VOID NETWORK

Sep 21

Written By Will A

// VOID NETWORK

TALLY DISPATCH

Tallahassee. Home turf. I walk from the now very-condemned, boarded and shackled Coca-Cola warehouse. I make my way through RailRoad Square, noticing where I remember buildings being. As I get closer to the venue, a VR arcade, and can begin to hear a dull thumping. This is not only the beginning of the show but the first-ever set of DJ Mel (now performing as Munyeca).

Immediately on the inside I am flanked by projections on both sides of the annex: on the right wall Ghost in the Shell movies will be on repeat all night. Opposite of this, neon ever-shifting patterns undulate next to the show’s poster and set list. The design is hardcore meets H.R. Giger: technological yet organic, harsh edges with smooth swooping lines. Cream-chrome. Ghost in the Shell: wires and hoses interfacing into the back of an android head. The genre-defining image of a woman’s face coming apart in smooth ceramic panels hangs over us all.

The Void Network event is put on as a collaboration between Subsidian Presents (headed by Ryan Lunar) and GRIFT Raves (a subset of the local label SCAMS, i.e. Super Cool Awesome Music Studios, headed up by Yob the Delectable). Both are fairly new organizations; welcome emergences from what was once a decimated, post-pandemic music scene in Tallahassee. In the time since they began, they have served as a consistent presence in the local scene. I’ve seen both showcase and incubate local artists, while often drawing fresh talent from out of town.

The dance floor and glass-top DJ booth sit on a temporarily repurposed VR field. Mysterious shapes, triangles and x’s, score the floor; Markers for the edge between virtual and real spaces. On two sides, massive projections take up almost the entirety of the walls — run live by Jeff Samarco. This will soon become my favorite part of the show. As Munyeca continues her inaugural set, the walls are full of sharp, cyber-delic graphics. Munyeca is in all black, and what I think is initially long black hair reminiscent of the Ring is in fact a long veil she throws back at the end of her set. In the dim light, her silhouette is like a sleep paralysis demon. The subwoofers really kick in as the last movie at Cap City Video Lounge comes to a close. I see faces, or skulls maybe, in the noise of the projections, and I can’t tell if it is a trick of the eyes or an intentionally induced vision. As the space fills with more people and her set ends, the consensus is that Mel’s debut set has gone incredibly well.

The artists swap sets. Luhcari and Poplo B2B up next. Ryan Lunar proclaims: “throw down some sick fucking techno” and they proceed to do just that. The crowd grows, enters The Zone. It is a great techno set. Bouncy beats. Swirling, bio-mechanical images brainwash me. Another switch: DJ Akaishi. Harsher, more industrial, more dub. Technically impressive with a lot of variety in BPM. There is a variety of samples, beats, and vocals, and the energy of the set is high and ambitious. Throughout all this, Alex, a local artist and friend, holds down the dance floor with me in a sleeveless Hell Yeah, Brother tee (IFYKYK) and silver Matrix style shades. The beats are good. Akaishi switches off to Rita Shvand. A more laid-back set with interesting, long vocal samples. Extended, heavy beats

Set swap. Ryan Lunar and Ben Danner B2B. They open early on with a well-received acid rendition of the Harlem Shake. The VR Arcade’s set up and the visuals (again, props to Samarco) continues to blow me away. Everything here is punching above its weight in an incredible way. For the entirety of this set, there is an insanely delightful space-pizza motif. Slices cutting through the black depths of space. Melting graphics of pepperoni spaceships, inset with a glass dome and little green man. A flawless set. Seamless graphics. I am enraptured, lost in the music and movement of the crowd. I am intensely in my body and not in it. I think very little. Like looking at a fire. This is the feeling I am chasing every time I am dancing. Ryan Lunar and Ben Danner have set me up.

Swap. Yob the Delectable in a hi-vis jacket takes the booth and is going to put me in the ground. The graphics revert to the Void Network theme. Expansive cyber-hardcore-mind-warping shapes and clouds of glitch. I am already exhausted, sitting on a couch in the annex with Alex, when the set rips open with an delirious, irresistible call to the floor. Xylophones at beyond-jungle bpms. Like an auditory tear in the fabric of space where primordial entropy has leaked through. It is late in the night at this point, and those of us left are going wild in the space. Yob is a wizard, and the set alternates between kinetic gabber and hardstyle songs from his own catalogue and airy more relaxed selections from artists like Manapool (see their track Error Dialect) where we few can take a breather from the relentless energy of the set.

The night peaks for me in this section when he incorporates the track Marguerite from Aujord’hui. Something about the retro synths in this song feels like transparent clam-shell plastics, like I’m inside a dearly beloved game I can’t ever remember playing. Parisian café-style accordion sounds erupt before dipping back into retro anarchy. I feel joy like I haven’t felt in a long time. My wrists twist and spin in the air. I feel inexplicably like a child, dancing on the kitchen counter top as my parents played techno on their then highly-advanced six track cd-player. After hours, the weight I came here with, the everyday heaviness we all walk around with, is gone. The music scene is alive. Y2K glasses are back in. I am surrounded by old friends. I am a non-thinking thing moving in the phosphorescent dark.

———

Many thanks are in order, but in particular a huge thank you to Subsidian and GRIFT, for putting on the event and having me out. Please, follow them and check out their events.

All photos are courtesy of SUBSIDIAN PRESENTS and Onyx Bloom (@onyxbloom)

A belated birthday to GRIFT RAVES [@Grift Raves]

SUBSIDIAN PRESENTS [@subsidian presents]

Yob the Delectable [@yobthedelectable]

Ryan Lunar [@ryan.lunar]

Ben Danner [@there_it_is_music]

New World Rides [@new.world .rides / website

Mel/Munyeca [@meliiregal]

LUHCARI [@lucharidj] and POPLO [@itspoplo]

Rita Shvand [@ritashvand]

DJ AKAISHI [@akaishiaura]

The talented Jeff Samarco [@jslxdesign]