Who were you before electronica?

[TripNoFunk]

Before i was into techno i was a homeboy all i did all day was smoke bong after bong and listen to hip hop and drop acid... and then i got into drum and bass and from there it lead me to raves.

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GoD MaDe GrAsS
MaN MaDe BoOzE
WhO Do U TrUsT

 

[GhOst]

wow... every1 wrote such detailed life stories! *jumps onto bandwagon*
i grew up in singapore, amidst horrible retro mambo jambo bullshit (no offense to retro lovers). retro is HUGE in singapore. plus the fact dat the drug issue is "pretty" strict there (basically its a death sentence)... theres ZERO rave scene to speak of.
anyways, i wasnt realli into any sort of music b4 the likes of sneaker pimps n portishead came along... dat was abt 5-6 yrs ago?
a fren opened a pub which featured drum&bass, triphop n break beats. i hungout there everyday. however, it didnt survive in the land of mambo jambo.
came to melbourne oni last yr. yep, ive oni been here fer 1 yr! n guess wat? 2tribes2000 was my 1st party! have been into it headlong n full on eversince. ive oni missed HK 2 times so far, n each time was bcos i was so ill i couldnt even stand.
was essentially a trance person (PvD!!! verachoca!!! system F!!!) n couldnt realli tell the difference between trance n hard house n NRG when i 1st started out. to me it was all electronica. all i knew then was dat i loved the way HK goes off every friday! gradually i realised dat trance was so much "softer" compared to HK style (amplified when i come home from HK n put on trancenation2). ditto the minimal style at teriyaki...
i still love my triphop, n trance. these r wat i play at home all the time. but when friday hits, i snap into the hard house NRG freak!
*waves little paws*
>'.'<
ps. i love disco stu's hard trance sets at @mosphere!
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~littleHKlaserTriPPeR~
[This message has been edited by GhOst (edited 10 August 2000).]

 

[Space Frog]

i was a gothic, u know, of the angry, adolescent, depressed, confused variety......and i've still got the black (well partly black) waist length hair to prove it ;
so that kinda meant going to abyss and listening to depressing stuff like girls under glass, marilyn manson (whom i still love btw ), razed in black, wumpscut, terminal choice, jerusalem syndrome, KMFDM... (not that this probably means much to anyone here, tho i think JB might kinda know what i'm on about

)
then one fateful day one of my friends gave me a trip and took me to a rave (hardware 11 i think) and introduced me to his friend whom you all know as orion

.....and here i am!

 

[riichiee]

Let's see now.... I generally smoked too much dope (... alot of my friends turned into wankers when drunk) and drank up until first year uni... all this time I was listening to Radiohead, Portishead, Weezer, Korn, yeah, you get the drift (basically anything good)...
While I was at uni Decimal Dan said "You should go to a rave... they're pretty cool" -- it was funny coming from a guy who I can remember wearing a Korn t-shirt so I thought I'd give it a go.
Ended up going to Pure Flow 4, saw Luke Slater, had a white mitsi (about my third pill.. first one was a GOOD DOSE of MDMA in it though) jaw dropped in disbelief, "this is fucking sick!!!!!" -- fell in love with Techno.. From then on I went to a fair few raves.. but I ended up breaking up with my girlfriend (I went to all the raves with her) and no-one else down my way (yes.. I'm from Frankston) really wanted to go to raves...
The year after that (1999) was a complete fuck up which I'm not really going to go into detail about..
Now I've been managing to get to a few events.. but nowhere near as many as I would like...(mainly because I'm on Austudy) Most of the electronica I listen to is either burnt of friends or downloaded off Napster, but I'm happy

I'll probably have to drag my lazy arse up to a meetup one of these days...
[This message has been edited by riichiee (edited 10 August 2000).]

 

[sar@toga]

Well i guess im a bit different - i wasn't anyone before electronica. This was my first scene and has been my scene ever since.
I was never an alcoholic or pot head or whatever, and i never listened to music that had guitars in it, signing and what not.
My first memeories of ever going out start when i was 15 - most of my friends were 17 & 18 at the time, and i was being dragged around Sth Melbourne a lot; saratoga, dome, milkbar, mansion (huh - 3 gone, only 1 remains). I must admit, a 16 year old having to go to the toilets at Dome every saturday night, stuff they dont teach u at school, thats for sure!!!
But i luved it, i was also straight into the rave thing, it was mainly the early Every Pics and Hardwares back then. I wonder if this means that i will drift into another scene - like ill do the reverse and start luving metal and grunge????
No chance in hell!!

 

[BigfootDragon]

when i was about 17 i started getting into grunge type music, progressed onto symphonic metal of the likes of Covenant, Therion, Dimmu Borgir (if anyone knows wtf i'm on about

) and such...
for the few months before and leading up to my 18th birthday, and carrying on after it too, i was into all the commerical 'Wild FM' type stuff.
one day earlier this year my mate Av comes home from Back to Basics 2 and is telling me all about it on ICQ, sends me some happy hard mp3s and convinces me to go to a rave.
went to a doof first, where i developed my love for psytrance, and then to Utopia 10 for my first rave. now my tastes are pretty varied, i'll listen to just about anything but my preferences are happy hard, hardcore, hard trance, psytrance, drum n bass... and i love it

take care all

Bigfoot Dragon

 

[MorpheusDaq]

Yeh this is a very cool thread and i was having this discussion the other day with someone (a friend of yours mikeysammy at addiction

) 'How you ended up at the music you love now.'
Well for me the first album i ever bought was jimi hendrix-the ultimate experience and to this day i still love that. (Actually that could be another good thread, what is the first cd/album you ever bought, but anyway).
Think i was about 12/13 (about 91) when we got a cd player and it was at this time that i got into the Beatles in a huge huge way. I mean obsession here. Reading everything i could possibly read about them, going to beatles conventions, and taping parts of songs and playing them backwards to see if they really did say anything.

So mostly through high school i was always into everything 60/70s stuff like Zeppelin, Floyd etc and it probably wasn't till around 94/95 that i actually got over my 'all new music is shit' attitude and started to listen to some stuff i had missed out on like nirvana and pearl jam and the triple j stuff. Also loved the presidents of the usa around this time. I still fuckin love them actually

So anyways in about 96 i was watching the previous nights rage which i had taped (i always used to do this) and on came a track by the Beastie Boys called Hey Ladies. Straight away i was like hmmmmmmm now this is interesting and i immediatly went and looked up the Beastie Boys on allmusic.com. Hey ladies was from Pauls Boutique so off i went to buy that album and Check Your Head as well cause they both got such good reviews.
Pauls Boutique by far is my fave album ever to this day and cause i got so obsessed with the beasties i started reading heaps about them and all their musical influences and it got me to try lots of music i otherwise wouldnt have ever listened to. Very wide musical taste those guys. But Hip Hop is what really stuck. Fuck i love Hip Hop

.
But anyway then i started chatting to someone on ICQ who was also a huge beastie fan and she also happened to be into ecstacy. I had always been interested in lsd (ever since i first heard sgt pepper

) but never really had any thoughts on e. So dropped my first pill well after that i think that is when i really started to get into electronic music more than i had. I did have some stuff beforehand and liked it but after pills i think i sort of 'understood' it a bit better. So that's one thing (among others

) that i love about e, it opened me up more with my musical tastes. If that makes sense.
Its just so great, so many genres and sub genres all to explore. At the moment psytrance and acid techno and and deep housey stuff and drum n bass and well whatever really. Ill listen to anything.
I love parts of every music genre, electronic or not. But hip hop is still is my fave.
and i think ive gone on as long as soma here

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Cause life aint nothing but a good groove
A good mix tape to put you in the right mood

 

[Finn]

Wow.... my first 'real' post. I've been lurking for months now but have only started posting over the last few weeks. I feel like I know a lot of you guys already. The Bluelight community is just soooo cool.
Well like most of you I've come to electronica via the indie/alternative route but punk rock and ska were what really did it for me.
My weekends were spent going to gigs at Sydney pubs like the Bowlo, the Sandringham, the Lansdowne, the Annandale and the Iron Duke. Drug of choice - well alcohol and punk rock just seem to go together (though I did acid and speed every now and then too).
At the end of my second year at uni (i studied leisure at UTS) I scored a part time job with a music promoter and ended up helping to organise the Bryron Bay Arts and Music Festival and the following year the first Homebake (1996). Wow, amazing experience.
I'd had my first pill a few months before this but that summer in Byron really got me hooked. It was also my first real introduction to what i then called 'dance music'. To me it seemed to be all about the outdoors, ferals, tipis and something kinda spiritual.
Then I went back to Sydney... it just didn't seem to be the same - back to punk rock I went. and that's the way it stayed for a few years.
Then I don't know what happened... a lot of my friends started to come back from travelling overseas. The one's who had spent lots of time in London were totally into electronica. They went clubbing a lot and eventually I ended up going too. The first few times I went to Sublime I liked it but I remember rambling to people for hours about how I was really into punk rock and that electronica really wasn't my thing. Kinda like I had to stay true to punk rock, my one true love!
Then last October long weekend I went to Icebox for Energise - everything just fell into place and I finally understood what it was that had my friends hooked.
Clubs and doofs kinda gradually replaced smokey pubs full of pissed idiots.
I think I finally crossed over the weekend my boyfriend and I went to Free to Be Me...... what a blast. I danced and danced and danced and met some amazing people.
I discovered Bluelight not long after that.
Now my friends think it's a huge joke that I ring them up to tell them about parties that we just HAVE to go to.
I'm still coming to grips with all the different genres but the stuff that really moves me is psy trance, hard house,acid and techno.
I really like the DIY thing that the dance music community has going. That and PLUR.
Unity is something that punks have been talking about for years. I think in some ways unity has been achieved but punks have a lot to learn about peace, love and respect.
Maybe they just use the wrong drug

God... raved on for WAY too long. Great thread.
Finn

 

[Never Mind]

Well, I have a lot to live up to here.
I started out as your 'little' kid in school. Small kid, small rep, nothing special, got picked on a bit in primary, never really noticed at high school till about year nine, when I was voted onto the SRC as a joke. Anyway, I went on to get in with every teacher in the place, and hence get whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it, which was usually stuff for my fellow students, cos I'm a nice guy.
Came to the top in Years 11 and 12 as a Full senior SRC rep, and Year 12 Co-ordinator type person. Anyway, I got my respect at last! I actually crowd surfed the final song at our year 12 concert/end of year thing.
Oh yeah, I played drums since year 7, and played in all the bands, and played at the year 12 concert thing to. (probably why I have such an awesome groove with the music now!)
What next, oh yeah, went to Uni, Swinburne to study Engineering!! Wow, too many late nights, and beer on campus, didn't like the course, so I diferred and went to TAFE insted, loved it.
I did the whole SRC thing at TAFE again, and was the "Student Rep on Institute Council" for a year, so I was the one complaining about parking and fees and stuff!! I got to meet good old Jeff and got in on all the juicy goss on the Institute staff!!
Got nominated for Student of the year - Engineering in 1998, and did all the organising of parties at TAFE, bands and DJ's and all that, so that was good fun. We had Sonic Animation play one Thursday night!!
At this point I was very much into dance music. You know the type they play at "Chevron" on a thursday night?? That shit where they play the same song maybe three times in a night, and you can wring the beer and burbon out of your clothes when you get home!!!
After that, I got more into techno, I've even got some "Terror Trance" cd's. Hard Stuff.
Got into some good stuff listening to PBS late at night, and SER on Sundays, sure beat "Pillow talk" eh?
From then on, its just a slide towards the inevitable.
First rave was Love Parade at Festival Hall, in like 1995/6 I think.
After that there was a 4/5 year break to Two Tribes 2000. First pill there two. A speed bomb called a Dancenet. Loved it and I've been addicted to Speed Bombs since. Just love to dance through the night, burn holes in the floor, melt my shoes. Then casually smoke joints all day!!
Clubs I love::: Hard Kandy!!
::: Seven (a little)
::: The Sheds oh yeah!
Well, that's my story, I currently work as an engineer in a Sheet Metal Machinery company in Melbourne's east, designing machines a exciting stuff like that.
** On another note, but still on same track sort of: Myself and a few friends are planning to put on a Rave early next year, so stay tuned to that!! It will be a massive one. If it goes ahead, I expect you all to be there, to help add to another part of my life story!!
Could be a new direction!!
Great Thread by the way....
BASS OUT
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FEEL THE BASS, let it work you into a frenzy.
[This message has been edited by Bass Junky (edited 10 August 2000).]

 

[SpeedFrog]

Wow...nice to see we all have similar roots

Um...how'd it start for me...well, my first first FIRST exposure would have been to old Jean Michel Jarre tracks when I would've been around 10 or so...some of the stuff he did was amazing...then around '92-'93 I used to spend many nights playing with my Nintendo and listening to the then-current eurodance...tracks like Haddaway's "What Is Love", and JX's "You Belong To Me"...
In '94 when I hit high-school, I was exposed to Hitz FM, and some of the earlier rave style stuff, like Tekno Junkies and Battle For Your Mind. A trip to Europe mid-way through '96 got me Global Tekno (which ripped shit up in its day), and Scooter's "Our Happy Hardcore"...as well as a few classics like "Rainbow in the Sky" and "Wonderful Days"...at this point I was a little confused, and my musical tastes were comprised of Techno, R'n'B, and some grunge...a fence sitter, if you will.
This continued on, but my exposure to the rave style of life expanded, as a friend and I lapped up all the CDs we could find. I missed out on Utopia 5 being my first rave as I was out of the city at the time...and my next opportunity wasn't until Free Love '98 (which was yours, wasn't it Blisss?)
Fucking blew my mind. So many like minded people caning it all night long to sooo many anthems that I knew. I'd finally found the place I belonged.
Now, two and a bit years later, I still like some of the old anthems and cheesy shite...I have a 3 month/3 month off taste for newstyle hardcore...drum'n'bass is phat...and of course, I will and always have loved trance. Especially the new tech-chunky sound, from producers like Mauro Picotto and Mario Piu, and from labels like XTC UK and Nukleuz.

-- SpeedFrog.
[email protected]
ever seen a frog on speed? i didn't think so.

 

[GreenAlien]

Yeahhhh baby cool thread!
Well musical life started off with make-up and rock! he he he... Yep that's right I was a KISS fan as a pimply kid (now I just get pimples in strange areas...can anyone say gonorrhea? he he joking...). I can remember getting dressed up as Gene Simmons at a Grade 6 concert. Why Gene? We share a common trait - something long, wet, sometimes hard, mostly soft....A long tongue!
Anyway, having an older brother who was really into music gave me a wide range to hear and appreciate. From Kiss, to Jimi H, to reggae, to manic guitar solos, to Frank Zappa, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, 70's and 80's disco. And a shitload of late 60's stuff.
I gained a liking for electronic bits and pieces from the sounds of those early synths and electronic organs/keyboards. Pink Floyd and The Doors remain my all time faves (gets off chair, kneels, faces east and bows). Thru all this I have been listening to RRR (in melbourne) on a friday night since about the age of 16 (I think) - Euro disco, hi nrg, and all. All of this just made me love electronic music.
And like Haste, trance and psy trance make me fly! Maybe it's cos of those 60's synths and keyboards, maybe it's my love of acid. Whatever it is, ELETTRONICA rocks...
Nanu, nanu...

 

[haste]

Shit I was in Kiss concert in Grade Six aswell hehehhe - I was Ace Frehley!!!
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"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on" - Billy Connolly

 

[GreenAlien]

haste...maybe a Kiss-on-Acid concert is on the cards? Some suggestions for their 'new' songs:
1. I was made for trippin' you
2. Love Gun (no change required --> mdma song thru and thru!)
3. I wanna stomp all night
And some new albums:
1. Dressed To Pill
2. Un-Marquis-d
he he he
I am sooooooo farkin' bored at work...

 

[haste]

lol good call GreenAlien hehehe...you must be as bored as me

------------------
"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on" - Billy Connolly

 

[GreenAlien]

(In a Kramer style)...Yeeaaaa!! Bored as a...I don't think I can come up with anything cos I'm so bored!
I'm in the process of looking for a new job. I hate this shit I do (superannuation - the arse-end of the financial world...).
God..Superannuation sucks..Like a big black hole.

 

[atomica]

okay, i'll have to read this thread later cuz i'm so fukkin BUSY today. damn the ATO and their audits.
well, i was always, and remain the bookish geek girl.
in highschool in the late 80's i progressed from teenage pop to hiphop and ooold house, and early acid house.
i got sick of hiphop, it started getting really commercial, and i still hated guitars so i went with world music, classical, old show tunes, any kinda stuff that wasnt guitar oriented, and wasnt hiphop.
then i discovered the joy of guitar. lotsa grunge and punk and alternative.
then i started talking to asymmetry on the net, and he told me alllll about raves and about aphex twin, and another friend didnt shutup about underworld. i bought dubnobasswithmyheadman and aphex's richard d james album and the rest is history!

i still like all the music i ever liked tho.. i can still pull out.. yes, even the old cheezy offspring stuff and enjoy it. and the old BDP n public enemy. too bad i lost most of my old tapes but we wont go there cuz i'm still pissed off.
dammit, i'm rambling. smilez everyone!

 

[rockee]

hmmm..why do i always feel so old when these threads come up... my musical life story (and for some I totally cringe..but please, assess the age at the time...!)
Age 0-7 lived in the UK...my first records that I bought at the ripe old age of 5 were TRex (still think Marc Bolan was years ahead of his time..), and the glam rock babies..The Sweet, Slade..and shudder..Gary glitter..hehe..little did I know at the time I would have been the perfect age for him!

Age 7 - moved to New Zealand..this was in 1973 (yes...I'm old!)..it was like musically stepping back into some weird time warp..WHAT! YOU DON'T HAVE TOP OF THE POPS..
From 7-12 listened to the Beatles, still TRex, and the other glam rock babes, Queen, ...
Age 12..hmmm disco...donna summer ..Saturday night fever... need I say more...?
Age 13-18..Split Enz, The Sex Pistols, Madness, The Specials, The Police, The Jam (still love the Jam..), David Bowie, Lou Reed, Kiss (!), Led Zeppelin, Toy Love, Devo.. loved the whole Ska thing..at age 14 I was given one of my favourite albums of all time..Lust for Life by Iggy Pop.. I was smoking way too much EXCELLENT weed at the time..at 14 had my first acid trip..and I hasten to say..my last! too much of a mind fuck at that age..
Age 18-25..loved Prince.., U2, B52s, Duran Duran (eek!), Violent femmes, INXS, Screaming Meemees (kiwi band),
Age 19 (moved to Australia...best thing I ever done!)
...can I just say..this is REALLY hard on my brain.....did start listening to Triple J in this time..
hmm...25-28...cruel sea, dave graney, ?
28 - 32 ..I do believe this is when I started listening to Massive Attack, Spearhead, Jeff Buckley, Powderfinger, sneaker pimps, beastie boys..but do remember coming home after late nights in sydney with friends driving back to the gong...with mixup on the radio and thinking...how the fuck can anyone like this shit! oops....
32 to 34 ...aaaaaaah....enlightenment....still listening to Massive Attack, have added Sash, Leftfield, Pnau, Groove Armada, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Fat Boy slim, Jungle Bros, Roni Size, Biftek, LOVE underworld...(god, can remember their first song....underneath the radar...can't say i love that one too much!)..Beaucoup Fish has to be one of my favourites...I couldn't really say what genre I prefer...it depends on my mood..but I have a definite penchant for a funkeee beat!!!
sorry this is so long..but shit, i'm old...
[This message has been edited by rockee (edited 10 August 2000).]

 

[BliSSS*]

Speedfrog, mine was Laserdome 2 put on by United Dance Productions Australia in Jan. 98.
My musical tastes before my joining the rave scene were mainly Madonna (and Salt and Pepper!!) like any little girl... there was a bit of old Michael Jackson, like Nirvana (its really fun and boppy) and The Doors.
I wasn't heavily into any particular style, I like all the Techno that was coming out Top 40 style but my friends were gronks (umm.. grunge) and so I tended to dress that way and mainly listen to that music while out.
I changed from a public school to a private girls school at the end of year 8 and majority of the girls there were listening to techno/happyhard or r'n'b.
Now R'n'b I didn't like all that much, couldn't quite get with how slow it was, but techno I didn't mind. Because I listened to grunge music I wasn't accepted straight away, it took a while and I had to get to know the girls before I was able to call them friends, rather than (like some others) start at the school and be part of the group because they listened to R'n'b.
It's funny because just before I started to get more into the techno my boyfriends friend commented one day on how I looked like a "raver" except I didn't have coloured hair. Now at the time that was *SUCH* an insult. ( I think this was a bit after the Anna Wood story had died down?? )
Anyway, a friend left a tape at my house and I listened to that, it was comprised of Back in the Uk, and, honestly I can't remember what else... but because of hearing how fun it was I sought out more, started to talk to other people, people who were going to raves, read up on E and tried to find someone to go to a party with me.
I had been trying to go to a party since Triple Trouble 2 I think, or was it Collosus 2, missed so many parties before I actually made it to one... Didn't find anyone to go with until Laserdome, people would say yes and then pull out at the last minute and I'd be stranded.
After than I only went to another 2 or 3 that year because of school (which I regret.. so many parties that were so good and I chose not to go) but the year after I went started to go all out about 6 months into the year *nudge.Speedfrog* almost everyweekend, have been quite silly since then...
Still love the music but go for different reason's now.
I have always like music that was fun.
As long as it is fun I usually like it regardless of the style it is.
Thats about it

jaX*
[This message has been edited by BliSSS (edited 11 August 2000).]

 

[entropope]

waiting

 

[Psyentist aka plastikman]

I was an alternative lover too. I had always liked the electronica sounds...my dad introduced me to Jean Michelle Jarre (sp?) early on in life and I never missed having the latest Underworld, Chemical Brothers etc... cd's.
One day something clicked and I decided that I'd had enough Alice in Chains and needed more Aphex Twin. Once I started to get my collection rolling I never looked back, I have hundreds of alternative cd's that haven't been listened to for years.
My love of the music has progressed from cheesy trance (which I can't stand at all anymore) to trance to techno to gabba to tek house to psy trance to progressive house. The more I learn about the music the more I'm open to all styles (apart from cheesy trance, fuck that shit!)
It seems that my love for electronica has grown bigger and bigger by the day for the last few years. Now I DJ, produce my own music, run parties, never miss a good international and I've even started to get back into the club scene that I despised for so long.
For me the drugs came after I fell in love with the music, and I feel sorry for all of the people that have done things the other way around. It makes me sad to see people who go to parties just to pop pills and never appreciate the beauty of what's around them.
That's probably why I'm a bit of an asshole on this board every once in a while. I see stupid comments from teeny boppers (no, not you Wet Musik) and I have to make a smart ass comment in reply.
[This message has been edited by plastikman (edited 11 August 2000).]