Playlist from Outer Space

from Woroni Edition 4 2022

Deep Techno and the Vocoder

Oksana Kauhanen

CW: Mentions of drug use and psychedelic experiences.

I was trotting along an empty street in this eerily quiet industrial suburb. Empty warehouses with small windows loomed on both sides of me. The sky was a hollow blue, completely void of stars but the moon shone with a blinding, burning brightness. The lack of streetlights in this part of town wasn’t so much of a problem under the moonshine. The doof had officially started two hours ago.

The wind was unusually still for this time of year, and the temperature couldn’t have been above 4 degrees. My pores had opened up and I was starting to sweat. The 2CB was taking hold. I turned down the last dilapidated street on my journey and was met with lights from huge iridescent lasers and searching hollow signals. How did I only just notice them? Whatever, my mind felt like it was playing tricks on me.

I walked into the cavernous warehouse, the rhythmic bass guiding me through like sonar. Around me the faces of people (were they people?) blurred into almostunrecognizable forms, seemingly melting into hectic caricatures whenever I tried to focus. A bit scat, but no matter. We soldier on.

I heard someone call out my name and turned around to see my friends and a group of others standing together. The guy standing next to Kate had an oddly bulbous head - everyone looks a bit weird at doofs so I thought nothing of it. I took a hit out of the bulbous-head guy’s nebuliser and stumbled backwards at the effect. DJ

Multi-Limbs was just coming on to start his set. Perfect timing.

We moved through the masses of bug-eyed people who seemed to stare right through us as we made our way to the front. Words seemed to disconnect from the bodies of people who spoke them. The warehouse set-up was unlike anything I’ve seen before. The room seemed to pulse, enlarging and contracting like a massive balloon. Was it just me? There were massive planetarylike orbs of light hovering above the decks. I swear they were moving. They seemed to search through the crowd. These hypnotic hallucinations filled my brain. I’d been to doofs before, but everything seemed to feel so cosmic here.

The crowd was moving awkwardly, yet morbidly in sync, all vibing but not quite to the pulse of the music. They moved like shitty versions of the JabbaWockeez. The low rumble of the soothing bass carried my body in time. I felt each beat move from my fingertips into my chest, vivid yet soft. Primal almost. I closed my eyes and felt the warmth of the red and blue light on my skin, seeping in through my pores and filling my veins with intoxicating euphoria.

The force of hundreds of Doc Marten boots, Salomon trail runners, funky Nike kicks and some guy in a disturbingly convincing E.T. costume could be felt reverberating through the floor. The orbs of lights started to soar and swoop in time with the heavenly synths the DJ mixed flawlessly. The concept of chronology had moved beyond my comprehension, and my body was begging for fluids.

I approached the makeshift bar setup and asked for a drink. This bug-eyed lanky man with speed dealers on handed me a little plastic cup. I thanked him with a smile. The first sip was refreshing: the beverage was room temperature, but the act of sipping, gulping and swallowing was cathartic nonetheless. Upon my second sip I realised something was wrong with the tepid liquid. As the lights around me flashed in a chaotic strobe frenzy I saw the ‘water’ wasn’t quite clean…

“Where did you get this water from?”

“The bathroom” bug-eyed lanky man with speed dealers on replied bluntly.

“The tap in the bathroom?”

“No. The bowl that contains the water” the bug-eyed lanky man with speed dealers on said completely earnestly, his wide pupils staring straight through me with no clear focus. This man had just given me toilet water to drink.

“What kind of sick joke is this?” after doing what felt like three full revolutions of the chamber I stumbled upon the door.

Observing the water in my hand closely, bug-eyed lanky man with speed dealers on sighed and scurried off to talk to an abnormally large man in tight security wear. What the fuck was going on here? They’re lucky I was on too many drugs to care about some toilet water...

I lent against the wall and exhaled. This was definitely an experience. Sounds of conversation floated towards me in ways I couldn’t decipher. What language was I hearing? I kept catching mention of the ‘mothership’. Regardless of whether it was a code for some hectic kick-ons, the reverent tone with which they mentioned it was weird.

A new DJ had come on, bringing with her a vocoder.

She commanded the room like a prophet sent from above.

Morphing into unusual figures underneath a huge overcoat, she felt important and grandiose.

All pupils in whatever forms they took were glued to her.

The familiar bass continued, replete with robotic sounds and frequency jumping tones. It seemed like she was sampling

R2-D2? The room and the people almost rose with the pitch of the music, stretching my aural sensitivity to new heights.

Okay, time for fresh air. I wandered around the pulsing warehouse trying to find the exit and The abnormally large man in tight security wear blocked this, the only exit, with his bulking arms crossed. My vision doubled and for a moment I saw four arms folded across his bulging and… lumpy body.

“No outside” he promptly informed me, looking into my eyes and through my retina, all the way down into my esophagus and suddenly buoyant stomach. With my insides moved by his words and feeling less stability in my legs, I had no choice but to turn around and find my way back to my group.

I ran my hands along the wall, my fingers tracing a spongy surface. I pressed my hand harder into what was supposed to be in my understanding a concrete and completely solid warehouse wall, only to see it disappear, completely enveloped by a warm and welcoming membrane. I retracted my hand in disbelief and my fingers returned covered in a sticky and viscous slime, tingling. This was definitely a new feeling.

The music was building, a deep throttling that severed any depth perception I was desperately holding onto. The DJ turned globular, like a cup of jelly floating in zero gravity. Her eight eyes blinked as my gaze landed on them. Remind me to hit this 2CB guy up again.

My feet had by now long left the ground, as had everybody else’s. I saw Kate and my group of friends floating peacefully a few meters away. I breaststroked through the air and some odd bodies, feeling the breeze flow and slide past me like water. I grabbed Rufus’ hand and Sarva squeezed my ankle reassuringly. Glancing upwards towards the bright cavity of light; we began ascending. Kate, Rufus, Sarva and I all looked at each other quietly, smiling and accepting our odyssey.