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Anyone been to a GMS gig the past 5 years?


Trunksan

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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?

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March 2013, Maitreya Festival. One of Australia's best parties.

 

~4am, having witnessed an outstanding Young Kim set preceded by Chromatone, Terrafractyl, Headroom and others, the night was going very nicely. Hypnocoustics were coming up next for the sunrise session.

 

Up steps Riktam to play a GMS set that emptied half the dancefloor and nearly ruined my whole vibe. All the pop songs above and more. When the 1200 Micrograms medley was the least cheesy part of the set, you're in trouble.

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it wasn't quite as bad when i saw them in 2009. mind you, the age of love remix and arabian knights on mescaline were the best tracks they played (so yeah, it was pretty bad), but at least there was neither excessive singing nor excessive breaks like in the set by astrix who played before them.

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I have seen them "live" some years ago as well but probably a bit earlier than the years you mention (must have been 2006) and it was an early incarnation of what later was to be: playing badly remixed commercial hits for their whole set.

 

Back when I saw them they were playing some of their own music too, so it wasn't just that but from what I read here, it seems they've now got worst. I wonder, where is their creativity gone? And then I remind myself of where they live and what they do all day long, so the conclusion it's easy: it's their lifestyle and the party island where they live that influenced their creativity. Back when they created their monstrously good albums they were young, living the dream in Amsterdam and had something unique to say. Their madly acid driven tracks are a shadow in the past and it's a pity, they could have just stopped producing and maintain a legendary status. I have no idea if any of their latest album is any good but the last interesting output i have heard from them was the GMS & Amigos in y2k.

 

my 2c

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they played here in byron bay few months back... didn't go...they were billed as 1200 mics, not sure if chicago or raj was there

sorry for your trauma

to much coca cola and ibiza me thinking!

beats me how promoters continue to book them

but i guess so many people still love their trash!

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This past season in Goa, far too many times unfortunately..

My sentiments would echo many, quite frankly, they sucked and are/were not my cup of tea at all.

 

When you have to "try" to stay on a dancefloor and "give it one more track/mix" you know something is wrong..

I walked away at numerous parties until the next act started and I tried to stay in all kinds of sober/non sober states. Either way it was just shite.

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<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!

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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.

 

Whilst some of it is related to age and proper psy-heads not getting in to that stuff, more so I think this is just that in the psy scene the good people are genunely good people who aren't inclined to spread hate.

 

When I saw GMS in 2013 they cleared half the dancefloor. Half stayed and absolutely loved it, half went to bed. There were a few particular moments where several people actually left in disgust (i.e. the Fat Boy slim remix).

A browse of the festival's facebook page the following week had post after post talking about how much they loved GMS. Or similarly "who was that guy at 4:30am on the main stage? That was awesome!" ... But over the last two days of that festival I spoke to many people who couldn't stand what they heard.

 

I had a similar experience at a small party in Portugal last year. I spent the summer going mostly from big party to big party and in late September saw a small party in Portugal with a varied lineup so I thought I'd experience a more authentic Portugese vibe than say, Boom or Freedom Festival while en route to Spain for Connection. A party with Scorb, Antispin, Dickster extended set, Kindzadza, Cosmo, Rocky, Ace Ventura, Sensient and a few others seemed hard to get wrong.

But the vibe was all wrong. A jaded crowd standing around rather than dancing, almost no decor, repeatedly letting the generator run out of fuel, and close to no food options. A real arrogant coca crowd, the total wrong vibe. It never really got going like it should have, the same party in many places would be dancefloor chaos.

 

A number of Portugese people were almost apologising to me, saying that they have much better small parties than that and it wasn't representative of their true local scene. Lots of people left early.

... But again, a trawl through their facebook page after the event showed nothing but happy people. The many disappointed people didn't invest energy venting online.

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Whilst some of it is related to age and proper psy-heads not getting in to that stuff, more so I think this is just that in the psy scene the good people are genunely good people who aren't inclined to spread hate.

 

When I saw GMS in 2013 they cleared half the dancefloor. Half stayed and absolutely loved it, half went to bed. There were a few particular moments where several people actually left in disgust (i.e. the Fat Boy slim remix).

A browse of the festival's facebook page the following week had post after post talking about how much they loved GMS. Or similarly "who was that guy at 4:30am on the main stage? That was awesome!" ... But over the last two days of that festival I spoke to many people who couldn't stand what they heard.

 

I had a similar experience at a small party in Portugal last year. I spent the summer going mostly from big party to big party and in late September saw a small party in Portugal with a varied lineup so I thought I'd experience a more authentic Portugese vibe than say, Boom or Freedom Festival while en route to Spain for Connection. A party with Scorb, Antispin, Dickster extended set, Kindzadza, Cosmo, Rocky, Ace Ventura, Sensient and a few others seemed hard to get wrong.

But the vibe was all wrong. A jaded crowd standing around rather than dancing, almost no decor, repeatedly letting the generator run out of fuel, and close to no food options. A real arrogant coca crowd, the total wrong vibe. It never really got going like it should have, the same party in many places would be dancefloor chaos.

 

A number of Portugese people were almost apologising to me, saying that they have much better small parties than that and it wasn't representative of their true local scene. Lots of people left early.

... But again, a trawl through their facebook page after the event showed nothing but happy people. The many disappointed people didn't invest energy venting online.

 

Yeap. I know and I understand the Portuguese scene has a lot to learn aswel. :)

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... But again, a trawl through their facebook page after the event showed nothing but happy people. The many disappointed people didn't invest energy venting online.

 

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.

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... But again, a trawl through their facebook page after the event showed nothing but happy people. The many disappointed people didn't invest energy venting online.

especially in the psy scene you'll quickly get attacked for "bringing negative energy" or "destroying the shanti vibe" when you point out negative things. i've long given up on that.

appropriately, if you look on goabase you'll see that 99% of the parties are rated as "very good" or "exceptional, one of a kind" with only a tiny fraction rated as "average" or worse...

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Two years back . It was a semi outdoor - indoor party . could spot some old faces from the psy scene and i think everyone just stuck around hoping they'll play something wicked , but that never ended up happening. I find it strange how GMS turned from being a really good full on spy act to the kind of pop psy act they are now, pretty much rings true for all artists who were making fabulous music between 2001-2004 that are still playing now.

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