Bryan Fein led me up the stairs of the office building. The halls were lined with glass offices and red brick walls that offered a modern rustic vibe. I plopped onto the couch, and he sat on the chair next to me.

From watching his social media stories, I knew Fein didn’t get much sleep: between working out and working on his upcoming album, there was hardly a day or a night when Fein wasn’t hustling. But now he was leaning forward attentively, hands clasped, ready.

Fein began telling his story. He grew up in Manhattan, and was fully immersed in music from a young age, whether he was  attending classic rock-and-roll concerts with his father to see legends, like the Rolling Stones and AC/DC, or with his mom listening to classical music at home. Fein attended Turtle Bay Music School as a teenager, learning piano and guitar. He was advised in his growing interest in electronic music by his martial arts instructor, who was himself a DJ, and would later become Fein’s mentor.

“I was taking taekwondo at the time. That explains my figure,” the 26-year-old joked. His instructor played old house music during their training sessions. “It resonated well with me,” Fein said.

Curious to start mixing, Fein downloaded a DJ software to mix tacks from the likes of Benny Benassi and the Ministry of Sound label. “I thought I was awesome at it. I sent my mixes to all of my friends and got some good feedback. In high school, I started djing karaoke parties and small loft parties my friends rented out,” he said.

Fein was all about house music. He started going to clubs in the Meatpacking District, wanting to DJ more seriously. Around 2010, mainstream artists, like David Guetta and Avicii, made house music more popular, which gave Fein the perfect niche to break into. Fein’s mentor—the martial arts instructor—let him play opening and closing sets at places, such as Ajna Bar, Veranda, and the Hudson Terrace, allowing him to perfect his craft in mixing while reading the energy of the crowd.

Still, Fein yearned for more—producing. He started dabbling in Ableton Live, a production software, learning to create electronic music. “The first year, I was the most discouraged person on the face of the planet just because I didn’t know how to do anything. It was just opening my laptop, turning on the software, and closing my laptop for a year,” he said.

But Fein kept going. He began producing simple beats, influenced by the tribal sounds of Roger Sanchez or Dennis Ferrer, and adding his own “electronic flavor,” looking to the styles of masters Deadmau5 and Eric Prydz.

In 2013, Fein attended a renown music festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, where seeing Mark Knight live brought Fein into the world of techno for the first time. Since then, Fein has been  obsessed with tech house, deep house, and techno.

Fein released his first album on Soundcloud in 2016. It garnered international attention from Italian label Elektrobeats Records, for which Fein released some widely successful remixes, including “Come With Me” in 2017, which hit #1 on Traxsource’s Top 100.

In 2017, Fein co-founded the party series Origins Underground with high school classmate Dylan Farrugia (otherwise known as Dysco). The idea behind the series was simple: to bring underground techno back to Manhattan. These parties happen once every month.

Fein explains that techno is in right now, but the scene in New York City isn’t doing well. EDM peaked and fell off in 2014, leaving a hole where electronic music should be. “The scene is really strong in Brooklyn, and we want to bring some of that flavor to the city. Not everyone has the privilege to commute to Brooklyn for an event.”

As far as new music from Mafia B—Fein’s upcoming 12-track album explores progressive house and techno while showcasing melodic motifs and underground vibes. One track will be released every month.

As a die-hard techno fan, I am always burning to know what DJs think of the genre. While I know my answer, I closed with—what sets techno apart from other genres?

“Community. Everyone’s like, ‘Hey, you want to DJ at my party?’ No one is there for the money. If you’re trying to get your name out there…everyone is helping each other. Techno is for people who are open-minded.”

Catch Mafia B’s latest tunes here: https://soundcloud.com/mafiab

The post Bryan Fein Is Bringing Electronic Music Back to Manhattan appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

It’s a Sunday morning, and Vishaal Turakhia is in his Brookfield Place office running numbers. Investment bankers don’t sleep. Neither do DJs. Turakhia is both.

On late nights after work, the 33-year-old can be found in his downtown apartment mixing techno “experiments” for his Soundcloud, a project which he describes as a “psychoacoustical experimentation with dark, industrial, and melancholy waveforms.”

“No matter how bad the day is, no matter how hard work gets, I can go home to that and I’m in a whole other universe,” he says.

Turakhia first started experimenting with electronic music as a teenager in his native India. He spent summers in Goa, whose coastline stretches along the Arabian sea. Places such as Anjuna Beach were meccas for electronic music, especially subgenres like psytrance (also known as “Goa trance”), characterized by fast-paced bass, leads, and twisted, synthetic sounds.

“Goa is where the ‘hippy’ movement began. On the beaches is where people experimented with psychedelics openly. So you went from the “jam band” era to an electronic-enabled style of music. Goa was to India, what Woodstock was to New York,” explains Turakhia, who goes by the stage name CYP450.

Law enforcement didn’t try to stop these activities, which allowed the music scene in Goa to flourish. Turakhia began experimenting on Technics equipment, spinning with vinyl records, the old-fashioned way. Gradually, he transitioned to the DJ-favorite Pioneer multi player, also known as a CDJ, which is compatible with USBs, SD cards, and other modern DJ software.

What sets psytrance apart from other subgenres of electronic music, Turakhia explains, is its many layers.

“A wall of sound envelopes and takes you on a journey, starting with rhythmic bass or percussion, and gradually layering other elements to tell a story. This makes it less repetitious and more technically complex than techno.”  

Turakhia moved to New York in 2007 to pursue a degree in finance at Ithaca College. On the weekends, Turakhia would commute to the city to network. One night out, he met an organizer of the promoter group Psycheground Luis Campos, and, being equally as interested in the music world, took up the offer to play psytrance gigs at iconic clubs like Exit in Greenpoint and Sullivan Room in the Village.

Apart from Goa’s melancholic sound, Turakhia looked to old-school rock classics like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones for groove which he translated into electronic music that he characterizes as “deep, melancholy melodies.”

Today, the electronic music scene in New York looks a lot different. Turakhia has since transitioned from mixing psytrance to other subgenres of electronic music, including techno, one of the city’s current favorites.

You can catch CYP450’s latest tunes here: https://soundcloud.com/cyp450

The post Meet Vishaal Turakhia: DJ & Investment Banker appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

It’s January 13, the night of my first party of the new year in New York. I open my eyes. The DJ duo Mind Against come into focus. Their dark outlines move masterfully beneath the strobe lights, fingers taking turns twisting knobs on the deck. Twist—the bass disappears. Twist—percussion enters. I can feel the heat emanating from the bodies around me, moving as one in the darkness. Then I hear the far-off twinkle of the melody of their latest released track. The one we all know and love and came for. I yell in happiness and turn to my friend. He hears it, too. We both grin at one another as “Days Gone” starts to play. A journey awaits. Everyone goes wild, pounding fists and feet to the epic synths as they grow louder. This is the moment we have all been waiting for. The duo raise their hands in satisfaction, one throws back his head, and the track speaks for itself. This is the moment they have been waiting for, too.

This is just one of countless incomparable live techno music experiences I continue to gather and be fascinated by. I first came to realize the power of this music when a friend went to Movement, an electronic music festival that takes place every year in Detroit. I was addicted to watching the videos he shared of secret after-hour parties. Hearing the fast-paced, hypnotic music so full of raw, unsubdued energy filled my body with a rhythmic strength that I couldn’t shake for days.

A few months later, I went abroad. By completely coincidental circumstance, I ended up at one such party in a warehouse in Prague. I set aside everything for the night and surrendered myself to the music. It’s been a love affair with techno ever since.

The quick beat that characterizes electronic dance music is a powerful and addicting motivator, especially when heard live. Journalist Hunter S. Thompson said, “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me…Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel.” The exchange and reception of (positive) energy is central to the techno scene.

Nothing unites people quite like knowing that no matter who they are or where they come from, something that is so special to them is equally as special to thousands of others in the moment. Being emotionally connected to the music connects people to its atmosphere, including everyone in it. This intimate feeling of unity is especially profound for those that may struggle with connecting with others.

Daniel Levitin, author of “This Is Your Brain on Music,” discovered that our bodies physically respond to music by releasing feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. We rely on music for emotional regulation because it influences our moods.

Techno, a subgenre of electronic dance music, originated in the heart of Detroit, Michigan, during the 1980s. It arose from a blend of African American soul and synthesizer-made music, and migrated first from DJs’ basements to gay clubs. Science fiction lent itself as inspiration for early artists’ futuristic techno sound. Following the Great Depression, they envisioned, through their music, a transformed society. After the techno wave in Detroit, it was picked up by the Germans in Berlin and popularized in Europe. Today, techno is an even bigger part of the European lifestyle than in the U.S.

Techno and other electronic dance music lovers term the party scene as “raving.” This term varies in meaning, from dressing up in colorful clothing for a festival to just going to a techno club, but usually means being out for an entire night of committed dancing and enjoyment.

In the U.S., the techno scene is most prominent in the Big Apple. Other cities like Los Angeles and Detroit remain key players as well, but what sets New York apart is its massive population, providing diverse but consistent demand for electronic music, as well as its access to dozens of techno-qualifying venues with proper sound systems, active promoters, and their ability to afford hosting big-name DJs from around the world.

As with anything, it is possible to take raving too far. That is, one prevalent aspect of the techno party scene is substance abuse, which enhances the experience of music in the brain. This comes from the search for a transcendent experience. One particularly common drug, MDMA, also known as molly, targets and increases the level of chemicals in the brain responsible for happiness. Nonetheless, the majority of party-goers enjoy safe, legal experiences as often as dozens of times a month without so much as tired feet the following day.

The post Why I Love Techno Music appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.