Tuesday 18 December 2012

Wifebeaters


Wife beaters
Long manes, wild lifestyle and white undershirts, a straight from the catwalk of a Calvin Klein commercial. They are bad to the bone, and fully justified… these are the Wifebeaters!

Mike otherwise known as DJ Zed, and Alan Luna are both highly respected DJs and producers in their own right and have played among the best clubs and festivals in Holland and beyond. Together,
their neck-breaking sets and infectious personalities have led them
to outshine even the biggest name DJ's on famous
Dutch summer events such as Sneakers, Loveland and Dance
Valley. However, at the moment they spin their records most of the time in other countries outside of their homeland Holland, including France, The Canaries and Turkey.
One of the highlights featured an opening party at the beach of Montpellier.

 ,, It’s such a turn on! To play records at a beachparty in France… that’s totally crowded’’. Or in dutch;
 ,,
Een vette kakker als je gewoon op een openingsfeest van een strandfeest in Frankrijk mag draaien, totaal afgeladen’’


It all sounds very easy and these boys are obviously rocking it…
but can I do this too? As a noob in this Dj-jungle? As a
typical
student
of the 21th century?

,,Minimal yes! I would not say it's bad, but I don’t like it….It’s basically just a beat and some clicks, you can put together easily… truly any farmerdick can do that… but mixing two old disco songs??? NO, you can’t do that easily, even on a laptop, but that’s exactly what we don’t do, we play live with everything else though… except a laptop. ‘’

In addition, these
guys are huge fans of Ableton. ,,It's the reason why we can make music''. It has reduced the threshold and
learning curve
, in that you can transfer music to something
tangible from an initial thought or concept
. An Ableton course
has
not been necessary, but for the majority, we highly recommend
it! ,,We are completely autodidact ;)… I'm self-taught when I want
to know something,
then I just use the internet... I don’t need
someone to teach, I prefer trial and error’’ according to Mike.
 
Another thing they will never do is pre-planned sets, NEVER DONE IT, NEVER WILL DO IT AND I THINK ITS REDICULOUS!
Alan; ,,I think it’s hilarious, but has nothing to do with us.’’ Mike; ,,To us its more about the randomness, it’s all about the feedback from your audience..’’

Responding to your crowd hey? But everyone still wants something different….?
,,When people are on the dancefloor, some of them always want that continuous peak and some
Djs think that as well ... so then they throw hit after hit. What I think is that you should throw
some cunt songs in… the track you play afterwards is than 10
times more powerful and effective. It’s the tension you build.’’
I’m a peak-animal ;)…

Excitement right? Yes, We always play back to back, in that way you keep your set fresh and exciting, meanly for ourselves. Next to that, it’s also a challenge for each other. For example, when Mike turns on a number I would never expect, I think, Oh Shit – what can I do now? Its keeps it interesting and always dynamic… I love the chaos when I feel things are heading out of control, you know right!

Chaos in everything I understand? What about girlfriends? either of you Married? One of them yes!...One of them is on the hunt for the ideal. So all of you willing woman of Holland and further afield, this is your chance to catch one of the Wifebeaters. Are you looking for a bad boy, a wild lifestyle? The sex, drugs and rock and roll? Post your application below!

Want to see these beaters?
Check them at - Into the Wild - the 25th of Januari in Barkode, Amsterdam




Tuesday 11 December 2012

FACTS AND LIES ABOUT THE END

 
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES


I promised a sequel,  but it has taken longer than expected. Oops..

For the first time I have done a little research on different points of view, with regards to the end of the world. The first thing I noticed is that you can approach this subject from many different angles. Let’s get started with the Mayan calendar.

We can state that the Mayan calendar is at the root of all predictions that were made with regard to the possible end of the world - 2012. Without this calendar, stories contain the "stopping" of the 26,000 year cycle in 2012 and all the speculations around that year and the potential events that may be associated  with this, would have probably never existed.
This means that predicting the end of the world on the basis of such data is actually pretty unrealistic. After all the calendar is the reasons for many questions and concerns.
Primarily, it’s amazing how people like the Mayans had already such a good astronomical knowledge.


The calandar still concerns a lot of questions, for example what happened with 28 October 2011? This date was in fact the first date that the world would collapse, but this date didn’t have that much attention… In this way certain parties have ensured that as much attention as possible has been focussed on the 21st december 2012 while October 28, 2011 was essentially forgotten..strange!

This is one of the reasons that I highly doubt that anything will actually happen on December 21st  2012. Possibly this was just created
to frighten the people once again, but there's more ...

We can take  religion as a starting point for the subject at hand. I'm talking about various religions. After some searching on the internet, I have seen that every religion in one way or another, announces ‘’the end’’ It is by means  of a punishment or by means of a new beginning. Mysterious ....

Religion makes people believe in something that is intangible, it gives strength to mankind. But finding a conclusive explanation seems really difficult...
But still anyone can give a logical explanation for religious significant events. Oh yes!

Well, these are two angles that I have researched  more extensively
than I first expected.

If I put all the ridiculous theories together, why and under who would perish .. It should look like this:

- Mayan calendar, most famous theory
- The winter solstice
This winter, Our planet will  take during the 'winter solstice a unique place in the universe ‘’. The Earth and the sun will be exactly in line to face with the center of the galaxy, a unique event that only happened once every 26,000 years!
According to some theories this has disastrous consequences for the Earth because the gravity of Earth will be completely messed up by this special and powerful setup
- Solar Storm
Intense solar storm that excess energy emission with a deadly peak somewhere in 2012
- Biblicalpredictions….not really likely for me….
- Huge population growth… possible but not at the 21st of December
- Nuclear warfare….highly possible
- Global warming resulting in floods…..not yet, will come
- Super Volcanoes…..maybe in America
- The pestilence 2.0……NO NO
- Attack from Mars / Alien Attack….. So likely!
- Worldwide economic crisis….. Want to say no, but most likely!

Several statements from the list above are putting me in doubt ...;) of course, the Mars attack is the most obvious!
But what are the thoughts of  my Elevator Passion contemporaries.  Will they pull me across their line? After this slight bit of research I am still very curious!

If you can't wait.. or prepared for the end of the world this year, dont forget about the ''
Just in Case” end of the world kit....






Wednesday 5 December 2012

2012


Twothousandtwelve

"Do not believe what anybody says, rejecting it either, but research it".
Krishnamurti



Since 2006, blogging has become popular (yes I have recently become a fanatic in this), but over the last couple of years, everyone also become fascinated by the concept known as…. The End of the World.
Around 2008, I was still at secondary school and I was presented with a presentation about Nostradamus. Interesting but completely inconsistent.
At home I asked my parents about this subject, but they had never heard of this God, as we may call him by now. On the one hand this may be because they encourage peasant sobriety or they simply do not attach importance to this thing.
Approximately four years later I am now working for Elevator Passion. Elevator Passion is a really nice company but.... sometimes I need to give up my own point of views. The first life-changing task was giving up my eating habits.
Lettuce become a daily topic of conversation, the deep fryer stays closed but besides the word 'Lettuce'  the only noun synonymous with lunch time, we also had a discussion about the end of the world. Yes the end.......
All the alarm bells went off immediately, I'm not the most fond of talking about faith, traditions, predictions - excluding Sinterklaas and kale with a gravy-dimple. Contrasting with Lisa (the boss), she is really open to the subject and we have had enough arguments about 21/12/12 to make me even want to listen…Oh yes!
Lisa wants me to write a blog about the end of the world… luckily she sent me an email with 10 links, I needed to check out, trowing myself into the depth of the conspiracy theories. The links are open on my desktop but seriously reading went too far… no I’m not doing this ;) 
I will interview Lisa, check all the plus and minus point, think about it and put together a conclusion. This is what I’m gonna do!
Two cigarettes later Cenk is getting involved, Cenk the man who can do anything inside the office, but how often I assume things of him, the end of the world is a different matter though.
Next to Lisa I will give Cenk also a series of questions, because how far do they want to go in the theory about the end of civilization ? What do they believe? What do they want to believe in?, how far do they go into this? what do they want to do about it? Etc….This is the first time I am intrested in this matter at all. The countdown has begun and I will prepare myself…Preparing for a madness that is sure to come, or is it something that will stay fictitious….?

- To be continued -

Tuesday 4 December 2012

alex



ALEX THOMSON - ALEX MIZZI

Alex is a tour guide in the techno jungle

Fame is not something you will find Alex Mizzi looking for. Better known as Alex Thomson who uses his Tropical, Tribal & Fresh Tech sounds to elevate the dance floor at our "Into the Wild" events every two months.... "It is not right if it's too much about me. It really about the music. " is how he starts off the interview.

Outside he explained in a phenomenal speed his entire life in not more then two minutes, Alex is definately on fire and is always looking for bigger and better things.. you can hear it in his voice. Once back inside we decide to start the interview, Alex is our kickoff interviewee in a series of reports and interviews of Djs who provide support to Elevator Passion. Alex is the first one I will interview. He seems to know a lot about the music and audio world and approaches it with an easy going and open-minded attitude, ready to share his knowledge with anyone that will listen.
Alex lives music... He plays it, makes it, teaches it, engineers it, designs it and most likely eats it and sleeps with it too. 

It all began in 2006 where he started off DJing in Malta helped out by DJs Moose and Duncan F (in pic 2), he later moved to Liverpool to study and gain his Diploma in Audio Engineering, 2 years later he landed here in Amsterdam where he earned his Degree in the Recording Arts and Audio Production. 

But what I was really interested in is two things. One being "Why the Panda?" and two being, "Where does Thomson come from?"

Alex began to explain  about his connection with the Panda. 

"When I was born my Uncle bought me a huge Panda bear to sleep with and keep me warm. I was born in Scotland and it was pretty cold. I grew with this Panda soft toy being bigger than me till I was about 5, I always felt like it protected me, and I decided to bring the Panda back into my life, as my Logo for Alex Thomson and as the main feature and inspiration of my upcoming Audio-Visual Live Show... The Panda Project. It means something to it, and people seem to respond to that and understand, everyone loves the idea of a Panda at a party, I cant tell you about the amount of funny videos and images I receive everyday of Pandas just having fun, people relate that to me, and I really like it." 

And Thomson ?
"Thomson is my mother's maiden name. She always supported me and encouraged to do what I enjoy and to make the most out of life, I decided to use "Thomson" as my artist name as a sign of respect to her. It also helps me define myself. Alex Mizzi is the normal day - to - day world version of me, he goes grocery shopping and pays the rent, whereas Alex Thomson gets to jump around from Studio to Studio and club to club meeting a world of interesting people and doing as much in the Audio world as possible.

At only 21 years old Alex's accomplishments show his eagerness to learn and his driving ambition. He's moved country three time and finally landed in Amsterdam becoming a member of the Elevator Passion team. His home base for as long as we can keep him.. and yes he is doing well! 
Ableton teacher: CHECK    
Gigs: CHECK   
Degree in Audio engineering: CHECK
International Releases: CHECK


His Mission ?Alex Thomson is passionate as we can see, he strives to bring good music when under the spotlight and aims to please his crowds "I'm a techieI calculate and match the match the music to suit the situation, I want people to go on a tour on the dance floor and understand how Tribal Tech House can meet Techno ’’ - Alex is a tour guide in the techno jungle– Using Powerful basslines and tribally influenced percussions to lead his people. 

But what drives him? '' Everything... if I had to say one thing .. it would be Curiosity. I always need to know everything about anything new in the audio world, new sounds, new ideas, new people, the information feeds me and inspires me. Its all a game in the end, you just have to learn how to play it.  I got to where I am because of my curiosity, it drives me and inspires me to keep creating new things. 
Im working on a couple of technologically impossible projects - but if they work out i'll be super happy ! The end result of a crowd going crazy to something I've built is what gives me the biggest rush."

Alex
 Thomson is not an ordinary DJfor him its especially all about the perfect sound. You will never see him doing a DJ cliché or playing any commercial music that doesn't suit his powerful Tribal Tech sound. He believes the music needs to do the work, it needs to make the people move.  that’s his statement. One of his favorite tracks that he's playing at the moment and supports his statement is F sonik - Forest people.

Music means a lot to Alex Thomson and that one thing he would like to tranfer to others.. "I'm happy to teach and share any knowledge I have, wether its musical experiences in a club full of people or through teaching at Unis Academy."

Do you want to see Alex in action YES YES YES 

Beat palace club! 
- Club Canvas op de 7e 
- 15-12-2012 
-  Tech-House, Techno!

Or check out his fan page to keep up to date on his upcoming gigs and productions - he promises to keep it updated ! 

See you there! 

Monday 3 December 2012

THE PERFECT JUNGLE


 THE PERFECT JUNGLE
Into the wild

Yes roaaaaar, we're back, completely recovered
after a fantastic kickoff of the first edition 
of Into the Wild

We are satisfied, lets say, very satisfied with the launch
Tamara and Bob ,the lucky winners of our all inclusive 
wild treatment had the same feelings about it.
Around 6 o’clock the whole happening started at Vakzuid which was the beginning of their all-in wild night out. Pheasant on the plate and a glass of bubbels in the hand. Nice! Next stop: Vagabond collective for a wild hair bush and Bob got a trimming session, Free, hey! not bad at all…. ;)
To finish with a face painting by the incredible duo Arts in Parts…Now you probably have regrets
 that you did not win, right? No problem, we will 
warm you up for the next edition with this story!
After a wild & wicked opening by Roy Verschuren,Mike Ravelli from the wilderness of Haarlem took over the decks and filled the room with beastly elephant screams. The crowd had clearly taken their dancing shoes out of the closet….Jose Ibanez, Dublinal & DjesH, made sure everyone was vibrating at their feet of excitement all night long!

Visuals enlighted the dance floor with special mappings and interactive wildness, ShiTv made sure for excellent visual entertainment.

Going KO with a nitrous oxide balloon? NO problem.
Hearing a panda? WHAT? YES! Alex Thomson the fellow that securely closed the WILD night. He's a lover of life but a player of pawns. He knows how to do this! The monkeys seem willing to strike up the tune. But the night was already over…No worry the next edition will be at 25th of januari.

Although the next Into the Wild night will have a new host for the upper room ....
it will be quite a job for new ones to beat the boys of IAM TECHNO.
Oh that was nice, what a glory….serving delicious beats from a pretty cool DJ booth they rammed the whole room full with wild dancing tigers…..

SERIOUS! I can write so  much thing about our kickoff of Into the WIldout …of excitement….as an outlet for all the work that have been preceded. Yes yes we are lucky ... I suggest you, be ON the next time .. seriously this can not and should not be missed….

If you are that tiger who previously would discharge your energy, this Saturday 8th of December, ShiTv is trowing mappings at Studio 80 with sounds of Iam TECHNO…. Nice though!

Monday 26 November 2012

Preparation showtime


Dear Monday,

Even though the Monday morning is not the perfect moment of the week, for several reasons this day begun highly productive for us.
06.00 the alarm went off. Your bed feels so comfortable at times you must wake up, but today Cathy from Amsterdam breakfast radio was waiting for us at their radio station to talk about Into the wild.
Thank you Cathy :) we are looking forward to getting wild with you on Friday :)

Our previous month was completely absorbed by Into the Wild.
Production Planning, arrange sponsors, creating the flashmob after-movie, and making decoration.

Decoration making ... Material procured... ideas are there,  now only starting with it all… This step was bigger than expected, where do you begin when the whole office is filled with fabric, sewing yarn, aerosols and brightly coloured ribbons, we didn’t saw where we had to start. So what is Elevator Passion without elevating ideas? For us it seemed a nice idea to purchase a sewing machine. Yes, a sewing machine...

The Thought behind it was that we would probably book much faster results and it also indicates our creative passion ;)
I must say that it all went really quick...Wehkamp.nl delivered our order the next day at our studio.

The first Liane's and leaves were made easily, but what if the sewing machine stops because there is something tangled up inside? We become stressed, do not feel like sewing anymore and wanting to quit.
Then it turns out that women have simply really low patience for something like  that ... after a few coffee's and cigarettes we gained our patience back and kept on working with our new office member " The Sewing Machine".

Well
I can not complain, the whole week was characterised by Into the Wild, we have only five days to go before it's showtime. Super curious about the result.
We are really happy to have a team of people around us that support  us in every possible way. We go for it and we are going to succeed. Thanks everyone!
One of the ways in which we have received tremendous exposure last weekend was the flashmob trailer, It’s worth to check it out, and it will give you a good impression of the atmosphere to expect at Into the Wild… release your inner animal!!
From next Monday onwards we will  post an interview with each one of our artists on this blog, the first one scheduled is Alex Thomson, you can also check him out at Into the Wild. We will show you all the in-and out-sides about his DJ adventure of the past years. 

Elevator Passion

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Blog party or party blog?


BLOG PARTY OR PARTY BLOG?

A blog party is, in its most basic definition, a spot for bloggers to share their work with an audience they might not normally reach, and an opportunity for the host blog to gain some extra traffic. And thats exactly what we are trying to do at the moment.

We want to reach as many people as possible. One of the tool we use to reach our target group is 
our special action.
We want to make our new event - Into the Wild - more special then it already is. 
We make it special by offering you the opportunity to win a wild night out,which you will never forget. 

We offer a all in treat for two , you and your (party)friend.
What is the treat like?

You will get a haircut at vagabond collective, Vagabond is nothing like a typical hairdresser. Vagabond is a group of free hairdresser spirits who are cutting, dyeing and styling your hair, at various inspiring location in Amsterdam. the lucky winners will have the opportunity to visit  them at the centre of their operations - at their salon

Next to a fabulous haircut you will have a dinner at Vakzuid in the Olympic Stadion. The dinner includes  a 3 course chef's special dinner. Be surprised by the taste, smell and fresh products. Next to the superior food you will have an amazing view, looking across the sinter-path that was used by various olympic athletes during the olympic games in 1928. 

Hopefully after this dinner and a couple of drinks you will be in a wild party mood, prepare because the treatment isn't done yet. It will go on and on and on...
Next step, finishing your total make over ... Arts in Parts our steady make up team will give you a wild look. 
Animal patterns? Maybe, only if you want... One thing is for sure these girls will make you special, your inner god or goddess will pop up. Inner-tiger, Inner-Panda whatever you want..

If you want to meet and greet the DJs of the night, like our headliner Mike Ravelli,
this is your chance, so join them for a drink before the party starts. After all you are free to join the party that will start after your meet and greet. Enjoy enjoy!

Okay, but what do we want from you? We don't ask that much, the only thing 
you need to do is, uploading a picture of your inner animal /party animal :) at our page into the wild 
that's all....
This competition closes Monday the 26th November and we will choose the photo which best represents an inner animal. Be creative , be wild !

Elevator Passion


















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