How much does Techno owe to E?

[Hades]

I think I already told that story over here about how my mrs used to give 2 sessions a week to psychiatric patients,
and how once one of them had been doing ketamine with his friends. (ketamine is AFAIK pretty hard to come by over here in Belgium, thank god)
he thought it would look brilliant if he cut off his one leg, so he took a big knife and started cutting through his upper thigh.
Eventually one of his other friends found it a little too bloody and called an ambulance.
If he hadn't, the guy would have bled to death.
He's still missing 1 leg for the rest of his life though.
I wonder how many times he looks in the mirror and thinks about that stupid idea...

[Lost to the Void]

Darwin at work, idiots will always find a way to fuck themselves up.

[quest]

I don't understand how K got into the scene, was really big in the DnB/Jungle scene for awhile. Seeing those kids in K-holes just never made sense. I think they were using the scene to take out their anger about a lot of things.

[Lost to the Void]

IT got in to the scene via Squat Parties and the squat community.
Essentially a load of the community went to goa one year, and they found a lot of junkies using it over there because you could just freely buy it from chemists.

They brought a load of it back in to the country (hidden in rose water bottles). From there it got to the gay scene, who are always early adopters of new chemicals, and then many years later it hit clubland. At one point they were bringing in trucks full of "rose water" every month. Frightening.

It`s (was) cheap, and long lasting. And in the honeymoon period it`s actually quite fun and bouncey. But tolerance builds quickly and thats when the K holes happen.

I remember when it really hit the squat parties, and a lot of us were thinking at the time "fuck, if this ever hits clubland, it will be devastating". And it did eventually.
Ketamine is one of the reasons I walked away from the illegal rave scene, it destroyed the parties and allowed the predators to come in for easy pickings.

[jordanneke]

It`s (was) cheap, and long lasting. And in the honeymoon period it`s actually quite fun and bouncey. But tolerance builds quickly and thats when the K holes happen.

I remember when it really hit the squat parties, and a lot of us were thinking at the time "fuck, if this ever hits clubland, it will be devastating". And it did eventually.
Ketamine is one of the reasons I walked away from the illegal rave scene, it destroyed the parties and allowed the predators to come in for easy pickings.

Can you explain more why it's hated so much and what it did to clubs?

When I was going out it was pretty much 'hard-housers' that were on the stuff.

People 'I' know have had terrible times on the stuff. Just awful. Why it's taken I don't know, too old I guess.

[Lost to the Void]

It`s (was) cheap, and long lasting. And in the honeymoon period it`s actually quite fun and bouncey. But tolerance builds quickly and thats when the K holes happen.

I remember when it really hit the squat parties, and a lot of us were thinking at the time "fuck, if this ever hits clubland, it will be devastating". And it did eventually.
Ketamine is one of the reasons I walked away from the illegal rave scene, it destroyed the parties and allowed the predators to come in for easy pickings.

Can you explain more why it's hated so much and what it did to clubs?

When I was going out it was pretty much 'hard-housers' that were on the stuff.

People 'I' know have had terrible times on the stuff. Just awful. Why it's taken I don't know, too old I guess.

My hate for it is pretty personal.

Once ketamine had imbedded itself in my scene, the punters became less aware of themselves, their surroundings. We had people walking out of 3rd floor windows, people smashing through glass and cutting themselves up not realising, falling down stairs all sorts. They could be pick pocketed easily, or mugged by simply asking them for their money. For us it became incredibly difficult to police the parties and keep people safe.

Once people from the crews were K Holing too, it meant there were less of us to keep the predators at bay, so mayhem and chaos was rife.

It removes the energy from the dancefloor too, you go from uppy, jumpy, smiley happy parties to shuffling, head nodding, low energy zombies.


I`m not against it, I think as a psychedelic experience, the dissociative nature of it can take you right out in to the void, you can get to the very edge of consciousness, a very short and sharp quick root to deep meditation (with less control), but it`s not a drug conducive to partying, in the same way that Salvia or DMT aren't either.

[ashley BORG]

I was once at a house party and all our new delivered stuff got mixed up. I ended up doing a load of K. It was a pretty horid experience, especially as it was completely unexpected. Have never been tempted to go near the stuff again.
I know a few regular users. I don't even bother trying to interact with them. Don't even see the point in them being out when they get that fucked and contribute nothing.

[Mattias]

Picture this for a bad trip.

Was doing a party underneath canning town flyover.
An "outdoor" rave in a spot we used to use in the summer.
All going well, no major trouble, was about 11am Sunday morning.
I'd been working all night, doing the door, policing the party , dealt with the authorities(we had 3 soundsystems in the grounds and about 2500 people by that time), I'd played a set, and decided it was the end of my shift (something I rarely did but this was outdoor and things were always less stressful).
Some associates gave me some of their space juice. This was a really sweet honey based syrup made from Mexican magic mushrooms, peyote and pure mdma.
They gave me a cap full (it was in a 1 litre plastic milk bottle), which they assured me would be mild and pleasant. After I drank it they then laughed.
Bastards, obviously that was a heavy dose then.
Oh well, go enjoy the music.
Had a bit of a dance to one of the outside soundsystems (iffy soundsystem, very dark drum and bass) (there were arches under the bridge which used to be garages, our soundsystem was in one, but we decided to have one rig out in the courtyard, as it was an outdoor party, and there was no passing pedestrians or traffic as that was overhead on the Canning Town flyover), then I decided to go see how our rig was doing and who was playing.
Whilst in there my partner, who never ever took anything, was a bit trashed.
I questioned why and he said one of our DJ's had a bottle of liquid lsd and that i should have some.
Sure why not, everything is going fine and we can wind the party down in a few hours.
Now matey with the bottle and dropper was a cheeky little monkey, and he gave me more than a drop.
Oh dear, also forgot about the space juice I took earlier.

So some time later I was walking around the world of Tron, admiring the resolution of the graphics and how they had got the details on the front of the speakers really nicely, and how wonderful the sky looked all burning like that.
The music was floating past me in little clouds of audible vapour, and the ground seemed to be made out of a layer of sponge placed over a bouncy castle.

I was in no state to be responsible for a rave.

So then a tap on my shoulder "oh steeeeeeeeve, we better go deal with this"
I turned and looked at my partner in crime, who had transformed into some anthropomorphic rat man.
He pointed up to the flyover. Leaning over the flyover, surrounded by smoke, were some police officers and a man in a uniform that could only be a chief inspector or hopefully just an inspector.

"Someone needs to go talk to them, none of the door crew want to do it" said ratty

"Ok, who do we have?"

"Well, that's a flat cap, I don't trust anyone to deal with that, it's you and me innit" said ratty

"Mate, I can see time in 6 dimensions, I'm in no fit state to negotiate with the filth"

"Be a fucking man, c'mon, it'll be fun you cunt" said ratty

"Ah fuck it, come on then"

So we walked under the tunnel in between the garage arches, out the other side, and then up the steps that went up to the other side of the flyover. I'm fairly sure the staircase said its name was Gavin and it was only doing this part time.

Anyway, when we got up to the flyover we noticed that the whole road was covered in smoke. Basically one of the guys got a bit carried away with our superfogger cannons and the smoke had spilled out of the arch (where visibility was down to zero, especially with the strobes) and up as a cloud to, and over the road.

The flyover at canning town carries a very busy road. So we took life in our hands and ran across the road to the boys in blue.

"Hello inspector, we thought someone should come and talk to you, any problems?" Said ratty

"are you responsible for that rave down there?"

"Well, haha, we merely represent the collective who are doing the party, it's a community thing. We are just the sensible people who are chosen to represent the collective, what seems to be the problem?" said ratty, his wits clearly still about him.

Now at this point I noticed the cool chequered pattern on the inspectors hat, which was rotating independently around his hat, like a dot matrix display. I wanted desperately to reach out and stop it spinning with my finger.

But then I heard a voice.

"Well, this smoke is obviously a serious traffic hazard. I want it sorted out immediately or I am coming back here with a lot more men and things won't go well for you"

"I'll sort it out right away guy" said ratty, "graham stay here and see what else we can do for the inspector" (graham was my "party name" when dealing with the rozzer).

Off he ran, rather than crossing the road he ran down the road to the embankment at the side of the flyover as it begins to rise from the roundabout back at ground level, over the fence, down the embankment and in to the party"
It seemed to take forever, the grass on the embankment was glowing bright green, and strobing different shades.

"So graham, the other problem I have is that we have been told some of the people wanted from the anti capitalist riots are down at that rave"

(This was the same summer in the year that the huge anti capitalist riots happened that ground the city of london to a halt for a day and cost millions in damages).

"Erm, well look, I don't know everyone down there, but no one I know was involved in the riots" (not strictly true) "what do you want to do about it, can you point anyone out to me?"

"Well ideally I would like to arrest them"

"Ah look, if you walk in there with your men (he had 4 officers with him) and start arresting people you might cause another riot, I'm not threatening you, but I can only negotiate for these people, I can't promise you things won't go mental if you go in"

The smoke stopped. Ratty walked out in to the middle of the courtyard below and gave a big grinning double thumbs up and then a theatrical polishing of his fingernails on his shirt, then ran back to the embankment at the edge of the courtyard to make his way back up to us.

"So what are we saying graham? Do I need to go and get more men?"

Now we'd all seen the various "do you know this person" mugshots in the london papers with photos of people the police wanted to talk to about the j18 anti capitalist madness, and though we recognised some people from the wide community of the subculture, they weren't "one of us". So I took a gamble.

"Ok guv, I tell you what, I don't want a hole mass of trouble over a few stupid people, and you can't come in to the party, so you point out the people you want, and I'll go kick em out of the party, then you can talk to them or Nick em or whatever"

I gambled that the whole anti capitalist stuff was just a ruse so they had a reason to shut the party down, with the threat of mass arrest.

The inspectors eyes were spinning in their sockets, his facial features were moving around a little like his skin was a really thick gloopy soup, the band on his hat was whizzing around, and it appeared his men were behind him dancing.

I stared at him for possibly an hour, my legs were saying RUN, my stomach had fallen down inside me to my feet, my mind was saying YOU ARE GETTING NICKED and my hand wanted desperately to reach up and stop the spinning hat band.

"No no, that's not necessary, we have merely had complaints, probably just a civilian who saw all you weird looking people dancing around and jumped to a conclusion, I can't see anyone on my wanted list. Now I don't want this party still here at the end of my shift, it makes me look bad, can you get this shut down by 7pm, if not I will have to come down in full force"

"7!!, fuck me! We ain't THAT fucking mad, haha, I've got a missus to get home to and dip me wick in, know what mean? This will all be wound down in a couple of hours, you can only put up with these freaks for a while innit? It's a bloody zoo down there, but at least we keep em out of your hair for the weekend ey?"

Did I just say that? Jesus, what have I been saying all along? I don't think I said that? Oh god, how long have I been staring at him, look at his fucking hat..

I looked to my left and ratty had joined us, apparently, and had just uttered the typical cheeky chappy shit that always seemed to keep us out of the nick.
The voice I heard, was not mine... Phew.

"I'll be back at 7 to check on you. Tommy (ratty's party name), graham, no more smoke on the road, good day gentlemen"

And they got back in to their van and left.

"Cunts" said ratty, "job done, you alright?"

"I am fucked mate, I was not up for that, I need to go lay down for a bit, I may have shit myself and I might possibly be dead"

"You cuuuuuuunt, cmon, iffy has fallen asleep in his van, let's gaffa tape all the doors up and wrap camo netting around it, fucking wanker should have been up here with us" said ratty, handing me beer.

We went back to the party, we did gaffa tape iffy in to his van, only after letting off the handbrake and moving the van outside the party into the street on the other side of the compound outside the party.
He had to phone us when he woke up, as he couldn't get out and didn't know where he was.

I spent about an hour hiding in our van as the missus nursed me back to reality.

A lot of people apparently had space juice and or liquid lsd. It was a pretty crazy party.
One guy went totally bonkers and we had to tape his legs together and his arms until he calmed down as he was really going mad.

The party shut down about 5pm. It took us about 3 hours to pack up and leave as we just couldn't work out how to fit the rig in to the van and it took several tries, in and out, in and out.
The inspector never returned...

Trips like that make a man out of you.

Hades did you hijack Steve's account?

[Alume]

I like ketamine. Not for parties but for home use. I once had a solo session on k. I was really stoned and thought it would be cool to do some k. I was watching tv and after a few snorts i wanted more. My vision was ffucked already, u couldnt focus so i had to close one eye to see properly. After an other hit i realised i could not open my eye and the otherwas closing too. I went to lie ddown on the couch. Closed my eyes and colourful waves streamed over me, i could see it. After a while i noticed the sides of my body. The outline so to speak. As i got more aware or this line it started to stretch. I was stretching out from the outlines to the walls and slowely started springing line a slomo trampoline strechted out over the room. After that i dont remember. The first thing i remember is crawling up the stairs and into my bed.

[Hades]

Hades did you hijack Steve's account?

nope.
My staircase works fulltime and is called Harold.
That's Sir Harold to you !

[Mattias]

Aye Ket should stay outta the club scene, it's a crappy party drug really. The nu-deep house school followers seem to love it though, 120bpm and all hehe

[Patriek]

Interesting thread
Not sure if techno owe's anything to E. Looking at one of the major festivals in NL (Lowlands) i am pretty sure 'E' has spread towards other scenes also. I know quite a few people who use 'e' so they can keep drinking (they call it cheating). Techno does not owe anything to E and the other way around i think. E has been around for ages in groups of people who 'share' the same love of music, art and shit like that.

And i think there are 2 groups of 'users':

- Use to get that extra buzz cause you already love the music
- Use to get wasted and escape reality

Perhaps 3

- idiots who just use and become fucking annoying cause they mix it all together (E, alchohol, weed etc etc)

[dylanlolwut]

Perhaps 3

- idiots who just use and become fucking annoying cause they mix it all together (E, alchohol, weed etc etc)

Reminds me of a few people I know..

[Mattias]

Perhaps 3

- idiots who just use and become fucking annoying cause they mix it all together (E, alchohol, weed etc etc)

This seems to be the youth of today. Every time I'm in your country I hear nasty stories of kiddies going to raves and clubs for the first or second time and mix all sorts of things together from people I know there or the club staff / management / promoters etc. Crazy stuff!

[Patriek]

Yes, and i am very proud of that behaviour! Typical dutch: Do it all the way, or don't do it at all.

[ashley BORG]

Yes, and i am very proud of that behaviour! Typical dutch: Do it all the way, or don't do it at all.

Go hard or go home!

[AxeD]

I work in a club hosting many techno nights and there is barely any drug related problems.
Since October last year I've only seen 2 or 3 people that had to be escorted out and I'm fairly
sure that was mostly due to alcohol abuse, as they were yelling at people and shit..

There's a lot of users for sure, but no problems. I just hope that white heroin crap doesn't find
it's way in.

[Patriek]

Aaah, the famous 'coma drinking' we have in NL! Forgot about that. Perhaps someone who is completely drunk is more annoying then someone on 'E'

[Lost to the Void]

Drunk people are definitely the most annoying of all drug users.

When I was a bouncer the pub jobs were always always always more trouble than the clubs.

[Patriek]

'Of all drug users' ... god, i wish people would finally understand that alcohol is just as much drugs as e, weed or whatever!