Became interested in music around 1993, at the age of 12.
It all started with pop music, then I switched to euro-dance.
Any genre of music is represented by a huge number of mediocre
compositions and a tiny number of masterpieces. Therefore, on
each cassette I bought, roughly speaking, there were only two
interesting compositions. Thus, music could not have a serious
influence on me yet.
The situation changed radically in mid-1995. It turned out that it
is possible to simply turn on the Europa Plus radio on weekends at
22:00 and... until midnight! two hours! directly! communicate
with the Gods!
Part 2
So, in the middle of 95, I heard Oleg Sukhov’s programs on
Europa Plus, dedicated to electronic dance music.
I started recording these programs on cassettes:
house:
4 The Floor - N-R-G (Jump Remix) 1993
Soundcraft - House Is? 1995
Directions - Right Now 1994
Essence - Feel My Touch 1994
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hardcore:
Gabbaheads - I'm A Thunderdome Baby 1995
Gizmo - Intersection 1994
DJ Sim - Straight Of The Dancefloor 1995
Section-8 - Punanny (The Prophet Remix) 1995
Bass D & King Matthew - Heartbeat (Party Mix) 1995
Warlock - Delirious 1995
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At first I found this music simply strange, I listened only out of
curiosity, it had no musical value for me. But after a few programs,
unnoticed by me, this music, and through this music - music in
general, became the meaning of my life.
There were no Internet then and there were no good music stores in my city.
Therefore, the main source of information
for me were radio programs.
Apart from Oleg Suhov's programs, the most important for me was
the Exotica program on the Radio of Russia,
thanks to which my musical interests went beyond dance-oriented music:
Above I wrote that any genre of music is represented by a huge
number of mediocre compositions and a tiny number of masterpieces.
In fact, I understood this simple truth several years later,
but then, due to the fact that Sukhov's and Exotica programs
consisted almost exclusively of masterpieces, I had the
impression that this did not apply to the genres of
house, techno, trance and electronic underground music in general.
I even came up with an explanation for this: since this is
underground music, the musician does not aim to please the
vulgar taste of the majority, acts solely out of love for art
and therefore creates only masterpieces.
Until about mid-97, I was constantly discovering new interesting
music and it seemed that it would only get more interesting.
Part 3
It didn't.
Since mid-1997, the quality of the radio programs I listened
has started to deteriorate.
Techno began to simplify to looping several banal samples.
The good trance has disappeared.
Hardcore had already become stupid in '96.
In 1997 and later, of course, something new appeared,
but this new did not compensate for what was lost -
degradation took place.
In the mid-00s, the bottom was reached.
In the late 90s and early 00s, I didn't yet understand that
degradation was happening - I thought that I simply didn't have
access to good music, because I got my information mostly from the
radio, and if I lived somewhere in Europe or the USA,
I could go into any music store and
walk out with a bag full of great records.
No, I'd walk out with nothing or almost nothing. Now, when,
thanks to the Internet, I have access to almost any music, - it's
obvious to me and I say: the heyday of electronic music was in 94-96.
Everything in this world (celestial bodies, living organisms,
cultural phenomena) is born sometime, reaches its peak sometime
and dies sometime. It would be very strange if nature made an
exception to this universal law for the cultural phenomenon
"electronic music".