[if you were to get a psychedelic tattoo?]

I have designed a lot of tattoos for myself. I'm keeping myself from hitting them for when I have completed building my house, like a pat in the back to my ego (if things go normally, I think I'll be living in my own house around June) , I think next autumn I'll hit them all together since I don't want to have fresh tattos during the summer, I want to enjoy the sea as much as possible.

On one rib cage I want to do the shpongle mask in black and white and on the other the tool eye reversed. I want to have them with a matrix effect too (the scrolling letters), but I don't know if that's possible, I'll have to spend a few days in photoshop playing aroung with the idea. Tool eye reversed:

the other tattoos are a mixture of manga, computers, psychoactive substances and occult/spiritual/philosophical stuff. One of them is going to be flesh-carving tattoo of a manga/pagan symbol, i.e they'll cut my skin of deep, not paint on it.
One more is a modified logo of my favourite underground club/record store in Athens, a piercing will also be part of this tattoo.

I'll post them all here, I reckon you'll like them.

At some point I also want to get BJJ/Judo/Ancient Olympic wrestling tattoos on the top of my feet. Because these are the sports that I do. Again, it's quite egoistical because when I have won a match it'll be the last thing my opponents will see when I rise up as a winner and they are lying on the floor. I want to get my game to a high level before I do this... now I'm too busy making money so I can't focus on my sports as much as I would like. Again, I'll use these tattoos as a gift to myself for my efforts.

[The metal thread]

Funny that I haven't been part to this thread... I've been going to a lot of metal and rock concerts all my life. In fact I wish there were more quality live concerts here in Greece, since because of the financial crisis, there are much less foreign bands coming here and definetly not the most popular ones. I'm more of a Groove metal/Southern American/Doom/death/Sludge guy (all these are more or less the same interconnected) and I must say that we are quite lucky in Greece to have some very good bands in this genre:

 

Planet of zeus (became super popular wolrdwide after Bruce Dickinson played one of their track at his radio show a few yeas ago and praised them), they are playing at the prestigious Desert fest in London this year... would have gone for the fest but it's Easter in Greece so I'm staying here for the celebrations.

Phase Reverse (they live in Germany)

Pottergeist (ex bassist is a good friend)

Sober on Tuxedos (singer is a goood friend of mine and also is part in another rock band were my cousin is the guitarist/violinist)

Nightstalker

 

Obviously in Greece we have the old-schoolers worldwide legends Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh. Most other greek metal bands don't say anything to me.

 

 

Recently I was blown away by Machine Head, easily one of the top 3 concers in my life and I actually met and had drinks with them at a bar the following night!!!!!!!!!!! Was feeling like a groupie!!!!!!!!

 

The next concert that I'm going to is All them witches (US) and Asteroid (SWE) reunion after many years hiatus, again it's in the Southern American metal style.

Septic Flesh is also playing in Athens next month, so I'm going there too. I don't like death/black metal much, only selective bands but Septic Flesh have a new record from last year and they are always top-notch!

 

Also, I really like to go to hardcore metal concerts (NY style HC), definelty one of the least technical styles of metal and there are not many decent bands left but it's always a fun time, I feel like I'm 16 again in this genre. Madball (already seen them 4 times) and Agnostic Front were supposed to play in July but was cancelled because of the bank capital controls since they couldn't get their downpayment abroad. Was really looking forward to this concert, I had one-digit presale tickers.

 

Since you are all spitting out names I'll also go with some less-known bands in the genress that I enjoy

 

Dopethrone (canada) - Great guys, have met personally (their name comes from the legendary British Album by Electric Wizard: Dopethrone)

Yob (US) - Slow stoner metal

Sleep - Again, heavy slow stoner metal

Desert/Psychedelic rock: Graveyard, Truckfighters, Blues Pils (Sweden), Orange goblin (UK), Orchid (US)

AmenRa (BE) - Tottaly fucked up singer, heavily influneced by Neurosis

Ski-king - Country singer/tatto artist that makes remixes of classic metal and rock... amazing voice

 

and then you have the big American bands like Pantera, CoC, Down, Crowbar, Black Label Society, Suicidal tendencies... but these guys are all well-known

as well as the large number of American NU-metal bands (basically offsprings of Korn) that are too many to name.

 

Finally I don't like thrash and punk at all and I don't like Children of Bodom.

[New styles/trends in psytrance you've noticed recently]

That what you call Doof here we call UK psytrance / Twilight and i love it! My favorite style after Goa, and i enjoy playing sets here and there

 

 

As i don't follow much other styles, no time really... i noticed Goa improved a lot! Yeah, still for most is same multilayered shit again and again but not for me.

Last few years production improved a lot imo. Mixes are more and more clean, months by months, kicks and basses are ultrafat like modern ones but melodies become more old schoolish somehow. Five years ago everything was somehow oriental with plenty of pads, now becoming more psychedelic and deeper.

 

Now some technics and stuff from psychedelic and progressive being used in Goa, such as FM, fart sounds, acids, noizes, drone sounds and thanks to joining old and new Goa is much bigger now, see festivals around the world, there is always some Goa trance. And people are going crazy wherever you play it. I love this improvement

 

 

Some examples:

Very well said and described

 

That's what I've been noticing too for Goa productions... a swift to a fuller, more fat. sinister sound, while the previous years it has all been about the melodic happy morning style (i.e crop circles/mfg style) now I'm getting more and more tracks that remind me of Darshan, Technossomy, BotFB... I really enjoy it and it's more easily mixed with modern full-on tracks.

[Which music event did I go to last week:]

Last week was Max Lagraconi week (he dissapointed once more)

Christmas eve went to Talpa + Max in Athens at a warehouse in West Athens with almost 2000 people. Talpa was OK, I was expecting much more, as with many people that I spoke to, but there was no flow in his set and I enjoyed very few tracks. Max was horrible, left after about 1,5 hours and went to another party where there was some decent prog played (Space Progressive team @ IT the place).

On Saturday, Max played again, this time at a more central yet small venue. He was much better but still nothing special, at his final 30 mins we had some old-school vibes but nothing special.

HOWEVER, after Max was the return of Yiannis Megas (of Gene Joke fame) after many years of inactivity. Yiannis was simply AMAZING, best set I've heard this year in all eletronic music genres (So far the best had been the famous techno DJ Delano Smith at a beach club near Korinth), his mixing was phenomenal and he played a lot of old schools anthems from Darshan, Technossomy, X-Dream, Prana, Etnica, Astral... Amazing vibe at the club when he was playing, average age around 40 years old (which makes me very young at 32) and everyone was running around like little kids. My body was hurting 2 days in a row from excessive dancing.

 

Next every BoTFB an 16/Jan.

[Downtempo from the 90s]

Except for the stuff mentioned above:

Synaesthesia (love it and very unknown)

Dub trees

A lor of stuff from Orbital

[Which music event did I go to last week:]

Well, despite the ventilation issue (I don't have a problem with it) IT is a breath of fresh air (get the pun???) for the whole of the country. An intimate small venue where quality electronic music of every kind is being played on a weekly basis. I've heard some fantastic music in that place and had a lof of awesome nights. The best probably being Aes Dana 2 years ago ( to be repeated next month). Almost every week there's something interesting, be it Techno, Ambient, Prog, GOA, Psy, house, experimental... There's some crap too, like trap, glitch, dubstep but since Harris often subrents the place it's about who the organiser is.

A couple of years ago he even threw a carnival fancy dress party with latin music and a lot of Eurovision, it was like being 10 again... Everyone had a laugh, although most people couldn't stand it for more than a couple of hours.

 

As for the event itself. As usual, Alwwods (Yiannis) was phenomenal, I liked him much more than the guests from France and Spain. Since I speak Spanish (actually I'm in Spain now for work, returning tommorow) I spent a lot of time chatting with Raul (Labs cloud) about music and the bad quality of the Greek and Spanish nightlife and pop music.

I guess you must not be aware that one of Yiannis best songs "Shadows of the moon (skies tou feggariou)" is a remix of the old Greek goa pioneers "Psychonauts" ( Although their music is nothing special, it has a certain historic value. Of course Yianni's version is much much better than the original one. I find the difference in talent, enormous.

[Some suggestions about a party I'm playing at tommorow]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

The party went well, we played music until 10 in the morning and then cleaned the place. I played a track from delirious noon too.

 

A guy who's a sound engineer came to the party too and although he was unprepared he played some good music (with what I had) and the sound was always top notch (wouldn't expect anything else).

 

The atendees were very high or tripping but I let all of them sit behind the decks and the computer whenever they asked. I Was correcting their errors all the time, snice because of the influence they kept forgetting the crossfader or pressed buttons that messed the sound or just couldn't get things done.

 

Anyway, they played some horrible stuff too like Revolted (bliaaaah) :excl: :excl: [PUKE] and a lot of modern non-sense prog/full on: Ridden, Ital, Conwerter (bliaaaah).... but most of them are young kids or new in this kind of music so they just know of what they are being fed from the party crews in Athens. Anyway, hope I made them realise that there's much more stuff out there that is very interesting.

 

We played some classic goa at the morining too: Shakta. Etnica, Infinity project... And threw in some UX, Delta, X-dream in between the Full-on ness.

[Which music event did I go to last week:]

Hi,

 

just starting a thread where we can post an interesting event we went to. How it was, what we liked what we didn't like...

Anyway, I didn't go anywhere last week, but tommorow I'm going to this (what I think will be) awesome downtempo night in Athens at my favourite place, run by Haris (FisHimself) of Ultimae (and many others) fame.

 

I admire Giannis (Allwoods) and I'm looking forward to the other guys too,

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/433570663509840/

 

[Some suggestions about a party I'm playing at tommorow]

I have most of Juno's discography. and they other stuff, i'm aware.

 

Delerious noon is the first good suggestion!

[Some suggestions about a party I'm playing at tommorow]

Oooh,

 

and if you are from Athens or neaby, you are more than welcome to join us... and play some music if you want.

[Some suggestions about a party I'm playing at tommorow]

Hi Guys,

 

a friend of mine is having a small party up the mountains tommorow at a farm house and he requested I played some music since I'm renting them the gear and they don't want to invite DJs because that means that they'll either have to pay them or they'll bring their friends/crew.

 

I know my goa, new and old but when it comes to modern stuff (post 2001 more or less) I'm a bit clueless. The organisers like goa and they like melodic stuff but I'm pretty sure they'll get bored and will liike some Psy, melodic full-on or fast progressive. They know their music, so they'll chip in too.

 

In terms of modern stuff I like ovnimoon records, dacru records, tesseract studio (serbian prog), iboga as well as the Swedish prog. However, in terms of full-on and psy, I have no clue. I don't like the nano sound at all, although they have some nice tracks here and there.

 

So fire on... Some hard dance floor goa suggestions too (i.e UX), as I'm more of a melodies guy!

[foreigners living in goa - how do they make it financially]

You might not be lucky , the 3rd time. It would be sad if you went back with a bad memory. Just try to respect the laws of the country you are visiting as much as you can.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Well, I wasn't even remotely involved in both cases. The organisers were in trouble at Moondust and the German girl just happened to be staying at the same hotel as me.

 

I have a very good relationship with cops and the local authorities, they know I'm a decent and socially active professional and I'm involved with the local community so they respect me. One of my best friend's (my friend is an amateur drug dealer) brother in law is a cop and we go to basketball games together, people smoke pot all the time in Greek stadiums (I guess this doesn't happen at most EU stadiums, maybe except Italy and Portugal) but he's cool with it. Also the vice-chief of the local Police station is a young guy and whenever they need speakers,mics or projectors, the company that I work for rents them for free, so whenever I see him at restaurants or bars he always buys me drinks,

The same with the mayor, because the municipality owes as money (I guess you know about the dismal state of the Greek State) I have his mobile and direct line, so if I need something I get it on the spot bypassing all the buraucracy.

 

Hell, even cops in Goa were very surpised at how much respect I was showing them and how politely I was talking. I guess they deal with a lot of shit from drunken tourists and rotten hippies.

 

I know how the system works and I work with it.

[your favourite artist names]

Ivem always liked the names that have some kind of hidden message, clever play on words or are simply funny:

 

GNOTR

Shaolin Wooden Men

Rip Van Hippie

ZeroToNine

MFG (Messge from god)

MandalVandalz

Battle of the Future Buddhas

ManMadeMan

Kindanza (Comes from the totally wierd futuristic Russian film Kinzaza)

OOOD (Out Of Our Depths)

Panayota (I don't like their music, but both my Mother and my fiancee are called Panayiota)

Ozric tentacles

Hallucinogenic Horses

 

I generally like people that don't take themselves very seriously!

 

Edit: Psycko Disco (how could I forget)

[foreigners living in goa - how do they make it financially]

I seriously got a little fed up by the hippie 'do fuck all nothing, smoke, eat and go to party' attitude when I spent a good while there. Guess that's what you're supposed to do on a holiday!... but maybe not for several months in a row? Sorry, I just think in times like these we're living, 'chilling out all the time' is selfish attitude, but each to their own. I loved the Indian and Nepalese hard working people and made lots of great friends with them, but especially the introverted 'lets hang out at our own hebrew cafe' Israeli people in the North was sometimes a bit too much take. I imagine, and have heard, that the situation is somewhat similar in Goa with Russian people. I'm not really looking to generalize here or do any hate speech. Just an observation.

 

How do people make it financially? Yes I guess you'd always find a way if you need to. India is a big country full of possibilies. Sab kuch milega! Maybe have a trade of some sort? I can tell to have survived about 3 months with 0 euro like a proper Suomi baba.

 

Well, India is full of young Israelis travelling and older Israelis control the drug and party scene. It must be lucrative since I know of a German girl that tried to sell big quantities of charas in Pushkar and the Israelis snitched her. They arrested her in front of me and she snitched some other guys on the spot, the Indians got a beating with bamboo sticks while the French were taken even without handcuffs.

The whole story even made it to national news, I was in Bombay a few days after and I told the story to an Indian girl and she brought a newspaper the following afternoon with the report about a German girl (Aisha was her "Indian" name) and a British-Indian baba being arrested in Pushkar for 10kilos of charas. The baba got away with it since they couldn't form a case against him, she went to prison though.

 

It was the second time, that something that I was involved in, made it to national news. The first one was Moondust festival in Rajhastan being raided. I don't have problems with cops but I'll always hate them for this. I was making out with a SUPER SWEET Swedish girl called Maitz (or something like that) from Malme that was heavily involved in the Swedish Goa/Psy scene, she was very surprised that I knew of tens of artists from Sweden (Tegma, Hux Flux, Logic Bomb, Atmos, Miraculix...) so she was very fond of me because (unlike most people) I had such knowledge.

We were more than 20 ppl smoking joints around the fire and an Indian guy (stoned out of his head) was claiming that he's a cop. I was the first to make fun of him, calling him "Cartman, respect my authoritaaaaa". Little did I know that he was an undercover cop and a few hours later the place would be raided and I lost track of my Sweedish darling.

She was there with Neuromotor (Fred) and initially I though she was his GF but ,to my great pleasure, I quikcly found out that Fred was married and they were just good friends since Fred's first steps in music.

 

Anyway... I always wish I had spent more time with her!

[foreigners living in goa - how do they make it financially]

Hampi is beautiful so you have been to my home state. Very nice. Some beautiful architectural marvels nearby.

 

Western India is a good choice. Travelled Eastwards? Easy is sublime!! But there are armed uprisings, abductions and stuff. So not ideal.

 

Yes, Nepal is not the ideal place right now. I'm sure you are aware of the blockade and the energy crises due to differences between the government and Madhesi communities regarding their new constitution.

I've been to Mysore and Hampi. Cosmo (psynews member) is from Mysore and was lucky to meet him there, since he studied at Bangalore Uni but his family home is at Mysore. We made a post about it in 2006/7.

 

Only travelled at the west side. Most of it in fact (don't remember all the region names). Rajhastan, Bombay (marahastra?), Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal, Goa... Spent very little time at Delhi region (Only a few days in Delhi and Noida where I have some friends).

[foreigners living in goa - how do they make it financially]

My trips to India have always been on the expensive side. Both times it was roughly 2000 eur for 2 months (flights included). However, I take internal flights and I do a LOT of shopping. Both times after returning back home, I orgainsed a party and I had a big heap of things (t-shirts, clothes, decorative stuff, jewllery...) and I everyone could take 1 piece. Obviously, the best stuff I kept for me.

 

I'm going again in July for 1.5 month, this time more organised and I'm only focusing on the North West: Delhi, Rajastan, Armitsar, Kashmir, Ladakh/Leh, Himahcal and back to delhi for Agra and Varanasi. I would have liked to go to Nepal, but after the earthquake I decided to skip it, I can imagine how bad the infrastructure must have become.

 

Goa is expensive compared to the rest of India but still very cheap for "Western" standards. A lot of travelers spend a few months working overtime at their home countries and then have enough money to last them for years in India. For me being Greek, is not so easy, since our salaries here are very low compared to Northern Europe and we have very high taxation, so not much can be left aside.

 

So far, Hampi, has been my favorite place in India.

[foreigners living in goa - how do they make it financially]

 

Russian Mafia, you say.

 

You are absolutely right. If not directly involved in it. Many are indirectly involved. Sad shit scenes! There was this news article running a whole page about this. Apparently they own a good part of Goa in the name of the local fisherman. All the famous shacks are owned by them. You name it, they own it. Its a disgrace to the government none the less.

 

I got a glimpse of them the 2 times that I've been in India. Goa for me, is the worst place that I visited in India. Now, it's just a bad cheap imitation of a mediteranean beach destination.

[foreigners living in goa - how do they make it financially]

I spoke with people in India and Goa about this matter and I have come to the following conclusions:

 

Almost all foreigners leave goa for the monsoon season ~May-September. As one guy told me: Goa in that period is only "fish curry" because people live of what they fish.

 

A lot go back to Europe/US/Japan/Australia to make cash and return a few months later. Others go to the hill stations (Himachal) or some other place in the North where there's less rain.

 

In terms of what their professions are: You must understand that Goa is a cheap beach vacation for many Europeans and Australians, so the foreigners work mostly in the tourism industry: shops, general trading, catering, hotels, touring, clubbing, Russian mafia & other illegal activities.

Byron (the famous British guy that has absolutely no sense of rythm) is a jeweller. A lot of girls are yoga et al instructors. A lot of people have little shops or cafes etc. Very few people are in the "Music" industry

[Big cheer for IMBA playing in Israel!]

I'm

Meet me if you are going to be there! It's my 5th time there... i believe this party will be good one, Maurizio will play retro Pleiadians set as i heard!

Not in Israel. It just came up at my facebook feed!

 

Entica/Pleiadians LIVE always deliver, I heard them in 2001 for the first time and many times since in both New or Retro Live sets and they are always great! Can't say the same about Max's DJ sets but nonetheless they are legendary!

[Big cheer for IMBA playing in Israel!]

 

Not much more to say!

[Top 5 Psychill / Downtempo albums.]

Lifeforms (both the album and EP) are some of the finest pieces of electronic music I own

I also have lifeforms and some other albums from FSOL and from other projects and I feel very privileged that I've heard FSOL live (not exactly live, they were playing through a live connection from their studio)...

Except for the above, I was in London for a business trip and they had a live PA, which unfortunately was cancelled.

 

Synæsthesia is a project that I ADORE, but it's very little known.... One of my favourite gems.

[Top 5 Psychill / Downtempo albums.]

Except for the stuff mentioned above don't forget some of the pioneers of electronica:

 

FSOL

Synæsthesia

Orbital

The Orb

Aphex twin

etc

 

They made some great chill out tunes.

[2 nights with Machine "Fucking" Head]

Machine Head just pisses me off because of their last fall's behaviour of verbally attacking Children of Bodom Hate Crew like crybabies that came out of enviousness for that their fans are light-years behind of the commitment and loyalty The Hate Crew has. No links to that discussion, fb timelines have swallowed it long ago

 

It's funny you say this... When I was speaking with Robb I said, "So far I only had 2 mind blowing concerts, Peal Jam and Meshuggah and now I have a 3rd one" he replied " Love Pear Jam, Fuck Mesuggah", I didn't care to ask him why I should fuck the Swedes, found it weird and unprofessional though.

 

P.s. I don't like Children of Bodom, I find nothing special in their music.

 

 

Hey, technossomy, what's a great opener for meeting girls? Rolling tobacco? I don't get it.

[Lets see your sound system!]

I'm not a studio producer... I just have a home cinema setup with some cheap DJ gear, nothing specal, just value for money (some I get either for free or next to nothing from work.... pics will follow)

 

Speakers: Taga harmony 606 v2

 

Sub: Magnat Monitor Supreme 302A Mocca

 

Headphones: Akiyama HDJ-9700

Amp:Yamaha Rx-V2600 (this is actually very good, bought it second hand for only 300 eur)

 

 

Mixer: American Audio Q-spand (got it for free from a studio that did some renovations)

Cd Deck: NUmark CDN36 (Again for free from the studio)

 

vinyl decks: 2 x technics sl-bd22d (both need fixing, got them for free from our warehouse)

 

 

Finally, this work



this is a pic from last year, now we have even more gear. For sound mostly L-acoustics, Audio Performance Switzerland, some Clair brothers, some EV and some Montarbo.

 

At the office I have a pair of self powered Meyer studio monitors + genelec sub (cost about 10.000 eur all together). Which get totally wasted since I can't turn them up more then whisper level since there's people working. Obviously, they are company property, not mine.

[2 nights with Machine "Fucking" Head]

Those are quite some fingernails.

 

That's my fiancee... Those are her real nails, only covers them with porcelain so that they don't break. Has had them like this for almost a decade (know her for 7 years).