Gifgrond 65 -after the hangover- party report!

Last Christmas I gave you my heart.. uh, no: sorry. I meant to type; on Saturday the 16th of June I went to the only party that matters “Gifgrond”. (So much better than Christmas!) Now a couple of weeks later and almost recovered from a long lasting pleasurable hangover, I thought that it would be nice to inform you what you either had missed out on, or simply forgot thanks to the state of extreme intoxication. I can tell you it was lots of fun, worth the three weeks of blurred vision and beeping ears. Even though I refrained myself (for the sake of a personal experiment) from drinking too many alcoholic beverages on the party day itself, the party was so good that I got drunk and high on the best atmosphere, the brilliant live music and the amazing intoxicatingly good vibes of Gifgrond and it’s temporary happy inhabitants.

I amazingly remember going there to live out the fantasy of dancing on the tunes that the legendary deejay DMDM would place down on the record player, being gladly surprised that he had been doing a back to back deejay set with nobody less than DJ Stijn Selecter; which gave it a different and playful friendly puzzle/like atmosphere that was definitely not disappointing, but very surprising and fresh; you simply never knew what they would spin on the shared deejay desk, but you only knew that it would be material to go absurdly mental with! also the inside knowledge of Stijn selecter being on a mixture of drinks and antibiotics (to end the pains of a tooth infection?) made it extra good!

But next to these not-to-miss mix of mixing fine lads and their brilliant collaborating mixing skills there was so much more to temporarily lobotomize me for these 3 weeks: the freaking live music! Because of the gigantic time lapse & self induced brain damage I can’t really recall what happened exactly, in which order (or disorder) the night really evolved, but I do certainly remember stumbling around as Emilio Bernè was doing a wicked avant experiment set with effects and drums, providing enough material to melt the hearts of anyone who had been trying to orientate around at the disorientating Gifgrond establishment.

Emilio Bernè felt as if he had the power to possess the audience in the muscle tissues of his arms, ruling the attention spans like a warrior God that hit his rhythmic tools as if they had been horses in front of a carriage! Things became visual intense as he played, making me see things that where either all playing out in my imagination as triggered by the music performance, or had been actually happenings happening in real life: with Gifgrond the line between reality and surrealism is always a close tie…

But next to the greatly exhibit of the lively love of love music there might have been more that gave me the this instant feeling of energized happiness. Oh yes, there was more! I remember.. vaguely.. extremely vaguely: there had been a fair amount of mushrooms consumed before the entire experience. They looked like ‘normal’ mushrooms at first sight, but somehow I believe that they had been carved to resemble skulls. Suspiciously enough I do believe that they weren’t of the magical kind, although i do believe that they did something with my visual perspective as wherever I looked people had turned their eyes into mushrooms… which I tried to eat without the owners their knowledge , which turned into some awkward eye to mushroom moments; I can assure you that licking someone’s eyeballs as if it was a toxic frog’s butt isn’t a good idea, even on the good premises of such a great party like Gifgrond 65!

Luckily the shroom moments quickly disappeared with so much good music going on! I name a very enigmatic Monotrail, as I remember him bringing such a fine poisonous mix of live electronics to the party people. His fully hands-on knob twisting details of enhanced music technology was putting people (including myself) in such a high level trance that mushrooms as eyes was nothing compared to what visions and body spasms Monotrail’s set provided.

With such delight within Monotrail’s fingers he pumped out a careful rhythmic scenery in which I felt as if being under a spell, a voodoo one from the far future with the artist as the shaman that uses beats and rhythms as the magical medicine that brings love back in our stale hearts. It was here that I had became fully intoxicated on the dope that this music was; fully engaging with the other audience members that had become a kind moving temporary force of newly found soulmates.

I certainly felt their love and appreciating with every bit of magic that happened when the trio Guili Guili Goulag performed and did their thing! That was simply something so good that it is burned forever in my memory as if it is tattoo made out of good vibes!

Their dynamic and strong energetic performance is impossible to forget; they stood there like a wall of grooviness, making the whole Gifgrond zone fly up into a hot brewing mass of pure dance.

The happiness of the musicians that seemed to play so tight and yet so full on with the aspects of being able to let themselves go & enjoy the levitation of the music that they created so lively on the spot was extremely engaging & also a uplifting joyful thing to unfold in front of any music loving fan’s ears and eyes. With guitar, a drum and something that looked like a harp wired for experimental fun (one that was getting hammered upon in full fledged rhythmic ways – not on booze!) was really a lot of fun to experience.

In fact Guili Guili Goulag , DMDM ,Stijn Selecter, Monotrail & Emilio Bernè on their own would have been enough to wreck my body up for weeks to come; so much dancing equals sore muscles! But damn it was brilliant and very much like a orgy of musical freedom that might be the closest thing of experiencing the ability to fly on a case of pure enthusiasm! The best hangover inducer any one could possible wish for!
Can’t wait till Gifgrond 66 comes along!
http://gifgrond.nl

p.s. big thanks for Gifgrond – as withoutgifgrond this report didnt exist & the party would have been nowhere to be seen or heard. also thanks to the mushroom providers, the barman, the people on the floor, the good vibes of the musicians, deejays & the gifgrond duchess T and ofcourse Frank Janssens for providing the photographic evidence that this party did actually happen & it wasnt just a pigment of the imagination…

<KN>