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HEALTHY ADDICTION
Hello Group, my name is Cessle and I am an addict. Familiar words usually heard uttered out from between the lips of a person trying to combat a problem. Not on this occasion. As this is my 1st article for Audiation Magazine I am taking this opportunity to encourage you to follow suit and embrace your addiction to electronic music, House & Techno being my metaphorical drug of choice. Like many of you, I long diminished any chance there was of building up a valuable stamp collection, by instead choosing to spunk the money on beat driven experiences. Spending many a night lost in dark spaces filled with the sounds of big drops and heavy basslines. Growing up I listened to various different genre’s of music, from Rare Grooves to Celine Dion at Stone Love, Spice Girls to Brockie & Det on Kool FM. It’s all just seems reminiscent of and similar to the dating game, spending your time flirting away until you find your match,. If we decide to compare the love of a genre with the love between 2 people, House & Techno lovers would be deemed whores. Still it’d be unfair to tarnish us with such a label as its not our fault that Hip Hop or Country & western doesn’t break down into so many sub genres or that we’re spoilt for choice with music. Claude Von Stroke once said to me something that will stick with me forever and explains it the reason why i’m addicted. “House Music is different to any other, all you need is that groove.”
Other than seeing the birth of my own daughter, it’s hard to think of any other feeling that comes close to ‘getting lost in the music’. We’ve all experienced it on some level. It’s that moment when you become completely oblivious to everybody and everything around you, with no control over or recollection of your actions. It’s just you, the lights and the DJ. It’s the high we all crave & chase and with the availability of sites such as Be-at.tv and Soundcloud, its so much easier to get your fix. It was only in February that DJ EZ performed a 3 and a half hour set live on Boiler Room, captivating thousands from the comfort of their own homes, allowing so many to relive their youth on a Tuesday evening. I for one was taken back and left in awe. There’s just something about watching a technically good DJ with quick in hand’s in the mix, playing pied piper with the soundtracks to your youth. Getting lost in the music, thus feeding the addiction, healthily. It was the love of 2 step house, hearing that groove and music being played at 140bpm that paved the way for many ears to open up to all that falls under the House & Techno umbrella. The beauty of being spoilt for choice is that the search for music is never ending. So many tracks for a DJ to choose from allowing them each to take to the stage and tell their story. Therefore giving a DJ no excuse for beating the same track that was played an hour before. I could begin to go into that boring old debate about Traktor, CDJ’s and vinyl buts that not important when the listener wants to be taken on a journey and have their mind wander. Track selection is the real key.