djsunkid (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} djsunkid) wrote,@ 2009-06-01 11:53:00 |
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| Current music: | Astral Projection - Mahadeva | Powered by Last.fm |
Valacirca 2009
What a fantastic weekend. I wish I could pepper my post with images so as to better convey the awesomeness of Valacirca. Julie and I rented a 15 passenger van to take people to the party and we got underway around 7 on Friday night. Critical Mass definitely made the process of picking people up downtown very tricky. Note to critical mass participators: You're not making many friends when you screw over rush hour traffic. Just sayin'...
It was all good once we got underway though. In the end we left with eight happy party goers. We popped in raliyn's new demo CD that he made specially for Valacirca and headed over the beautiful Lion's Gate Bridge. Fantastic soundtrack for a journey like this. He and I talked about DJing a bit. His first demo got recorded like my first few. Practicing the same mix, over and over until the best possible timing is found. I told him that he needs to check out MixMeister, which is perfect for finding those platonic ideal mixes that you want for your demo.
We stopped in Squamish to get some supplies, and met up with a couple of travellers who were very obviously on their way to Valacirca. "You guys need a ride to Valacirca?" "Really? That would be amazing!" "Hop in!"
Oh it was a good omen for the weekend, to be sure.
We finally arrived just as it got dark, which made setting up our camp a bit more difficult, but no problem. The tent that glapaloopscap and I borrowed from Lisa is SO awesome. Super cozy and nice in the night (especially with the tent lamp that she also lent us) and it converts into such an airy wonderful little comfy bug shelter during the day- almost like a veranda or gazebo or something.
Meanwhile we are right next to Julie and her camping set up is EPIC. Camping TABLE FTW. Not to mention food and stove and chairs and Space Tribe Banner:
Yes, mandelbrots in the forest. By nightfall on Saturday we had two up, because railyn has one too. I want one SO bad!
Where to begin with the party though? I mean some highlights:
tattiana_mai first arrives, like a princess from a fairytale.durdaana. Maggie, do you hula? Maybe you should!)The real highlight of the weekend for me though was my set. I played at 5:30AM just as things were starting to get light, and the sun's rise was imminent. This timeslot is, to me, absolutely crucial to the success of a party. Actually, not really the success, but if a party is going to be memorable- if people are going to think about it 5, 10, 20 years later, then the music that is playing for sunrise has to be precisely right. And so with this onerous responsibility upon me, I procrastinated and just sort of listened to music for the last few months, and didn't really work on my set. I really am bad when it comes to that.
Finally I got around to it last week. Unfortunately, I ended up working doubles most days, and then all my free time organizing the party bus. By the time we arrived on Friday night I knew approximately a third of my set, maybe less. But I brought my laptop, and I spent about 2 hours on Saturday afternoon, hiding in the van, working on my plans. It was during that 2 hour session that my set took shape. Allow me to present to you my list from yesterday morning:
Audiosex - A Reiki Mester Megbetegedett, S Meghalt
Psychotic Micro - Ghost (Rmx)
Menog vs. Audialize - Mental Reproduction
Suria - Never Never Land (Flying With Pixel Powder)
Amazon Fever - Star-X
Sine Die - The Shaman Trip
Astral Projection - Aurora Borealis (Deedra Remix)
Silver Sun - Break Of Dawn
Astral Projection - People Can Fly (Alien Project Remix)
Zen Mechanics - Modified
Shagma - Geoglyphe
Ultravoice Vs Ziki - Zik Zak (Cosmic Tone Vs Visual Paradox Rmx)
DNA - No Limit
Bounder - Second Reality
Astral Projection - Mahadeva
Aura - Walk to Earth
Transwave - Cycles of Life (GMS 2003 rmx)
Materia - Human Disorder
Chi-AD - Eye am the I
To say that it was successful would be an understatement. I am THRILLED that straight-up goa trance can still rock the hell out of crowds of people. The two tracks I played from ektoplasm's Pyramidal Transcendence compilation really gave a fantastic mystical uplifting feel, and that was extremely well recieved, and I got mad props from several of the other DJs in attendence for dropping Astral Projection's classic Mahadeva. Not the 1996, nor the 98 remix, the original classic from 1994. Truly the best version of that track, IMO.
The real measure of my success though, in my book, was how many people were asking my DJ name after my set. To me, when somebody asks my DJ name, it says "You were good enough that I would come out to a show if I saw your name on a flyer." That is a huge compliment, and I usually get a few people each time I play out, and I love it. Yesterday though I had TONS of people ask me. Awesome.
OK, enough bragging. The bottom line was, I love Laurent's parties, and I can't wait for Between Worlds II. I hope even more people come out for that one. :)
