Posts

Alcohol Drinks

New York’s Newest Hidden Subway Speakeasy Has A 900-Person Reservation List

/in , /by

La Noxe is New York’s newest speakeasy, and has already gained a slew of attention from citizens looking for the most unique experiences that the city has to offer. Jey Perie is the founder of the establishment, and he’s known for his former ownership of the Williamsburg dance club Kinfolk.

“[In] early 2019, I was looking for any interesting locations that would allow me to develop my own take on a nightlife establishment. I lived in Tokyo for six years and was impacted by the restaurants, bars, and clubs I frequented while I was there. As soon as I came across the space underground at 28th Street, I instantly knew that was the spot,” he explained.

Embed from Getty Images

The venue is located at 315 Seventh Avenue, and is described as a mixture of 70s Mexican architecture inspired by Luis Barragán, as well as Perie’s experiences living in Tokyo and Barcelona. Perie said he wanted to create an “oasis of cultures and influences” within the space, and after working with the city’s MTA and Department of Buildings, his dreams were able to become a reality in March 2020; unfortunately the coronavirus had other plans.

The bar was initially projected to open fully on June 9th, but instead has now secretly opened to serve coffee, sandwiches, and fresh cold-pressed juices. The establishment also offers cocktails and to-go wine with any food purchase. After the delays and multiple pandemic-related hurdles, the speakeasy fully opened by reservation only in October.

After 12 weeks of being open, the speakeasy had to pause before reopening in mid-February. Currently, La Noxe is serving food and drinks on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., and yes, it’s still by reservation only. The venue itself can only hold 15 people at a time due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Embed from Getty Images

“Every day, we are hosting amazing new guests, many of whom I hope will become regulars. Our goal is to build a strong community of people who love great food, cocktails, wine, and music. The goal is to eventually open until 4 a.m. to truly embrace the nightlife scene. We are definitely not trying to be a tourist attraction. We believe the right people will always find their way to La Noxe,” Perie explained.

The restaurant side of the business serves a variety of seafood options such as “daily catch ceviche, bass tiradito, and shrimp vuelve a la vida with tostones. The house drinks include Forbidden Love (aloe, cucumber, lemon, and vodka) and the La Noux Banana Daiquiri (banana liqueur, Jamaican bitters, and charanda).”

Perie explained to the press that “the focus of La Noxe is its drinks, but it’s the atmosphere that truly stands out. The size and location of the room will make you feel like you are partying for a few hours in the apartment of an eccentric artist circa 1977. But first and foremost, La Noxe is a New York experience.”

Computer Coding

Combining Music and Computer Code in Nightclubs

/in , /by

To the average person, the programming language Sonic Pi looks like any other one, as it’s comprised of numbers, punctuation marks, and letters arranged seemingly at random across the display. But Sonic Pi is unique among coding languages, as it’s designed specifically to produce music in real time. The goal of the language is to allow programmers to use their computers like instruments, creating music as they rapidly type away at their keyboards. With this technique, DJs who are skilled in the art of programming can host music shows at so-called “algoraves,” a portmanteau of the words “algorithm” and “rave.” By taking advantage of this unique musical approach, DJs can experiment with creating music in groundbreaking and innovative ways, using the obscure logic of programming to dynamically craft melodies and entire compositions.

Algoraves are hosted nearly every weekend in cities around the world, including New York City, Moscow, and Mexico City, and draw crowds ranging from technology enthusiasts to music fans who know little about programming. At these shows, code is projected onto a massive screen for audiences to see, as DJs produce in real time the sounds for the crowd to dance to. Instead of working with pre-recorded samples like traditional DJs, algorave musicians improvise music on the fly, as all audio is generated directly by the computer program as it is being created and modified. This technique of music generation allows for an intensely cognitive type of musical creativity, as musicians in this genre tend to be professional computer scientists, many with PhDs.

Embed from Getty Images

Sonic Pi was originally created to be a teaching tool. The idea was that students, who may not be initially inclined to devote the hours upon hours of work necessary to learn programming, may be motivated to do so by combining the task with the joy of music. Though Sonic Pi has not taken off in classrooms, it has found a new, unexpected life in nightclubs around the world. Sonic Pi is not the only language programmers use to make music in real-time; other, more general languages, such as Orca and Hydra, are also used at these events.

Tidal Cycles, a popular free and open source program among algorave enthusiasts, allows users to make patterns with code, and interfaces with other programs to create music or visuals. Sometimes the music is accompanied by visuals that are also generated by programmers working on the fly, who use programming to generate shapes, colors, textures, and animations to project in the club.

Embed from Getty Images

The algorave movement is part of the larger practice of live coding, which started in the 1970s and is often used in the context of the performing arts. Live coding, in which programming is an integral part of the running program, is used not only to create music and visualizations but also as a teaching tool, as it allows professors to demonstrate in real time the effects of making changes to various pieces of code. Algoraves give programmers an opportunity to meet each other and network in a fun and creative environment, and the algorave subculture is known for being friendly and welcoming even to people who have little experience in programming.

The creator of Tidal Cycles, Alex McLean, often hosts festivals and workshops during which guests can learn how to make their own music with code. People become interested in algoraves for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the most compelling reason is the direct level of creativity it allows programmers who ordinarily have to wait for their programs to compile before being able to run them. As the task of programming can be quite tedious and monotonous, particularly when programs take hours to compile, the appeal for professional software engineers and algorave musicians of seeing code come to life in musical form is strong.

Featured image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Algorave_Club_Fierce_2014_1.png