Close your eyes, open your mind and allow yourself to become immersed in the dark world of one man and his fantasies. This week’s i-DJ, Drums of Death takes i-D online on an electronic theme-tuned 24 hour trip.
Colin Bailey is the illusive Berlin based producer who has worked with Hot Chip and Peaches, and is paving the direction of new music. Follow his footsteps from London to Spain, via the sounds of an exclusive mix of his latest EP ‘Blue Waves’ and some snaps off his Blackberry taken along the way.
From Colin…
So at 6:44am on a Saturday morning, I’m beginning this little story for i-D and like all good stories, it involves international jet-setting. It starts with a flight to Barcelona as I’m playing a headline set at The Loft Room in Razzmatazz but I undertake this journey without having gone to bed yet. The journey through London is ok, I just keep my shades down and bolt onto the plane where, despite my better judgement, I hit the coffee. The plane lands around 3pm and I check in to sleep immediately, before getting rudely awoken one hour later by a call from my friend Roland. He tells me to get down to the record store Discos Paradiso in the El Ravel neighbourhood as his friend’s house music label Tracy are doing a Ustream session with some of their DJs. I go and bump into DJ Kosmos from Nitsa Club who I haven’t see in a while. After this a few of us go for dinner, where we really lose track of time. To make sure I’m at Razzmatazz on time for soundcheck, we bomb through the streets of Barcelona in someone’s motor. Lone’s new album is on loud in the car, it soundtracks this frantic journey well.
Razzmatazz is set in a huge industrial building and is a little bit north-east of central Barcelona. It houses several rooms of varying size that play pop, indie and house music. I’m playing in The Loft, the larger of the electronic music rooms, a cavernous concrete box that waits to be filled up with people and noise. My show goes really well, it’s a fun crowd. They do well for coming out the Saturday night before Primavera Festival. Venice Beach has become a real favourite live. The synth chords are playful and it turns into a tweaked-out synth jam. I’m loving this new audio/visual show, it takes my new music to new levels. When I first played in Barcelona a few years ago, the music I made then was so different to what I do now. I was learning, just scrabbling the dirt making it up as I went along. With my recent ‘Waves EP’ I feel I’ve matured and reached a confidence in my music. ‘Waves City’ is my new set and it slams home. Big noises, hands in the air and then I’m done.
A little later I’m backstage with Roland and Jordi from Tracy Records and his Swedish friends. With paint on our faces the Swedes decide we should form a cult. Though to what end is never mentioned. I’m reminded that I once put a 3ft high Drums Of Death logo tag in paint on the backstage wall. It’s gone now and so are we. 6am has come, the party’s over and we leave Razzmatazz. Mikaela, one of the Swedish girls starts to juggle bottles of water in the street for no reason other than it’s 6am and that’s the sort of thing you do at this time. So i-D, that was 24 hours. It was emotional.
Text: Milly McMahon
