Trunksan

Had an awesome weekend! It was so good that I felt I had to post it. Saturday night was Machine Head Live. One of the top 3 concerts in my life (the other 2 are Pearl Jam and Meshuggah) and I've been to probably more than a 100 rock/metai/pop concerts, some bands more than once. Proper Metal mayhem at the pit, Mosh pits and wall of death, got punched, kicked and headbutted at the nose (this hurt but luckily didn't bleed). After the concert I was so puffed that I didn't want to go home so I went to Sudyaya and Cabeiri Live at the "IT place" in Athens. Some lovely chill and melodic prog while outside the rain was pouring tonnes of water. It was great relaxation after such a powerful concert. Stayed until about 8 in the morning and outside was a lovely cool yet sunny morning (gotta love Greek weather). The following night I was forced to go at the Athens beach area (Glyfada) by a friend of mine who wanted to talk about some marriage problems she has. Although I didn't want to go, it turned out to be one of the best decisions EVER: We were at this very posh bar with people with expensive branded clothes ( I was in my flip flops). Next door to the bar is a shop that sells 2nd hand designer handbags with price tags that start over 500 eur. So as we were talking I see 7 huge guys with black clothes coming in the bar..... IT WAS MACHINE HEAD with their crew... I spent the next hour talking to the group and rolling tobbaco cigarretes for them, since they like Greek tobacco (the legal kind) but can't roll, so for every cigarrete that I rolled they bought a round of drinks to the fans (just 5 of us really) that were there. The rest of the people didn't seem to like them being there.... fuckin posh pompous kids. Anyway, I was invited to continue at other clubs with them, but UNFORTUNANETLY had to decline since I had to drive some guys home..... Otherwise I would have stayed and rolled cigarettes with them all night!!!!! "Hey man, whos the guy with the hat next to Trunksan?"

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2 names that I haven't seen mentioned and are definetly inspired by the Ultimae sound: Allwoods Sudaya

I think I see someone familiar at the 3:38 mark. https://www.facebook.com/rodrigo.dray/videos/10207008759124718/

I believe in honest feedback (in life generally) and I encourage people to point out the negative or neglected issues, especially in work. If we are talking about a free event, then obviously, one can't complain, but when I pay for an event, then I have expectations and I expect some standards to be met and I will go and complain online or even officially (e-mail or letter) if there were problems. Also, it's a way of informing our peers and friends of how things are, negative or positive. Usually the problems are with health and safety, like a dubstep party that I once went to (only because they had Kris Kylven and I expected to listen to UX, which I didn't, since it was a dubstep party) and there were loose wires everywhere and many other safety issues while the crowd was mostly 13-15 years old kids. I, unfortunately, knew one of the guys involved and I almost got into a fight with him, plus the next day I had to bash them online for letting so young kids in a fucking dangerous warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, I think people should speak more openly online about these things.

<off-topic>... back from a business trip in Germany. Went to Frankfurt with my manager and a sound engineer to examine and buy some L-Acoustics gear for the Athens winter club/live venue season (only mentioning it since it's music related). </Off-topic> So it's been like this for a decade... bloody hell The funny thing is that, as with many other events, people go at the facebook event page and write that they enjoyed it and had a great night etc. and I wonder if we went to a different event because all the people that I spoke to there were either making fun of Bansi or were very annoyed like me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I speak with the older guys and there were a lot of young kids (20ish) who, I assume, haven't ever been to a decent event. Anyway, I think there's no need to discuss it any more, I'll just have to check the latest sets of the DJs and artists before I go to their events, lesson learned. P.s Shpongle 24/7, do you live in Brisbane now? I've been to Brisbane and Queensland 4 times, I have relatives who live at the west end so I stay at their place. 3 years ago, the day that I arrived Astrix was playing only 2 blocks away from their house and I found out after a few days. Brisbane is a lovely place!

Last Saturday, probably the most well-organized (F.S.I.), team that host parties in Athens had GMS as special guests; with Bansi only coming since Riktam was ill. I rarely attend their parties since they focus a lot on the progressive sound, so only on extrordinary occasions I go to their parties (like when they had Astral Projection). Anyway, last week they had GMS, so a lot of the people in the GOA/Psy scene were quite excited, since it may be a decade that GMS haven't played in Athens (although I think they played in Thessaloniki 3 years ago) and as much as we bash them for being cheesy, I must admit I've had some great nights in the past at clubs or festivals with GMS. What happened was a total disgrace.... 2,5 hours of absolutely shitty mixing and tottaly shitty tracks. I honestly felt humiliated, even violated, I couldn't believe that we had driven 100+ KM,paid 20 eur at the door + FUCKING 5 eur for a Pepsi to listen to this crap,. Half the songs were remixes of old pop or rock songs like: Eurythmics- Sweet dreams, Police - Sending out an SOS, Depeche mode - Personal jesus, Ac/Dc, Iron Maiden - Fear of the dark and many more that I can't remember now There were times that I though someone was pulling a prank on us: No flow, tracks wouldn't play for more than 3 minutes, constantly stopping to play a sample or for no reason at all. After an hour we were praying that Bansi would come down and one of the proggie guys would come up... at least we would listen to a full track. I blame myself for not having listened to any of their latest sets because if I had, I would have prevented so many other people from going. Finally, I believe if they (and Raja Ram) didn't have their previous fame/old status, we would listen to these tracks and laugh. However, they still get booked and they play this horrendous music that I think even 7 year old kids would find ridiculous. I just don't get it. Like one of my mates said: Who's the one drinking the bad kool-aid??? Me or Him?

You probably won't have noticed me, I usually don't wear anything flashy or wierd, I prefet to stay hidden from the radar. However, I'm sure that you'd have noticed my GF, she's the exact opposite, altough the problem is that she changes her hair style so often that it's confusing. Now it's blond and green and next in line is blue. Anyways! I'm already planning for ZNA 2017!

Concerning the guy next to Joske with the sharong (don't know how this garment is called in English, I know it's not exactly a sharong) and suntrip t-shirt: He was always in front of me at last years SUN and he always wore the same combinbation (Sharong + Suntrip shirt) with different colours. Guess we have similar taste in music and he's probably Belgian if he has so many Suntrip t-shirts. K-Ban, I was wandering if I had passed by you at least years SUN, since afterwards you mentioned at the forum that you wore a GNOTR shirt. It's confirmed from this pic. I had "checked you out" but you were more tanned and scruffy (logical after so much travel and festivals).

A lot of of times the laptop just works as a hard drive and all the mixing gets done via CD decks/mixer so in a way the only thing that changes is that you don't have to put in and take out the CDs. Where, I think, the laptop helps, is that you have the graphic analysis of the track so you can more easily see where there are intros, pauses, peeks etc. Obviously there are a lot of features that software have, that help you manipulate a track but it's not convenient AT ALL unless you have external controllers. Since I'm in the pro audio/pro lighting/live concert business, most people ask for the Pioneer CDJ400 and not the newer CD players, that's because it has proven to be the deck that has the least compatibility problems with sound cards, operating systems and software. So they can hook it up at a computer and use it with no problem.

Lucky me!!!! I'm already planning to go to Japan in Summer 2017 but wouldn't mind a stop at ZNA first!

A few of the Greek old-schoolers were there. Spoke with them after the fest and most of them were ecstatic. I guess you must all have noticed Despina: Short 50+ years old woman with orange hair dancing in trance all day and night, she's a legend around here! She's been going to Goa since the 70s. I hope that this festival will keep going. I can't come next year as I'm planning to go backpacking in India and Nepal but I hope in 2 years time it' ll still be on.

Last year I did SUN... It was good but I was really pissed of with the rain, being from Greece I wasn't prepared for it (I didn't have equipment for my tent area) so a lot of my stuff got wet and I left them behind and I was also very worried about my car. Unfortunanetly ZNA and Connection are too far away for me and I can't leave work in September (Connection). However, a lot of the old-schoolers from Athens are going to ZNA. I think my choice would be Ozora, it's got a decent line-up and it's convenient... Although I've been so many times to Hungary and I'd like to visit other places too. We'll see, maybe a smaller festival in the Balkans... I stay away fron the Greek ones, don't like the vibes or the organisation and the music is not my cup of tea.

Have you gotten better man? I'm talking to ormion. I've also been having a lot of psych stress and problems in the past 6 months. A lot stems from Greece's financial problems which obvioulsy affects everyone in the country. But also a lot of other things: Dead end job nd worrying about future employment renovating my grandmas house and worryin that I won't have enough funds to complete the renovation This has lead me to stop exercising (last yeat I used to run for 2 hours + body weigh exercises, at least 3 times a week) and also stopped doing a lot of things that I enjoyed, which leads to more stress. It' a fuckin circle, I can see it, but I can't find the strength to break it.

Very Similar to my views Joske. Liberal but with social concern for the vulnerable. I believe in the need of a government, but a small one with little interfierence in people's lives and businesses. I would also add the I'm ALL IN for true financial equality/true capitalism. What we have now is more like cronyism or aristocrachy. Big companies have all kinds of means (financial or not) to crush their competition, reaching to the point of even influencing the law makers and the legal system. How can little businesses thrive in an uneven field?? Of course, let's not even get started with the banking system. They say that the business enviroment is the human jungle. I disagree with that, I think nature, albeit cruel, is much fairer than business. No animal has the ability to change the environment, big businesses CAN!

Goa is the locastion in India that I liked the least... Was there 2006 and 2009 both times around November/December. It was mass-tourism galore back then, it seems to be better the past couple of years. Anyway, I reccomend a short visit (3-4 Days) to Hampi, you'll be blown away by the place and it's not too far from Goa.

Happy new year to everyone! Although I reckon it's going to be a disastrous one for our country (Greece)!

It was a nice movie. However, when I left the theatre there was one thought in my head "How the fuck do you survive a black hole???... Give us a break Mr. Nolan"... All the other stuff was great.

Mary And Max was a lovely animated film... Watched it a few days ago.

Just checked some of your videos... I was laughing remembering Shakta's set at S.U.N. because it was really not fitting with the schedule, so I had the alarm clock on in order to wake up and go check him out. I didn't wake up from the alarm but I woke up to "Spiritual beings in Physical bodies" so I run with my mate, sliding down the mud and caught the last ~30 mins of his set... then we went back to sleep.

"Gone Girl" was a great film. It gets a bit slow in the middle (it's a long film) but the last 20 mins are full of tension. Rosamund Pike is PHENOMENAL as Amy (The gone girl), wouldn't be surprised if she wins many awards for this role.

Going to the cinema tonight... to see "Gone girl". Been seeing a lot of films lately (cinema, rental or download) some that I enjoyed on top of my head: Stranger than fiction Guardians of the galaxy Kick-ass 1 & 2 (I thought no1 was great) Enter the void Tropa De Elite 1 & 2 ( Brazilian films, no2 was better) I want to see "boyhood" and "relatos selvajes (argentinian film)"... Been told that both are masterpieces, but unfortunately they are not played anymore at the cinemas around here, so I'll have to wait to download them.... Also couldn't catch "Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?", which was a big summer hit in Greek cinemas. It's always difficult to catch these limited releases.

Odiolab play live!

That's actually a very good price for a hoodie!

I don't think I saw you elsewhere, I just noticed the shirt, must have been Saturday afternoon. I couldn't have know you were a psynewer then... I Stayed up all night, from Younger Brother until Boom Shankar. Etnica/Pleiadians, although not old-school, was, for me, the peak of the festival, everyone went mental! I was also too tired so I hardly danced at Filteria, MWNN, Hallucinogen, James Monro, Bumbling Noons. I also had a bit of a panic attack about my car so I could't enjoy those sets, I was worried about the state of the car because it was full of mud and we had about 2000km to travel for Athens, but my friends calmed me down and in fact we went to a nearby village to wash it the day after.... only to be greeted again by rain just a couple of hours after washing it... I went crazy went it started to rain on Sunday afternoon... I told the guys: "NO MORE RAIN, WE ARE GOING TO A HOTEL" which we did, we packed in the rain and left, missing the last 5-6 hours of the festival. Looking back, I'm dissapointed that I missed Slinky Wizard. All the other acts (except bumbling loons) that day, I've seen on several occasions, but I've never caught Slinky Wizard. Talking about Vibrashpere (Robert), I was at the chill stage (OTT) when he was supposed-to-be closing the main stage for the afternoon and then was due to play after OTT, which he did because I heard some tracks from the Archipelago album from my tent after I left the chill, but if I remember well, there was about 1.5 hours delay that afternoon. To be honest, as Vibrashpere, I've heard Richard several times and all have been great, while this year in Athens was the first I heard Robert (Robert has a fear of planes so it's rare that you see him outside of Sweden) and I didn't like it at all. Any acts that surpised you (positively or not) at S.U.N.?? For me, everyone that I expected to be good/great, they were, except for Prana which was So-So. The list would be huge so I won't bother mentioning them. The only one that I was pleasantly surpised from was Gaudium, realy enjoyed it. All the others were what I expected them to be.