DJ T. tour blog: Week 15

DJ T. tour blog: Week 15

26 October, 2009 | 4.29AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: dj t, dj t blog, get physical

DJ T. discusses drug cartels, war, Afghanistan, and politics in this week’s tour blog, with a dispatch from Costa Rica and Monterrey.

Now 15 weeks into his world tour, the Get Physical boss’ thoughts are getting quite deep.

He also drops a new DJ chart, highlighting his current dancefloor rockers from his world tour.

Week 15

Ever since my European departure, I’ve been saddled with this uneasy feeling that somewhere out there, someone has been treating a voodoo doll to more than a few pinpricks and long-distance curses.

Take the weather, for example. Wherever I go, I walk straight into a solid deluge or at least the glaring absence of sun. Torrential downpours and thunderstorms have become my trusted travel companions.

First, there was a week of almost continuous rain in Rio, then – in Monterrey (Mexico) – it started to pour the moment I had reached my hotel and even Costa Rica, my temporary home for the last three days, has shown me its dark and cloudy side… apparently, there were a few elusive rays of sun, but I missed them due to sleep or work.

Which leads me to niggle No.2 – despite being half-way around the globe, I could not leave my work behind, so even between gigs I am busy as ever. Anyone picturing me by the pool, long drink in hand, is sadly mistaken.

Besides my everyday A&R duties for our three labels and keeping you up to date with this tour diary (another 1 ½ days every week) my time is filled with a seemingly endless string of interviews, mostly for local media in cities I am about to play.

I just finished a half-hour call with a likeable and well-informed editor from New York’s Time Out listings magazine. Let me tell you – if all interviews went like this, the constant Q&A marathons would be a walk in the park …he was pleasant, knowledgeable and asked some fun questions.

Unfortunately, experience dictates that every second interview will be somewhat stressful and every fourth – sorry, there is no way to sugar-coat this – a real pain in the ass.

Depending on my level of resilience, it can be incredibly exhausting to answer the same vacuous, clichéd and banal questions for the 100th time. And on days when I have a fairly short fuse, I can get quite obstinate and uncooperative.

With some interviewers, it’s glaringly obvious that their superficial prep extends to scanning a few prior interviews and that they’re planning to cook up a bland rehash, sometimes even with the same phrases and keywords.

To them, this might even count as a job well done. On the other hand, this is a central part of my duties – in the current climate, promotion is everything and if you refuse to join the circus, you’re not only sabotaging your own existence, but it’s also an affront to the person who booked you because they rely on the media support. So, time to grit my teeth and tough it out.

But let’s return to last weekend and the fourth stop of my intercontinental tour. I’d been meaning to return to Monterrey (Mexico) for a good two years, not least of all due to Diego Ayala, a real one-of-a-kind promoter.

Although he might be a little lax when it comes to scheduling or other organisational details, his heart is definitely in the right place and filled with lashes of passion (not only for music). A connoisseur of the demimonde, he is also an indefatigable and entertaining source of titbits, curiosities and slippery stories from the underworld – once he has started, it’s usually impossible to stop the riveting narrative.

I couldn’t get enough of his anecdotes on small fry and big fish, on the nefarious activities of the Mexican Mafia and other (tall) tales from the nether world.

Don’t get me wrong – I most definitely don’t want to detract from or trivialise the seriousness of crime in this country. According to news sources, mafia activities are more rampant than ever and in some cities, especially the notorious border town Ciudad Juarez, the status quo has reached war-like conditions. Compared to this, even the darkest corners of Russia or Italy would pass for mere amusement parks.

Coming from Western Europe, it’s all too easy to look down on all this and dismiss it as the Mad Max excesses of a culture condemned to remain forever backward.

But, like most cases when the immediate gut reaction is to measure conditions against those of your own country, anyone who falls into this trap is making a great and grave mistake.

Shaking off this subconscious cultural arrogance benefits both sides, especially if you really want to understand what’s going on and maybe even do some good.

Unfortunately, not even the governments and politicians of civilised countries are exempt from prejudice and presumption, my own included.

We might cut a better figure in Afghanistan than, say, the Americans in Iraq, but when it comes down to it, we have proven just as unsuccessful in our efforts to export democracy and civilisation for the last seven years.

Most wars and conflicts around the world – from small, interpersonal altercations and skirmishes to hostile exchanges between nations, cultures and religions – boil down to a lack of empathy for the other’s point of view and the automatic application of our own morals and measures to the other’s actions.

During our discussion of the Juarez drug wars, one aspect really caught my attention. Several features in the European press had focused on the fact that this was a war on many fronts, with the two powerful cartels of Juarez and Sinaloa fighting over control of this strategically important border town while also at battle with president Felipe Calderón’s army.

Diego’s insider’s view, on the other hand, painted a slightly different picture. The closer you get, the more reality starts to blur the boundaries between good and evil – until no one can quite tell the difference any more.

According to him, the government isn’t – well, couldn’t really be – interested in stopping the drug trade to the USA altogether: a wholesale crack-down that cuts off the direct and indirectly related flow of money would bring Mexico’s economy to its knees. And, after all, you would never be able to destroy the cartels, you could only ever hope to control them.

So, what exactly goes on in Juarez? Word on the street is that the government has made a secret deal with one of the cartels to rein in its larger and more violent rival.

For someone like me who comes from a relatively strong state like Germany, it would be inconceivable to live in a nation that not only tolerates a second criminal and murdering state within its limits but even has to ask it for help.

Then again, is it really so different back in Europe? Italy springs to mind. I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, but if the Italians knew just how deeply entrenched and entwined politics and organised crime were in their own country, they would probably abandon all hope – and even Germany’s Italophile holidaymakers might give the Boot, well, the boot for a while.

And what about the aforementioned German military presence in Afghanistan? We pay huge bribes to the Taliban – remember, those are the guys we’re supposed to be at war with – in order to keep them away from construction sites for schools, hospitals, streets etc. as there simply aren’t enough soldiers to protect them all.

So, in a way, we are financing weapons the Taliban then turns against Afghani civilians and our own soldiers (btw - I gleaned all this from a recent cover story in German news mag Stern).

Is this in any way less bizarre or morally reprehensible? Whatever you do – the further you peel back the layers and risk a look behind the scenes, the less likely you are to make snap judgements. After all this, I am a little bit apprehensive, but definitely looking forward to my upcoming stop in Juarez. Should I invest in a bulletproof vest?

On Saturday, I flew to San Jose, the capital of a tiny Central American country that shares the land bridge between South and North America with its neighbours Panama and Nicaragua.

It has been a decade since my last visit to Costa Rica and I remember it as one of my best vacations ever. Back then, I also stopped off in the capital for a few days and then went on to spend a cool four weeks with friends on the coast.

Around the turn of the millennium, the local techno scene was still more or less in its infancy and I met some of its earliest activists like Ileana Sotela who played a major part in promoting and grooming the scene with her parties and radio show.

Fast-forward a decade, and electronic dance music has claimed its rightful place in Costa Rica. So, this time around I am not just playing some random venue but Vertigo, purported to be one of Latin America’s best and most professional clubs.

At the same time, I really looked forward to my first face-to-face with the club’s two residents, Tekes & Patrice aka Kabuto & Koji, who had released remixes on our labels Get Physical and Kindisch.

The dynamic twosome turned out to be a pair of bona fide party animals and made me feel right at home in this beat-driven haven of altered states from the first moment.

I would have loved to follow their invitation to a real Costa Rica after hours, but the unfortunate blend of lingering illness and acute sleep deprivation exerted its irresistible pull and drove me right back to my huge, comfy hotel bed.

Weather (see above) and virus turned my remaining time in San Jose into a fairly quiet, but no less intense four days – not least of all thanks to my encounters with some truly extraordinary people whose sheer presence reminded me that it was high time to schedule a – more leisurely – return trip as soon as possible.

DJ T. The Inner Jukebox Worldtour Top 10

DJ T. - The Inner Jukebox Worldtour 2009

October
29.10.09 - Parking, Montreal (CA)
30.10.09 - Smart Bar, Chicago (USA)
31.10.09 - Sullivan Room, New York (USA)

November
03.11.09 - Woody’s, Philadelphia (USA)
06.11.09 - See Sound Lounge, Seattle (USA)
07.11.09 - Avalon, Los Angeles (USA)
10.11.09 - Tapas, Newport Beach (USA)
12.11.09 - Habitat, Calgary (CA)
13.11.09 - Migthy, San Francisco (USA)
14.11.09 - Lotus Sound Lounge, Vancouver (CA)
20.11.09 - Rise, Boston (USA)
25.11.09 - Electric Pickle, Miami (USA)
27.11.09 - Gallery, Washington (USA)
28.11.09 - Asylum Afterhours, Honululu (USA)

December/January
04.12.09 - Zouk, Singapore (SG)
05.12.09 - Stereosonic@F4, Melbourne (AU)
06.12.09 - Sneaker Peeps, Brisbane (AU)
11.12.09 - Ink, Auckland (NZ)
12.12.09 - Ladida, Melbourne (AU)
18.12.09 - Pang, Canberra (AU)
19.12.09 - Chinese Laundry, Sydney (AU)
25.12.09 - Club Heaven, Seoul (SK)
26.12.09 - Warehouse, Tokyo (JP)

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