To keep you updated in this blog, too: I’m glad to write reviews again and have the pleasure to do so for Culturedeluxe, a UK online music zine.
So far I’ve written about:
Parenthetical Girls – Privilege Pt. II
Salem – King Night
Wild Nothing – Golden Haze
Eskmo – Eskmo
I’ve also started doing radio again: Once a month for Nachtclub on Radio Z, a two hour music show. No spoken word part, the challenge for me is to compile and mix a great two hours of music journey. Mostly Nachtclub is with electronic dance music djs, I’d like to take it as a chance to broaden this up a bit and roam around multiple genres.
What’s keeping me so busy that I haven’t got to blogging or making new music for so long, I wonder. I’ve gotten a bit tired of the bootleg mix stuff as it often is associated with a kind of cheap mainstream club style of partying that I don’t like. I don’t say I will never do any mash ups again but lately I haven’t felt the urge to make some. My work for the musikverein, the promoter collective I’m part of has definitely gotten busier. For a while we had only 5-8 events a month. This Ocotber had us busy with 13 and this November we are involved with 15 events. More events does not only mean more entertainment and fun but also more problems and discussions to solve them. I don’t complain cause I mostly enjoy this but I find myself more often unable to get creative or in writing mood after soandsomany hours of dealing with musikverein related things. I’m more often feeling drenched. Maybe because it’s the kind of work that combines so much different work: it includes as much braindead routine work as it demands creative solutions for problems and of course: the social part, the friends you work with, and not to forget: the fun and community part of enjoying the show and (hopefully) see some happy faces in the audience. I love it all and it’s pretty easy to get lost in this kind of work but when I’m wrecked I’m wrecked on all levels. That means I rather spend my spare time relaxing passively these days: watching series, reading through news sites & blogs & facebook/twitter, sometimes getting all worked up about something but not finding the energy to start focussing on it and getting it on a proper level of action. Hence more ‘going to take a hot bath now’ and ‘cooking lentilsoup now’ tweets than brainy bonmots from me.
I’m aware that’s the life that many people are happy with but I feel a bit uneasy with it cause I feel like wasting my time when I only use my spare time to relax and be all unproductive instead of using it for making music and writing etc. Another thing I caught myself with: I’m getting increasingly antisocial. Not sure if this should worry me or if it’s just a healthy reaction to be surrounded by crowds of people on other nights. More than ever I got a problem with people who ooze a certain ‘need to be liked by everyone’ air. And as flattering as it sometimes might be: There’s a thin line between well-deserved compliments and blind ‘scene status’ props. The first are flattering and often give me more power to put into whatever project I’m busy with, the second simply make me feel embarassed for the persons who come up with them. Oh my. Fuck social politics. More honesty. More content. Less quantity mistaken for quality. Slow down. More deepness. That’s what I long for these days. Not so sure if I’ll be able to satisfy myself.