music wise - go check out my label damaged trax http://www.trackitdown.net/recordlab...aged-trax.html
also have a look at morepunkthanfunk, kickthedrum, mike's mastertraxx is still going, glenn wilson has some new stuff coming soon that'll blow you away..
i think everyone is really re-evaluating their sounds and trying to move forwards. techno goes thru phases like that.. the other side will be a better place
as far as parties go i understand what you mean.. we get a handful of good parties over here but sometimes it seems like theres only a handful of us pushing the sound.. is the uk not a bit better? poland is still rockin it though.