Crate Soul Brothers newsletter #106: Earth Is The Place
Newsflash 1. September 2003
Dear friends,
Sun Ra said ”space is the place”, but when you can’t get anywhere near the Saturn, you hang around with cool cats on planet Earth. Not long ago, our search for friendly Terrestials took Keyser to Bratislava, where he met with a twenty-five years old Czech, Standa in the dj booth. A cosmic link was immediately established and we pretty soon found ourselves in Prague rocking a massive crowd in Bar Acropolis, a small venue with a huge vibe to it. Standa is better known in and around the country as DJ Tall. Believe us, he is not a short man by any measures. And such a friendly gentleman indeed: he has arranged us a flat in hip Zizkov, an airy hill with a tripped out TV tower (that is being conquered by mutant cliff-hanger alien babies), great parks and several temples of Praha golden beer. Acropolis was jut around the corner, and it took us ten minutes of relaxed walk to get to the studios of Radio 1. The station is the local source of independent music, from rock to electronic. Teamed up with Michal (aka DJ Blue) we had our little interview and the chance to spin a few recent Hungarian tunes there. After the night, we were sure that the guys are just as excellent DJs as hosts. Extra shouts go out to Michal for hitting us with that Czech hip hop instrumental (Indy&Wich) LP. Big up to DJ Orion (one of the local hip hop masterminds) for cueing Shuriken up on the record store scene.
Shuriken stayed for a few more days to play with Tall again at a cocktail-lounge with a lot of terrace (you’d love that place, Enes!). A mad band of Mexican brothers was playing raw funk jams with a dread lock Afro-American singing and speaking words of protest against the greed of our world and the tragedy of media mind-washed people tricked into consuming themselves to death. The symbolic enemy to fight was apparently Coke, which is the only drink on offer, really. “Whatever you drink, even if it’s not Coke, it’s Coke”. This brother was seriously on some next level shit, speaking the true story of the liberation of his mind like this: Some day, he realised, that people are simply not paying attention to themselves and each other, and are more or less blind to the world that surrounds them. Trying to train his concentration by standing on the sidewalk and watching a tree, I mean really taking in the whole experience of the tree, he was asked by a policeman to stop doing this, since he scares people with his behaviour. A funny fella, but is the world we live in normal? The lengthy improvised songs they played were funky as hell and so tight you couldn’t squeeze much more into it.
Too soon we had to return to Budapest, the quickly tropicalising city with the world’s most hopeless and solemn traffic jams. A few days later, Ambrus aka Erik Sumo hit us with a nice 10” of him and Haze remixing his band, Amorf Ördögök, and that made us forget that the summer is over and we would have to get back to our normal routines again. But before that we have to say a few more thanks to a few guys: first of all the whole Electrosacher collective (check out their new remix for Cosmic Sounds in the latest mix!) & their lovely girlfriends in Trieste for taking care of me (Keyser) and my love. Also shouts to Pipedome & Mesterhazy for organising their groovy clubnight at the lake Balaton where we had much fun with Onkel Tom Wieland a few weeks ago.
This week’s short, but solid reading goes out for lunatics and revolutionaries:
“A lot of people never use their initiative, because no-one told them to.”
A stencil graffiti by Brighton’s finest spraycan terrorist, Banksy. Found in Banksy: Bang Your Head Against A Brick Wall, a nice underground booklet to get on Banksy’s website or on a trip to London.
Keep on telling people till next time!
Keyser, Shuriken & Erik Sumo (Crate Soul Brothers)
Next events:
19. September, Szeged, Úszóház: Sambafriqua / Keyser & Shuriken with Kő & Don Leon
25. October, Budapest, A38: Sound On Ultra Loud / Madrid de los Austrias (live) + S.O.U.L. crew
15. November, Budapest, A38: Sound On Ultra Loud / DJ Vadim (special funk & soul set) + S.O.U.L. crew
28. November, Eger, Egal cult.club /Keyser & Shuriken
6. December, Budapest, A38: Sound On Ultra Loud / tba
Dear friends,
Sun Ra said ”space is the place”, but when you can’t get anywhere near the Saturn, you hang around with cool cats on planet Earth. Not long ago, our search for friendly Terrestials took Keyser to Bratislava, where he met with a twenty-five years old Czech, Standa in the dj booth. A cosmic link was immediately established and we pretty soon found ourselves in Prague rocking a massive crowd in Bar Acropolis, a small venue with a huge vibe to it. Standa is better known in and around the country as DJ Tall. Believe us, he is not a short man by any measures. And such a friendly gentleman indeed: he has arranged us a flat in hip Zizkov, an airy hill with a tripped out TV tower (that is being conquered by mutant cliff-hanger alien babies), great parks and several temples of Praha golden beer. Acropolis was jut around the corner, and it took us ten minutes of relaxed walk to get to the studios of Radio 1. The station is the local source of independent music, from rock to electronic. Teamed up with Michal (aka DJ Blue) we had our little interview and the chance to spin a few recent Hungarian tunes there. After the night, we were sure that the guys are just as excellent DJs as hosts. Extra shouts go out to Michal for hitting us with that Czech hip hop instrumental (Indy&Wich) LP. Big up to DJ Orion (one of the local hip hop masterminds) for cueing Shuriken up on the record store scene.
Shuriken stayed for a few more days to play with Tall again at a cocktail-lounge with a lot of terrace (you’d love that place, Enes!). A mad band of Mexican brothers was playing raw funk jams with a dread lock Afro-American singing and speaking words of protest against the greed of our world and the tragedy of media mind-washed people tricked into consuming themselves to death. The symbolic enemy to fight was apparently Coke, which is the only drink on offer, really. “Whatever you drink, even if it’s not Coke, it’s Coke”. This brother was seriously on some next level shit, speaking the true story of the liberation of his mind like this: Some day, he realised, that people are simply not paying attention to themselves and each other, and are more or less blind to the world that surrounds them. Trying to train his concentration by standing on the sidewalk and watching a tree, I mean really taking in the whole experience of the tree, he was asked by a policeman to stop doing this, since he scares people with his behaviour. A funny fella, but is the world we live in normal? The lengthy improvised songs they played were funky as hell and so tight you couldn’t squeeze much more into it.
Too soon we had to return to Budapest, the quickly tropicalising city with the world’s most hopeless and solemn traffic jams. A few days later, Ambrus aka Erik Sumo hit us with a nice 10” of him and Haze remixing his band, Amorf Ördögök, and that made us forget that the summer is over and we would have to get back to our normal routines again. But before that we have to say a few more thanks to a few guys: first of all the whole Electrosacher collective (check out their new remix for Cosmic Sounds in the latest mix!) & their lovely girlfriends in Trieste for taking care of me (Keyser) and my love. Also shouts to Pipedome & Mesterhazy for organising their groovy clubnight at the lake Balaton where we had much fun with Onkel Tom Wieland a few weeks ago.
This week’s short, but solid reading goes out for lunatics and revolutionaries:
“A lot of people never use their initiative, because no-one told them to.”
A stencil graffiti by Brighton’s finest spraycan terrorist, Banksy. Found in Banksy: Bang Your Head Against A Brick Wall, a nice underground booklet to get on Banksy’s website or on a trip to London.
Keep on telling people till next time!
Keyser, Shuriken & Erik Sumo (Crate Soul Brothers)
Next events:
19. September, Szeged, Úszóház: Sambafriqua / Keyser & Shuriken with Kő & Don Leon
25. October, Budapest, A38: Sound On Ultra Loud / Madrid de los Austrias (live) + S.O.U.L. crew
15. November, Budapest, A38: Sound On Ultra Loud / DJ Vadim (special funk & soul set) + S.O.U.L. crew
28. November, Eger, Egal cult.club /Keyser & Shuriken
6. December, Budapest, A38: Sound On Ultra Loud / tba