Poland

massive thanks to all poland crew for two wicked gigs.  hospitality & enthusiastic people, poland never disappoints.  people seem genuinely good natured, you get the sense that they just want to live simple lives, love, food, friends, basic comforts.  years of harsh travel restrictions have been lifted recently and as a result there’s been a massive polish outflux in the past year… fanning out throughout the world in a huge diaspora, in search of the good life…  but by now many have traveled to the usa and the uk and become disillusioned.  they discover an isolated emotional void and a system that won’t accept them.  feeling used and disappointed, many return to poland, and i always meet them at gigs.  being both a native of one of those soul-sucking countries, and now a foreigner in an extremely xenophobic one, i empathize on many levels.  the gigs themselves don’t drip with avarice dirtiness like you often get in many hyper-capitalist countries, or a place where hype drives taste.  people know how to be hosts and you get a feeling of being treated like a real human being! not a machine that’s just there to bring a crowd, play a set, and then can go fuck off.   the poles have good hosting skills and good manners.  wow.  amazing.  they paid attention to the tech rider, getting absolutely every item perfectly.  they are poor in money but not in emotions, the opposite of many affluent but spiritually poor places i’ve been.  i can take being poor and having few resourecs, that makes sense to me.  what doesn’t make sense is when you’ve got a warehouse full of spoiled american kids with macbooks and HD video cameras, & growrooms, yet they won’t provide um. a mic. or some human interaction perhaps.  maybe a glass of water?  ah it’s just that americans have never learned to be good hosts, i tell myself, because everyone has their own playstation, their own computer, skills like sharing are discouraged.  anyway… i also see the reasons why a lot of western eu people still never play in pl -  big distances with few good flight connections, & inevitably you have to take the train between gigs if you do more than one… but hell, i like the train and you always get a story.  last time i got a lesson in the filthiest polish swear words.  this time it was an overeager business student who wanted to get a free english lesson from captive teachers, yar.  the place is experiencing a mini economic boom at the moment, and their currency is getting stronger.  the mood on the street reminds me of ireland a few years ago, just after the euro.  big biz brings more money, and a newfound optimism takes hold.  lots of new digital SLRs at the shows…. fun new money time, and all is well.  for now.  i hope that the polish people don’t lose their character with all this influx of cash, but i’m not too worried.  they seem resilient and adaptable. 

… uhrrr, what day is it ?

emerging from a 3 day work binge w/sleepy eyes, studio tan, a new remix and a few new techniques.  genghis tron remix is rockin, almost done.  a few tweaks and it’ll be good.  a brilliant performance + good recording makes for excellent remixing.  gt and animosity were way easier than other remixes i’ve done in the past, with better results.  (nerd realization #1 - difficult does not necessarily equal valid)  the source recordings shimmer with that extra 10%, from quality gear which costs you an extra 700%.  attrition in the asymptotic quest for perfection.  along those lines, kids… save your pennies and sell your frivolous things.  get the best monitor speakers you can.  i just did, and i can’t believe i worked for so long in such darkness.  struggling to paint rembrandts while wearing an eyepatch and a telescope on backwards.  yarrrrr.  then just as i was feeling smug, i listened to nin non-entity, new radiohead, converge, some other favorites.  oh man.  i got some work to do.  get some groceries and hit it…

Remix Tuesday

starting on: Genghis Tron remix.  finished: Animosity remixes.  Soon: Jason Forrest, Enduser.

New directions 2008

you’re going to see a shift towards two (seeming) extremes from me this year - drumcorps, and ambient tunes a la lost tracks.  overall there will be less dance music / ragga jungle / dubstep etc.  i might produce a few of those tunes here and there - but what i’m feeling lately brings me back to my roots - hardcore and melodic music with something to say - and i’ve got to keep true to inspiration.  as i grow more okay with myself, i’m looking outward… traveling the world the past few years i see a lot of division / enforced alienation / many different sides of all stories - & i get just as angry as i was at age 15 - but this time with the sharpness of experience.  there’s also a sense of pervading calm & well-being curiously mixed in there.  all of this is going to be expressed in the new tunes.  accordingly, i’m accepting fewer ragga jungle & breakcore sets, and more drumcorps and aaron lost tracks type sets.   a limited number of dancey sets will happen - like bangface’s weekender party in april, and some selected shows in europe & asia, but the focus is shifting.  could all change tomorrow, but that’s where i’m at now.  the changes aren’t going to be thaaaat radical in their core, as it’s always come from the heart, but different flavors ebb & flow as always.  stay warm out there.

New Site

after a while of slogging through static html, i’ve updated the aaron spectre site to be a little more fluid database driven kinda thing. i’m stoked…. it looks good on many platforms, loads quick, and lets me get back to writing music rather than noodling in dreamweaver. here’s a guide to the new sections.

HOMEPAGE - constant news bulletin with info on new releases, events & anything relevant.

MUSIC - mp3s and store links for all current releases.

PHOTO - an ongoing photo stream from the road, with an emphasis on quality.  not for the low of bandwidth.

VIDEO - embedded youtube and other links. looking into hosting my own videos in a higher quality format, once i get a few more great vids this will happen.

PRESS - a rundown of any linkable press, and some compiled photo/press ZIPs for writers.

BLOG - thoughts from me. this isn’t going to be a tangle of web 2.666 slick-but-fooling-no-one self-promotional nonsense speak, just musings from the road, tributes to the excellent people i meet along the way, thoughts that matter, bits i like. trying to keep this part pure… 

UPCOMING SHOWS -  a little app that keeps track of them all, no more static html cut and paste for me. a big archive of all the shows from 2003 onward is up there also. 

RSS feeds for everything.  there are a few little bugs that i’m still working out, but the whole thing looks pretty good to me over here.  more news coming soon, there are lots of new projects afoot which i’ll write more about shortly.  

Thoughts on Ukraine

Woah.  Big thanks to all Ukraine fans for two of the most amazing gigs ever.  A pointer to the west - eastern europe has VERY tight online communities that actually pay attention (and trade LOTS of files)… & just because you don’t sell records there doesn’t mean you’re unknown.  the russian language forums had been trading my tunes around like crazy and i had no idea, and a BIG following had been building up over the past two years.  Kiev @ Cinema Club - hundreds of people outside the club before doors had even opened, madness…… absolute connection & enthusiasm from the people.  Dnipropetrovsk - Jungle party of dreams. Oh my.  a sea of people rocking out - everyone singing along - pretty dready girls - lots of dudes screaming for Drumcorps … signed autographs for what seemed like hours.  who brought that 10 pound solid metal urn samovar to sign??? wtf??  They had told me Dnipropetrovsk would be more underground and they were right - it was down a few flights in a bomb shelter / bunker, straight up raw.  no disco balls or fog machine nonsense - under yellow halos of the sodium lights - but all loving it…. the stage here was in the middle of the floor - a writhing sea of people on three sides - i was really low to the ground and basically in the people, no borders.i like playing these raw spaces better than normal clubs even though they’re always a huge pain the the ass logistic-wise - it’s a horrible stressful mess setting up over piles of everyone else’s gear & beehives of important-looking electrical cables everywhere - certainly not the nice clean comfy stage you get at a proper festival or club. but being all up in everyone’s face gives me a sense of urgency & energy that you can’t get any other way - and it comes out in the music.  thanks ukraine, both gigs were truly special. will be back soon.

Israel

woah. so many thoughts.. the gig - what a connection. people were open. some mad disorganization regarding many aspects of the club, but it all worked out in the end. (not without a significant amount of effort..) the land - woah. there’s something immediately humbling about stepping onto ground pulsing with history, a place where people have lived, built, and died for thousands of years. i don’t get this feeling in berlin because everything was destroyed and rebuilt new in ww2… and i DEFINITELY never got it growing up in the usa, where 100 years is considered ancient history. in old city jerusalem we walked the streets of the souk, stones worn smooth by thousands of years’ foot traffic, crumbling roman columns, a spot on a wall jesus supposedly touched, its stone worn smooth by two thousand years of pilgrims also touching it. the western wall… regardless of your personal beliefs, you can’t escape a feeling of quiet reverence… the people - first off - being jewish anywhere else around the world, you feel like a weirdo. nothing fits, nothing is built for your weirdo frame or complexion, you gradually learn that the rules of the christian west don’t apply to you. i’d never seen a group of jews larger than a few hundred and that was only at temple. in IL, it felt like coming home. the women are dark & beautiful, the food tastes unreal delicious like it’s custom tailored for your taste buds… even dreadlocks aren’t so unusual. people on the street look at you in an accepting neutral way, not a “woah who’s that” way. subtle differences. i can see how it’s easy to fall into the trap of becoming one of those obnoxious and dangerous american zionists.  i harbor no illusions of goodness - i know israel is guilty of some of the worst atrocities - i walked the streets in sabra, lebanon a few years ago… the west bank separation barrier is visible from mount zion. ak47s all around, with spare clips dangling, the bullets neatly packed and visible… everyone gets along - for now - but you’re filled with the sense that at any moment it could all go up in flames. a country the size of new jersey surrounded by enemies. the immediacy of death makes people treat each other well though - eye contact and love - but a constant feeling of “oh shit” pervades. what a cool place, i can’t wait to go back.  we met the grandson of jacobo timerman (1, 2), he’s totally into ragga jungle and spins all the tunes.  a lot of kids have absolutely amazing tattoos - if i get work done thinking of going there. (not germany, plahhh…) big up and massive respect to the sensi sound crew, big thx to friends for showing us around jerusalem. music connections mean even more in such a place.