oh, what long, strange and beautiful days and nights we find ourselves amidst. how the road has extended out before us in magical waves and how so many tales have found their way into our hearts, so many beautiful moments to carry and treasure for the evermore. once again i find myself briefly back at the decorative stamp safehouse and with some moments to ponder, to recollect and to try to detail further facts in the case of the dyxz.rndr tour, which most-gladly became the dyxz.born.rndr tour in time for us to travel through deutschland, switzerland and the czech republic in the time since i have been able to word my last transmission.
how it seems so magnificently curious to have to cast ones mind back to only some weeks ago for it to feel like so many moons, but how i can only state that the majestic throes of the 55mm2 festival in mulheim do feel like some beautifully distant dream of a thousand lifetimes ago now. still, how a magnificent time it truly was, a glorious enterprise and how it afforded us such musical treats, such astonishing atmospheres and such warm times with the dearest skribble-pott family members, the souslespaves family members and the whole ruhrpott extended family indeed; not to mention a host of staggeringly talented musicians from near and far.
spread across two days at the AZ in mulheim, the festival was put together by the ever-marvelous souslespaves folk and featured a mouth-watering line-up of stoner-sludge-doom-drone-experiemental-dark-jazz-metal-improv bands, installations, artwork exhibitions and an afterparty effortlessly guided by the skibble-dj's twin-powerhouses in the form of tofuland and frau keludowig. an event to be keenly anticipated for sure and how expectations were soon met and subsequently vastly overwhelmed by the final magnificence of the overall experience.
dyxz and i were scheduled to play on the saturday, but were particularly keen to find ourselves in attendance on friday night that we could witness the observatory take to the stage in all their unrelenting majesty. should you be unfamiliar with the sounds of these astonishingly wonderful folk from singapore then i can only wholeheartedly recommend you investigate their material directly. how they effortless transcend styles and genres, but this night saw them evoking a monolithic display of doomy-stoner riffs juxtaposed with improv-jazz passages and ethereal soothing moments of fragile beauty; a truly hypnotic and mesmerising performance indeed.
with our appetites truly whetted for the saturday, dyxz and i were sure to find ourselves at the AZ in good times and were quickly exchanging the glad-hand with all and sundry and getting ourselves set up onstage in time for our opening-act performance. before long the whole ruhrpott family began to arrive in their droves; far, far too many dear souls to mention individually, but how it soon felt very much like a family gathering in a wonderfully familiar location and a full evening of astonishing music to look forward to. such magical times indeed.
still, how time was marching on and dyxz and i quickly took to the stage, had the lights set down to the darkest possible red hues and began our set; our second official performance together. with great fortune we had managed to have ourselves a particularly successful soundcheck and thusly the performance was nothing less than an absolute pleasure. as i recall we kept the whole performance pretty blackened, carefully extracting the darkest atmospheres we could and evoking a long ease only punctuated by some moments of frightening still. how it felt like the ceremony had worked and the spell had successfully elicited dreams of distant spectral lands, but, moreover, how the response from our dear audience was most enthusiastic and offered us the greatest warmth imaginable. a true honour and delight indeed.
but it was only the beginning. the night continued with truly marvelous performances from all of the acts; not all of which i was able to catch in full, but i can wholeheartedly report that the mighty colaris did perform exceptionally, perhaps my own favourite performance of the night was from the exceptional orange swan, who i would very much recommend checking out if you can imagine a perfect marriage of stoner-doom and post-rock and a lot more betwixt. perhaps n & [ b o l t ] offered the most hypnotic and mesmerising performance of the night with their astonishing ambient explorations of ulow-frequencies, evoking the path that the legendary earth and sunn o))) have opened up for us all. still, the mighty blckwvs also unleashed epic riffs of low-end majesty to conclude the live room ceremonyltra-. but, furthermore, how each of these performances were effortleslly punctuated by improv sessions from the wonderful dharma and bani from the observatory, treating us to guitar, clarinet and percussion invocations of endlessly permutating fascination; a very real treat indeed.
yet still, the night switched gears in astonishingly effortless fashion as the stage was cleared and the twin skribble-dj legends tofuland and frau keludowig began their back-to-back dj set and how i can only report that they absolutely destroyed the dancefloor for the rest of the evening. an impossibly effortless blend of astonshing idm-related sounds which only served to offer the party people such magnificent rhythms to dance to, but also offered astonishingly mind-bending sounds for the avid listener to try to get their heads around; art and dance beautifully married in one cohesive whole, as always. the skribble-dj teams speciality indeed. for my own part i found myself moving between the dancefloor and the comfort of the sofas to take in the myriad hypnotic sounds and the always fascinating and warming conversations with the skribble-family.
but the night grew later and later and how we were all slowly reduced to administering the farewell hugs in increasing waves. how it had been such a special time, and how fitting it seemed as a final farewell to the skribble-pott family for dyxz and i as it would mark the beginning of our touring officially, our next stop being karlsruhe and then beyond. but what better way to temporarily end our time in our spiritual home than to share such a dear and wonderful evening with such dear and wonderful souls. how we would ride south with a great warmth in our hearts and a flickering light to which we knew would would soon return.
...so, might we once again offer such great thanks, warmth and love to the whole skribble-family, the whole souslespaves family, the whole shiny toys family and the whole extended ruhrpott family... glory days and nights indeed...
next field report - blackened tone poems from the industrial district
jamesreindeer,
mainz, deutshland
14th june 2013
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