“Feel the Chaos Around Me” – Lists & Loss of Contr…

“Feel the Chaos Around Me” – Lists & Loss of Control.

“I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don’t try to deny
I’d better learn to accept that
There are things in my life that I can’t control” (Phoenix)

I start with the less personal stuff: I’ll dj with two friends, Tobi and Stefan, at the PLAY party tonight (E-Werk Erlangen, there’s two floors, with CHIKINKI and RICHARD DAVIS live and HELLFIRE as dj team for the other room). I’ve already started picking some songs this afternoon and cause lists are such a nice things here’s a list of some electronic / discopunk tunes I really enjoy at the moment:

I’ve made a new 6:30 mix, “Amoeba Lost Control”, you can download from here.

It includes:
Ada: Arriba Amoeba
Ellen Alien: Alles sehn (Märtini Brös RMX)

and vocal cuts of:
Cobra Killer & The Holon: Heavy Rotation
Fannypack: Nunu
Blackeyed Peas: Shut Up
Missy Elliott: Lose Control
The Faint: The Conductor
Shannon: Let The Music Play
+ some speech synthesized Joy Division “She’s Lost Control” lines

Shy Child: The Noise Won’t Stop
Shy Child: Sunshine
If you like filthy rhythm obsessed shouty postpunk like Q And Not U or Supersystem or !!! or Dance Disaster Movement check them out: www.shychild.com. Awesome. Can’t believe I haven’t heard of them before. I think I first heard of them from the excellent 20 Jazz Funk Greats blog.

Oh and if you like that style but with a bit more electronic pop you should check LO-FI-FNK.
Distortion.
Handclaps.
Melodies.
What else could you ask for?
Lo-Fi-Fnk: Unighted
Lo-Fi-Fnk: Change Channel

Annie: Wedding (Lindstrøm RMX)
Original Annie songs are far too sugarcoated for me but there’s some great remixes (Patrick Wolf or Y£$ did two outstanding ones. Mr. Wolf carries her into some dark desperate folkiness that reminds me of Kate Bush).

The Highway Stars: Fucky Funky Music
There’s still far too few cool grrl vocals on good electro tunes. This is Kathleen ‘Le Tigre’ Hannah style. Nice. I want more of this.

Franz Ferdinand: Do You Want To (Erol Alkan RMX)
Just when I thought he gets a bit predictable in a one-trick-pony way he makes this nice remix of FF. Understatement de luxe. Of course you get a heavy distortion bassline and of course he keeps it simple and rocking but it’s dead cool to remix this song as an instrumental. Hey, Mr. Alkan, still having that Highway Stars song on my mind: Give us some dancefloor killers with cool female voices! I’m tired of those soundalike indieboys vocals. I’m waiting for remixes of The Noisettes and The Long Blondes and Les Georges Leningrad!

Dsico That No-Talent Hack: Morning City Stirs (though I wish he would put some more production into his vocals. some effects, some .. i don’t know.. it’s not the way he sings, but the sound of the voice doesn’t really fit 100%).

Lee Combs & David Phillips vs Bauhaus (- untitled)
A GYBO friend got me acquainted with this tune and it’s cool in a straight piercing electro sense. Although I’m a Bauhaus fan it took me ages to remember from which Bauhaus song that sample is. It’s “Kick In The Eyes” and I wish what make them pick lines like that for sampling: “And he spoke of pastures green / I was never told why”. Not exactly the most memorable quote.

Some more:
Martinez: Shadowboxing (Trentemöller RMX)
Benjamin Theves: Texas (Sebastian RMX)
Sharon Phillips: Want 2 Need 2 (Trentemöller RMX)
Bettie Botox: Can Can
DJ Koze: Brutalgar Square
Luka & Lazo: Chaplo
Ruede Hagelstein: Eclectic People
Supersystem: Miracle (The Rapture RMX)
Tiefschwarz: Warning Siren (Cass and Tom Mangan RMX)
Chromeo: Need Girl (Bloc Party RMX)

(… and sssssh! I really like that Timo Maas feat. Brian Molko song, “Pictures”. Dark disco sexiness. And I when I say ‘disco’ I mean disco!)

* _ *

“Don’t touch me cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head”
(Grandmaster Flash & The Furious five)

I wasn’t able to play Ladyfest Mannheim cause I had to pay my physical toll for a couple of weeks that had been more stressful than I had realised. I hate myself for letting it get so far. Seems like I don’t know how to pull the breaks in time. I’m always enthusiastic about this and that and end up getting involved in a lot of things, maybe too many things. I enjoy multitasking. I enjoy doing working on something with people I like. I enjoy being able to think of lots of things at the same time without neglecting details. Usually it’s satisfying and fun. Sometimes it gets too much. Then for a couple of days I’m reduced to plain functioning. Maybe I even work more effective on such days. Without any emotions. Numb. Like some kind of mechanical device. Like a little machine on the edge of breaking. I’m always kind of suprised that people around me don’t realise that cause I feel as if I as a person disappear. Maybe I’ve polished that shiny “don’t worry, everything’s okay” surface to perfection over the years.
Most of the times I simply manage to snap back to ‘normal’ after a while. Makes me feel disappointed and relieved at the same time. Sometimes it doesn’t work. For example yesterday. I had seen those warning signs flashing, a little tinnitus here, a little insomnia there. I mistook them for that infamous light at the end of the tunnel.
Well, to cut it short: I woke up with a bad headache and had to puke several times and couldn’t but crawl back into bed for half of the day so I missed Ladyfest Mannheim which is sad cause the line up looked quite interesting and I really wish I had met the people whom I only had mail contact with yet. I had enjoyed myself at Ladyfest Vienna last week (hope I’ll finally get around sharing some memories about that tomorrow) so I was really looking forward to this Ladyfest too. Well, today I’m feeling better but still a bit weak. I hate losing control. I hate feeling weak. Guess I’ll get badly drunk tonight.

* _ *

From the playlist to a to do list. I always live with the impression that I’m constantly telling people ‘no, I can’t do this or that’. It’s absurd cause I’m always busy but I often forget how many different things I’m actually involved in. Thanks for reminding me of that, Seppo! 😉
So I started this To Do list. First it made me feel really good cause there’s so many great things involved that are worth the work. Then it made me feel like I totally lost my mind cause it’s far too much. Those headcrashes are no big surprise then.

– Ponder if I’ve forgotten anything to plan for BUCOVINA CLUB party at our very own K4 tonight. Of course I have: I didn’t get in touch with the guy who you usually does the Vodka booth. I didn’t tell the bar team to prepare a cash box with change and a stamp for the entry. But I will have to stop by anyway to copy some flyers.

– Make a new version of our copied programme (I postponed that for days now cause I’m so tired of writing band infos after just having finished the infos for the 20 bands that play at ENDZEIT festival). Make flyers for our next Sophisticated Boom Boom party. Make flyers for a Ladyfest Benefit Party on 5th November.

– Paint my flat and throw some things away. I deferred that so many times that I really feel uncomfortable with it. There’s some ugly stains on the walls and the door frames that I don’t want to see anymore.
Well, erase those plans, I won’t have time to do that this year. But at least I have to clean up a bit and wash some sheets cause next Thursday, 20th october the wonderful WIVES will play at K4 with the not less wonderful WRITTEN FROM NEGATIVE and SHOKEI, and WIVES will stay at my place.
I want to keep that and the next day really free of other things cause KERSTIN comes to Nürnberg and there’s a TURBOSTAAT show in Würzburg (21st October @ Cairo) I don’t want to miss.

– Organise a backline for ELECTRONICAT (he plays at the annual benefit party for our independent radio station: Radio Z). This is not THAT hard but I have to get in touch with at least three different people to make them bring the stuff to K4 in time. I’m really looking forward to that show but I really don’t like it if people don’t bring their own backline.

– Make some video loop stuff for GO BANG! party on Halloween, with JASON FORREST and guest djs from ZÜNDFUNK. Ha, as if I had any clue how to edit film material! I have some super basic knowledge about how to cut film stuff but don’t even know how to save it in a reasonable file size. Last time I ended up playing the loops on my computer for 4 or 6 hours and record that with my video player. I love to pick the material myself cause I have a very clear idea of what I want as background for this party. A hint of drag/trash/kitsch and sexyness but not restricted to a male hetero perspective. Last time I used loops from Araki’s ‘Nowhere’. That was perfect but I don’t have any clue yet what to use this time. Wish Pierre et Gilles had teamed up with Artaud for some film project.

– And then there’s the two big events that are omnipresent in my mind for this autumn / winter, cause there’s a really endless list of things to do and remember about those:

ENDZEIT Festival (a 2 days d.i.y. festival with 2 stages & 1 dancefloor) which I’m really looking forward to cause there’s such a fun line up this year and I’m really curious about the bands that I’ll get a chance to see for the first time, like DROPS OF BEACH, KIDS EXPLODE, GHOST ROCKETS (with people of ANTI-CONTROL and GÖTZ GEORGE), DATURAH, THE FALCON FIVE (members of MCCARTHY BLACKLIST and SHOKEI).

LADYFEST NÜRNBERG (3 days, lots of workshops, films, discussions, exhibitions, at least 2 stages with bands and djs) also takes lots of thoughts and time. And I love how so many different people organise this together and keep coming up with great ideas. Especially Urte and Wally have my deepest respect for all the work they have already put into this!

– Making music. I have this new project with René (some might know him as ‘Ckid’ or ‘Casioheart’). It’s a breakcore glitchpop disco violence thing and we’ll play at ENDZEIT festival. And René is in Japan now. But at least we already have a name: LOST IN THE SUPERMAKI.

– Writing. I missed it. It calms me down. Putting things into written words seems to manifest them somehow. It’s like those things get more real. I’m not only talking about this blog here but also the next edition of our QUITO zine is due to be written.

I rather stop here and won’t go into all the small things that keep my pulse going steadily high, like keeping track of booking and dates at K4, problems with people who work there and sometimes even with the city council’s plans for that building. What about slowing down a bit and promising myself to make those list of what I actually do more often so I realise how much I do? Getting organised? Ach, scratch that! Again:

“I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don’t try to deny
I’d better learn to accept that
There are things in my life that I can’t control” (Phoenix)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *