Dear Astro Nautico Community,
Wow. That just happened. Just scrambling now to collect ourselves not to mention all our hi-res photos and videos and make sure it all looks nice as can be before we publish them here forever. But before all that here’s the first draft of our excitement.
For starters, while you read, hit play on/download the Lord’s instantly-legendary full live set below.
Live @ Astro Nautico Launch Party BK (7.6.12) by RAJA
We had about 300 amazing, talented, creative, beautiful people in the building. One of them was Radio 1Xtra DJ and Deviation founder Benji B (He really is beautiful… look up his mug if you only know his voice). He said he thought that the party would come to represent a new page in the history of musical exchange between London and New York. Reverse the flow. He said it was one of the best parties he’d been to in NYC in over a decade. He asked for and now has a selected discography from all the artists who played and you’ll likely be hearing some Astro tracks on his show for BBC1xtra this Wednesday night (9pm-11pm NY time) if not on future shows.
On the other hand, we were graced with the presence of some West Coast cats who said it reminded them of their favorite times at Low End. The community feeling. The coming-together-ness. The gravity. We’re honored to inherit even a small bit of that energy. It’s what we’ve personally lacked as New Yorkers pretty much all our lives. 21-gun salute to Low End Theory for inspiring us so much to do something like this.
But influences aside, we’re definitely not trying to be like anywhere else’s big party. We couldn’t even if we wanted to. They’ve all got their thing, and that’s that. Here’s ours: 20′ x 12′ live VHS-mixing projections by Paul Jones on the walls of a neon UV-painted former parking garage performance space in Prospect Heights (FreeCandy’s motto is: ‘Paradise Garage meets MOMA.’) stuffed with a pristine triangle of Unity PA speakers and thunderous Yorkville subs pounding out all your favorites and a bunch of stuff you’ve never heard, forming a million diverse variations on beats and bass from young guns and veterans of the scene equally.
That’s how we do it in New York.
NWYRK (Preview) by Kuhn (Forthcoming on KINGS EP for Civil Music in September)
As for the future: first Fridays monthly = Astro Nautico parties in Brooklyn. Yes, first Friday of every single month. Simple. We’re locked. Not going anywhere. This is our home, and we want to make it feel like yours too even if you just came here or are just passing through or have been here for ten years and are utterly disenchanted. We might throw the odd one-off at a different venue just to change it up and stay a bit unpredictable. But generally it’s looking like we’ve found our way, and FreeCandy is our home base (read: yours!).
So please keep your first Fridays reserved for these special occasions. Mark ‘em in your cellular iPods’ calendars right now and let ‘em marinate. And tell your friends. Because this is a party about YOU fueled by YOU. Yeah, YOU!! YOU the individual person reading this! Thank YOU!! Because YOU are the ones pushing us forward in this world, making us envision the next year of amazing parties and releases here in Brooklyn/NYC.
Astro Nautico began as a college radio show, then became a blog, then a net label and now it’s a party. Or maybe it’s more than that… a burgeoning, physical, real life community embodying the cyber community that has always kept it afloat. Maybe. Guess we’ll only find out if you show for the next one! And fam from out of town better believe we’ll be Ustreaming every event from now on. Details about next party coming next week, but, for now, save this date: August 3 we prove this is permanent!
Peace, thanks and raw vibes,
BENNETT (KUHN)
SAM (OBEY CITY)
PAUL (JONES)
& CREW
