Greetings,
BleepbloopRadio is about introducing new music to Pittsburgh listeners.
Three years strong, the show continues to be one of Pittsburgh's best and
most tuned into techno radio shows. Tune in every Sunday night from
11pm-1am (EST) on WRCT, 88.3FM, or on the Web at
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Rants and Raves -
Before I begin, I wanted to first thank everyone who tuned in last Thursday
to hear my interview with Electric Skychurch, and hear James perform. Also
wanted to thank everyone who came out to Bug at Conneaut Lake Park last
weekend. Serious props go to the whole CIA Productions group and everyone
who came to help out. I'm also grateful to Shawn Rudiman for showing me
that despite all odds, real techno is alive and well in this city.
First off, this is the first bunch of playlists I've sent off in a while. I
spent most of July in Moscow chasing skirts and big story on Russian
clublife. I'm currently shopping around for a suitable place to contribute
the story to, so if you have any leads, drop me a line. I'm especially
grateful to many, many people for showing me the city, including Nick
Zavriev (for coordinating much of my trip), the Alexey Andreyev (for
providing many of my contacts), Sergei Sergeyev, Maxim Maslakov, Anton
Kubikov, Mikhail Zabeulev, all the wonderful folks at Ptuch Magazine,
Discocsid / Citadel and Magic B, Yura Moorush (despite experiencing three
near-death experiences while driving back in his tiny Lada from Station
2000 at four in the morning) and all the party kids who came out to Buddha
Bar and Propaganda during our photoshoots. I'm also especially grateful to
Alex, my photographer, who prior to my visit had never done any club
photography. After the first shoot, he didn't think he'd get into it. After
the second shoot, he was sorta beginning to like it. Then after the third
shoot, Alex declared he was finally enjoying himself, and announced he
would become the best club photographer in Moscow. Sorry we didn't have any
shoots after that one.
So what's Moscow like? Well, for starters it's one of the most polluted,
industrial places I've ever been to (I drove by two nuclear power plants
just coming from the airport to Kusminki where I stayed). But it only took
a few days to get past the smells, tastes and general foulness of Moscow,
and with that gone, I started noticing the wonderful things about Moscow.
First, the food is amazing. Everything cooked in Moscow is made with real
ingredients - venders all over the city sell Moscow-made full fat ice cream
for around 22 cents (5 roubles) and pieroshkies made with potatoes and beef
that would make the Food and Drug Administration over here cringe, but man
are they tasty. Almost all parts of the city are accessible by subway,
making it cheap and easy to get around. Though after dark it does get a
little, well, colorful. One memory that sticks to mind was seeing a
heavy-set gentleman wearing all leather and all gold teeth walk onto the
subway with a prostitute on each arm, happy as the day he was born. Come to
think of it, you drive anywhere in the city after dark and you're
guaranteed before you get to your destination to see at least 50-100
prostitutes walking in large clusters on the streets. As for the mafia
influence that most foreigners hear about, the influence was negliable in
the circles I travelled in. If you pass by a restaurant though and see a
bulge of Mercedes and BMW's parked far into the middle of the street
outside of a restaurant though, I'd suggest not venturing in unless you're
prepared for an onslaught of cell phones, expensive cologne, Armani suits
and goa trance. Aside from seeing mafia bodyguards and security at clubs,
the only other sight I took in was the Saturday afternoon blackmarket,
where long corridors of nearly 300 bootleg software and music vendors set
up in a park in North Moscow. Everything from Adobe and Microsoft software,
to the latest films and music can be bought on factory compact discs for
around US$2 (60-80 roubles). And in the center of the park, a local Russian
death metal band provided much of the ambience.
Since the rouble fell from 6 roubles to the dollar in 1997 to 29 roubles to
the dollar in 1998, DJ culture in Moscow is really only for the hardcore
and determined. The best DJs in Moscow are paid between $20-$50 for a
two-hour set, making it difficult to both make rent and buy records.
Despite the odds though, the city has a booming club scene. Deep house is
everywhere. You can find it most prominently at Propaganda, where most
nights the place is a medium sized coffee house that looks a bit like a
wine grotto, but on Thursday nights the club packs in 800-1000 people and
jumps until 6am. The week I was there, Miles Holloway was flown over from
England to play, though before him local hero DJ Sanches (with ties to
Glasgow Underground and Under the Counter Records) played everything from
Callisto to jazzier American house music. The British influence is most
prevalent in the drinking habits of Russians, where a glass of Red Bull and
Vodka is favored over imported beers and standard club fare. Another club
Buddha Bar (previously known as Gramophone before changing owners) hosted a
magazine release party for Downtown the following night. We showed up a
little after midnight, and after walking through several open-air
corridors, down a flight of neon-lit stairs, and past a lopsided atrium
(seemingly ripped from the set of Beetlejuice) and through a small bar
area, we found the dancefloor where F.R.U.T.S. where playing harder-edged
techno to an unsatiable crowd. Despite all of Moscow's fashion and glamor,
pretention never enters a Russian dancefloor, and everyone is always bumpin
to the music. I wish I could have bottled it and brought it back here. We
also checked out Sergei Sergeyev's night at 16 Ton Club, where locals
played everything from Herbert to deeper, groovier fare. Unfortunately, due
to timing we missed a few places, like Park and Circus, or the Saturday
night boat party that drifts along the Moscow river while DJs like Anton
Kubikov command the decks (yes, and yes).
I have loads more to say, but I'd best stop now before I get carried away.
I'm grateful to everyone at Station 2000 for letting play a set there
(despite being announced in Russian as the superstar of American DJs). The
first playlist for BleepbloopRadio contains a set of all Russian deep and
minimal house music from people like SCSI-9, Yura Moorush and Magic B, and
the second set contains a whole slew of dusty old jungle tracks I found at
Discocsid Record Store in Moscow. Any questions?
A few links for your entertainment:
http://www.art-tek.ru
http://www.station.ru
http://www.discocsid.ru
Playlist for 7.29.00
Yura Moorush - Untitled - Eto (Salo)
Magic B - Selected House Tracks - The Sea (Citadel)
SCSI-9 - House Drop - Maks is Dreaming (Furnitura)
Moscow Grooves Institute - Ocaga - t-34 (Discocsid)
Lazyfish - Vortex / Please-126 - Microcosmonautic (Art-Tek)
Yura Moorush - Untitled - Ablaka Minimal Deep mix (Salo)
AN-2 - Selected House Tracks - Let's Talk About It (Citadel)
SCSI-9 - House Drop - I'm Waiting For Nothing (Furnitura)
Motor - Untitled - 1.1 (Salo)
Yura Moorush - Untitled - Cooles (Salo)
Motor - Untitled - 1.2 (Salo)
The Smokester - Special Rebirth - b-side (Smokers Inc.)
Pascal - Who Can Draw - Who Can Draw (True Playaz)
Potential Bad Boy - The Calling - Flip Side (Third Eye)
The Smokester - Special Rebirth - a-side (Smokers Inc.)
Deck Chair - Tin Can - b-side (White Label)
BDP - New School vs. Old School pt. 2 - Mark Pritchard remix (Jive Electro) *
Foul Play Productions - Synthetic Bitch - Golden Gate (Partison)
Potential Bad Boy - The Calling - The Calling (Third Eye)
Future Engineers - Rogue Comet - Changes in State (720 degrees)
Matrix vs. Dilemma - Spring Box remixes - Vocal remix (Genetic Stress)
Deck Chair - Tin Can - a-side (White Label)
Mainline - Uri / Dakota - Lexis remix (Certificate 18)
* Okay, so this is brand new and I didn't pick it up in Moscow, but it
rocks to hard.
Playlist for 8.5.00
Inner City - Designer Music Vol.1 : The Remixes - Buena Vida Carl Craig
remix (Planet E)
Our House - Don't Hold Back - Q remix (Loaded)
A Guy Called Gerald - Humanity - Ashley Beedle's Love and Compassion remix
(Studio K7)
DJ Emily - Wonderama EP - Wonderama (Plastic City)
Kid Scientific - Lovelife - Skydiver mix (Ritual)
Groove Armada - If Everybody Looked the Same - Bloated 125 dub (Jive Electro)
Jark Prongo - Sweet Little Thing - Original mix (Phantom)
Kai Randy Michel - Parasit - Parasit (Gamb)
Detroit Grand Pubahs - Sandwiches - Responsible Space Playboys remix (Jive
Electro)
DJ Donut - All Mixed Up vol. 1 - Here We Go (Infinite Beat)
Entity - Galactic Schematix - Borealis (Intrinisic Design)
A Guy Called Gerald - Essence - First Breath (Studio K7)
DJ Vadim feat. Sarah Jones - INCredible : Sound of Gilles Peterson - Your
Revolution (Giant Step)
John Beltran - Earth 4 - Aztec Girl (Good Looking)
P.P. Roy - You Can't Help Liking... - I Did What I Did For Me (Rephlex)
Minus 8 - Elysian Fields - Cold Fusion (Compost)
Ambidextrous - Errorism - Equilibrium (CD-R)
Psychodelia Alpha - Bayeviki - Yellow Sky (Discocsid)
Yunx - Yunx - Fim (Meson Octet)
Senor Coconut y Su Conjunto - El Baile Aleman - The Robots (Emporor Norton)
Up Bustle & Out - Rebel Radio - Carbine 744... 520... Che Guevara (Ninja Tune)
Upcoming DJ Solon gigs:
Currently Being Confirmed... I should proper dates in the next few weeks.
Please send records and label news for radio, press and club consideration to:
Aaron Michelson
4716 Ellsworth Ave. #804
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone: 412-802-7214
Thanks for reading.
Aaron Michelson
RPM Director, WRCT
Thousand Words : In Pittsburgh Weekly
http://bleepbloopweb.come.to
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