It’s not a space for a normal person

 This is a critique I wasn’t sure whether to publish… but here it is. It might be irritating, but it’s also for a laugh. 

 I recently went to a drum and bass event in the Netherlands. I’ll get straight to the point: I’ve never encountered a worse community in the Netherlands. When I go to events of other genres in NL, or just walk down the Dutch street, I don’t see these types of people at all. Perhaps they’re a small minority in the Netherlands, or maybe they’re mostly from Central Europe. The second one is also definitely true. 

I don’t get this feeling also in Germany. In fact, because of the common people in Germany, I can honestly say: I ❤️ Germany. Ordinary Germans have good values: German’s strong architecture also looks like that. 

Related to that — should I be sad or just laugh when someone gets bothered by the fact that someone wears a watch?

“So according to Sidney SN we’re supposed to wear watches too…”

It honestly made me laugh what Central European drum and bass ravers think of me. Yes, it has the “smell” of people seeing me as conservative. That makes me laugh even more. Or another comment — that apparently I stood out at the smoking area again. I have no idea why I keep hearing this. If someone doesn’t like it, they probably should work on themselves. Or I share no “anarchistic/socialist” value. If I stand out among the “weirdos”, it’s not because I try for a stand out — that’s simply how I naturally am.

And again, this tells me a lot about how different the current international DnB community is compared to other Dutch communities, where I do fit in with my values, and where no one looks at you strangely for completely normal things. In a way, this shows just how off some people are if they start criticizing basic Dutch values. On the other hand, I still say I’m also “Aussie”. Among other things, I like Ripcurl :D

Another thing is hard drugs. When I listen to what SOLAH sings about, hard drugs just don’t belong there. Or I don’t see her music like something for a ravers. Or Flava D, her track Cats. Or I like LENS UK for her values. It also bothers me that SOLAH seems to be more of a DJ for questionable ravers than a singer. And again, compared to different Dutch electronic music festival community — at a DnB event in NL there are so many international people on hard drugs that I couldn’t even count them. At this last Dutch techno event, I saw only two obvious cases. One was actually shocking, because a girl was in psychosis, being calmed down by the lake, and two people had to hold her by both hands while walking. In my opinion, clearly typical from Central Europe. 

The lower presence of hard drugs at some Dutch electronic music events probably also comes from their Zero Drug Tolerance policy.

At that DnB event, I even made jokes about the drugged-up ravers by widening my eyes the way they had theirs. I even got reactions back :D

And on top of that, someone next to me wanted to talk to me — and you could see he was thinking: in today’s DnB community, you barely even have anyone to talk to. That ties back to my previous post about a policy and their whole attitude. That’s why I’m saying: this is not for me, or this is irritating or for a laugh. 

In many ways, a laugh towards them, it’s the best reaction, I think.  

Yet, my favorite techno DJ — Enrico Sangiuliano — now wears the same watch with a different belt :D 

‘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.

Contrasting Reality

 At first glance, the Netherlands feels like a country where fun is a natural part of life—not only leisure, but the economy as well. It’s not just that a large part of the population now works four days a week. A sense of ease permeates the whole system and the atmosphere of the cities. 

A typical Thursday morning in Amsterdam reveals more than any statistics could. Around eight or nine in the morning at Sloterdijk, you’ll meet both young and older people returning from night events—on a Wednesday night. When you travel to Rotterdam, you pass small groups of people returning from a party in Amsterdam. It’s Thursday morning, yet social life is running at full speed.

The same applies to Sunday events, which often finish around 11 p.m. In the Netherlands, festivals or music events generally don’t allow themselves to be heard late into the night on weekends, and it’s also forbidden after midnight. Residents don’t want to be disturbed in their freedoms, and in Amsterdam it’s nothing unusual to see (18+) high school students returning home after midnight from a Sunday event, only to go to school on Monday…? Yet—and this is essential—you hardly see drunk people on the streets, groups doing hard drugs, homeless people, or as much THC and its substitutes either. The atmosphere is lively but civilised. This contrast is fascinating to me.

Entertainment is in fact a significant economic component in the Netherlands. People are more open, relaxed, and seem more content. Cities and the civilisation itself are enjoyable in their architecture—cities like Rotterdam are an experience of their own. It makes you wonder why some places build a reality that relies so heavily on extraction, monotonous industry, uninteresting landscape design, and generally depressive environments. Instead of biotope parks, interesting urban structures, and inspiring surroundings.

Luxembourg is another example. There too, you can see that when a country builds a civilisation that is enjoyable, it brings economic results. They know how to sell things—like the “famous waterfalls,” which are essentially “just a weir on a forest stream”. Yet everyone wants to see them, because they’ve become part of the cultural value.

And then you find yourself in another country, one that seems to revel in depression and maintaining smallness. Where endless political nonsense is solved instead of developing an interesting civilisation. Where more sustainable policies are rejected, even though they work in countries that are visibly richer, more open, and more satisfied. And where people then wonder why young people and adults alike escape into alcohol or substances—maybe this is part of a logical response to an environment that creates not joy, but pressure.

Maybe, among other things, if instead of a depressive reality one built a civilisation that is pleasant, playful, and inspiring, some societal values would change too. And with them, the entire atmosphere of society.