To Witte

March 8th, 2020 found me in San Diego at CRSSED Festival and standing at the back of one of the stages with some music buddies. I’d gone down there more for face time with the homies than to hear anyone in particular, and I didn’t even know who Charlotte De Witte was when she walked by us to start her set, a fact for which I got roasted to death on the spot. For context, dance music festivals and I have been oil and water for most of my life in that we’re able to share the same physical space but not permeate each other at all. My ability to stand in the middle of a juiced up crowd without moving my body an inch other than a head bob started to feel like a spiritual gift, and most of the times I’ve headed into rave settings with aspirations of losing myself in the music have ended up with me shuffling awkwardly and feeling like my limbs are made up of long, beige green beans.

None of that changed at the Charlotte De Witte show, but what I did discover is that I love techno a lot more than I thought I did and her work in particular hits a deep and specific nerve for me. I don’t think I can explain this completely, but finding her music felt the same as finding Metallica as an early teen when I would stay up late in my room with my radio very low listening to them on the local anger rock station. There’s something threatening and volcanic about the energy in her work, and it’s difficult not to feel like some new ground has been created after longer listening sessions with it. Yeezus was certainly my introduction into this neck of the musical woods via Gesaffelstein’s work on that project years ago, but Charlotte’s music is very much the lake I’ve built my cabin on if we want to extend the forest metaphor out within an inch of its life.

I’m seeing her in Austin in a week or so at The Concourse Project and I can’t fucking wait. One of the amazing things about not drinking is I don’t get fuzzed out and sad for no reason at stuff like this anymore and I’m excited to (maybe) jump around like a baboon while the Good Pain Train pulls into the station via her DJ decks. If you want a place to start, I’d suggest “Universal Consciousness” and “The Age of Love”, and feel free to wander around her discography this week if you need to get lost in this industrial sauce.