Kosovo Clubbing

Written by: Saranda Vraniqi Exit , now world-renowned, held its 24th festival this year.   This article won't cover who performed or how many awards the festival has garnered so far. You can find all that on Exit's official website.  Instead, I'll try to paint a picture of one evening/night at the festival from my perspective —how the eyes, soul, and other senses of a long-time clubber (and journalist) experienced one of my favorite festivals. To better understand why you might consider my opinion on the festival, I'll share a bit about myself. I'm 45 years old and have been a clubber since I was two. It sounds surreal, but it's my truth . My love for music and dancing started on my dad's lap as he bounced me to the rhythm of the music. My dad, who deserves his own novel (which I won't write now), took me with him to discos and cafes like a little sidekick. By the age of four, people recognized me on the street as the "little girl from the disco....

 Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant passed away. I know Silent Servant thanks to  Rødhåd . Years ago, I came across a series called " What's In My Bag ?" by Amoeba Record Store in Hollywood. There was an episode Rødhåd. I love Rødhåd so I watched the episode. During the interview, Rødhåd mentioned that he bumped into Silent Servant downstairs & that he was into movie soundtracks.     I was familiar with the name but I wasn't familiar with his work. I didn't know what a legend he was.  A few days after his passing, I came across his 'In Memoriam' EP released on Tresor Records . I was so impressed that I asked myself: "Why didn't I listen to his music before?"  M-87 reminded me of Depeche Mode . Poppy synths, deep, dark & powerful vocal which is very close to Dave Gahan 's vocal & industrial sounds. It feels like a mixture of 'Strangelove', 'People Are People', 'Personal Jesus', 'Everything Coun...

Armir played Dax J - Reign Of Techno on his set for us.  It took me back to all the techno nights we've been together, where we could feel the intensity of techno on the lights and everywhere 💥😍😍😍🖤🖤🖤 I wanted to visualize the intensity of techno in the artwork through blurred lights by bass.  I was listening to Dax J's Photon set to get inspiration from the lights as Photon has the best lights ever!!! 💥😍😍🖤🖤🤍🤍 I blurred the light reflection on vinyl grooves to make it look like club lights because of the vinyl SHDW & Obscure Shape gave me as a gift.  Dax J's remix is on the vinyl 🖤🤍😊 I made the lights white because of Die Weiße Rose 🌹🤍   Dj Armir brought so many memories back 😊  

It's a rainy day here in Gjakova. I was going somewhere. While i was walking in the rain, under my umbrella, i remembered when the post officer decided to deliver the Rihanna - Loud vinyl i got for my friend Rina Ferati, on a rainy day. We're both Rihanna fans so, i wanted to surprise her on her birthday with a Rihanna vinyl.💛😊  I ordered the vinyl at Juno Records in UK. It takes one month for vinyl to get here via Royal Mail.  I waited one month. Of all the sunny days, the vinyl arrived on a rainy day. I don't remember if the package had the "Keep Dry" Label on. I wonder if it occurred to the post officer that the vinyl would get wet. He could've waited for the rain to stop pouring or deliver the vinyl on a sunny day, I was freaking out. Lucky for us, the vinyl didn't get wet. 😅 "Now that it's raining more than ever..." - Rihanna Since that day, i've been resonating with Rihanna's Umbrella more than ever!  

Tillt Radio  is a new record store in Prishtina, opened 1 year ago. Located at BOHO in Prishtina's square, Tillt Radio record store is a very  warm place  where you can go  hang out , dig the crates for  vinyls  and enjoy  listening to music.  A while ago, I took a trip to Prishtina to meet a friend and surprise her with a vinyl from her favorite label, Klockworks I got for her birthday. That day was all about music and vinyls so, while i was there, i decided to go and visit Tillt Radio record store. I was very happy and excited for visiting the first record store in my life . I've bought vinyls before, from online record stores, but crate digging for vinyls, is a different feeling. There's nothing like crate digging! We needed a record store like Tillt Radio. I went there around 4 PM. I met Strella. He informed me about his record store and the genres he provides. There were various genres from pop, rock, blues to old electronic music. You...

Since it’s raise, the Berlin Wall was a political and cultural barrier. The fall of the wall was the start of many great artists and clubs like Ostgut Ton's Berghain, E-Werk, and Tresor which made Berlin's techno scene very impactful and inspiring.  To celebrate the 30th Anniversay of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hapësira organized RWXVI x DEnacht E02 in collaboration with the German Embassy in Prishtina, in love and honor of Germany, its electronic music scene, and Ambassador Held without whose support “Rilindja Warehouse” would have been taken from Hapësira, leaving us the electronic music community without our favorite venue where so many unforgettable memories were made. Before the event, we were listening to Tobias - Like A Drug [Ostgut Ton]  & Answer Code Request's Boiler Room Berlin DJ Set, to warm up for the party. As always, we went to Rilindja Warehouse before the doors were open to avoid the queue so we could be inside from start to end, to listen to the perf...

This is an ode to the many years in my music life. I chose this particular period of time to do The Goldcast, because I wanted to express a message in these strange times through music. My first set/podcast in eight years and it took me only 47 weeks to prepare.  . This is my personal short story: It starts with a simple yet very meaningful speech (sampled by Alan Watts) about the complexity of us humans. About our dreams and how, even if we get to choose how beautiful, big, happy and crazy they are, in the end we always yearn for more. In the end we always crave the unknown and wonder if something even better might be awaiting us. Mixed with The Workers Of Art by The Cinematic Orchestra, a beautiful, sad piece (my favourite combo), which sets up the story.  . We then move on to one of my all-time favorites, a beautiful, unreleased re-edit by my brother Tito Christophe Bollé with the lyrics "Got to say mmm mmm mmm", something I've been saying a lot lately in response to t...

Valon Hoxha and his NGO " Euphoria " from Ferizaj has been organizing music events dedicated to electronic music for two years in a row, giving special attention to the techno genre. This year, Euphoria organized its third edition at a new location, in the hall of sports in Ferizaj/Uroshevac. Young people from Euphoria team made good changes in the sporthall, so the space for the event looked like a perfect underground club. The sound was "flying" over the room, but it was hard enough to feel bass , while the lighting show played a very good role to feel every beat. Euphoria keeping techno alive! The event was opened by local DJ Liburn who played techno tracks for the first time in his home city. Although the set was full of long pauses, the audience was warmed up very well for the star of the evening! The star of this techno evening was an anonymous techno producer, SNTS , who first appeared in 2012 . with a mask on his face and thus r...