I'm not a terribly social person these days, and I really wasn't one when I was younger. I'm guessing that the going out at night bit only started somewhere around my 20th birthday or so. Sure, I'd gone out before, but I didn't really enjoy it. But fast forward to the late '90s and a guy who I used to be good friends with changed that a bit, a guy with whom I traded dozens and dozens of tapes, and with whom, circa 1992, I was in a band with. That is to say, we were the band. 'Band'. When you say it you have to do finger quotes.
We were terrible. But yeah, this guy who was as into metal as I was suddenly veers towards a very different sound. I remember him explaining it to me, and I wasn't that convinced. I mean, growing up in the '80s I listened to a lot of synth-pop, sure. Depeche Mode, Erasure, Culture Club, O.M.D., Soft Cell and whatnot. But techno was never my thing. (Still isn't, to be honest).
And the way he described it, what with the pulsing beats, droning electronics, and sample heavy sounds, I wasn't sure if I'd be into all that. So he burned me a CD - we used to do it that way back then, kids - full of names I'd never heard of. Covenant, VNV Nation, Hocico, Front 242, Assemblage 23, Nitzer Ebb and a bunch of others. First impressions were - I didn't despise it. It was different, yes, but I found some of it to be intriguing. Up until 2000 he'd provide me with a number of other CDs, filled with more of this electronic music. So in September 2000, if I recall it correclty, I moved to London for the first time, and I took my MiniDisc player with me, along with some discs I recorded containing a selection of these songs.
When I returned to Lisbon, things had changed quite a bit. While in London, I went to the legendary Slimelight venue, and it was like I'd stepped into another world - a darker, intoxicating world. Sure, the scantily clad girls helped, but no mere smut this : rather, it was like evil nuns and nurses, characters of the LeFanu and James victorian persuasion and other creatures that go bump in the night had spewed forth from the other side of the mirror, and I now peered deeply into that world.
As I ambled through the massive place, careful not to stray off the path, else I wind up in Domdaniel or the land of Summer's twilight, my ears atuned themselves to the dissonant cacophony. Bodies writhed on the dancefloor, some in a grotesque, mechanical manner, others as if lost to some unknown ecstasy. Transfixed, there I stood, drinking in the scenery, taking in the sounds and lights and beats and the bizarre menagerie therein.
Somewhere inside me, something began to stir.
A couple of years after that, already back in Lisbon, I was entering what would be my most bohemian phase. Back then, there was a place where this demimonde gathered, and I would often be there, dancing until the wee hours of the morning. Something I truly miss, but am not sure if I can go back to.
There were a few numbers that always brought out the best and wildest in me - songs whose opening seconds were more than enough to rouse the beast.
'Headhunter' is one such song - I even palyed it now and again when I used to DJ.
I'm playing it as I type.
Come dance with me.
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