I am a fan of techno music. Mainstream techno. Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Thomas Bangalter. Stuff that has probably made it to your radio at one time or another.
Lately I have been going to techno… Err, electronic events with my DJ friend and I have been getting exposed to the dark world of Japanese techno-electronic music, and it has been very dark.
It has been an experience. I would call it almost religious experience.
Last night I went to a small club in my city called Cafe Domina.
I always thought that cafes were quiet places where you enjoyed things like coffee, tea, muffins, uncomfortable chairs and whatnot. I fear that saying this will make me sound like a bitter old man, but cafes should be quiet and peaceful places with windows that let in warm light. They should be decorated in a unique way that makes you want to slowly drink in your surroundings while sipping on your tepid cup of…. whatever you like to drink.
I don’t really like going to cafes because I don’t really drink coffee and I am seldom comfortable sitting in one place for a long time. So most of my ideas of cafes come from watching TV shows and movies. They always seem so nice but then there is Domina.
Cafe Domina is not a cafe. It is a club that happens to have a few very uncomfortable chairs and tacky decorations hanging from random portions of the ceiling. Fake flowers. They have fake flowers. I hate fake flowers. I simply cannot find any beauty in hard unyielding representations of poison ivy and daisies. That shit doesn’t even go together. Domina doesn’t have coffee or tea or freaking muffins. I think I will write the owner a letter and demand that he/she remove the fake flowers and “cafe” from the name of the place. I will also request that the walls be painted an agreeable color. Rust orange or something like that.
Why do most clubs have black walls?
Wow, I just realized that I am being somewhat bitchy.
The event last night was actually pretty good as far as music is concerned. The main act was Thomas Fehlmann. Prior to last night I had never heard of him. He was really good. Amazing actually. Unfortunately I don’t know the name of any of his songs or else I would name them. Trust me they were good and I am currently trying to track down one of his albums.
Before he started playing a few local Djs played. There were three and two of them were not really different from each other. I for the life of me can’t remember anything about their performances other than loud banging and clicking. The other DJ was different. He played this ambient, beat-less, mood killing music that annoyed me at first.
It sounded like he was dragging a conch shell across wet piano strings.
That makes absolutely no sense. His music didn’t either for the most part. At least not in a conventional sense. It seemed like he was going for a mood. Reverence. His music had no medley but it did have something. Watching him play was like watching someone make bread.
He was completely enthralled with what he was doing. I don’t know what kind of set-up he was working with on stage, but it seemed like he was kneading and molding the “music” into something special. You could tell he was having a great time, unfortunately the audience, me included, were not, for the most part, having as good a time as he was.
There was one guy who seemed to be as into the performance as the DJ was. He body was swinging and swaying and clawing at the air insanely all by himself. Occasionally he would claw wildly at the air before thrusting one of his arms between his legs to scratch his ass. I thought he was on drugs, but while watching him and listening to the DJ’s music I was reminded of the many church services that I have been to over the course of my life.
For a very brief moment I felt like I was ten again, sitting on a hard pew watching one of the ladies in my church “catch the spirit”. If you’ve never seen someone under the influence of the spirit you are lucky. It is easily one of the most disturbing laughable experiences of your life. Imagine a woman with a harshly painted face convulsing wildly screaming gibberish (god speak) while trying to hold on to her large, new, yellow sunhat. It’s scary stuff man.
The guy in the club was just like that, minus the talking of course. He even fell out on the floor briefly… then he started to crawl. That was weird. That was really weird. What was he on?
