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Features
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| Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! | | TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! | | A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! | | Goa based party animal and artist extraordinaire Nirmal talks punk concerts, metal sculptures, flying and rippin' it up on a High Tide! | | DJ Wired talks to us about the Rise of the Hope and parties, ahead of his upcoming set at Tribal Village on 14th January 2022! |
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Free-Spirit's Moka Mafia takes us on a pychedelic adventure to Tribal Village
Reported by Tara
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Submitted 04-05-15 17:47
Since gathering the London psy tribe and instigating a new breed of psychedelic events a couple of years ago, the Tribal Village crew has continued to innovate and surprise, with every single event containing new firsts to keep things fresh. For their event this Saturday 9th May they’re not only moving to a bigger better venue – The Steelyard – and have got aerialist ErialC on board to heighten that carnival atmosphere, but once again there are a host of debuts and UK firsts, with Belgium’s Foose playing in London for the first time, Cyclon coming from Japan to make his UK debut and the world-wide launches of O.C.D. LIVE (South Africa) and Wayfarers (UK/Italy).
Moka Mafia however isn’t new to music or the London scene, having been in bands since the age of 17 and played pretty much most musical styles around while starting to write electronic sounds on his Atari computer using Cubase. It was only upon arriving in London from Sardinia in 1997 that he first went to Pendragon at Brixton Academy and fell in love with the psychedelic party scene, which lead to him getting inspired by the music in the chill outs at events such as Return to the Source, Astral Phoenix, Fairy Tales and Chichime – where he made his DJ debut in 2003. Since then he’s become a regular on the scene, while continuing to study his craft at the Conservatory of Music.
This Saturday night he’ll be showcasing some of his unreleased tracks as well as playing live keyboards and mixing up a storm of eclectic beats. We tracked down this musical mafioso to find out more about his path to Tribal Village…
Hi Mononegro, thanks for taking some time out from making music to answer a few questions. You’re originally from Sardinia, what first motivated you to move to London and why do you think you fell in love with the place?
Hi Tara, thank you for the interview. I always wanted to go to London at some point and ended up living there for 14 years. I met a lot of awesome people and the city was vibrant and full of cool things to do. The right place for me, basically.
You’ve been in bands since you were 17 and started writing electronic music on your first Atari computer using Cubase. Can you remember what inspired your first track?
Mainly minimalists such as Wim Mertens and Philip Glass inspired my first track. It was a track with many layers of piano arpeggios and strings with some electronic abstract sounds on top.
Many friends of mine in bands used to look down on electronic music when it first started to become popular as they didn’t think it was ‘real’. How did you manage to do both for so long and what made you ultimately choose to be a DJ and producer?
Hahaha! A classic, isn’it? I couldn’t stand techno or acid house in fact for the same reason. According to my philosophy teacher at that time, it was ‘real’ music as well. This got me thinking about our limitations when it comes to prejudices in music. But electronic music is not just about dance and I used to listen to Kraftwerk and other assorted electronic music. Then, being a keyboard player naturally led me to program my own music on a computer, which at the time wasn’t about dance music at all. Only when I went to London I started enjoying dance music as well and DJing was inevitable at that point.
Your bio boasts that the bands you were in covered everything from folk, hip-hop, rock, metal and punk to experimental and psychedelic – which is about as eclectic as it gets! What have been your main influences over the years? And now?
Essentially, they come from all corners of music like classical, punk, ’70s psychedelic music, dub, world music, anything really. I used to play with many bands and nearly every musician I collaborated with would show me new music and new styles. I loved playing Deep Purple with some friends and when I bought their record of their live show with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra I understood that there shouldn’t be limits to what music can do.
At present I’m studying electronic music at the Conservatory and I’m listening to a lot of electroacoustic and experimental stuff. This is bringing new influences and ideas together with new approaches in making music.
Why the name ‘Moka Mafia’? Please translate for the rest of us heathens.
My mate Alex Ampt and I were thinking about doing something together. One day we were talking about a name for the project while I was making a coffee with a mocha machine. Suddenly I came out with this idea just to make an example of a two-word name and we laughed our arses off. Although we wrote some tunes together before – one of which with Jay was released as the closing track of Journey’s album Through the Mirror – we never started the project and I kept the name. He has a coffee stall in Frome now, the Kick Ass Koffee: he prepares some roasted beans called Moka Mafia and he makes killer coffee!
How would you describe the Moka Mafia sound? Do you reckon it has changed and evolved much over the years?
It keeps evolving all the time, always trying different things and different approaches. At present I’m more oriented into recording the most absurd objects and putting them through chains of effects, sound-wise. And I’m diving more into ambient and drones with strange noises and dubs.
What have been the highlights of your music career so far? And what goals do you still have for the future?
Well, certainly releasing the Prologue EP with Free-Spirit Records. Now I’m less active with the production as I’m also studying, but as soon as I finish here I’ll go back to London and release new music.
You were signed to Free-Spirit Records in 2007: how did you meet Jay and Bridget and get involved with the Free-Spirit team?
I met Jay and Bridget in London, through common friends. We got on really well from the beginning. Also Jay is from Sardinia, although he has lived mostly in Milan. I dropped him a demo mix that also included a tune of mine; he liked it and booked me for his next party under the Free-Spirit banner.
You now handle the alternative and downtempo A&R for Free-Spirit. Who’s been catching your eyes and ears lately?
At the moment I’m keeping an eye on Michu Krygiel, who’s also playing at Tribal Village this Saturday. He is young, a highly talented musician and an incredible DJ. He is writing excellent dub and psy trance, managing to mix the two styles in unexpected ways. Check him out!
What other projects and productions do you have on the go at the moment?
At present I am fully focused on my music studies at the Conservatory of Music in my city. We study concrete and electroacoustic music, from the pioneers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Schaeffer, to the contemporaries like Robert Henke and Ryoji Ikeda. I am getting involved in projects such as a laptop orchestra and a recycled objects orchestra and I’m also writing electroacoustic music and playing in radical improvisation performances. Nothing to do with Moka Mafia, but this experience is bringing new inputs to the project.
When you first started writing tracks it was using Cubase on an Atari computer. How is your studio looking these days and what’s your favourite piece of kit?
I had to minimise my equipment when I left London. My studio at present consists of my laptop, a Digidesign soundcard, a few controllers (Akai LPK and Novation SL25 keyboards, Korg NanoKontrol) and two pairs of near field monitors, the Yamaha NS10s and the Dynaudio BM6A.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take 5 albums with you, what would you take?
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Beethoven’s 9th, Shpongle’s Tales of the Inexpressible, Ott’s Blumenkraft and Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power.
Sardinia is home to some of the best food in the world. If you were going to plan a dinner party, what would be your favourite Sardinian dish to cook?
Malloreddus alla campidanese. Handmade short pasta with tomato sauce, similar to the Bolognese sauce but with bits of rolled sausage instead of mince meet.
And if you could invite any 6 people from any point in time to your dinner party, who would you ask?
Albert Einstein, Albert Hofmann, Mahatma Gandhi, J.S. Bach, George Carlin and King Tubby.
What do you like to get up to when you’re not making music?
Lots of reading and listening to music, going to the beach in summer and going to gigs at my favourite bar in town.
You’re playing at Tribal Village next Saturday 9th May, what can readers expect from your set and why should they come and check it out?
I’m going to play some real chilled tunes, from my EP and other unreleased tracks. I’ll be playing some live keyboards as well and spicing things up with a lot of delays and reverbs in a dubmaster style.
What have you got in the diary for the rest of 2015? And beyond?
Finish my studies and then go back to London. Release new music and work in multimedia projects.
Many thanks for your time! Looking forward to seeing you at Tribal Village!
No problems, thank you for the interview. I’ll see you at Tribal Village!
Links
Profile
Soundcloud
Facebook
Free-Spirit Records
Tribal Village
Images courtesy of Moka Mafia and Free-Spirit Records. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Tribal Village - A Psychedelic Adventure
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On:
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Saturday 9th May 2015
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At:
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The Steelyard [map]
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From:
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22:00 - 6:00
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Cost:
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£20
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Website:
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https://www.facebook.com/events/763490440406255/
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Ticket Info:
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First phase: Early Bird Tickets £10+ B/F - SOLD OUT!
Second Phase: Tickets £15 + B/F - SOLD OUT!
Third Phase: Tickets £20 + B/F
Limited Physical Advance Tickets
£20 + B/F
Available from Twelve Tribes Clothing and Cafe (Camden) Unit 737, The Stables Market, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AH, London - UK
&
Access All Areas Network Ltd
2nd Floor, 30c Camden Lock Place, London, NW1 8AL.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7267 8320 & +44 (0)20 7267 6148
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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Tribal Village – A Psychedelic Adventure, is now bigger, better
Tribal Village parties have been killing it ever since their inception two years ago and the word on the street generated by each successful iteration soon spread far and wide resulting in them quickly outgrowing themselves leaving willing fans unable to attend because the venue could no longer accommodate them all. So what do you do? Seek another site? Always fraught with concern but ultimately the decision was forced upon them as the location for their successes was closing its doors. Luckily, the venue’s owners were just moving their interests to a bigger, better location and they wanted Tribal Village to come too so before you know it hey presto everybody wins.
Therefore on the 9th of May, at the next Tribal Village event, it will just be a case of same same but different. Different; the venue - The Steelyard, 13-16 Allhallows Lane. The same; its an archway (aren’t all London’s best clubs), still two rooms, the crew and décor teams dedicated to environmental transformation, Subsonic Systems’ lasers will be there as will be all the extras - chai lounge, stalls, face and body painting, healing area, inversion therapy and osteopathy, poi performers, jugglers, magicians and palm reading. Music from across the spectrum; psychedelic, full-on, progressive, down-tempo, dub, breaks, Balkan and chill out, plus, it is safe to say, also there will be Tribal Village’s most well-known feature - the wonderfully refreshing and purely uplifting good vibe, emanating from London’s most beautiful, diverse and up-for-it crowd.
But hey, before you go wandering off knowing all is good check out this DJ line-up, from across the planet: Andy Force (UK), Aphid Moon live (UK), Alexampt (South Africa), Bahar Canca (Turkey), Bedouin (UK), Cylon live (Japan, first time in the UK), Dani (UK), Flibbertigibbet (New Zealand), Foose (Belgium, first time in London), Jay Om (UK), Imry (Italy), Michu Kriegel (Spain), Moka Mafia live (Sardinia), O.C.D. live (South Africa, worldwide debut) and Wayfarers (UK/Italy, worldwide debut). OMG!
OK, now you can go, just make sure you block off the date in your diary - 9th of May - and tell everyone you know Tribal Village – A Psychedelic Adventure is bigger, better baby.
Tribal Village is the playground of the wanderers, the explorers, the mystics and the magicians. It is where our subconscious guides us in search of a story, where we find new beginnings, or where journeys complete their circle.
Tribal Village is our collective space, to explore the infinite realms of consciousness, and to re-discover our human experience from which we are disconnected. It is where the universe travels around us, instead of us traversing the universe. It is where we can explode and re-construct, where we can invigorate our imagination, and it is where we can suspend our fears and glimpse freedom, for a moment.
Take the road through Tribal Village! A hiatus from your long adventure is due; we have enchantment to share and tales to tell, wonder to bestow and people to meet.
Relight the fire! The tribes are gathering…
...with Two Rooms,
Lots of Music Performers
Mind blowing Deco by Floating Bush Collective
Laser Show by Subsonic Systems
Clear Sound
Chai Lounge Bar by Soma PsyLounge
Stalls
Face & Body Painting by Eva Szolga
Healing Area
Inversion Therapy and Osteopathy by Alex Hickman
Acrobatic Aerial Hoops by ErialC
Poi Performers
Jugglers
Magicians
Palm Reading by Aliwyn - Romany Palmist
Psychedelic
Full On
Trance
Progressive
Down Tempo
Dub
Breaks
Balkan
Chill Out
Good Vibes...
Tribal Music...!
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Flyer:
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Psy Trance. Chillout / Leftfield.
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DJ's:
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--- PLAYGROUND ---
:: Andy Force (UK)
:: APHID MOON LIVE (UK)
:: ALEXAMPT (SOUTH AFRICA)
:: BAHAR CANCA (TURKEY)
:: BEDOUIN (UK)
:: CYLON LIVE (JAPAN)
:: First time in UK
:: DANI (UK)
:: FLIBBERTIGIBBET (NEW ZEALAND)
:: FOOSE (BELGIUM)
:: First time in London
:: Jay OM (UK)
:: IMRY (ITALY)
:: MICHU KRIEGEL (SPAIN)
:: MOKA MAFIA LIVE (SARDINIA)
:: O.C.D. LIVE (SOUTH AFRICA)
:: World Wide Debut!!
:: WAYFARERS (UK/ITALY)
:: World Wide Debut!!
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Other Features By Tara:
Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast!
Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project
A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden
Telling Cosmic Tales with DJ Strophoria
Tom Psylicious aka EarthAlien takes 50 Spins Around the Sun: Raising Awareness Through the Power of Music
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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