When people say Cold Rush...

Woebot

Well-known member
...what do they mean?

Its a term I like (sounds sort of groovy), and its bandied about a fair bit. Is it an explicit reference to a drug-induced sensation?

Or wot?
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
for me it evokes that sensation exactly midway between a bliss-shiver and a dread-shudder

the original cold-rush track would probably be 'mentasm' and/or human resource 'dominator' or other belgian stuff like incubus 'the spirit'
(although there's always been a cold feel in techno and some of the bleep stuff too, like '7-Am' by unique 3)

and mover would perhaps locate it as far back in that Suburban Knight track 'art of stalking' which is late eighties i think

yeah, bliss turning a bit dark

also has a kind of becoming-inhuman quality

and a vaguely militaristic feeling -- ravers as soldiers on a journey to the end of the night

invocation of the Will or something

plus always got the impression this is where people end up if they take too much E for too long -- the buzz without the huggy, empathetic, loved-up element

just this sort of fixated aggressive euphoria w/ no object state

there was lots of cold rush vibe at that Mover-no-show event in Southwark, both in the music, and in the punters -- one slaphead type stripped to the waist, all veiny and tattooed, fucking the speakers --- it was like the renegade legion regrouping, quite inspiring to think there are still loads of people into something so punitive
 
I always thought a cold rush was the sensation one has upon hearing a favourite track that reminds one of a long-forgotten party or, erm, experience. The experience of having a rush without being there or being on something.
 

xero

was minusone
blissblogger said:
the buzz without the huggy, empathetic, loved-up element

this was the effect of MDA as opposed to MDMA, similar effect physically but without the love - I think lots of pills in the nineties were MDA because it is easier to make than MDMA, snowballs were definitely that
 

Woebot

Well-known member
hmm. ok. thats satisfied my curiosity. as i suspected! (strokes chin reflectively)

i suppose i'd hoped it WAS completely explicit, that it was a term rave storm-troopers used in discussion with one another.

cut to 1992 in the tresor vaults under the yet to be dismantled berlin wall.

klaus: "ya ya heinrich. this heroin speed cocktail is sehr gut" (rubs back of neck approvingly)

heinrich (in slightly thicker coarse east german dialect, very deep voice): "ya ya. you have good cold rusch"

klaus: nods sternley, with just the barest glimmer of mutual affection and respect to his colleague, before resuming pummeling sky with fist at regulation 210 bpm.
 

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
blissblogger said:
and mover would perhaps locate it as far back in that Suburban Knight track 'art of stalking' which is late eighties i think
I'd say Front 242 definitely made cold rush music on some of their earliest, most minimally militaristic records, like the Endless Riddance EP or No Comment, an album foreshadowing both gloomcore and techstep. Tracks like 'Special Forces' and 'S.Fr. Nomenklatura' have this kind of ice cold, restrained, empty euphoria.
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
I was at an Amon Tobin gig the other week- actually a DJ set with incredible surround sound and a mental light rig. It occured to me in this kind of setting- dark, but with flashing lights, sound blocking out any kind of sense-information- that your mind enters a kind of cognitive free play, it doesn't have the usual stuff to process and your mind goes into overdrive following the lights and stuff. It's kind of the Kantian "free play of the faculties".

It can be very lovely, but a cold rush variation on this is concievable- your mind following the lights and sound, processing content-free information, unable to stop going round, like an insomniac's meaningless thoughts looping around and keeping him awake...
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
minusone said:
this was the effect of MDA as opposed to MDMA, similar effect physically but without the love - I think lots of pills in the nineties were MDA because it is easier to make than MDMA, snowballs were definitely that

yeah but i wouldn't call snowballs a cold rush

when i first tried snowballs i thought they were the greatest thing ever -- really ultra nauseating/queasy on the way up -- and then you take off like a rocket and things could get very weird and trippy -- but certainly no lack of emphatic feelings -- i.e., you'd still get very lovey huggy with people -- though paranoia could also set in

the main difference b/w snowballs and mdma is that mdma allowed for introspection and soulful conversation, whereas snowballs would completely attack the language-center of the brain such that you were only capable of mad chatter

again, ultra queasy then very very high then borderline mad & disoriented -- but no cold rush

snowballs were also known as madmotherfuckers
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
however, i agree that the bass hummmmm of "dominator" triggers a cold rush

just don't think it has anything to do w/ snowballs

i..e, you'll get the cold rush even if standing there sober
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
Diggedy Derek said:
It occured to me in this kind of setting- dark, but with flashing lights, sound blocking out any kind of sense-information- that your mind enters a kind of cognitive free play, it doesn't have the usual stuff to process and your mind goes into overdrive following the lights and stuff.

sounds like the perfect setting

very dark space w/ strobes and flashing lights -- that's really all that you need
 

mms

sometimes
cold rush is when you get a switch in you due to some heavy fucking darkside noise.
your senses become more acute and aware - slightly paranoid with no let up but sustained rather thn building. kinda a mild version of a rush of fear.
Your eyes focus into a kinda snake thing and it feels like you are getting colder and more lizard like, cross between a coldblooded animal and a machine, it's an enjoyable experience though the out of humanness about it makes it good and gives a mutual but strangley alienated thrill to an audience doesn't it?
nothing to be scared of.
 

Pearsall

Prodigal Son
Cold rush is that London acid techno squat party vibe. That weird pleasure/paranoia interface that is especially intense when you are in a wrecked factory/warehouse and surrounded by serially questionable characters listening to fiercely intense music.
 

Backjob

Well-known member
Or smoking meth with homeless people in an abandoned office building while a bass drum thumps somewhere in the distance, but you're not quite sure where....
 
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