when one could do such a thing.
A reputation that’s held
together by string.
So I chose to cherish those
who think there’s some purity
in fading into obscurity.”
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lol yeah that’s what I assumed! I wish I had gone exactly that far. I had friends who were touring North America, drawing decent crowds at mid-sized festivals, successfully applying for arts grants to record their albums in real studios, releasing said albums on vinyl, and opening for bands people have actually heard of. They weren’t “successful,” but they were definitely doing cool things after they got home from work.
We occasionally jammed together, which was always fun. A few of them even invited me to play at some of their gigs over the years, but I never took them up on it. At the time I always said I’d do it next time, then wrote a piece promoting the show in the local music magazine and (usually) attended the show on the guest list. So like, I was THERE, but not REALLY THERE. As I settle into middle age, part of me wishes I had done a little more.
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The fact that the last reply here was 4 days ago while all the firmware hax yes/no threads are booming says a lot I think…
I’m sort of procrastinating a bit while getting ready to record a new video, debating my approach… Always the biggest hump to get over. I do these things pretty much on the fly and unscripted and then just edit it down until it sounds somewhat coherent. 
Currently very inspired by a lot of the Stoor improvised live techno stuff. I think my main ‘struggle’ getting into electronic music has always been getting the ‘performing live’ and ‘improvising on the spot’ aspect to feel as natural as it does on a guitar or piano… And while looking at a bunch of people surrounding a table filled to the brim with gear might not be the ‘aha’ moment I’m looking for per se, it does make me feel I could do this on a much smaller scale.
Anyway, back to work!
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I was too brain dead for actual work this afternoon. Spent it on making acid techno. I had a good time.
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i just have fun making loops and tunes
always been into creative stuff, but never actually learned anything related to music theory or how to play an instrument. i just liked sampling, playing around with different rhythms, tweaking stuff etc.
one of my biggest inspirations are:
- burial, mostly because i dig the vibe and he’s just a regular bloke with good taste, using limited gear (fuck knows what tbh), with no musical background.
- SHXCXCHCXSH, because it just sounds awesome and like nothing else i’ve heard before
recently trying to experiment more with resampling and breaking stuff (there’s a great syntakt thread on blawan’s techniques somewhere out there on the forum).
right now also learning m8 and trying to find more time to make tunes, parenting is hard man
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While I admittedly don’t have a clue about playing guitar, piano or similar, my conclusion is that these are not comparable and I made peace with it. I look at it as completely different disciplines altogether. Like painting and photography.
Update: had a ton of fun at the show. Prozzak actually blew my mind. I went in knowing as little as possible about their live set, fully expecting to see two aging dudes lip syncing behind their cartoon personae. Instead, it was almost entirely bass- and guitar-driven with a small screen handling visuals. 95% of the focus was on the real people on stage playing real instruments; they also had Catey Shaw as their backup singer / hype woman to keep things more energetic. I wasn’t familiar with her beforehand but she was great!
Definitely relied on backing tracks a fair bit, and some songs pushed the boundaries between lip syncing and vocal doubling, but it was genuinely an impressive show. Milo (James McCollum) can shred! Simon (Jay Levine)’s kids pretended to breakdance on stage to close out the set! It was personable and musical and nostalgic and overall I loved it.
Vengaboys, I don’t even know where to begin. They had no props, no instruments, no stage set — the whole show was four middle-aged Dutch people wearing campy costumes, kind of dancing and doing loosely-choreographed hand motions. They changed Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” to “Venga Girl,” but they only changed that one word, so the chorus went, “Come on Venga let’s go party,” which obviously doesn’t rhyme. They had an extended medley of eighties power ballads. They played Vengabus three times. They invited an audience member on stage, sat him down in a chair, and the boys gave some genuinely steamy lapdances. They had lyrics for most songs projected on the screen behind them, and one slide literally said, “do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.” They did the Macarena. They talked about how attractive everyone in the audience was, but it felt more like getting a compliment from your aunt.
It was weird and lo-fi and retro and honest and pure and hilarious and kind-hearted all at once, and the audience went nuts. 10/10 evening. Highly recommend catching the tour if you’re able! Oh, and it was 100% seated, but people were still dancing. Here’s the venue about 20 minutes before Prozzak came on:
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Thank you so much for reminding me of them… I hadn’t thought of them in a very long time, but I absolutely adored Ss and now I’m listening to them again! Boy, they’re so good.
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Saw vengaboys at bangface 10 years ago. 2000 people coming up together to the fucking Vengabus.
One of the best nights of my life.
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enjoy! „…….t” was my most played album in 2024 or 2025, great stuff
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While in the process of releasing my EP last year, a wave of surprise washed over my face when I learned that electronica is also considered to be a residual category for musicians who write vocal-free and undanceable music using synths and other “electronic” instruments exclusively 
You heard of defiant Prometheus
A Titan who foresaw his own defeat
In fear he sided with his adversaries
And provided mortals with meat and flame
Zeus chained him to the edge of universe
His torment would last until a saviour came
The world however didn’t wait
But soon observed what followed on
It’s technology that brought him to that state
How fortunate the man with none
How fortunate the man with none
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an old friend of mine had a lot of good things to say about that experience.
i think i saw 2 Unlimited there with him in 2018 as a result of him going on about it, but im not entirely sure because bangface.
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speak for yourself.
glossing over the embarrassing stuff that i was listening to after my grunge / punk early teen phase that did at least eventually lead me down the rabbit hole …
josh wink acid classics mixmag cover cd mix. yt link w/o tracker query parameter.
i spent my whole summer when i was 18 with that on repeat in the car. fucking banging mix.
if i hear a 303 i still turn into Tyres honest to god.
write a track again. it’s been like 10 years since i’ve finished stuff. career chasing and a bunch of other kinda nasty stuff got in the way.
my favourites playlist on itunes is over 9 days long at this point, closing in on 10. so that’s a bit difficult to answer as it’s super varied within electronic music.
- tape loopy, weird ambient stuff, drony ambient stuff, pretty ambient stuff, synth-jizzy ambient stuff
- weird braindance stuff
- a bunch of city centre offices artists
- game soundtracks — black mesa/RE2/signalis
- james holden
- electro
- warp — clark/au/not a massive afx fan
- dutty techno a la OG wigflex releases from hizatron, geiom, et al.
- ambient techno stuff (not the boring stuff)
- other random mentions — actress, burial, basic channel fuzziness, riddim’ and sound, demdike stare, eleven tigers, pessimist, slowdive, duster, jan jelinek
i dunno. i like tape loops, mental drum fills that sound like my brain is quietly popping and i’ve only just noticed it, braindance drum fills, synth jizz, old autechre melodies and sticking a bunch of delay/reverb on pops and hisses. weirdly mangled and distorted classical charity shop vinyl samples.
weird visual stuff like signalis. i’d love to figure out some messed up visual stuff like they did in that thing. weirdcore is awesome visually too.
trying not to think about future things too much lest i get overwhelmed. i’ve just had a rough two years that i’m now recovering from.
but i wouldn’t mind doing a really weird, dissociated and fucked up installation thing at some point. signalis, but not a video game.
or some full brian eno type ambient room thing.
basically had a breakdown over the last two years. recovering from it means not working and doing not a lot while i process a lot of repressed emotions from a bunch of childhood stuff (and all the stuff that triggered it over the last two+ years).
slowly getting back into fiddling with things and very much in a process of trying to keep it fiddling with things fun and not treating it like work.
can we talk about stewart lee too?
surely this is ban worthy.
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oh yeah the “we like to party” band
Vengabus live must be tons of fun
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