User:Mjb/Starseed

Starseed was a rave held on 6 Aug 1993 in Columbus OH. It was put on by S.E.T.I. Productions, a crew which had previously hosted a number of small acid house parties in prior years (I don't know any details about those events).

Authenticity
The ele_mental crew had already put on modest raves at Ohio State University in May and June of that year, (Ele Mental and Comfort), but some of us, at the time, regarded Starseed to be the first Columbus's first "real" rave, similar to the events that we had attended in other cities since mid-'92. Nowadays, though, it's clear that the first ele_mental parties were "real" raves, too. I'm not sure why we ever thought otherwise.

Also, prior to Starseed, there had been several raves put on in Columbus by Industry Productions. We were unanimous in our feeling that those parties were too similar to the nightclub experience and too mainstream to be called raves—although again, in hindsight, the Industry parties weren't that mainstream; they were just a different take on what a rave could be.

Here's video of an industrial-turned-techno band performing at one of the Industry events: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6cPE67jeds

Starseed
Tickets for Starseed were $8 and had to be purchased at Insomnia, a coffee shop a few blocks from the venue. The rave was held in the empty "gasworks" warehouse at the corner of Front St. and Park St. The building now houses a pair of restaurants (GasWërks and Brothers Bar & Grill), and the whole area is much different and trendier than it was in the mid-'90s.

The promoters got about 300 people in the door, which was all they needed to break even, but still lost money on the event because too many attendees were "on the list". None of the DJs had much experience, so the mixing was kinda bad. dieselBoy didn't even own turntables at the time! Regardless, the vibe was good, and everyone seemed to have a great time. dieselBoy later posted "Normally I don't review events that I dj at so people don't think I am painting a biased picture, but last weekend was so fat that I have to give props to the folks that threw it. [S.E.T.I.] put on an incredible event last Friday night at a prime warehouse location in Columbus, OH. They had a good sound system, 4 lasers, cool lighting effects, multiple projected screen visuals and an extremely cozy chill-out room... It was like a "real rave".  I have been to so many raves that are just phantoms of what this was like...I recommend all events by this Cru..."

The Promoters
S.E.T.I. didn't throw any more parties after this one. Hopefully it's OK to say who they were now: Michael Pisano & Jim "Jimi Doom" Waiter. Jim ended up co-founding Dayton crew The Illuminators and remained with them until mid-'95. Mike moved to Southern California and hooked up with the Full Moon crew for a while.

The Chill-out Room
Jim was my friend and knew I had spun and helped out with the first ele_mental party, so he put me in charge of the chill-out room, which was upstairs and separate from the main room of the warehouse. I recruited ele_mental cohort Dave Miller to help. We took pieces of a small tree and various weird-looking plants that were growing in an empty lot and hung them up in the room, and we got carpet squares, pillows, and furniture from a thrift store, and we added some colored lights. It was pretty ghetto, but it really worked; we got a lot of compliments on it.

To my knowledge, no recordings were made on the sound system in the main room. I was the only person to bring a tape deck, and I only recorded the chill-out room. I had brought two 100-minute tapes to record onto, but by mistake, we recorded over the first tape twice. So out of probably 5+ hours of music, 100 minutes is all we managed to preserve. The DJs in the chill-out room were Full Brain (me, Mike Brown), Poppa Hopp (Nick Wilson), Todd Sines, and I think maybe also Dave Miller. I don't have a complete set from anyone on the tape.

Download
In order to solicit track IDs, I'm making the tape available as a pair of files in AAC format, which any modern media player should be able to handle:


 * Side A: DJ Full Brain & DJ Poppa Hopp - Starseed Chillout Room Mix
 * Side B: DJ Poppa Hopp & DJ Todd Sines - Starseed Chillout Room Mix

I'll make lossless copies available with cue sheets once all the tracks are identified.

Track IDs
Please help identify the unknown tracks! You can create an account for yourself, confirm your email via your preferences page, and then either edit the info here or leave a note on the discussion page. Or you can just send an email to me at mike@hyperreal.org.

Side A

 * 1. the end of Full Brain's set:
 * 0:00-2:35 Keiichi Suzuki - Satellite Serenade (Transasian Express)
 * 2:35-7:10 David Sylvian - Words with the Shaman - Pt. 1 - Ancient Evening
 * 7:10-9:24 Klaus Schulze - Bayreuth Return [excerpt]
 * 9:24-15:05 Tangerine Dream - Love on a Real Train [2 copies mixed together several times]
 * 15:05-23:57 Inner City - Praise (Future Sound of London Conceptual)
 * 2. the beginning of Poppa Hopp's set:
 * 23:57-26:58 unknown Hindi meditation song [actually starts at 18:20]
 * 26:58-31:31 Sheila Chandra - Quiet 8
 * 31:31-37:31 unknown sitar track
 * 37:31-42:45 Material - Mantra (Doors of Perception Mix) [actually starts at 36:00]
 * 42:45-46:54 unknown dancehall track with India-oriented lyrics, probably by Apache Indian
 * 46:54-49:44 unknown Indian dancehall track, female sung vocals with male rap
 * 49:44-52:50 unknown Indian dancehall track - I really like this one
 * 52:50-56:29 unknown Bhangra rap track with sampled music that sounds like Fun-Da-Mental - Mother India, but this is 2 years earlier - I like this one too

Side B

 * 1. the end of Poppa Hopp's set:
 * 0:00-3:07 unknown buzzy, dubby downtempo track with "use me" lyric
 * 3:07-7:19 unknown jazzy downtempo track with "i want to touch you baby"
 * 7:19-10:31 unknown jazzy instrumental hip-hop track with trumpet and scratched "hop to the" lyric
 * 10:31-14:56 unknown vocal hip-hop track with "Allahu Akbar" lyric
 * 14:56-19:18 unknown British vocal hip-hop track with "what's it all about" lyric and "tell me what is going on" sampled chorus
 * 19:18-21:33 unknown hip-hop track with screaming male and "just another victim" chant
 * 21:33-26:52 Us3 - Tukka Yoot's Riddim
 * 26:52-31:42 The Pharcyde - Ya Mama
 * 31:42-34:42 Jamiroquai - When You Gonna Learn
 * 2. the beginning of Todd Sines's set:
 * 34:42-39:19 Seefeel - Time to Find Me (AFX Fast Mix)
 * 39:19-43:25 unknown IDM track with synthetic percussion, maybe by Black Dog Productions
 * 43:25-47:42 Aphex Twin - Xtal
 * 47:42-51:25 unknown IDM track with clattery percussion, maybe by Black Dog Productions
 * 51:25-54:35 Plaid - Object Orient
 * 54:35-56:31 unknown squelchy techno track