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Update – February 2024

I’ve been quiet in recent months, but I can now say the draft of the ‘Dark Scene 500’ (final title to be determined) is complete.  I’m now looking into options for external editing and publishing.  Expect to hear a LOT more when this process begins in earnest.  Thanks go to everyone who came to me with ideas and suggestions.  There’s still a long way to go before this thing becomes reality, but the part I do largely on my own is done now.

Meanwhile, I’m going through my older writings and updating them to 2024 status.  To start with, I revisited my old Infest retrospective, which now covers the festival in it’s current incarnation.

Infest – A Personal Retrospective

Update – April 2023

Some of you might remember I’m writing a book about scene music – focused primarily on notable songs. The draft is current around 75% complete. So one way or another, it’s going to be finished – and soon! There’s still a few gaps in my knowledge, but knowing the people I know, I was hoping some of you might be able to help me finish this thing off.
 
So, if you think you know about any of the following (or know someone who does) and are willing to contribute a few ideas, please get in touch.
  • Psychobilly
  • Horror punk
  • Deathrock revival (i.e deathrock bands formed from the mid-90s onwards)
  • Steampunk (even if this is more of a fashion genre, there’s bands associated with it)
  • Industrial hip-hop hybrids
  • Industrial bass music (all past disagreements will be forgiven and forgotten)
  • Club-friendly industrial from the past 10 years
  • EDM that works in scene clubs (again, mainly from past decade, but the 00s area could use some help too)
  • Digital Hardcore (anyone remember that?)
  • Witch House (ditto)
Note that all assistance will be credited and I’m not asking anyone to do any writing – I’m really just asking for some playlist suggestions and a bit of fact and reality-checking.

Update – December 2022

There isn’t much Terminates Here DJ activity at the moment (none, actually), but progress on my ‘Dark Scene 500’ book continues.   I’m well over halfway through the first draft, and I’ll soon be at the stage where I’ll be asking for help.  Specifically, I will be looking for some expertise in certain sub-genres which haven’t featured heavily in my own scene experiences, but I know are too important to leave out. 

As for getting the thing published, self-publication seems to be the way to go these days.   I’m hoping crowdfunding will be a cost-effective way of paying for this, given I’m not seeking any personal financial gain from this endeavour.  As a sign of good faith, I won’t start this process until I know the text is close to the “finishing line”, given the real costs of self-publishing don’t really come into play until after the text is drafted.  

The one area where I’m really stuck, and looking for suggestions – finding an editor.  Google searching mainly seems to yield US-oriented editors practised in either academic texts or works of fiction, and this book is none of these things.  So if anyone has any ideas for how to find someone who could help get a mammoth tome about obscure musical styles written in colloquial (sometimes cynical) British English into some kind of publishable shape, please get in touch.  

Update – June 2022

Writing on the “Dark Scene 500” continues at a steady pace, with close to 50,000 words written so far. Still a lot to do, but I’m not working to any specific deadline here so no need to rush things. The aim is to get at least some of each chapter written within the next month or two, and then the overall shape of the thing will become clear.

As for DJing, I haven’t fully re-joined the circuit (as if I was in said circuit in the first place!), but I will be making a second appearance at the Work! (To Live) night in July – details are available on the Facebook page for those of you who like EBM done the ‘old way’.

Update – April 2022

After my DJing comeback in March, I’ve now turned my attentions back to writing.  The concept remains “500 songs that define a scene”, although the final title won’t be decided for some time yet.  At time of writing, just over 150 songs have received a draft write-up.    Challenges include working out a fresh ways of describing periods where many songs sounded pretty much the same (thank you aggrotech), and how to sensitively handle the whole ‘musically notable-ideologically problematic’ issue.  “Leaving those bits out” isn’t an option – re-writing history to eliminate things you don’t agree with causes more problems than it solves.  

I’m hoping to launch some crowdfunding to actually get this book published – forget about the established press.  However, as a sign of good faith, I won’t launch this until the first draft is nearly complete (probably around the 400 song mark).  It will also be the point where I hope to engage other subject matter experts on corners of the scene I haven’t personally been involved in – so if you think you know your stuff RE: digital hardcore, deathrock revival, 2010s EDM-that-had-a-scene-following or whatever it is steampunks listen to, hold that thought – we might have something to discuss!

Until then, I haven’t counted out DJing again from time to time, particularly if I get to play under-represented styles (as was the case with ‘Work!’) or have the opportunity to work up a decent genre-spanning setlist. 

If you have any interest in any of the above, get in touch!

Update – February 2022

With my DJing return still a little over a month away, I though it best to offer some updates on my latest writing project. It’s already the biggest thing I’ve attempted – by far, but progress is being made.

I’ve picked out 500 songs that have some claim to being influential on the musical styles that define the scene in which DJ Terminates Here has operated since 2008 (and EOL-Audio long before that). The genre remit can essentially be defined as “all the genres covered by Wave-Gotik-Treffen” – though the band doesn’t have to have played said festival to make it in. Expect all forms of industrial and goth, a decent dose of early and experimental electronics, a selected few metal and rock tracks, and more that a couple of surprises.

It’s important to note that this is NOT an academic study – my style is simply better suited to the lay reader and I wouldn’t enjoy writing it if I couldn’t indulge in some humour along the way.  Whilst there was a semi-scientific method behind the selection of bands and songs, it’s far too complex to go into here – I’ll explain more in the book itself. In terms of drafting, I’m well past 100 songs at the moment. There’s still a lot of explanatory text to write in between the chapters, so I’ll call the first draft 20% done.

I’ll post updates at key stages – and at some point in the near future I might be asking for some assistance, specifically from those of you who have some knowledge of the more obscure subgenres.  More on those later – for now, I’ve got a few hundred songs to cover!

Listeners Guides Updated

Hello, anyone out there?

Despite the reopening of the outside world, I for one am not ready to rejoin it.  The next listeners guide is well underway at least.  However, I’ve taken a short diversion to bring two of the existing guides up to 2021 spec.  It’s a pity I didn’t have more interesting material to work with, but for those who care one way or the other, you can read what I thought of the recents Wumpscut and Fear Factory albums.  These are not ‘reviews’ as such, just updates to the story I’d already told.  

Anyway, back to the next epic.  Who was it who said “You Cannot Help, Where Your Help Is Not Wanted”?  That’s both a massive hint, and the story of the past few months.  See you on the other side.

Update – April 2021

It’s been a while since I’ve even logged into this site. Curiously, the DJ Terminates Here Facebook page is still getting likes despite me having done nothing to earn them in recent times. I thought you all at least deserved an update. I’m still alive and so far avoided the Coronavirus. However, long-running mental health issues, which are only partially related to the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have results in a severe hit to my productivity in the past year.

I’m beginning to find a route out, but it’s early days. DJ Terminates Here will as a result remain closed until it is possible for full-audience events to be safely held once more – indeed, my lack of activity and personal circumstances mean I’m unlikely to be first in-line for a real-world return. The good news is – the writing it on its way back. I have a half-finished Listeners Guide which should be published here soon.

In the meantime, I have updated the half-dozen existing guides to 2021-spec, so there’s something new to read, even if you’ll have to scroll a lot to find it.

Update – August 2020

Hi, thought I’d write a little here as I seem to be getting ‘Likes’ on Facebook despite zero activity! I’m still alive and staying out of harm’s way – however, I decided some time ago that DJ Terminates Here will remain “Closed for the Duration”.

I will return once full-audience events are once again possible in a safe manner – however. I find it difficult to gain any satisfaction from playing in empty rooms, and as the online audience has been well catered for so far by others, I don’t feel any need to cram another event into the virtual schedules.

I do hope to resume writing about music soon, with the focus on what I think I do best, long-form ‘deep dive’ articles, going places where the music journo establishment dares not go (or doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of). One may ask why I haven’t spent lockdown obsessively doing so already – I would only request “No questions, please” on that one.

Similarly, my plans to write a print-to-paper book (focusing on the UK scene post-1991) were hit on several levels by the pandemic. It’s still possible that some of the text will appear in article form but the project as original mooted simply isn’t possible in the current environment.

A New Look

It’s been a while since I’ve posted much here, I’ve been working on various other projects. In preparation for my next “long read”, I’ve overhauled the whole look-and-feel of this site, making the colour scheme more neutral and freshening the look up in general.

I’ve also updated the site to work more effectively on mobile devices, on the understanding that there’s only so much one can do to make epic-length diatribes on the forgotten corners of the scene readable on a smartphone.

Anyway, some new content will be available soon – in the meantime, have a look around, there must be something you haven’t read yet.