Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
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Lost to the Void
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Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
Super super special release to me.
Vinyl with beautiful painted cover by my niece.
For anyone interested there is a story behind this release
Way back in 2009 I put out a release on Labyrinth records. One of the tracks was written using a scale common to the music of the Andalusian region of spain during the Caliphate. A blend of western and islamic musicality that became a unique style within Spain. A year later I was contacted to play a gig in spain. I was sent a video of a gig with people going nuts to mentioned tune. Apparently this obscure piece of music of mine was an anthem for this club night. Interesting, I had to take the gig.
Meeting all the people I realised this wasn`t just a gig at some club night, I was dealing with a collective of people. A family of electronic music obsessives who operated and lived their own scene of underground music, working together for a common goal. The gig was wonderful, so much passion and energy, it was like returning to the raves.
More gigs followed, along with releases on their label, and a relationship built. On arriving home after my first gig with them, I realised that I already wanted to return. What I had experienced was like coming home. As a part of a collective operating in the world infamous Illegal warehouse rave scene of 90`s and 00`s London, I left during a period where the scene was collapsing and life was dangerous. This led to me entering the techno scene, a scene I found to be less about collective action, and much more narcissistic, nepotistic, commercially minded and scattered. I never really have felt at home, apart from when I encountered and worked with those with a more open mindset. HC had the spirit I missed so much.
Over time I have built friendships with the collective, seen them grow, establishing their own club venue, record shop, record label, supporting a wide range of underground music, exploring and pushing their scene that has it`s own lengthy history that mirrors aspects of the UK rave scene.
Now they are my musical family, and I the black sheep who lives away from the tribe.
On hearing that they were putting together a 15 year anniversary release, I wanted to contribute. I decided I would distill some vivid memories of my time with the colective as a series of tracks. The resulting EP I would give as a gift to the colective to be used solely by them. My plan was scuppered as they decided they wanted to release the music, as they wanted to preserve the music in physical form. Each track related to a key moment explained below.
A1. Cohesion, Sunrays, Farmhouse, Gijón
This track was inspired from a Gig in Gijon, spain, at Lanna club, promoting the launch of HC record label. The night began with me playing a more chilled warm up PA of melodic techno music (actually it was Heretic, my side project) at The Bass Vally music school, which was broadcast on youtube. Then the club event followed. It was a great party, once again bursting with energy and sweat. After the club we all went to a farmhouse in the countryside where we were staying, and the afterparty began. Here we had time to enjoy each others company, and play loud music. I heard some members of the colective play who I have not heard before, the sun streamed in through big windows making rays in the dust. Everything felt perfect, correct, cohesive, like a tribe coming together and dancing round a fire after a battle. There was a timelessness to the moment. I didn`t want to go... This tune represents that moment, the pure bliss of people coming together through music, unbounded by language, a family, and the melancholy realisation that it had to end, and I had to leave.
A2. I left my heart in Killing Time
Killing Time is a record shop, bar, club and event space that serves as the central hub for and is run by Hyptnotica Colectiva. People meet here before events, members of the collective play here, have events here. I have been many times, it`s like a clubhouse in a way, always welcoming, always fun. There was a time when we went for a birthday celebration of one of the members, familar faces arrived and it was like a family gathering, and I took a pause to just observe this tribal gathering, and realised once again, this was where I was meant to be. Every time I leave, I leave a piece of my heart there. This track represents the collective to me, uplifting, beautiful and powerful, from a place of love and passion.
B1. Meat Hook Beauty (Iron Oxide and Blood Mix)
This tune wasn`t specifically made for the EP, but requested to be put on it. Every time I play with HC, there is an expectation to play my tune that is their anthem. However as I don`t like to repeat myself, I always make an entirely new live version each time, reinterpreting the original. This version of Meat Hook Beauty I played at the gig mentioned above in Lanna club. It was slower, with bigger kicks and the melody was shifted to a different meter. On playing it in the club it got an amazing response. The label wanted this on the release so I took pains to listen to the audio from the recordings of the night and reproduce it for the vinyl.
B2. The Last Sunrise
This track represents every time I have to leave the collective to return home. Usually I fly home in the morning, exhausted from the previous 3-4 days, being driven to the airport by someone from HC, listening to tunes and feeling calm, satiated, meditative but with a hint of melancholy that I must leave my musical family and return to the cold maelstrom of London. My last time with them being a gig and a drive back to the hotel in Barcelona, the sun rising over the city where earlier I explored the beautiful gothic quarter and met with David Verdegeur to catch up and share food and wine.
Digital Bonus 01. Night Rain Windshield Fractals
This represents a specific event and a number of similar situations. Part of my time in Valencia usually involved driving around and through the city at night. Always in the vehicle of one of the collective. The city is beautiful at night, and I love driving through it, listening to whatever music my driver introduces me to, just experiencing driving beats and a moving road. There was one particular time, and my memory does not allow me to picture which visit it was specifically, but the moment is very vivd. We were driving from a town just outside Valencia, heading to Killing Time. There was a sudden downpour of rain, and we were driving along the highway, some amazing electronic music on the stereo, the rain was fractalising the brake lights of the cars in front, the city lights and road lights on the windshield of the car, these coloured fractals dancing and changing with the music, and I had this really peaceful meditative moment. Nothing but motion, colours, sounds and sense of safety and kinship. Once again, music providing a form of communication beyond language, as we all silently took in the music and the ever changing scenery. That moment stuck with me for ages, and on thinking about it for this EP I allowed myself to return to the moment, and for the melodic parts to emerge from this memory.
Digital Bonus 02. Sacrifice
This track represents the sacrifices we all make to exist in this underground musical world. All devotion involves sacrifice, we all have our troubles, our doubts, our successes and failures, moments when we want to quit, but we carry on, driven by this deep inexplicable passion for music and the deepfelt connections it gives us.
For the cover I wanted something very special. The tune Meat Hook Beauty has a meaning, when I wrote it, it was to represent the beauty that can found even in the darkest places. The title comes from a moment when I was scoping out a building to party. As it turns out it was an old meat warehouse. The room was a place of previous horrors, but in that moment I was there, the light was glinting off of these meat hooks, and they almost looked like stars in the darkness. And the tune represents these extremes of light and dark, neither can have meaning without the other.
So for the artwork I asked my niece to paint an oil painting to represent this. But the addition was the Flamenco dancer, representing the beauty and the passion of the people of HC, as well as Flamenco being a famous music of Andalusia. It had to be a woman central to the image as one of the strengths of HC is their equality. The women of the collective operate on a level with the men, strong and independent, with a fierce passion. When they dance it is as if their lives depend on it. They are all that Flamenco dancer, surrounded by madness of the modern world, but passionately and defiantly dancing in the darkness, radiant in a light of their own making. I think Caitlin, my niece, did an absolutely amazing job representing this.
Understanding the subject immediately.
So here, my love letter to a collective of people who have changed my life, inspired me, driven me, and made me fall in love with them and what they have.
Vinyl with beautiful painted cover by my niece.
For anyone interested there is a story behind this release
Way back in 2009 I put out a release on Labyrinth records. One of the tracks was written using a scale common to the music of the Andalusian region of spain during the Caliphate. A blend of western and islamic musicality that became a unique style within Spain. A year later I was contacted to play a gig in spain. I was sent a video of a gig with people going nuts to mentioned tune. Apparently this obscure piece of music of mine was an anthem for this club night. Interesting, I had to take the gig.
Meeting all the people I realised this wasn`t just a gig at some club night, I was dealing with a collective of people. A family of electronic music obsessives who operated and lived their own scene of underground music, working together for a common goal. The gig was wonderful, so much passion and energy, it was like returning to the raves.
More gigs followed, along with releases on their label, and a relationship built. On arriving home after my first gig with them, I realised that I already wanted to return. What I had experienced was like coming home. As a part of a collective operating in the world infamous Illegal warehouse rave scene of 90`s and 00`s London, I left during a period where the scene was collapsing and life was dangerous. This led to me entering the techno scene, a scene I found to be less about collective action, and much more narcissistic, nepotistic, commercially minded and scattered. I never really have felt at home, apart from when I encountered and worked with those with a more open mindset. HC had the spirit I missed so much.
Over time I have built friendships with the collective, seen them grow, establishing their own club venue, record shop, record label, supporting a wide range of underground music, exploring and pushing their scene that has it`s own lengthy history that mirrors aspects of the UK rave scene.
Now they are my musical family, and I the black sheep who lives away from the tribe.
On hearing that they were putting together a 15 year anniversary release, I wanted to contribute. I decided I would distill some vivid memories of my time with the colective as a series of tracks. The resulting EP I would give as a gift to the colective to be used solely by them. My plan was scuppered as they decided they wanted to release the music, as they wanted to preserve the music in physical form. Each track related to a key moment explained below.
A1. Cohesion, Sunrays, Farmhouse, Gijón
This track was inspired from a Gig in Gijon, spain, at Lanna club, promoting the launch of HC record label. The night began with me playing a more chilled warm up PA of melodic techno music (actually it was Heretic, my side project) at The Bass Vally music school, which was broadcast on youtube. Then the club event followed. It was a great party, once again bursting with energy and sweat. After the club we all went to a farmhouse in the countryside where we were staying, and the afterparty began. Here we had time to enjoy each others company, and play loud music. I heard some members of the colective play who I have not heard before, the sun streamed in through big windows making rays in the dust. Everything felt perfect, correct, cohesive, like a tribe coming together and dancing round a fire after a battle. There was a timelessness to the moment. I didn`t want to go... This tune represents that moment, the pure bliss of people coming together through music, unbounded by language, a family, and the melancholy realisation that it had to end, and I had to leave.
A2. I left my heart in Killing Time
Killing Time is a record shop, bar, club and event space that serves as the central hub for and is run by Hyptnotica Colectiva. People meet here before events, members of the collective play here, have events here. I have been many times, it`s like a clubhouse in a way, always welcoming, always fun. There was a time when we went for a birthday celebration of one of the members, familar faces arrived and it was like a family gathering, and I took a pause to just observe this tribal gathering, and realised once again, this was where I was meant to be. Every time I leave, I leave a piece of my heart there. This track represents the collective to me, uplifting, beautiful and powerful, from a place of love and passion.
B1. Meat Hook Beauty (Iron Oxide and Blood Mix)
This tune wasn`t specifically made for the EP, but requested to be put on it. Every time I play with HC, there is an expectation to play my tune that is their anthem. However as I don`t like to repeat myself, I always make an entirely new live version each time, reinterpreting the original. This version of Meat Hook Beauty I played at the gig mentioned above in Lanna club. It was slower, with bigger kicks and the melody was shifted to a different meter. On playing it in the club it got an amazing response. The label wanted this on the release so I took pains to listen to the audio from the recordings of the night and reproduce it for the vinyl.
B2. The Last Sunrise
This track represents every time I have to leave the collective to return home. Usually I fly home in the morning, exhausted from the previous 3-4 days, being driven to the airport by someone from HC, listening to tunes and feeling calm, satiated, meditative but with a hint of melancholy that I must leave my musical family and return to the cold maelstrom of London. My last time with them being a gig and a drive back to the hotel in Barcelona, the sun rising over the city where earlier I explored the beautiful gothic quarter and met with David Verdegeur to catch up and share food and wine.
Digital Bonus 01. Night Rain Windshield Fractals
This represents a specific event and a number of similar situations. Part of my time in Valencia usually involved driving around and through the city at night. Always in the vehicle of one of the collective. The city is beautiful at night, and I love driving through it, listening to whatever music my driver introduces me to, just experiencing driving beats and a moving road. There was one particular time, and my memory does not allow me to picture which visit it was specifically, but the moment is very vivd. We were driving from a town just outside Valencia, heading to Killing Time. There was a sudden downpour of rain, and we were driving along the highway, some amazing electronic music on the stereo, the rain was fractalising the brake lights of the cars in front, the city lights and road lights on the windshield of the car, these coloured fractals dancing and changing with the music, and I had this really peaceful meditative moment. Nothing but motion, colours, sounds and sense of safety and kinship. Once again, music providing a form of communication beyond language, as we all silently took in the music and the ever changing scenery. That moment stuck with me for ages, and on thinking about it for this EP I allowed myself to return to the moment, and for the melodic parts to emerge from this memory.
Digital Bonus 02. Sacrifice
This track represents the sacrifices we all make to exist in this underground musical world. All devotion involves sacrifice, we all have our troubles, our doubts, our successes and failures, moments when we want to quit, but we carry on, driven by this deep inexplicable passion for music and the deepfelt connections it gives us.
For the cover I wanted something very special. The tune Meat Hook Beauty has a meaning, when I wrote it, it was to represent the beauty that can found even in the darkest places. The title comes from a moment when I was scoping out a building to party. As it turns out it was an old meat warehouse. The room was a place of previous horrors, but in that moment I was there, the light was glinting off of these meat hooks, and they almost looked like stars in the darkness. And the tune represents these extremes of light and dark, neither can have meaning without the other.
So for the artwork I asked my niece to paint an oil painting to represent this. But the addition was the Flamenco dancer, representing the beauty and the passion of the people of HC, as well as Flamenco being a famous music of Andalusia. It had to be a woman central to the image as one of the strengths of HC is their equality. The women of the collective operate on a level with the men, strong and independent, with a fierce passion. When they dance it is as if their lives depend on it. They are all that Flamenco dancer, surrounded by madness of the modern world, but passionately and defiantly dancing in the darkness, radiant in a light of their own making. I think Caitlin, my niece, did an absolutely amazing job representing this.
Understanding the subject immediately.
So here, my love letter to a collective of people who have changed my life, inspired me, driven me, and made me fall in love with them and what they have.
Re: Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
What a beautiful story, Steve! I'm listening through it right now, and so far I'm loving it! (and your niece is a very talented painter)
My girlfriend and I are talking about going to Andalusia this summer or fall actually. I'm very interested in flamenco music (been playing Spanish guitar since I was 7), and I'd just love to hear it in its natural settings - It has an extremely beautiful use of polyrhythms, which always stir something in me. But now I want to seek out this collective as well
My girlfriend and I are talking about going to Andalusia this summer or fall actually. I'm very interested in flamenco music (been playing Spanish guitar since I was 7), and I'd just love to hear it in its natural settings - It has an extremely beautiful use of polyrhythms, which always stir something in me. But now I want to seek out this collective as well
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Lost to the Void
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- Posts: 13518
- Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
If you go to Valencia let met know, I can hook you up with the peeps.Amøbe wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:02 amWhat a beautiful story, Steve! I'm listening through it right now, and so far I'm loving it! (and your niece is a very talented painter)
My girlfriend and I are talking about going to Andalusia this summer or fall actually. I'm very interested in flamenco music (been playing Spanish guitar since I was 7), and I'd just love to hear it in its natural settings - It has an extremely beautiful use of polyrhythms, which always stir something in me. But now I want to seek out this collective as well
Re: Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
Cheers manLost to the Void wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:27 pmIf you go to Valencia let met know, I can hook you up with the peeps.Amøbe wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:02 amWhat a beautiful story, Steve! I'm listening through it right now, and so far I'm loving it! (and your niece is a very talented painter)
My girlfriend and I are talking about going to Andalusia this summer or fall actually. I'm very interested in flamenco music (been playing Spanish guitar since I was 7), and I'd just love to hear it in its natural settings - It has an extremely beautiful use of polyrhythms, which always stir something in me. But now I want to seek out this collective as well
I'll have that in mind!
Re: Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
bought it
was a preorder for ages, but got it recently
my fav is the windshield fractal track
i think i prefer the miniclub version of all the meathook beautys, epic track
was a preorder for ages, but got it recently
my fav is the windshield fractal track
i think i prefer the miniclub version of all the meathook beautys, epic track
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Lost to the Void
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- Posts: 13518
- Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Voidloss - XV Sound passion connection - HC Records
Wonderful.
I just recieved my vinyl, came out nice.