‘No More Secrets’

 I Want You X LENS UK (Sidney SN) 

 I’ve got something special for a smile.

I’ve been having some depressive episodes this week. I told myself that as a social services worker I should know that I need some kind of intervention. So I opened my laptop to try making some music. 

And hah, it went surprisingly fast...

I like the movie You Get Me (2017). The film was also crucial in the moment when I discovered New Retro Wave. In the famous and amazing pool scene, the music Dreams by Timecop1983 (feat. Dana Jean Phoenix) plays. There’s also a scene earlier in some club. 

And that’s where the track I Want You by Loosid appears. Marufo by the UK drum and bass producer LENS, together with Sidney SN’s edit, makes a great pair.

Yet, I Want You Sidney SN edit is not a drum and bass music. 

Enjoy! 

Monopolization in a electronic music

 In a situation that contributed to my recognition, a friend told me that I am “competition.” And in a way, this situation showed that someone can become known more as independent “competition” than by submitting to monopolization — which is what this post is about. I write competition in quotation marks because if someone has no interest in something, they are not competition. A person can destroy themselves, and that is their problem as long as they do not intrude into someone else’s space. And I want to thank so many people from the western side for acknowledging that my freedoms and rights were violated, and for saying that no one should ever behave like this toward another person.

Given politics, I do not want to be associated in any way with what I am supposed to be “competing” with. I have no desire to participate in something that is against my nature. I did not start producing liquid DNB mixes for that purpose. And if meaning in music disappeared, I would stop producing altogether.

I think electronic music is a vast ecosystem branching into dozens of subcultures, styles, and local scenes. And within this music, there are significant differences in how individual genres are organized: for example, one that spreads into hundreds of independent currents, and one that concentrates into a few monopolies or forms of usurpation. This can be seen most clearly when comparing the techno or even EDM, Progressive, House music with drum & bass, I think. 

While techno or EDM thrives as an open, decentralized network of thousands of artists, collectives, clubs, labels, and individuals, drum & bass is becoming monopolized. This is one of the parts that, for me, form a visible difference between DNB and techno, EDM, Progressive or House music. 

The consequences for artists are concrete. Artists involved in techno (or EDM, Progressive, …) are more independent in everything they do and in who they are than those in DNB.

In DNB, artists are often required to form ties with monopolies, creating pressure to adapt their sound, policy or image. In techno, because of the diversity of forms, artists can function in highly varied ways.

In the techno scene, the relationship between an event and an artist is more of a host–guest relationship than an “ownership” one. A festival or club invites an artist to play, but the artist is not bound to their brand or their “family.” They can play for one group today, for another tomorrow, in a completely different context, in another country, in an underground club or on a mainstream stage — without the need to belong to a specific group, because especially the artist is the specific group alone. 

This is quite a contrast to how drum and bass is sometimes presented: as if it’s supposed to be more independent than anything else. 

Luddism in the 21st Century

“It’s like if someone in the 19th century banned electricity because it threatened candle makers.”

 Recently, I wrote some praise for Giorgia Meloni, though I’m also skeptical of her. Another example might be banning cultivated meat instead of addressing problematic livestock farming. 

Sidney SN, 90’s 🇮🇹 

In my view, Italy’s decision to ban cultivated meat may seem like cultural protection or caution toward new technology. But in reality, it’s a much deeper issue. The ban isn’t conservative — it’s reactionary. It’s not about a protect tradition; it simply shows that the state isn’t ready for change, so it prefers to freeze reality in its current state.

In the context of human technological development, cultivated meat is just another logical step. Lab-grown meat is like hydroponics, vertical farming, fermentation, biotechnology — all ways to increase efficiency and reduce the negative impacts of production.

The argument that “meat should traditionally come from animals” is the same as someone wanting to ban hydroponics because lettuce has supposedly “always” grown in soil. But “always” lasts only until human ingenuity presents a better solution.

In space travel, long-term missions, or colonizing other planets — no one will be herding cattle. Cultivated meat is a necessity. This isn’t sci-fi. It’s technology we already know how to produce today.

To me, the ban on cultivated meat reveals something uncomfortable: if someone bans something solely to protect an old industry, it means they don’t know how to build a new one.

And here comes the key part: the entire ban on cultivated meat is a modern form of Luddism. 

The Luddites in the 19th century didn’t smash machines because they were dangerous. They smashed them because they threatened their roles and status in society. Meloni is doing the same thing: it’s not banning a dangerous product, but a technology that threatens old business.

Instead of supporting innovation, they would rather ban whatever complicates the status quo. It’s like banning machines because they threatened hand weavers. But the world won’t stop. Only those who are afraid will.

The Luddites lost in the end — the Industrial Revolution moved forward. And the development of cultivated meat will move forward as well. Just without Italy. And once other countries gain the know-how, investment, and expertise, Italy will be forced to import the technology.