Nostra

If you keep catching Yourself thinking „What the hell does that damned name „Nostra“ mean?“ and You‘re thinking not of some washing powder, this text might be just the one you are searching for. Well, at least it explains the nickname.
Nostra aka Mindaugas _aplinskas must have had a hard childhood – I don‘t know any other reason why a 15 years old kid would frighten his neighbourhood day and night with the distorted beats and super intense rythms of schranz . Anyway, some day some mythical creature approached Mindaugas, and informed him that his mission in this world is to spread the message of brutal force, bleeding noses and the harshest swearing words, but, frankly, he had to do it the hard - musical - way. He called himself Nostradamus, after the prophet, and in 2003 he held some small illegal parties and once played in the local club-legend called “VAULT”, where people must have plead him on the knees to stop all that ear-slashing noise (he wanted this part to be much softer – “I was only playing Leo Laker” – he said after reading this). Concrete walls of the club not only gave him a good shelter, but inspired few more ideas.
Next year, he with a friend brought these ideas to the reality and organized the most underground party a person can imagine (Pure underground – it even took place in some tunnels deep beneath one of the mountains in Vilnius). No one can answer you any questions about the party, because they either were brought out by ambulance, or are too scared to bring back the idea (so no one would repeat it). Anyway, the rave was pretty massive, and no one noticed that some people disappeared deep in the dark tunnels, so it didn’t bring any problems to the organizers.
After this party Mindaugas got disappointed by – we can just guess – the underground culture or harder styles of music and stopped spinning at those parties. He started the search for perfect sound, which brought him from r’n’b to the hights of minimalism, which he found to be very interesting. So again, he started buying lot of minimal and tech house lps and at the end of year 2005 he got his first dj turntables. Again had come the party organizing and playing as guest at some clubs.
Nothing special happened in 2006 – just casual party organizing and record spinning, but at the end of the year he got in touch with another minimalist – Esse. Mindaugas himself by that time had shortened Nostradamus to just Nostra. In 2007, Esse’s and his duo again started organizing parties (this time with guest foreign djs), recorded a highly acclaimed mix, which won the „SobieskiUOGOS ON LINE“ Mix of the month award at Djscene.lt, the biggest website covering electronic music in Lithuania. Later that year Nostra and Esse parted ways because of different goals and attitude to some things.
After summer, most of which was spent partying in Berlin, Nostra got back to Lithuania and started party series „ WETT“ in Vilnius’s new club “Milkbar” by himself. The concept of the parties has been to present artists that are known for the quality of their music, not for their haircuts, girlfriends or quality of their press releases. During „WETT“ period Mindaugas has brought to Lithuania and played along Reynold, Dario Zenker, Jorge Savoretti, Agnes, Water Lilly, Tim Xavier and others.
Lack of ideas was never a signature of Nostra – since that party under the mountain he has been thinking of new ideas every day. Some were fulfilled - like he was the first guy who submitted a dj mix not only with sound, but with visualizations too for Djscene’s mix contest. Visuals were made by VJ Vesta; later they carried out some projects together, like releasing that mix in strictly limited 100 DVD copies, playing at parties together. They still have some massive projects in their minds. It’s sad I can’t tell these to you (so no one would steal the ideas!).
We can finish this bio at the start of 2008. By this time Nostra already has published his mixes in some of Lithuanian radios, spinned records in Estonian, Latvian, Belarussian clubs and, finally, played instead of Ellen Allien and made people dance when she didn’t come to Lithuania as she had to. Now he’s not only playing, but produces music too, so we can just hope to hear the album.
That’s it!
P.S. He also wanted me to mention that his mixes are very eclectic (and they really are!).
That’s it for sure this time!
author: **.*******