"Lets go to the micromusic night in Germany"
"No lets not - the only reason you like micromusic is becuase that guy from Bodenstandig 2000 is on it"
"And the only reason you like them is because they're on Rephlex"
"That so isn't true, and anyway what about the other acts like 8Bit Construction Set and Lotekstyle?"
"They suck! Face it gwem - lotech just isn't cool anymore"
"Yeah, and anyway Pete Tong is playing at Ministry that night"
"Fine I'll go on my own then"
You do that! I bet you write a pretentious review for your website too"
"I might just do that"
"Fine"
"Fine"

SLAMMM!

"Actually it sounded quite good"
"Yeah I'm properly jealous"

Booking a place to stay was not so easy - everywhere was so expensive. Eventually a friend told me about a cheap Bed and Breakfast in the south of the city...

RING..........RING..........RING..........RING "Hallo"
"Errr... Hi - guten tag.... sprechen der Englisch?"
"Nein"
(Oh sh....)
"Wartezeit dort"
(what the f**k?)"err - OK"
rustle rustle
"Hello - what is it?
(you beauty!!)"Is this a bed and breakfast?"
"Sorry I am not understanding"
(damn)"Are you a kind of hotel?"
"Sorry I am still not understanding you"
(*!*$$%)"Who are you then?"
"I am a guest here"
(nice touch!)"I'd like to make a booking..."
........
"OK - I think that will be possible"
"Thankyou very much indeed!"
"Thankyou for calling"

At airport all of Go's airline computers had broken, so there were massive queues, but I was in high spirits! In the departures lounge I checked out Gameboy Advance...

Gameboy Advanced

...and talked to some guys working in this sports shop...

Hargreaves Sports - London Stanstead

... about old skool rave music after their Slammin' Vinyl choonz had enticed me in! Unfortunately I had cut this short as I heard my final call over the airport tannoy. The last music I hear in England is S'Express 'Theme from S'Express' - and I cannot get the catchy bassline out my head for hours.

I paused just long enough to snap this vending machine - which incredibly is even more expensive than the ones at my university!

The most expensive vending machine

Just before I got on to the plane I got the gameboy camera shot to end all gameboy camera shots:

The best possible GBCam picture

As I take this I know I will never get better, so I take my time to get the best settings.
I had a window seat, but I didn't see much because it was night and there was too much cloud. I read a book about late 80s computer hackers, but managed to take a couple of shots:

Powerful jet engine / The lights of Cologne

I have absolutely no problems getting into Germany and I head straight to Munich S-Bahn (train network) after getting some ca$h and picking up a map from a newsagent. Although this map had "issues" (as I discovered later) it also saved my ass on many more occasions:

My famous Munich town plan

The S-Bahn which runs to the airport is much more advanced than the rundown trains in the rest of the town (although the trains have very little vandalism) they even have hi-tech finger print sensing door handles:

Checkout the hi-tech finger print readers!!

It is a very good idea to buy a train ticket in Germany, as the inspectors are very strict, have a military style uniform and also limited powers of arrest. I didn't always buy one - but I did when it counted (luckily ;-> )

As the train moves off I refer to my town map for the location of the bed and breakfast. It looks as if it is a short walk from a U-Bahn (undergroud) station. I negotiate Munich's quite excellent transport network to this stop and start walking. In an ongoing theme I get lost instantly... After working out the problem I start off on a new route and get lost again... I start to get a bit pissed off now as I walk through a German council estate, and under an autobahn bridge over a little stream. The bridge pillars boast excellent graphitti art - but I was getting a bit tired and my GBCam was under all my other stuff. I try to remember some tags - but all I can recall now is "DMA" and his stuff wasn't that good. Some rude boys cruise past in a customised jeep with Vanilla Ice pumped up on their stereo.

In England you buy a map and in the index all the streets are put together in one place - but in Germany all suburbs and towns have seperate indexes - including Planegg where my B&B is. We rapidly find the right street on the map - and guess what - its the other side of town....

Although I could still get the S-Bahn my spirit is broken and I hail a taxi - which turned out to be just as well. My driver turns out to be an absolute diamond - even though she speaks english with a thick American accent. She calls Pension Elisabeth (my B&B).... but they never heard of me - and there is no booking after all!!!! Somehow something gets organised and we head off to Planegg powered by the soundz of Queen. I have a good old chat to the driver - she studied German as a forign language, and works as a nurse, and sometimes as a taxi driver.

Pension Elisabeth is soon reached and I tip the taxi big time. As I stagger around the place looking for the way in - treading in a big puddle and getting muddy jeans, but I don't care. I fall into the Pension and in front of me is a note with a chunky-hotel-style-key saying "Morris - Room 4". Room 4 is dead easy to find - but the lock on the door is a mission to open, and takes a couple of minutes! Once the door is unlocked I step in to the room and fumble for the light switch.

The room / The toilet

My first thought is "well I won't be bringing a bird back here" - the room is so small!!. This is true even though my room is scrupulous in its cleanliness, and has an tiny ensuite shower. The door is quickly locked and I get to bed as soon as possible - it is 3:30 and I'm fucked.

Their English is bad but eventually we reach an understanding - the price is very cheap but includes breakfast anyway - and everyone is happy with the situation. The breakfast was typical German hotel (ham, cheese, rolls etc) and in normal gwem stylee I rinse the freebies out. I find everything all very funny for some reason, and after breakfast I pack my record bag and leave for Munich.

Pension Elisabeth's big sign.

Planegg's centre is just at the end of the street, I guess which way the S-Bahn will be. It takes me a few minutes before I realise that I guessed wrong - I am lost again! When I do get to Planegg S-Bahn it is obvious that it is the closest thing ever to my Pension. I get on the first train to Munich center without buying a ticket. I took this picture out of the window as it passes over a bigish road:

View out the train window

I consult my town plan and work out what I should do and in what order. The most important thing is the rave, so I figure that finding the venue is a good idea (especially as I keep losing my way), then I need some electronic components. After that I decide to wing it.

At Rosenheimer Platz station I escape the train undetected and true form I keep going in the wrong direction - even though I have a perfectly good map. I do however find an OK record shop and some cool looking bars... Lothringer Strass did not remain elusive forever, I took this shot of a poster outside the venue:

Make World poster

Suddenly everthing is cool and I get my bearings back. I'd been to Munich before but until this point everything was so unfamiliar. I briefly consider checking out the exhibition now, but as I said there were components to buy - and I put business before pleasure (if only it were true). A quick stroll takes me to Munich's Conrad (a consumer electronics store) which has a components counter. The reference codes required were in their catalogue, and I make out an order. I thought they were a little on the pricy side - but I have the items in my hand straightaway - and I have to pay the shop overheads too, so its not too much of a ripoff. If only we had a nice shop like this in England! The nearest is Maplin - but their selection of components is much more limited.

My bag of components

What next? I had always know the answer to this - choon shopping ;-> Munich has a phat selection of record stores, my favourite being very close. I consult the map again - even though I don't need to and, after stopping en route to get some munchies, I am soon standing outside the store snapping away with Gameboy Camera:

Optimal! - Kolussesum Strass

Last time I was here Optimal had a good selection of hardcore and gabba styles. These were not present - but as if sensing my expansion in musical tastes there was...

... but sadly no Slammin' Vinyl

Interestingly there were more Breakin' Records than Rephlex. I get Bogdan's new album (very cheaply!!) and some commercial acid house from '88. There is a guy in the shop who is a massive fashion victim - I snigger to mysef before realising that I am doing this outwardly as well - and he is starting to look at me! I bob my head in time with the music and try to look hard ;->

Pangs of hunger make me realise that its time to eat. I make my way to a local supermarket (whilst sending gloating text messages to my mates) and buy some bread, cheese, chocolate and orange juice in a normal gwem low-budget stylee. These get eaten in a small platz close by and I pondered my options. At last I come to a decsison - I will do something new and visit Munich's famous Deuches Museum. The reason for this is pure vanity - in a past life I worked on one of the exhibits and taking a picture of it would be cool. It quite far to the museum - but I save money and walk.

As an extra energy saving feature the water from the hand washing taps was unheated - as were the hand dryers.
The bridge-engineering and aircraft sections get checked out first. I found them relativly interesting, but as soon as possible I look at the museum map for where the cool stuff is. Sections on Computers, Communications and Musical Instruments catch my eye, I go to the musical instruments section which is nearest.

The music section takes you through a chronology instrument development. The harpsichords are very cool, although they may not be played ;-< There is a couple of rare upright designs:

Cool upright harpsichord

The guitar section is dissapointing, but the electronic music section is not - it includes many instruments close to me, and there is even a mad sound laboratory.

Theremin
This theremin is user controllable - and its not as easy as it looks.

KingKas style Crumar synth
My friend has a synth like this.

Immaculate minimoog
Sad almost that these instruments are never used by musicians.

Oberheim sampling drum machine
I am jealous of this kick-ass drum machine...

Casio VL-Tone
... and the famous Casio VL-Tone.

Yamaha DX7
But I wasn't so jealous of this.

At last I reach instruments you can actually play - I give a short live performace to some kids which included "In Effect" (Mike Slammer/Red Alert), "No Limits" (2 Unlimited), and "Bonkers Goes Back 2 School" (DMX Krew).
After playing round with some more exhibits I make my way to the computers section.

There were a variety of beautiful old computers, some which even had mechanical parts. The explanations were good, but I wished there could be more working demonstrations. Of course there was an Atari there, but the encryption demonstration it was running was not working:

Atari STFM

Next I looked at the communications area. I could not see "my" exhibit. I assume that there is a rotation of different exhibits, and that I was just unlucky. There was some really fascinating demonstrations of old mechanical phones.

I wander round some more parts of the museum - some of which suck (like the agricultural section) and some of which didn't (like the roof garden with fantastic views). Eventually the muesum shuts, but I saw everything I wanted too. My next destination is Pension Elisabeth so that I can wash, change and chill out (sleep!!) for a couple of hours.

A train ride takes me to Isator station, and I soon find McDonalds. Forgetting which country I am in I order my food in perfect French - but the guy serving me understands and we discuss the weather etc. The food quality was barely acceptable (always is at McDonalds) but feeling slightly happier I got to my favourite bar (Bar Jam - 'Music Bar') which is just over the river in the direction of Rosenheim Platz:

Some bar which isn't the one I went to

Uplifted by the friendly surroundings I order a weissbier. I notice that it is almost time for the party, but I have a second weissbier anyway and make my way to Lothringer13 gallery.

I am greeted by micromusic dudes drx, timokl, eisebs and also mech_bern from Bodenstandig 2000. We discuss various things and compare geek t-shirt designs. I think Bern's is the best (an Atari ST trash can). Bern also proudly shows me his v3.0 Plankalkul scooter design. The reason for his pride is obvious - it is a robustly constructed form of transport, and seems to work well. I tell Bern how I saw 3 other scooters in Munich which have a similar 'joystick' control mechanism - he says this is possible but the design has not been liscenced yet.

Farbrausch
First up was this 64kb demo crew. I was most impressed with their fluid 3D demos - which seemed to be nothing more than DOS applications. The technical commentry was in german - which I could not understand, however the actual demos were in english and french.
The crowd and I found the demos really funny and the audience is completely captivated. We also got to see inside their demo software. Where the demos had music it was of a kind of combination techno style, including many different elements, and the audio and video was tightly sync'ed.
I think they were a good choice to start the evening.

Rolemodel
Gameboy musician and sofware engineer rolemodel showed of his cool Little Sound DJ software. Minimal, yet full, user interfaces interest me a great deal, and Rolemodel had obviously put a great deal of thought into his software package. The set wasn't a multimedia-visual-feast like Farbrausch and I think many people were disappointed by the spartan video. Also the sound quality from the gameboys wasn't great. On the other hand the music was really the focus of the set - and it was groovy.

The Art
Whilst I listened to the soundz of Rolemodel I checked out the exhibition. The sound was loud enough to let me do this. To be honest I thought alot of the art was esoteric wank ;-< But there was some good stuff - a stereographic display for instance - and some of the videos were cool. Unfortunatly Beige Record's space was closed because of the performance, as I think that would really have been something to see.

Bodenstandig 2000
I knew Bodenstandig would rock before they even started, but they provided some unexpected attractions. There was some kick-ass new material (like 'The Pixels in TeleTextLand') and a version of 'Raggaman' which now included a ragga-style rap. I think they should have caned their acid effect more in 'Raggaman', but of course it is not finished yet. In a multimedia-visual-feast we got to see what Pogo's Adventure really was (I think this will have to go on the net).
The performance of In Rock is really mindblowing. Bern uses a Boss Voice Transformer as a wah/distortion box, with drx on Casio. Both instruments get played in a rock'n'roll style and at the end I thought they were Black Sabbath - with the Boss and Casio LEDs shining out through a perfectly judged dry-ice smoke effect. I managed to get some shots of this:

Bern and drx during the perfomance of In Rock

I think many ravers missed the part where they announced the artwork sleeve for their new album. Luckily I was awake and managed to snap this exclusive shot!!:

The cover art from the next album - about the price of being a successful rock'n'roll star

Beige Records
Beige records showed off their guitar and turntable skillz to a hyped up crowd. I was technically impressed with everything, but as in Rolemodel's set the sound quality seemed a little flat and distorted somehow. I don't know if it was their accent, or if they were tired, but they didn't come across as being as wacky and entusiastic as I thought they would be.
I really digged their cool art videos, and I was also able to get a picture of one of their 3 Atari 130s:

One of the Beige 130s

There was a really touching moment when they presented drx with a special Beige records baseball cap.
To finish the set they DJed with Nintendo cartridges, which didn't work at first, however they thoughtfully had brought loads of spares. The song they played was, I think, the best - and as a good act should they peaked at the last song.
I would go and see Beige again if they played something in London.

Lotek Style and Frequency 9
These YM Rockerz had the toughest acts to follow, and they did the best thing by not trying to follow it, doing their own thing instead.
Earlier in the evening their equipment table had collapsed under the weight of their Atari Falcon, Korg keyboard, MPC2000 etc. Luckily nothing seemed broken and by the time of their set they had a new table of heavy-duty scaffolding.
These lads were the only people to get any kind of constant dancing going, and I was more than impressed with their demos and music - which although modern in instrumentation kept to the Atari demoscene style.
The only problem with their set was a lack of scroll lines and demo style 'Psycho Stories' - I WANT SCROLL-LINES!!!. Also they over did the smoke machine rather alot.
If you are going to run an event, or have a big record label you must sign these guys up...

After the YM Rockerz I chatted some more, and invested in some exclusive Bodenstandig 2000 fan clothes. The clothing included t-shirts, and ragga-muffin style hooded tops, and was priced just right ;->

After saying my goodbyes I leave the rave to find that I have just missed the last S-Bahn to Planegg. For the second night in a row I have a cool taxi driver - who this time is a psycholgy student.

As I walk through the Pension to my room I swear I see a guy sleeping on a sofa. I hit the lights, and was proved right. He is wearing tatty clothes, and smells a bit. I turn off the lights and leave the vagrant to his sleep - he must have had some inside info about the doors being open, and there being no attendant.

I go to sleep dreaming of roX0r and how it was my kind of event. If I could change anything it would be to have more people dancing earlier on - because people were treating it more as an art thing rather than a party.

I impulse buy loads of bakery products from a local bakery - even though I have a massive bag full of food, it only costs me 8DM (under 3 pounds). Next I wander down a shopping arcade (which only has 3 shops) and noice these cosmic trainers in a sports shop:

Reebok DMX trainers

I see DMX Krew have liscenced their name to Reebok for these fashionable items. The DMX logo doesn't come out clearly on the image - but I have arrowed it. In fact what with Bodenstandig 2000's t-shirts and hooded tops, these DMX trainers, a new line of designer 'Raczynski' underwear, and a range of 'Lektrogirl' denims (out next year), Rephlex fans could wear an entire clothing ensemble.

Next a buy a newspaper from a news-stand (International Herald Tribune), and retire to Pension Elisabeth's lounge..... After a short while I realise that the paper sucks, as about 70% of the stories are American, I finish it anyway though. Chilling out is starting to get boring, so I eat some bakery products and hit Munich again (buying a ticket).

The next shot is a typical one in Munich street life, illustrating how strict heirachies occur everywhere in Germany:

Rosenheimer Strass

If you walk in region D you will be run over by unforgiving cars
If you walk in region C people think you are crazy
If you walk in region B you will be run over by unforgiving cyclists
If you walk in region A you will get lost

I think it would be a good idea to check out some more of the Make World festival, so I make my way to the Muffthalle for the Virtual Market. I don't know if I made a mistake, but this market doesn't seem to be running - instead there is a kind of interNET strategy exhibition. Looking around I find all the exhibits very dry and uninteresting, but there are at least some Make World newspapers. I pick one up and go to a small garden area just opposite Muffthalle - but over the river. The garden looks like this:

Water feature and bronze statue

The scene is very beautiful actually, and smells of Munich drift into my nostrils one by one - a real feast for the senses. Turning my attentions to the Make World paper, I peruse the articles. The Beige Records interview makes me consider my view on technology, I suppose because I am an electronics engineer I go at a lower level to the stuff they diss when talking to drx. However one thing affects me in the same way as things like Visual C++, Macromedia etc - and that is the programming language called VHDL, man that language sucks big time! and I feel unhappy whenever I have to use it.

On my way back to Planegg there is some problem with the S-Bahn network. I don't know how but although I understand hardly any German at all I completely get what the train announcer says. Maybe I am absorbing the language more than I thought.

As I must wake up early tomorrow I go to bed early - but not before a marathon Gauntlet session on gameboy! For dinner I eat some more bakery stuff.

My sleep is patchy, as there is somekind of mosquito or bee in my room. I lash out with that fake-leather guide you always get in these cheap hotel places. I damage the insect enough to silence it's annoying buzz.

The S-Bahn whisks me and some other early rising commuters through Munich. I have to change once to get to the airport, and on the second train I get inspected (I knew I would). There is lots of extra security at the airport thanks to Bin Landen so even checking in takes ages because of additional mobile x-raying.

Once I lose my baggage I go on an insane Weissbier mission. Eventually I find some in the airport supermarket:

Nicer than the finest champagne...

Acting purely on instinct I spend all my remaining marks on beer. I cram my record bag full of precious weissbier cans. One doesn't make it that far though ;->

These metal cylinders cause problems when I go through some more security checks - they think they are explosives or something - because I get all my possesions turned out on a table. They even pull apart my gameboy (having the necessary tools). I find it quite amusing so I say nothing.

As we take of I cannot resist giving the 2-finger salute out the window. I instantly regret doing so - Munich is a fine city, and everyone I met was really friendly. The flight is quality - there are loads of clouds, but once we are through them, a trippy demo style landscape is created. The low sun illuminates the clouds, and flashes off the aircraft wings:

This is only good when you know what it is

It always amazes me how people sit in their seats and read a paper when there is such beauty just to one side. Perhaps they fly so much they are used to it - but I will never get tired of looking out areoplane windows.

The pilots treat us to a detailed in-flight commentry, I think more aircrews should do this.

We touch down at Stanstead on time. The weather is cool, but I stubbornly continue wearing the Bodenstandig t-shirt. I feel slightly europhric. British Rail runs efficiently for once, and I get to Guildford at 1:30. After grabbing a sandwich I get in a University shuttle bus. My bags get dumped in my car. Looking at my watch I see I am just in time for a lecture.

During the lecture I think how everything is back to normal. Did I even go to Munich at all? I decide that I did because as I search for a pen I find an S-Bahn ticket and my Make World newspaper.

gwem 2001
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