Don't Care About The Podcast 12: Pacija - Fall

Pacija is an old friend of mine. We went through some great times while he used to live in Banja Luka, now this free spirit, and one of the first DIY rave party DJs. Now he lives, work, raise a family in Belgrade, Serbia, but comes from time to time.

But if you ever ask me what is role, actually where will you put in "History of electronic music in Banja Luka, well there are three  things that Pacija did:

First of all, as Punk kid, after few rave parties, he fell in love (actually find his niche) with EBM or Body music, with early electroclash (International DeeJay Gigolos just started to release that kind of music, with old Boccaccio Techno and Acid, with healthy dose of '80s synth-pop, and he was first who played that kind of mix in Banja Luka.
Also, he was one of the first who made few hundreds copies of his mixes, throw a party and gave every single CD for free to his friends or random strangers who would show up.
Then he was the first guy who organized his crew and throws a Rave in his own house... but also he invited everyone!!! I mean everyone he would meet on the street, people from all walks of life, he invited the whole City of Banja Luka. And I remember there was one rule: if you want to drink, or eat, or do something harder - you have to bring it with yourself - but also you can buy some cheap vine and at arrival, you would pour your whole bottle(s) into one big cauldron - so sometimes those parties were called "free sangria rave at Pacija's". And I still remember, while dancefloor was still getting crowded, a bunch of skinheads danced to Body music, or modern electronic gothic sound, bands like Covenant and Bigod 20. and there were no fights or arguments at all. in the morning around 7am or 8am, you could see all those people, together, cleaning behind them - as some kind "thank you" for a great night.

And one of the most tech important stuff. In Banja Luka records were THE medium to play Techno or House, Cd's were second class (in 6 months a lot of things will change), but Pacija was a guy who wanted to play his music so much, but didn't want to buy expensive turntables, records, or CD players. He is the dude who was the first guy who played on the first consumer version of Traktor software. And imagine him, bringing his home computer (laptops didn't have powerfull processors and good sound cards), just to play his gig.

So that's some nice things I will present to a stranger if anyone asks me about Pacija, the rest is in our memory and in a strange place called past.

I hope you will enjoy this mix!!!

ALSO:!IMPORTANT
1. If you want to review your new music album, LP or EP contact us, send the message, or damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com!!!
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Coil - The Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex +2 (Musique Pour La Danse)

First of all, I want to say, that my worst reviews, actually are for releases of projects/bands/producers I admire - and of course some releases I waited for a long time to get my hands on. I can talk on this subject, but because I want to be proud of my reviews, I must be concise and direct. Yes all those, at least for me, reviews were written with so much passion that I wanted to tell the whole story, so a review would go in one direction, and suddenly will go in other. So let's keep it clean and simply, with soul and controlled fire and passion.


                              


The public announcement or public educational films are professionally made movies, mostly made by state broadcasting agencies or some kind of fund, to inform the general population about certain social problems that society is trying to fight at the moment (mostly) or some phenomenons in society (rare). When you think about these movies, if you haven't watched any, think about those movies "what to do in case of nuclear attack" or "if the stranger gives you candy, but the candy is in his car", or most famous Reefer Madness (1936) - about potential dangers of consuming marijuana.



                                   

In 1992, due to many deaths of HIV and AIDS, and cure still at no sight Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex was released to inform the general public, in this case, one part of the public, about AIDS, what is causing it, how can you protect yourself, and still enjoy in sex. It is important to say that this movie is narrated and presented by a professional in HIV treatment Dr. Mike Youle, and it is directed and edited in such a way, that without any problems you could show this movie to adolescents - just in case if you are a citizen with high moral standards.(sic)

                                              

                                                                       

Now let's back to why are we here. After the original soundtrack for Hellraiser being denied, Coil since then only did soundtrack to the last film of their friend and director Derek Jarman's Blue. Jarman was already started to lose his sight due to HIV, so Blue was his "last goodbye", and it is named that way cause during production he started to see no certain palette of colors.
                                       
                                


During pre-production Coil were chosen to make a soundtrack to The Gay Man's Guide. And after 27 years, justice has done. Finally, we have the original release of the soundtrack, which perfect blends into vast Coil discography.


                                   

Theme From The Gay Man's Guide To Sex is nice chill-out track, perfect to describe what many calls the Balearic genre, and I have read somewhere, that with those Trip-Hop beats and Robert Johnson's samples present a blueprint to Moby's multiplatinum album Play.
Then there are instrumentals that perfectly reflects the time of 1992, Exploding Frogs that sounds perfect for heavily smoked, a smooth jazz club. Then there are Nasa Arab and Nasa Arab 2 psychedelic instrumentals, with a heavy new age-y with Goa/Psychedelic Trance vibe.

                             

 In the end, all I can say we were waiting for 27 years for this record, and we can be thankful for release of it. The record is perfect for those who are new, and also those who are fanatical about Coil. Both of the groups of the fans can catch with this soundtrack, that's for sure. and yes, it was worth of waiting for 27 years... Good things come to those who wait!!!

And here you can check documentary for yourself, and see, that is not a big deal - at all for typical Balkan moral panic.

Plaid - Polymer (Warp)

Before we start, look at Warp's catalog number for this release: it is WARPLP303! Coincidence? Sure, but anyway it's a fun fact.

Plaid is a duo made of Andy Turner and Ed Handle, one of the original members of The Black Dog collective, and The Black Dog fanatics knew them under the artistic name as Atypic and Balil. And the Black Dog becomes one of the first UK Techno groups, which success was also success for their label Warp. But Turner and Handle decide to leave TBD and pursue a carrier as Plaid. and within the year or two also riding the wave of Intelligent Dance Music or better known as IDM, with their peers as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, The Future Sound Of London, Autechre, Spacetime Continuum, The Orb, Squarepusher, Plastikman, µ-Ziq, Luke Vibert, Venetian Snares, Biosphere, Telefon Tel Aviv, and The Black Dog, LFO which all had that bad luck, like always: music critics, coined term IDM, just when Warp super-important compilation Artificial Intelligence came out. All of this you can read in our own feature written by our friend Funky Jeff, in part one and part two.

                                  

But actually, if critics did what critics usually did: they fuck things over, cause you can't just give the genre name when all of those named artists were unique, they all created an original sound, never heard before, and light-years far away from escapist hard-core that ruled at raves all around the world - so they have to give the attribute "intelligent" to their music, cause indeed, they got attention of people who were tired of boring 4/4 rhythms, and search for another evolution in electronic music, and not only music lovers, but also other musicians, searching for something new, and inspiration perhaps.

                                



So it isn't surprising that for example, Plaid's success and collaboration with Bjork and Nicolette on their second album Not for Threes. Even remixed Bjork, Irresistible Force even Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five.

For sure those early albums and climate, really establish Plaid as original musicians, what make them different from their peers is their approach to a melody, melodies and harmonies usually are in different time signatures, but they became syncopated as two or three different melodies finally start to be played, every in their own parts. So that kind of approach to producing creates melodic masterpieces, which most the times are so melancholic, or ecstatic, depends on the mood.. plus beats, heavy Hip-Hop breakbeats, that are sometimes time-stretched, so that also gives uniqueness. for example, play the video above the text, called Eyen or the video below for track Itsu:

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Plaid are one of the most prolific and hard-working men in the industry,  Scintilli (2011), Reachy Prints (2014), so from the last previous album The Digging Remedy 2016, they released two ep's, and now they are ready to release their The Peel Session 2 album (coming 2019). Also worked on two soundtracks Heaven's Door (2006) and my favorite Tekkonkinkreet, with the opening track and main theme called This City;
                                             

                             



And what we got with this new album Polymer? We got a little bit harder album, with more focus on the beats, but that melodic aspect is still here. Also, there is more usage of conventional instruments like the clarinet, electric and Spanish guitar on tracks Pale Moth and Nurula, also violin, mandolin, and accordion on Crown Shy. You can hear that they grow up, and do not want to create another Not for Threes or new Double Figure, albums that made them Warp's mainstays. You can still hear experimentations and evolution. Nice and enjoyable album. Not heavy listening like Autechre (I love Autechre, but these are two different styles) or more 4/4 Techno or pure Ambient like The Black Dog (you should check mixes and ep's that TBD are releasing today) or going deep into psychedelic inspired sound like The Future Sound of London (for sure except new FSOL album soon to be reviewed). 

You may notice, on other videos, they tried to send the message about human greed, and it's an undeniable influence on the eco-system. And the new video and album do that.
It shows, and try to warn us about usage of plastic (polymer!!!) in everyday, and how much plastic bottle of your favorite drink needs couple hundreds or thousand years to decompose, so plastic stay as trash on the streets, or ends in other countries (like in here in Bosnia and Herzegowina), far away from "clean cities of Europe and 1st World", here is video, for the first single Dancers:


                            

                                                                           
         

Also on their album cover, there is a small print which says: "Thanks to Europe. We want to live there, still." And in the meantime check their website to know more about new projects and tour dates.

                                                   

Also if you want, you can hear and download the Plaid mix on the 600th XLR8R podcast. Enjoy!!!