Since Saturday was going to be the final day of the full Sonar experience, we woke ready to get fully involved in everything that is festival, Spanish and summer.. – and with an impending bout of overcast weather, we thought it best to start the day soaking up some of the Spanish rays on one of the beaches. For three members of the team – myself, Taryn and Gordon – this could not have been a more welcome idea as we had all been landlocked in London for the previous two months and the excitement to get into seawater was definitely shared.

It must be said that Cape Town has a way to go from the all too familiar “ice cream, cold drinks, lollies” of the Clifton area to the full toot of Barcelona beaches – the place was teeming with people selling cocktails, beers, fans, sun-mats and… oh yes… massages. To date I have not found a level of luxury on any beach that could have compared to this. Taiwanese woman were all over the beach offering massages for what we initially thought would cost a fortune and actually turned out to be the most measly amount. Chris got involved straight away, with the rest of us very quickly following. An hour later, 5 Euros poorer (yes 5 euros – I almost feel as though I made money!) and totally relaxed, we had our first drink of the day. A massage followed by a mojito on the beach – heaven! Factor into that the seawater and the most amazing banana ice cream I’ve ever had, the day really could not have been more perfect.

It was decided to have a full seafood cook up and pre drinks before the final Sonar by Night session. Another special mention – who knew that Gordon was a budding chef? While Taryn was having a sleep, myself and Chris chatted while he did his famous routine of flicking through songs on his laptop, and all the while Gordon had disappeared into the kitchen and slaved away to make the most incredible seafood mash-up. I’m talking calamari, fish, mussels, prawns, sauces, salad and chips. Wow – what a legend.

With dinner and several Coronas down, as well as Taryn’s tequila that had actually become an almost ritualistic precursor of our Barcelona nights out, we got ready and once again headed off to the Sonar by Night venue in time for the start of Underworld’s set.

Underworld is a very well known electronic duo that started in the 80s, but found huge fame with the release of the movie Trainspotting. The track “Born Slippy” is still a track known even by some of most die-hard anti-electronic people. We arrived right at the beginning of their set and experienced an hour of what can only be described as a full blown rave. They played all of their classics, some remixed and some original, to a stadium-size crowd and with the most incredible lighting and PA set up imaginable. It was amazing to see these guys play. They must be in their late forties at least – true rockstars – and outshone many of the other artists of the festival. Here is a video of them performing Born Slippy that night, truly an incredibly show.

Up next was what I had been looking forward to for the whole of the festival – Paul Kalkbrenner playing on the open-air SonarPub floor. Everyone seemed to have piled onto that floor for his set, the place was absolutely packed! He played everything any of us could’ve want him to play, “Altes Kamuffel”, “Bengang”, “Torted”, and closed with the track that made me fall in love with him in the first place, “Sky and the Sand”. I am not sure whether it was the vodka, the awesomeness of the team we had during that hour, the sun rising while we were in the open air, or what, but I experienced one of the most incredible moments of my life while he was playing that track. Oh, the nostalgia I am feeling while writing this!

By the time James Holden came on, the sun was already up and the place was still full of people. He brought everything back down with a more deep.techno, allowing all of us to chill out a little bit after the madness of the night – the perfect way to end off Sonar by Night of 2011.

Thank you to such an awesome crew for the most insane experience. Same time, same place in 2012.

Love Anthea xxx

I’d love to say that, regardless of any hangover, the novelty of being in Spain had Taryn and I awake early and ready to start the day. However, were it not for the guys’ harassing phone calls I think we’d have easily slept the morning away. Eventually we managed to get ourselves up and head down to Sonar by Day, first to the Press office to collect my Dont Party Media Accreditation, and then to find out exactly what it is that makes Sonar the no. 1 rated festival in Europe.

Sonar by Day is a lot more eclectic than the more obvious strobe, high-decibel rave-orientated night time affair. The day session incorporates many different styles of music, a music technology exhibition and digital art – all laid out at the CCCB in the city centre. In the earlier parts of the day, a relaxed vibe is created around the main stage with mainly more chilled Indie Electro and Disco being played. Everyone sits on the astroturf, either nursing pain from the night before or energising for the day to come. The expo tents house companies such as Novation, Ableton and Virus, all demonstrating the latest in technology. I realised then just how many people in the world are highly skilled in, and base their lives around, electronic music. The tents were teeming with people, some playing amazing piano pieces on the keyboards, others remixing tracks from scratch, or the all-knowing and effortless use of even the most intimidating synths.

Although my sentiments didn’t seem to be shared, I thought this was the perfect time for the first drink of the day – I mean, it was 5pm somewhere in the world and I was in Spain. Red bull and vodka in hand, I started to explore the area where all of the art was held. One thing to know about me – I may know enough about music and travelling to be able to fill a page of at least half interesting writing, but I know absolutely nothing about art, which is a pity as I think I would’ve gained a lot more from the it were I artistically educated. What I can say is that it was fundamentally digital art, with many computerised pieces, a lot of which were interactive and involved abstract takes on things such as pixelation effects. See the gallery for some pictures.

On the way back upstairs we went through the SonarHall and saw a band that was probably a highlight of the Sonar Day – a Barcelona-based electronic band Stendhal Syndrome playing in a dark hall, the perfect juxtaposition given the time of day relative to their sound – a moody, downtempo trip hop. This is a group that I think will do really well in the future. They have a great stage presence and are emo, yet dynamic and interesting in their sound. Although this isn’t what I would usually listen to or am generally well-acquainted with, I did find them really cool. Here’s a link to their soundcloud.

http://soundcloud.com/stendhalsyndrome

Look at that, educational on all fronts on that Friday morning! Who said you can’t drink and learn simultaneously?

Our day was cut short by the arrival of the last member of our crew, the El Gordo man himself, and we had to move all of our luggage from the hotel to the apartment that we’d all be staying in for the rest of the weekend. I still fail to understand why we didn’t opt for the taxi option. After an hour, a million flights of stairs, equally as many broken escalators and 30 degree heat, we arrived at our new abode. Special mention (again) to Chris for being such a champion and carrying my bag up the majority of the stairs. What a legend.

Sonar by Night is located on a huge warehouse-style property a little drive outside the city. Broken up into four massive sections, two open-air and all with incredible soundsystems, this venue could literally hold tens of thousands of people. And it did. At first glance the progression of artists on the line up is seemingly non-existent – I remember looking at the roster and wondering how on earth they had created such a haphazard order of artists. I realised though that it didn’t matter at all, as the line up in its entirety catered to every kind of musical preference and it was really easy to move around from floor to floor to optimise your personal experience of the night.

Playing an early set was one of the headliners, the very well-known Trentemoller. Musically, this hour was arguably unmatched by any of the other artists at Sonar – what I thought would be a DJ set was in fact a 7-piece band, playing the most ambient and intricate versions of all of his classics. He opened with what must have been a twenty minute intro, a slow, moody and journey-like piece, with a mixture of a keyboard, synths, a bass guitar, and even an electric guitar being played with a horsehair (violin) bow. This hour may not have been a headbanging and crazy set, but it definitely set the bar for the night, and it was clearly evident that all of the thousands of people in that room were appreciating every moment of its beauty.

A mention must be made about Scuba, who played a set that all of us enjoyed. His full-bass rolling techno, which reminded me a lot of Dubfire in his prime, was definitely one of the strongest sets of the night.

Three o’clock came, and with that was what I had been looking forward to (with much scepticism) the whole night. Die Antwoord were about to start in the ‘SonarPub’ room. We made our way through and got the last few minutes of Steve Aoki’s set. I had seen him that night at Assembly, and wasn’t overly impressed with his show, but that Sonar gig forced me to completely change my opinion of him. He had a crowd of thousands of people going crazy to his thrash electro, incredibly powerful voice and crazy stage antics – something that I thought that any succeeding artist would struggle to take over from… Enter Die Antwoord. The intro was really quite disturbing to be honest. Effective, but disturbing – on the screen was just the face of Leon Botha, the DJ with Progeria who had died two weeks before, while dark chords were playing. This must’ve lasted at least five minutes – until that all-familiar high pitched voice started.

As much as I, and many others, have had a lot to say about their sound and how they might be downplaying the genuine musical talent in South Africa, all of these thoughts quickly disappeared the minute they walked on stage. I had no idea how big they have become! Opening with their flagship ‘Enter the Ninja’, they had created a warehouse-full moshpit of thousands of people, from all over the world, jamming and singing along to the duo. It genuinely was a proud moment watching a South African group put on a performance like that!

What a great way to end Sonar Friday!

Sending lots of love xxx

Anthea

The Mix n Blend band recently hit up the little isles of Reunion to play and party for a good solid week! Here’s what went down…

It’s early Sunday morning and we’re on the Gautrain heading to O.R.Tambo airport from Sandton.

For anyone who hasn’t been on it yet, we can highly recommend it! It takes us 15min to get to the airport and we get out basically inside the airport.

After an hour’s worth of writing out each and every serial number of our tech as well as for Ej von Lyrik’s band (who also came along ), we manage to get onto the plane. The serial number problem is due to customs wanting to charge you for every piece of tech that you bring back into the country, and now they’ve got new forms where you can only put two items per form, which meant we had to fill out about 30 of them all in all.

After a 4 hour plane trip we arrive and have a bus waiting for us. We’re slightly delayed going through customs due to the language barrier and our trombonist Ross Mc Donald’s sudden urge to give a naughty smile to the customs officials which ended in him being questioned in french for 10 min.

Finally we arrive at our Hotel (Hotel De Sud) and are welcomed with cocktails and the medicine bottle shaped local beer le Dodo!

Day off! The band went off to see the island, some beached and some went for hikes to see the beautiful sights both of the female and landscape from.

On this day we were bussed off to Saint Gilles to a venue called Karbadock for the INDIAN OCEAN MUSIC CONFERENCE. Basically this was a 3 day conference for booking agents and festival organisers from the entire Indian ocean sector, allowing them to get together, network and see some of the bands on offer.

We are one of the bands performing for them all.

Sound check at 2pm, gig at 10pm that evening…with lots of time in between to kill.

Some of us found a food stall around the corner and were treated to some very nice food and very friendly locals. Poor Crosby managed to be befriended by what could be best described as the only bergie on the island. He decided that he was to return to the venue with us and play his non-exsistant Saxophone with us for our performance. Luckily his attention span lasted about 2 blocks and he then veered off to harass some other folks.

10pm: We’re on for our performance, a private one for the conference delegates…no pressure!

We gave it our all playing up tempo music to a bunch of people lined up against the back wall just listening and taking notes; these gigs are very difficult when there is no crowd to feed off but full props to the band for giving a great performance in the end.

Once the performance was over we were bustled into the bus and back to the hotel for more Rhum and DODO beer.

Another day off, barring a phone interview for a British Blog Site. Once again the band split up between stunning hikes into the island, Watching girls and surfing . Some just stayed at the hotel and got their drink on! One thing you must know about ordering rhum in Reunion is that if you ask for a double, you will get a tall glass filled up to the brim (about 8 shots). So some of the band members had a lot of fun with this….until the next morning that is.

Most of the day was spent relaxing…the band mostly commenting on how hard life is when you can’t decide whether to Jacuzzi or to pool, whilst drinking good rum and beer.

Ej and her band went off for soundcheck in the afternoon and we all headed down to Saint Pierre that evening for the free festival.

Basically they have a few stages dotted around the beach road of St Pierre where all the restaurants are, and everyone just meanders up and down watching all the bands and enjoying the food and drinks that are on offer.

Ej’s band was on at 2am in a small venue which made for a packed crowd and great atmosphere!

Jon and I were just doing a DJ set this evening from 2am till 5am! (Been a while since we’ve played past 4am) Which was well received; the club owner was dancing in the Dj booth with us!

After the gig we arrive back to the hotel to find half the members of both bands have all managed to lock themselves out of their rooms, by either losing their key cards or by locking their cards in the rooms.

So out came more rhum and the party continued, with some people climbing around from other balconies to get into their rooms and others just waiting up until the reception opened and they could be let into the rooms.

UUUUUGFH! Hangovers are the order of the day for many! Which was cured by good food and more beer by the pool…or by the jacuzzi…or the pool….oh it was just so hard to decide.

The Sakifo Festival Started today and we all wanted to go down to catch Cesario Evora give one of her final performances before retirement. After an amazing performance by her we wandered around catching a few other bands before the day got the better of us and we all headed back to the hotel for some rest.

Performance day!

As we were the last band on our stage, we had first soundcheck at 9 30am! All the weary heads were bussed down to St. Pierre and onto the stage for soundcheck. The sound engineers in Reunion are super jacked! They made every single band that played sound great, often a luxury here in SA.

After a great soundcheck on an amazing rig we all headed home to get some rest before the late gig that evening.

Jon and I had to head back down to St Pierre in the afternoon for a rather unique kind of interview: basically they had 3 bands playing for the Alain Peters’s Prize which, if they won, would get them a slot at the Sakifo festival as well as a recording contract with Sakifo records and some other cool things.

Our job was to watch all 3 bands and then give comments on each and eventually give our say on who should win, like island pop idols of some sort.

Both of us felt very unprepared as we were both saying something along the lines of “wtf do we know about bands?” as well as being the kind of people who find it hard to be critical. So we sat and watched, trying to give our best comments and remain constructive rather than negative. Fortunately for us the final band that came on with lead singer Yaelle Trules, completely blew everyone out of the water so our final decision was made easy. Keep an ear out for the name as she is definitely going places!

That evening we were taken down to the Sakifo festival round 10pm and all of us started preparing for the show.

Ej von Lyrik and the Champions were on at 11 30pm on another stage at the festival and absolutely killed it! With appearances by Teba, Raggasoulja and Mpumi..

By the end they had the crowd screaming for more.

We were also lucky enough to catch a personal favourite Alice Russell, who’s show was fantastic.

Ross and Lee also Stumbled upon a band which they said gave new meaning to going off on stage. Yes this is possible without a bass synth smashing your face in.

On our stage, 2 Australian bands were on before us; Blue king Brown and Bombay Royale, both of which had great sets and got the crowd jumping and screaming.

02 00: We’re on! Great stage, awesome crowd and a huge sound system…what more could you want. The show was great and we even had Mr Sakitumi himself running around the stage with a camera filming us (Video will be ready soon).

We were on a rather hefty time limit schedule to the fact that our plane was leaving so early and if we did not end at 3 30am exactly, we would most likely miss our flight and be stuck there till the Following Thursday, which was when the next possible flight was. Thinking back it wouldn’t have been a bad thing at all.

So after dropping a few songs from the set list mid set and having Ej and Crosby rock the crowd into oblivion we ended on time all very happy with the performance! It was straight onto the buss and off to the airport. A 2 hour wait in JHB and then back to CT arriving at 3pm local time (36 hours without sleep and a performance in between!)

A big thank you to all the organisers of Sakifo who really made our stay an incredible one once again.

Such a trip helps to make you realise that there is so much good music out there. It’s not always about how hard you can make a Dubstep or Dnb track or whether you can make a dancefloor smash their brains into the back of their heads.

Music is about so much more than that and this is often forgotten back home.

So if you are tired of just hearing the next heavy bassline, here are some suggestions for you!

Cesaria Evoria
Alice Russell
Ej von Lyrik and the Champions
Blue King Brown
Bombay Royale
Tony Allen
Yaele Trules

Big love,

The Mix n Blend Band

LA PHOTOS

Click here if you missed part 1

There is a certain sense of calm in the wake of something life-changing. Sitting at the airport with my laptop, headphones on and cigarette in hand, these are moments when I understand the energy that is created in movies as part of an opening scene, perhaps before you are taken back in time to witness what was experienced, – those quiet, contemplative moments when trying to recall everything that had just happened.

Over the past few years I have heard about Sonar from many different people, all trying to describe how mind-blowing it is – the energy, the festival, the quality and diversity of the line-ups, off-Sonar parties and the art – but, as I have realised, unfortunately no words could do justice to what goes down over that five day period in Barcelona. Rated as Europe’s top festival, it came as no surprise to realise that Sonar is nothing like all of the many other generic festivals. It is a totally multi-faceted, alternative and rather eccentric form of musical and digital art experience that attracts over 90,000 people every year. With a series of posts over the next few days I will try to describe the mayhem and brilliance of the festival, and get everyone to understand exactly why they should try to experience it themselves at some point in their lifetime.

Thursday started with the Resident Advisor Rooftop party featuring Cassy, Ovum Recordings legend Josh Wink, Claude VonStroke and a Space Dimension Controller set on the rooftop of Hotel Diagonal in the middle of Barcelona. Think pool party with panoramic views of the entire city and the RA stamp on a line up which could only ensure top musical quality. Myself, along with Blush n Bass’s Taryn Pickett and Killer Robot’s Bruno Morphet spent the afternoon taking in the first few moments of what was going to end up being one of the best experiences of our lives.

Then it started – Chris Jack called to give us directions to some random fruit stand near Las Ramblas, a few stops away. With the pre-drinks down, and myself happily skipping down the road to the next party, life couldn’t have been more perfect. It was hot, such a welcome change from London’s misery, and I had some of my South African friends with me (and was about to see the rest of the crew). Apparently all we had to do to find the venue was to listen for music when we arrived at Las Ramblas. After several failed attempts, run-ins with the (really strange) policemen, and arguing over who got the group lost – I still maintain that it wasn’t me, Taryn tells me to ask for flower stands, not fruit stands, I can’t be held responsible for her error – we hear the all-familiar sound of a muffled kick drum. Just off the plaza is a maze of fruit markets, with an amazing energy that made me feel as though I had just stepped into some previous Aladdin-esque time. Down the path, there it was – Richie Hawtin and Marco Carola playing back-to-back from a fruit stand in the open air to about two thousand people! There we joined the rest of our crew, in what we realised to be some sort of South African dj meeting – myself, Taryn, both Killer Robot members and Chris Jack drinking Sangria and listening to Techno. From a fruit stand. In the sun… Bliss.

Being Thursday, the actual Sonar festival had not yet started, but there were many off-Sonar options for what to do that night. We decided on the Visionquest beach party. I will never understand why Cape Town can’t have parties like these – situated literally on the beach with a huge soundsystem playing to thousands of people, seemingly without a care in the world and just loving every minute of it. A bit about Visionquest – it is the new ‘it’ brand of techno culture, primarily functioning as a record label, and is run by heavyweights Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtis and Shaun Reeves. Apparently all four of these guys have known each other from a young age and grew up in Detroit. They all moved to Berlin at similar times to chase the same dream, to become well-respected DJs, and ended up becoming one of the strongest forces in the electronic scene.

Thursday night was one of the best parts of the whole trip. Musically it was perfect, and I’ve noticed something that seems to be an indication of where electronic music is headed – funk is back! When I say funk, please erase any kind of Opium-related memory you may have right now. I am not talking about Funky House. At all. I am talking about old-school 60s/70s James Brown- and Prince-inspired rhythmic electric bass-orientated groove. It brings back such a level of sexiness to music – even the most die-hard electro fans would be able to appreciate what was being played that night.

Some of the group realised that there was an entire weekend to go, and that this whole day had merely been a warm-up to the actual event, so didn’t feel that throwing too much name was the best idea. So we went to bed (yes, I know, seriously). Chris (still dubbed Get-off-the-Wall) being the trooper that he is, stayed on long after we left, and had managed to get into the backstage area although subsequently got kicked out by angry bouncers who weren’t too happy about him drinking an illegal €1 beer. How did I miss that!

Check out the pics! Even got one with Steve Bug! Legend.

Love to everyone

Anthea x

Click here if you missed part 1

So it’s been a year. A whole year. I almost feel obliged to be a bit depressed about the fact that time has gone so quickly… One year since I started my blog, since I packed up all of my things and embarked on a musical adventure across Europe. After a month in Germany, arguably the heart of Techno, several trips to Ibiza – including one for the IMS (international Music Conference) – a week in Amsterdam and plenty of time on London, I came back to Cape Town having just had the most incredible four months of my entire life. I saw more artists live than I could ever have imagined – Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, Deadmau5, Monika Kruse, Sasha, Adam Beyer, Josh Wink and Chris Lake, to name a few – became (almost too) well acquainted with Fabric in London and met some hugely influential people in the industry. On top of all of this I had an amazing holiday and on either side of it I played two incredible gigs, one in Kenya and the other in Dubai. Okay, I am now depressed.. Time machine please?

This year things are going to be slightly different – I will be visiting places that I didn’t visit last year, and spending more time in each place, as opposed to the four month whirlwind of trains, planes, taxis, more trains, backpackers, and then some. This statement, of course, does not hold for Ibiza – there is no chance that I will be missing the mayhem of the White Isle while I am in Europe.

Right now I am in Milan. I have totally fallen in love with this city.

Milan, as the metropolitan part of the country, is considered to be “less Italian” than places such as Florence, Venice and Rome. It lacks the lengthy history, the story-telling architecture, and the romanticism that is generally associated with Italy. And where smaller towns have family-run restaurants serving home-cooked meals, Milan is more americanised. Nevertheless, the people here are the friendliest of any I’ve ever met and the city still manages to retain that creative/cultural Italian feel – there are exhibitions everywhere, art galleries, quaint deli’s, vintage markets, photoshoots… and models. Lot’s of models. With it being the modelling season in Europe, and Milan being at the heart of the European fashion world, this place becomes home to hundreds of the world’s most beautiful people. It would sometimes seem that, due to this, Milan holds an air of arrogance and pretence – but if ignored, it really can be the most fun city in the summertime.

As a warning to the girls – Italian men could be deemed a different species entirely. I’ve learnt that their “Italian Stallion” reputation is a total fallacy – unless your idea of ‘Stallion’ involves men who sit on the side of the road whistling at every woman who walks by. “Ciao Bellissimo, Ciao Bellissimo” being the most common phrase. This isn’t only the men in construction or on lunch breaks from work – most of the Italian men really do have no shame. Married men walking with their wives will happily stop and stare at anything that even remotely resembles another female (anywhere else in the world I’m quite sure that said wife would’ve delivered a solid right hook in this situation). I even experienced a priceless moment involving a guy on a bike and a near-collision with a car. I maintain that that is not because I’m special – this behaviour is pretty much standard with every girl. Having said that though, I did meet and party with some awesome guys, and the perverted ways of everyone else has provided so much entertainment – I literally couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous they were.

From a musical point of view, Milan seems to have a long way to go to catch up to her European neighbours. The pretence of the city obviously extends to the nightlife – clubs filled with beautiful people, David Guetta-type tunes playing and champagne everywhere – think midsummer’s night in Camps Bay. I’ve done research, and it seems that there is not much of an electronic scene here, other than a club called Plastic, which isn’t often open, and the rest of the (few) clubs that do play techno are very strongly linked to the gay community and apparently not entirely safe. In fact, the closest that I have been to techno while I’ve been here was a car parked outside of my apartment playing Paul Kalkbrenner – a hugely welcomed change from the usual Rihanna or J Lo reverberating through the block, but still a far cry from any kind of musical education I may have hoped to have gained in this city.

Without much to tell from a musical perspective, this first post of my trip serves more as an introduction to the blog than anything else. Although I will be so sad to leave here (and my awesome roommate) there are some amazing things lined up for this trip which I hope will keep you entertained and interested over the next four months of the European summer. On the cards are events such as the LED Festival in London, Sonar in Barcelona, Hamburg (and hopefully a quick stop by in Berlin), and a few weeks in Ibiza in August. Who knows, perhaps I may even manage to convince a few of you to come over!

Love to my beautiful South Africa xxx

Anthea

GALLERY

LINKS

• ANTHEA ON FACEBOOK
• ANTHEA ON TWITTER

Check it out, here is a little vid that VJ Grrrl put together of our tour in the place of holey cheese: Switzerland.

Check us at the Loft Cafe (Lausanne), part of the Electrosanne Festival 2010 and at Zoo Usine/ le Zoo (Geneva), which featured amazing multi-projection screens! A real treat for the Grrrl to perform with.

Huge thanks to Diapazona, EJ von Lyrik, Grenville Williams and the venues for making this possible.

PICS FROM THE TOUR

FREE TRACK FROM ME!

So earlier I gave away the track Element Of Supplies [click] with the launch of my home made musical video on Dont Party, given out through African Dope. Well here is track two of the build to my album drop next year entitled: Imperial Bass Walker. To get it click HERE and sign up to the mailing list… simple, no??

MORE SAKITUMI?

• me on facebook!

Check out the previous entries here :: Haezer London & Europe Tour Diary Entry I | Haezer London & Europe tour diary entry II | Haezer London & Europe Tour Diary Entry III

5 days. 2 hours sleep each day. things are a bit strange…

when on tour going from party to party, club to club, it’s amazing to see the stamina and endurance of an human body..

MADRID SHOW.

i get in Madrid @ 00:00. I got picked up by Pablo and taken to my hotel…fuckin’ hell, really.why such a fancy hotel…i’m not gonna be in it for longer than 3 hours…ai ai…oh well…very impressive. it has a iTV thingy loaded with blockbuster movies redubbed in spanish and loads of porn…only problem is, i don’t know how to turn down the volume! imagine i get back from the show, jam some porn and the whole of spain will hear it…so nah, no porn i decide.
ALSO the room has a projector hooked up to the iTV. NICE.
we’re off to the show.

I meet up with Jay( from the Zombie Kids ), IKKI and Adele. It was a fun night. the Zombie Kids really OWN MADRID! with 2 weekly club nights packed with 2000 people every time.

It was very interesting to play there, cause firstly the age group is more from 21 – 30…secondly, ALL THEY WANNA HEAR IS WARP!! arghhh. they are very into their COMMERCIAL music there, so i didn’t have the best energy from the crowd, but i still really enjoyed it…It seems the kids there love their drugs, where in Italy it seemed more Alcohol vibes. I really liked both JAY and IKKI. cool guys.

@ about 5:00-6:00(can’t remember), my friend Adele is trashed. She’s sprained both her ankles and i decide to get her a taxi and get myself back to my hotel. None of the taxi drivers seem to know where my Hotel is and can’t speak a word english…eventually some guy was clever enough to Google the Hotel Name on his phone (EVERYONE HERE HAS IPHONES!!). only problem was when i got back to the hotel i wasn’t so sleepy. so watched ‘The Unthinkable’….crazy movie.

NEXT DAY was just sight seeing and having quick lunch before flying back to LONDON.

THURSDAY. i don’t remember thursday. fuck. i think my memory is all jumbled up. What i remember from Thursday is going for dinner with Adele and her friends and drinking out of the BIGGEST MARTINI glasses known to mankind…i have a photo of it somewhere. – but this could’ve been Tuesday… uh oh..

FRIDAY – CRUX (MUNICH) = awesome gig.

i have to get up @ 4:30 to catch a bus at 5:00 and then the underground tube to Victoria and then the Heathrow express to be at the airport at 7:00.
wow.i made it. niice. i should’ve gone to bed early the night before but couldn’t sleep…I REMEMBER NOW. the dinner was not on Thursday. anyway.

Fabian is awesome. he runs the SO NOT BERLIN PARTIES. he takes me out for a sightsee, beer, pizza and even a little romantic walk down to the river…hehe…i must say, i really enjoyed it, because the sun was out…something that’s very rare this side of the world at this time of year. I also see a lady with (what seems like) a cameltoe with dreadlocks from behind??? it was retardedly funny at that stage. i have a bad photo of it somewhere.

The party itself was really siiick. it’s a small club, but the energy was tremendous and i really enjoyed it. the only crazy thing was that i was taken to the airport straight after my set…madness…
MUNICH >> BRESSANONE

‘I love Electro’ is a mini-festival in Bressanone that happens in a club over one night. They have 3 very decent sized dancefloors and an AWESOME backstage. it’s run with great organization and lots of passion. All the dj’s stay in this hostel where you get your whole ‘festival pack’ with t-shirt, food voucher, stickers, etc.
we then went for dinner and off to the party.
SUCH a great club and cool people.
It was really great to see Fabio and Massi from Cyberpunkers again…they were very friendly and complimentary about my music. They also had a SIIICK show. there’s a vid of them jumping up and down while i play on..

BRESSANONE >> ROME

i play in Rome with The Oddword. sorry that this entry is like becoming shorter and shorter with each gig…the thing is i have 18min batt life left and don’t have a adapter for my laptop’s power…ok.here we go..17minutes!!argh.

ok.

The promoters for the Laroboterie party are all awesome…the only thing was waiting…and waiting…alot…but the party was good.

Rome is pretty strange. the crowd was like this. boy kiss boy. other boy kiss girl.girl kiss girl who just kissed another girl who kissed a boy….

THAT VIBE.

also what was interesting was that the club i played was almost in what i can call a party complex. There’s like 7 clubs all next to each other. people here like to party i guess…and till late. at like 6:00 the streets are still filled with lost teenagers looking for that last fix…

I really like the dudes from The Oddword…it was cool, cause they are flemish, so we understood each other perfectly and exchanged some funny swear words. I think ‘draad trek‘ was their favorite.

From Rome > Venice>London

and now i’m in london for another 2 days and i’m back in SA.

First i play Australia >Sydney on the 13th of NOV and then it’s Synergy…looking forward to playing to the best crowd in the world again…Cape Town peeps, i can’t WAITTTTTT!!!

HAEZER

MORE HAEZER?

• Haezer Facebook

Check out the previous entries here :: Haezer Londong & Europe Tour Diary Entry I | Haezer London & Europe tour diary entry II

ENTRY III

When a uniformed old lady points to your crotch and says TAKE IT OFF…you know you’re in for a rough ride…

MISSION TO VENICE…

ok, 2 things: i hate customs. i hate ryanair even more.

customs we all know why. they are grumpy, miserable people 80% of the time. i mean who decides, hey guys, i wanna be in border controlling, cause it’s the most awesome job ever!

anyway.

ryanair makes you pay to check in luggage, the plane is shitty and small, the service sucks and the queues are always super huge.

finally i get to treviso, with no sleep and i land @ 9:00…remember i went to the airport at like 12:00 the previous evening, cause the last train went to the airport at 11:30.

i meet up with tommie from onion agency…he’s a fucking nice guy and can actually speak and understand English! yeah, c-o-m-m-u-ni-ca-tion is good. most of the italians don’t give a fuck about english..they’re too cool for that shit. they just drink espresso and bitch in italian…but not tommie.

he took me sight seeing around treviso. we had espresso, wine, more wine, some bitter campari and of course. pizza.

i went back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep. no use. half an hour sleep just made me more tired.

SOUND CHECK.

the club is awesome. quite small. holds about 1000 people, but it has a nice feel to it and it’s still very new. this was the 2nd gig they will have there. went to dinner with tommie, gerruzz and his girlfriend and the rest of the onion crew. I really like gerruzz and his girl, such real and down to earth people.

23:00 – no people
00:00 – NO ONE

and now i’m stressing. oh fuck. maybe no one here knows who the fuck haezer is…

00:30 – Jackpot. 300 people come streaming in…

by 01:30 it’s hard to move.

it was a really fun gig. there were 4 guys who made their own HAEZER shirts and they were very proud of it, jumping on stage, getting photies with me and all that…but it was cool.nice to see i have such dedicated fans. you can check the vid of (We’re Not French) playing…the crowd was awesome…always ‘singing’ with the tracks and giving me such good response.

NOW, LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR…
it wasn’t like ‘oh my god, it’s haezer…just have to touch the dude’

it was…
fuck yeah.love his shirt. lets rob him…

anyway.
i got away with just my one sleeve totally torn…

after the gig i was chatting with wasabi, the boomzers and L.A.S.E.R. when two girls proposed to me. After some convincing i got the one girl to back down, but valentina just wouldn’t give up.
I finally convinced her too, by stroking wasabi’s bold head, proclaiming my unparalleled love for him.
I stayed at the club partying till about 4:30.
next day i saw Venice…
it’s really pretty, but man it’s expensive…
like R260 for parking !!!

next up Madrid…i’m hungry now.

LAST ENTRY

Check out the previous entries here :: Haezer Londong & Europe Tour Diary Entry I | Haezer London & Europe tour diary entry II

MORE HAEZER?

• Haezer Facebook
• Haezer Londong & Europe Tour Diary Entry I
• Haezer London & europe tour diary entry II

TUE. 19th.OCT

just finished my trashing teenagers remix and it’s sounding siiick…(if i do say so myself )
met up with Adele (she saw me play in cape town and lives here now) to check out brick lane, have drinks and check out rough trade – the infamous music store…

it was a rad day, but kinda depressing, cause i want to buy so much shit, but know i can’t afford to.
with that said we went semi pub crawling. having double jacks, wine, jugs and the occasional beer. we ended up in a club called The Roxy. kinda like the evol vibe only the dj played for 4 hours straight. he was so fucking good, mixing indie rock, 80′s, electro and the once off cheesy vibe. the party was no older than 20, so i felt like an oubrood. all good.got slashed. met an ex-british army guy who scared the living shit out of me:

he saluted me when i told him i’m from South Africa and started doing all this weird handshakes, going down on one knee and by the end of the night he was doing pushups in the street asking me and Adele to do Coke with him…by this stage i thought he will kill me if i say something wrong. he did mention the extreme conditions in Iraq. this dude was puuuumped up. We weren’t keen and said no, like 50 times. other than that it was a helluva fun night and i got to bed at like 5:00 after first making pasta for breakfast at like 4:00.

WED.20th.OCT

another kick ass day(not weather wise though).

went for late breakfast and then hooked up with paul(the guy that i’m staying with) to go sight seeing in embankment. went to the national gallery and saw some AMAZING art. of which my favourite was Joseph Wright’s ‘an experiment on a bird in an airpump’.

after that we went over the canal bridge (saw a guy jogging that looked exactly like aphex twin) to check out the Tate modern gallery. AVERAGE. i think. saw pollock’s work. i still don’t get it. even in real life.
the rest is quite uneventful. hangover guinness and bed.

THURS.21st.OCT

getting ready for the weekend. doing a rough master for the trashing teenagers remix to open with on friday.
tonight at 11:00 i’m catching a train to liverpool street and then to stansted. i will wait there till 6:00 to board my plane !!!! not looking forward to this!!!

anyway. playing a party called sh.it with GERRUZZ, ORGOGLIO MUTILATO and TOMMIE KEESTON (from Onion Agency)

event has almost 1000 confirmed and 1500 maybes…so it looks cool.can’t wait.
over and out!

HAEZER

PREVIEW: sh.it!

MORE HAEZER?

• haezer facebook
• haezer london & europe tour diary entry 1

i’m in london now. took me two attempts to get my UK visa and i got my shengen visa the day i flew!
the weather here is miserable. staying with paul (humanizer/lark), his girlfriend bronwyn and matt. they’ve been awesome. The other flatmate Luke, is in S.A. so, i’m sleeping in his room here in london and he’s sleeping in mine in S.A.

I have a deadline on a remix i was suppose to finish last week, so the first week i just stayed in the house working on the track. Friday i flew to Brussels to play fuse with felix cartal and borgore. Fuse is a cool club. there were about 2000 peeps there and i finally got to meet Trashing Teenagers. They are very cool guys. Very young guys.
It was awesome to see Borgore play. he annihilated the crowd. from the back it looked like a 1000 people mosh pit. it was crazy! when i started setting up, i couldn’t even get ableton to open, cause the room was so damp that my trackpad wasn’t working!

I played after borgore at 3:30…it’s crazy till how late these kids party.
The kids were clearly fucking tired after borgore’s destruction, but it took me 30mins and the dancefloor was crazzzy again. i had fun. met borgore after my set (he played another gig that night while i had dinner with the promoters and Felix Cartal) got to bed at like 7:00 and woke up at 10:00 took a train from brussels to stuttgart via frankfurt to play with le petits pilous, noize generation and autodidakt .

met up with andres (autodidakt), probably the nicest guy i know, and checked out the venue.
my booking agent from switzerland came down to party with me, so we had drinks before soundcheck. her name is shibo and she is awesome.

After soundcheck had sushi with LPP and Noize Generation. all three are fucking rad dudes. later that night me and jean from le petits pilous were singing bob marley tracks while a tattooed mad man was force fed water by two desperate girls…more of that later.

The stuttgart show was one of my favourite european shows so far. It was rad, cause when i started the kids were like, WTF is this? they swayed a bit, started dancing a little… by 30 mins into my set people were moshing, chanting, fucking screaming. it was very cool. i later suprised them with a stage dive and played chop suey to end things off. the guy from le petit pilous, jean, came up. said : “fuck, this is really hard. i didn’t know you play this hard!”, kissed me on the cheek and then went on to say he loves me.

they really took it well. some dj’s would just tell me to fuck off and be pissed off that i played tooo hard before a major international. So i really like lpp, and i really enjoyed their set.
after their set it was backstage mayhem. by this time everyone was fuck drunk except the dj’s…I was drinking on stage, but wasn’t that drunk yet.

the one dj who opened the night was schnogging this weird, really young looking chickie. he would just fuck off, she’d wait talking to no one, and then start schnogging again when he came back. i thought that was funny. also there were pretzel sticks backstage. they were my favorite.

noize generation’s set was also very good and his camera guy clearly thought so too, cause he was partying his ass off! he was quite a buff looking dude (the cameraman, not noize generation. noize generation is VERY tall and 18! can you believe it 18! i feel fucking oubrood man) and his whole arm is tattooed, then he starts getting really weird. clearly he had too much to drink, but all the while jean is encouraging him to drink more.

by the end the guy got so drunk, he devolved to an infant state with two girls trying to give him water, but saying it’s vodka so that he will drink i: it was quite weird to check.

walked to the hotel, cause everything is so close, chilled in stuttgart a bit…went to the only skateboard museum in europe. how rad is that? a skateboard museum! it had all the very old like mockups of skateboards and then the history to the 70s,80s, etc. with retro sneakers and boards on the walls and a miniramp. so you’re walking through this museum with kids skating boxes and ramps around you.

my flight left at 19:00 and this is where the only shitty bit comes in my trip so far. the customs lady (i mean bitch), takes my zippo. i’ve travelled to europe, australia, fucking london hardcore Heathrow, and no one’s ever said anything about a zippo. then she’s like, mmm, what toiletries can i take from this weird looking guy with the hat. so she takes my gel…

anyway. it’s monday and it’s 12:31. i’m getting outta bed now, coffee, a smoke, try and get halfway with my trashing teenagers remix and then go sight-seeing with adele. apparently we have friends in common and she’s offered to show me around. sweet deal.

HAEZER

MORE HAEZER?

• haezer facebook