ultrafest by bad lsd trips

I.

𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘴𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴 is the collaborative duo of makers doris dana and domingo castillo flores. Respectively the two have fostered practices that have sprawled out through various approaches and, whether in the lanes of the musical or the contemporary arts, the phenomenology of the social and inclusive prevails. On 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵, this motif continues through the psychedelia of its eight time-defying recordings, welcoming the listener into an open temporal architecture of the stereo field as a signifier of environment. It is worth noting that the group began collaborating in Miami, Florida with longer form improvisations recorded to a stereo cassette deck. In these recordings, the paved geographical sprawl and oceanic view permeated the approach to amassing long swaths of sound material. Listening back on that work at the time of this writing, each track feels as though one is walking into an active space, arriving to an event already in full swing and finding your place inside of it. On 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵 (this album) something different occurs. The space and events are built around you as you move through the record.

II.

The name of the album is 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵, which should effectively provoke your mind's eye the imagery of young people dancing, salivating, grinding, and imbibing chemical compounds to the perversely formalized musical genres of “Electronic Dance Music” and latter-era Dubstep often heard in European Uber rides and energy drink commercials. A far distance from the icy and machinic reverie of Techno’s finest rave eras or the notable historical contributions of Miami’s cerebral producers to IDM’s global output, 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵 is a libidinal catharsis as festival scaled to a multinational corporation of hedonistic excess. The festival has been a hallmark of Miami cultural industry production and optical enticement for tourism, purportedly bringing in nearly a billion dollars in revenue to the city since 2012. Scores of documentation exist wherein this decadent escapism leaves the concertgoer, usually in some neon garment on a near nude body potentially adorned with fluffy faux fur leg warmers, facing a comedown from the combination of volume, sun, dehydration, and methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine. This MDMA experience characterizes an aspect of the way 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘴𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴 employs vocals and pitch on this album. The detached, high octaved longing of a high pitched vocal is decoupled from its typical auditory body of song. High-pass clicks and pops touch the (h)air on the back of the neck, promising goosebumps and teasing towards euphoric rushes of dopamine, yet also exist decoupled from the body of song. As the dopamine depletes and the sun imposes itself, Miami’s downtown of skeleton real estate is your company as you meander towards your parked vehicle to rest your fatigued senses, elevated heart rate, and quench the need for air conditioning on your skin. The immediacy of bombastic social immersion to architectural alienation palpable here.

III.

Florida is home to an expansive equestrian culture due to its flat, (once) cheap lands that have become rife with suburban sprawl for wealthier communities seeking refuge from Florida’s notable population of diversity. The congruency of right-wing tax avoidance to the asset class that can facilitate populations of horses is apparent in the area. Vast sprawls of former swamp land were repurposed for rural suburban development through the state. Amidst the modulated terrain of swamps in various states of sanctity, property owners have had the opportunity to raise horses out of hobby and industry. The popular tranquilizer for horses, ketamine, is used in medical contexts when tending to the injured animal or performing routine medical examinations as to not startle the beautiful beasts. However, ketamine has a long standing history as a recreational drug amongst club goers.

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. Over time, progressive psychonauts and researchers have been able to see it used as a treatment for depression and in pain management. The effects of ketamine vary from user to user, but broadly its onset can include sensorial tunneling, a slowing of muscle response, an inarticulation in verbal communication, light sensitivity, and in heavy doses a hallucinatory psychedelic experience is brought forth. The range of outcome from ketamine’s application is vast, as is its potential for psychedelic expanse. One can fall into liminal mental zones, exploring the erosion of time, language, light, sound, and logics. Space and shape decompose and morph into new Ill defined signs and symbols as quickly as they manifest. Ketamine's effects last maybe as long as a record, and paired properly with the right record, the listener can enter dimensional horizons of both extreme beauty and terror. Ketamine marks the journey inward, defying the scale of spatial relations through expanding by going smaller and smaller.

IV.

𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵 mirrors the balance of the temporal interiority and exteriority of the previously referenced chemical compounds when applied to the body for recreational psychedelic experiences. The jubilation of the slack jawed festival attendee, the gallop of the horse upon the earthen ground, the stagnation of humidity on the body, the sprawl of unkempt concrete through Florida cities, the aroma of bleach in a bar bathroom. On this album, the band illustrates the territories when you almost have your grounding; the moment when you are on the pivot between the real and the intoxicated, or even the really intoxicated. These spaces are the softening and hardening of light on your eyes, they are the gripping of a porcelain sink between moments staring in the bathroom mirror.

In an era where so much tremendous creative energy is put into a softer, safer space through ambient music to respond (negligently) or (worse?) take shelter from the hellish global condition of late capitalism; 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘴𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴 takes your hand into the murkier moments of reflection awarded to the listener in the genre. The resolution is not carved out for you, and what truly sits suspended in the ambiance of the now is an unfiltered view of where the world has come to through centuries of civilization. It’s a brutal landscape with an ill-determined end result. Where other practitioners of the sonic gesture of ambient are sheltering within a glistening plasticene blanket of clicks and rustlings with low pass filters of melancholic chord structures, this album burrows itself comfortably in the formless chaos of true psychedelia and reminds me 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 is truly what our unfortunate ambiance is today. The album reflects joy and terror, and it longs and leans towards finding something in the midst of sonic exploration. Passivity nullified, ambient beyond indulgence and evasion.

- Nick Klein, February 10, 2025

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