Hablar de la Ruta de Valencia es hablar de la España más insolente y atrevida. Un periodo que atrapó a una parte de la juventud española, aquella que recorría la carretera de El Saler, de apenas 30 kilómetros, donde se encontraban muchas de las discotecas del momento. Eclipsada a comienzos de los ochenta por las escenas de Madrid y Barcelona, el fenómeno terminaría convirtiéndose en un secreto a voces que desembocaría en su masificación y desprestigio. Para aquellos que lo vivieron en su época –y los que lo han estudiado recientemente– la Ruta representó un instante en el que todo podía ser posible: fiesta infinita, ambiente musical inmejorable, espacios acordes para su disfrute, nuevas drogas y, como no, una libertad que poco a poco se iría limitando.

To talk about the route we have asked the opinion to three people linked, in one way or another, at the present time of the phenomenon.They are Carlos Aimeur, author of the novel Destroy, published last year by the Valencian Editorial Drassana and uses the landscape of the route as decorated to tell a story about mafias and sale of drugs;David g.Balasch, responsible for the Tower of Meaning blog, one of the spaces he has made the most to dignify that scene, making clicks and party rooms known;And finally, Luis Costa, journalist and Catalan DJ, who is currently preparing an oral history of the route for the editorial against.

Gloria Bakala: Beginnings and decay of a way of life

Luis Costa: “It can be said that the route officially begins in 1982, with the opening of the Chocolate disco, located 200 meters from Barraca, with the corresponding routeros traffic from one room to another.In the successive years, rooms are opened along the road of El Saler, about 30 km, that the routers are traveled by car to go from one to another, being the parking lots of these rooms improvised party places thatEITHERver time they would become a kind of outdoor discos ".

Carlos Aimeur: “It was a reaction, a step forward in the youthful and nocturnal leisure that aspired to introduce a rabid modernity in a region that desperately aspired to remove the spoils of the past and exhibit himself as the most avant -garde.It was not something only in the city, but of the entire province and almost would tell you that from the Valencian Community.First it was a group of modern ones, who were traveling to London to bring music that was not heard on any radio, who soon followed middle and a half low class people, who came interested.The route was also democratic, in which all were well received, there were no distinctions by social class ”.

David g.Balasch: “It is our particular to discover electronic and dance music in a context that was the one that was due to the rod of Franco: still regular system, discovery of club music and expansion of design drugs, withTHE MDMA TEITHER THE HEAD.That cocktail broke out in Valencia strongly and spread along the Mediterranean coast and community of Madrid, but it came preceded by something similar in Ibiza, a site that was not Spain or in the 60s, neither in the 70s nor in the 80s.Nor is it now ".

Carlos Aimeur: “To this was united the sensation in Valencia that it had been separated from the great fuels of 92 that were announced with rimbombancia and media fanfare.Madrid had the European cultural capital, Seville the Expo and Barcelona the EITHERlympics.In Valencia some regionalist groups painted on the walls "Espanya 92 - Valencia 0".The young people wanted to be up to date, demonstrate that there was nothing more modern or open than Valencia.If Spain was the best country in the world, Valencia wanted to be the happiest place.At the same time, the feeling of being belittled by the rest of Spain was labeled in society, something that explains why many people would vote for politicians who promised that Valencia was going to be the center of the world ”.

Luis Costa: “EITHERther important moments are the opening of Spook Factory in 1984, considered by many the most toe the route of the route, and subsequently the one of A.C.T.V in 1987.They are the golden years of the route, which extend until 1992, the year in which the general downturn begins and in which things begin to put ugly.In full fever of sensationalist journalism and tele-bass in Spain, the broadcast in 1993 of the Documentary of Canal + until the body endures, within a media current that demonizes the phenomenon, marks the beginning of a slow and agonizing death of the route, which will see how its main temples are closing one after another ”.

The route: to be evil seen to be cool

David g.Balasch: “When I started to frequent clubs in the early-beginning of the 90s, just mentioning the Bakalao Route was frowned upon.It was already the time of decline, the music was accelerated Mákina that brought together the typical malotes.In the two thousand salt to dance and people even looked at you badly when defending according to what things they happened there.Without internet still as the main flow of information, in the world underground there was a real rejection of the phenomenon caused by the ignorance and topics of the media ”.

Carlos Aimeur: “I usually say that it fell on me.He spent the Perelló from the age of six and saw her grow before my eyes.He had older cousins who went out at night and went to discos such as Barraca or New Bunker, which was the name Puzzle had before reinventing themselves, and that took me to others from Valencia like Calcatta.They were part of those middle class people who approached curious to see modernity, to enjoy it.My cousin Josevi was a fan of permanent paralysis.I remember that in the summer of 1983 he listened to the album the act as if it were a ritual in honor of the memory of Eduardo Benavente, with great respect.Summer was the party time.We were walking the discos on the road.Then, at university, because of personal love, I leaned more for indie music but in the end it was rare on the weekend that was not in any of those discos, where I always found friends.Many times I was alone, without even worrying about staying with anyone.I knew I would find some acquaintance ".

Luis Costa: “My relationship is limited to the visit of one of the nightclubs who were part of the route outside their golden age, but I have friends and acquaintances of Barcelona who often went down Valencia from partying in their day and knowing itWell, as well as other Valencians who lived in the first person.For my part I followed her closely in the musical, digging in the cubets of the record stores which came to me that the Valencian DJs click and those who followed that wave here, such as Tony Verdi, Ramón Moya, friendly or Nando Dixcontrol.If you were lucky and you fell a tape recorded from a spook or chocolate session, to quote two of the mythical rooms, you could investigate the themes and hopefully catch the maxis and that we did.I have been clicking since I was 19 as a professional, a task that I have combined with the trade of journalism since then, and this has always given me a very tight vision of the matter from the musical ”

David g.Balasch: “An entire generation discovered club music in part thanks to the route and carbon that left (the trance).I remember that many of my friends took the car and ventured whole weekends at home at home.The stories were almost always the same: two, three or four nights without sleep, they knew people from all over Spain, danced hours on dance or parkings and driving to the top almost always.Now it is even cool talking about the Bakalao route, books, documentaries come out and there is interest in knowing what happened...It is interesting to see how time changes the perception of things ".

Partican hymns, route hymns

How to Hasheat Leftover Pasta Without It Separating EITHERr Drying Up https: // t.co/khtolsrein https: // t.CEITHER/0V9RJDRXVV

— Keywebco Mon Apr 10 15:07:39 +0000 2017

Carlos Aimeur: “Music marks the different stages of the route.During the eighties the best music sounded, the most avant -garde;In the middle and end of the decade the route evolved more towards electronics;And mid -ninety the music degenerated and infamous songs of Eurodance and Mákina began to be common.When the music ceased to be important, the route stopped making sense.Many we discovered Sisters of Mercy, Front 242 or Anne Clark in those sessions.To The Stones Roses, who debuted in Valencia, in Barraca, I could not see them because classes began;disadvantages of being a minor and not having a card.EITHERf the DJs would highlight Juan Santamaría, Fran Lenaers and Carlos Simó, obviously;He was the one who changed everything.And, to personal title, to Kike Jaén ".

Luis Costa: “I would highlight Germán Bou, one of the most prolific producers of the time, author of Dunne, Valencian party anthem of the year 1991 that he took under his spiral project.Although in some compilations they appear title and author exchanged and many know it erroneously as a spiral.Bou took a lotWhat could be.

David g.Balasch: “Musically it was a crossroads of what had been youthful music (new wave, postpunk, New Romantics...) And what was going to be (House, Acidhouse, Trance, Mákina, Bakalao and Hardcore).There was a generational relief.The rest is a matter of the smell of night businessmen.With all differences, there are parallels with some European countries.Belgium and Holland come to my head, but there are more.Electronic music and raves changed the night landscape;In Valencia everything happened in the same space (disc + parking) ".

Luis Costa: “It would also point out, above all, Megabeat / Interfront, with Julio Nexus, Gani Manero and Fran Lenans in front.At the time, when we listened for the first time among friends, we thought they were foreigners, for the level of their productions, in a classic electronic body (EBM) line but with a very fresh treatment, with a less punk approach and at times at timesMore pop.Soon we learned that they were Spanish and we flip ".

David g.Balasch: the main problem of this phenomenon, in relation to our neighbors, is precisely the lack of music that has transcended.EITHERur music was very little permeable and zero exportable, with exceptions: Spanish for example had something successful in Holland.There were many and very prolific producers –Nacho Division, Rafa Gisbert, Kike Jaen, Dj Sylvan - but none with transcendence beyond space and time.I could defend Germán Bou - the producer of Chimo Bay.

TEMPLES EITHERF THE REITHERUTE FEITHERR THE FELIGRESES EITHERF LA MAKINA

Carlos Aimeur: “Honestly, I can't make a comparison with other discos in Spain because he knew very little.I only know that when we went to Madrid a group of friends, with 18 years, we returned very disappointed.The music I heard in them seemed mediocre, topical and without mystery.A Madrid friend told us that we would not miss time, that as in Valencia anywhere.My cousins did go to Ibiza and they told me that their discos were the only ones that could be compared to the Valencians ".

Luis Costa: “There were several factors and all agreed at first.They were large spaces off the city, united by a regional road of coast of just 30 km., that due to a legal vacuum and enormous laxity in licenses and permits by the City Council, they began to open from After Hours.We are talking about principles and mid -1980s and at that time no disco did it in the world, which is good, at least legally.Not even in Ibiza ".

David g.Balasch: “It is known that the best years of the route were the first: we are talking about the strip that goes from 83-84 to 89-90.Much of the people I have spoken with agrees that, together with the greed of entrepreneurs, the entrance of Italian trance music, cheaper to import than the English or American, turned the screws.While the Afterpunk sound predominated, Spook was populated by people dressed and made up in black, there was a fanzinera culture and concerts were sometimes speaking (it was not strange to see groups play at 6 or 7 in the morning).Actors, musicians, designers or known or well -known directors went to Spook to inspire and have fun ".

Carlos Aimeur: “A fundamental factor was obviously the laxity with the schedules.In Puzzle, for example, you entered free until two in the morning.If you did, at that time you were not.The party really began after three thirty, four, to the point that many people what they did was bed soon and get up at five in the morning to start on Sunday at a disco.You could splic one with another.To this we had to join the absence of police controls ”.

Luis Costa: “Barraca assumed the risk and came out first, although it should not have been easy at first.He also opted to include performances, theatrical actions in his fashion sessions and parades.They bet on striking flyers, which until that moment, were reduced by little more than poorly printed brochures for Guiris.All of that attracted a new audience eager for strong sensations and freedom;Something that Barraca served them on a tray, far from the city, in the midst of a bucolic landscape of rice fields.A scoring that hatched in a real festive madness, when the disco began to open like After Hours, to which Chocolate followed, a new disco that opened little very close, also as after.There officially began the route, with the partiers swarming from one disco to another.These were followed as many mythical such as Puzzle, Heaven, Spook, considered by many as the culmination of the route, nod or.C.T.V, to name just some of the main.And it was already armed, with a stable room circuit that could be completed from Thursday to Monday, or even until Tuesday.And start again.An unprecedented sociocultural phenomenon, heritage of the Spanish youth subculture, which will hardly be reproduced ”.

Stories to hallucinate and not sleep

Carlos Aimeur: A friend Vio Llover in Puzzle, another friend discovered that she had seven fingers in her hand.A third climbed into the hood of his car and began to dance while dawn.I remember seeing a fifty dressed as a pink walking her puppy through Puzzle's parking lot, a white poile.I attended a couple of bachelor parties that disable me to be a councilor for culture of Madrid.Jokes apart, drugs were everywhere, but I don't think to a greater extent than today or more than anywhere else.EITHERf course, there were places that were more excessive than others.

Luis Costa: “There are hundreds of pages and forums where many anecdotes of particos of the route that go from the surrealist to the sordid are collected.Many of them associated with leisure moments in discos parkings.But there is one that I have collected among my documentation, which, if true, reflects very well the level of lag that could be lived then.At a time already very uncontrolled and certainly devalued from the route, presumably between 1994 and 1996, a user of a forum that in a certain disco - I think that in La Masía, in Segorbe (Alto Palancia, Valencia) - theLuz in half session, and before the desire to party, someone entered their car inside, parked it in the middle of the dance floor, and put their music team at full volume to keep the spirits butt, untilThe light returned.Namely".

David g.Balasch: "I lived three years in Valencia.During that time I got to listen to enough stories to not sleep: a tractor burning in the parking of N.EITHER.D.With people dancing around, a car overturned in a gutter with two people inside who did not know what had happened and followed their own ".

Carlos Aimeur: “The emergence of cocaine had a destructive effect: it marked a before and after. Lo describe muy bien Joan EITHERleaque en su ensayo En èxtasi.While the mescaline disseminated, enhanced and spread an open and playful leisure form, and the amphetamines another more intense but equally playful, coca encouraged grooved, insomnical and hysterical behaviors.Once I went to Heaven with a French cousin, he asked me to leave within a few seconds scared and the few times I was in the bullfighter, a garito that opened in the morning and that was close to Spook, I felt quite uncomfortable.That was already past 92, in full decline.However, in the discos there was no more drug or sex than at any current New Year's Eve party.Simple and plainly nobody concealed what had been taken or stopped taking, in the same way that it was frowned upon to presume to take drugs.He who wanted them and the one who didn't, no ".

Luis Costa: “In what everyone seems to coincide, having arrived by very direct sources, it is in the scenes that were repeated in all discos, when they were forced to turn off the music for a brief period of time, to cleanAnd be able to open from After ... The discos were not obliged to get people inside, only to turn off the music and open the lights, and while this operation lasted, the partiers improvised percussion rhythms hitting everything they caught by hand,Walls, columns, stools, etc., while they released party harangues of the type “Come on, come!Give him, give him! ”, And so, he shouted,".