First Floor #56 – Everyone Hates "Plague Raves"... Except When Their Favorite DJs Are Playing
a.k.a. The unequal distribution of outrage when it comes to COVID-era partying.
Hello there. I’m Shawn Reynaldo, and welcome to First Floor, a weekly electronic music digest that includes news, my favorite new tracks and some of my thoughts on the issues affecting the larger scene / industry that surrounds the music. This is the free edition of the newsletter; access to all First Floor content (including the complete archive) requires a paid subscription. If you haven’t done so already, please consider signing up for a subscription (paid or unpaid) by clicking the button below. Alternately, you can also make a one-time donation here.
ON MY MIND
Greetings from Spain, where the government declared a new “state of alarm” on Sunday and has also imposed a nationwide curfew. Here in Barcelona, everyone has to be inside by 10pm, and the regional government is reportedly also considering the implementation of weekend confinement. Yay!
None of this is terribly surprising. COVID numbers have continued to rise precipitously in Spain over the past few months, and irresponsible social gatherings aren’t helping matters. Although young people and late-night revelry have probably been saddled with a disproportionate amount of blame for the country’s second wave of infections, party people (of all ages) certainly haven’t been helping their cause—just last weekend in Madrid, the municipal police reportedly broke up 300 private parties.
Of course, similar tales have been popping up around the globe in recent months, with each new story prompting a fresh wave of outrage, even within electronic music circles. I’ve discussed so-called “plague raves” before (more than once), and don’t want to rehash the entire issue, but the term has become a sort of cheap shorthand for both unlicensed (i.e. illegal) parties and those “legal” events where health guidelines aren’t being properly enforced.
Personally, I wouldn’t go to a party—legal or illegal—right now. Perhaps I’m being overly cautious, but no matter what precautions are taken, I just don’t think it’s worth the risk, both to me and—more importantly—to the larger community. Words like “selfish” get thrown around too often, but I don’t think it’s unfair to say that folks going to parties right now are prioritizing their own wants and needs over the well-being of their friends and neighbors.
All that said, the vitriol that these “plague raves” have generated, both in the music press and especially on social media, has at times been really ugly. A veritable cottage industry has sprung up around the posting of shoddy, phone-shot party footage from around the globe, with each new clip generating a new round of moral grandstanding about “covidiots” and the evils of so-called “business techno.”
I can certainly understand the impulse. Watching a video with hundreds—or even thousands—of people dancing in close quarters, many of them maskless, is infuriating. It speaks to all sorts of privilege, particularly if the DJ playing is a literal rich person, although our contempt shouldn’t be limited to the person behind the decks. Venues, promoters, booking agents, dancers—everyone there deserves a piece of the blame, and my guess is that many people organizing and attending these events know that they aren’t the smartest idea, let alone something that demonstrates a genuine sense of empathy for the rest of the community.
At the same time, I can’t help but notice how selective the outrage around these events has become. When a tech-house or “business techno” DJ is caught on camera, people feel free to tee off on them and their selfish behavior, but what about everyone else?
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REAL QUICK
A round-up of the last week’s most interesting electronic music news, plus links to mixes, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.
Returning to the theme of last week’s newsletter, another round of UK government grants for cultural organizations was awarded by Arts Council England, this time for recipients getting between £1 million and £3 million. The full list—which can be downloaded here—doesn’t include much from the world of electronic music, but London’s Fabric nightclub did receive just over £1.5 million. More grants will be announced in the weeks ahead.
This DJ Mag article takes a closer look at how the pandemic is specifically affecting the Berlin club scene, and the measures—both legal and illegal—that promoters and partiers alike are adopting to deal with the situation.
Actress spoke to Bandcamp Daily, and while the tour through his back catalog didn’t manage to get too far behind the curtain—the UK artist has always preferred to keep things abstract—the article does unearth a few nuggets about his thought process and what inspired his various albums.
Although I generally don’t subscribe to blanket worship of all things Aphex Twin, I figure that at least some First Floor readers will be interested to know about last week’s announcement that the veteran UK producer and Novation had teamed up on a new, limited-edition synthesizer, the AFX Station.
I mentioned this last week, but now that Mixmag’s “Blackout Week” has concluded, it’s worth revisiting. Helmed by guest editor Funk Butcher (a.k.a Kwame Safo) and devoted “exclusively to Black artists, issues and stories,” the full week of content included a wide variety of interviews, articles and essays and highlighted the voices of artists like Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, Bryan Gee, DJ Flight and many others. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a single link for all of the stories, but the series’ introductory letter is here and the other articles can be found in Mixmag’s features section.
Earlier this month, UK artist management firm Triple Threat Management announced a new mentorship program called MIDI (Music Industry Diversity Initative), which seeks to pair developing Black music industry professionals with experienced figures from the worlds of press, touring, management, record labels and publishing. All the details are here—this Instagram post also has a lot of information—and applications, which are open to anyone in the UK aged 18 or older, are due this Saturday, October 31.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy upcoming releases that were announced during the past week.
UK garage and bassline hero DJ Q is returning to the Local Action label this week with a new EP called All That I Could. The two-song effort comes out tomorrow—the title track is streaming already—and is reportedly the first in a string of upcoming Local Action releases from the veteran producer.
Planet Mu is celebrating its 25th anniversary—a fact that makes me (and probably a lot of other folks) feel incredibly old—but the storied UK outpost is celebrating with a new compilation, the simply titled PlanetMµ25. Set for release on December 4, it includes new tracks from artists such as RP Boo, Jana Rush, Rian Treanor, Ripatti (a.k.a. Vladislav Delay), Ital Tek and many others. The full tracklist is here, and one song from the record, the Basic Rhythm remix of DJ Nate’s “Get Off Me (Betta Get Back)” is already available to stream.
A standout in the (admittedly overcrowded) industrial techno zone, Phase Fatale has teamed up with fellow Berlin-based producer Pablo Bozzi for a new project called Soft Crash. The duo’s debut EP, Spritzkrieg, is scheduled to arrive on November 27 via Phase Fatale’s BITE label. In the meantime, clips of its three tracks can be heard here.
In recent years, Hausu Mountain has consistently been one of experimental music’s more interesting outposts, and the Chicago label has just announced a new album from prolific synth wizard M. Geddes Gengras. Entitled Time Makes Nothing Happen, it’s slated for a November 13 release, and two songs from the LP, “Dragging My Feet” and “Slip the Tape Through a Corkscrew, Pull and Repeat,” are streaming now.
MY WIFE HAS BETTER TASTE THAN I DO
My wife Dania is a wonderful person, but she has little regard for my taste in electronic music. Head of the Paralaxe Editions label, she often describes the music I like with words like “cheesy,” “simple,” “predictable,” “boring” and, worst of all (in her mind), “happy.” In contrast, I think she has a fantastic ear, and I’m constantly amazed by the obscure gems she unearths, both from record bins and the dark corners of the internet. Given that, I’ve asked Dania to share some of her finds with the First Floor audience. Each week, she highlights something that she’s currently digging, and adds some of her thoughts as to why it’s worth our attention.
Perila “ent i pse” (Paralaxe Editions)
Hello. It’s not often that I recommend something from my own label, but this release—which I just announced a few hours ago—is something special that I’ve had in the pipeline for a while. I’ve long been a fan of Perila, and when I first heard the demo for her META DOOR L cassette, I was blown away. I listened over and over for a whole day, and was so moved that I wrote her back with extensive notes about each song (and believe me, I’m never really compelled to write—Shawn had to talk me into contributing to First Floor). The music was totally transportive; at first it felt like an intergalactic journey, but it also got me thinking about a ship slowly coming into the docks on a foggy night. Perila was inspired to make this by mountains and open spaces, but also used inorganic objects such as metal tubes (that she encountered on a hike) as sound sources for her work. I really hope you enjoy this as much as I do!
Follow Dania on Twitter, or check out her monthly radio show on dublab.es.
NEW THIS WEEK
The following are some of my favorite tracks from three releases that came out during the past week or so. (Click on the track titles to hear each song individually.) An extended list of recommendations is available to paid subscribers only.
Penelope Trappes “Eel Drip” (Houndstooth)
Penelope Trappes “Break” (Houndstooth)
Eel Drip is the latest EP from Australian-born, Brighton-based artist Penelope Trappes, and while I feel obligated to mention that she’s also one half of moody electro / techno / house outfit The Golden Filter, her stunning solo work is more than worthy of being celebrated on its own merits. The new record is less stark than her prior efforts, and is perhaps a bit more electronic too, particularly on the elegant title track, where Trappes brilliantly weaves a fluttering synth melody through layers of gentle static and her own voice, which at times takes on a devotional, choir-like quality. The vocal layering is even more pronounced on the subdued “Break,” which recalls Julianna Barwick’s finer moments with its dreamy drift and rippling waves of reverb-soaked guitar. Both tracks are gorgeous, and speak to the potential of an artist who truly seems to be coming into her own.
Mathimidori “Maiia” (Echocord)
I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I think I like dub techno now. Maybe it’s all the pandemic-induced time away from the dancefloor, or simply the fact that the chilly winds of autumn have started to set in here in Barcelona, but whatever the reason, the warm, fuzz-filled genre—which I’ve admittedly derided over the years as the consummate “aging raver” music or simply described as “boring”—is sounding really good to me at the moment. Granted, the Echocord label has been putting out great stuff for years now—last year’s Parallel Space EP from Forest Drive West was particularly good—and its latest offering is Akebono, the debut album from German producer Mathias Kaden’s Mathimidori project. The LP, which has several excellent tracks and ranges in intensity from “sleepy, loping beats” to “low-key techno throb,” hits a sweet spot on “Maiia,” a chugging instrumental whose dubby fog and steady churn pleasantly evoke the faded memories of days (and raves) gone by.
Ploy “Clubtek” (L.I.E.S.)
Ploy “Pax Cultura” (L.I.E.S.)
More than two years have passed since “Ramos” and its unruly drum attack made Ploy a hero of the UK’s mutant bass circuit, but the young producer has now returned with a whopper of a debut album, Unlit Signals, which has (somewhat surprisingly) arrived via the L.I.E.S. label. Percussion has always been Ploy’s calling card, and that continues here, most notably on the mildly terrifying “Clubtek,” a gnarled, industrial-flavored tune with space-age sonics and a torrent of drum hits that rattle like a piece of sheet metal being battered with a hammer. Intense is one way to describe it, although something like nightmarish might be more accurate, and perhaps that’s perfect for an era that’s feeling more dystopian by the day. “Pax Cultura” eases off the throttle a bit, swapping out full-blown dread for a bit of white space, but there’s still some menace in the mix—it’s just looming in the background with the song’s ominous pads as Ploy once again lets the drums go wild.
Once again, additional track recommendations are available to paid subscribers. This week’s selections include new music from Actress, Call Super, Jubilee, Nosaj Thing and more, including new tracks from labels like Leaving Records and Awesome Tapes from Africa.
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That’s all for today. Thank you so much for reading, and I do hope you enjoyed the tunes.
More next week,
Shawn
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn or drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.