Besides my usual life as a beach bum and cryptocurrency day trader, I like to deejay electronic music and beats for people to dance to. I have been listening to electronic music since the 1997 advent of psychedelic trance, which sprung from the techno revolution back then. Music went from analogue to digital and the old classic pop/rock genres, with melody, words and vocals all took a back seat to the new genre of computer generated beats with minimal – if any – lyrics and way less melody.
I learned how to DJ back then, using CDJs or decks for CDs, where we played one song from one CD at a time, bouncing between two decks via the slider on the mixing desk. You needed to know how to beat mix by ear, a fine skill. Nowadays that is all replaced by the computer interface and auto synch button, as CDs are history and flash drives or laptops full of thousands of songs are now available. The world has come a long way, and we now have access to more sophisticated equipment and much more options regarding songs available to us. Still the electronic music genre is more popular than ever, even if psy trance has taken a back seat while more progressive or deep house predominates in my life.
Naturally with time and ageing, my tastes have mellowed from the pumping 140 BPM (beats per minute) to a more gentle 115 BPM for my choice of dance tunes. I know today’s youth in the psy trance scene compose and play 160 BPM sometimes but I can’t comprehend such a pace, which is literally not danceable in my opinion. You can shake your head to it at most. I must be getting old.
Nevertheless, as an old dog I recently got the chance to drive into the desert with a friend and put on a small dance party at a mutual friends remote farm inland from my place at the coast here in sunny South Africa. The region we went to is called Baviaanskloof, which translated as “Baboon’s Ravine”. It’s in the Karoo desert which makes up most of the hinterland of South Africa, fit only for sheep farming or cactus gardens.
The ravines which we had to journey through are epic geological sights to behold, quite awesome in their own stark way. Once we arrived at the farm of our host, it was clear that we had left the modern world behind and stepped back into a primitive period in history. Very few people or houses were evident. Lots of wide open space or mountainous crags were the main feature, along with the ubiquitous cactus of course.
And no electricity. So we had our solar power and the luxury of a generator for the weekend in an otherwise very rustic farm dwelling. I do enjoy the odd camp out and used to make a lifestyle of it during the early era of my outdoor psy trance party events all summer long in my home town of Cape Town. Until covid last year, revellers would still spend every weekend all summer long attending outdoor trance party events on a remote farm or rural location outside the city.
Thousands attend and camp in their tents beside a river among the trees. The central dance floor is decked out with awesome psychedelic art in florescent colors that light up during the night hours, and the music carries on non-stop for three days. I spent many a weekend there for years during the late nineties and early 2000s.
This time around my DJ event was just for the handful of us at the farm in the desert, but we still put up some lights and pumped the tunes on a smaller but nowadays very powerful sound rig. All you need today is two speakers with built in amps and your laptop, with perhaps a mixing desk if you want to be a bit more fancy. We had a lot of fun and found inspiration by making such an interesting adventure of it, exploring the remote desert regions seldom traversed by anyone even in today’s world.
Besides deep house tunes, I also enjoy playing psy dub or downtempo ambient dance tunes around 100-115 BPM. Good music is easy to come by online nowadays and the choice is much bigger than ever before, perhaps since the population is expanding and also musicians are all online producing and promoting their music, so you don’t need to buy a hard copy CD or – for those who remember – a vinyl record. You simply download the music you wish to play or listen to.
Putting on a party in the desert is thus fun and easy. And nowadays with mass gatherings a thing of the past since covid, we have our own small gatherings and still enjoy the vibe of a festive communal event without bothering anyone. Those big outdoor psy trance festivals of thousands of people for three days are a thing of the past. I attended the last one just before lockdown back in December 2019. Who would have known it was to be the last... until we resume again?
Perhaps once this covid ruse is over, we can all go back to the old normal and be human again, socializing and communing in large groups out in nature, which is actually a really healthy lifestyle, camping under the trees and the stars and bathing in the river. Until then we can continue with our own small gatherings and party on to our own DJ rig and electronic beats. You can’t keep the creative spirit down for long. After all, life is meant for dancing and celebration. You’re never too old to dance, so dance like no one is watching, because they probably aren’t.
(Image pixabay, I tried to add my photos but wifi is not allowing it today it seems)