When I started dancing raves were still hidden underground. The first party I went to – some mates and I drove about 200 km north of my hometown. We all said we were sleeping over at each other’s house. J. drove us to Calgary in his ford tempo or something. On the way, we listened to actual mixtapes in the tape deck of the car. We dressed up in – fatpants and skinnyshirts – the best dance uniform there was at the time. We experienced the entire thing sober. By the third party we went to we’d escalated to caffeine pills and smart drinks, but at 16, they didn’t have any effect on us, we naturally vibrated with excitement simply with the fact that we snuck out, drove for two hours and danced all night to this perfectly understandable mechanical love. It was a utopia – a perfect culture built out of respect and love and as I found out much later – drugs. The community gathered like a tribe would and formed a unity of some sort. The philosophy of the culture was even mandated by a simple acronym symbolizing socialist idealism.

P.L.U.R. Peace Love Unity Respect

The music though, sounded different than it does now, for the most part anyway. Dance music followed a basic formula that when mixed right would take its followers through a journey to the next day’s sunrise. The time was magical and it formed a lasting impression and made me the person I am today. It’s great to hear music that energizes the youthfulness in my agedness by combining the electric newness of acts like Digitalism with throwbacks to old-timey techno.

Digitalism – Idealistic (Night Facilities remix) | YSI Link

Visit Digitalism here and Night Facilities here.