Europeans spur local interest in electronic music


“You may shake your head, smile, mock or turn away, but this dance madness proves nonetheless that the man of the machine age with his necessary wristwatch and his brain in a constant ferment of work, worry and calculation has just as much need to dance as the primitive. For him too the dance is a life on another plane.”

– Curt Sash, “World History of the Dance,” 1937, printed on United Nations of Mix fliers

By LORENDA KNISEL
Staff Writer

ATLANTIC CITY – Electronic music has been slowly infiltrating American culture since the 1970s. It started with disco, which evolved into house music in the ’80s and later morphed into many subgenres of house, trance, techno, breakbeats and others.
Composed using computers and synthesizers, electronic music is something with which many Americans are still unfamiliar, primarily those who cling to rock and hip hop.

Europeans, however, have embraced it with open arms. And thanks to a group of local European party promoters and DJs, locals are being introduced to the electronic dance scene.

Meet Krasi Kirev, Daniel Sabic and Miryan Iliev, three Eastern Europeans who form the core of the party collective United Nations of Mix.

It is the brainchild of soft-spoken Kirev, 35, a Margate resident from Bulgaria who has been promoting electronic dance parties in Atlantic City since 2002. He is responsible for herding thousands to performances by heavyweight DJs Ferry Corsten and Tiesto, arguably the world’s biggest name in trance at the moment. But his labor of love has been promoting the local Euro House events, which has appeared in many incarnations at former Club Tru, Sonsie at the Pier and, since last fall, at Level 2 at the Atlantic City Bar & Grill.

“We spin different music than the mainstream club culture,” Kirev said. “We don’t follow the rules. We don’t follow trends. We spin for the crowd. … The main idea is that we don’t need celebrity DJs; it’s all about the spirit.”

Mostly house can be heard at the parties, but often it’s house with a techno or tech edge. Iliev spins “deep tech vocal house with a tribal twist.” Kirev, whose DJ name is Kris, spins electro and progressive house, breakbeats and retro electronic dance music, including acid house.

Sabic, 31, spins funky minimal techno.

“Techno is all around you,” explained the thin, dark-haired Sabic, a Croatian now living in Mays Landing. “It’s more of an industrial sound. Techno (which is 130-140 beats per minute) is like the sounds of everyday life. Techno is more complicated than house music because there are more elements interwoven.”

The other DJs, including Vitalik, Emil, Izzo, Tony, Vins, Vinchenco and Emo, spin a mixture of deep and progressive house.

The Euro House parties happen monthly in the winter, catering to thousands of Europeans who live in the area. The next party will be in mid-May and will move to every Monday for the summer starting in June, the same night as mur.mur’s Service Industry Night at Borgata.

“We want to go against mur.mur,” Kirev said. “We want to close them down.”

“At mur.mur and mixx they are miserable,” Iliev, 28, said boisterously while drinking a “White Bulgarian” cocktail at his Mays Landing home. “They treat people like cattle.

“In general, we’re exposing (Americans) to a different thing,” said the DJ, who goes by the name Miryanski. “The club culture in Europe is a lot more developed than it is in the United States.”

The three echoed that Americans are very welcome to their events.

“I think Americans are still confused because they think they won’t be allowed in,” Iliev noted. “Americans are still divided here. They don’t identify themselves with Europeans, but Europeans think America is cool.”

“You can be totally free,” said Sabic. “No matter if you’re white, you’re black, you’re red, you’re yellow; you can expect to have fun; you can expect no fights, no troubles. Just a positive vibe and nothing else.”

In addition to house and techno, partygoers can expect to hear live African drums played with the music. There have also been DJ battles and “Hip Hop versus House” events, featuring DJ Swoosh.

The trio said to expect something new and unusual.

"The last Euro Night was packed; everyone was dancing,” said Ed Brady, 31, a recent transplant to Philadelphia who grew up in Mays Landing. “These parties are very intimate, nonpretentious, with a good vibe. They have a kind of carefree Miami feeling.” He said the parties don't feel like any other place in the city, or anywhere else in Jersey. “When everyone gets dancing, I feel like I'm back in the ‘raving’ days when the whole room had a pulse, and you would look around and every single person is dancing their a---- off.”

United Nations of Mix has also hosted the biggest European party in the area – Eurofest – which first occurred at mixx in 2006 and at the Pool at Harrah’s in 2007. It’s coming back to the Pool this year with two events – Eurofest Remixed July 8 and Eurofest 3 Aug. 26.

Kirev said they always incorporate live acts.

“At the last Eurofest we had a guy playing a guitar. He was doing a solo and distortion during the opening while a DJ was spinning. At the first Eurofest we had a guy on bagpipes playing while a DJ was spinning.”

To keep abreast of Euro House dates, check Iliev’s or Sabic’s MySpace pages at www.myspace.com/miryanski and www.myspace.com/djdanielsabic. The AC Bar & Grill is at 1217-1219 Pacific Ave. at South Carolina Avenue in Atlantic City. Dress code is “sexy,” and jeans and sneakers are allowed. Must be at least 21 to enter. Admission ranges from $5 to $10.
For information about Eurofest log on to www.EurofestAC.com. For information about Sabic’s and Illiev’s record label, Underground House Authority, go to www.uhau.org or email JDanielSabic@gmail.com">DJDanielSabic@gmail.com.

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