THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE ARTY

As we cast our gaze though the Lisbon’s urban scene, very little jumps to sight. Almost everything can be summed up in a little area of two tenths of a square mile. With seventeen and eighteen century buildings and a number of inhabitants which nears 3632 — famously known as Bairro Alto. During the night, however, the number of visitors may peak at 10 000, ranging between 14 and 40 years of age. A curious fauna, colorful and consumer which attracts most of the night investment to this area of the city.
But Bairro Alto doesn’t strive exclusively at night. Because it entails a fair number of art galleries, restaurants, bookshops, art schools, cafes, design shops. Because it is the natural extension of one of Lisbon’s most visited areas — Chiado, and consequently the neighborhood has become the right place for anything modern, trendy and fashion.
In every tourist guide, Fernando Pessoa’s and Almeida Garret’s Chiado is considered one of Lisbon’s most cosmopolitan areas. A usual hangout for writers, artists, intellectuals, musicians and all sorts of bohemians since times immemorial.
Due to its location and historical weight, Chiado is regarded as a natural tourist and native arena for a mid afternoon stroll. Savor an espresso, bask in our Sun’s remaining rays. The latter shining 364 days a year. One other aspect which makes Chiado a center is the fact that in it one will find its Contemporary art museum, A Brasileira – one of the most old and famous cafes in Lisbon, Fabrica Features/Benetton and so on.
Returning to Bairro Alto and its nights. Here, fashion and its intervening folks, alternative artists, cinema, theater and dance people, pimps, musicians from rock to jazz, drug dealers, the mad, the Fado houses with its melancholic songs of longing, the healthy tanned boys spawned by good families, the curious — all share the same space, in apparent cosmopolitan harmony. A place where urban tensions only serve to increase the myth surrounding these half-a-dozen streets. It was this scenario, this chic decadence, that saw the birth of the Cooltrain Crew collective. With one sole idea: to embrace urban music and fuse it with other artistic expressions; elevating it to the next level.
Drum and Bass was the genre which served as the structure for the adventure, in a time where London was becoming the established centre of the most creative dance music. In this genesis, D’n’B marries Up tempo sampled breakbeats of old funk and hip hop records with reggae bass lines, fused with electronic sounds from the early ninety’s rave scene.
In Lisbon all these urban manifestations happen with considerable delay.
One of the collective’s prerogatives was and remains, the struggle to sync up with the most stimulating and urgent music productions, wherever these may occur. Ranging from Hip Hop, Reggae Nu-Jazz, Nu-Soul, Broken Beat, Trip Hop and all the labels one employs to define contemporary music. From the outskirts of the great metropolis to the world. Music which does not sit on past glories, music which strives in constantly jeopardizing the institutional structure, the norm.

In the beginning there was the vinyl. The loved object, worshiped, idolized, for which and with which we grow crazy. An addiction, a disease, a virus which does not kill, but slowly consumes. A part of us which knows us in retribution. Vinyl is the center of all the relationship we establish with the surrounding world, the bible whose missing pages are still being written. A bible from which some vital pages have strayed, demanding that we surrender to the pilgrimage so as to complete the missing chapters.
The organic relationship between hunger and feasting turns clubs, places of pure and uncompromising enjoyment, into temples where the faithful, the music lovers congregate, in a semi-religious ritual, celebrating their existence by marrying both mind and body.
Cooltrain Crew, beyond clubbing and the organizing of musical events, has in its portfolio an extensive radio experience. Having been present in all the cult radio stations of Lisbon City. In former times it also acted as a major distributing entity for labels such as Far Out, Moving Shadow, Creative Source, introducing in Portugal, among many others, names like Marcos Valle, Azimuth, Easy Rollers and Caliber. But for reasons which deal directly with the inner workings of the music industry and its various oscillations — independent distributing companies have to deal with a very limited working scope. Music, however, lives and draws from the people and it is for the people that the work goes out for.
Events with names the like of Randall, Digital, 4 Hero, Lemon D, was the manner found to feed the grassroots movement as well as serving as creative trigger for subsequent journeys.
Other worries within the collective revolved around the relationship with Spain. The Tagus river is not the only common factor shared with Dali and Gaudi’s homestead. In 2003 the first Iberian Drum and Bass tour took place with 3 Spanish collectives. Madrid’s Plural Form, Valencia’s Gorilla Club and Seville’s Selecta. Beyond the obvious cultural affinities, our main goal was to prove that joining the Iberian Peninsula under the same vibe is feasible and highly recommended. Ever since, the trade with Spain has been increasing, as well as the network with other crews of other European countries.

But the Dj does not feed solely on parties. Natural evolution states that Dj’s will evolve into a stage where they will produce their own themes. Hence, the collective is now mostly focused on producing. The last 5 years were very productive. 80’s Pop Artists, contemporary Jazz bands, rock and soul singers, allowed a Drum and Bass reinterpretation of their tracks by the Cooltrain Crew. Part of that work collection will be released in the spring of 2006 by Cooltrain Rec, relying on Zounds Records and Sabotage as the distributor for the portuguese territory.
Everything starts and ends with the Jazz. Be-bop for the new millennium is an idea which resonates in everything we set out to create. Be-bop as movement, attitude, rhythmic and harmonic innovation, old tunes as the ground layers for more complex sound structures. A profound belief that sampling has always been in the process of every great change undergone by modern music. From Swing to Avant-Gard. Miles Davis to Bernardo Sassetti. From Matthew Shipp to John Coltrane, the saxophone genius, spirit which inspired the collective’s name and whose work still serves as an example and beacon.
The oldest and most experimental Cooltrain residency, has as its motto, narrowing the relationship between jazz and all urban cultural manifestations. Dj’s, Video Artists, Mc’s, Poets, together with the best portuguese jazz instrumentists. They all gather every Wednesday at the “Bicaense” a little club in the heart of Lisbon, to bring some fresh, necessary, vintage groovy vibes together.
The sound emanating from the CTC studios merges with this city’s pulse, it feeds on its emptiness and cravings, mingles with seventeen century’s cobblestone dust and back alley narratives. It feels like a voice which whispers softly to the world as though revealing a lover’s secret. The music which rolls down these hills is made by Lisbon folk for the Lisbon of all worlds.

Wrote the original article for Zoot#3 2006