Cold Hippie

His arrival onto Earth is as mysterious as it is chilling, for he had no parents and no memories of them. Isolated from human order, Cold Hippie grew up in strict solitude, surrounded by the unspoiled beauty of the South Pole. A silent observer of the natural world, he knew no music, only cold. His childhood was bright and bitterly cold, and his only lullabies were haunting moans of the ice sheets shifting. Everything changed when he, somehow, managed to walk to the United Kingdom in his teens. Each step he took over the brooding seas turned, for a moment, the seas into hard ice. In the UK, amidst the harsh cities and diverse cultures, Cold Hippie encountered music for the very first time. To him, these new sounds were a form of human language, a means of communication that transcended words. This revelation ignited a passion within him, and he embarked on a lifelong quest to explore the universal language of music. Since he cannot really return to the South Pole anytime soon because of the monetary traps of late stage capitalism, his memories of it are becoming more and more distant. Hence, his DJ sets are a reflection of his childhood memories and his extraordinary journey to human society. But they are also a cry for help, it is his only means of communication, for he still knows no language. Each set is a attempt to speak to anyone who will listen. He specializes in cheeky bassy rhythms and cold electronic tracks laced with alien acid and disassociative vocal distortions. In a way, each Cold Hippie set is a mechanism of learning for him. This world, of which he knows so little, can often confuse him, his DJ sets are a live attempt, by Cold Hippie, to piece together this strange postmodern jumble that he was thrown into at fifteen. Other than Antarctica, he owes a lot of his development, to the time he spent in St Andrews and Dundee, where his taste for electronic music really developed. Collectives like 'Szentek', 'Tranceport' and 'Danceworm' were some of Cold Hippie's first experiences of underground/student electronic music culture. As well as this, you cannot mention Cold Hippie without discussing his early DJ development with his close friend and music mate Rufus the Bus. Their iconic and dangerous DJ act was called Tracy's Speaker. This is where Cold Hippie learned to trust his musical taste, mix genres, and have a laugh. Since leaving university Tracy's Speaker sets are rare but not extinct. He sometimes appears in Malaysia, where he has had the chance to play at alternative venues such as Fono and Cero for local collectives like Modulus. But now he mainly manifests his presence in London, at venues such as Avalon Cafe and the Others, as well as other underground wharehouse spaces. He also has an interest in icepunk: "icepunk or coldrave refer to music associated with a forced internet meme. The aesthetics of these genres are said to mimic the sensation of being cold, often with themes of isolation, discomfort and terror…all, of course, within the context of 2x12 beat music. The suffix punk does not refer to the genre Punk Rock. Rather, it is a parody of a preexisting forced-meme seapunk and consequently, irony and trolling tend to be themes in Icepunk music. It may be considered a subcategory of witch house and related genres" " Icepunk is a term that Kate Elliott, author of the aforementioned book, coined to describe the world she set her fantasy in. Effectively, it’s a steampunk world in the grips of an ice age. This changes the ‘world’ that we’re familiar with, and puts it even more securely in an alternate reality. Just so you know, it’s pretty freaking cool"