Updated 8 months ago
Spring & Summer
Directory – Flyers – Map – Before 1979 – The 1980s – The 1990s – 1990-2 – 1993-5 – 1996 – 1997 – 1998 – 1999 – The 2000s – 2000 – 2001 – 2002 – 2003 – 2004 – 2005 – 2006 – 2007 – 2008 – 2009 – The 2010s – 2010 – 2011 – 2012 – 2013 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017 – 2018 – 2019 – The 2020s – 2020 – 2021 – 2022 – 2023 – 2024 – 2025 – 2026 – 2027 – 2028 – 2029 – The 2030s – 2030
Highlights:
Tsunami and Acid Physicks produce more events. U.T.T.A. Chaos organizes its first event in Winston-Salem.
Technologies:
Autotune developed September 19
Flat Screen TVs appear:
January 1997
January 3
Blech
Autechre/Aphex Twin (New York) Sponsored by Warp Records.
Saturday, January 18
Tsunami Return to the Source
First DJ Set (Documented): Physicks, Hugh Sharpe
A night of shamanic trance and ritual beat
The psychedelic trance tidal wave
In the beginning was not the word, but the dance. One tribe united under one Spirit, celebrating our connection to each other, the sky our father, and the earth our mother. It was our rite of passage, our shamanic journey into altered states of reality where we embodied Great Spirit, and the magic of life. We stomped, we chanted, we raised our arms int eh air. We were there… and we still are now… Let us forever live in the eternity of the dance.
Legendary Psychedelic Trance Masters
Hallucinogen (Twisted Records, UK)
Sid Shanti (Science Fiction UK)
Mark Allen (Quirk UK)
Also 333, Mr. Kleen, Load Rezenhand, K.J., Moti, Scotty Marz, Hugh Sharpe, SLh2, Phizik
$25, Metropolitan Pavilion
Visuals and backdrop by ZAG (London), RTTS (London), Organix (Tokyo), Neuronautics NYC, Brain Machines
My million dollar birthday
Will Pulsing `Techno’ Sound Rev Up Music Business?
By Patrick M. Reilly
The Wall Street Journal 01/27/97
When Tommy Tunes, Frankie Bones, and Adam X took the stage recently at the Asbury Park, N.J., Convention Hall, it didn’t look like any ordinary rock concert. Instead of guitars, the performers jammed on computer gear and sound machines. One performer wowed the crowd with a PC, his fingers flying over the keyboard and unleashing brief snippets of recorded music and sounds from the machine’s hard drive. They filled the arena with an entrancing sound known as ” techno “: electronic dance music with a driving beat, psychedelic sound distortion and occasional lyrics that consist largely of hypnotically repeated phrases.
Long played in the underground culture of “raves ,” all-night dance parties fueled by the euphoria-inducing drug Ecstasy, techno music is breaking into the mainstream. And record companies — desperate for the next Big Thing amid two years of flat music sales and a sense that”alternative” rock is flagging — are starting to place their bets on the growing genre.
Its stars include the influential Chemical Brothers, on the Astralwerks label of EMI Group PLC; the powerful U.K. band Prodigy, on the independent label Mute Records; Orbital, a duo on the Ffrr label of PolyGram NV; and Goldie, another Ffrr artist who features a ” techno /jungle” sound that mixes soul, hip-hop, reggae and pulsating beats of 160 per minute or higher.
EMI’s Caroline Records, known as an alternative-rock launching pad, is trimming its rock roster to make a big push for techno. Influential radio stations are now playing more techno music; KROQ in Los Angeles has had Orbital and Prodigy on its closely watched playlist, and have played the Chemical Brothers. “Music for the Jilted Generation,” a two-year-old record by Prodigy, has seen sales shoot up in the past six months, and now Time Warner Inc. is trying to snap it up.
“Until the sales of Chemical Brothers and Prodigy made noises, there was no point in the majors investing,” says Mark Fotiadis, general manager of Prodigy’s U.S. label Mute Records. “But they like to say sales can cure cancer.”
But the selling of techno poses some significant marketing problems for the music industry. The genre has few recognizable performers who look good on videos and album covers. Its stars are as much producers, engineers and DJs as they are performers. Furthermore, turning atmospheric electronic tracks into hit singles will be tricky, since they usually don’t fit the three- to four-minute format of most radio hits and rarely have lyrics. (Chemical Brothers’ breakout hit “Setting Sun,” has a spacey, mantra-like refrain: “I tell you that it’s just too bad.”)
“The challenge is to establish clear-cut artists in the dance techno market. Club people love it, but how do you spread it to a wider demographic?”
says Gary Arnold, vice president of marketing of Best Buy Co., a major music retailer. Mr. Arnold says techno’s popularity mystifies him. “As a consumer, I don’t get it — but my 18-year-old daughter loves it.”
Mystifying as it may be to an older generation, the techno sound is starting to creep into American pop culture. The Gap plays the electronic artist Goldie on its in-store music tapes. TV ads for the Microsoft Network use a techno-like sound from the Los Angeles producers known as Dust Brothers. MTV, bellwether of virtually every music trend of the past 15 years, cut its hours of rock and rap videos and added a new techno show called “Amp.” U2, whose brooding alternative rock made it one of the world’s most popular bands, is shifting gears on its March release with several songs its label executives describe as “more electronic, techno, more experimental.”
The U2 record will open “a lot of pop and rock people’s minds to new sounds,” says Jim Welch, a former director of artists and repertoire at Sony Corp.’s Sony Music’s Columbia Records. “It will be a new kind of crossover.”
Record executives say the techno trend also heralds a turn in American youth culture. They say young concert-goers and CD buyers are burned out on the anxiety and grit of alternative rock and rap, the last two genres that ignited blockbuster music sales. Last year, anticipated releases from alternative rock groups like Pearl Jam had disappointing sales, while the number of radio stations with rap formats declined.
Perhaps in reaction to rock’s intensity, there’s a market today for a more upbeat, unconfrontational sound. An executive at a major U.S. record label sensed the signs of a new market when he caught a recent New York show by the Chemical Brothers, “The dancing never stopped and there wasn’t a bad vibe in the room,” he says.
The rave scene still carries with it an association with drugs, the kind needed to stay up all night and dance. But as raves and techno music go mainstream, safer alternatives are appearing. To counter the stereotype of drugs at raves, Robb Hart, a co-head of the Watermark label, runs a sister company called Pure Children, which puts on squeaky-clean raves — complete with security battalions to check for weapons and drugs. “The rave scene gets a bad rap,” says Mr. Hart. “Most kids are there to hold hands. They are lost and need to hold somebody . . . It’s very communal.”
At the New Year’s Eve rave at Asbury Park, where teenagers danced from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. to the beat of techno music, 20-year-old Andrew Deming was on hand for more than just the music. “What I like about raving is it’s a place you can go for 12 hours and be warm and listen to music with friends,” he says. “You can do what you want and be yourself. There aren’t many places like that anymore.” What about alternative rock and grunge? “Pearl Jam and Soundgarden are all sold out and cheesy and played out on the radio. Everybody sounds like them,” says Mr. Deming.
January 31
Final Fantasy VII released
February 1997
February 8
LaLa Land (Hartford CT)
I had my own magical garden made of papier mache. Met a bunch of cute Amherst girls. Thank you Veronica and Meira!
February 28
Unity at Vinyl
March 1997
March 14
Return to the Source (London)
POF The Fridge town hall, Brixton, Uk Live: Joking Sphinx, Amanite fx Djs: Fred Giteau, Zoom, Mark Allen. I have never seen so many old moochers. Cheers mate indeed. The afterparty was good, met a bunch of Japanese – Shin Sapporo & Kohei. Thank you, Axel and Mandy, for your generous hospitality.
I had accidentally brought over a jar of Ketamine and that I found in my pocket at the afterparty. I snorted it all, and ruminated for a long time on the history of the British colonial empire and the true soul of Goa.
March 15
Spirit Zone (London)
this underground party was unbelievable! The best ever! It’s always nice to have wheelchair-bound goa trancers having a blast. I was so completely, utterly exhausted from dancing, I was shaking. This music can make you high on life!
April 17 & 24
Acid Phisix presents Holosphere
Total Eclipse, India Drop, Taiyoo, Marco & Julien
Video by Neuronautics Institute
Mantra 28 East 23rd
May 1997
May 3
Nocturnal presents Destiny
I did brain machines there
May 9 Friday
In-Trance-It & Purple Oz present an Enlightenment Experience
Bansi, Sinister Funk, Guy Frankel
D.U.M.BO. Art Center 45 York St., Brooklyn
May 10 Saturday
Tsunami at Asbury Park
In May John-Emmanuel did a huge Matsuri event out in dilapidated Asbury Park, on a bandshell on the water next to a hotel owned by Johnny Cash. The projections by the late Organix were amazing. We all ended up on the beach afterward. One of the best transitions I’ve ever witnessed. Matthew Magic, Project Beyond, aspiring DJ, was wandering around amidst many displaced Japanese and handing out mix tapes.
Some random guy named Ted was ambling about expectantly so we hooked him up. I wore a Russian pilot suit, which I inflated with nitrous oxide, which didn’t really work mechanically too well. There was a huge group of Romanians. It was legendary.
Saturday May 10, 1997
Tsunami & Matsuri Productions
Asbury Park, NJ
Live:
Juno Reactor (Blue Room, London) At the forefront of the global techno movement and one of the world’s most famous trance groups, the four artists known as Juno Reactor will be making their first northeast appearance in many years. These original trance innovators are continually setting the standard for an entire generation of cutting-edge trance artists and on May 10th will take you away with their landmark tracks of deep hard electronica.
BT (Perfecto) This top U.S. artist needs no introduction since he has been in great international demand for many years. His recording and remixing work continue to receive in-depth worldwide media coverage and has won him critical and public acclaim. You will not want to miss this rare area appearance of BT and his international crew.
Chakra (Matsuri Productions, Israel)
Dj Sets:
Tsuyoshi – (Matsuri Productions, London) Tsuyoshi Suzuki is the most famous psychedelic trance DJ in the world today. Traveling the globe to DJ, he has recently played in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, where he attracted over 8,000 people. Many will remember him from his only prior U.S. appearance when he headlined at the Liberty Science Center. His appearance alone should be reason enough to attend this event, and seeing him you will understand why he is #1.
Keisuke (Matsuri Productions, Tokyo)
Mike Maguire (Juno Reactor)
Choreographed live video mixing and mind-expanding visuals by Matsuki (Tokyo)
Entrancing psychedelic banners and decor by Organix (Tokyo)
Brain wave research by brainmachines
Asbury Park Convention Center
May 18 Sunday
Meat presents Ultrathrob
Mother 432 West 14th St ultronic.com (Throb Records)
May 29
Acid Physicks Trance Productions (APTP)
Elysium Sheyba (Flying Rhino, Dragonfly, Matsuri) Kopfuss Resinator Live PA Nephilim Records, Germany DJ Shush APTP DJ Marco APTP $25 Vinyl 11PM
June 1997
Laura and I had a great summer . We listened to this song a lot on the road to parties:
June 23
San Francisco with Wilson Leary
