Drugs&parties expert Michelle Lhooq shares an interesting invitation to a "sober rave for all the freaks seeking new horizons of holistic hedonism...:

Parties are portals into a new way of being.

The womb is a vortex into what comes beyond.

MUSHWOMB is an alternate reality to a nightlife hellscape infected by the clout matrix.

It is a wormhole where a pussy portal leads you to a sunny dancefloor where the vibes are immaculate, the music is soulful, and toxic substances are abandoned in favor of sparkling shroom candies, botanical booze-free cocktails, and chaga chai teas.

The portal opens on 01.22.23 in a sacred queer space in Los Angeles—a secret yard where the underground’s sweat and joyful tears collect into a pool for baptism and rebirth."

Teledisko, the world’s smallest nightclub at just one square metre, has opened a new location in Madrid - five tiny nightclubs are already set up in and around the city of Berlin. Once inside the disco-booth, a selection of songs including ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’, Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, and Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ can be chosen from, while effects such as strobe lighting, a spinning disco ball, and fog machines can be altered by punters. "What happens in the teledisko stays in the teledisko. Dance like there's no tomorrow!” - reads Teledisko’s website. The club fits three people at a time and lasts for just three minutes once a song has been chosen and activated from the screen outside the club, Spanish outlet Informacion reports.

"Although the lack of tourism had a catastrophic effect on jobs and livelihoods, it had a positive influence on biodiversity and the environment. Now Ibiza is facing something of an identity crisis. The question has been raised: is this model of tourism actually sustainable? And if not, how does Ibiza move forward while keeping its title as the world's greatest clubbing destination?" - Mix Mag asks the essential question in the wake of the climate crisis and biodiversity crises, ath the closing of Ibiza's longest ever season.

“Today, in wartime, our community is starting to make itself visible again. New parties awaken memories of a long-forgotten phenomenon: life” - Kyiv-based photographer Arthur Vovchenko and Anna Lukash told Mix Mag after STEZHKA, queer party, was held on the first weekend of October. “We are going through very dark times, so parties are valued differently now. I feel that the community needs this space, we need to see each other, kiss, talk, and dance in order to support each other and ourselves” - Arthur says.

"Every time I pop out, I keep running into fools talking on the dancefloor. Just standing around, chitty-chatting" - Michelle Lhooq is frustrated and angry in her latest post. She also gives the oblivious a scientific explanation of the dancefloor: "The key to a popping dancefloor is ENERGY CIRCULATION. The DJ opens the portal and radiates nrg through the speakers, which disseminates through the dancers and twists into an atmospheric vortex. So when Chatty Kathys cluster by the DJ booth, ya’ll create ENERGY BLOCKS right at the power source, siphoning radiance with your black hole of self-absorption. This is not your aunty’s tea party. We out here exorcising demons. Out here for dissolution, for relief, for fucking feeling something—not networking!!!".

"Nightclubs and music venues have been closed since March 2020, disco lights are banned, and DJs are prohibited from playing on 'raised podiums' or mixing tracks in case, god forbid, this encourages dancing" - Rave New World's Michelle Lhooq looks across the ocean into Singapore night-scene. She points out "the moratorium on partying feels like a morality-tinged repudiation on the value of electronic music culture: classical music concerts have returned, pop bangers blast at indoor spin classes, church choirs sing maskless, yet the country is still waiting for a tiny cadre of four or five top officials to decide when clubs can reopen".

An interesting point by Michelle Lhooq in her latest Rave New World post: "Clearly, we are entering the most absurd era of the pandemic, where ravers are actively trying to catch the virus, the scarcity of COVID testing is a joke, and the President himself is tweeting 'LMFAO IDK just Google it'. As the void closes in, the question lingers: is there any use resisting the nihilism of this moment? Or do you just cross the goddamn Rubicon, and jump into the gabber rave mosh pit?".

Rave New World's Michelle Lhooq makes a great point in her latest newsletter about partying getting its long over-due recognition: "Suddenly, club culture was front-page news, rather than relegated to tabloid gossip or society pages; everyone poking out of their quarantine hovels now obsessed with knowing where the party’s at... Now, rave culture is going mainstream, Gen Z is arriving on the scene, and city officials are finally recognizing the economic value of nightlife—thanks in part to grassroots activism that kept beloved music venues afloat during pandemic shutdowns. Could all of this mainstream media attention finally destigmatize nightlife—a culture long associated with antisocial escapism and frivolous peacocking—and finally convince the gentry that partying is, in fact, an essential activity?".

Music Journalism Insider has given over this week's edition to film critic Aaron Gonsher, who suggested a few films about parties and partying. Among the chosen ones are 'The Hip-Hop Nucleus' - a documentary on the notorious mid-to-late ’90s hip-hop parties at the Tunnel, 'Crowd' - subtle capture of Giséle Vienne’s extraordinary dance performance, 'Talkin’ Headz - The Metalheadz Documentary' - a snapshot of the cultural moment/movement when jungle crested and drum & bass surged...

At midnight on Sunday, at least a dozen venues in England celebrated "freedom day", the first night of clubbing since March 2020. The week started with a Monday morning full of clubbing, stuffed clubs, and scores of people queueing outside venues. At no point were clubbers asked to present proof that they had tested negative and vaccination passports were not required, Guardian reports.

"Have UK clubs benefited from embracing the concept of the Night-Time Economy, or is an emphasis on financial growth and political optics bleeding the life out of dancefloors?" - DJ Mag wonders in their interesting piece about the connection of politics and club scene, especially in London. "Club culture is fundamentally rooted in youth culture, and the cultures of communities excluded from the political mainstream: its vitality stems ultimately from those groups imagining and creating utopian alternatives to existing power structures, not replicating them. When we think about where these conversations might go next, perhaps the answer is for those on the front lines of dance music to seize this debate for ourselves, instead of outsourcing it to landlords, career politicians or baby boomers".

The global dance music industry in 2021 is worth $3.4 billion, The 2021 IMS Business Report shows. The number is culled largely from the sales of software and hardware, which were up 23% this year as a result of the pivot to livestreaming, giving a total of $1.1 billion, along with music sales and streaming - valued at $1 billion, artist earnings - $0.3 billion, and clubs and festivals, hich accounted for $1 billion, a number based on Q1 being largely normal and China being open for more than a quarter. The IMS Report valuation is at the lowest it has been in a decade and is a sharp decline from the 2020 valuation of $7.3 billion and the all-time high valuation of $7.4 billion in 2016. There's also good news: the value of festival tickets sold is up 123% when comparing March through May of 2021 to March through May of 2019, Billboard reports.

"As clubs shut down across the world, however, a shift was occurring in China: the sleeping giant of the East was waking to the steady rumble of bass and the snipping of hi-hats. 'Literally as soon as they opened, everyone went to the club; they got really packed, especially in Beijing', explains Ranyue Zhang aka Slowcook, a resident at Beijing’s Zhao Dai Club. 'As soon as you turn on a smoke machine or a flashing light, people start screaming… It’s not even about the music; anything will make them happy'" - Mix Magazine writes announcing a shift in the Chinese electronic music scene which, for a lack of options, turned to itself.

On 8th June, the Spanish government announced that nightclubs will be able to reopen this summer, with dancing until 3am. On 25th June, Ibiza will host its first pilot test event, a “Children of the ’80s” party at the Hard Rock Hotel. DJ Mag visited the island to check out how the clubs are preparing for the big reopening.

Rave New World is investigating a new party trend in Los Angeles post-covid. They found: a tea party at a Persian garden paradise of cannabis plants and chickens; a public art park with punk-techno on picnic tables; an art rave at a Route66 biker bar; DJs playing cosmic disco in a hidden nook of trees.

“It really comes down to WHO is at these events" - DJ Cakewals says to DJ Mag about clubbing events coming back in the US, in light of the pandemic slowing down there. It's the nuances that will matter: "How serious is the crowd and promoter taking precautions? And for how long? Will the security or person [in charge of] monitoring the crowd just get lazy after a couple hours? Hold each other accountable, even if it’s uncomfortable!”.

"Today, Berlin is one of the premier destinations for techno music fans. People come from all over the world to party all night to the rhythmic beat of Berlin’s club scene. And this music that the city is most famous for developed in large part because of the thing the city is most infamous for: the Berlin wall, which divided the city into east and west for almost thirty years" - 99% Invisible podcast introduces its new episode about the unusual destiny of the dance capital.

The Face presents 'Deviation Classics', a compilation of music that best represents "a key part of a healthy musical ecosystem", the London club night Deviation. With Dorian Concept, Carl Craig, Flying Lotus and James Blake featured there, it "arguably represents certain values of club culture that are worth preserving for a post-pandemic world".

“I wouldn’t have a job right now if it wasn’t for Twitch” - DJ Ardalan says to Vice in a long-read about the transfer of DJs from clubs to Amazon's streaming service. For electronic dance music, Twitch has become a juggernaut. Paid partnerships with individual acts like Soul Clap, Seth Troxler, Justin Martin, and Ardalan show how Twitch is investing to attract more DJs to its platform.

A total of 1,300 people took part in a party on Saturday in Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome, which also acted as a research project, the Chronicle Herald reports. Dutch DJs Sam Feldt, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano were playing as the party-goers were followed in all their movements and contacts through a tag they were made to wear, as part of an effort to examine how events may safely be opened up for the public again. The event was part of a series of government-backed tests that also include a business conference, two football matches and a comedy show – all of which have different rules for different groups, to see what works best.

Producer, DJ and songwriter Laura Bettinson wants, well, basically, her life back: "The best nightclubs provide safe spaces for people from all walks of life. Nights out are when lifelong memories are made (or lost) and bonds formed with friends and strangers alike. The transference of energy on a packed, sweaty dancefloor is unlike anything else. On the best nights, everyone in the crowd is under the DJ’s command, their song selections determining a communal journey. This is why the concept of a socially distanced club night, which removes such spontaneity and physicality, just doesn’t work".

"An essential read" - Music Journalism Insider says about the new book 'Ten Cities: Clubbing in Nairobi, Cairo, Kyiv, Johannesburg, Berlin, Naples, Luanda, Lagos, Bristol, Lisbon, 1960–Present', a big international project about club music in these ten African and European cities. The authors say that "through 21 essays, playlists and photo sequences the book shows the pursuits and practices that assembling around and communing over music generated in the time before COVID-19. It is a retrospective testimony to the spirit of creative communities, a rhythm-analysis mediated by sound and night".

Sound Field presents Jersey club, a new style of dance music created by Black DJs from New Jersey which has recently gone viral online across YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok. The production of it used to be dominated by men, but today the women of New Jersey are helping to push this genre to new heights. Watch the video about the new trend below.

Sydney and Melbourne were allowed to open their nightclubs on Monday, with no more than 50 people on the dancefloor at once, with enough space for one person per four square meters. After seven months of lockdown, it was "cathartic, joyous and sweaty", Guardian's writer, who was there on the first day of the reopening, says about the experience, adding that - "for the first time in what seems like an eternity, it was a relief to be surrounded by strangers".

German Federal Finance Court (Bundesfinanzhof) has made two new decisions that declare techno is music and the DJ is a musician, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports. Entrance fees for techno and house concerts are tax-reduced to 7% from earlier 19%. According to the second decision, turntables, mixing consoles and CD players can also count as instruments, at least if they are “used to perform the piece of music and not just to play a sound carrier", and also to "perform their own new pieces of music by using instruments in the broader sense to create sequences of sounds with their own character”.

MixMag questions the moral dilemma of reopening clubs during the pandemic. Some believe it is not worth the risk of transmission, and possible lockdowns, the others say we need to start reopening our societies. The magazine talked to promoters from Italy, Czechia, Germany and UK about their experiences and attitudes.

Resident Advisory and Guardian both report about the Beirut club-scene, or rather what's left of it after the big explosion. As much of Lebanon's nightlife was centred a short walk away from the port where the ammonium nitrate was stored, hundreds of bars, clubs and restaurants were hit hard by the blast. People's attitude towards music has also changed - Rend Shamma, 34, art director of nightclub Überhaus says “So many people say it’s hard to even listen to music now. The few times I’ve tried, it doesn’t feel good. I drive in silence”.

UK venues have put forward a plan to reopen, which includes dancing in face masks, temperature checks at the door and bouncers patrolling the dancefloor to enforce social distancing, the Guardian reports. Nightclub owners say that 750,000 jobs are at risk because of the lockdown, unless the government provides them with support or greater certainty about when they can reopen. The clubbing industry pointed out that some of its venues are larger than pubs, restaurants and other venues that have been allowed to open, while they often recycle air more frequently with powerful mechanical ventilation systems.

Berghain has found a way to throw its doors back open, luring visitors with an unusual sound exhibition called 'Eleven songs'. Just 50 people are let in at a time to allow for physical distancing. Inside, visitors are enveloped by an eery, almost surreal soundscape of rhythmic throbbing, soft city noises, murmurings and even the whirling of helicopter blades. Visitors, wearing face masks, have already been queueing to get in, France Presse reports. DJ Tech Tools reports on how five Eastern European countries – Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Croatia – are handling the process of re-opening amidst COVID-19. Belarus is more or less closed, clubs in Georgia are opened, but the country is closed for foreigners, Serbia closed its clubs, in Ukraine the clubs are closed as well, whereas Croatia is open for (most) foreigners, and clubs there are also mostly open.

Resident Advisor reports on specific rules on nightclubs reopening, as the COVID-epidemic is weakening in parts of the world: China has cautiously restarted its nightlife; South Korea has shut down its club due to a recent spike of COVID-19 infections in the country connected to the clubs; Switzerland has increased the maximum number of people allowed to attend indoor public gatherings from 300 to 1,000 with no social distancing; in Australia, nightclubs could be allowed to open as early as August if community transmission rates are kept low, although a four-square-metre-per-person rule to allow for social distancing is likely to be enforced; New Zealand has lifted all COVID-19 restrictions, aside from international border controls; Bars and nightclubs in Iceland opened their doors as the government eased lockdown rules.