Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Denver
Posts: 1277

The DJ as Shaman

...the Breakbeat as Tabla, the Bassline/Klaxon as Didgeridoo, the MC as Pan, the casket-case (2x1200+mix/EQ/EFX) as altar, the Sound System as Evangelical Revival, the Dubplate as Eucharist.

As promised (threatened?), and since it was brutally spammed into submission by a particular dipshit we all know...
(slightly reworked for sanity)

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Junglist M@ssiv presents the Usual Suspects, direct from Renegade Hardware UK..."

yes, there was alcohol involved.

Tribalism is alive and well. It has simply changed with the times, as evolution is prone to do. The ritual, the performance, the trance. Live rock'n'roll has many parallels, but as DnB is basically a computer music (and the subject here), live performance of the Burroughs-esqe cut-and-paste is replaced by the crossfades of the live DJ.

The spirit of the rant, however, pertains to the DJ at large, from Jungle, Trance, Industrial, Goth, HipHop, Pop, even the lowly Wedding DJ. The act of creating the set, the performance, the ritual is what's important.

Fraser Clarke and Gen P-Orridge had a good point with their Techno-Pagan movement some years ago, but it got watered down with Hippie-Dippie bullshit.

To quote Fraser:

"[Love] never died. It went deeper underground, and is being reborn with a tougher attitude to the changes that must happen...

"And so, evolution has decided the time is ripe to launch a manifesto on vinyl.

"The revolution is beginning to permeate culture on every front, from Chaos science to digital sound, from VR to sampling and nanotech, from psychoactivating elixirs to "brain machines".

THIS DATA IS DANGEROUS TO ALL AUTHORITIES"

The communication of ideas, the collaboration, the TAZ, via recorded, created, recombinant technologies. Copyright law is obsolete.

Witness the communications network before us. The tribe that has been dispersed by the bustle of life as we know it, traffic, anonymity, suburbia, a general hostility due to life in an intolerable crowd, has been supplanted by tribes formed in a virtual world, constructed by individuals by explicit choice and will.

The underground, as it is, has never really gone away. From the Qaballa, to Jesus and his apostles (at one time. The bastardization of revolution is another rant for another day), to the Salem witches, Crowley, the beatniks, hippies, goths, punks, and modern freaks of all stripes, has and will always have a presence and an influence. Today, it happens to be here at the Asylum, in the Sampling/Turntablist/Recombinant M@ssiv, and anywhere in the corners where society at large does not wish to look.

I'm not entirely sure quite what I was getting at here, but I had to say it.
If you feel it's been a steaming pile of bullshit, please do state your (intelligent) opinion.

And, just 'cuz it fits the mood,

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3030303

[This message has been edited by Shadow23 (edited 08-27-2000).]

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Australia
Posts: 470

why do i have no idea what youre talking about?

???

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please dont touch me

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 5526

quote:

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Originally posted by Touch:
why do i have no idea what youre talking about?
???

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: ...
Posts: 228

and of course, the media, the suits, the 50 year old men find ways to pervert the underground by using it to sell product. thus 1) destroying the underground by making it main stream, and 2) in actuality shoving it even further underground by making the true proponants of the art, religion, whatever the only people who truly know what it means, where it comes from.

same thing with blackmetal, on a small scale. there's a whole "me too" element to the blackmetal of today, and many people who know say, cradle of filth, have no idea who burzum is, who euronymous was...what venom ever did for the scene. it's all the same. gang culture is elevated to pop status by rappers to the point where rich suburban white kids will dres in gang colors, and get tattoos in an effort to prove themselves hardcore. this has strong ties to a thread of neurot's in the spf music forum. you guys aught to check that out every once in a while. it's good, I promise. but right now there's been a whipe, so nothing much at the moment. but back to it, those who do not understand what they're "participating" in will be the first to jump onto the next craze, the next bandwagon, the next oppertunity to prove themselves to themselves, and possibly the girl/boy across the hall.

so I agree...everywhere a man past his prime fears to tread, anywhere a young girl fears to look, there will be an underground element, waiting to be exploited, return to obscurity, only to surface again, or die completely, reincarnated as a new movement. waves, vishnu, shiva, brahma anyone?
I think the parrallel is clear...

well spake, shadow

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Denver
Posts: 1277

Y'know, it seems with culture in general, music included, 90% of the population just goes about their business, with eyes closed and no idea why they do what they do. I suppose the underground is simply the people that care, that pay attention. 'Course, as soon as a good idea surfaces, suddenly the "powers that be" either realize it's a good idea, or realize it's a threat to the status quo. Either way, that good idea is doomed. There's an old saying, "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer"... Big Business, thus, takes as many cues from the underground as possible, on the one hand because "the kids dig it", but on the other hand, because then they can control it, gut it of any threat.

It always backfires, tho, because those of us that really care keep moving one step ahead. Newbies can't really be blamed for not knowing history, influence, etc, but the ones that don't want to know or care are the ones that should be kicked back out to the mainstream that spawned them. Hey, it was the oldschoolers that showed us around way back when, now we're the oldschoolers, it's kind of our responsibility to do the same.

eh, so I swiped a little time from the boss-man for this one, and i've been dealing with idiots all day, forgive me if I'm a little testy...

oh yeah, exodus, I still stop by the spf music forum on occasion, just not as much lately

thanx for lettin' me babble...

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: ...
Posts: 228

I agree with this...
the underground is the network which finds and educates possible proponants of the art in order to educate them...that's a good way of looking at it, which I hadn't fully considered. I guess there is a degree of patience I should afford these folks, as they're not exposed to everything...but they could be. as you said, the problem is that few people want to.

I don't think that good ideas are necessarily doomed when the corporate bigshits take it over...it just has to be modified, or taken back up after the fad has worn off...

feh
you didn't seem too pissed off to me...did I miss something? heh

well glad you still visit spf...well as long as neurot's still there I'm good

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Brea, CA USA
Posts: 8

To restate what has already been said:

If the DJ is the new shaman, then would there not be apprentices? Take me, for example. I just started getting into DJing about a year ago, and only seriously in the last six months. I found something very alluring about being able to combine two pieces of music to create something completely new. However, I know nothing about from whence the music I enjoy listening to and combining came, or what spawned its particular genre.

It would be great to know more about the history and philosophies of, say, trance or drum and bass, but for now I'm content to find music I enjoy and fiddle with it so that others enjoy it as well.

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The tears of a clown make the whole world laugh. Tee hee.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Denver
Posts: 1277

quote:

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Originally posted by exodus:
feh
you didn't seem too pissed off to me...did I miss something? heh

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Guess I was typing more aggro than I was talking... hehe, 'twas a long day when I wrote that.

Psychoderelect: Everybody's gotta start someplace. I've been playing around with this stuff for 10 years, now, easy, but there's still a long way to go. If only I was independently wealthy, there'd be a basement with a studio in it, instead of a cheap-ass mixer and only 1 working turntable Lots of freeware out there for production/loops/etc, though.

Don't know if there's any unifying philosophy professed, but for history and guidance, Wm. Burroughs' cut-up experiments of the 50's are a good place to start.

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Kill time before time kills you.

[damn typos.]


[This message has been edited by Shadow23 (edited 09-05-2000).]

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