REDMARINES

Red Marines Festival 2008 reivew

WOW. One of my favorite parties ever. No expenses spared! They had
the best of everything. World-travelers say that the production
quality was equal to big European festivals, and it was only one hour
from San Francisco! On par with Fusion Festival 1 and 2. Outstanding
organization. SUPER positive vibes all around. Everyone was in Great
moods, and friendly and out-going to strangers–all One Big, Happy
Family. So Many Friends came out whom I haven’t seen in Years!
Definitely a Woodwork Party. Very comfortable and safe environment.
KILLER lineup, and all the artists gave their best with top-notch
sets. The site, a children’s campground, was beautiful and spacious.
And the weather was great!

There could be no better security, and gate, traffic and parking
management than the Unites States Marine Corps. While some folks had
issues with their sternness (”Come on, let me slide a few
bucks.”…”No.”), everyone appreciated their unwavering commitment to
the organizers, literally their brothers in arms. (BTW, most of those
guys are being re-deployed to Iraq soon, so let’s all send them our
wishes for a safe tour and a quick return home.) When the sheriffs
came, each time the Marines were there to greet them and manage their
concerns with more credibility and reassurance than most any other
organizer could ever hope to offer. They all understood the
conditions of Saturday night’s trance party and supported everyone
having a great time and Going for it!

That big stage! Professionally designed and very well decorated.
Super trippy (mostly at night) with the rich colors and captivating
centerpiece. (Organizers brought down an artist from the Pacific
Northwest.) Speaking of captivating, hoorah for the best visual
artist in Bay Area: Dr. Paradise. (He used to do all the Goa Gil
parties back in the day–a local party legend.) Holy shit, I’ve never
seen such fine detail and mind-blowing graphics. The deco framing the
sides of the dance floor was very cool. To back up the huge dance
floor, there was a Burning Man art bus way at the back (in front of
the pool) that was lit up like a huge reel-to-reel tape player, with
the wheels turning. Great way to frame the back of the dance floor
and provide low-level light to the whole area. (Check it out at the
Love Fest this Saturday.)

Pascal’s sound system delivers the bass! Deep deeps and high highs,
all crisp and clear. Super clean sound.

The Dreamtime Circus fire show was lots of fun. They bring such a
youthful/playful energy to fire spinning, with wild costumes and
goofy antics. (It’s great to see you guys back in the States. Good
luck with your next venture!)

We arrived Saturday afternoon, so missed most of the rock bands. But,
Luckily, we did see the Eric McFadden Trio. Ultra-tight, groovy rock.
It was my first exposure to an electric upright bass: a wild
instrument, and the guy played it beautifully–even when using a bow
for ethereal sounds. … And it was pretty cool to have real rockers
mixing so well with psytrancers. An unusual combination that worked
well.

Oh yeah, the trance. Oh but first, the electro. Penta played what I
thought was a fun and dancey electro set on Saturday afternoon. I
don’t know the genre well, but I really enjoyed the music. It was a
great introduction to electro, but I suspect that I am more likely to
enjoy Penta Electro than Common Electro. (Yes, it was his own music.)

As I said, I heard that everyone played killer sets. Alas, I couldn’t
catch them all. After dinner, we ran down to catch Parus. It was one
of their better sets, I think. I’ve heard big improvements in their
music over the past few years, i.e. I like it more and more. Keep it
coming! … DJ Olowanpi. Damn, he launched us into another dimension!
Seriously, out-standing set, my favorite of his so far.
Mind-psychedelic. (Like psychedelic trance is supposed to
do!) … Penta. Oh my god, what the hell have the Azores done to his
brain?! (”Mall obsessed, with a taste of flesh”!?) To my ear, the
latest album is more psychedelic and more driving than recent work
(not to diminish recent work). The whole live set had this newer
flavor, even when mixing in some bits of old Penta favorites (”There
once was a house…” Yeah, I was at that house. Spooky.) Truly
Phenomenal. Out of this world. I haven’t danced that hard, so deeply
connected to the music, in many years (says the harder-to-please,
older crony). … Fractal Cowboys. As expected, they brought the
goods, again. These guys understand the need for enough of the
“psychedelic” element, and they delivered it amidst rollicking
trance. It’s been too long since I’ve see them play, and am stoked to
have heard such a killer live set. I’m just sorry that I didn’t have
the Marine strength to keep dancing the whole time. … I wish I had
caught Greenman (another BrYan) and the rest of the lineup, but I had
to go back to camp and fall apart. … Well into the afternoon, the
dance floor was still grooving. The DJ was playing some very nice,
light and spacious trance, appropriate for the daytime. This party
had proper flow: warm-up to night-time to morning to afternoon.

The good word for future of our community is that the Red Marines
Festival will happen again next year, and there’s every indication
that it’ll happen for as long as these guys have the strength to keep
it going…which likely is a very long time.

Marik and Valik (Parus) and all those who helped, THANK YOU for one
of the best parties I’ve ever attended. Your hard work showed in
every element of your creation, and everyone truly appreciated all
your attention to detail and desire to bring the very best. See you
next year! …and Saturday at Love Fest.

Red Marines Festival 2007 reivew

Article written by Sasha VasilyukSTAFF “Red Marines: From music to war and back“. Oakland Tribune. Aug 21, 2007. FindArticles.com. 07 Aug. 2008.

T IS 8 A.M., but the music is still pumping from the night before.

The twins — Mark and Valentin Tarasov — are nodding to the beat of the turntables while the early morning crowd dances in a shaded area in front of the stage.

The sun is already starting to scorch this remote beach in Lake County, three hours north of San Francisco, where hundreds of Russian immigrants from California gathered recently to celebrate life, love and art at the Red Marines Festival.

Now in its fourth year, the music festival first began as a private party to mark the safe return of Mark and Valentin from Iraq, where they spent several months serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. Their older brother Eugene, who lives with the 26-year-old twins in Vallemar, a small town south of Pacifica, organized that first gathering of 60 friends and relatives to show the boys that they were thought of and prayed for.

The Tarasovs have always been a very musical family — all four siblings, including the boys’ sister Julia, play musical instruments and dance in a local Russian folk group. So it was only appropriate that the gathering be centered around music.

Eugene and his rock band “Mobius” prepared a song for the twins and showed a film with pictures from Iraq that made everyone cry. At the end of the film, Mark and Valentin came out in full Marines dress uniforms and thanked everyone in the audience. The

inaugural festival was named “Red Marines — the Return.”

The war

Although the U.S. military attracts a big immigrant population, it is unusual for Russian immigrants to serve, since one of the main reasons many left Russia and other former Soviet Union states was to escape the obligatory draft system.

But the Tarasov family always had a connection to the military. The boys’ grandfather served as a combat pilot in World War II, their grandmother worked as a dispatcher, and back in Latvia, where they lived until 1993, their father was an aero engineer.

It was no surprise then that when Eugene turned 18, he decided to enlist in the Marines to become a pilot.

“Everyone told me that we brought our children to America to save them from the draft, and that I was crazy to let him enlist,” says his mother, Olga. “But my father was a combat pilot, and I think it’s not a bad thing for a man to serve in the military. Of course, not when there is a war.”

In 1998, Eugene finished boot camp, and the family went to his graduation. As an honor graduate, he was marching in front of the battalion.

“The boys were very impressed,” says Olga. “They said they should enlist, too.”

Soon, Mark and Valentin also became honor graduates and went back home. There was no talk of war then and their parents weren’t worried. But on Sept. 11, 2001, the twins were called back for combat training.

For a year they learned to walk through minefields, survive tear and nerve gas attacks, run with rockets on their backs and face combat situations in small, unknown towns meant to represent Afghanistan. Although they were told they were training to go to Afghanistan, a year later, they were deployed to Iraq.

Eugene felt terribly guilty. It was because of him that his younger brothers went into the military, he thought. He couldn’t even go instead of them — by law, only two out of three brothers could be sent to war, and the twins were inseparable.

But Mark was optimistic, thinking, “If our grandfathers could survive five years of war, then why can’t we?”

In Iraq, he and Valentin had to fight to survive. They crossed almost the entire country, watching towns being destroyed. “You run down the street and behind you a whole city is falling,” says Mark.

They had many moments that made them proud. At one point, Valentin led a group of Marines through a minefield only to realize that one of his men was missing. So, he went back, found the scared Marine and led him through the field, crossing it safely for the third time that day.

At another point, Mark saved 70 troops by taking out a sniper who was pointing a grenade launcher at the Marines.

There were moments of absurdity, too. After two months of combat, the twins were so happy to find a decent bathroom that even a sniper’s shooting couldn’t deter them from answering nature’s call.

But back home, Olga was worried sick. It had been a month since they crossed the Iraqi border and she hadn’t heard any news from her boys.

Eugene was trying to find out information from his base, and Olga read everything she could about the operation on the Internet.

“When they began fighting, everything just stopped — there wasn’t a single letter or phone call until they reached Baghdad,” says Olga.

“It was horrible. I always prayed for them. I normally don’t go to church, but since then, I started falling asleep with my hand on the cross because I was so scared. But God had mercy on them.”

Olga is happy that when her sons came back, they didn’t seem to be suffering any injuries.

“I’m just glad that all these trials didn’t impact them psychologically,” she says with relief. “Maybe because they were together, it was easier for them than for others.”

Homecoming

For Mark and Valentin, the scariest part about the war was leaving it.

“You are afraid that they will get you at the last moment, and you will never make it home,” Mark says.

When they finally got home safe and sound, the Red Marines festival was exactly what they needed.

“We couldn’t even comprehend that we were home,” says Mark. “It was so nice to see our closest friends. The guys greeted us very well.”

Although Red Marines was supposed to be a one-time event, the next year, there was another reason for celebration — Mark and Valentin’s demobilization. But this time, a few people who didn’t know the Tarasovs or the full story of the festival joined the group.

Mark and Valentin have completed their service, and the festival has turned into, well, a real festival. This year the twins helped their brother organize the now annual event that attracts 500 people and provides a venue for up-and-coming Russian musicians to practice their craft. They sought out local and international musicians, and Valentin, who is finishing his degree in sound engineering at a school in Emeryville, helped with setting up the bands. He and Mark, who works at a Wells Fargo, also formed a DJ duet named “Parus” (which means “sail” in Russian) and they hope to perform at bigger festivals around the world.

Music is the most important element of the festival because, the twins say, music is what kept up their spirits during the war and what made any remaining scars fade away after they returned. Although the Tarasovs are no longer in immediate danger, for them and their family, the focus of the Red Marines festival is still the life-asserting power of music.

As Eugene explains, “We are celebrating something that people don’t often think about — the precious life.”

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