- unknown sample from Nookie's Celebrate Life (Jungle Renegade Vol. 1, 1995).
If you try to harm me,
I'll say,'can he get me?'
And you can't.
I'm not afraid.
There's nothing you can do to get me.
I'll go down the lowest.
I'll go down so low that the only way left is back up.
The only thing is, I can't bow down to you.
I'd rather be dead,
So I'll make fun of you.
If you annoy me,I'll make fun of you.
I'll react but I wont attack.
And I'll keep on smiling
- Martin Cahill,1991.
MHO on the religio-dancist debate. we've got rasta's, some budhists, christo's - of every shape and form, muslims, yah get the picture – loads of us – and we like this music, we like this scene, we like what it does to us and those around us.
Aside from the traditional 'but drugs and dancing were around 10 zillion years ago' types ( who won't be happy until the gene for bpms altering seratonin receptors or something is found ;) IMHO there is no place for religious pronouncements in the 'rave' scene.
There are definitely some similarities, particularly with some of the charismatic groups who dance, speak in tongues etc, and in terms of a shared group experience by congregations of people gathering together worship, in one case god, in the other case mamon, or more positively life, love and unity. A Revivalist Preacher, common in the USA, uses tactics that are strangly similar to the Rave/Club Experience.
I have stood in 'raves' before wondering whether the wonderful feeling of togetherness and shared purpose is in any way similar to the experience of those going to church to worship their god. Any people of faith on uk-dance who have done both? I suppose that's me then! However, when it comes down to it the big difference comes in the message that the people receive. At a rave the general idea is to feel good about yourself and is quite an inward perspective - perhaps this is why taking chemicals to make yourself feel nice is so popular, there is an emphasis on enjoyment of sex and so on. At church I focus on God and see myself in the position of being a created being with a purpose which I can only fulfil through him. I get a buzz from being more like what God wants me to be.
However, the three major monotheistic world religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) differ massively from dance culture in that they are about worshipping a creator (or else hellfire etc.). The dance thang is hardly 'worship' at all - it is an eons-old escapist thing routed in the human need for self-expression, solidarity and various pleasant neurochemical FX produced by dancing.
Personally, I think mass dancing - to the extent where one's personal perceived boundaries between self and other/body and environment begin to dissolve - is the way to enlightenment. That weird/scarey moment (probably what is often described as 'lost in music' or just 'fucked') where you have no conscious thought – just a sort of disoriented animal awareness – is the foot of the ladder.
If the dance culture has done anything it's created a unity and inspired people into taking control and organising parties, festivals, their own lives etc for themselves and it's that unity which is considered such a threat. Commercialse and control the situation, give the people a watered down, more acceptable version and then illigalise the underground and your left with having to pay 25 quid or however much it is to get into the Ministry of fucking Sound. Enter the criminal justice act (least things arn't that bad in Holland, yet!) Yup, things are getting bad.
I love raves and see the possibility for a new youth movement coming out of our scene that has larger social & political ramifications than many yet realize. I see the uk as a worldwide leader/pioneer in the movement, and the British government as having the most understanding of raves as a threat to the status quo. I am curious to hear updates from anyone on this list regarding enforcement of the Criminal Justice Bill, its effects, resistance to it, etc. Useful information will be passed on to the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL), which is headquartered here in San Francisco, for possible inclusion in their Freedom Report.
One of my mates got taken to be searched for no reason, and he said that he was made to strip in front of five coppers who confiscated from him three pills and all the time stood there ridiculing him. Before they kicked him out (without charge) they made him bend down and touch is toes??? My girlfriend said the atmosphere was terrible, nobody dared speak to anybody else for fear of speaking to a copper, everybody was completely paranoid.
Artlab in Preston was raided in Preston on Saturday night at around 11.30 pm. The scene was a nightmare - loads of screaming police in full riot armour, helmets, (new style) batons, apparently guns, a couple of people completely freaking out and screaming. It was a very smooth operation and filmed by a team of police video people. Who knows what they expected to find in there – rumours of guns, pornographics filming sessions (!!!!) etc etc. Total paranoia on the side of the state and it even seemed to take the local police station by surprise who were not prepared at all to deal with the aftermath at all, so people ended up in there for 12 to 18 hours or more before being let off with a caution. This was a private party in a private house.
Background to the Public Order section of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill of Great Britain.
1. The right to ASSEMBLE in groups of ten or more individuals ON PUBLIC or COMMON LAND. In other words, hanging out in a group of ten or more people in a town square, a park, or the sidewalk becomes potentially illegal.
Background to the Public Order section of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill of Great Britain.
2. The right to ASSEMBLE on PRIVATE LAND if the gathering is for the express purpose of listening to music typified by the excessive repetition of a number of beats. In other words, engaging in the act of drumming, listening to rockn roll or any music form containing a high number of repeated beats now becomes illegal
Background to the Public Order section of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill of Great Britain.
3. The right to TRAVEL within the borders or ones country WITHOUT UNDUE HARASSMENT or threat of arbitrary arrest. The bill gives British Police increased powers to question and arrest people based solely on their appearance. In this case the mere fact of looking like you might be on your way to a party involving the playing of repetitive music is a basis for harassment. We are all affected by this move. The setting of this PRECEDENT in a western democracy such as the United Kingdom is grave cause for concern.
What we are seeing is a western government sitting in judgement over the fundamental human rights of its people. Specifically the right to assemble, which has its philosophical pedigree in the French and American Revolutions and which has long been considered the cornerstone of western style democracy. The question we are asking you is this: If WE do not voice OUR protest at these developments in the uk, because we are not concerned that the right to assemble in physical space in Britain might be taken away, and we do not at the very least make ourselves heard in this battle, THEN WHO MIGHT there be left to do likewise when our rights to assemble in our own geographical regions as well as the virtual geographies of cyberspace, are threatened?
– The first Zippie Intercontinental Ballistic Meme.
At around 1.45-2.00 am Sunday morning, police started to arrive in large numbers to break up the rave. 20 or more police storm the crowd wielding batons and making arrests while other officers co-ordinate the detention of ravers in paddy wagons and intimidate party goers. Refusing to turn off the music, ravers defiantly and peacefully danced on. After 40mins and many arrests later the police discovered the whereabouts of the well hidden generator and the party was officially closed. The news of this event immediately broke on the Internet. Moving more rapidly than a summer bushfire, the heat is now on the NSW police force to provide an explanation and ravers are demanding answers. A tight knit on-line community, ravers around the globe have immediately launched a campaign offering advice and lending support.
This weekend I think I found heaven, the European gathering of goaheads for the autumn equinox - the last open air party before winter sets in. From the far reaches of the globe have heard about the party on the international underground circuit - there are indians, orientals, south americans and travellers from all over the place... I was in a completely different dimension altogether (And this was not due to too much drug ingestion, either). The level of energy going around was incredible, it was like some primeval source of power deep inside everyone was giving them energy to dance like they have never danced before... There was definitely something mystical about the whole thing, whether the location was chosen to be on ley lines or something I do not know, but I could feel something out of the ordinary there...
I now see how people get sucked into the whole underground party scene, if clubland is dying then it is due to all the real party people turning to the underground. This, my friends is where the vibe has gone. This, fellow clubbers, is what should be your holy grail. Seek and ye shall find, and when you do find it, it will transform your outlook on life forever...
Sod the clubs, the techno scene is like a wild animal - you can cage it up and it will seem like the real thing to tourists, but it does not have the power and majesty that it has when it is allowed to roam free in its natural setting. This is why the authorities try to ban free parties, because it seriously challenges their idea of what life should be like - they therefore try to tame the beast by forcing it into clubs. Fight this bollocks - free parties, free people, free love.
Quotes
A World Wide Web site for information on the Criminal Justice Bill is available
at: www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmbills/008/en/03008x--.htm
See J.Harvey's Journey in to da jungle for a personal view of dance-music history, from the mid-seventies Disco boom, to electro, hip hop, house, acid house, rave and jungle. Includes clickable .wav files of defining tracks from each scene, scanned images of flyers etc.