SACRED SPACE :: 1995 - 1996
Returning to Southern California in the Fall of 1994, I took a break in order to focus on graduate school (CGU). Yet, I was continuing to find time for record shopping, practicing my mixing skills, and even recording mixtapes. And I wondered if the utopian ideals of the Bay Area dance culture existed somewhere, anywhere in Southern California ...
Fortunately, without any difficulty (just two phone calls!), I was introduced to a collective that shared my underground ethos. In September 1995, via Cinnamon Twist, I received directions to my first Moontribe Full Moon Gathering (FMG). We drove to an unknown stretch of the Mojave desert on rugged dirt roads, winding in the dark under the moonlit sky, full of wonder and anticipation. I arrived to the sound of Daniel's tribal techno beats echoing off the hills, sacred geometry inscribed in the desert sand, wild abandon on the impromptu dancefloor, and ecstatic bliss in the air. My affinity for the FMGs was instantaneous and deep; I had found my new underground dance home in the desert.
Moontribe combined the purer aspects of the underground electronic music scene: all volunteer (DIY), donation only (no set fee, nobody turned away for lack of money), unadvertised, non-commercial, word-of-mouth, festal, communal, cutting-edge, psychedelic music, and unbound by convention. Plus, gatherings were held in remote desert locations on the full moon only thereby connecting us to our natural rhythm and momentarily liberating us from an otherwise mechanistic world. Celebrating synchronized to the timeless lunar cycle in the vast, mystical Mojave, an ancient and enduring phenomenon was being re-discovered by a modern techno tribe and I was in love with it.
