Copyright Graham St John Published by Graham St John ISBN 1 74064 090 X FREENRG Subject category Dance Music, Activism, Cultural Studies NOTES FROM THE EDGE OF THE DANCEFLOOR EDITED BY GRAHAM ST JOHN Cover Design: Mark Brooks Graphic Design: brooks@tig.com.au Editing, production coordination and online promotions: Feelergauge (Colin Hood) www.feelergauge.net All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recovery or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author, except for downloading for the purpose of private review and study, or for other fair dealing for the purposes of research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act. Acquired from www.ozauthors.com.au CONTENTS ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS ........................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ix FOREWORD .............................................................................................. xi INTRODUCTION —TECHNO INFERNO ............................................................1 PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA ....................................................... 11 Chapter One —Doof! Australian Post-Rave Culture ........................... 12 Chapter Two — Propagating Abominable Knowledge: Zines on the Tekno Fringe .................................................................... 58 PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSTEMS SOUND ............................... 89 Chapter Three — Sound Systems and Australian DiY Culture: Folk Music for the Dot Com Generation .............................................. 90 Chapter Four — Doofstory: Sydney Park to the Desert ..................... 112 Chapter Five — Tuning Technology to Ecology: Labrats Sola Powered Sound System ................................................. 142 Chapter Six — Techno Terra-ism: Feral Systems and Sound Futures ........................ 172 PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION ...................................................... 203 Chapter Seven — Mutoid Waste Recycledelia and Earthdream ........204 Chapter Eight — Psychic Sonics: Tribadelic Dance Trance-formation .................................................... 250 Chapter Nine—Chaos Engines: Doofs, Psychedelics and Religious Experience .................................. 274 Chapter Ten — Directions to the Game: Barrellful of Monkeys ....... 300 PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE ......................................................... 321 Chapter Eleven—Practice Random Acts: Reclaiming The Streets of Australia1 ................................................. 322 Chapter Twelve—Carnival at Crown Casino: S11 as Party and Protest .....................................................................348 Chapter 13—Appropriating the Means of Production: Dance Music Industries and Contested Digital Space ........................ 370 Acquired from www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA CHAPTER ONE—DOOF! On beaches in the sand, in dunes, inland in dunes beside a creek. I’ve done it up in mountains, in high altitudes. I’ve done it in the Himalayas (Aleex on Doofing).1 AUSTRALIAN POST-RAVE CULTURE The electronic music industry possesses a decentralised legacy. From the early eighties, developments in production and recording technologies permitted a means of access and GRAHAM ST JOHN level of independence which had enabled increasing numbers of young electronic (or techno) musicians to assume ownership and control over the means of music production (in their own homes) and distribution (through informal channels and independent micro-labels), despite efforts by the transnational entertainment industry to assimilate such activity. In Australia, the operations of this high-tech cottage industry, complimented by developments in digital recording, the internet and multimedia arts, has reinforced a grassroots sensibility potentiating creative interventions beyond that achievable by rock, punk or rave. This chapter provides an introduction to the rave diaspora in Australia and, moreover, explores a spectrum of proactive and inspired refrains issuing from the socio-digital landscapes of post-rave technoculture. As an enclave of affect and meaning, a youth cultural site of voiced dissent and epiphanous experience, that post-rave technotribal gathering, the doof, is singled out for special consideration. BEACH PARTY @ HALF MOON BAY, BLACK ROCK, 28 FEB 98 (PHOTO: SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 1 ABC Radio’s Background Briefing, ‘Taming The Rave’ 5/10/97: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s10514.html Acquired from 12 © copyright 2001 13 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA RAVING Dancing or ‘raving’ as a club pursuit escalated following New Year 2000/01, near the town of Lindenow in the acid house explosion in the UK in 1988.2 The cultural Victoria’s La Trobe valley. As an advertisement in Beat phenomenon, stimulated by UK tourism to the Spanish Balearic magazine had announced, Earthcore’s key summer event island of Ibiza and later subject to a moral panic, heavy (called ‘Primal Elements’) would be divided into four ‘primal licensing laws and ‘public order’ legislation, has been given element zones’: earth, fire, air and water. It didn’t take a extensive treatment.3 The utopic-transcendent rave arena is particularly astute observer to note that this cultural commonly understood to have been an escape from the production—beginning in December 1993 as a non profit event heterosexualist, macho and aggressive predatory sexuality called ‘terra technics’, which evolved into Australia’s largest prevalent in rock, disco or nightclub settings.4 Yet, according ‘independent electronic music festival’ and more recently a to Angela McRobbie, as gender dissolved under a syncopated ‘dance music and lifestyle extravaganza’—is designed rhythm, the men behind the turntables were left largely principally to accumulate the fifth element: $. Feelings remain ‘unchallenged in their control over the whole field of music mixed about this regular fixture in the Australian (and production’. 5 And while the rave was held to be a international) dance culture calendar. Earthcore has assisted countercultural zone in the ‘second summer of love’, as local independent artists and has consistently made attempts Matthew Collin points out in his Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, late eighties UK youth ‘took to fly underneath the radar (or at least convince its patrons of to the mythology of the hippie era—adopting a simulacrum of its ‘underground’ status). Yet it has, nevertheless, grown to what they believed the sixties were like, a hand-me-down, pick- imitate and cultivate that which appears to be the life-force of the international dance music establishment, and that which is transparent in club and rave scenes—commodification. In the 2 Musically, acid house consisted of a fusion of influential developments which, alongside an evolving DJ aesthetic, included 1970s European electronic music economy of the night, this hypermarket of style, this club (from German electronic to hi-NRG Italo-disco), black-futurist ‘techno’ from Detroit and Chicago ‘house’. without walls, trades in a high demand experiential 3 For example, see: Steve Redhead, (ed) Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in commodity—dance. Contemporary youth Culture, Aldershot, Avebury, 1993; Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House. London: Serpents Tail, 1997; Sheryl Garrett, Adventures in Wonderland: A Decade of Club Culture, London, Headline, 1998; Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. London: Picador, 1998; Hillegonda Rietveld, This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1998. 4 Angela McRobbie, Feminism and Youth Culture, London, Macmillan, 1990; Maria Pini, ‘Women and the Early British Rave Scene’, in Angela McRobbie (ed.) Back to Reality? Social Experience and Cultural Studies, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1997, pp.152-69. 5 Angela McRobbie, In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion and Popular Music, London, Routledge, 1999, p.146. Acquired from 14 © copyright 2001 15 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA and-mix bag of fashions and slogans—minus the radical politics of the era’. What has been widely referred to as ‘ecstasy culture’—due to the associated wide scale use of the entactogenic MDMA or ‘ecstasy’—developed into a technologically advanced leisure pursuit, with ‘house’ becoming ‘a bloated conservative mainstream, formulaic and predictable, dominated by a self-satisfied, self-serving elite’. Post acid house rave, once a celebrated temporary autonomous zone, had become, as Simon Reynolds put it, ‘the club as pleasure–prison, a detention camp for youth’. ‘Corporate clubbing’ was easily assimilated into the British leisure industry and was exported to Australia (along with Europe, North America, Japan, South Africa and a host of other destinations).6 With a miasma of derivative soundscapes (from happy house, to drum ’n bass, to trance) rave or club culture has become prominent in the ‘every-night life’ of a significant proportion of the Australian youth population.7 NRG 4 6 Collin Altered State, p.60, 275; Reynolds Energy Flash, p.424. (PHOTO: KATH WHEATLEY) 7 Youth and Music in Australia, a project surveying the music related behaviour of Australian youth, reports clubs (which are differentially categorised to ‘dance parties’ or ‘raves’) as the most popular music venue attended by those aged between 18-24. As the report conveys, 11% of youth aged between 12-24 selected ‘dance/techno/ trance’ as their favourite music. This is second only to rock (18%) and is significant when one considers that there were a total of 45 named categories. See G. Ramsey, Headbanging or Dancing? Youth and Music in Australia part 2, Sydney, Australian Broadcasting Authority, 1998. Acquired from 16 © copyright 2001 17 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA But let me put this in perspective. Prior to local While there is much reminiscing about the ‘democratised’ commercialisation, rave had infiltrated the night time status of the early local rave scene and its spaces, there can be underground of Australian capitals (especially Sydney and little denying that such a scene had, by the mid nineties, become Melbourne). Between the very late eighties and 1992, the subject to increasing commercialism and ‘domestication’ industrial estates of Sydney’s Alexandria became a common through state regulation patterns for which media generated site for clandestine warehouse ‘raves’ organised by local and moral panics—exemplified by that following the death of expatriate promoters inspired by the UK experience. Party Sydney teenager Anna Wood—have been held accountable. locations were advertised using the Telecom 0055 recorded Containment strategies such as that represented by the message service, enabling the party to remain aloof from media, subsequent NSW Ministry of Police Code of Practice for Dance the police and rival promoters (until the last minute). These Parties (April 1998), ‘eased the commercialisation and were the ‘new school ravers’, which Seb Chan distinguishes incorporation of rave style into the mainstream through the from the dance party scene dominated by innovative promoters growth of standardised club environments’. The Code of within the gay and lesbian community who, since the mid Practice is said to have represented the ‘decoding’ of rave eighties, organised exclusive parties for an inner-city arts elite— spaces.11 Applying equally to ‘dance parties’ whether small or some eventually held in the Hordern Pavilion.8 In Melbourne, large,12 the Code disadvantaged small scale promoters and ‘raves’ are reported to have occurred as early as 1988.9 Arriving operated to contain a new youth cultural pursuit within as a pre-packaged UK affectation, these informal events ‘legitimate’ leisure sites—clubs. At the same time that this represented, according to Gibson and Pagan ‘an almost new ‘commodified regulatory landscape’ 13 effectively megalomaniacal appeal to a sense of internationalism, a sense discouraged not-for-profit parties (in Sydney and elsewhere), of finally being on the ‘map’ of a global dance culture, despite transnational entertainment corporations like Festival/ the local paucity of artists or releases’.10 Mushroom were effectively ‘buying credibility’ from independent artists and labels.14 Mirroring trends overseas, dance/techno was attracting a wider market and turning big 8 Sebastion Chan, ‘Bubbling Acid: Sydney’s Techno Underground’, in Rob White (ed.) 11 Gibson and Pagan, ibid; Shane Homan, ‘After the Law: Sydney’s Phoenician Club, Australian Youth Subcultures: On the Margins and in the Mainstream, Hobart, the New South Wales Premier and the Death of Anna Wood’, Perfect Beat, vol4, no1 ACYS Publications, 1999, pp.67. 1998. pp.56-83. 9 Margaret MacGregor ‘Goin’ Off: Subcultural Power and the Chemical Generation’, 12 Sebastion Chan, ‘The Death of Diversity? The Draft Code of Practice for Dance BA Honours thesis, Comparative Sociology, Monash University, 1998. In Brisbane, Parties’: http://www.cia.com.au/peril/texts/features/ravecode.html Epic DiY parties took place from Dec 1993. See FreakQuency Magazine issue 3, 13 Homan ibid,76. Organisers threatened with closure, and heavy fines and imprisonment pp.19-20: http://www.freaquency.hoops.ne.jp/australian for promoters. 10 Chris Gibson and Rebecca Pagan, ‘Mapping urban youth spaces in media discourse: 14 For a similar process in the UK see David Hesmondhalgh, ‘The British Dance Music ‘rave’ cultures in Sydney, Australia’, in Anna Wright (ed), Dance Culture, Party Industry: A Case Study of Independent Cultural Production’, British Journal of Politics and Beyond, Verso, London, 2001. Sociology vol49, no2, 1998, pp.234-251. Acquired from 18 © copyright 2001 19 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA profits. ‘Dance’ had already made an Aria Awards category by Perhaps I’m being a little unfair, as Bookchin’s polemic 1995. In July 1996, the ‘superclub’ Sublime opened in Sydney. is directed at those staking some claim to anarchism, and is an After New Year 97/98, when a party at Victoria Dock’s Shed 16 approach unforgiving of any possible spiritual dimension. Yet, hosted 10,000 people, Melbourne (and Sydney) has the approach does hold weight in accounting for dance culture, accommodated huge dance parties/festivals such as Hardware’s or in particular the Australian ‘Dance industry’, which is Two Tribes and Welcome. persistent in marketing the same brand of artificial ‘rebellion’, With promoters seeking to ‘broaden their demographic’, the albeit in new bottles. It could be argued that local dance culture outdoor club Earthcore remains a curious case in point. industries, have invested in the ‘rave-olutionary’ fervor which Melbourne’s Age ran a story promoting the first Earthcore for the is in large part attributable to the moment when the UK’s 2000/01 summer at Mt Disappointment. ‘Earthcore: Suits go Feral’ Criminal Justice Act (1994) made dancing something of a featured party-goers at Melbourne’s ‘largest forest rave’, who ‘are political statement (when the subversive, radical, character of not merely your stereotypical conglomerate of ferals, hippies or dance had been legislated into existence and thereby made candy-ravers’. No, Earthcore, ‘as its organisers boast’, credible).17 While there may be some credence to this in its accommodates a much ‘wider demographic’—‘becoming home place of origin, in a country which has not experienced to many a professional: doctors, lawyers, middle managers’.15 comparable legislation, the radicalism of those acquiring The idea of middle managers ‘going feral’ for a weekend intrigues. subcultural capital from this rebellious chic, from this cheap In the words of Murray Bookchin, who uses the phrase in his import, is transparently ersatz. Yet, the dance culture industry critique of Hakim Bey’s anthemic TAZ (or temporary autonomous trades in this fashion, this radicalism, servicing the desire to zone), such temporary ferality approximates a kind of ‘lifestyle be ‘extreme’, a ‘renegade’—even if for one night a week. anarchism’ for young urban professionals (including those able to afford the increasingly excessive price of entry).16 Temporarily suspending wealth accumulation by spending themselves in spectacular moments of ‘e’-fuelled grandeur in a bush setting, 17 In 1994, the Tory government passed the Criminal Justice Act (CJA). The Act the ‘suits’ are recharged, re-created, for their return to business constituted a repressive system of police and legal powers which have according to Alan Dearling ‘almost decommissioned a lifestyle’. See Alan Dearling (ed.), and their assault on the next rung of the corporate ladder. No Boundaries: New Travellers on the Road (Outside of England), Dorset, Enabler Publications, 1998, p.1. The Act includes clauses criminalising squatting and trespassory assembly (including open air ‘raves’ and free festivals not officially 15 Farrah Tomazin, ‘Earthcore: Suits go Feral’, Age, Today section, 25/11/2000, p.1-3. sanctioned, and, potentially, peaceful protests). The CJA registers the music 16 Murray Bookchin, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, associated with such social infractions as ‘sounds wholly or predominantly Edinburgh, AK Press, 1995 http://www.au.spunk.anarki.net/library/writers/bookchin/ characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’ (Part V 63.1.b). Yet, sp001512/SocialBookchin1.html; Hakim Bey, TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone police violence, shut downs and mass arrests were shifting ‘rave’ from entertainment — Ontological Anarchy and Poetic Terrorism, New York, Autonomedia 1991, to ‘movement’ well before the CJA. See Drew Hemment, ‘Dangerous Dancing and http://www.cia.com.au/vic/taz/index.html Disco Riots: the Northern Warehouse Parties’, in McKay DiY Culture, p.218. Acquired from 20 © copyright 2001 21 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The industry consists of charts, brand names, major Dance, ‘once a faceless genre of music has now well and corporate partners and its own media. Tekno Renegade truly entered the mercantile arena’—becoming ‘the rock ’n Magazine (TRM), a monthly Melbourne (and now Sydney) roll of the nineties’. So went the cover story ‘Marketing the street publication, performs a role in reproducing subcultural DJ in 2000’ of TRM’s February 2000 edition.20 Complete with capital for scene aspirants—firing a broadside of commodity a ‘guide to marketing an electronic artist’ and an interview accessories on a background of gloss and glare, enabling the with a director of Global Recordings, the article went about ‘fashioning’ of state-of-the-art identities—authentic, ‘cool’ or, celebrating this development. While in earlier volumes, TRM as many would have it, ‘totally sick’. Here, raving as rebellion seemed to negotiate the underground of dance culture, bearing is a mediated ruse. The street publication trades in and dance music’s decentralised origins and giving credence to distributes rave’s ‘renegade’ mood—a kind of aloof insolence the culture’s collusion with a variety of social and political inscribed upon advertised techno-accessories, latest DJ issues, in 2000 the publication went the way of rock ’n’ roll.21 sensations and music genres eagerly consumed by the rave This became most apparent in a growing number of profiles massive. In its own way, TRM recapitulates the strategies of on male superstar brand names like Paul Oakenfold (in a post sixties culture industries which had long recuperated coverstory ‘Introducing the World’s Highest Paid DJ: Paul rebellion, ‘hip’ or ‘alternative’ as a youth marketing category. Oakenfold’)22 the publication thus assisting the international Perhaps as a successor to rock’s ‘anti-establishment Pepsi entertainment industry in undermining a subversive attribute Generation’18 we now have the renegade Ericsson T20 MP3 of early techno dance culture—contempt for ‘the star system’ compatible generation. As is echoed in Sarah Thornton’s and disruption of authorship categories23—by spectacularising discussion of other ‘subcultural consumer magazines’ and the artist. Furthermore, sexist imagery associated with rock— mainstream media, this kind of street press possesses an insouciant male posturing with background babe accessories— important role in manufacturing the culture to which youth is endorsed through advertising. gravitate and to which they draw upon in order to assign meaning to their lives and, as Thornton further points out, to establish lines of distinction from others.19 18 For a discussion of this see Thomas Frank, ‘Alternative to What?’ in Ron Sakolsky and Fred Wei-Han Ho (eds), Sounding Off: Music as Subversion/Resistance/ Revolution, New York, Autonomedia, p.112. 20 Toby Cohen, ‘Marketing the DJ in 2000’, TRM vol3, issue 5, pp.21-24. 19 Sarah Thornton, ‘Moral Panic, the Media and British Rave Culture’, in A Ross and 21 Possibly due to a changes in editor and production team. T Rose (eds) Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Youth Culture, New York, 22 Richard Guadion, ‘Introducing the Worlds Highest Paid DJ: Paul Oakenfold’, Routledge, 1994; Sarah Thornton, Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural TRM vol4 issue 1, Oct, pp.24-25. Capital, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995. 23 See Hesmondhalgh ibid. Acquired from 22 © copyright 2001 23 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA ENTER THE DOOF often held outdoors in remote regions where all-night dancing to From an early period of the techno-rave movement in a range of electronic musics transpire.26 Australia, elements possessing anarchic, autonomist and anti- The northern coast of NSW has been significant in the corporate orientations have made deliberate efforts to not only emergence of doofs. Events held on moon cycles and solstices, withdraw from the spectacles of rock and punk, but to create populated by ‘feral hippy frequency cults’ have been operated by something more substantial than the counterfeit culture of rave. the likes of experimental arts collective Electric Tipi since 1992.27 Consolidating in inner city warehouses and outposts of opposition, Influenced by psychedelic parties in eighties Goa, accommodating like Reynolds, they have asked: ‘is it possible to base a culture fire twirlers, didj players, chai tents and tipis, ‘bush doofs’ around around sensations rather than truths, fascination rather than Lismore and Byron Bay have been laboratories for experimenting meaning, jouissance rather than plaisir?’24 As dance became with alternative states of consciousness, especially through the regulated, contained and increasingly commoditised, as rave use of LSD and other entheogens. With northern NSW and became domesticated in ‘pleasure-prisons’, as dilittante southern QLD coast psy-trance orientated parties in mind, Des renegadoes queued at the turn-styles and weekend ferals occupied Tramacchi has offered a definition of doof as a space where: the dance floor, ‘doofs’ represented an escape route—an alternative a diverse spectrum of people gather to celebrate psychedelic to the encroaching forces of state, capital and cliché. In Australia, community and culture, as expressed through characteristic psychedelic arts and music, and where people are free to the term ‘doof’ has become a synonym for youth cultural explore alternate states of consciousness in a safe, supportive, dissonance, a ‘rave underculture’, its habitues embodying a refusal and stimulating environment. The experience of autonomy is — ‘to be subjected to what the beer barons and the mainstream sought through the symbolic suspension or rejection of state culture cabal dole out as entertainment’. An audio-inspired imposed structures. Participants seek to dissolve conventional zeitgeist of Free NRG culture, the ‘doof’ is said to embody a ‘do limitations on imagination and thought, momentarily inhabiting artificial islands of heterogeneity and exploration it yourself/ourself (DIY/DIO) spirit [which] brings out people’s where novel connections and affiliations are forged and subversive strength motivating a move beyond passive experimental social forms are incubated.28 consumption’.25 In the face of the dominant club culture, and despite the term’s appropriation by unscrupulous promoters (prompting an ironic ‘Death of Doof’ party in NSW in 1997), 26 Free, minimal charge or by donation, these events operate independently from the co- ‘doof’ continues to be applied to non-profit community events, opting power of corporate capitalism. They are essentially non-profit and sometimes community activist fundraisers. On occasion, event-returns are desired to finance 24 Simon Reynolds, ‘Rave Culture: Living Dream or Living Death?’ in Steve Redhead alternative Free NRG schemes. (ed.) The Clubcultures Reader: Readings in Popular Cultural Studies, Blackwell, 27 Ray Castle, ‘Doof Disco Didges of the Digerati’, in Alan Dearling and Brendan Oxford, 1997, p.109. Hanley, Alternative Australia: Celebrating Cultural Diversity, Dorset, Enabler, 2000, 25 John Jacobs and Peter Strong, ‘Is this R@ve olution?’ http://sysx.org/vsv/ideas.html, p.47; Electric-Tipi: http://www.electric-tipi.com.au 1995/96. 28 Tramacchi ‘Field Tripping’, p.203. Acquired from 24 © copyright 2001 25 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Inscribed in this protean liminal moment can be detected The doof, thus approximates the anarcho-liminal TAZ, something of doof’s greater social significance—for it implies which Bey likens to ‘an uprising which does not engage directly an experience where music and other artistic contributions with the State, a guerilla operation which liberates an area (of (lighting, sculptures, fireworks, theatre) possess a ‘use value’, land, of time, of imagination) and then dissolves itself to re- where conventional spectator/star roles are not easily filled. form elsewhere/elsewhen, before the State can crush it’.32 The Here, according to Hakim Bey, the artist is not a special sort imputed invisibility of such an instance is, however, of person, but every person is a special sort of artist.29 Yet, it problematic when it is understood that the doof is not goes further than this. Not to be dismissed as realms of necessarily an act of ‘disappearance’ from ‘the Grid of ‘psychedelic materialism’—the ‘voracious greediness’ and Alienation’ but, especially as it spills over into a ‘direct action’ ‘pleasure-principled acquisitiveness’ Reynolds sees (like Reclaim the Streets or a forest road blockade), becomes characterising house30—here are social thresholds where highly mediated. In such cases, the intention is to attract the voluntarism, a basic co-operativism, is encouraged in all major networks, raise public awareness and influence policy members of the doof population (such that ideally, along with through staged events and symbolic gestures. Mediation may the dismantling of the passive spectator/genius performer be achieved through the use of camcorders, samplers, mini- divide, a punter/organiser divide collapses). In the doof, sound disc players, zine production, html editing and data streaming and lighting equipment, décor, food, technical skills and labour by activists themselves, but the success of an event-action is are often volunteered. The doof is therefore what Bey would often gauged by the occurrence of non-pejorative mainstream call an ‘Immediatist’ art-enclave—non-hierarchical, not re- mediations.33 Here, techno is therefore deployed in the service presented by corporate media, non-commoditised. It is thus of alternative ‘truths’. This is techno as political agency. like the idyllic participatory rave, which Gaillot called the contemporary non-ideological ‘laboratory of the present’, where all are active participants in the art ‘work’.31 32 Bey TAZ, p.101. 33 Also, while maintaining mobility beyond the knowledge of state bodies may be necessitated by legal circumstances in the UK and the US, in Australia it is 29 Bey TAZ, p.70. questionable that a complete break from the state implied by the utopic TAZ is 30 Reynolds Energy Flash, p.424-25. necessary or desirable. There are cases, for instance, where negotiating with state 31 Michel Gaillot, Multiple Meaning: Techno — An Artistic and Political Laboratory of bodies, such as fire, health, Environmental Protection Authorities, and Aboriginal the Present, Paris, Dis Voir, 1998. Land Councils may be necessary, and indeed sound practice. Acquired from 26 © copyright 2001 27 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The doof is a post-rave phenomenon with complex origins But doof’s oppositional potential is not exhausted by any that can be traced through bohemian and agitational strands of ‘valorization of the moment’.38 The free party doof owes much (sub)cultural history. There is a long history of licentious enclaves to the development of UK sound system culture. With early pushing the social envelope. While doof’s more immediate influences from the emigrant Carribean sound system tradition, bohemian origins include the UK’s underground ‘acid house’ and links to nuclear disarmament activism, squatting, and the kind scenes of the late eighties, and gay African American ‘house’ and of experimental art and salvage Situationism for which the Mutoid ‘disco/garage’ scenes in Chicago and New York, we should also Waste Co had become renowned, the culture took on a creative look to new traveller festivals, along with the funk and reggae anarcho-punk trajectory. Holding free warehouse and outdoor and Northern Soul scenes.34 More distant, yet most formative, dance parties, early sound systems Spiral Tribe, DIY Collective are those ‘psychedelic symphonies’ of the American sixties, the and Exodus were central to the free party explosion. With their Acid Tests conducted by Ken Kesey’s Merry Prangsters.35 The motto ‘Peace, Love, Unity, Struggle’, Luton’s Exodus channeled lineage can be traced further back to other all-nighters, especially party proceeds into self-help projects, squatted local buildings those of the 1920s Jazz era, which, in Australia, included the transforming them into informal community centres and housing Artist’s Balls at the Sydney Town Hall or the French discotheques, co-operatives—such as HAZ (Housing Action Zone) manor.39 like those operating in Nazi occupied Paris in WWII.36 The theme Sound system free parties proliferated in the early nineties, of transgression underpins and connects these historical moments. seemingly reaching a crescendo with the Castlemorton ‘mega- In these unregulated spaces, in these ‘gaps in the calendar’, the rave’ of 1992, where the apparent traveller/raver connection was undisciplined body could safely submit to forbidden soundscapes. forged. Following the CJA, exiled ‘tech-nomad’ circuses toured Western cultural history reveals such Dionysia to possess a Europe, North America and Australia. Spiral Tribe staged perennial quality, and may have had their archetype in the clamour Teknivals in Europe from 1994, threw techno fiestas in of the medieval carnival and market place which, as Bakhtin Bologna40 and toured the US in 1997. Desert Storm and Dubious explained, licensed ‘temporary liberation from the prevailing truth Sound System held free dance parties in Bulgaria and Bosnia.41 and from the established order … [marking] the suspension of all More recently, elements of Bedlam (and Negusa Negast) toured hierarchical rank, privileges, norms and prohibitions’.37 the US, Australia and East Timor. 34 On new traveller festivals see George McKay, Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of 38 Jeremy Gilbert and Ewan Pearson, Discographies: Dance Music, Culture and the Resistance Since the Sixties, London, Verso, 1996. For the northern soul scene see Politics of Sound, London, Routledge, 1999, p.167. Garrett Adventures in Wonderland, ch.5. 39 For discussions on Exodus see: Collin Altered State, p.229; Reynolds Energy Flash, 35 Events themselves sometimes referred to as ‘raves’ – Georgina Gore, ‘The Beat Goes p.152; and Tim Malyon, ‘Tossed in the Fire and they Never got Burned: The Exodus on: Trance, Dance and Tribalism in Rave Culture’, in Helen Thomas (ed.) Dance in Collective’, in McKay DiY Culture, pp.187-207. the City, London, Macmillan Press, p.51. 40 A Garner, ‘Czech Teknival’, in Dearling No Boundaries, pp.50-3; Reynolds Energy 36 On Sydney jazz scene, see Tony Moore, ‘Romancing the City - Australia’s Bohemian Flash, p.147. Tradition: Take Two’. Journal of Australian Studies no 58, 1998, p.57. On WWII 41 Dubious’ Dan, ‘Sounds from Eastern Europe’, in Dearling ibid, pp.54-60; L Bean, Paris discotheques, see Garrett ibid, p.4. ‘The Adventures of Phoebus @pollo: the Rough & Ready Guide to Europ@’, in 37 Michel Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, MIT Press, 1968, p.10. Dearling ibid, pp.106-22. Acquired from 28 © copyright 2001 29 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA CREATIVE RESISTANCE — ‘A SOUND SYSTEM FOR ALL’ theatre, freestyle rapping, sound clashes, graffiti, zine Post-rave culture is largely characterised by a party/protest distribution and infectious subvertising—it is the ‘imagination alliance championed by various strands of a new multimedia- rigorously applied’.45 While there have been various RTS savvy ‘carnival of protest’ movement in the west. The actions in Australia, the ‘crown’ achievement of creative synergetic potential of techno and politics became evident in resistance transpired at S11 around the barricaded perimeter the mid-nineties when the Advance Party network and an of Kerry Packer’s Crown Casino when a World Economic umbrella group of free party rigs, United Systems, mobilised Forum meeting was blockaded between September 11-13 2000. in attempts to oppose the UK Criminal Justice Bill, Act, and its aftermath.42 In Australia, a growing party/protest movement was strengthened when Circus Vibe Tribe emerged from the Chippendale anarcho-punk collective Jellyheads in 1993. Holding free (illegal), events in both Sydney and Victoria Parks, and ‘Reclaiming the Beach’ at La Perouse, Vibe Tribe were a sound system amplifying the view that ‘any politics of techno must also be a politics of action’.43 As the Reclaim the Streets (RTS) and Carnival against Capitalism non violent direct action phenomenon gained momentum throughout the nineties, a new popular mode of mass protest was on the ascent.44 As a principal strategy in the mass rejection of corporate globalisation, direct action has been described as a ‘performance where the poetic and the pragmatic join hands’. The creative resistance of such might involve blockades, street SOUND SYSTEM AT S11 2000 (PHOTO GRAHAM ST JOHN) 42 In 1994, Advance Party organised marches, and street parties - the first on May Day where Desert Storm sound system pumped house rhythms in Trafalgar square, and then in October, an estimated 100,000 people converged in central London. See Collin, Altered State, p.230-1. 43 Chan, ‘Bubbling Acid’, p.68. 44 For Australian RTS see Sarah Nicholson’s discussion paper: http:// sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2591&group=webcast, itself derived from a BA Honours thesis ‘Reclaiming the Streets’, completed at the University of 45 John Jordan, ‘The Art of Necessity: the Subversive Imagination of Anti-Road Western Sydney, 1998. Protest and Reclaim the Streets’, in McKay, DiY Culture, pp.132-6. Acquired from 30 © copyright 2001 31 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA From Jabiluka to S11, the sound system has become an the act of dancing. If raving is a ‘refusal’ of ‘logocentric effective tool, a motivator of collective dissent. Peter Strong, aka imperatives’, a moment of pre-linguistic pleasure, where a ‘crowd DJ Morphism, of Sydney band Non Bossy Possy and the Ohms of people [immerse] themselves in a collective experience of the not Bombs46 collective, thinks the partying and the protest are materiality of music, each individual losing themselves in shared inseparable. He points out that during the mid-nineties when ecstasy whose medium is bass and rhythm’,53 agit-house pulls ‘dance party culture needed something to dance for’ and political members of the massive towards the edge of the dance floor. causes needed ‘more cavalry’, the sound system provided the answer.47 Further to this, holding a ‘cut and paste mentality’ and wielding a sampler, Strong’s idea has been to ‘radicalise the dance floor with music laced with social and political themes’.48 In a production with diverse influences from punk to hip hop, ‘sounds themselves can be liberated’: a ‘lively bleep once held prisoner by an oppressive track is free to dance to a different beat. Evil lyrics of consumption, fear and greed can be detourned and mutated into statements of joyful resistance’.49 Strong is not alone in developing a sonic mediated dissidence. Sydney’s Organarchy Sound Systems,50 for instance, are known for creating ‘collages of hard dancebeatz and political sample-mania’.51 And, according to founder Baz B, the original vision for URB (Urban Renegade Broadcasting), which later became PsybURBia, was a ‘political radio station that would broadcast propaganda with beats under it’.52 Under the roof of what Strong calls ‘agit-house’, participants are simultaneously dancing and getting an education. Doofers may thus embody their politics, an experience which complicates 46 http://www.omsnotbombs.org 47 Mick Daley, ‘Doof Warriors: Turning Protests into Parties’, Sydney City Hub, June 17, 1999, p.9. 48 Andrew Stavro, ‘Political Partying’, The Weekend Australian’s Orbit March 25-26 2000. 49 John Jacobs and Peter Strong ibid, 1995/96. PETER STRONG 50 http://reflect.cat.org.au/organarchy 51 Kol Dimond — from interview with the author. 52 Rak Razam, ‘Breakbeat Warrior’, TRM August 1999, p.13. 53 Gilbert and Pearson, Discographies, p.60. Acquired from 32 © copyright 2001 33 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Aurality does not exhaust the means via which dissidence the bass and rhythm. But they also carry a message—in voice is mediated within such environments. Visual artists (VJs) are samples programmed into a rhythm (or emceed by rappers) and an important element of the ‘sound system’, image and filmic visuals accompanying the beat—representing a crew’s or montages often deployed as an accompaniment to the sonic individual’s desire to disseminate fragments of an ideology, to manifesto. With the intention of subverting what they perceived evict spectators from their comfort zones, to achieve a shift in to be ‘a dance music culture dominated by conservative ideas consciousness—a ‘sound system for all’. and devoid of an alternative content’, the experimental video Politically engaged techno-propagandists, digital artists like performance group Subvertigo, who formed in Sydney in 1992, Strong, the members of Subvertigo, Organarchy or Labrats, are create ‘a hectic realtime mix of psychotronic agit-footage cut- ‘techno-rebels’ whose ‘rebellion’ is not equivalent to a refusal of up, and hypnoblobic video feedback live to the beat of the meaning, their multi-mediations not denoting withdrawal. Nor is DJ’.54 And rather than just synching sound with the visuals, the oppositional principle to their contributions restricted to electronic artists in turn sample sounds from accompanying independent production and distribution methods alone, or visual footage—generating, according to Sean Healy, exhausted by notions of ‘aesthetic innovation’ or ‘progressive’ ‘significant audiovisual fusions’.55 futurist prophecy, the vague defining characteristics of ‘techno- Labrats sound system advance to a further level, their vehicle rebels’—a phrase lifted from Toffler’s The Third Wave, adopted consisting of audio (electronic music with voice samples and raps) by the first wave of Detroit techno artists and championed in recent and visual (a wind powered cinema screening activist mediations.58 Articulated within community and direct action footage)56 components which together facilitate the multi- contexts, these ‘works’ are efforts at disseminating alternative mediation of current issues and events—a process which itself values and practices. Following Balliger, these ‘oppositional music represents a remarkable level of playback-immediacy. When practices’ attempt to ‘generate social relationships and experience compared with a ‘culture which places more emphasis on the which can form the basis of a new cultural sensibility and, in fact, pursuit of jouissance than any other in living memory’,57 ‘political are involved in the struggle for a new culture’.59 By contrast to partying’—a kind of multimedia culture jamming—facilitates the near monolithic ‘rave’—thought to propose no ‘new meanings affect and meaning. And the multiple-functionality of such systems capable of renewing the configurations of contemporary indicate something of the dual meaning of the phrase ‘sound community’ and where demand for ‘a shared present’ conveys system’. The systems ‘bring the sounds’, and bodies respond to ‘an imperative not to give in to the future’60—such interventions appropriate technology in order to ‘reclaim the future’. 54 Subvertigo: http://www.sysx.org/vsv/subvertigo 55 Sean Healy, ‘Playing Bass with Whale Tails: Exploring the Role of Visuals at Raves’. April 2001: http://www.octapod.org.au/s/whalebass.html 56 Shot by amateur ‘camcordistas’ — including themselves – perhaps compiled in their 58 see Dan Sicko, Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk, Billboard Books, 1999. mobile ‘edit suite’. Labrats: http://lab-rats.tripod.com 59 R Balliger, ‘Sounds of Resistance’, in Sakolsky and Wei-Han Ho, Sounding Off, p.14. 57 Gilbert and Pearson Discographies, p.66. 60 Gaillot Multiple Meaning Techno, p.17, 25. Acquired from 34 © copyright 2001 35 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA TECHNO-TRIBALISM AND THE NEO-CORROBOREE would bring out microphones and pick up snatches of ambient conversation and laughter from around the tent and …a collective of strangely appareled sound technicians … then loop it and warp it into pulsating tendrils of liquid sound. stroking keys and twiddling knobs, huddling together and In the center of the space was an enormous hunk of consulting each other in subdued tones while producing a machinery with a cathode ray oscilloscope set in it. It was cascade of melting acid riffs to twist the mind of the most some kind of spectrum analyser which the goblins would diligent of bank clerks. Accompanying this seething mass hook up to one instrument at a time, producing a 3D analysis of technology was a division of drummers, thumping out of the sound on the screen, a blue curve on a red grid. It was organic grooves on Jembays (sic) and assorted smaller hypnotic and needless to say I fell under its spell for an percussive devices … The cunningly gnomish technicians indeterminate length of time, fascinated by the process of mapping sound in 3 dimensions.61 Experimental electronic music collective Clan Analogue, described here at Victoria’s Technofest March ’97, demonstrate that Australia has become fertile territory for the growth of diverse ‘techno tribes’. By such, I mean mobile social units like sound systems, performance troupes, experimental music and alternative media collectives implicated in an alternative technocultural network. Challenging a prevailing view of disenchanted and alienated youth, these inspired and proactive extropians are committed to a range of concerns—from the production of avant-garde soundscapes to the reduction of greenhouse gases, from non-corporate music production and distribution to media co-operatives, from enabling community space to organising and running benefits, from a nuclear free planet to a free Tibet. Post-rave technotribes are a technocultural variant of ‘neotribes’, which Michel Maffesoli explains are elective, unstable and fluid micro-cultures of sentiment and aestheticisation.62In the late 20th century post- industrial period, resultant of voluntary associations coincident 61 Rufus Lane, email in Kronic Oscillator XV 1997: http://www.clananalogue.org BEETLE-MANTICE CONFEST NYE 96-97 62 Michel Maffesoli, The Time of the Tribes: the Decline of Individualism in Mass (PHOTO: KENT) Society, London, Sage, 1996. Acquired from 36 © copyright 2001 37 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA to elective consumption strategies, youth cultural formations mailing lists, newsletters and web-zines. The internet also grew independent from the structural determination facilitates independent music distribution via streaming audio (particularly class) and rigid characterisation of youth and MPEG-Level III (or mp3) compression. Organarchy Sound ‘subculture’. Consistent with ‘neotribalism’, technotribes are Systems, for example, have set up a ‘public domain sound interconnected in a network, each node representing a possible archive’ (‘mpfree’)64 where demo tracks are hosted as freeware. site of belonging for contemporary nomads, achieving their The site is made available by Cat@lyst,65 a Sydney collective fullest (sometimes only) expression in the party, the festival, committed to providing internet access to community activists, the TAZ, the direct action, the doof, or, as it is often designated, who were responsible for creating the open-source self- the ‘corroboree’. Yet, such contemporary youth formations are publishing software used by Indymedia.66 Furthermore, the digital also configurations of ‘DiY culture’, which George McKay sampling and recording technology mastered by the likes of describes as an oppositional movement. Fashionably Organarchy and the wider electro-milieu, enables creative committed to pleasure and politics, such new formations are pirating of public domain media debris on a scale which not disengaged from the political (as in Maffesoli), but harbour represents a serious challenge to the concept of copyright. ideological agendas reflecting an ecological sensibility, and Within a collective framework, some ‘tribes’ facilitate skill non-exploitative, non-colonialist, attitudes. and resource sharing. Originating in Sydney in 1992, and now The rough ethical-consumerist orientation which sometimes with nodes in nearly every Australian capital, Clan Analogue unites such neotribes operates within a climate of technical is an experimental electronic arts collective consisting of sound proficiency and artistic skill. Progressively accessible and composers, visual artists, coders, DJs, video artists, writers affordable technologies, new digital audio and video and designers.67 According to Jon Holdsworth (aka Purple developments and computer mediated communications are World) from Clan Analogue Melbourne, manifesting with harnessed in local, national and global interventions. Technotribes different lineups and studio techniques, Clan resembles UK have taken advantage of new technologies enabling decentralised 4AD label’s This Mortal Coil. Clan Analogue began as an production (eg. MIDI and CD burners), and the internet has been ensemble of enthusiasts valuing the ‘tonal richness, popularly harnessed as a support mechanism in efforts to controllability and flexibility’ of analogue drum machines and ‘transcend state-regulated cartographies’.63 Websites are used by synthesisers. Following the digitalised simulation of the early all as promotional devices, to advertise event locations, analogue instruments throughout the nineties, Scot Art (aka communicate philosophies and as portals for email subscription, 64 http://reflect.cat.org.au/mpfree 65 http://www.cat.org.au 63 Chris Gibson, ‘Subversive Sites: Rave, Empowerment and the Internet’. 66 www.indymedia.org. Winner of B(if)tek’s 2001 Wired Innovative Naughty Kids Paper presented at the IASPM Conference — Sites and Sounds: Popular (WINK) ‘most outstanding electronic music project’ category (www.biftek.com). Music in the Age of the Internet, 1997. 67 http://www.clananalogue.org Acquired from 38 © copyright 2001 39 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Nerve Agent) informs me that analogue is ‘a process or a state subordinate role of women in electronic music culture. For of being’, apparently not distant from the idea of a collective, instance, a project to realise ‘women powered gigs’ with an or a network of circuit paths. According to Scot, ‘a single ‘inclusory vibe’, Sisters @ the Underground grew from Clan transistor alone can only do so much … it needs a circuit, Analogue in early 1996 and represented dissatisfaction on the other transistors, to operate’. Not ‘digital creatures’, humans part of some women with male dominated decision making ‘are analogue wetware, a chemical-electrical circuit that exists processes within the collective.70 More recently, Chicks with in a network (society, nature) that allows these circuits to Decks, a forum, then all-female deejay crew, emerged in connect … to “oscillate” or otherwise display behaviour in Sydney. Women have also been heavily involved in seeding accordance to … electro-magnetic theory’. As a social circuit and facilitating events. Take for example, Jilly the Dragonqueen board, Clan enables the building of networks by providing (Jilly Magee) who has assisted the operation of many members with access to equipment, knowledge and advice, Queensland events, though probably most known for along with the opportunity to play live and co-produce music. originating Dragonflight which, between new year 96/97 and Despite the privileged position of males within electronic 99/00, attracted a host of Brisbane’s underground artists. music culture, women are heavily involved in the production of post-rave technoculture in Australia. Heir to something of the DiY punk influenced ‘grrrl power’ or ‘riot girl’ movement of the early nineties, which saw the formation of all or majority- women bands in the alternative music scene, and specialist zines—examples of young women ‘marking a new feminist space for themselves’68—there are increasing numbers of female electronic musicians and deejays including those volunteering their services in Free NRG fundraisers. Refusing to ‘scribble quietly in the corner’, Melbourne’s Nicole Lowrey (aka DJ Toupee) recently set up Femmebots as an online directory of ‘techno Femme Fatales’ (female deejays and producers).69 Other attempts have been made to contest the TINKERBELL FIRETWIRLING, RAINBOW SERPENT FESTIVAL 2000 68 A Harris, ‘Is DIY DOA? Zines and the Revolution, Grrrl Style’, in White, R. (ed) Australian Youth Subcultures: On the Margins and in the Mainstream, Hobart, (PHOTO: KATH WHEATLEY) Australian Clearing House of Youth Studies, 1999, pp.84-93. 69 http://www.femmebots.com 70 S@U, Sisters @ The Underground, Sporadical no4, 1997, p.24. Acquired from 40 © copyright 2001 41 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The ideological, spiritual and hedonistic traits of DiY Implying association with Aboriginal inter-tribal technotribes are imagineered into a range of doofs that, like gatherings, ‘corroboree’ is a widely used trope designating Dragonflight, are often ‘inter-tribal’ collaborations. These something like an authentic ‘tribal’ or ‘sacred’ experience. The events, sometimes referred to as ‘corroborees’, are festive sacrality of an event is further augmented via the social networks. ‘Psychedelic communities’, ‘political parties’ acknowledgement of the region’s indigeneity and, not unlike or enclaves of ‘disappearance’, they provide a sense of that transpiring in other contemporary Australian public events community for culturally estranged youth. Hillgonda Rietveld (ie. the Sydney Olympics and the opening of Museum Victoria), has described the significance of such events for those similarly being welcomed (or ‘opened’) by indigenous authorities dissident, outraged or just outrageous: effectively validates the experience. Such was apparently the For those who feel they have been dislocated in a political sense, made homeless in more ways than one, intense dance parties can provide a strong sense of community. Comparable to Caribbean sound systems, hip hop gatherings, gospel congregations or gay clubs. At times, the cultural output of the DiY dance scene seems to take on a cultural logic which in some way is comparable to migrant and diasporic communities.71 This sense of a shared exiled status is a fitting description for many Australian doofs. Industrial hard core orientated event ‘The Real Fuck Begin’, held in Sydney for New Year 2000/01 by System Corrupt (self-described as ‘anonymous agitators of the global free tekno underworld’) is an example of such.72 Hosting more diverse electronic music styles, along with activist information stalls, a healing zone and various workshops, Melbourne crew Psycorroboree’s annual Gaian Thump demonstrated that such communities can possess a proactive constituency. MUTOID WASTE GIANT FANNY PORTAL, NIMBIN ’96 71 Hillegonda Rietveld, ‘Repetitive Beats: Free Parties and the Politics of Contemporary DiY Dance Culture in Britain’, in McKay DiY Culture, p.260. (PHOTO. KRUSTY) 72 http://www.systemcorrupt.com Acquired from 42 © copyright 2001 43 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA case at Earthstomp 99, imagineered by WA’s Tribe of Gaia— The new ‘corroborees’ are sites where ultimate concerns whose boundaries are ‘defined by gravity and biosphere, not are celebrated, dramatised or demonstrated. An environmental illusions like nationhood or class’. Earthstomp was held on ethos is a particularly pervasive concern in post-rave culture. the Easter full moon at Indjidup — described as ‘a respected It is not uncommon to witness ecological ethics expressed in place, a meeting place, a Dreaming place’. For co-ordinator party promotions where for example, the phrase ‘leave nothing Denise Groves: behind ... tread lightly’ conveys respect for the natural I felt it was very important that Earthstomp had an indigenous environment.74 Some events possess a distinct earth honouring component as a recognition that we, the Aboriginal peoples— theme. Earthstomp 99, for example, was a ‘forum for any the first peoples—have been the custodians of Australia for inhabitant to give ecstatic homage to their planet’.75 But over 50,000 years…I feel tribal gatherings are a great way clearing up after a party or celebrating the planet’s beauty is to foster co-existence, and couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of pride and honour when the Wardani not nearly enough for those on a more pragmatic quest to elders welcomed Earthstomp participants onto their land.73 combine pleasure with politics. Planting native trees and Transpiring over several days and nights, participants at cranking it up, Melbourne’s Tranceplant collective have, along ‘techno-corroborees’ like Gaian Thump and Earthstomp are with their Queensland compatriots Scleromorph,76 emerged more inhabitants than ‘punters’. Accommodating multiple to operate Australia’s ‘Environmental Sounds Events’. Other ‘tribes’ committed to varying technical, artistic, esoteric and technotribal convergences dramatise issues relating to the pedagogic pursuits, they are each like a festive-matrix enabling activities of the forest and mining industries, and are often neophytes to gravitate towards variant social nodes, to ‘plug designed to fund campaigns mounted in opposition to these in’ to new meme and sound sources. Such can be highly industries. Furthermore, with the emergence of intercultural inspirational. Replete with mysterious pathways leading to cul- gatherings in recent times, technotribes have demonstrated their de-sacs of untold weirdness and grottos of arcane aurality, the support for Aboriginal communities and their causes. For topography encourages novices to stray into unfamiliar instance, on ‘Invasion Day’ (Australia Day) 2000, the Ohms territory. Enabling oscillation between on-site nodes, the not Bombs ‘Free NRG convoy’ traveled to the Aboriginal Tent subterranean technopolis may also condition a kind of ‘inter- Embassy in Canberra to assist in activities commemorating tribal’ promiscuity—leading to hybrid identities and further the Aboriginal Declaration of Sovereignty which had been collaborations. presented to the federal government on the 28th January 1992.77 74 It is often argued that this is compromised when ‘sensitive environments’ are subjected to 12 hours+ of thumping bass. 75 Rowe and Groves ibid, p.160. 73 Kelly Rowe and Denise Groves, ‘Earthstomp ’99’, in Dearling and Hanley 76 http://www.tranceplant.org, http://www.elven.com.au/scleromorph Alternative Australia, pp.159-61. 77 Free NRG tour 2000: http://www.omsnotbombs.org/index2.htm Acquired from 44 © copyright 2001 45 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA In 2000, the Earthdream technomadic protest-theatre had also rainforest, midnight in London, afternoon in San Francisco realised considerable intercultural dialogue and alliance and sunrise over the Himalayas—the global link-up is a forming outcomes. In the same spirit, motivated to ‘do profound and powerful moment that focuses the intention of something active for reconciliation’, Hocus Focus held millions of people on the affirmation of global peace’. Funds Coexistdance at the Lake Tyres Trust Reserve—Bung raised are donated to humanitarian causes. In 2000, events Yarnda—in Victoria on NYE 2000/01. According to Karl transpired in 71 cities in 33 countries, with Earthdance Sydney Fitzgerald, who had spent 12 weeks negotiating with traditional raising funds for Land Care Australia to maintain and improve owners to gain their permission, the former mission site became the water quality in the Wollondilly River Catchment.79 a non-violent dance-scape attended by 200 Koories—‘proving again that dancing can free your mind’.78 Demarcated zones of wonder and beauty, moments of transcendence, connection and purpose, ‘techno- corroborees’—especially trance events—are commonly felt to possess a religious ambience—to be potent sources of spiritual replenishment and maturity. This is most famously a characteristic of Earthdance, described as ‘a global dance party for world peace and healing’. From its inception in 1997 to 1999, the event focused on the plight of the Tibetan people, and in 2000 expanded to include other significant global causes though remaining ‘a united global dancefloor’ held in multiple locations simultaneously. Earthdance climaxes with a synchronized dance-floor link-up when a specially recorded song, ‘The Prayer for Peace’, is played at every event on the planet at 12 midnight GMT: ‘Morning in the Australian EARTHDANCE 99 @ BILLBOARD, MELBOURNE (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 78 Karl Fitzgerald, ‘Coexistdance – Lake Tyres Trust: Bung Yarnda’. Unpublished document. 79 http://www.earthdance.org Acquired from 46 © copyright 2001 47 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The spiritual dimension to such events has evolved from called a ‘shamanistic inspired anarchy’ or ‘shamanarchy’, the consciousness raising element of preceding ‘summers of seems to have provided similar inspiration for the Metamorphic love’. ‘Spirit’ here is often thought to lie at the junctures of Ritual Theatre Company’s Labyrinth installations. Designed cyber and body technologies—computers and psychedelics— by Chaos Magician Orryelle—who once proclaimed ‘Fuck the and to be consequent to youth cultural experimentation with Patriarchy; Fuck the Matriarchy; Let’s just have An -archy!’— such ‘cyberdelic’ devices. Experimental esoteric landscapes, the Labyrinths were interactive ritual initiation cycles weaving doofs may effect personal ‘peak experiences’ as the following ‘a multi-cultural and multi-subcultural tapestry of ancient memory of Technofest ‘97 intimates: mythologies and modern technology’.81 There were some moments which overwhelmed me Commentators expound upon the spiritual potential of completely — standing swaying on the edge of the waterhole, ‘enviroteque‘ trance events as rituals of communion. That such illuminated by swirling projections looking out at a performance which completely blurred the line between events occasion a non-differentiated experience, a kind of hallucination and theatre. Across the water amongst the temporary techno-communitas, transcending the boundaries twisted roots of a dead tree was a big industrial harp made between self and other is championed by many.82 Psy-trance of iron pipes and wire. Strumming the harp was a aficionado Ray Castle, asserts that outdoor parties ‘celebrate postapocalyptic cyberchick, lurching and plucking like a an experiential celestial electro-communion—a participation demented animal. Emerging slowly from the murky water was some kind of aquatic beast clad in mud, streaming water mystique—with the numinous oneness and interconnectivity and some kind of skeletal bovine mask. He would emerge of all creation’.83 According to Kathleen Williamson, while slowly from the water as if entranced by the siren playing sounds produced by the likes of Castle constitute ‘the new the harp. He would then slowly submerge only to rise again epic poetry’, trance dance ‘is the “coming of age” ritual which from another part of the waterhole. It was really too much for this humble raver, I had to look around for friends to Western culture has long forgotten’. For Williamson, in the help me deal with it and ended up lying on my back in the doof, ‘tekno anarcho-activists understand the power of the dust, grinning with disbelief.80 gnosis of trance, and may use lots of tricks and techniques to Such epiphanies mark transitions, and perhaps become “direct” the energy of the dance’. While sound is the chief rites of passage into new states of being. Interactive ritual- means by which transcendence and inner-knowledge may be theatre installations built into doof foundations borrow from a achieved in such contexts, ‘artists have also buried crystals cornucopia of floating signifiers and iconographical traditions. 81 From the ‘ticket’ for the ConFest Easter ‘97 Labyrinth. See: The panorama of indigenous and ‘traditional’ belief systems http://www.crossroads.wild.net.au/lab.html and practices which inspired what ‘zippie’ Frazer Clark had 82 For example, see Scot Hutson, ‘Technoshamanism: Spiritual Healing in the Rave Subculture’, Popular Music and Society, vol23 no3, 1999, pp:53-77. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2822/3_23/64190176/print.html 80 Lane ibid. 83 Castle ibid, p.146. Acquired from 48 © copyright 2001 49 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA under dance areas, used static visual art or computer generated INHABITING SPACE visuals, and in particular [have investigated] … the symbology ‘Stomping’ is a significant means of inhabiting space, and iconography of ancient magickal and spiritual traditions’. whether forest, desert, beach, park, warehouse or street. Furthermore, in ‘reviving lost traditions’ and investing them Dancescape occupation can be an imaginative process of with ‘new technological innovation’, the dance rite constitutes appropriating, inverting, dwelling in and marking out place. This an answer to modern distancing from natural world rhythms: is especially significant to the DiY scene, as doofs are often Our convenient industrial cultures have practically negated reported to reclaim public space. While the proliferating nineties our direct relationship with the earth and its seasons and cycles, Reclaim the Streets campaign represents an exemplary process and it seems that there is less and less reason to rely on, let of inverting the meaning and purpose of public space, especially alone investigate our instinctual being. Our experiences with sound, psychedelics and the dance ritual are the stirrings of in countries where such demonstrations are anomalous or communicating via the ebb and flow of the earth’s rhythms prohibited,87 these events are not always so public. Like their and letting it seep into our collective emotions.84 underground predecessors, informal dance parties have usually Eugene ENRG, aka DJ Krusty, traces the collective been means by which young people mark out local places for paroxysm of trance dance back to its putative Pagan or ‘tribal’ themselves—by which space has been rendered significant (inhabited). In the ‘subversive appropriation of cracks in the urban origins.85 Involving the assumption of an ‘Earth presence’, there is a prevailing chthonic aspect to this dance philosophy. Krusty informs that ‘energy’ located in and channeled from the Australian landscape is responsible for the ecstatic states associated with outdoor doofs: I think there’s a sense of the spirit of the land. This land we now call Australia has a real spirit to being stomped. And if you’ve ever watched Aboriginal dance, its very much about stomping the earth ... if you watch techno ... it’s very much about stomping the earth .... [it] brings energy into the body, Earth energy into the body.86 EARTHDREAM2000 DANCEFLOOR, ALBERRIE CREEK SOUTH AUSTRALIA (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 84 Kathleen Williamson, Trance Magick: http://www.hofmann.org/voices/aussie.html 85 Related in Graham St John, ‘Heal thy Self - thy Planet’: ConFest, Eco-Spirituality 87 RTS road protests are reported to date back to 1971 in London. See D. Wall, and the Self/Earth Nexus’, Australian Religion Studies Review, vol14 no1, 2001. Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and 86 From interview with the author, Dec 1997. Comparative Social Movements, London, Routledge, 1999 p.29. Acquired from 50 © copyright 2001 51 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA landscape’, otherwise disused or derelict spaces are transformed, The most renowned occupation of public space in Australia as in the conversion of a meatworks carpark in Sydney’s is probably Vibe Tribe’s frequent revisitation upon Sydney Park Alexandria into a youth arts and rehabilitation centre called the opposite St Peter’s Railway Station, Sydney, where, in April Graffiti Hall of Fame,88 and the sonic squatting performed by 1995, their Freequency party was violently dispersed by Melbourne Underground Development in a post-industrial police.90 Perhaps the most spectacular urban pirate utopia warehouse complex in Footscray’s Maribyrnong Wharves precinct transpired in Melbourne in February 2000, when under the (the Global Village), or inverted, as in the occupation of the Westgate overpass, a temporary free-state was populated in Northcote Bowls Club.89 close visual proximity to the city. A marginal ‘edutainment’ complex complete with multiple dance floors, kitchen and info stall, System Malfunction was designed to raise funds for the upcoming Earthdream mission. Amplifying drum ’n’ bass and ragga roots from a concrete platform forming the base of a huge girder, international sound systems Bedlam (UK), Negust Negast (UK) and SPAZ (US) joined forces with local sonic mobs Ohms Not Bombs and Labrats who set up separate dance floors and an ‘activist chill lounge’ respectively. At the edge of the metropolis, under the shadow of one of the country’s largest bridges, through the night and into the day, alternative cultural territory was carved out—an island of freedom incubating transgressive transactions and enabling progressive awareness raising transmissions. DJ KRUSTY @ BRUNSWICK STREET FESTIVAL (PHOTO. PANCHO) 88 http://www.graffitihalloffame.com 89 Quote is from Chris Gibson 1997, ibid. The Graffiti ‘Hall’, an ‘anarchic headquarters for the self-empowerment of unemployed youth’ closed down by the pro-residential development South Sydney Council in March 2000 after a prolonged court battle, was founded by ‘underground saint’ Tony Spanos - who has also supported Ohms 90 Sebastian Chan, ‘“The Cops are Jammin’ the Frequency”: Critical Moments for not Bombs, funded wildstyle mural projects in Redfern, Newtown and Erskinville, the Sydney Free Party Scene’, http://www.cia.com.au/peril/youth/index.htm. In 1997, and sponsored various Aboriginal sports programs and music workshops. Mick Daley, a community access sound system called ‘Quency’ was named in honour of that ‘Under Siege: Graffiti Hall of Fame’, Sydney City Hub , 2nd March 2000. ‘struggle for free autonomous space’. From Sporadical no 4, Spring 1997, p.21. Acquired from 52 © copyright 2001 53 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA When four hundred people were transported on a ferry to The outdoor journey which potentiates connection to the Shark Island, 2 kms from shore in Sydney’s Rose Bay on natural environment is a recurrent and important theme. As February 18 1996 for Cryogenesis’91 biannual day time Tramacchi points out, the ‘location of doofs in an ecological ‘avante-garde chillout project’, they experienced something environment promotes a sense of linking the doof community more than a literal ‘island of freedom’. Special K describes to the landscape and allows the occurrence of spontaneous the transportation as something like a ‘rite of passage’ to ‘this mystical bonds with nature’.93 Perhaps such bonding is enabled essentially Sydney space, magically incorporating its cityscape as metropolitan inhabitants are transported from inner city and the amniotic fluid of the harbour offering rebirth and ‘pleasure prisons’ to Free NRG outdoor dancescapes. renewal’. Disembarking, the denizens of those confined spaces of ‘timelessness and eternal night’, inner city nightclubs and raves, awoke ‘into the finite daytime … into public visible space’. On Shark Island: temporal hours of sunlight ruled over all and the children of technology were forced to obey the laws of nature once more … The day provided stimulation for all bodily senses, the eyes and ears being privileged by the combined landscape, seascape and soundscape. In more subtle ways the senses of smell, touch and taste were also stimulated by the environment. The taste and smell of seaspray, fresh air, marijuana and increasingly warm alcohol, the feel of grass, sand, water and rocks under feet temporarily freed from the bounds of shoes. These senses also evolved throughout the day for many as other chosen stimulants altered states of mind and added to the sense of occasion, of celebration and of physical and mental travel away from the everyday.99 BEACH PARTY @ HALF MOON BAY, BLACK ROCK, 21 FEB 98 (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 91 Cryogenesis began in 1993 as the event-organisation of Sub Bass Snarl sound system (www.snarl.org) who originated in Sydney in 1991/92. Since 1995, Cryogenesis has organised Sydney’s Freaky Loops Festival raising funds for Sydney Community Radio 2SER. 92 Special K, ‘The Body, Cryogenesis and the TAZ’, http://www.cia.com.au/peril/texts/ features/cryo-taz-k.htm 93 Tramacchi, ‘Field Tripping’, p.208. Acquired from 54 © copyright 2001 55 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA CONCLUSION By the time dance/rave culture escalated in Australia, the particular form of nocturnal rebellion which rave represented had emerged as a fashionable form of youth resistance. Raving had become a marketable leisure pursuit—and the quality of subversion it offered was obtainable in regulated doses at a steadily increasing price. Moreover, the ‘subversive’ dimensions it possessed were in large part imported from a country where a generation of youth had had their practices— dancing all night to a filthy rhythm—heavily legislated against, effectively politicising activities that were often not necessarily oppositional or radical. Despite two terms of conservative government, the regulation of dance practices in Australia does not resemble the UK experience. While the comparatively vast landmass and relatively sparse population seem to be central to this comparison, the distinctive qualities of Australian ecological and cultural history, upon which the Howard and preceding Governments have made their mark, have triggered a response in contemporary youth cultures. An influential UK DiY movement not withstanding, Australia’s geophysical, historical and political landscape has given form to a radicalism inscribed in local post-rave culture. The continuing threat to high conservation value areas, rainforests and wetlands, a burgeoning uranium industry, an indigenous rights movement and the struggle for independence, meaning and legitimacy are issues significant to a growing population of young Australians. Acquired from 56 © copyright 2001 57 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE In a general sense, copyright (the central plank of corporate Other elements of ‘local’ production systems for DiY property rights in music) has not completely disappeared in material involve the distribution channels used to promote CD local music production, with artists on the whole affirming releases. Networks of communication and information flow the need for legal protection of their works. To some extent an are crucial in sustaining the region’s various electronic awareness of copyright has probably been heightened through subcultures (psy-trance, drumnbass, house, doof). Flyers and the advent of digital technology, where artist control of posters around towns are important ways of disseminating copyright (through ownership of masters) has replaced the information with little expense; community radio stations abstractions of copyright held by a third party. At the same support specialist shows; local papers and street press list time, issues of copyright were not given the same prominence venues and performances. In the North Coast region the social as in national and international debates on technology and praxis of production is usually interlinked with consumption; music. While copyright issues were spoken of in interviews, musicians are usually regular customers of retail outlets who they were not identified as crucial to the future of the region’s accept their releases on consignment, while social groups, music industry. Accordingly, twenty-five releases provided no subcultures and political/lobbying organisations provide the details on copyright ownership. For DiY enthusiasts in smaller support mechanisms for musicians at benefit gigs, community production agglomerations, the stakes are simply not as high events, festivals and markets. These groups then make up the as with multinational catalogue owners. Meanwhile, electronic target audiences for releases that appear in the region. In this music collectives aligned with more radical political agendas, regard, music promotion capitalises on already existing social notable Organarchy Sound Systems (based in the small hamlet networks and political-economic beliefs; networks are of Rosebank) adopted anti-copyright stances, encouraging established through political circles—environmental activists, sampling and copying of their work through association with anarchists, students, socialists—that lead to electronic artists MACOS (Musicians Against Copyright on Samples), sharing friends and musical spaces with those performing folk, articulating a more direct affront to the systems of private spoken word, poetry and some thrash/funk. The most well- property ownership upon which multinational profit is based. known examples of these are regular events held in village dance halls, that were rediscovered as part of a search for alternative, non-alcohol aligned and cheap sites for parties. Often connected through non-government organisations and protest groups to particular audiences, hall gigs place a distinctive emphasis on ‘community’ and the singularity (rather than regularity) of particular events. Acquired from 390 © copyright 2001 391 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE BEYOND THE LOCAL — also helped to stage larger events in more rural locations such DIGITAL NETWORKS AS RADICAL SPACES as the 1999 Summer Dreaming Festival at Drake, inland from the North Coast region. There have also been other reactions to the position of the region in relation to music capitalism and means of production. During 1999 Luna Orbit, under the name Orbit These emphasise going beyond localism, but in ways that do Constructions, released the CD Fresh Green Eggs, featuring not automatically assume intentions to travel through expected low-key trance electronica with samples and drum loops. In chains of production, distribution and consumption. With an this case, music was produced that was not intended to be emphasis on mobility and the erosion of geographical distance initially consumed by people in their own homes through mass and barriers, these strategies attempt to go beyond the ‘local distribution. The mini discs and CD-Rs produced by members as site of resistance’ paradigm and aim to integrate local of the Digital Psionics collective were distributed through musicians in wider networks of influence and dissemination. global social networks of trance DJs and producers (largely With these changes come new sets of linkages between music based on email), radio stations and event promoters, with and place, and an emerging political economy of music intended consumption in (re)constructed dance party production connected to a wider sense of radical activity. environments and DJ sets. Fred Cole, another local electronic music producer (and half of D*Ranger) describes a particularly Electronic artists in the region taking advantage in the vivid example of these sorts of networks: growth of digital home recording technology aimed to produce I recently produced a track in DAT format that was played commodities that were not intended to ‘take off’ in terms of in London three days after first being played on the NSW retail sales, and instead were targeted at networks of subcultural North Coast. A few weeks later the same track arrived back influence and alliance through which products move for on the North Coast via a visiting Israeli DJ who had received consumption in particular social spaces. One example of this it from a German DJ in Tokyo.16 is the trance/techno label Digital Psionics, run by DJs Luke Psywalker and Luna Orbit. In similar ways to those apparent in the North Coast’s folk scene, the production of psy-trance compilations by Digital Psionics was funded through staging a series of events at halls and local venues. These involved low overheads (Luke estimated only A$150 in costs, mainly for hiring a generator); collectively-owned P.A. system and DJ equipment; and grass-roots promotion through flyers and their weekly trance show on Bay-FM. Digital Psionics have 16 Cole, F and Hannan, M (1998) ‘The place of (music)ology in the study of music production’, Perfect Beat, 4, 1, 118-120. Acquired from 392 © copyright 2001 393 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE This reflected a number of particularities of the politics of CONCLUSIONS: DEFLATING THE ‘DIGITAL REVOLUTION’? contemporary electronic music production. First, releases were Is it possible to assert that technological change in the music not targeted for retail sales. The subcultural capital assigned to industry has enabled musicians in regional areas greater access these commodities comes from being unavailable for purchase to recording technology and opened up potential systems of through conventional retail. The preference for trance DJs to production for local music? In the first instance, the advent of beat mix with CDs, minidiscs and DAT tapes rather than vinyl, home recording has unambiguously enabled artists to control the standard in other fragments of dance cultures, was buttressed more aspects of the production process, something that often on the rarity of a commodity rather than its ubiquity as a mass- consumed product. Indeed, the credibility of dance DJs as troubled many studio engineers interviewed for this research. cultural gatekeepers relies on their ability to filter releases and The recording and production of commodities was often carried select tracks from personal sources and informal networks, out by musicians, a shift from divisions of labour which posited promoting their own individual style over the imprints of the musician as one component in a production process alongside creativity found in the recordings themselves. In interviews with sound engineers and assistants, production directors, mastering producers at Digital Psionics, they discussed the extent to which engineers, pressing plants. Musicians are now the target they would reserve material they had received for special events consumer group of equipment required for production rather (rather than play it on their radio show, in order to limit its than high capital intensive companies. On the Far North Coast, exposure and the risk of home taping). It also became apparent this meant that quite diverse musical experiments were released that for them it was more important to be seen making cutting- and stocked on shelves of local music stores, leading to a rise in edge music in an international landscape of producers, DJs and the general level of musical experimentation and involvement. promoters than to maximise retail sales in local or national Like the advent of any new technology, there is always a markets. Rather, emphasis was placed on creating a combination tendency towards an inflation of the importance of changes in of rarity and high demand for their expressions among a small production processes. While digital recording gear is capable number of ‘influential’ people within the global trance music of producing high-quality material, this does not mean that all nexus, in order to promote the credibility of the label and assert digital recordings will indeed achieve a professional level of its identity in a tightly interconnected trance distribution network. sound. Conventional studios are still likely to be utilised for In October 1999, the label released the compilation CD Psionic projects funded by major corporate interests, mostly established Sounds, featuring tracks sourced from various points throughout artists. In addition to this, artists keen to use digital technology their electronic network of associate DJs and friends, including still have to raise necessary funds to purchase equipment and/ Morphem (Berlin); Dogma (Zagreb, Croatia); In Sect (Uppsala, or a powerful home computer. While the costs of such hardware Sweden) and Fripic Bounce (Torino, Italy), alongside Byron are dramatically cheaper than previous recording technology, Bay sound systems. Acquired from 394 © copyright 2001 395 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE these developments do not automatically infer a completely In addition, systems of production that have emerged in democratic musical production environment, most obviously Australian electronic music circles and on the Far North Coast for those unable to afford a computer, racks of effects or digital only partly deal with the dilemmas of distribution: the fact mixing desks in the first place. that power in ‘conventional’ music capitalism is now So, it would be highly premature to suggest that the concentrated in the nexus of control and distribution of emergence of these forms of music production and distribution copyright material. While music production of the type have completely replaced, or even made a significant impact described here tended to exist in discrete networks of producers on the established means of production in the music industry. and consumers, it is unlikely to impact on wider markets for Paul Chambers, who runs his own digital suite in the hamlet music commodities. Internet distribution has been discussed of Possum’s Creek and participates in the Edgecore collective, as one way of bridging gaps between artists/producers and acknowledged the advances in home recording equipment that wider markets, beyond the reach of multinational interests in have enabled his own creativity to emerge in the field of the music industry. Yet these too, can only succeed with points electronic dance music, yet offered a less utopian view of the of access from other key sites. At the same time as home wider commercial viability of home recordings, and the need production has become more apparent in Australian electronica for further mastering and professional promotion: and in regions such as the Far North Coast, it has also exploded in Europe, North America and Asia (such as Japan’s taku-roku To a certain extent it’s changed. You’ve got access to a lot more software, and it’s quite easy to make your own music, ‘home recording’ movement). While this is a very positive which wasn’t available 10 years ago, 20 years ago, but I’ve thing in terms of widening the scope of grass-roots music been making music, we go and get it mastered, and there is production and the possibilities of transmitting recordings a level where the better gear you’ve got, the better sound across geographical space, without strategic linkages as with you’re going to get, so there is still that. We just try to do the best we can.17 Digital Psionics’ subcultural alliances, or Organarchy’s network of activist connections, new and vibrant sounds, as well as the radical possibilities of electronic dance cultures, are likely to be swallowed up in a sea of digital noise. 17 Gibson, C (2000) Decentred sounds: systems of provision for popular music and a regional music industry, PhD thesis, University of Sydney. Acquired from 396 © copyright 2001 397 www.ozauthors.com.au 

Copyright Graham St John Published by Graham St John ISBN 1 74064 090 X FREENRG Subject category Dance Music, Activism, Cultural Studies NOTES FROM THE EDGE OF THE DANCEFLOOR EDITED BY GRAHAM ST JOHN Cover Design: Mark Brooks Graphic Design: brooks@tig.com.au Editing, production coordination and online promotions: Feelergauge (Colin Hood) www.feelergauge.net All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recovery or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author, except for downloading for the purpose of private review and study, or for other fair dealing for the purposes of research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act. Acquired from www.ozauthors.com.au CONTENTS ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS ........................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ix FOREWORD .............................................................................................. xi INTRODUCTION —TECHNO INFERNO ............................................................1 PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA ....................................................... 11 Chapter One —Doof! Australian Post-Rave Culture ........................... 12 Chapter Two — Propagating Abominable Knowledge: Zines on the Tekno Fringe .................................................................... 58 PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSTEMS SOUND ............................... 89 Chapter Three — Sound Systems and Australian DiY Culture: Folk Music for the Dot Com Generation .............................................. 90 Chapter Four — Doofstory: Sydney Park to the Desert ..................... 112 Chapter Five — Tuning Technology to Ecology: Labrats Sola Powered Sound System ................................................. 142 Chapter Six — Techno Terra-ism: Feral Systems and Sound Futures ........................ 172 PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION ...................................................... 203 Chapter Seven — Mutoid Waste Recycledelia and Earthdream ........204 Chapter Eight — Psychic Sonics: Tribadelic Dance Trance-formation .................................................... 250 Chapter Nine—Chaos Engines: Doofs, Psychedelics and Religious Experience .................................. 274 Chapter Ten — Directions to the Game: Barrellful of Monkeys ....... 300 PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE ......................................................... 321 Chapter Eleven—Practice Random Acts: Reclaiming The Streets of Australia1 ................................................. 322 Chapter Twelve—Carnival at Crown Casino: S11 as Party and Protest .....................................................................348 Chapter 13—Appropriating the Means of Production: Dance Music Industries and Contested Digital Space ........................ 370 Acquired from www.ozauthors.com.au ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS RAY CASTLE http://www.dromo.com/fusionanomaly/raycastle.html Born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1955, Ray (aka Masaray, Mantaray, Metaray) is a new media and occult sciences artist. He was visual arts and sound curator/director of ‘Closet Artists Gallery’ during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and wrote and performed rock, punk, funk and industrial music during this period. He was awarded an Arts Council Travel grant in 1983 to travel to America and Europe. He wrote and performed rap and hip hop during the mid ‘80s, and DJ’d at ‘psychedelic’ disco/ techno parties in Goa, India, Tokyo, Europe and Australia from 1986. Ray self-identifies as a techno shamanic ‘trancetheologian’ and has produced material released on various labels (including Psy-Harmonics, Green Ant, Matsuri, Edgecore). ROBIN COOKE Robin was Born in Tangiers, Morocco, in 1952. He was educated at Worth Abbey and Hadlow College of Agriculture in London, drove tractors in Hyde Park, after which he became a self employed engineer/mechanic. He co-founded Mutoid Waste Co in London on 1983-84 with a five year series of squat warehouse parties, traveled Europe in 1989-90, and first came to Australia in 1991. In that year, he built a car-henge at ConFest and having seeded the Earthdream idea, convened Earthdream I. After returning to Berlin he arrived back in Australia in 1995 to continue the Earthdream (www.beam.to/earthdream) project. Acquired from i www.ozauthors.com.au EUGENE ENRG CHRIS GIBSON Krusty@greenant.com cgibson@unsw.edu.au After completing BSc and BA degrees and working in Chris is lecturer in urban economic geography, University public relations and marketing for a community organisation, of New South Wales. His PhD thesis examined the politics of from 1990 Eugene (aka DJ Krusty) produced a varied and the Australian music industry and regional music production, multi-disciplined body of work which has included dance, and he has published a number of articles about music, space performance art, gallery exhibition, installation, composition, and politics. He has worked in record stores, community radio DJ and live music, poetry, film and television. All work has and played in numerous musical outfits (including current been of an independent nature, centering on the emerging projects Coco Don’t and Sonic Wallpaper). He is co-author of techno culture. In 1996, awarded a New Image research grant Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place (due out from the Australian Film Commission, he produced through Routledge in 2001). TEK<KNOW>BUTOH, an attempt at creating a visual trance dance narrative experience. Since 1993, he has created many KURT IVESON doofs (such as those at ConFest, Earthcore, Earthdance, Every Kurt.Iveson@durham.ac.uk Picture, Reclaim the Streets, Earthdream, Transelements and Kurt Iveson is a lecturer in cultural and social geography at Urban Forest Odyssey) all with the primary goal of creating a the University of Durham. He recently completed a PhD thesis psychedelic spiritual space for people to enter trance, and about conflicts over public space in Australian cities. He is evolve their consciousness in a supportive and positive way. subscriptions manager for Youth, Sound and Space With his Green Ant label, collaborating with Aboriginal and (www.snarl.org/youth/index.htm),an electronic discussion group other musicians, he is currently composing new music and for those who have common interests in youth cultures that installation concepts to create a more integrated and profound involve musical practices and the construction of social space. trance dance experience. Acquired from ii © copyright 2001 iii www.ozauthors.com.au LABRATS ENDA MURRAY http://lab-rats.tripod.com enda@cat.org.au Evolving out of the Jabiluka protest in 1998, Labrats is Enda is an Irish writer and media cowboy. He studied at an alternative energy sound/cinema system operated by Izzy Trinity College in Dublin and then, more productively, at the Brown and ‘Monkey’ Marc Peckham. Street performer, rapper, university of life in London squatland in the ‘80s. He has an cartoonist, MC Izzy has been involved in various activist MA from St. Martin’s School of Art in London and has spent campaigns including the Humps not Dumps (http:// 15 years making programs and teaching media to youth groups www.green.net.au/humpsnotdumps) anti-uranium industry trek and to people with learning disabilities. He has recently in 1999, and has manifested various techno fund raisers. produced and directed programs for SBS TV, ABC Radio Initially trained as a geologist, Marc sung and played in several National and for Sydney Indymedia Centre on the world wide bands before DJing funk, reggae and dub and becoming a target web (www.sydney.indymedia.org). He lives in Sydney. for police harassment. The Labrats mobilised in support of Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, having become involved with RAK RAZAM the Keepers of Lake Eyre (http://www.lakeeyre.green.net.au) shazaman@netspace.net.au camp. With a regular presence at Reclaim the Streets actions Rak downloaded into being on a football field in the Otways and other events like Earthdream, the Labrats vehicle runs on during a shamanic ritual/initiation ceremony at Transelements vegetable oil and bears a solar and wind powered system. 2, an outdoor doof in 1997, when the whole universe unwound and deconstructed like an orange peel round a campfire with SUSAN LUCKMAN shooting stars and Elvis singing Edge of Reality mixed in with s.luckman@mailbox.uq.edu.au dub samples from the chill area and massive amounts of inphomation flooding the neo-cortex as the programming code Susan teaches in media and cultural studies at the of the GAME became suddenly apparent. A year and a half stint University of Queensland, and is the author of various articles as writer and Assistant Editor followed at Tekno Renegade on cyberfeminism, the internet, anti-capitalist protests, and Magazine, where his Psyence Fiction column popularized rave (other) contemporary youth cultural practices. She is currently culture for a larger mainstream audience whilst mad monkey writing up her doctoral dissertation on contemporary Australian shenanigans livened up the party circuit. He has also written a dance music cultures, and maintains a personal (as well as graphic novel script, numerous short stories and can be found professional) involvement in movements which problematise phreaking out the narrow bandwith of reality with the Barrelfull the skewed priorities of contemporary global capitalism. of Monkeys (barrelfullofmonkeys@yahoogroups.com), somewhere over the horizon... Acquired from iv © copyright 2001 v www.ozauthors.com.au SEAN SCALMER PETER STRONG sean.scalmer@mq.edu.au ohmsnotbombs@microsuxx.com Sean Scalmer is a research fellow in the Department of Peter (aka DJ Morphism) was born in 1967 in the UK, Politics, Macquarie University. He is currently researching arrived in Australia in 1987 and attended City Art Institute in collective action and the media, and is the author of Dissent Paddington where he gained a BA in 1991 majoring in painting Events: protest, the media and the political gimmick in and screenprinting. He started running a small hi-fi at parties in Australia, UNSW Press, 2001. He is a Sydney Editorial Sydney, formed a sound system called the Sounds Anti System, correspondent for the radical cultural magazine Overland. and met up with the Jellyheads anarchist collective in Lewisham and Newtown Sydney. He joined the band Mahatma Propagandi GRAHAM ST JOHN which morphed into Non Bossy Posse as Vibe Tribe was born. graham@wild.net.au Peter went on to work with the community on protest festivals and parties throughout the nineties co-establishing the Ohms Graham holds a PhD for his thesis on Australia’s historic Not Bombs (www.omsnotbombs.org) vehicle in 1995. FreeNRG event, ConFest: Alternative Cultural Heterotopia: ConFest as Australia’s Marginal Centre (www.come.to/ DES TRAMACCHI confest). He taught anthropology at La Trobe and Deakin Universities for several years and has published various articles d.tramacchi@mailbox.uq.edu.au on liminality, authenticity and ferality in Australian youth Des’ research interests include psychedelic and entheogenic culture. He is currently researching an ethnography of the movements, neo-shamanism, trance, ecstasy, and alternate states Earthdream nomadic carnival. of consciousness. He has recently completed an Honours thesis in the department of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland examining the social and symbolic aspects of substance use in the context of psychedelic dance-parties. He has been socially involved in raving/clubbing since the mid-eighties. As an unobtrusive participant-observer, in May 1998 he attended Stomping Monster Doof#3 which took place on a cow field bordering forest in Dayboro, Qld. This research resulted in an article: ‘Field-Tripping: Psychedelic communitas and Ritual in the Australian Bush’ (2000, Journal of Contemporary Religion). He has subsequently researched several other doofs. Acquired from vi © copyright 2001 vii www.ozauthors.com.au KATHLEEN WILLIAMSON bigk@disinfo.net Kathleen is an information junky zine maker inspired by DiY tekno culture. She has lived for the past 15 years in Brisbane, and has been involved in DiY theatre (as director and production manager) and photography (as exhibitor and documenter). In 1993-94, she co-curated and organised the Glare Film Festival for Brisbane’s annual Livid Festival. Since the mid-1990s, she has been dedicated to the underground tekno culture helping co-create magical spaces for community and personal transformation, as well as producing a zine exploring magic/psychedelics/techno called Octarine. In 1999, she coordinated and curated the zine/comics/underground publications section of the National Young Writer’s Festival in Newcastle, NSW, and in 2000, took the Abominable Knowledge Emporium on the Earthdream desert pilgrimage. Acquired from viii © copyright 2001 ix www.ozauthors.com.au ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Mark Brooks did an excellent job with the cover design. As did Ken Gelder with the foreword. Libby Jeffery from OzAuthors and IPR Systems has also been helpful and While this collection negotiates the edges of Australian supportive. And Colin Hood from Feelergauge techno dance culture, readers seeking to find a history of (www.feelergauge.net) deserves special mention: for seeing electronic music in Australia or elsewhere will be disappointed. the merit in this project from the beginning, for providing The collection does not venture such a history nor does it cover crucial production advice, for copy and html editing, and for genre developments. Also, while there is gender imbalance in encouraging and assisting the project’s electronic dimensions. the contributor line up, this does not reflect my efforts to solicit I’m sure that, without Colin, this project would still be lurking writing from various women working within the culture. A in the shadows! point on terminology: ‘techno’ and ‘tekno’ are used interchangeably throughout the anthology. There are quite a few people who I would like to thank here. First of all, the contributors for inspiring me to compile FreeNRG. They are to be particularly thanked for enduring my incessant haranguing for text. Kath Williamson, Robin Cooke, Pete Strong and Eugene ENRG are all legendary and have been an inspiration. Kevin Buzzacott and the Keepers of Lake Eyre, and many participants of Earthdream2000 (too many to name here) were likewise inspirational. John Jacobs, Kol Dimond, Karl Fitzgerald, Alan Bamford, Joe Stojsic, Scott Art, Jon Holdsworth, Jilly Magee, Minna Graham, Wave Beach and John Morton were all helpful in different, though important, ways. Saskia Folk, Brent Tanian and Kath Wheatley have contributed a range of wonderful images (as have Pete Strong and Robin Cooke). The technical assistance and existential troubleshooting provided by Richard Martin and Kurt Svendsen was, as always, most appreciated. And a big shout out to my intensive assistance provider. Acquired from x © copyright 2001 xi www.ozauthors.com.au FOREWORD The new Australian counter culture’s aim is essentially one of re-enchantment. I know, of course, about the recent book with this title by the Jungian New Age commentator, This book is all about a new counter culture in Australia: David Tacey—someone with little time for Cultural Studies, the unruly child of a punk-hippie marriage that nevertheless as some readers may be aware. But FreeNRG counter culture conducts itself with the very best intentions. The topic is is different again to the sort of middlebrow, middle-aged ‘freeNRG culture’, and it is narrated here by a diverse group dreamings of the New Age. For one thing, it advocates political of young Australian folk committed to social justice, ecological action—something quite foreign to New Age writing, which sustainability, self-expression, ‘anarcho-mysticism’, cheerily ‘transcends’ the turbulent world of politics for some affiliations with Aboriginal causes, ethical good practice, and higher, calmer set of theological values. For another, it builds the fashioning of sound systems that answer, in volume and the experience of pleasure (ecstasy, rapture, sexual pleasure) clarity, the urge to go out there - into the Australian outback, into its program for cultural therapy. But most important, it mostly—and dance. reconfigures the realm of Nature—so often turned into a fetish One of my own academic disciplines, Cultural Studies, (‘the landscape’) by the New Age—by fissuring it with the has not dealt well with counter cultures over the years. In recent sounds and visions of digital technology. times it has all but lost touch with the grassroots cultural politics FreeNRG culture gives us techno-Nature, turning the of what used to be called ‘direct action’. It has learnt to be Australian landscape into a sound system (with its ‘doof-doof- wary of claims about ‘resistance’, often for good reason. doof’ pulse beats) and a dance floor: the outback as stomping Gayatri Spivak is about the only cultural critic I can think of ground with the DJ as ‘channeller’. Rave culture was imported who still uses this term in earnest (and is critical of Cultural into Australia some time ago, mostly from British and European Studies precisely for its abdication of grassroots activity). Nor metropolitan centres; now, its ‘Australianisation’ is complete, has Cultural Studies ever had much time for utopianism, for locked locally into the ground and the underground. So this spiritual yearnings, for shamans and tribalism, for trance and book is partly about those people who made the timelessness: all counter cultural characteristics you will find Australianisation of rave and post-punk dance culture possible. described in this book. Cultural Studies has always been here You will hear about Vibe Tribe and Ohms Not Bombs and and now, contemporary: metropolitan, sophisticated, secular, Labrats, with their solar powered sound system and a van that sceptical, ironic, materialist, ‘realistic’. FreeNRG culture, runs on vegetable oil. You will hear about Desert Trekno and however, takes us into quite a different sort of world. Clan Analogue, the ‘recycledelic’ Mutoid Waste Co., and Earthdream 2000. This culture is wildly neologistic, inventing ingenious new designations to express its techno-Nature Acquired from xii © copyright 2001 xiii www.ozauthors.com.au hybridity, loading up its cultural products with puns and punk dispossessing Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike: turning citations (like the ‘Filthy Jabilucre’ CD). In one essay, the the latter away from country (which then becomes, for city techno-landscape becomes ‘elechthonic’, a wonderfully dwellers, something akin to another country, a place from which evocative word for ascribing electronic frequencies to Nature. they remain perpetually alienated) and sealing them off from Everything is hybridised and hyphenated: these are future- intercultural contact; while decimating the former’s sacred sites primitives, techno-shamans producing eco-rapture. through mining, development, mass tourism. To be in this Through their commitment to environmental politics and postcolonial counter culture is thus to transform the country itself Aboriginal causes, these folk are also postcolonial. But this is into something sacred. The post-rave experience takes on a kind postcolonialism at its most utopian and mystical, giving us heady of Aboriginal aura here, described in typically neologistic, new expressions of settler identity—far removed from the secular, hyphenated terms as a neo-corroboree, or a ‘psycorroboree’: culturally pessimistic postcolonialism expressed in so much Australianisation here in effect means ‘aboriginalisation’ with a conservative commentary these days, the kind, for example, that small ‘a’: FreeNRG is all about the ritualistic production of an worries about Aboriginal ‘difference’ in the nation. The counter ethically correct sense of settler occupation of this country. I can culture in this book relishes difference and is drawn ineluctably think of worse ways to live your life. towards it. In a sense, FreeNRG stands at the front line of This is therefore both a selfless and (not untypically for young reconciliation, making contact and forging intercultural folk) a self-indulgent counter culture, fusing social critique with alignments and affiliations: working always in sympathy, even abandonment and escape (to the dance beat, to pleasure). empathy, with Aboriginal and ecological paradigms. We see FreeNRG commentators are also emergent public intellectuals, broadly comparable empathies underwriting some mainstream articulate technicians, producers of treatises and manifestos narratives along these lines in Australia these days, too: as in the (through zines and e-zines, ‘activist tekno media’) as well as CDs work of Tim Flannery or Peter Read. The overwhelming urge and other electronic paraphernalia. Their work and activity is a for these utopian postcolonials is to belong: to produce affiliations source of renewal and hope for a youth so often imagined as of such density and intensity that a proper sense of settler ‘without politics’, as well as for those of us who have long regarded belonging to this country automatically (or ‘magickly’) follows. mainstream political representation in Australia (on the Left as So this Australian counter culture launches itself into the well as the Right) as bereft of vision and ethically vacuous. It is a outback as a way of reinhabiting country, drawing together the privilege to write the Foreword to this book, a wonderful archive kind of ethical and spiritual imperatives that follow consequentially of counter cultural ideas and activities in Australia in recent times. from the failure of government and ‘ordinary people’ to address Ken Gelder in any fulfilling way the still-traumatising legacies of colonialism. English with Cultural Studies Their counter cultural narrative sees colonisation as the means of University of Melbourne Acquired from xiv © copyright 2001 xv www.ozauthors.com.au  INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION — TECHNO INFERNO GRAHAM ST JOHN MUTOID WASTE SPINNING DNA RINGS AT EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY, NOV 97 (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) Acquired from 1 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG INTRODUCTION The moon set in the early morning as the eastern sky began to New Year 1996/97, the banks of the Murray River west glimmer with the approaching day. Fire-twirlers moved onto of Moama, New South Wales. Electronic musicians and a host the dancing ground, ignited their staffs and performed their spinning, incandescent art. There was a profound sense of of lighting, sculpture and décor artists converge upon common ritual meaning here, as if these fire-magicians were emissaries ground just inside the perimeter of the biannual alternative between Dionysian nocturnal powers and Apollonian cultural event ConFest. Conspiring to facilitate an outdoor sensibilities of the coming day; a contract negotiated between dance odyssey, this arcane host united their talents to form Chaos and reason … The music and the cycles of fire-twirling ‘the Tek Know village’. It was the turn of the year and an seemed to draw out the moments of sunrise, golden beams dragging their way through the branches of the rainforest trees. electronic voour voourr voouurrr propagated across the flats. The music complemented the sense of a single sacred moment Fluro fabrics lined the approach, guiding enthusiasts down into being replayed again and again, eternity on display. Finally ground zero. Just before midnight, the dance floor was heaving, the acrid flares of the pyrotechnic acrobats were extinguished with well over one thousand trance habitues gesticulating and the day commenced.1 wildly before a giant praying mantice with a Volkswagon Free nrg must have its day, the negative feedback loop of Beetle for a body, and a huge twelve hour clock suspended energy consumption and earth destruction can’t be sustained, for much longer. Free nrg is about tuning technology with from the top centre of a high scaffold tower. An enormous ecology, DJing our soul force into the amazing biorhythms of Aboriginal flag draped from the tower and bore a smiley face nature… we can do it. Australia has of late become the focus on its sun. Several didjeriduists played at the base of the of international attention and a melting pot for crews who scaffold and flag. Near midnight, the rhythm became wilder believe that mass transformation is possible. Let our people power positive revolution be a shining precedent for the whole as a carnival of jugglers and fire-stick twirlers raised the tempo planet. A rush and a push, and some CO-CREATED MAGIC of their manipulations at the base of the scaffold, and two and this land is returned to the ancient and magical indigenous performers swirled ignited catherine wheels at opposite ends chain of wisdom. If we unite our purpose a massive healing of the tower. At this point, a figure in orange overalls appeared can be set in motion… Help institute a sound system for all, join the Earthdream, support Aboriginal sovereignty, and help wielding a flame-thrower. It was Robin ‘Mutoid’ Cooke, who dance up the country in rave-o-lution.2 succeeded in setting the clock alight at midnight. But, as propane balloons suddenly backfired, an unanticipated conflagration illuminated the amazed faces of hundreds of revelers as the flag itself was consumed by the flames. 1 Des Tramacchi, ‘Field Tripping: Psychedelic Communitas and Ritual in the Australian Bush’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, vol5, no2, 2000, p.207. 2 Ohms not Bombs: http://www.omsnotbombs.org Acquired from 2 © copyright 2001 3 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG INTRODUCTION Falsely regarding the flag’s obliteration as a scheduled Company, Clan Analogue and sculpture artists FutuRelic event, many were oblivious to the shock experienced by some gravitated to collaborate in nocturnal productions at this protean of the crew as a result of this incident, especially as Stan, an enclave on the edge of Australian culture.3 While ConFest Aboriginal didjeriduist, played underneath the flag at the time. wasn’t the first time or place for such collaborations in Yet Robin refused to be pessimistic. It was New Year’s Eve, Australia, it constituted my first encounter with doof culture. nobody was injured and ‘something very strong had happened’. At ConFest techno villages I encountered village architect and The next day, Robin met Stan and gave him a belt buckle with ‘techno-shaman’ Eugene (Krusty) ENRG, the Pt’chang peace a rendering of the Aboriginal flag in enamel. ‘That should have keepers, the barefoot spindoctor ‘Spaceship’ Joe Stojsic, ‘King’ been the end of the conversation’, he later told me. Richard Martin, Mari (aka DJ Kundalini), Orreyelle I should have said “thank you Stan”, and this pesky little Defenestrate, Kurt—the-devil-you-know—Svendsen and a voice came up inside of me and I said “Stan, you don’t need pantheon of other trailblazers, technomads and cyber-freaks. to wear that”. And he said “yeah, right”. I looked him in the eye again and I said “that was total fucking anarchy last I also met Robin Cooke, who had in 1996 informed me night wasn’t it, just total fucking anarchy”. And he said “yeah about Earthdream2000, an inaugural intra-continental techno- mate”. And I said “and we don’t need a flag do we”. And he carnival where I would later meet many contributors to this said “no mate ... we’re all one peoples, and we don’t need collection.4 A radical road train, Earthdream is a momentous no flag”. And that I think is what happened there. To me that accumulation of Free NRG culture—a youth movement loosely was the truth of those moments. And he honoured and I honoured it, and we actually destroyed between us the last organised into groups non-hierarchical in principle and vestige of separation that may exist between the whites and committed to voluntarism, ecological sustainability, social the Koories ... So that felt very very very powerful to me justice and human rights. Free NRG people subscribe to an actually. And I’ve seen Stan since, and we’re good mates economy of mutual-aid and co-operation, are committed to and give him a hug and we carry on. the non-commodification of art and embrace freedoms of A cataclysm heralding disastrous intercultural relations? experience and expression. Artists and activists, their cultural An accidental sacrifice activating the annihilation of output is a product of novel mixtures of pleasure and politics. difference? Unanticipated ‘special effects’ triggering an Technicians and esotericists, they harness technologies in the incommunicable epiphany for anyone biting 250mg of LSD? pursuit of (re)enchantment and liberated space. Free NRG All were likely in a festival which, during the mid nineties, approximates that ‘1990s counterculture’ which George was a kaleidoscopic core of potential, a counterspatial hotspot. Over the course of a few years, esoteric engineers, itinerant 3 On ConFest, see Graham St John, ‘The Battle of the Bands: ConFest Musics psychonauts and post-rave posses like the Mutoid Waste Co, and the Politics of Authenticity’, Perfect Beat: The Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture, vol 5, no 2, 2001, pp.69-90. Space Between the Gaps, the Metamorphic Ritual Theatre 4 Earthdream: www.beam.to/earthdream Acquired from 4 © copyright 2001 5 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG INTRODUCTION McKay has called ‘DiY Culture’: ‘a youth-centred and—directed Part Two, ‘Sound Systems and Systems Sound’, focuses cluster of interests and practices around green radicalism, direct upon the history, culture and activist agendas of sound systems action politics [and] new musical sounds and experiences’. But in Australia. Enda Murray begins with an historical it is an expression of what McKay himself had offered as a countenance of sound system culture detailing its roots in more accurate designation—a ‘Do it Ourselves’ culture—a Jamaica, development in the UK, and its emergence in Sydney, network consisting of micro-communities of dissent and their where something of the local ‘folk’ ethos of DiY techno artistry collective, creative, interventions.5 is explored. ‘Never has folk music been so accessible or so loud’ (according to Spiral Tribe’s Mark Harrison).6 Digital THE PLAYLIST monkey wrencher Peter Strong follows with a vivid insider’s FreeNRG is divided into four parts. In Part One, ‘Post account of the exploits of both Sydney’s Vibe Tribe and Ohms Rave Australia’, the voluntary, proactive, and media-savvy not Bombs sound systems, and thus, of Australian doof-lore. characteristics of Australian techno dance culture are With Strong, the dance party is a funky rendezvous, even delineated. In ‘Doof! Australian Post-Rave Culture’ the editor recruitment ground in ongoing struggles for Aboriginal attends to the reach of the rave diaspora from the late eighties sovereignty and a nuclear free future. Firing their broadside in Australia, breaking into a detailed exploration of the new deep into this territory, Labrats outline the ideas behind their tribalism, political partying and inspired commitments of the clean energy sound/cinema system. For ‘underground sampler’ technocultural nineties. Here, the ‘doof’ is introduced as an ‘Monkey’ Marc Peckham, and ‘human tekno beatbox’ Izzy autonomous community event-space for and by youth. Brown, operating the solar powered system is ‘just like sticking Following this, in a sweeping discussion of new alternative a plug into the sky and leaving it run’.7 Mounting forays into media techniques, Kathleen Williamson demonstrates how the the interior of the continent, the Labrats (not unlike Ohms not local doof milieu has formed an activist media network using Bombs) are inspired champions of environmental and self-published print zines and e-zines to discharge a indigenous rights, disclosing in particular the operations of combination of activist, community and spiritual memetics. mining giant Western Mining Co, which bears the brunt of their rhyme and their rhythm. Armed with samplers, subsonic speakers and a determination to make a difference, technophiles and ecowarriors have joined forces entering into non- 6 L Lowe and W Shaw, Travellers: Voices of the New Age Nomads, London, Fourth Estate Limited, 1993, p.18. 5 George McKay ‘DiY Culture: Notes Toward an Intro’, in George McKay (ed.) 7 From the audio documentary Earthdreamers, first aired on ABC Radio National’s Radio DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain, London, Verso, 1998, p.2,27. Eye, 20/01/01. Downloadable from http://reflect.cat.org.au/mpfree/earthdreamers Acquired from 6 © copyright 2001 7 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG INTRODUCTION colonialist relationships with indigenous landscapes and that the tekno trance floor is a context for ‘serious fun’, after peoples. This is the view taken by the editor as I introduce Rak Razam unveils his bush doof-inspired rendering of the Earthdream2000 in the following chapter. Possessing sharp ‘hundredth monkey’ theory—the Barrelfull of Monkeys. audibility against the background noise of a wide spectrum of New and increasingly accessible technologies have youth cultural pursuits—‘Mad Max-Pricilla-Tank Girl’ style— empowered youth—despite corporate encroachment and state Earthdream is a testament to the pro-active and inspirited regulations—to penetrate, subvert or transform spaces for attitudes of contemporary youth formations. community and political action. This is the subject of Part Four, Such guides the way to Part Three—‘Techno-Ascension’. Reclaiming Space. In an analysis of the Australian Reclaim the There, scrounger-shaman, Robin Cooke, proceeds to document Streets movement, Susan Luckman explores the Situationist the UK origin and antipodean trajectory of the Mutoid Waste roots and the local denouement of this manifestation of the global Co, of which he is a founding member. There is little doubt ‘carnival of protest’ juggernaut. The party/protest alliance at the that the ‘recycledelic’ industrial sculpture group have had a heart of RTS, was most evident at the protest against the World formative impact on the underground techno movement. Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne on S11 2000. Exploring Operating on a scrap-metal mediated re-enchantment principle, the carnivalesque dimension of such public demonstrations, not seeding the intercultural Earthdream vision, Cooke provides a unlike Luckman, Kurt Iveson and Sean Scalmer inquire whether blistering account of the Mutoid evolution—set on a seemingly such gatherings are effective forms of protest against global inevitable course towards the Australian outback. Indeed, capitalism. Examining the transpiration of ‘play’ in both urban remote, interior and hinterland bush locales have occasioned and cyber spaces (from mobile sound systems to new techno rituals (‘bush doofs’), with trance orientated events melbourne.indymedia.org) and the apparent re-unification of establishing particular popularity in Australia. In a dialogue cultural and political radicalism, their response, while cautious, originally transpiring in 1995, fluorescent rainbow warrior is instructively optimistic. Finally, claims made for the radical Eugene ENRG (aka DJ Krusty) communes with psy-trance potential of digital technologies adopted by Australian electronic pioneer Ray Castle over the esoteric inspiration and effects of music culture need also be approached with caution. Attending such Trance Dance rituals. Approaching the topic from the to the electronic music scene on the North Coast region of NSW, anthropology of consciousness and drawing comparisons from Chris Gibson observes that while it is certain that increased entheogenic rituals in various traditional cultures, Des accessibility to new technologies has enabled decentralised Tramacchi reports on the significance of outdoor trance parties musical and political spaces, the ‘democratic’ status of this as creative contexts for the expression of psychedelic culture is contentious. spirituality. Following this, the reader will need no reminding Acquired from 8 © copyright 2001 9 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Acquired from 10 © copyright 2001 11 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA On beaches in the sand, in dunes, inland in dunes beside a CHAPTER ONE—DOOF! creek. I’ve done it up in mountains, in high altitudes. I’ve done it in the Himalayas (Aleex on Doofing).1 AUSTRALIAN POST-RAVE CULTURE The electronic music industry possesses a decentralised legacy. From the early eighties, developments in production and recording technologies permitted a means of access and GRAHAM ST JOHN level of independence which had enabled increasing numbers of young electronic (or techno) musicians to assume ownership and control over the means of music production (in their own homes) and distribution (through informal channels and independent micro-labels), despite efforts by the transnational entertainment industry to assimilate such activity. In Australia, the operations of this high-tech cottage industry, complimented by developments in digital recording, the internet and multimedia arts, has reinforced a grassroots sensibility potentiating creative interventions beyond that achievable by rock, punk or rave. This chapter provides an introduction to the rave diaspora in Australia and, moreover, explores a spectrum of proactive and inspired refrains issuing from the socio-digital landscapes of post-rave technoculture. As an enclave of affect and meaning, a youth cultural site of voiced dissent and epiphanous experience, that post-rave technotribal gathering, the doof, is singled out for special consideration. BEACH PARTY @ HALF MOON BAY, BLACK ROCK, 28 FEB 98 (PHOTO: SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 1 ABC Radio’s Background Briefing, ‘Taming The Rave’ 5/10/97: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s10514.html Acquired from 12 © copyright 2001 13 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA RAVING Dancing or ‘raving’ as a club pursuit escalated following the acid house explosion in the UK in 1988.2 The cultural New Year 2000/01, near the town of Lindenow in phenomenon, stimulated by UK tourism to the Spanish Balearic Victoria’s La Trobe valley. As an advertisement in Beat island of Ibiza and later subject to a moral panic, heavy magazine had announced, Earthcore’s key summer event licensing laws and ‘public order’ legislation, has been given (called ‘Primal Elements’) would be divided into four ‘primal extensive treatment.3 The utopic-transcendent rave arena is element zones’: earth, fire, air and water. It didn’t take a commonly understood to have been an escape from the particularly astute observer to note that this cultural heterosexualist, macho and aggressive predatory sexuality production—beginning in December 1993 as a non profit event prevalent in rock, disco or nightclub settings.4 Yet, according called ‘terra technics’, which evolved into Australia’s largest to Angela McRobbie, as gender dissolved under a syncopated ‘independent electronic music festival’ and more recently a rhythm, the men behind the turntables were left largely ‘dance music and lifestyle extravaganza’—is designed ‘unchallenged in their control over the whole field of music principally to accumulate the fifth element: $. Feelings remain production’. 5 And while the rave was held to be a mixed about this regular fixture in the Australian (and countercultural zone in the ‘second summer of love’, as international) dance culture calendar. Earthcore has assisted local independent artists and has consistently made attempts Matthew Collin points out in his Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, late eighties UK youth ‘took to fly underneath the radar (or at least convince its patrons of to the mythology of the hippie era—adopting a simulacrum of its ‘underground’ status). Yet it has, nevertheless, grown to imitate and cultivate that which appears to be the life-force of what they believed the sixties were like, a hand-me-down, pick- the international dance music establishment, and that which is transparent in club and rave scenes—commodification. In the 2 Musically, acid house consisted of a fusion of influential developments which, alongside an evolving DJ aesthetic, included 1970s European electronic music economy of the night, this hypermarket of style, this club (from German electronic to hi-NRG Italo-disco), black-futurist ‘techno’ from Detroit and Chicago ‘house’. without walls, trades in a high demand experiential 3 For example, see: Steve Redhead, (ed) Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in commodity—dance. Contemporary youth Culture, Aldershot, Avebury, 1993; Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House. London: Serpents Tail, 1997; Sheryl Garrett, Adventures in Wonderland: A Decade of Club Culture, London, Headline, 1998; Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. London: Picador, 1998; Hillegonda Rietveld, This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1998. 4 Angela McRobbie, Feminism and Youth Culture, London, Macmillan, 1990; Maria Pini, ‘Women and the Early British Rave Scene’, in Angela McRobbie (ed.) Back to Reality? Social Experience and Cultural Studies, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1997, pp.152-69. 5 Angela McRobbie, In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion and Popular Music, London, Routledge, 1999, p.146. Acquired from 14 © copyright 2001 15 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA and-mix bag of fashions and slogans—minus the radical politics of the era’. What has been widely referred to as ‘ecstasy culture’—due to the associated wide scale use of the entactogenic MDMA or ‘ecstasy’—developed into a technologically advanced leisure pursuit, with ‘house’ becoming ‘a bloated conservative mainstream, formulaic and predictable, dominated by a self-satisfied, self-serving elite’. Post acid house rave, once a celebrated temporary autonomous zone, had become, as Simon Reynolds put it, ‘the club as pleasure–prison, a detention camp for youth’. ‘Corporate clubbing’ was easily assimilated into the British leisure industry and was exported to Australia (along with Europe, North America, Japan, South Africa and a host of other destinations).6 With a miasma of derivative soundscapes (from happy house, to drum ’n bass, to trance) rave or club culture has become prominent in the ‘every-night life’ of a significant proportion of the Australian youth population.7 NRG 4 6 Collin Altered State, p.60, 275; Reynolds Energy Flash, p.424. (PHOTO: KATH WHEATLEY) 7 Youth and Music in Australia, a project surveying the music related behaviour of Australian youth, reports clubs (which are differentially categorised to ‘dance parties’ or ‘raves’) as the most popular music venue attended by those aged between 18-24. As the report conveys, 11% of youth aged between 12-24 selected ‘dance/techno/ trance’ as their favourite music. This is second only to rock (18%) and is significant when one considers that there were a total of 45 named categories. See G. Ramsey, Headbanging or Dancing? Youth and Music in Australia part 2, Sydney, Australian Broadcasting Authority, 1998. Acquired from 16 © copyright 2001 17 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA But let me put this in perspective. Prior to local While there is much reminiscing about the ‘democratised’ commercialisation, rave had infiltrated the night time status of the early local rave scene and its spaces, there can be underground of Australian capitals (especially Sydney and little denying that such a scene had, by the mid nineties, become Melbourne). Between the very late eighties and 1992, the subject to increasing commercialism and ‘domestication’ industrial estates of Sydney’s Alexandria became a common through state regulation patterns for which media generated site for clandestine warehouse ‘raves’ organised by local and moral panics—exemplified by that following the death of expatriate promoters inspired by the UK experience. Party Sydney teenager Anna Wood—have been held accountable. locations were advertised using the Telecom 0055 recorded Containment strategies such as that represented by the message service, enabling the party to remain aloof from media, subsequent NSW Ministry of Police Code of Practice for Dance the police and rival promoters (until the last minute). These Parties (April 1998), ‘eased the commercialisation and were the ‘new school ravers’, which Seb Chan distinguishes incorporation of rave style into the mainstream through the from the dance party scene dominated by innovative promoters growth of standardised club environments’. The Code of within the gay and lesbian community who, since the mid Practice is said to have represented the ‘decoding’ of rave eighties, organised exclusive parties for an inner-city arts elite— spaces.11 Applying equally to ‘dance parties’ whether small or some eventually held in the Hordern Pavilion.8 In Melbourne, large,12 the Code disadvantaged small scale promoters and ‘raves’ are reported to have occurred as early as 1988.9 Arriving operated to contain a new youth cultural pursuit within as a pre-packaged UK affectation, these informal events ‘legitimate’ leisure sites—clubs. At the same time that this represented, according to Gibson and Pagan ‘an almost new ‘commodified regulatory landscape’ 13 effectively megalomaniacal appeal to a sense of internationalism, a sense discouraged not-for-profit parties (in Sydney and elsewhere), of finally being on the ‘map’ of a global dance culture, despite transnational entertainment corporations like Festival/ the local paucity of artists or releases’.10 Mushroom were effectively ‘buying credibility’ from independent artists and labels.14 Mirroring trends overseas, dance/techno was attracting a wider market and turning big 8 Sebastion Chan, ‘Bubbling Acid: Sydney’s Techno Underground’, in Rob White (ed.) 11 Gibson and Pagan, ibid; Shane Homan, ‘After the Law: Sydney’s Phoenician Club, Australian Youth Subcultures: On the Margins and in the Mainstream, Hobart, the New South Wales Premier and the Death of Anna Wood’, Perfect Beat, vol4, no1 ACYS Publications, 1999, pp.67. 1998. pp.56-83. 9 Margaret MacGregor ‘Goin’ Off: Subcultural Power and the Chemical Generation’, 12 Sebastion Chan, ‘The Death of Diversity? The Draft Code of Practice for Dance BA Honours thesis, Comparative Sociology, Monash University, 1998. In Brisbane, Parties’: http://www.cia.com.au/peril/texts/features/ravecode.html Epic DiY parties took place from Dec 1993. See FreakQuency Magazine issue 3, 13 Homan ibid,76. Organisers threatened with closure, and heavy fines and imprisonment pp.19-20: http://www.freaquency.hoops.ne.jp/australian for promoters. 10 Chris Gibson and Rebecca Pagan, ‘Mapping urban youth spaces in media discourse: 14 For a similar process in the UK see David Hesmondhalgh, ‘The British Dance Music ‘rave’ cultures in Sydney, Australia’, in Anna Wright (ed), Dance Culture, Party Industry: A Case Study of Independent Cultural Production’, British Journal of Politics and Beyond, Verso, London, 2001. Sociology vol49, no2, 1998, pp.234-251. Acquired from 18 © copyright 2001 19 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA profits. ‘Dance’ had already made an Aria Awards category by Perhaps I’m being a little unfair, as Bookchin’s polemic 1995. In July 1996, the ‘superclub’ Sublime opened in Sydney. is directed at those staking some claim to anarchism, and is an After New Year 97/98, when a party at Victoria Dock’s Shed 16 approach unforgiving of any possible spiritual dimension. Yet, hosted 10,000 people, Melbourne (and Sydney) has the approach does hold weight in accounting for dance culture, accommodated huge dance parties/festivals such as Hardware’s or in particular the Australian ‘Dance industry’, which is Two Tribes and Welcome. persistent in marketing the same brand of artificial ‘rebellion’, With promoters seeking to ‘broaden their demographic’, the albeit in new bottles. It could be argued that local dance culture outdoor club Earthcore remains a curious case in point. industries, have invested in the ‘rave-olutionary’ fervor which Melbourne’s Age ran a story promoting the first Earthcore for the is in large part attributable to the moment when the UK’s 2000/01 summer at Mt Disappointment. ‘Earthcore: Suits go Feral’ Criminal Justice Act (1994) made dancing something of a featured party-goers at Melbourne’s ‘largest forest rave’, who ‘are political statement (when the subversive, radical, character of not merely your stereotypical conglomerate of ferals, hippies or dance had been legislated into existence and thereby made candy-ravers’. No, Earthcore, ‘as its organisers boast’, credible).17 While there may be some credence to this in its accommodates a much ‘wider demographic’—‘becoming home place of origin, in a country which has not experienced to many a professional: doctors, lawyers, middle managers’.15 comparable legislation, the radicalism of those acquiring The idea of middle managers ‘going feral’ for a weekend intrigues. subcultural capital from this rebellious chic, from this cheap In the words of Murray Bookchin, who uses the phrase in his import, is transparently ersatz. Yet, the dance culture industry critique of Hakim Bey’s anthemic TAZ (or temporary autonomous trades in this fashion, this radicalism, servicing the desire to zone), such temporary ferality approximates a kind of ‘lifestyle be ‘extreme’, a ‘renegade’—even if for one night a week. anarchism’ for young urban professionals (including those able to afford the increasingly excessive price of entry).16 Temporarily suspending wealth accumulation by spending themselves in spectacular moments of ‘e’-fuelled grandeur in a bush setting, 17 In 1994, the Tory government passed the Criminal Justice Act (CJA). The Act the ‘suits’ are recharged, re-created, for their return to business constituted a repressive system of police and legal powers which have according to Alan Dearling ‘almost decommissioned a lifestyle’. See Alan Dearling (ed.), and their assault on the next rung of the corporate ladder. No Boundaries: New Travellers on the Road (Outside of England), Dorset, Enabler Publications, 1998, p.1. The Act includes clauses criminalising squatting and trespassory assembly (including open air ‘raves’ and free festivals not officially 15 Farrah Tomazin, ‘Earthcore: Suits go Feral’, Age, Today section, 25/11/2000, p.1-3. sanctioned, and, potentially, peaceful protests). The CJA registers the music 16 Murray Bookchin, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, associated with such social infractions as ‘sounds wholly or predominantly Edinburgh, AK Press, 1995 http://www.au.spunk.anarki.net/library/writers/bookchin/ characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’ (Part V 63.1.b). Yet, sp001512/SocialBookchin1.html; Hakim Bey, TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone police violence, shut downs and mass arrests were shifting ‘rave’ from entertainment — Ontological Anarchy and Poetic Terrorism, New York, Autonomedia 1991, to ‘movement’ well before the CJA. See Drew Hemment, ‘Dangerous Dancing and http://www.cia.com.au/vic/taz/index.html Disco Riots: the Northern Warehouse Parties’, in McKay DiY Culture, p.218. Acquired from 20 © copyright 2001 21 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The industry consists of charts, brand names, major Dance, ‘once a faceless genre of music has now well and corporate partners and its own media. Tekno Renegade truly entered the mercantile arena’—becoming ‘the rock ’n Magazine (TRM), a monthly Melbourne (and now Sydney) roll of the nineties’. So went the cover story ‘Marketing the street publication, performs a role in reproducing subcultural DJ in 2000’ of TRM’s February 2000 edition.20 Complete with capital for scene aspirants—firing a broadside of commodity a ‘guide to marketing an electronic artist’ and an interview accessories on a background of gloss and glare, enabling the with a director of Global Recordings, the article went about ‘fashioning’ of state-of-the-art identities—authentic, ‘cool’ or, celebrating this development. While in earlier volumes, TRM as many would have it, ‘totally sick’. Here, raving as rebellion seemed to negotiate the underground of dance culture, bearing is a mediated ruse. The street publication trades in and dance music’s decentralised origins and giving credence to distributes rave’s ‘renegade’ mood—a kind of aloof insolence the culture’s collusion with a variety of social and political inscribed upon advertised techno-accessories, latest DJ issues, in 2000 the publication went the way of rock ’n’ roll.21 sensations and music genres eagerly consumed by the rave This became most apparent in a growing number of profiles massive. In its own way, TRM recapitulates the strategies of on male superstar brand names like Paul Oakenfold (in a post sixties culture industries which had long recuperated coverstory ‘Introducing the World’s Highest Paid DJ: Paul rebellion, ‘hip’ or ‘alternative’ as a youth marketing category. Oakenfold’)22 the publication thus assisting the international Perhaps as a successor to rock’s ‘anti-establishment Pepsi entertainment industry in undermining a subversive attribute Generation’18 we now have the renegade Ericsson T20 MP3 of early techno dance culture—contempt for ‘the star system’ compatible generation. As is echoed in Sarah Thornton’s and disruption of authorship categories23—by spectacularising discussion of other ‘subcultural consumer magazines’ and the artist. Furthermore, sexist imagery associated with rock— mainstream media, this kind of street press possesses an insouciant male posturing with background babe accessories— important role in manufacturing the culture to which youth is endorsed through advertising. gravitate and to which they draw upon in order to assign meaning to their lives and, as Thornton further points out, to establish lines of distinction from others.19 18 For a discussion of this see Thomas Frank, ‘Alternative to What?’ in Ron Sakolsky and Fred Wei-Han Ho (eds), Sounding Off: Music as Subversion/Resistance/ Revolution, New York, Autonomedia, p.112. 20 Toby Cohen, ‘Marketing the DJ in 2000’, TRM vol3, issue 5, pp.21-24. 19 Sarah Thornton, ‘Moral Panic, the Media and British Rave Culture’, in A Ross and 21 Possibly due to a changes in editor and production team. T Rose (eds) Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Youth Culture, New York, 22 Richard Guadion, ‘Introducing the Worlds Highest Paid DJ: Paul Oakenfold’, Routledge, 1994; Sarah Thornton, Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural TRM vol4 issue 1, Oct, pp.24-25. Capital, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995. 23 See Hesmondhalgh ibid. Acquired from 22 © copyright 2001 23 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA ENTER THE DOOF often held outdoors in remote regions where all-night dancing to a range of electronic musics transpire.26 From an early period of the techno-rave movement in Australia, elements possessing anarchic, autonomist and anti- The northern coast of NSW has been significant in the corporate orientations have made deliberate efforts to not only emergence of doofs. Events held on moon cycles and solstices, withdraw from the spectacles of rock and punk, but to create populated by ‘feral hippy frequency cults’ have been operated by something more substantial than the counterfeit culture of rave. the likes of experimental arts collective Electric Tipi since 1992.27 Consolidating in inner city warehouses and outposts of opposition, Influenced by psychedelic parties in eighties Goa, accommodating like Reynolds, they have asked: ‘is it possible to base a culture fire twirlers, didj players, chai tents and tipis, ‘bush doofs’ around around sensations rather than truths, fascination rather than Lismore and Byron Bay have been laboratories for experimenting meaning, jouissance rather than plaisir?’24 As dance became with alternative states of consciousness, especially through the regulated, contained and increasingly commoditised, as rave use of LSD and other entheogens. With northern NSW and became domesticated in ‘pleasure-prisons’, as dilittante southern QLD coast psy-trance orientated parties in mind, Des renegadoes queued at the turn-styles and weekend ferals occupied Tramacchi has offered a definition of doof as a space where: the dance floor, ‘doofs’ represented an escape route—an alternative a diverse spectrum of people gather to celebrate psychedelic to the encroaching forces of state, capital and cliché. In Australia, community and culture, as expressed through characteristic psychedelic arts and music, and where people are free to the term ‘doof’ has become a synonym for youth cultural explore alternate states of consciousness in a safe, supportive, dissonance, a ‘rave underculture’, its habitues embodying a refusal and stimulating environment. The experience of autonomy is — ‘to be subjected to what the beer barons and the mainstream sought through the symbolic suspension or rejection of state culture cabal dole out as entertainment’. An audio-inspired imposed structures. Participants seek to dissolve conventional zeitgeist of Free NRG culture, the ‘doof’ is said to embody a ‘do limitations on imagination and thought, momentarily inhabiting artificial islands of heterogeneity and exploration it yourself/ourself (DIY/DIO) spirit [which] brings out people’s where novel connections and affiliations are forged and subversive strength motivating a move beyond passive experimental social forms are incubated.28 consumption’.25 In the face of the dominant club culture, and despite the term’s appropriation by unscrupulous promoters (prompting an ironic ‘Death of Doof’ party in NSW in 1997), 26 Free, minimal charge or by donation, these events operate independently from the co- ‘doof’ continues to be applied to non-profit community events, opting power of corporate capitalism. They are essentially non-profit and sometimes community activist fundraisers. On occasion, event-returns are desired to finance 24 Simon Reynolds, ‘Rave Culture: Living Dream or Living Death?’ in Steve Redhead alternative Free NRG schemes. (ed.) The Clubcultures Reader: Readings in Popular Cultural Studies, Blackwell, 27 Ray Castle, ‘Doof Disco Didges of the Digerati’, in Alan Dearling and Brendan Oxford, 1997, p.109. Hanley, Alternative Australia: Celebrating Cultural Diversity, Dorset, Enabler, 2000, 25 John Jacobs and Peter Strong, ‘Is this R@ve olution?’ http://sysx.org/vsv/ideas.html, p.47; Electric-Tipi: http://www.electric-tipi.com.au 1995/96. 28 Tramacchi ‘Field Tripping’, p.203. Acquired from 24 © copyright 2001 25 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Inscribed in this protean liminal moment can be detected The doof, thus approximates the anarcho-liminal TAZ, something of doof’s greater social significance—for it implies which Bey likens to ‘an uprising which does not engage directly an experience where music and other artistic contributions with the State, a guerilla operation which liberates an area (of (lighting, sculptures, fireworks, theatre) possess a ‘use value’, land, of time, of imagination) and then dissolves itself to re- where conventional spectator/star roles are not easily filled. form elsewhere/elsewhen, before the State can crush it’.32 The Here, according to Hakim Bey, the artist is not a special sort imputed invisibility of such an instance is, however, of person, but every person is a special sort of artist.29 Yet, it problematic when it is understood that the doof is not goes further than this. Not to be dismissed as realms of necessarily an act of ‘disappearance’ from ‘the Grid of ‘psychedelic materialism’—the ‘voracious greediness’ and Alienation’ but, especially as it spills over into a ‘direct action’ ‘pleasure-principled acquisitiveness’ Reynolds sees (like Reclaim the Streets or a forest road blockade), becomes characterising house30—here are social thresholds where highly mediated. In such cases, the intention is to attract the voluntarism, a basic co-operativism, is encouraged in all major networks, raise public awareness and influence policy members of the doof population (such that ideally, along with through staged events and symbolic gestures. Mediation may the dismantling of the passive spectator/genius performer be achieved through the use of camcorders, samplers, mini- divide, a punter/organiser divide collapses). In the doof, sound disc players, zine production, html editing and data streaming and lighting equipment, décor, food, technical skills and labour by activists themselves, but the success of an event-action is are often volunteered. The doof is therefore what Bey would often gauged by the occurrence of non-pejorative mainstream call an ‘Immediatist’ art-enclave—non-hierarchical, not re- mediations.33 Here, techno is therefore deployed in the service presented by corporate media, non-commoditised. It is thus of alternative ‘truths’. This is techno as political agency. like the idyllic participatory rave, which Gaillot called the contemporary non-ideological ‘laboratory of the present’, where all are active participants in the art ‘work’.31 32 Bey TAZ, p.101. 33 Also, while maintaining mobility beyond the knowledge of state bodies may be necessitated by legal circumstances in the UK and the US, in Australia it is 29 Bey TAZ, p.70. questionable that a complete break from the state implied by the utopic TAZ is 30 Reynolds Energy Flash, p.424-25. necessary or desirable. There are cases, for instance, where negotiating with state 31 Michel Gaillot, Multiple Meaning: Techno — An Artistic and Political Laboratory of bodies, such as fire, health, Environmental Protection Authorities, and Aboriginal the Present, Paris, Dis Voir, 1998. Land Councils may be necessary, and indeed sound practice. Acquired from 26 © copyright 2001 27 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The doof is a post-rave phenomenon with complex origins But doof’s oppositional potential is not exhausted by any that can be traced through bohemian and agitational strands of ‘valorization of the moment’.38 The free party doof owes much (sub)cultural history. There is a long history of licentious enclaves to the development of UK sound system culture. With early pushing the social envelope. While doof’s more immediate influences from the emigrant Carribean sound system tradition, bohemian origins include the UK’s underground ‘acid house’ and links to nuclear disarmament activism, squatting, and the kind scenes of the late eighties, and gay African American ‘house’ and of experimental art and salvage Situationism for which the Mutoid ‘disco/garage’ scenes in Chicago and New York, we should also Waste Co had become renowned, the culture took on a creative look to new traveller festivals, along with the funk and reggae anarcho-punk trajectory. Holding free warehouse and outdoor and Northern Soul scenes.34 More distant, yet most formative, dance parties, early sound systems Spiral Tribe, DIY Collective are those ‘psychedelic symphonies’ of the American sixties, the and Exodus were central to the free party explosion. With their Acid Tests conducted by Ken Kesey’s Merry Prangsters.35 The motto ‘Peace, Love, Unity, Struggle’, Luton’s Exodus channeled lineage can be traced further back to other all-nighters, especially party proceeds into self-help projects, squatted local buildings those of the 1920s Jazz era, which, in Australia, included the transforming them into informal community centres and housing Artist’s Balls at the Sydney Town Hall or the French discotheques, co-operatives—such as HAZ (Housing Action Zone) manor.39 like those operating in Nazi occupied Paris in WWII.36 The theme Sound system free parties proliferated in the early nineties, of transgression underpins and connects these historical moments. seemingly reaching a crescendo with the Castlemorton ‘mega- In these unregulated spaces, in these ‘gaps in the calendar’, the rave’ of 1992, where the apparent traveller/raver connection was undisciplined body could safely submit to forbidden soundscapes. forged. Following the CJA, exiled ‘tech-nomad’ circuses toured Western cultural history reveals such Dionysia to possess a Europe, North America and Australia. Spiral Tribe staged perennial quality, and may have had their archetype in the clamour Teknivals in Europe from 1994, threw techno fiestas in of the medieval carnival and market place which, as Bakhtin Bologna40 and toured the US in 1997. Desert Storm and Dubious explained, licensed ‘temporary liberation from the prevailing truth Sound System held free dance parties in Bulgaria and Bosnia.41 and from the established order … [marking] the suspension of all More recently, elements of Bedlam (and Negusa Negast) toured hierarchical rank, privileges, norms and prohibitions’.37 the US, Australia and East Timor. 34 On new traveller festivals see George McKay, Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of 38 Jeremy Gilbert and Ewan Pearson, Discographies: Dance Music, Culture and the Resistance Since the Sixties, London, Verso, 1996. For the northern soul scene see Politics of Sound, London, Routledge, 1999, p.167. Garrett Adventures in Wonderland, ch.5. 39 For discussions on Exodus see: Collin Altered State, p.229; Reynolds Energy Flash, 35 Events themselves sometimes referred to as ‘raves’ – Georgina Gore, ‘The Beat Goes p.152; and Tim Malyon, ‘Tossed in the Fire and they Never got Burned: The Exodus on: Trance, Dance and Tribalism in Rave Culture’, in Helen Thomas (ed.) Dance in Collective’, in McKay DiY Culture, pp.187-207. the City, London, Macmillan Press, p.51. 40 A Garner, ‘Czech Teknival’, in Dearling No Boundaries, pp.50-3; Reynolds Energy 36 On Sydney jazz scene, see Tony Moore, ‘Romancing the City - Australia’s Bohemian Flash, p.147. Tradition: Take Two’. Journal of Australian Studies no 58, 1998, p.57. On WWII 41 Dubious’ Dan, ‘Sounds from Eastern Europe’, in Dearling ibid, pp.54-60; L Bean, Paris discotheques, see Garrett ibid, p.4. ‘The Adventures of Phoebus @pollo: the Rough & Ready Guide to Europ@’, in 37 Michel Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, MIT Press, 1968, p.10. Dearling ibid, pp.106-22. Acquired from 28 © copyright 2001 29 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA CREATIVE RESISTANCE — ‘A SOUND SYSTEM FOR ALL’ theatre, freestyle rapping, sound clashes, graffiti, zine distribution and infectious subvertising—it is the ‘imagination Post-rave culture is largely characterised by a party/protest rigorously applied’.45 While there have been various RTS alliance championed by various strands of a new multimedia- actions in Australia, the ‘crown’ achievement of creative savvy ‘carnival of protest’ movement in the west. The resistance transpired at S11 around the barricaded perimeter synergetic potential of techno and politics became evident in of Kerry Packer’s Crown Casino when a World Economic the mid-nineties when the Advance Party network and an Forum meeting was blockaded between September 11-13 2000. umbrella group of free party rigs, United Systems, mobilised in attempts to oppose the UK Criminal Justice Bill, Act, and its aftermath.42 In Australia, a growing party/protest movement was strengthened when Circus Vibe Tribe emerged from the Chippendale anarcho-punk collective Jellyheads in 1993. Holding free (illegal), events in both Sydney and Victoria Parks, and ‘Reclaiming the Beach’ at La Perouse, Vibe Tribe were a sound system amplifying the view that ‘any politics of techno must also be a politics of action’.43 As the Reclaim the Streets (RTS) and Carnival against Capitalism non violent direct action phenomenon gained momentum throughout the nineties, a new popular mode of mass protest was on the ascent.44 As a principal strategy in the mass rejection of corporate globalisation, direct action has been described as a ‘performance where the poetic and the pragmatic join hands’. The creative resistance of such might involve blockades, street SOUND SYSTEM AT S11 2000 (PHOTO GRAHAM ST JOHN) 42 In 1994, Advance Party organised marches, and street parties - the first on May Day where Desert Storm sound system pumped house rhythms in Trafalgar square, and then in October, an estimated 100,000 people converged in central London. See Collin, Altered State, p.230-1. 43 Chan, ‘Bubbling Acid’, p.68. 44 For Australian RTS see Sarah Nicholson’s discussion paper: http:// sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2591&group=webcast, itself derived from a BA Honours thesis ‘Reclaiming the Streets’, completed at the University of 45 John Jordan, ‘The Art of Necessity: the Subversive Imagination of Anti-Road Western Sydney, 1998. Protest and Reclaim the Streets’, in McKay, DiY Culture, pp.132-6. Acquired from 30 © copyright 2001 31 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA From Jabiluka to S11, the sound system has become an the act of dancing. If raving is a ‘refusal’ of ‘logocentric effective tool, a motivator of collective dissent. Peter Strong, aka imperatives’, a moment of pre-linguistic pleasure, where a ‘crowd DJ Morphism, of Sydney band Non Bossy Possy and the Ohms of people [immerse] themselves in a collective experience of the not Bombs46 collective, thinks the partying and the protest are materiality of music, each individual losing themselves in shared inseparable. He points out that during the mid-nineties when ecstasy whose medium is bass and rhythm’,53 agit-house pulls ‘dance party culture needed something to dance for’ and political members of the massive towards the edge of the dance floor. causes needed ‘more cavalry’, the sound system provided the answer.47 Further to this, holding a ‘cut and paste mentality’ and wielding a sampler, Strong’s idea has been to ‘radicalise the dance floor with music laced with social and political themes’.48 In a production with diverse influences from punk to hip hop, ‘sounds themselves can be liberated’: a ‘lively bleep once held prisoner by an oppressive track is free to dance to a different beat. Evil lyrics of consumption, fear and greed can be detourned and mutated into statements of joyful resistance’.49 Strong is not alone in developing a sonic mediated dissidence. Sydney’s Organarchy Sound Systems,50 for instance, are known for creating ‘collages of hard dancebeatz and political sample-mania’.51 And, according to founder Baz B, the original vision for URB (Urban Renegade Broadcasting), which later became PsybURBia, was a ‘political radio station that would broadcast propaganda with beats under it’.52 Under the roof of what Strong calls ‘agit-house’, participants are simultaneously dancing and getting an education. Doofers may thus embody their politics, an experience which complicates 46 http://www.omsnotbombs.org 47 Mick Daley, ‘Doof Warriors: Turning Protests into Parties’, Sydney City Hub, June 17, 1999, p.9. 48 Andrew Stavro, ‘Political Partying’, The Weekend Australian’s Orbit March 25-26 2000. 49 John Jacobs and Peter Strong ibid, 1995/96. PETER STRONG 50 http://reflect.cat.org.au/organarchy 51 Kol Dimond — from interview with the author. 52 Rak Razam, ‘Breakbeat Warrior’, TRM August 1999, p.13. 53 Gilbert and Pearson, Discographies, p.60. Acquired from 32 © copyright 2001 33 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Aurality does not exhaust the means via which dissidence the bass and rhythm. But they also carry a message—in voice is mediated within such environments. Visual artists (VJs) are samples programmed into a rhythm (or emceed by rappers) and an important element of the ‘sound system’, image and filmic visuals accompanying the beat—representing a crew’s or montages often deployed as an accompaniment to the sonic individual’s desire to disseminate fragments of an ideology, to manifesto. With the intention of subverting what they perceived evict spectators from their comfort zones, to achieve a shift in to be ‘a dance music culture dominated by conservative ideas consciousness—a ‘sound system for all’. and devoid of an alternative content’, the experimental video Politically engaged techno-propagandists, digital artists like performance group Subvertigo, who formed in Sydney in 1992, Strong, the members of Subvertigo, Organarchy or Labrats, are create ‘a hectic realtime mix of psychotronic agit-footage cut- ‘techno-rebels’ whose ‘rebellion’ is not equivalent to a refusal of up, and hypnoblobic video feedback live to the beat of the meaning, their multi-mediations not denoting withdrawal. Nor is DJ’.54 And rather than just synching sound with the visuals, the oppositional principle to their contributions restricted to electronic artists in turn sample sounds from accompanying independent production and distribution methods alone, or visual footage—generating, according to Sean Healy, exhausted by notions of ‘aesthetic innovation’ or ‘progressive’ ‘significant audiovisual fusions’.55 futurist prophecy, the vague defining characteristics of ‘techno- Labrats sound system advance to a further level, their vehicle rebels’—a phrase lifted from Toffler’s The Third Wave, adopted consisting of audio (electronic music with voice samples and raps) by the first wave of Detroit techno artists and championed in recent and visual (a wind powered cinema screening activist mediations.58 Articulated within community and direct action footage)56 components which together facilitate the multi- contexts, these ‘works’ are efforts at disseminating alternative mediation of current issues and events—a process which itself values and practices. Following Balliger, these ‘oppositional music represents a remarkable level of playback-immediacy. When practices’ attempt to ‘generate social relationships and experience compared with a ‘culture which places more emphasis on the which can form the basis of a new cultural sensibility and, in fact, pursuit of jouissance than any other in living memory’,57 ‘political are involved in the struggle for a new culture’.59 By contrast to partying’—a kind of multimedia culture jamming—facilitates the near monolithic ‘rave’—thought to propose no ‘new meanings affect and meaning. And the multiple-functionality of such systems capable of renewing the configurations of contemporary indicate something of the dual meaning of the phrase ‘sound community’ and where demand for ‘a shared present’ conveys system’. The systems ‘bring the sounds’, and bodies respond to ‘an imperative not to give in to the future’60—such interventions appropriate technology in order to ‘reclaim the future’. 54 Subvertigo: http://www.sysx.org/vsv/subvertigo 55 Sean Healy, ‘Playing Bass with Whale Tails: Exploring the Role of Visuals at Raves’. April 2001: http://www.octapod.org.au/s/whalebass.html 56 Shot by amateur ‘camcordistas’ — including themselves – perhaps compiled in their 58 see Dan Sicko, Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk, Billboard Books, 1999. mobile ‘edit suite’. Labrats: http://lab-rats.tripod.com 59 R Balliger, ‘Sounds of Resistance’, in Sakolsky and Wei-Han Ho, Sounding Off, p.14. 57 Gilbert and Pearson Discographies, p.66. 60 Gaillot Multiple Meaning Techno, p.17, 25. Acquired from 34 © copyright 2001 35 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA TECHNO-TRIBALISM AND THE NEO-CORROBOREE would bring out microphones and pick up snatches of ambient conversation and laughter from around the tent and …a collective of strangely appareled sound technicians … then loop it and warp it into pulsating tendrils of liquid sound. stroking keys and twiddling knobs, huddling together and In the center of the space was an enormous hunk of consulting each other in subdued tones while producing a machinery with a cathode ray oscilloscope set in it. It was cascade of melting acid riffs to twist the mind of the most some kind of spectrum analyser which the goblins would diligent of bank clerks. Accompanying this seething mass hook up to one instrument at a time, producing a 3D analysis of technology was a division of drummers, thumping out of the sound on the screen, a blue curve on a red grid. It was organic grooves on Jembays (sic) and assorted smaller hypnotic and needless to say I fell under its spell for an percussive devices … The cunningly gnomish technicians indeterminate length of time, fascinated by the process of mapping sound in 3 dimensions.61 Experimental electronic music collective Clan Analogue, described here at Victoria’s Technofest March ’97, demonstrate that Australia has become fertile territory for the growth of diverse ‘techno tribes’. By such, I mean mobile social units like sound systems, performance troupes, experimental music and alternative media collectives implicated in an alternative technocultural network. Challenging a prevailing view of disenchanted and alienated youth, these inspired and proactive extropians are committed to a range of concerns—from the production of avant-garde soundscapes to the reduction of greenhouse gases, from non-corporate music production and distribution to media co-operatives, from enabling community space to organising and running benefits, from a nuclear free planet to a free Tibet. Post-rave technotribes are a technocultural variant of ‘neotribes’, which Michel Maffesoli explains are elective, unstable and fluid micro-cultures of sentiment and aestheticisation.62In the late 20th century post- industrial period, resultant of voluntary associations coincident 61 Rufus Lane, email in Kronic Oscillator XV 1997: http://www.clananalogue.org BEETLE-MANTICE CONFEST NYE 96-97 62 Michel Maffesoli, The Time of the Tribes: the Decline of Individualism in Mass (PHOTO: KENT) Society, London, Sage, 1996. Acquired from 36 © copyright 2001 37 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA to elective consumption strategies, youth cultural formations mailing lists, newsletters and web-zines. The internet also grew independent from the structural determination facilitates independent music distribution via streaming audio (particularly class) and rigid characterisation of youth and MPEG-Level III (or mp3) compression. Organarchy Sound ‘subculture’. Consistent with ‘neotribalism’, technotribes are Systems, for example, have set up a ‘public domain sound interconnected in a network, each node representing a possible archive’ (‘mpfree’)64 where demo tracks are hosted as freeware. site of belonging for contemporary nomads, achieving their The site is made available by Cat@lyst,65 a Sydney collective fullest (sometimes only) expression in the party, the festival, committed to providing internet access to community activists, the TAZ, the direct action, the doof, or, as it is often designated, who were responsible for creating the open-source self- the ‘corroboree’. Yet, such contemporary youth formations are publishing software used by Indymedia.66 Furthermore, the digital also configurations of ‘DiY culture’, which George McKay sampling and recording technology mastered by the likes of describes as an oppositional movement. Fashionably Organarchy and the wider electro-milieu, enables creative committed to pleasure and politics, such new formations are pirating of public domain media debris on a scale which not disengaged from the political (as in Maffesoli), but harbour represents a serious challenge to the concept of copyright. ideological agendas reflecting an ecological sensibility, and Within a collective framework, some ‘tribes’ facilitate skill non-exploitative, non-colonialist, attitudes. and resource sharing. Originating in Sydney in 1992, and now The rough ethical-consumerist orientation which sometimes with nodes in nearly every Australian capital, Clan Analogue unites such neotribes operates within a climate of technical is an experimental electronic arts collective consisting of sound proficiency and artistic skill. Progressively accessible and composers, visual artists, coders, DJs, video artists, writers affordable technologies, new digital audio and video and designers.67 According to Jon Holdsworth (aka Purple developments and computer mediated communications are World) from Clan Analogue Melbourne, manifesting with harnessed in local, national and global interventions. Technotribes different lineups and studio techniques, Clan resembles UK have taken advantage of new technologies enabling decentralised 4AD label’s This Mortal Coil. Clan Analogue began as an production (eg. MIDI and CD burners), and the internet has been ensemble of enthusiasts valuing the ‘tonal richness, popularly harnessed as a support mechanism in efforts to controllability and flexibility’ of analogue drum machines and ‘transcend state-regulated cartographies’.63 Websites are used by synthesisers. Following the digitalised simulation of the early all as promotional devices, to advertise event locations, analogue instruments throughout the nineties, Scot Art (aka communicate philosophies and as portals for email subscription, 64 http://reflect.cat.org.au/mpfree 65 http://www.cat.org.au 63 Chris Gibson, ‘Subversive Sites: Rave, Empowerment and the Internet’. 66 www.indymedia.org. Winner of B(if)tek’s 2001 Wired Innovative Naughty Kids Paper presented at the IASPM Conference — Sites and Sounds: Popular (WINK) ‘most outstanding electronic music project’ category (www.biftek.com). Music in the Age of the Internet, 1997. 67 http://www.clananalogue.org Acquired from 38 © copyright 2001 39 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Nerve Agent) informs me that analogue is ‘a process or a state subordinate role of women in electronic music culture. For of being’, apparently not distant from the idea of a collective, instance, a project to realise ‘women powered gigs’ with an or a network of circuit paths. According to Scot, ‘a single ‘inclusory vibe’, Sisters @ the Underground grew from Clan transistor alone can only do so much … it needs a circuit, Analogue in early 1996 and represented dissatisfaction on the other transistors, to operate’. Not ‘digital creatures’, humans part of some women with male dominated decision making ‘are analogue wetware, a chemical-electrical circuit that exists processes within the collective.70 More recently, Chicks with in a network (society, nature) that allows these circuits to Decks, a forum, then all-female deejay crew, emerged in connect … to “oscillate” or otherwise display behaviour in Sydney. Women have also been heavily involved in seeding accordance to … electro-magnetic theory’. As a social circuit and facilitating events. Take for example, Jilly the Dragonqueen board, Clan enables the building of networks by providing (Jilly Magee) who has assisted the operation of many members with access to equipment, knowledge and advice, Queensland events, though probably most known for along with the opportunity to play live and co-produce music. originating Dragonflight which, between new year 96/97 and Despite the privileged position of males within electronic 99/00, attracted a host of Brisbane’s underground artists. music culture, women are heavily involved in the production of post-rave technoculture in Australia. Heir to something of the DiY punk influenced ‘grrrl power’ or ‘riot girl’ movement of the early nineties, which saw the formation of all or majority- women bands in the alternative music scene, and specialist zines—examples of young women ‘marking a new feminist space for themselves’68—there are increasing numbers of female electronic musicians and deejays including those volunteering their services in Free NRG fundraisers. Refusing to ‘scribble quietly in the corner’, Melbourne’s Nicole Lowrey (aka DJ Toupee) recently set up Femmebots as an online directory of ‘techno Femme Fatales’ (female deejays and producers).69 Other attempts have been made to contest the TINKERBELL FIRETWIRLING, RAINBOW SERPENT FESTIVAL 2000 68 A Harris, ‘Is DIY DOA? Zines and the Revolution, Grrrl Style’, in White, R. (ed) Australian Youth Subcultures: On the Margins and in the Mainstream, Hobart, (PHOTO: KATH WHEATLEY) Australian Clearing House of Youth Studies, 1999, pp.84-93. 69 http://www.femmebots.com 70 S@U, Sisters @ The Underground, Sporadical no4, 1997, p.24. Acquired from 40 © copyright 2001 41 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The ideological, spiritual and hedonistic traits of DiY Implying association with Aboriginal inter-tribal technotribes are imagineered into a range of doofs that, like gatherings, ‘corroboree’ is a widely used trope designating Dragonflight, are often ‘inter-tribal’ collaborations. These something like an authentic ‘tribal’ or ‘sacred’ experience. The events, sometimes referred to as ‘corroborees’, are festive sacrality of an event is further augmented via the social networks. ‘Psychedelic communities’, ‘political parties’ acknowledgement of the region’s indigeneity and, not unlike or enclaves of ‘disappearance’, they provide a sense of that transpiring in other contemporary Australian public events community for culturally estranged youth. Hillgonda Rietveld (ie. the Sydney Olympics and the opening of Museum Victoria), has described the significance of such events for those similarly being welcomed (or ‘opened’) by indigenous authorities dissident, outraged or just outrageous: effectively validates the experience. Such was apparently the For those who feel they have been dislocated in a political sense, made homeless in more ways than one, intense dance parties can provide a strong sense of community. Comparable to Caribbean sound systems, hip hop gatherings, gospel congregations or gay clubs. At times, the cultural output of the DiY dance scene seems to take on a cultural logic which in some way is comparable to migrant and diasporic communities.71 This sense of a shared exiled status is a fitting description for many Australian doofs. Industrial hard core orientated event ‘The Real Fuck Begin’, held in Sydney for New Year 2000/01 by System Corrupt (self-described as ‘anonymous agitators of the global free tekno underworld’) is an example of such.72 Hosting more diverse electronic music styles, along with activist information stalls, a healing zone and various workshops, Melbourne crew Psycorroboree’s annual Gaian Thump demonstrated that such communities can possess a proactive constituency. MUTOID WASTE GIANT FANNY PORTAL, NIMBIN ’96 71 Hillegonda Rietveld, ‘Repetitive Beats: Free Parties and the Politics of Contemporary DiY Dance Culture in Britain’, in McKay DiY Culture, p.260. (PHOTO. KRUSTY) 72 http://www.systemcorrupt.com Acquired from 42 © copyright 2001 43 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA case at Earthstomp 99, imagineered by WA’s Tribe of Gaia— The new ‘corroborees’ are sites where ultimate concerns whose boundaries are ‘defined by gravity and biosphere, not are celebrated, dramatised or demonstrated. An environmental illusions like nationhood or class’. Earthstomp was held on ethos is a particularly pervasive concern in post-rave culture. the Easter full moon at Indjidup — described as ‘a respected It is not uncommon to witness ecological ethics expressed in place, a meeting place, a Dreaming place’. For co-ordinator party promotions where for example, the phrase ‘leave nothing Denise Groves: behind ... tread lightly’ conveys respect for the natural I felt it was very important that Earthstomp had an indigenous environment.74 Some events possess a distinct earth honouring component as a recognition that we, the Aboriginal peoples— theme. Earthstomp 99, for example, was a ‘forum for any the first peoples—have been the custodians of Australia for inhabitant to give ecstatic homage to their planet’.75 But over 50,000 years…I feel tribal gatherings are a great way clearing up after a party or celebrating the planet’s beauty is to foster co-existence, and couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of pride and honour when the Wardani not nearly enough for those on a more pragmatic quest to elders welcomed Earthstomp participants onto their land.73 combine pleasure with politics. Planting native trees and Transpiring over several days and nights, participants at cranking it up, Melbourne’s Tranceplant collective have, along ‘techno-corroborees’ like Gaian Thump and Earthstomp are with their Queensland compatriots Scleromorph,76 emerged more inhabitants than ‘punters’. Accommodating multiple to operate Australia’s ‘Environmental Sounds Events’. Other ‘tribes’ committed to varying technical, artistic, esoteric and technotribal convergences dramatise issues relating to the pedagogic pursuits, they are each like a festive-matrix enabling activities of the forest and mining industries, and are often neophytes to gravitate towards variant social nodes, to ‘plug designed to fund campaigns mounted in opposition to these in’ to new meme and sound sources. Such can be highly industries. Furthermore, with the emergence of intercultural inspirational. Replete with mysterious pathways leading to cul- gatherings in recent times, technotribes have demonstrated their de-sacs of untold weirdness and grottos of arcane aurality, the support for Aboriginal communities and their causes. For topography encourages novices to stray into unfamiliar instance, on ‘Invasion Day’ (Australia Day) 2000, the Ohms territory. Enabling oscillation between on-site nodes, the not Bombs ‘Free NRG convoy’ traveled to the Aboriginal Tent subterranean technopolis may also condition a kind of ‘inter- Embassy in Canberra to assist in activities commemorating tribal’ promiscuity—leading to hybrid identities and further the Aboriginal Declaration of Sovereignty which had been collaborations. presented to the federal government on the 28th January 1992.77 74 It is often argued that this is compromised when ‘sensitive environments’ are subjected to 12 hours+ of thumping bass. 75 Rowe and Groves ibid, p.160. 73 Kelly Rowe and Denise Groves, ‘Earthstomp ’99’, in Dearling and Hanley 76 http://www.tranceplant.org, http://www.elven.com.au/scleromorph Alternative Australia, pp.159-61. 77 Free NRG tour 2000: http://www.omsnotbombs.org/index2.htm Acquired from 44 © copyright 2001 45 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA In 2000, the Earthdream technomadic protest-theatre had also rainforest, midnight in London, afternoon in San Francisco realised considerable intercultural dialogue and alliance and sunrise over the Himalayas—the global link-up is a forming outcomes. In the same spirit, motivated to ‘do profound and powerful moment that focuses the intention of something active for reconciliation’, Hocus Focus held millions of people on the affirmation of global peace’. Funds Coexistdance at the Lake Tyres Trust Reserve—Bung raised are donated to humanitarian causes. In 2000, events Yarnda—in Victoria on NYE 2000/01. According to Karl transpired in 71 cities in 33 countries, with Earthdance Sydney Fitzgerald, who had spent 12 weeks negotiating with traditional raising funds for Land Care Australia to maintain and improve owners to gain their permission, the former mission site became the water quality in the Wollondilly River Catchment.79 a non-violent dance-scape attended by 200 Koories—‘proving again that dancing can free your mind’.78 Demarcated zones of wonder and beauty, moments of transcendence, connection and purpose, ‘techno- corroborees’—especially trance events—are commonly felt to possess a religious ambience—to be potent sources of spiritual replenishment and maturity. This is most famously a characteristic of Earthdance, described as ‘a global dance party for world peace and healing’. From its inception in 1997 to 1999, the event focused on the plight of the Tibetan people, and in 2000 expanded to include other significant global causes though remaining ‘a united global dancefloor’ held in multiple locations simultaneously. Earthdance climaxes with a synchronized dance-floor link-up when a specially recorded song, ‘The Prayer for Peace’, is played at every event on the planet at 12 midnight GMT: ‘Morning in the Australian EARTHDANCE 99 @ BILLBOARD, MELBOURNE (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 78 Karl Fitzgerald, ‘Coexistdance – Lake Tyres Trust: Bung Yarnda’. Unpublished document. 79 http://www.earthdance.org Acquired from 46 © copyright 2001 47 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA The spiritual dimension to such events has evolved from called a ‘shamanistic inspired anarchy’ or ‘shamanarchy’, the consciousness raising element of preceding ‘summers of seems to have provided similar inspiration for the Metamorphic love’. ‘Spirit’ here is often thought to lie at the junctures of Ritual Theatre Company’s Labyrinth installations. Designed cyber and body technologies—computers and psychedelics— by Chaos Magician Orryelle—who once proclaimed ‘Fuck the and to be consequent to youth cultural experimentation with Patriarchy; Fuck the Matriarchy; Let’s just have An -archy!’— such ‘cyberdelic’ devices. Experimental esoteric landscapes, the Labyrinths were interactive ritual initiation cycles weaving doofs may effect personal ‘peak experiences’ as the following ‘a multi-cultural and multi-subcultural tapestry of ancient memory of Technofest ‘97 intimates: mythologies and modern technology’.81 There were some moments which overwhelmed me Commentators expound upon the spiritual potential of completely — standing swaying on the edge of the waterhole, ‘enviroteque‘ trance events as rituals of communion. That such illuminated by swirling projections looking out at a performance which completely blurred the line between events occasion a non-differentiated experience, a kind of hallucination and theatre. Across the water amongst the temporary techno-communitas, transcending the boundaries twisted roots of a dead tree was a big industrial harp made between self and other is championed by many.82 Psy-trance of iron pipes and wire. Strumming the harp was a aficionado Ray Castle, asserts that outdoor parties ‘celebrate postapocalyptic cyberchick, lurching and plucking like a an experiential celestial electro-communion—a participation demented animal. Emerging slowly from the murky water was some kind of aquatic beast clad in mud, streaming water mystique—with the numinous oneness and interconnectivity and some kind of skeletal bovine mask. He would emerge of all creation’.83 According to Kathleen Williamson, while slowly from the water as if entranced by the siren playing sounds produced by the likes of Castle constitute ‘the new the harp. He would then slowly submerge only to rise again epic poetry’, trance dance ‘is the “coming of age” ritual which from another part of the waterhole. It was really too much for this humble raver, I had to look around for friends to Western culture has long forgotten’. For Williamson, in the help me deal with it and ended up lying on my back in the doof, ‘tekno anarcho-activists understand the power of the dust, grinning with disbelief.80 gnosis of trance, and may use lots of tricks and techniques to Such epiphanies mark transitions, and perhaps become “direct” the energy of the dance’. While sound is the chief rites of passage into new states of being. Interactive ritual- means by which transcendence and inner-knowledge may be theatre installations built into doof foundations borrow from a achieved in such contexts, ‘artists have also buried crystals cornucopia of floating signifiers and iconographical traditions. 81 From the ‘ticket’ for the ConFest Easter ‘97 Labyrinth. See: The panorama of indigenous and ‘traditional’ belief systems http://www.crossroads.wild.net.au/lab.html and practices which inspired what ‘zippie’ Frazer Clark had 82 For example, see Scot Hutson, ‘Technoshamanism: Spiritual Healing in the Rave Subculture’, Popular Music and Society, vol23 no3, 1999, pp:53-77. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2822/3_23/64190176/print.html 80 Lane ibid. 83 Castle ibid, p.146. Acquired from 48 © copyright 2001 49 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA under dance areas, used static visual art or computer generated INHABITING SPACE visuals, and in particular [have investigated] … the symbology ‘Stomping’ is a significant means of inhabiting space, and iconography of ancient magickal and spiritual traditions’. whether forest, desert, beach, park, warehouse or street. Furthermore, in ‘reviving lost traditions’ and investing them Dancescape occupation can be an imaginative process of with ‘new technological innovation’, the dance rite constitutes appropriating, inverting, dwelling in and marking out place. This an answer to modern distancing from natural world rhythms: is especially significant to the DiY scene, as doofs are often Our convenient industrial cultures have practically negated reported to reclaim public space. While the proliferating nineties our direct relationship with the earth and its seasons and cycles, Reclaim the Streets campaign represents an exemplary process and it seems that there is less and less reason to rely on, let of inverting the meaning and purpose of public space, especially alone investigate our instinctual being. Our experiences with sound, psychedelics and the dance ritual are the stirrings of in countries where such demonstrations are anomalous or communicating via the ebb and flow of the earth’s rhythms prohibited,87 these events are not always so public. Like their and letting it seep into our collective emotions.84 underground predecessors, informal dance parties have usually Eugene ENRG, aka DJ Krusty, traces the collective been means by which young people mark out local places for paroxysm of trance dance back to its putative Pagan or ‘tribal’ themselves—by which space has been rendered significant (inhabited). In the ‘subversive appropriation of cracks in the urban origins.85 Involving the assumption of an ‘Earth presence’, there is a prevailing chthonic aspect to this dance philosophy. Krusty informs that ‘energy’ located in and channeled from the Australian landscape is responsible for the ecstatic states associated with outdoor doofs: I think there’s a sense of the spirit of the land. This land we now call Australia has a real spirit to being stomped. And if you’ve ever watched Aboriginal dance, its very much about stomping the earth ... if you watch techno ... it’s very much about stomping the earth .... [it] brings energy into the body, Earth energy into the body.86 EARTHDREAM2000 DANCEFLOOR, ALBERRIE CREEK SOUTH AUSTRALIA (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 84 Kathleen Williamson, Trance Magick: http://www.hofmann.org/voices/aussie.html 85 Related in Graham St John, ‘Heal thy Self - thy Planet’: ConFest, Eco-Spirituality 87 RTS road protests are reported to date back to 1971 in London. See D. Wall, and the Self/Earth Nexus’, Australian Religion Studies Review, vol14 no1, 2001. Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and 86 From interview with the author, Dec 1997. Comparative Social Movements, London, Routledge, 1999 p.29. Acquired from 50 © copyright 2001 51 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA landscape’, otherwise disused or derelict spaces are transformed, The most renowned occupation of public space in Australia as in the conversion of a meatworks carpark in Sydney’s is probably Vibe Tribe’s frequent revisitation upon Sydney Park Alexandria into a youth arts and rehabilitation centre called the opposite St Peter’s Railway Station, Sydney, where, in April Graffiti Hall of Fame,88 and the sonic squatting performed by 1995, their Freequency party was violently dispersed by Melbourne Underground Development in a post-industrial police.90 Perhaps the most spectacular urban pirate utopia warehouse complex in Footscray’s Maribyrnong Wharves precinct transpired in Melbourne in February 2000, when under the (the Global Village), or inverted, as in the occupation of the Westgate overpass, a temporary free-state was populated in Northcote Bowls Club.89 close visual proximity to the city. A marginal ‘edutainment’ complex complete with multiple dance floors, kitchen and info stall, System Malfunction was designed to raise funds for the upcoming Earthdream mission. Amplifying drum ’n’ bass and ragga roots from a concrete platform forming the base of a huge girder, international sound systems Bedlam (UK), Negust Negast (UK) and SPAZ (US) joined forces with local sonic mobs Ohms Not Bombs and Labrats who set up separate dance floors and an ‘activist chill lounge’ respectively. At the edge of the metropolis, under the shadow of one of the country’s largest bridges, through the night and into the day, alternative cultural territory was carved out—an island of freedom incubating transgressive transactions and enabling progressive awareness raising transmissions. DJ KRUSTY @ BRUNSWICK STREET FESTIVAL (PHOTO. PANCHO) 88 http://www.graffitihalloffame.com 89 Quote is from Chris Gibson 1997, ibid. The Graffiti ‘Hall’, an ‘anarchic headquarters for the self-empowerment of unemployed youth’ closed down by the pro-residential development South Sydney Council in March 2000 after a prolonged court battle, was founded by ‘underground saint’ Tony Spanos - who has also supported Ohms 90 Sebastian Chan, ‘“The Cops are Jammin’ the Frequency”: Critical Moments for not Bombs, funded wildstyle mural projects in Redfern, Newtown and Erskinville, the Sydney Free Party Scene’, http://www.cia.com.au/peril/youth/index.htm. In 1997, and sponsored various Aboriginal sports programs and music workshops. Mick Daley, a community access sound system called ‘Quency’ was named in honour of that ‘Under Siege: Graffiti Hall of Fame’, Sydney City Hub , 2nd March 2000. ‘struggle for free autonomous space’. From Sporadical no 4, Spring 1997, p.21. Acquired from 52 © copyright 2001 53 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA When four hundred people were transported on a ferry to The outdoor journey which potentiates connection to the Shark Island, 2 kms from shore in Sydney’s Rose Bay on natural environment is a recurrent and important theme. As February 18 1996 for Cryogenesis’91 biannual day time Tramacchi points out, the ‘location of doofs in an ecological ‘avante-garde chillout project’, they experienced something environment promotes a sense of linking the doof community more than a literal ‘island of freedom’. Special K describes to the landscape and allows the occurrence of spontaneous the transportation as something like a ‘rite of passage’ to ‘this mystical bonds with nature’.93 Perhaps such bonding is enabled essentially Sydney space, magically incorporating its cityscape as metropolitan inhabitants are transported from inner city and the amniotic fluid of the harbour offering rebirth and ‘pleasure prisons’ to Free NRG outdoor dancescapes. renewal’. Disembarking, the denizens of those confined spaces of ‘timelessness and eternal night’, inner city nightclubs and raves, awoke ‘into the finite daytime … into public visible space’. On Shark Island: temporal hours of sunlight ruled over all and the children of technology were forced to obey the laws of nature once more … The day provided stimulation for all bodily senses, the eyes and ears being privileged by the combined landscape, seascape and soundscape. In more subtle ways the senses of smell, touch and taste were also stimulated by the environment. The taste and smell of seaspray, fresh air, marijuana and increasingly warm alcohol, the feel of grass, sand, water and rocks under feet temporarily freed from the bounds of shoes. These senses also evolved throughout the day for many as other chosen stimulants altered states of mind and added to the sense of occasion, of celebration and of physical and mental travel away from the everyday.99 BEACH PARTY @ HALF MOON BAY, BLACK ROCK, 21 FEB 98 (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 91 Cryogenesis began in 1993 as the event-organisation of Sub Bass Snarl sound system (www.snarl.org) who originated in Sydney in 1991/92. Since 1995, Cryogenesis has organised Sydney’s Freaky Loops Festival raising funds for Sydney Community Radio 2SER. 92 Special K, ‘The Body, Cryogenesis and the TAZ’, http://www.cia.com.au/peril/texts/ features/cryo-taz-k.htm 93 Tramacchi, ‘Field Tripping’, p.208. Acquired from 54 © copyright 2001 55 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA CONCLUSION By the time dance/rave culture escalated in Australia, the particular form of nocturnal rebellion which rave represented had emerged as a fashionable form of youth resistance. Raving had become a marketable leisure pursuit—and the quality of subversion it offered was obtainable in regulated doses at a steadily increasing price. Moreover, the ‘subversive’ dimensions it possessed were in large part imported from a country where a generation of youth had had their practices— dancing all night to a filthy rhythm—heavily legislated against, effectively politicising activities that were often not necessarily oppositional or radical. Despite two terms of conservative government, the regulation of dance practices in Australia does not resemble the UK experience. While the comparatively vast landmass and relatively sparse population seem to be central to this comparison, the distinctive qualities of Australian ecological and cultural history, upon which the Howard and preceding Governments have made their mark, have triggered a response in contemporary youth cultures. An influential UK DiY movement not withstanding, Australia’s geophysical, historical and political landscape has given form to a radicalism inscribed in local post-rave culture. The continuing threat to high conservation value areas, rainforests and wetlands, a burgeoning uranium industry, an indigenous rights movement and the struggle for independence, meaning and legitimacy are issues significant to a growing population of young Australians. Acquired from 56 © copyright 2001 57 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA CHAPTER TWO— So say the transgressive ever-morphing edge-dwellers of Australian tekno-dance culture, where media activists PROPAGATING ABOMINABLE engage in information war against government and corporate control. This chapter examines the role of the activist media, KNOWLEDGE: ZINES ON THE specifically self-published print zines and web or e-zines emanating from the Australian tekno fringe. Following a brief TEKNO FRINGE history of zines, it discusses activist tekno media’s response to commercial culture, production techniques and philosophies, followed by an examination of this media’s KATHLEEN WILLIAMSON interest in sustainable community, new spirituality and participatory communication. We’re psycho-chemical-regurgitated-bastard children working for a reprogrammable future. We can’t escape our creation, our legacy, can’t return to an archaic past or escape to a synthetic future. We have to confront what we have become and why. Like early organisms in a changing environment, we experiment with new collectivities, fields of being … We reconcile culture as nature and our history plays as an alchemical psycho process through stages of realization.1 KATHLEEN WILLIAMSON 1 Skitzo Serene, “Mutants Travel”, Since the Accident #2, Spring 1995. Acquired from 58 © copyright 2001 59 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA ZINESTORY Western grassroots press has its beginnings with the What the hell is a ‘zine’ anyway?2 According to massive development of the printing press4 in 1450, which helped manifest the overwhelming changes in ideas and zine review chronicle, Factsheet 5, zines promote freedom of consciousness of the Renaissance, the Reformation and the expression, individual and communal power, the value of Scientific Revolution. The appearance of contemporary zines diversity, and non-commercial opportunities in self- began with science fiction fanzines in the 1930s. These expression.3 They appear as low-budget self-published media, usually photocopied, printed or web-based, and distributed via publications grew out of a desire for people to make contact, network and communicate their peculiar interests. Rob mail order, through web-based distributors or over the counter Hansen writes in his British Fanzine Bibliography5 that the at alternative stores, but mostly via word of mouth. Activist pulp science fiction magazines of the 1920s and ‘30s included tekno zines are often disseminated at parties—the creative focal letter columns from readers. One particular editor started point for dance culture— or wind-up in community radio printing the full addresses of letter contributors, which led stations, alternative food, music, book or clothing businesses, to them writing to each other, setting up meetings, and to the in nightclubs, cafes and pubs, and even beside free street beginning of a sense of community. entertainment press. Some welcome subscriptions and produce regular editions, while others only appear now and again, or Fanzines emerged out of these sci-fi ‘fan’ communities perhaps as a one-off. Some zines resurrect after years of in the 1930s, initially in the UK and the USA, and included hibernation. They may appear exclusively as virtual or print funky titles like: The Comet, Dawn Shadows, Futurian War media or a combination of both. Digest, Interplanetary News, and Mighty Atom. Many contemporary zines, including those found on the activist Profit making rarely motivates zine communities with tekno fringe demonstrate these original motivations of most publications traded, given away for free, or sold at near networking and communicating. cost price. With this freedom from commercial pressure and manipulation by media owners, publishers and advertisers, comes an avalanche of diverse subject matter seldom considered by mainstream mass media. Zines are a community phenomenon, not expensively manufactured ‘popular’ culture. 4 ‘The Printing Press as an Agent of Preservation’, 2 electroidriva@hotmail.com, ‘“Zine???” You Say?’, http://www.tbns.net/ http://www.courses.psu.edu/Materials/COMM461_bx2/printing_press.htm electrocution/zineblurb 5 Rob Hansen, rob@fiawol.demon.co.uk, ‘British Fanzine Bibliography’, 3 FactSheet 5, http://www.factsheet5.com/History.html http://www.fiawol.demon.co.uk/biblio/ Acquired from 60 © copyright 2001 61 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Developments in media technologies have directly Debacle, Nervous Habits and Krankheit reflect the more contributed to the explosion of self publishing in the 1980s grotesque, surreal and nihilistic edge of the culture, while and 1990s via cheap and accessible photocopying machines, Sydney’s Angry People, Loaded to the Gills, and Victim inexpensive personal computers, desk top publishing computer Culture, or Queensland’s Seditious Intent, Humans in the software, as well as the emergence of the internet. Part of the Mushroom Field and Fight Back focus specifically on DiY alternative political and cultural publishing continuum in the direct action, networking information, culture jamming, West, Australian tekno activist media links to the underground anarchy, animal rights, equality and feminism. Current zines political press of the 1960s and ‘70s. Some of the more well like Personality Liberation Front and No Longer Blind known include the UK’s International Times, Seed and Fifth continue this DiY tradition in Australian punk culture. Estate from the US, and the infamous Oz magazine6 whose In the 1980s and ‘90s, other zines spreading the DiY message Australian editors were charged with obscenity in 1971.7 appeared in various guises including the subversive Brisbane zine The Future Now, and the incredible celebration of DiY energy DiYSTORY and diversity exposed through the many issues of Woozy from Melbourne, and its associated zine, music, and video distro, Contemporary Australian activist media promotes the do- Choozy. More recently, rural based zines like Tribe in Northern it-yourself (DiY) revival energised via the Punk movement in NSW, and web-zines such as Activate10 started by Sydney high the 1970s. As outlined in A S Van Dorston’s A History of Punk8, school activists in 1998, continue to promote and propagate the DiY ethos is a liberating vision where disaffected youth environmentally and socially aware DiY mutating culture. could create a meaningful, participatory, culture. Grassroots networks and alternative distribution systems, ‘distros’, Sound system activists, Ohms Not Bombs,11 note on their emerged as part of the Punk DiY surge, reclaiming the realms webpage: ‘The acid house boom of the late 80s saw a new of creative production from stifling commercial culture. In format and arena for expression, excess and human interaction. Australia, the punk distro Spiral Objective9 doubles as a zine Breaking down the barriers of traditional entertainment, the containing articles, art and reviews, and a catalogue of local emphasis was placed on the participants of an event, taking music and media. Some punk zines, like Maggot Death, the spotlight initially away from the entertainers’. The DiY subcultural tradition surged ahead in the early 1990s in 6 Gerry & Mark, ‘The Rupert Bear Controversy: Defence and Reactions to the Cartoon Australia with the appearance of techno community sound in the Oz Obscenity Trial’, http://ccub.wlv.ac.uk/~fa1871/rupage.html system activists, Jellyheads, and later the Vibe Tribe collective 7 Abe Peck, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press, Citadel Press, New York USA, 1991. which ‘took the concept in a different direction with its 8 A S Van Dorston, punk@fastnbulbous.com, ‘The History of Punk, Part II: Punk and Post Punk Subcultures Do It Yourself’, http://www.fastnbulbous.com/punk.htm 10 Activate Anarchist Network, activate@cat.org.au, 9 Spiral Objective Mail Order, spirolob@adelaide.on.net, http://www.activate.8m.com/index.html http://www.popgun.com.au/spiralobjective/ 11 Ohms Not Bombs, ‘Dig the Sounds Not Uranium’, http://www.omsnotbombs.org/ Acquired from 62 © copyright 2001 63 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA liberationist anarchist politics, free parties and community The cyber-femme print and web-zine Geekgirl16 contains fundraising dances’.12 These cyber-radicals and tekno-artists a ‘doofstory’ about the Vibe Tribe which outlines the included in their creactive repertoire the Jellyheads newsletter community activism of the collective and its connections to and later, the ongoing series of Sporadical13 zines featuring the DiY tradition: an array tricksters intent on planting seeds of DiY and As friendly party energy continues to build, webs of ‘perverting today’s youth’.14 Sporadical is the photocopied consciousness communicate between groups of like-minded manifesto of an enduring radical voice in Australian dance party people. Vibe Tribe was established in 1993, designed culture, providing a rallying point for a wide range of grassroots to nurture the DiY/DiO (Do-It-Yourself/Do-it-Ourselves) spirit emerging out of the Sydney and Byron Bay regions at concerns like reclaiming public and private space, sustainable the time. Formed by a group of people dedicated to putting non-profit economies, creative protest, alternative energy and on non-commercial, full-powered events, the spirit of punk non-hierarchical organisation. was sustained and painted fluoro as the techno seismic shift Techno culture, underground parties, community events, and sent its tremors across Australia’s dance floors. The open air dance gatherings have taken up residency as a underground party has grown and diversified, despite often regular part of our culture. Radical electronic music, being denied access to inner-city spaces. This has energised contemporary art, performance and community co-creation and motivated a new generation of boffins, freaks, audio have created a vibrant cyber-radical techno tribal network alchemists and networking nutters.17 … Dissatisfaction with the system is expressed with a more positive communicative bent, mutating, surviving and creating new media and communication networks. When an event is organized a community energy lays down a precedent that the space created is autonomous and free of all prejudice against human individuality and diversity. The ‘safe’ space takes on its own chaotic kinetic vibration, repetitive and non-repetitive sounds are emitted, new artworks displayed, contacts made and non-elitist community aerobics danced till the next day. It is hard for such spaces to be activated at traditional city venues where alcohol dominated spaces transmit the unhappy frequency of style conformity, centralised control and bad attitude security.15 12 ‘About our Collective: Doof Activism for the Future’, http://www.omsnotbombs.org/ 13 Sporadical zine online, http://www.omsnotbombs.org/sporadical.html 14 Sporadical, Summer 95/96. 16 Geekgirl, The World’s First Cyberfeminist Hyperzine, http://www.geekgirl.com.au 15 ‘Vibe Tribe Evolution’, Sporadical #4. 17 mode5@triode.apana.org.au, ‘Vibe Tribe Rave’, Geekgirl #7, p.11. Acquired from 64 © copyright 2001 65 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA TECKNOWLEDGY (R)EVOLUTION Since 1998, activist tekno media has found new stomping grounds via events like the annual National Young Writer’s Since the mid-90s, underground tekno culture has made Festival1 23 held in Newcastle and Melbourne’s Media good use of the explosion in internet availability, and accessible Circus.24 These gatherings mix and promote independent and affordable web technologies as new forms of creative press and media mutators who share, discuss, debate, critique expression, as well as new mediums for information dissemination and interactive organisation. The original and network. purpose of Ausrave18 , a national e-mailing list initiated by The Earthdream200025 journey included a travelling zine Rev Simon Rumble, was to discuss raves and rave music ‘back library, the Abominable Knowledge Emporium, which when such beasts existed’. By 2001, Ausrave has evolved into materialised near Nepabunna in the Flinders Rangers, the a ‘meeting place, a discussion point of all sorts of things’.19 Arabunna Coming Home Camp26 at Lake Eyre, briefly at Alice Email communities like Ausrave, and Adrave20 in Adelaide, Springs and finally at the Berrimah warehouse in Darwin. On initiate and maintain information and social exchange. They the same pilgrimage, Pete Strong from Ohms Not Bombs put debate, discuss, share music resources and reviews, and even together a special Earthzine edition of Sporadical while form party collectives to organise events.21 Similarly, Michael travelling between Coober Pedy, Alice Springs and Sydney. MD’s long running cyber Site of Party, Rave and Club What role do zines play in the activist media landscape? Information, SPRACI22 , spreads local and global awareness Both their content and methods of production and about underground parties and music via the community itself, dissemination reflect and promote the values of their with free access for party collectives to publicise events. community. Activists splice up and reconfigure mass media in accordance with their own perspectives. They fuck-up, jam, subvert and unravel belief systems by using corporate symbols, 18 Ausrave Online Community, http://www.ausrave.net.au/ To subscribe to ausrave, send an email to ausrave-request@ausrave.net.au with the word subscribe in the body of the message. 19 Rev Simon Rumble, ‘Ausrave Australian Raves Mailing List’, http://www.ausrave.net.au/ 20 Adrave, Email Chat Group, Adelaide South Australia, 23 National Young Writer’s Festival, 27 September — 1 October 2001, Newcastle NSW, http://www.adrave.box.net.au/newadrave/index.html http://www.octapod.org.au/nywf/2001/ 21 Adrave, Email Chat Group, Adelaide South Australia, 24 Media Circus, 14-16 July 2001, Trades Hall, Carlton Melbourne, Victoria, http:// http://www.adrave.box.net.au/newadrave/index.html www.antimedia.net.au/mediacircus 22 Michael MD, Site of Party, Rave and Club Information, SPRACI, 25 Earthdream 2000 — 2013 An Annual Journey http://beam.to/earthdream/ http://www.spraci.com/ 26 Keepers of Lake Eyre, http://www.lakeeyre.green.net.au/index.html Acquired from 66 © copyright 2001 67 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA practices and commodities to perceptually engineer their own RECLAIMING THE PLAYGROUND meaning. ‘They exploit the rich ambiguities of words, images, Tekno activist media is anti-copyright31—representing a identities, commodities and social practices in order to craft common sharing of energy and ideas. Production involves protean perspectives, to rupture business as usual, and to stir copying for non-profit purposes, though often the zines request up new ways of seeing and being in a world striated with acknowledgement of the source. There is interest and practice invisible grids of technocultural engineering’.27 in the fair use of popular culture for sampling, with active Important debates in the evolution of democratic society, encouragement of further copying and dissemination by the often absent within corporate media, arise in independent self- recipient. It isn’t about ownership of information and associated created media. These zines respond to powerful global media profits but rather the availability of ideas and active networks, to reliance upon their televisual ‘reality’ and to the encouragement for readers to contribute, copy and distribute. associated decline in a culture of critical consciousness.28 After Within DiY media culture the distinction between all, as Marshal McLuhan laments ‘we are all robots when producer and consumer is fuzzy, as the culture thrives on a uncritically involved with our technologies’.29 Activist media participatory horizontal network which assists in breaking rejects long term control over public opinion, and management down the commodity relationship of regular commercial of the political agenda by business to protect profits. By publishing, as participants share zines and ideas with each expertly utilising innovative and traditional media other. Hakim Bey32 suggests in the final issue of the anti- technologies, activists attempt to re-balance the flow of copyright zine, Babyfish Fish Lost its Mama33, that the world information. Techno-fringe media provides tools for radical of commodities separates people and divides communities, that organisation and personal exploration, encouraging people to exploration of alternative economies and experiments in living, become self-aware, to inform and to experiment in alchemical30 will (r)evolutionise the way we think and live. zones of participation. 27 Erik Davis, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information, Three Rivers Press, New York USA, p.179, 1998. 31 Liberated gratefully and without prior permission from Peter Russell, 28 Andrew Lowrey in Alex Cary, Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Propaganda in the pete@elfrock.demon.co.uk by The Hedonistic Imperative, US and Australia, Ed. Andrew Lowrey, University of NSW Press, Sydney, p.1, 1995. http://www.hedweb.com/anticopy.htm 29 Marshall McLuhan quoted in Erik Davis, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the 32 Hakim Bey, ‘The Marco Polo of the Subunderground’, Age of Information, Three Rivers Press, New York USA, p.131, 1998. http://www.t0.or.at/hakimbey/hakimbey.htm 30 alchemy@dial.pipex.com, ‘Inner Alchemy and Symbolism’, The Alchemy Web, 33 Hakim Bey interviewed by Sunfrog, ‘Zines, Community and these Bloody Lefty http://www.levity.com/alchemy/inner.html Liberals’, http://www.subsitu.com/kr/zinescom.html Acquired from 68 © copyright 2001 69 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA To deconstruct the negative stereotype media creates about Members of Connect have contributed to the network of youth, by making our voices heard within the community underground tekno collectives around South-East Queensland and throughout society. To be unashamed, and unapologetic for who we are and the way we choose to express ourselves. since the mid-90s. Originally the Chai Mamas, they provided To educate other generations about positive solutions by food in chill zones at tekno events, and held monthly feasts living out those solutions in experience and experimentation. like the Community Kitchen events. Later as the Chailight Change the world before it changes you, contribute today!34 Zone and Spin n Jam137 , the ongoing artist’s autonomous jam Yoghurt zine, produced between 1996 and 1997 (a revived space, former members of Connect facilitate a Friday night issue will be released in 2001) by an innovative youth collective explosion of electro-inspired spontaneity in inner city Brisbane. in inner city Brisbane named Connect, shared ideas about how In a fading 10th generation copy of Copyrant38 zine young people can create change in their community. johnj@cat.org.au asks: what is originality? What is copyright? Combining efforts with other grassroots organisations like Who does it benefit? His examination suggests that our Youth for Youth, Starving Artists, Radio 4ZZZ35, Focus on communities prefer to celebrate the supremacy of the profit Creative Employment, and through producing Yoghurt, making individual over the community, to the legal extreme. Connect explore a range of resourceful strategies required to However, for many artists copyright stultifies the creative create an empowering community. Yoghurt declares a firm anti- process through possession, commodification and separation. censorship policy: Our society tends toward a monoculture where only those with We believe that censorship does not prevent things from money control art, with copyright disrupting creative existing, it simply hides them making them more dangerous. community by preventing an atmosphere of trust and Censorship results in ignorance and lack of education. cooperation among artists.39 Media activists believe that Censorship demonstrates distrust and disrespect for the people the information is being kept from. Censorship information piracy ensures equity40 and can result in a context prevents people from making an informed choice as to what where all can participate in creating meaning.41 view they will hold about the information.36 37 Spin ‘n’ Jam, http://www.paradox.com.au/~spin-n-jam/ 38 Organarchy Sound Systems Politically Fuelled Dance Beatz, http:// www.organarchy.cat.org.au/ 39 johnj@cat.org.au, ‘Copyrant’, Copyrant: The Free Zine with the Cure for Infomortis. 40 ‘This is Information: Piracy on the High Seas’, Copyrant: The Free Zine with the 34 Yoghurt #13, Editorial, p.2, 1997. Cure for Infomortis. 35 4ZZZ 102.1 mhz ,There’s No Other Radio Station Like It, http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/ 41 Lloyd Dunn, ‘Plagiarism is the Negative Point of a Culture that finds its Ideological 36 Yoghurt Acidophilus Issue, Editorial, p.2. Justification in the Unique’, Copyrant: The Free Zine with the Cure for Infomortis. Acquired from 70 © copyright 2001 71 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA ZINES AND COMMUNITY (R)EVOLUTION Agitating in response to enforced marginalisation, zine producers combat widespread misinformation usually perpetrated Noting that zine production had mainly been a hobby, in by mainstream media and government. Articles like ‘Everybodies the early ‘90s Hakim Bey42 called for their use as real weapons doing it: The Byron Bush Dance’44 and ‘Peaceman! Policeman? of liberation—to communicate a creative principle of community Repetitive Beating at Cybernana’45 in the Brisbane zine beyond the zine network. Cyber-philosopher, Mark Dery, writes FreakQuency, which appeared in 3 issues in 1996, demonstrate in the Pyrotechnic Insanitarium43: ‘These burgeoning subcultures are driven not by the desire for commodities but by the dream that attacks on the party culture seem to derive from little more than misinformation and a determination to frighten people into of community […] It is this yearning for meaning and cohesion conformity and obedience to authority. One of the most infamous that lies at the heart of the jammer’s attempts to reassemble the fragments of our world into something more profound than the police busts in Australian tekno culture, the free party Freequency46 which occurred in Sydney Park, inner city Sydney, luxury cars, sexy technology and overdesigned bodies that flit on the 8th April 1995, involved 40 police with batons, riot shields across our screens’. and police dogs who charged the offensive dance floor at 2am. Apparently responding to noise complaints, police arrested 9 people, and 2 others landed in hospital. Two years later, the NSW Ombudsman released a report about police actions at the Freequency party. Even though the report failed to order further investigations due to a lack of evidence, it was noted that police did act confrontationally. By 1998, a NSW Government and Police Service Dance Party Code of Conduct47 had been drawn up. However, as Sebastian Chan points out in his article, The Cops are Jammin’ the Frequency,48 new battlegrounds appear in the struggle to reclaim community space, and information and education are the keys to future resistance. 44 Pip, ‘Everybodies Doing It: The Byron Bush Dance’, Freakquency #1. p.23. 45 Jana Bent, ‘Peaceman! Policeman? Repetitive Beating at Cybernana’, Freakquency #2, p.17. 46 Sebastian Chan/Yellow Peril, ‘Hey, the Cops are Jammin’ the Frequency!’, Critical Moments for the Sydney Free Party Scene, http://www.snarl.org/youth/freequency.pdf 42 Hakim Bey, http://gyw.com/hakimbey 47 Rev Simon Rumble, ausrave Australian Raves mailing list, http://www.ausrave.net.au/ 43 Mark Dery, Pyrotechnic Insanitarium, ‘Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and 48 Yellow Peril, ‘Hey, the Cops are Jammin’ the Frequency!’, Critical Moments for the Sniping in the Empire of Signs’, http://www.levity.com/markdery/culturjam.html Sydney Free Party Scene, http://www.snarl.org/texts/features/freequency.html Acquired from 72 © copyright 2001 73 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA By 1996, local Adelaide tekno communities faced Just as the festive head space is reclaimed from the profiteers increased harassment by the police and state. Sub Lumen zine of the spectacle, underculture raves are quite often held in reclaimed physical spaces; commons, parks, squats. Community provides a rallying point for the frustrated culture: ‘I would groups are denied access to ‘legal’ rave venues by huge rents. just like to say get active. This is your freedom we are talking These colosseums for mass distraction are controlled by the about here. And it is being taken away’.49 In Queensland emperors of the spectacle. Squatted spaces like the one used Freakquency zine discusses the role of police following an for the Visions of Freedom53 rave give local activist groups vital fun(d) and awareness raising opportunities.54 incident at Brisbane community radio 4ZZZ’s Cybernana Market Day on 19 October 1996 . For over 25 years ,4ZZZ50 Radical proponents of autonomy, the sound system has played a key role in questioning the authoritarian nature collective, Ohms Not Bombs, support grassroots youth of Queensland’s laws, government and police via their ‘agitate, experiments in the use of public space. Recent issues of educate and organize’ doctrine, tirelessly supporting local Sporadical include a number of articles about the Graffiti Hall artists of all types, especially music cultures and putting the of Fame55 established by Tony Spanos in the early 1990s. ‘unity in community’.51 Making claims to have acted to protect Throughout the past decade, the Graffiti Hall provided a the public from a sudden afternoon storm, on this day police grassroots youth space in inner city Sydney to offer direction called in reinforcements—including military police and and encourage creative pursuits for local youth and the wider horses—to remove people from the park. 4ZZZ and patrons Sydney community. The webspace documents that the space accused the police of using ‘excessive force’, but a subsequent has launched various projects and initiatives that have positively Criminal Justice Commission report into the incident influenced many people, promoting activities for ‘urban youth exonerated police. Freakquency speculates that such incidents (to) channel their creativity into arts, music and sport’.56 Activists are merely training exercises for police with ‘young people have often squatted or rented empty spaces for workshops, cafes and music lovers as the guinea pigs’.52 The law seems to have and shops to trade local products and to act as information centres an unhealthy aversion to such a subculture which gathers for current environmental campaigns and events, revitalising outside the regulated boundaries of commercial social space, the neighbourhood by ‘offering workshops to kids in juggling, and demonstrates a very real interest in reclaiming ‘space’, stick twirling, chakra knowledge and the creation of electronic both concrete and abstract. music … Venues have always been a problem in Sydney where 49 Felix, ‘The War on Raves’, Sub Lumen #4, March 1996. 53 An anarchist conference in Sydney in 1995: http://reflect.cat.org.au/vof/versions 50 4ZZZ 102.1 mhz ,There’s No Other Radio Station Like It, http://www.4zzzfm.org.au 54 John and Pete, ‘Radical Raves Reclaim and Liberate Space in Many Dimensions: Is 51 Gary Williams (Ed), Generation Zed: No other Radio like this, p.70. this Raveolution?’, Freakquency #2, p.22-23. 52 Jana Bent, ‘Peaceman! Policeman? Repetitive Beating at Cybernana’, 55 Graffiti Hall of Fame, http://www.graffitihalloffame.com/ Freakquency #2, p.17. 56 ‘Spores of Liberation’, Sporadical #5, p.4 Acquired from 74 © copyright 2001 75 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA cops, councils and bureaucracy stand in the way of the creation In her Broken Pencil63 zine article, ‘Photocopied Politics: of autonomous spaces’.57 Re-zoning to benefit property Zines (Re)Produce a New Activist Culture’, Hilary Clark says developers, South Sydney Council closed the Graffiti Hall of that while commercial media is hollow and superficial, the Fame to community use in 2000. underground press represents an explosion of individual and In May 2001, the council evicted artists and activists collective energy—stimulating thought, setting examples and squatting empty council-owned buildings on Broadway in inner- moving towards communities of consensus. Australian activist city Sydney. The squatters improved the building and encouraged tekno culture defies such encroaching monoculture, actively creative and communal use of the occupied space. Squatspace58 generating meaningful media by providing an alternative hoped to highlight the extremely high cost of housing in Sydney, grassroots documentation of many groundbreaking events and and the wasteful mismanagement of public space perpetrated issues usually ignored by corporate media in Australia — by government. ‘The opening up of the lucrative market for including innovations in and use of alternative energy, developers gives us a frightening vision of alienation as the Aboriginal land rights, the uranium mining industry and other region developed with no plans for improving the quality of life environmental concerns.64 The first two Earthzine editions for local residents. What sort of ‘development’ do we want?”59 include detailed information about Arabunna elder, Kevin The ‘Don’t board it up! Live it up’ vision of the Squatspace Buzzacott’s Walking the Land65 pilgrimage, as well as the collective enacted a multitude of events, performances and activities surrounding the Aboriginal Tent Embassy 66 actions, featuring political and experimental multi-media established in Sydney at the time of the Olympics. The creativity over a number of months, as well as providing Earthzines include detailed first-hand accounts of anti-uranium affordable workshop and exhibition space to community groups blockades and other direct actions undertaken around Roxby and artists. Warped collage artist, media manipulator, zine maker, Downs and Beverley mines in May 2000. A manifesto from and member of the System Corrupt60 collective, 7U?61 , was one alternative energy sound system collective, Lab Rats67, appears of many who contributed to an ongoing Squatspace event called in C.I.A. zine: Media Jam which continued for a number of weeks leading up to the world-wide anti-globalisation protests on 1 May 2001.62 63 Hilary Clark, ‘Photocopied Politics: Zines (re)Produce a New Activist Culture’, Broken Pencil, The Guide to Alternative Culture in Canada, http://www.brokenpencil.com/features/photocopied-politics.html 57 Ibid. 64 Particularly as found in the many issues of Sporadical, as well as the Jellyheads Newsletter, Coughing Up Legging Men, Octarine, Pyrate, Yoghurt, Submerge, 58 Squatspace goes Ballistic Before Bein’ Evicted, http://www.geocities.com/squatspace Another Bodgy Production and C.I.A. 59 Graffiti Hall of Fame, http://www.graffitihalloffame.com/index_a.html 65 Walking the Land for our Ancient Rights Peace Walk, 60 System Corrupt, “http://www.systemcorrupt.com/” http://www.systemcorrupt.com http://www.lakeeyre.green.net.au/long-walk-updates.html 61 7U?, Visual Diarrhoea, http://www.geocities.com/sevenuy 66 tentembassy@hotmail.com, Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Victoria Park, Cnr City & 62 M1 Alliance, Strike Against Corporate Tyrrany, Parramatta Rds, Broadway Sydney, http://www.graffitihalloffame.com/tent_embassy/ http://www.m1alliance.org/solidarity/default.html tentembmain.html Acquired from 76 © copyright 2001 77 www.ozauthors.com.au  I have a belief in the universal language of music and its and publicising regular and one-off events. Since 1998, Lex power to unite communities and change the world!! This is Luthor and Yellow Peril of Snarl Heavy Industries74, have why we feel it necessary to take it back to the underground. Non profit solar powered underground community organized produced 15 issues of a print and web-zine called Cyclic multimedia electronic experiments. FREE venues of the most Defrost75 which has played an informative role in the evolution acoustically bizarre form. Where the finger of the law and of the weekly Frigid club and associated electronic music other party pooper oppressors can never catch us … in drains, community which is still growing after 5 years. In 2000, in tunnels, sewers and sidewalks, keep your ears to the Sebastian Chan (aka Yellow Peril) teamed up with the ground for sounds from the underground … get involved!68 independent electronic label, eLefant traks,76 to organise Similarly, Yoghurt zine aims to ‘put power in its place Australia’s inaugural Independent Electronic Labels and create community control’.69 The decentralist strategies Conference77 as an associated event of the This is Not Art78 discussed in this publication include active consensus, festival. Tekno media activists, like Sub Bass Snarl79 and Clan developing consciousness, local organisation, creating Analogue recognise the importance of community and alternative institutions including zines and other media, trade connection, sharing ideas and resources. networks like vegetable cooperatives, and preparation for non- Zines promote self-education about issues considered violent resistance.70 taboo by society and suppressed by government. These Zines often focus on promoting active organisation in publications are, after all, based on the premise that people specific ways, and providing focal points for information think, and are willing to explore possibilities of regained exchange. For example, music collective Clan Analogue’s71 responsibility and empowerment. According to the editors of web-zine kronIc oscillator72 and the Cyclic Defrost73 web- Woozy, the purpose of zines: ‘is to get people to look at and zine contain information about music distribution including consider alternative ideas, not unthinkingly take on a set of practical tips on avoiding exploitation by the music industry rigid, leftist rules. The idea is to encourage people to look at and starting your own label. The zines are also a networking things differently not just conform to our ideas’.80 node for the tekno communities providing a space for discussions, feedback, sharing resources, as well as organising 74 Lex Luthor and Yellow Peril, Snarl Heavy Industries Version 4.1, http://www.snarl.org 67 The Adventures of... http://lab-rats.tripod.com/indexb.html 75 cyclic defrost online, cryogenesis publication, http://www.snarl.org/cyclic 68 Zogdysfunct & Lab Rats, ‘Sola Power Sound from the Underground’, 76 eLefant traks, http://www.singularity.net.au/elefant/elefant.html C.I.A.: Concerned Individual Activist. 77 sound summit 2001: Independent Electronic Labels Conference, 26 September — 1 69 Carol Moore, “Seven Decentralist Strategies”, Yoghurt #12, 1997. October, Newcastle NSW, http://www.octapod.org.au/soundsummit/ 70 Ibid. 78 This is not Art 2001, 26 September — 1 October, Newcastle NSW, 71 Clan Analogue, http://www.clananalogue.org http://www.octapod.org.au/thisisnotart/2001/ 72 Clan Analogue Zine, kronIc oscillator, http://www.clananalogue.org/ca_about.html 79 Lex Luthor and Yellow Peril, Snarl Heavy Industries Version 4.1, http://www.snarl.org/ 73 cyclic defrost online, cryogenesis publication, http://www.snarl.org/cyclic 80 Editorial, Woozy #8 Ain’t Life Grand? Acquired from www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Rave Safe was a publication produced in 1996 by a group Each issue heralded a launch party featuring a psychedelic of party goers who gained support for this project from the dance ritual, saturated in local colour and tekno crews. Known as NSW User and Aids Association as well as the North Sydney the Octarine Supernatural Old Crone Hoedown, it was held in the Area Health Service. The easy access information provides a former whaling station at Byron Bay, the Epicentre, in 1997, and non-judgmental approach to providing health information on Fingal Beach at Tweed Heads on the August full moon in 1998. about drug taking and partying. It’s about saying ‘know’ to ZINES AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS (R)EVOLUTION drug issues, and helping people act responsibly in recreational drug use. This commonsensical approach to lifestyle and health Activist tekno zines investigate the reacquaintance with the issues contrasts sharply with the alienating and ineffectual creative process itself, spreading knowledge from a cast range of Western and Eastern mysticism, magick and philosophy. An ‘tough on drugs’ approach favoured by successive Australian experiential spiritual process helps people reassess life governments. Other zines, like Octarine—which appeared in aesthetically, emotionally, and ideologically, teaching about the 3 issues between 1996 and 1998—focus on important drug universe and ourselves: the amazing beyond the mundane. This issues, approaching the subject from an heretically positive alchemical generation82, reinvigorates the long tradition of position by including articles about, for instance, the valuable spirituality through technology and explores the ability to effect use of psychedelic tools in ritual practice, and providing change both within the self and in the outer world. historical and contemporary information on community Zines made by Justin Time (aka Justin Nomadness), such approaches to the use of drugs. Octarine also examines the as πR8, Pyrates, Cook+Eat the Fruit of Civilization, Where King connection between entheogenic drugs and the global threads Rules, and boo-kul-ba erb-aira wan-shon, promote this heretical of the trance dance experience in tekno culture: investigation of the self and world: the (r)evolution of self- The essence of the experience involves the secret language awareness. We need to recognize how things work, and also of sound, psychedelics and movement, and the tacit how to understand the nature of change; to take control and realization that the dance ritual is the inter-stellar conduit make the impossible manifest. Justin declares that there are ‘no for such happenings. We are creating a temporary boundaries but the horizon’ as he investigates the spiritual edges autonomous zone for our minds to investigate the mysteries of the universe, as we once again, like our distant ancestors, of perception while providing navigation via his zines for the cajole the spirits of trees and the sky, the earth and the cosmos imagination and intellect. ‘Hear me! Hear this! Pyrate ship be to come out to play—as one. Ancient earth drums dance in sailing and is dear in want of crew. You! So … lend yourself to symbiotic merriment with the metallic inter-galactic beats pyracy of invention—an illusionary living pyrate entity—made as the circles of sound expand and astound our imagination in part of the New Age plunder of space-time-cycle of culture with vibratory awareness.81 and the recesses of your psyche’.83 82 Operation Alchemy, http://www.beyondtv.org/operationalchemy 81 bigk@disinfo.net, ‘Trance Magick’, Octarine #3, Solstice 1998. 83 pyrate@mailcity.com, πR8. Acquired from 80 © copyright 2001 81 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Zines contain ideas and tools for initiating inner change, The mainstream media often refers to tekno culture particularly through an exploration of the tekno participants as the Chemical Generation86 due to their apparent trance(formatory) experience. So much that is (r)evolutionary interest in ‘designer drugs’87, but as with other aspects of youth about this culture is within the dance experience itself. As John culture, the commercial media is missing the point about and Pete explain: psychedelic drug use—most commonly LSD88, ‘magic’ Trance formation of linear time scales is also an important mushrooms89 and from the 1990s sporadic appearances of part of the radical rave project. Dancing in the endless DMT.90 While illicit drug use is usually considered deviant and metronumbic beat is a liberation from the tyranny of human dangerous by the hallucinating mainstream press, these chemical imposed chronologic. Allowing a simultaneous experience of tools may potentialise personal and community transformation, milliseconds and hours. Eventually the suns slow rays bring heightening and deepening intense understandings and the night to a close and the dancers feel the wheels of the universe turning. Many rave festivals are held at the special realisations. Psychedelics can prove revolutionary tools in the times of full moon, solstice and equinox. This is a conscious hands of psychonautical explorers playing on the fringes of attempt to return dance celebration to natural cycles of the contemporary sonic and visual art. moon and sun. Cultural and tec know logical shifts have The creative process is at stake as changes in consciousness opened up dance music to polymorphous cross fertilisation.184 manifest in free party spaces devoid of commodification, in actions The dance space becomes a portal, a dreaming, a coming and ideas to strengthen community, and in the production of together on many different levels as the zone provides a point meaningful art for further transformation. In industrial society, of personal and community transformation. Conscious action most people are left alienated and confused about their roles in is the manifested quality of the re-emerging trickster archetype life. How are we to navigate through this existence? Survival of of Hermes: the mercurial language that transforms the the mind is what most of us are faced with, though we have dimly subconscious. Hermes rules the world of communication remembered traditions to help transverse this incredibly complex exchange, brings the twists and turns of information to life web of the (dis)information age. The psychedelic tekno culture, and could be considered the archaic mascot of the information like gnostic cultures before it, is revitalising information and tools age.185 Within activist tekno culture, this dynamic is celebrated to access the long and meaningful traditions in human spiritual and opens many to the playground of spontaneous and evolution. experimental thought and action. 86 Chemical Generation, Life is About Making Informed Decisions, http://www.chemicalgeneration.com.au 87 Donald A Cooper, ‘Future Synthetic Drugs of Abuse’, DEA, http://www.designer- drugs.com/synth 84 John and Pete, ‘Radical Raves Reclaim and Liberate Space in Many Dimensions: 88 The Albert Hofmann Foundation, http://www.hofmann.org Is this R@veolution?’, Freakquency #2, p.22-23. 89 Mystical Mycology Australia, http://www.shaman-australis.com/shroom/ 85 Erik Davis, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information, 90 The Vaults of Erowid, DMT, N.N-Dimethyltryptamine, Three Rivers Press, New York USA, 1998, p.14. http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/dmt.html Acquired from 82 © copyright 2001 83 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA Activist media propagates revolutionary ideas about space and place, exploring Hakim Bey’s influential idea of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ)91, including the utilisation of magickal spaces in the dance ritual, as well as investigating the inner space of imagination and play. A carnivale of characters appear in this experimentation zone: the fool92, outlaws, pyrates, tricksters, iconoclasts, supertramps, and fringe dwellers all dealing with the societal taboo of exploring the nature of being. Zines express the spirit of the trickster, the art of play and rebellion. They contemplate the ephemerality of life, the illusion of immovable ideologies, and the supremacy of the nature of change. Since the Accident, a zine found in Sydney in 1995, discusses: an imaginal realm that gives us hope for regeneration both now and for future possibilties… Could the Rave be one of many infinite portals, TAZs...? Could it offer a praxis, a mode of action, a tropism: something positive to move and grow towards rather than being alienated and atrophied by a nihilistic, cyncial and dystopian perspective? ...Imagine the endless possibilities involved in dancing with characters who, for the course of the evening have no definite identity, yet many, simultaneously. The dancefloor is a place of interaction which goes beyond the usual constraints of verbal dialogue . . . Instead you are always free, as one party flyer suggests, ‘to change your mind and choose a different future or a different past’. A dialogue, trialogue or more, of movement enables you to create your own myths and fantasies around the people that you meet ...A pot pourri of diasporic peoples inhabiting a new world.93 91 Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html 92 Welcome to Fools Paradise, http://members.aol.com/pmichaels/glorantha/ foolsparadise.html 93 Jules, ‘Ranting & Raving: Beyond narcissism & Aerobics’, Since the Accident #2, Spring 1995, p.31. Acquired from 84 © copyright 2001 85 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART ONE — POST RAVE AUSTRALIA In his article World Entertainment War94, Antero Alli95 notes whosoever governs the metaphor, governs the mind, and it is in underground tekno zines where activists are attempting, as Pete Strong proposes in Earthzine, ‘to break through the wall and breach the veil of mainstream media misinformation that holds the status quo in place’.96 Media activists on the tekno fringe promote the temporary autonomous zone, or the crossroads, of the mind, a process to transmutate symbols, remove boundaries, and express dissident thought, all the while developing and experimenting with new methods of organisation and communication. The spirit of the DiY publication is to liberate information exchange, forge new communities, embrace diversity and encourage creativity. As Douglas Rushkoff writes, ‘we have given up something much more precious once we surrender the immediacy of a living communication’.97 The Australian fringe media is a vehicle for art and ideas which spiral and connect people while helping to reclaim the imaginative playground—the abominable knowledge is participation, the process itself. 94 ParaTheatrical ReSearch, The Ritual, Videofilm, and Intermedia Theatre Works of Antero Alli, http://www.paratheatrical.com 95 Antero Alli, http://www.paratheatrical.com/pages/bio.html 96 Pete Strong, Earthzine 1/3, Sydney/Brisbane Australia, 2000/1 97 Douglas Rushkoff, ‘The Information Arms Race’, You are Being Lied To, Ed. Russ Kick, The Disinformation Company, 2001, http://www.disinfo.com Acquired from 86 © copyright 2001 87 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSTEMS SOUND Acquired from 88 © copyright 2001 89 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND CHAPTER THREE— At a recent forum at University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Centre for Popular Education on Songs and Music for SOUND SYSTEMS AND Cultural Action, an elderly gentleman enquired as to who was now carrying the mantle of Bob Dylan in the writing of protest AUSTRALIAN DiY CULTURE: music. The reply came that modern folk musicians do not necessarily carry guitars and that he should look to techno for FOLK MUSIC FOR THE DOT the next ‘We shall overcome’. He wasn’t impressed! This COM GENERATION chapter explores the use of reclaimed and recycled technologies as the basis for this new electronic ‘folk’ music. Detailing the history of sound systems, I trace the emergence of sound system ENDA MURRAY culture in Jamaica, its evolution in the UK through to its presence in Australia, where it has become a significant element of local DiY culture. Australia is following an inexorable global trend for conservatism and a return to a semi feudal system dominated by transnational capital. In sport, entertainment and the media, the dollar is the deciding force. The interests of commerce now regularly take precedence over public interest. For example, by-laws introduced in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics, citing the commercial imperative of the sponsors, forbade the use of amplification and the distribution of information (particularly of a political nature). Sydney activist, Louise Boon-Kuo, was threatened with arrest in breach of this by-law for using a megaphone and distributing leaflets highlighting these issues of civil liberty.1 The attempts by RECLAIM THE STREETS 99 KING ST NEWTON, SYDNEY (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) 1 Sydney Indymedia archive, 18 September 2000. The Act in question was ‘Homebush Bay Operations Regulation 1999, Reg 3’. Acquired from 90 © copyright 2001 91 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND commercial shipping company, Patricks (aided and abetted by DiY CULTURE — DOING IT YOURSELF the Howard Government) to smash the Maritime Union of As the issue of commercial versus public interest is played Australia in 1998, was a prominent example of a private out on the streets, in the clubs and in the galleries, the ideas of company attempting to break up what is one of Australia’s environmental sustainability, community and social justice oldest public interest organisations. In sport, the David versus hace informed an emergent sector of the Australian cultural Goliath battle fought by Sydney Rugby League club, the spectrum. Klein calls this the ‘new resistance’.5 An important Rabitohs, to remain in News Ltd’s slimmed down NRL has, element of this resistance is ‘DiY culture’, which encompasses for many, typified the struggle between big business and a mix of sixties’ hippy idealism, nineties technology and community-based organisations in contemporary Australia. ‘noughties’ media savvy. It also includes a smattering of new Princeton scholar of international relations, Richard Falk, age spirituality which, though possibly ‘end of millenium’ in describes this trend as ‘a new medievalism’, with capital nature, is nevertheless an important constituent. John replacing Christ as the dominating influence.2 In No Logo, McDonald, former head of Australian art at the National Canadian journalist Naomi Klein comments on the fact that Gallery of Australia, recently wrote that one valid aspect of the branded company logo (Nike, McDonalds, Shell) has now contemporary art is the continuity of ‘the religious impulse, overpowered the traditional authority of church, politics and the search for a higher meaning and a community of belief’.6 school. 3 There are, however, dissenting voices in this DiY culture stems, ironically, from the eighties’ Thatcherite ideological tussle. As eminent American political economist ideal of the privatisation of politics, yet it has tempered these Amory Lovins recently asserted in Sydney: ‘markets make a ideologies with a renewed appreciation of ‘community’. In wonderful servant, a bad master and a worse religion’.4 England, DiY culture was born of a coalition of rave, squat and traveller movements. The indiscriminate use of the Criminal Justice Bill legislation by the Tory Government to defeat the emerging direct action environmental movement created an unholy alliance of the above three factions. There thus evolved distinct communities of youth who espoused radical direct action solutions and were passionate on single issues such as the environment and social justice. 2 Contending Images of World Politics, Greg Fry and Jacinta O’Hagan (eds), New York: St Martins Press, 2000. 3 Naomi Klein, No Logo, Flamingo, London, 2001, p.335. 4 ABC Radio National, Background Briefing. Transcript of speech at 5 Klein No Logo, p.446. University of New South Wales, Sydney on 4th July 2000. 6 Sydney Morning Herald, Oct 30, 2000.. Acquired from 92 © copyright 2001 93 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND In Australia, similar communities of interest have evolved The sound system has its roots in mid ‘50s Jamaica where into sophisticated and well organised environmental and social entrepreneurial entertainers cobbled together large hi-fis on justice networks. These alliances have cemented through which to play their music at local dancehalls. Coxsone Dodd, festivals of resistance such as the Jabiluka blockade and the Duke Reid and Tom the Great Sebastian are the recognised Earthdream tour. The internet has been significant as a grandfathers of the sound system, playing on the traditional communication and community building tool, joining remote single turntable with enormous wardrobe-sized home-made and seemingly powerless individuals and groups into more speakers.9 These Jamaicans were unique in adapting new powerful organisations. The formation of the Indymedia technologies to their own requirements, cannibalising radios network in Sydney, 1999,7 for example, played a vital part in to make monster sound systems and shaping a type of electric the defeat of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in folk music for a new generation. Seattle8 and has gone on to become a valuable media asset in Karl Irving, originally from Montego Bay in Jamaica, building networks in 52 centres around the world. What has recalls how the early Kingston sound system operator, Trojan, thus emerged from DiY culture, positioned as it is at the disassembled radios to make speaker boxes and then installed junction of politics, art and technology, is a fascinating these contraptions in an open air dancehall for all-night parties potpourri of politics and pleasure, party and protest. in the late fifties. He took a speaker out of a radio—it was a Morphy radio— SOUND SYSTEM — THE POUNDING HEART OF DIY CULTURE and put it into a box and then he hung it in what we called a DiY art is centred around techno music which has become booth—it was a dancehall made out of bamboo. We used to listen to a station called WINZ which had Latin-American and a universal currency in global youth culture. Techno music is Cuban records playin’ all mixed up without the DJ talkin’ or delivered through sound systems, consisting of a loose network interrup’. We used to get some wicked music comin’ in playing of artists and musicians who base themselves around the mobile non-stop. And the people just buy a drink and dancin’ away.10 PA. The PA forms the heart of the collective. The sound system is essential to the development of DiY culture. It provides the economic, social and cultural unit so vital to the political and cultural activities it inspires. Current Australian sound systems share a heritage of lo-budget home-built innovative technologies, hybrid musical tastes and grassroots political community activism with their precedent operators in Britain and Jamaica. 7 www.sydney.indymedia.org 9 Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, Penguin, 1997, p.28. 8 James Goodman and Patricia Ranald, Stopping the Juggernaut, Pluto Press, 1999. 10 Karl Henry, interview with author, Sound System documentary, Virus Media 1994. Acquired from 94 © copyright 2001 95 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Like many of his countrymen, Irving emigrated to England A sound system would set up in a private house and, for a and started his own sound system, Quaker City, in Birmingham nominal admission, would play into the late hours. Many in 1964. Quaker City played ska-beat (a mix of calypso and ‘blues’ parties were also called ‘rent parties’, planned for the R&B) and later reggae at community halls and house parties end of the month in order to collect the rent money for the in London, Manchester, Bristol and Leeds.11 In a nod to the landlord. The same tradition of community fundraising existed greats in their home country, the emigrant West Indians named in black areas in New York where this style of event was known the sound systems they started in England after the best systems as a ‘block party’.14 in Jamaica. Thus Coxsone in Battersea and King Tubby in ‘Blues’ parties were almost exclusively black affairs and Brixton were both London sounds sharing a name with their the dub music which typified them became progressively more Jamaican progenitors. The sound system parties provided a bass-driven and moody. Dub reggae was politicised through its means for the community to get together and linked emigrants appropriation by second generation black British youth. Princess in different British cities to each other and to their home.12 from Motivate sound system in Wolverhampton explained: Entertainment styles within the new emigrant community The sound system thing—it was a black thing. It gave them a existed outside of the mainstream and, as a result, often fell chance to express in their own form and in their own style, foul of the law. As Lynval Golding of the Coventry ska band, what they felt about being alienated—reminded that they’re not from this country—they look different, they dress different The Specials, explained: and so what comes out on record and through the sound system You always got hassle in those days ‘cause British society, was different. The experience of the youth in the ‘70s was they’d all go to the pub and when the pubs close at 12 o’clock different to the original sound guys from Jamaica.15 they’d go home to bed—That was their night out—and they couldn’t understand why we would want to stay up all night The sound system scene flourished in traditional black at the ‘blues’. So at that time the police would always come areas such as St Paul’s in Bristol, Handsworth in Birmingham, around and try and close the whole thing down.13 Brixton and Notting Hill in London, and in areas of Leeds and Manchester, but essentially remained out of the mainstream of British pop. The creation of British dub music provided a political and cultural outlet for black acts and occasionally threw up crossover acts such as West London’s Aswad and Birmingham’s Steel Pulse. The movement of sound systems for sound clashes and carnivals between these cities maintained 11 Karl Henry, interview with author, Sound System documentary, Virus Media 1994. lines of communication between communities. 12 Karl Henry, interview with author, unpublished, 1994. 13 Lynval Golding, interview with author, Sound System documentary, 14 Lynval Golding, interview with author, unpublished, 1994. Virus Media 1994. 15 DJ Princess, interview with author, Sound System documentary, Virus Media 1994. Acquired from 96 © copyright 2001 97 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Black Britain opened its doors to its white neighbours at the In the underground scene, Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound annual carnival events in Notting Hill in London and Handsworth System were difficult to define in the traditional pop sense, in Birmingham. With its roots in Mardi Gras, carnival consisted but were instantly recognisable as a sound system in the sense of long processions of dancers behind, at first calypso bands, and of being a dynamic roster of artists making music in a collective later mobile sound systems mounted on the back of trucks. (This way. Sherwood’s use of anarchist networks to distribute his tradition of using a musical ‘happening’ as a focus for cultural politicised dub music resulted in links to the Black Rose and political statement sowed the seeds for future Reclaim the Bookshop17 in Sydney’s Newtown, a connection that was to Streets parties, and DiY culture picked up on this use of the sound have a far-reaching impact on the Australian audience.18 system party as a rallying point for its constituency of interest). The sound systems moved out of the black areas and into The annual carnival events became vehicles for black expression the mainstream British subculture with the advent of the but were managed in a heavyhanded manner by the English police. ‘summer of love’ in 1988. Since 1986, sound systems like Soul The extraordinary police presence contributed to an outbreak of to Soul had been running warehouse parties in London’s East violence at Notting Hill in West London in 1976. Subsequent End, squatting or hiring warehouses. These sound systems carnivals were characterised by the presence of huge numbers of originally played soul, but then increasingly house and acid- police and the black sound systems remained in the underground. house to all-night ravers. As the acid house boom took off in In the early eighties, Broader musico-political groups, such London, party organisers increasingly turned to the black sound as Rock against Racism, formed the background to the popular system operators (who were accustomed to squaring up to rise of groups such as Coventry’s Specials and North London’s police) to provide the sounds for their illegal parties. As Lynval Madness, who featured black and white musicians playing Golding observed, ‘Having parties in warehouses and houses— infectious ska music. These acts coated social comment with that’s what we’d been doing for ages, except we called them a sugary danceable musical style and achieved widespread blues’.19 In Coventry, for example, Chiba City Sound, a young success in the British charts. Britain’s inner city streets were white techno sound system had an intimate relationship with rocked by widespread civil disturbance centred in the black the West Indian Maccabee Sound System, availing of its areas of all the major cities. Attempting to make sense of this equipment and expertise in staging parties in the Midlands. carnage was the anarchist band Crass who advocated a type of socialist anarchism.16 17 http://www.web.net/blackrosebooks 18 Lynval Golding, interview with author, Sound System documentary, Virus Media 1994. 16 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 19 Estimates based on author’s personal experience of Castlemorton Festival. Acquired from 98 © copyright 2001 99 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND With the ensuing media hysteria surrounding the use of people came together to dance for 5 days in what is now LSD and ecstasy at warehouse parties, it became increasingly regarded as something of a Woodstock for the Chemical difficult for the parties to happen due to intense police activity. Generation. The Castlemorton Free Festival prompted the Tory Mutoid Waste, for example were forced out of their King’s Government into action and the Spiral Tribe Sound System Cross London Bus Garage base. Parties moved out onto the were taken to court and (unsuccessfully) charged with London orbital and admission prices skyrocketed to as much organising the festival. The incident did, however, give the as $120 per ticket as commercial players became involved in Tories cause to introduce the Criminal Justice Bill, which was the organising of events. remarkable in its banning of ‘music which is characterised by Partygoers from the urban squat scene, for whom the the emission of repetitive beats’—techno music. As a result of warehouse parties had been a cheap and welcome alternative this legal clampdown, many of the traveller artists moved away to the overpriced city nightclubs, began to look elsewhere for from Britain to Europe, the US, Goa in India, Koh Phangan in entertainment, while links developed between squatters and Thailand and Australia’s East Coast. the politically inspired new age travellers who had been The impending passing into law of the Criminal Justice roaming Britain in converted buses and trucks since the late Bill (1994) created partnerships between civil liberties, sound seventies. The new age travellers presented a readymade system, environmental and social justice organisations. Techno network of countryside festivals (and cheap, strong and reliable sound systems, such as Desert Storm from Glasgow and DIY, dance drugs) which were quickly taken up by squatters and had inspired the creation of ‘festivals of resistance’ against ravers. The Tory Government in Britain were nervous about the Criminal Justice Bill. Protest marches in London ceased this novel alliance. Tonka in Brighton, DIY in Nottingham, to be simply silent marches with speeches at the end but took Bedlam, Circus Warp, LSDiesel and London’s Spiral Tribe on a life of their own through a mixture of carnival, music and were the most creative of the new style of sound system, dance. One of my enduring memories is stopping the traffic incorporating the cooperative tradition of the black sytems but under the shadow of Nelson’s Pillar in London’s Trafalgar playing increasingly harder and faster styles of techno. Square in 1992 to wave through the Desert Storm sound system Importantly, the parties were run for free, with a bucket being as they blasted out techno to a huge vibrating snake of dancing passed around to pay for diesel for the generators. crusties who proceeded to jump into the ornamental fountains In May 1992, near a sleepy village on common land in and dance naked in the heat of the afternoon sun. Antibomb the Malvern Hills about half way between London and protests of the fifties and eighties used ‘Protest and Survive’ Birmingham, with less than 24 hours notice and with almost as a slogan, but DiY culture is more likely to advocate ‘Protest zero publicity apart from word of mouth, more than 35,000 and Party’. Acquired from 100 © copyright 2001 101 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Though outlawed in England, the techno sound system JELLYHEADS AND THE carnival idea spread through Europe like a virus and many of BIRTH OF AUSTRALIAN SOUND SYSTEM CULTURE those artists who had left found a ready audience for their music In Australia, the development of the sound systems centred abroad. Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and many other of the English around inner city Sydney, Newtown and various groups sound systems took their cooperative techno ideas to Europe, working out of the Jellyheads Collective based in a warehouse particularly Eastern Europe where it was cheaper to live, and in Wellington St near Central Station between September 1990 audiences took to the new musical ideas with gusto. The and April 1993. This was an anarchist run cultural centre which European ‘Teknival’ free parties, including the annual focussed on community based gigs and sought to forge a sense Hostimichi festival near Prague in the Czech Republic, of community through the production of music, media, art and spawned several French, German and Dutch sound systems politics. The impetus for the Jellyheads came from a plethora which found enthusiastic audiences, particularly in the squat of punk bands and the organising capabilities of anarchist centres of Amsterdam and Berlin.20 In contrast to Britain, squatters who met at Black Rose anarchist bookshop in King where the format had been banned, mainstream Europe adopted St Newtown. Prior to Jellyheads, Black Rose had organised the free sound system carnival format, now established in all ages gigs at Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. It was cheap events such as The Love Parade in Berlin. Indeed, so popular admission and complete with vegan food.22 is the event in Berlin, where now over one million young people take to the streets behind mobile sound systems, that it has An ‘artschool’ circle of acts based around media drawn corporate sponsorship and has resulted in the creation subversion formed a local scene. These included Kol Dimond, of an alternative ‘Hate Parade’, which espouses a non-corporate Jeh Kaelin, Sarah Bokk and Zippy Fokas in the Fred Nihilests back-to-the-squat ethos.21 and John Jacobs and Tony Collins (now an ABC journalist) in Mahatma Propaghandi. A videotape exists of the Media Liberation Front 1988 gig aimed at closing down the Sydney Stock Exchange when John Jacobs, Tony Collins and Craig Domarski, armed with two guitars and a 50watt vocal PA took on the might of the Sydney money machine in an event which pre-dated 2001’s M123 demonstration by 13 years.24 22 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 20 Scott Coventry, interview with author, unpublished, 1997. 23 http://www.m1alliance.org 21 Global News feature produced by the author, Undercurrents UK #8, December 1997. 24 John Jacob video archive, 1988 Acquired from 102 © copyright 2001 103 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND An emerging rave scene evolved around small warehouse more bizarre, says Jacobs, than the celebrated Tofu-making parties in Marrickville which were advertised on Skid Row workshops led by Willy from the punk band Tutti Parzi.28 There radio in Addison Rd. Skid Row broadcast essential listening were many fun actions but there was also the serious stuff. techno shows on Friday and Saturday nights with information Not least of these was the blockade of the Aidex international about party locations and details. Techno DJ’s such as Abel arms fair in Adelaide in 1991. Networks were made with other and Biz E played at Skid Row during this period. activist communities. According to Jacobs, ‘the forest activists According to John Jacobs—one of the collective’s showed us urban people a lot about how to use tripods (to organisers, and who has since had a hand in many of Sydney’s block roads) and that was a good learning experience’.29 underground movements—Jellyheads were heavily influenced The shift in musical styles from punk to techno was a by punk and the ideas of anarchist band Crass. Jacobs went on gradual one. Jellyheads members Kol Dimond and his partner to play a crucial role in the Vibe Tribe initiative and currently Jeh Kaelin paid a visit to Goa in 1990 and brought back ideas plays with Organarchy Sound System.25 He recalls Adrian about trance which was then popular at the Indian resort. Sherwood’s On U Sound and Gary Clail’s visits to Sydney as There was also an exchange of ideas and music along the being seminal in the creation of a community-based sound international traveller route with nearby Koh Phangan in system and also paved the way for the progression of musical Thailand, which was at its hedonistic heights around 1991. styles from punk into techno music.26 The move towards dance music was also facilitated by a The punk bands had been unable to get pub gigs and so a constant flow of British travellers who brought their own dedicated venue was essential for their survival. Fundraisers style of dance music to Sydney. at the Jellyheads warehouse resulted in the purchase of a small While John Jacobs does not claim that Jellyheads was the PA—the first communal sound system. The techno heads and only party organisation in Sydney, it was certainly true that hip hop fans were quick to realise the potential of plugging in the Jellyheads organisation was primarily about politics, a set of decks to this PA and the sound system was born. The particularly of a social-anarchist kind. warehouse became a springboard for many Sydney bands. Frenzal Rhomb and Nitocris were two of the many bands to play at the venue in the early days. Video nights were also held at the space as were many community events.27 None 25 http://reflect.cat.org.au/organarchy 26 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 28 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 27 Monique Potts, interview with author, unpublished, 2001. 29 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. Acquired from 104 © copyright 2001 105 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND There were plenty of other people doing rave parties in The Sydney Park parties continued until police violently Sydney. From the Rat parties in Marrickville to the gay broke up the Freequency party in April 1995. Again, Jacobs parties at the Hordern. It was all illegal. But we were anarchists first and artists second. With us there was no one remembers the night: dude with a moblie—we were about people sitting in a circle The police would often come and check us out but this night and trying to do consensus decision-making. Putting the there were more of them and they wanted to shut it down. And politics up front. When we sat down with our community to they weren’t negotiating they were doing it with batons and organise a gig, we were doing it as a political action first when you start seeing your mates getting batoned on the and art second. When Adrian Sherwood and Jello Biafra dancefloor you get pretty solid and so everyone locked arms came out we hung out at the Black Rose bookshop and did a around the generator and people were on the mike saying this benefit gig at the Settlement Neighbourhood Centre in is our right to have our public space. And the cops went hard Redfern.30 and they did naughty things and bashed people and arrested people without charging them. So it came to a head then, but it Following a physical confrontation with police (during a was good for getting the name around and after that Vibe Tribe concert by punk band, Toe to Toe) the Jellyheads warehouse were hugely popular. Just by charging $5 on the door they venue was closed by the council on the basis of licensing law were able to make shitloads of money. So that was how they infringements and insufficient public liability insurance. built up the sound system and got the funds for the bus because it was always the plan to make the sound system mobile.32 Finding themselves with a sound system and a readymade The continuation of the Vibe Tribe ideal can be attributed audience, some of the Jellyheads collective adopted the to the vision of Pete Strong, who went on to form the Ohms not moniker ‘Vibe Tribe’, and started doing free gigs at venues Bombs33 sound system in 1995. Ohms not Bombs operate as a including Sydney Park. The name Vibe Tribe, reflected the non-profit making organisation, pumping any money made back communal nature of the enterprise and was also a nod towards into the maintenance of their equipment and the upkeep of their the original UK Spiral Tribe. As Jacobs recalls: vehicles. By holding film screenings and hosting information it was exciting and a lot of people were into it and very soon up to 1000 people were turning up at Sydney Park. And there stalls on issues of social justice and ecology in conjunction with was no venue, as in no walls or bouncers, so it had to be their gigs, the Ohms group inform and educate people as they free. The bucket would go around so it was forced into being party. Ohms not Bombs promote constructive use of technology a political thing. Anyone that came along could feel that in achieving sustainable community development. The Ohms something special was happening. Ravers and homeys, punks psychedelic ‘infobus’ is thus a noughties version of Ken Kesey’s and down and outs. It was a good mixed thing.31 Merry Pranksters meets a Russian Revolution propaganda train meets Priscilla, Queen of the Desert! 30 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 32 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 31 John Jacobs, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. 33 http://www.omsnotbombs.org Acquired from 106 © copyright 2001 107 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND SOUND SYSTEMS AND RECLAIM THE STREETS By 1998, the use of the internet enabled activists to coordinate RTS parties across the globe. Sydney’s Glebe Point In the early days of rave parties, communication ploys Road event merited a mention in Klein’s No Logo as the most developed which enabled party organisers to outwit the police. impressive free party in its scale and execution to happen in Locations were kept secret until the last minute to avoid any of the 17 locations around the globe that day.37 Three sound detection by police and get a critical mass of party-goers inside system stages provided the music on the day. J18,38 1999 took a venue before the police became aware of it. The size of the this co-ordination to a new level when the ‘Carnival against gig would make it difficult for the police to evict and the party Corporate Globalisation’ took place in 43 different countries would continue. on the same day. Software developed by local anarchist media In May 1995 in North London, eco-activists used this ploy group Cat@lyst,39 enabled Sydney activists to webcast their to stage the first Reclaim the Streets34 (RTS) in Camden High actions around the world and was later refined to provide the St. By the time the police were alerted to the event, there were backbone to the highly successful media campaign which made already so many people in attendance that it was impossible the Seattle protests on November 30 1999 such a remarkable to move the crowd on. Sound systems, such as the cycle- success.40 powered Rinky-Dink, became a vital part of the early RTS Exponents of DiY culture are passionate about the value parties providing the levity which lended the proceedings a of art as a means of expression and not simply a commodity. carnival type atmosphere as opposed to the confrontational Pete Strong, of Ohms not Bombs, sees today’s society gripped mood of previous political marches (the terms ‘Fluffy’ versus by the chains of economic rationalism, totally unable to grasp ‘Spikey’ were used to distinguish the two atmospheres).35 The new concepts of social and cultural capital relating to art RTS format was adopted in many countries including Australia, production. He feels that the artistic practice orbiting around where the first party took place in Sydney in November 1997. the sound system, through its co-creation and ability to unite These ‘temporary autonomous zones’, where party-goers dance disparate groups, adds a new dimension to the lives of people to mobile guerilla sound systems, are Situationist events. who are touched by it—something the music industry and art Everyone a participant—everyone an artist. In his book DiY gallery system is unable to provide.41 Culture, George McKay describes these protest parties as both ‘a utopian gesture and a practical display of resistance’.36 37 Klein, No Logo, p.320 34 http://www.gn.apc.org/rts 38 http://bak.spc.org/j18/site 35 Reclaim the Streets, Documentary, Dir. Agustin de Quijano, Faction Films, UK, 1999. 39 http://www.cat.org.au 36 George McKay, (ed.) DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain, 40 Matthew Arnison, Seminar at the Electrofringe Festival, Newcastle, unpublished, 2000. London, Verso, 1998, p.27. 41 Pete Strong, interview with author, unpublished, 2000. Acquired from 108 © copyright 2001 109 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Sydney’s sound system future is secure with groups like Labrats,42 a veggie-oil driven vehicle with wind-powered sound system and solar cinema introducing a total renewable energy vibe into the mix. Squatspace,43 the squatted complex in Sydney’s Broadway which operated from February 2000 to May 2001 with a gallery, living spaces and free food nights, has introduced a new generation to the idea of establishing a community around co-operative and renewable resources. While sound system culture may be an underground and non- mainstream activity, it certainly constitutes a principle meme, mutating and becoming an integral part of contemporary Australian youth culture. Paul Gilroy, author of There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack, writes about the ‘diasporic intimacy’ between those of similar nationalities who are spread around the world.44 Internet technologies have enabled those involved in DiY culture to experience this diasporic intimacy as they set up global events like J18 and M1 (closing down stock exchanges around the globe on May 1st, 2001). The sound system culture which is at the core of the party and protest scene has come full circle in its recreation of carnival—reclaiming technology for the benefit of community. Folk music for the dot com generation. 42 http://lab-rats.tripod.com 43 http://www.geocities.com/squatspace 44 Paul Gilroy, “There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack”: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991. Acquired from 110 © copyright 2001 111 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND CHAPTER FOUR— THE OHMS NOT BOMBS PRAYER (OR THE NORD’S PRAYER) DOOFSTORY: Our speakers that stand in corners Hollow be our subs The System comes, Chai will be done SYDNEY PARK TO THE DESERT In Perth as it is in Darwin Give us each day our daily tunes And forgive us our trespasses on National Park land As we forgive those who make noise complaints against us As I walk through the Valley of Doof I shall fear no Happy PETER STRONG Hard-Core For I have seen the fluro lights I shall not flag or waver But party solid through the night Odd in three spaces The raver, the spirit and the holy banner Deliver us some flyers Telling us where and when OHMS NOT BOMBS MISSION STATEMENT Remember the revolution starts in your own mind Mutate the state Dismantle the arms trade Make Australia Nuke free Reclaim the future Reverse Colonialism Permaculturalise the Planet Promote positive people power action Love heals all Revolve Evolve Solve PEACE BUS AT TIMBARRA GOLD MINE PROTEST 98 (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) Acquired from 112 © copyright 2001 113 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND DAWN OF DOOF The story of doof’s inception was told a thousand times and the cult grew as this new arena of creativity exploded Way back in the spring of ‘92, part of the just formed Non worldwide. The word ‘doof’ is an onomatopoeia describing Bossy Posse Collective were working out how to sequence a the bass driven kick drum so characteristic of techno music. It drum machine at one of Sydney’s emerging techno share is also very close to the German for ‘stupid’ (dorf), probably spaces—at the St Peters end of King St in the city’s ghetto of having something to do with the complaining neighbour’s diversity, Newtown. The relentless 4/4 kick leaked through summation of the new style delivered in that seminal complaint. surrounding walls and occupied the ears of an until now very She couldn’t help but notice the scores of people streaming patient neighbour. Something was afoot, a new steel pulse of past her house to attend free parties at the postindustrial inner motivational NRG swirling outward from the quantised beats. city playground and womb for that powerful free party spirit, The ancient spores of freedom were about to find a vast new Sydney Park in St Peters. A new motivational energy was arena of expression. It wasn’t long before another knocking inspiring a seemingly ever expanding group of people. sound was heard, not beatmatched but several beats per minute faster then the jam. ‘Is that the cops?’ they yelled. At the door Techno culture, underground parties, community events and open air dance gatherings have taken up residency as a was a loud German woman ‘Helga’ who, after trying to escape regular part of our culture. Radical electronic music, the relentless polyrhythms in several rooms of her nearby house, contemporary art, performance and community co-creation became enraged enough to lodge a complaint. What Helga was have created a vibrant cyber radical techno tribal network. about to say held great ramifications for the future of humanity. As friendly and inclusive party energy continues to build, webs of consciousness communication between groups of In her language there was an expression which became a much like minded party people are increased. loved edition to Australian discourse: ‘What is this Doof Doof Doof all night long?…this is not music’ she exclaimed. These words from an early edition of Vibe Tribe’s cut and paste zine Sporadical (no 5) hold a hope that a critical mass of Sydney to Byron and Brisbane, Melbourne to Adelaide, the people can be motivated to overcome the earth destroying word was to become a share-household name before it ventured system by rising up and overthrowing oppressive governments inland and up to Darwin later in the nineties. Record shops have worldwide. Using our secret weapon, ‘doof’, in this war against ‘Doof’ sections, it appears now in mainstream press and is well war, motivating the funky ‘Disarmy’ to blast down the canons known overseas. There was a trance band from the UK under of oppression with corrosive acid beats. the same name and spelling which seemed to be a parallel development, perhaps edged on as the culture cross-fractalled and hybridised globally. Helga’s later naming of disturbingly loud drum and bass as ‘ratatatat’ never really took on but the underground party crew embraced doof wholeheartedly. Acquired from 114 © copyright 2001 115 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Techno music contained the raw energy of punk, the cut explosion, the Vibe Tribe was unleashed. The loose collective of and paste sampling techniques of hip hop, the grooves of disco people were drawn together to channel a powerful energy through and funk, and reggae and dub sound system techniques all allowing events to present themselves with maximum community mixing in with the free experimentation of electronic music. involvement and co-creation, the project being a response to the The vast diversity of sounds has the potential to appeal to a mainstream commercialisation of the new rave craze. An early large number of people, bringing them together in a free space press release set the precedent. to meet, dance and exchange ideas. The emphasis was the party, Our aim is to create free-space, multimedia events in which every participant the star. This space became known as a ‘doof’, people of all races, sexuality’s and cultural backgrounds can as the meaning of the word morphed into a type of autonomous come together. Our events combine music, art, video, performance, circus skills and interactive installation. We space where an evolution seemed to be taking place. encourage people attending to become actively involved and feel free to be part of the tribe if only for one night. VIBE TRIBE BIRTH Vibe Tribe’s first event at the free party dance space of Before doof hit Sydney in the late eighties and early nineties, Sydney Park was Amazing on the 1st May 1993, which saw there was a collective called The Jellyheads, a group dedicated an anarchist picnic mutate into a full on free party all-nighter to transmitting anarchist principles at a time when the main with no police intervention. A huge banner emblazoned with liberationist and anti-corporate mantra was transmitted in the the words ‘Fuck the Rave Hierarchy’ was strung aloft, hundreds west through punk music. Jellyheads community fundraisers and of people experiencing the amazing free party vibe dancing gigs had Crass/conflict style local bands, vegan cafes and info until after sunrise. The performance crew Icarus set up a wild on various activist operations like ‘Stop the City’. Sydney Park fire show utilizing the brickwork’s ruins to awesome effect. was originally reclaimed as a music space by this tribe with the We didn’t dig the oppressive nature of the state and some Punk Picnics still a regular annual event in town. The initial free nightclubs had, and continue to have, a tendency to reflect this. techno parties were mistrusted by some of the punk contingent. Many mainstream clubs exist to sell alcohol, make loads of Graffiti in the park read ‘Kill Non Bossy Raver Scum, money, enforce style conformity and are generally inaccessible Techno=Disco’, representing the sentiment of those few who to lots of people. We are now in a position of overflowing our didn’t understand that the emerging techno movement was in it warehouses and beaches etc with a totally awesome array of for the same reasons. A group called Mahatma Propaghandi raver/freak-hybrid geek humanoids who have come to expect created a bridge from full-on punk power to more Balearic nothing less than a wild frolik-razzamatazzical cabaret, all- rhythms and dance grooves containing the same liberationist glittering with sequins and sequencers. message. As members of Jellyheads turned on to the acid house Acquired from 116 © copyright 2001 117 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND It seemed that in those hedonistic days nothing could stop descended upon me, a fractal of fear saw the very make up of this from growing and growing. The coming together of my being dissolve. energies created a magic alchemy; donations were collected Drug psychosis, venue problems, crew dynamics and burn and pooled as a shared resource. Mad life changing events out became commonplace, a phenomenon temporarily rocked Sydney, like the Acid Raindance beach party at Little preventing this amazing co-creating vibe from exponentially Congwong Bay nudist beach in La Perouse (January 29, 1994), growing out of the underground and into the wider community. Symbiotica at the Graffiti Hall of Fame (March 11, 1995), and The space was evicted the next week. ‘Venue problems’ make Carmegeddon at the Toast Gallery (July 15, 1995). As it grew life harder for underground and alternative groups to hold and moved into bigger spaces, it became much more visible. events outside the realm of pubs and clubs. Squatting a venue A mixture of police and council intervention forced the is a powerful political message, empowering people to access crew to shed light on the issue of community space with a space normally declared out of bounds. series of protests, letters and awareness raising, but it was not enough to provide an arena for this growing movement. BUSH PARTY MADNESS Council and cops continued to limit access to affordable The Awesomething Or Something event, a two day open alternative space, spurred on by media misinformation. One air party at Wisemen’s ferry in November ’94, was held near party planned for Sydney Park had to be moved in the middle St. Albans, north of Sydney, where Geoff, the owner of the of the night as cops were waiting for us in the park when the Pyrmont venue, lived. Geoff showed us a possible festival site genny was rolled in at sunset. A huge circle was called and out of town. On the Friday night, his home was burnt to the mobile calls were made to find another place for 1500 people ground in the local town. It remains a mystery as to who was without notice. We eventually tracked down a warehouse in responsible for torching the old wooden pagan church, a much Pyrmont occupied by a friend, Geoff. The ensuing night was loved landmark. Punters arrived looking for the party to see incredible, the party people and organisers re-set up the event the night sky lit up by the flames. in lightning speed in an industrial space that was unprepared By Saturday arvo, the police had evicted the whole festival, for 1500 people. The dusty storage depot was full, and an but not before promoters and punters worked out a plan to anarchic mad vibe permeated the space. save the Saturday night. The 500-600 strong turnout gathered Several people, including myself, freaked out and lost it in the local St. Albans pub, opposite the still smoking embers at this party. One raver had hallucinated a fire and tried to put of the burnt church. Someone remembered a meditation retreat it out with the hydrant, I visualized the water to be coming in the area, so a crew arranged to hire the alternative site for from the trunk of Ganesh, manifested by the image rendered $300. Word made it back to the pub and a convoy quickly on the flyer. A feeling of uneasy ultra self-consciousness Acquired from 118 © copyright 2001 119 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND formed and headed off to the new site, high up on a mountain Back at the Adelaide Fringe in ’92, the Imagineer doofs, near the Wiseman’s Ferry. Most made it to the new location, a placed in the fringe centre and growing exponentially over the mad night was had and, in the morning, an elemental lightning three weeks of the festival, were legendary. While the Imagineer show seemed to jam with the party vibe. events, mixing freak and dance music culture, left their stamp on Adelaidian club history forever, our shows in ’94 had DESERT TREKNO disappointing turnouts— evaporating our desert plans. The mad The legendary Acid Raindance beach party at the little Russian guy whose PM 20K sound system rattled the dockside Conwong bay nudist beach in La Perouse on 29th Jan ‘94 was warehouse three weeks in a row was very patient with us. We an unforgettable night. Speakers were lugged about a kilometer finally paid him months later when we returned to Sydney. to the beach, along with the generator, chai shop, lights and The crew were tired, disappointed and burnt out. A morale everything else. The turnout was huge, boats pulled up and boosting gig at the University of NSW called Terrafractal big bellied fisherfolk danced with ravers on the beach. Nudists helped clear our debt in one night. turned up to find their spot going off to acid trance and tekno. One of the boat owners offered to transport the sound system GATECRASHERS FROM HELL back to an easier unloading place. The Vibe Tribe party A ‘never give up, show must go on’ attitude meant that all machine was revving up and had big plans. A desert mission advertised Vibe Tribe events went all night. Except, that is, for called Desert Trekno was developing in the collective’s mind. the ill-fated Freequency party in Sydney park on 11th April The plan was to hold party’s at the 1994 Adelaide Fringe 1995. The Tribe gathered to stomp again in the now established festival, raise the money to buy a truck and embark on a figure free party playground, spurred on by the arrival of a super eight tour around Australia. dynamic sound system built in Australia by a UK party ambassador, modeled on the Circus Normal sound system. The old Vibe Tribe Ambulance, doors emblazoned with mandlebrot set stencils, was a sight to see—its orange flashing In the lead up to Freequency, the media had had a field lights still working. It was like a tardis, with its seemingly day hyping Vibe Tribe as the new fashion craze—though unlimited space to load stuff. The ambulance left for Adelaide focusing on the drug aspect. Police pressure was on. South packed with people, speakers, banners and desert dreams. We Sydney mayor, Vic Smith, had called on police to crack down turned up at a Henley Beach sharehouse which seemed to house on illegal dance parties in the council area, and the rave alert was in full effect catalysed by a media focusing on the drug about 60-70 people in town for the fringe festival. As we soon aspect of the emerging dance industry. After midnight, the cops learned, the only venue we could get was at Port Adelaide. We arrived, including police rescue and scores of paddy wagons. took a ten grand loss as punters were largely reluctant to drive A crowd of around 1500 people had gathered and were going the twenty minutes to our massive wharf-side warehouse. Acquired from 120 © copyright 2001 121 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND off to DJ DeeDee’s Irish jig, doof track. Police demands for a CARMAGEDDON switch off, were met with offers to turn it down. But The Police were determined to get the Vibe Tribe, who communication broke down and the ‘Gatecrashers from hell’ were perceived as drug runners and, according to a Sydney moved in on two flanks, storming the dance floor. Their raised Morning Herald article on the Tribe, tried to gain new markets batons were met with a determined resistance. by giving away acid-chai. Drugs are a major part of our society. The music was switched off, then on again briefly as the In the mid nineties hedonism and drugs were very apparent in console was retaken. I dived to the ground to intercept a falling this new arena of excess—but no more than in other scenes. mixer, only to be pounced on by a copper, dragged off and put People are still calling for the responsible and effective in a wagon. He claimed I was going for his dog. Badges were approach of harm minimisation and creating a safe space. But removed and violence was indiscriminately waged on the freaks, more than that, in our small but growing world we were steering homies, ravers and doofers. Calls for ‘peace’, ‘stand up for your dance philosophy from a drug to a social and political rights’, ‘we are a community’ on the microphone, bounced off awareness raising experience. the lofty chimneys as dancers and volunteers were dragged away. The next VT event was more politically focused— The police managed to get hold of the genny before the Brackets responding to increasing road developments in Sydney. A pre- and Jam crew, famous for their rowdy acoustic jam nights, kept Reclaim the Streets maneuver, Carmageddon (15th July ‘95) the percussion going all night—occupying the autonomous space was a call to action to oppose the M2 motorway which was on until the next day. People were arrested, only to be released course to cut swaths through some of the city’s last remaining away from the park. A few were hospitalised. The peaceful tracts of bushland. Held at the Toast Gallery opposite the gathering turned into a bloody riot. Headquarters for the Sydney Federal Police in Surrey Hills, A protest day was quickly organised and held the following the gig was on the cop’s doorstep. The gallery soon filled to week. At ‘Batons are for Twirling’, about 400 people gathered capacity, spilling out into the street until it breached the around Newtown Police Station demanding that action be roadblocks and had to become a free event. The crowd went taken. They would not take responsibility for the violence. ballistic, screaming to every build up, new break and voice Under community pressure, an Ombudsman’s report into the sample. Four grand was raised to assist the anti M1 campaign. police operation found the police to have acted unreasonably, Unfortunately the M2 was not stopped, but reinforcements but failed to press charges on any individuals. Responding to were on the way. Reclaim the Streets took up the issue a couple the situation, mayor Vic Smith said ‘I don’t have buildings of years later in ‘97, the empowering actions of which were to where they can have these parties—let them go hire the Horden boost the aspirations of the activist crews in Sydney. Pavilion’. The hire fees for such venues disqualify all but rich promoters from staging events. Acquired from 122 © copyright 2001 123 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND After Carmageddon the crew became less prolific, but DANCE FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY there were many smaller events held by various people who Although legendary, the Happy Valley parties were had crewed the Vibe Tribe vehicle. The Golden Ox, a squatted plagued with disastrous incidents. One held down at community centre in Redfern was a venue which nurtured the Wollongong in the summer of ‘95 was a massive production community vibe away from the media spotlight. Many 200- but the local authorities shut it down in the morning pressuring 400 people events occurred with pun names hinting at the secret people to leave the site pronto. Road deaths occurred on the venue. Boll-Ox, Equin-Ox, Grav-Ox and Ox-illator made way back to Sydney. Of course, the media blamed the dance regular party goers feel at home, until the space was evicted, gutted and demolished. party with headlines like ‘killer dance craze’ adorning the tabloids on Monday morning. Another Happy Valley event at An event held at Sydney Park called Up yer Atoll in the Gosford in the summer of ‘97 was moved on the Friday night. spring of ‘95 proved that the old stomping ground was not dead. A friendly land owner had offered a safe space to save the gig, A smaller sound system and turn out, and an effort to foster positive and the media and police were told that it wasn’t a rave but a police liaison, meant the event was trouble free. There was a much big barbecue. ‘The World’s Biggest Barbecue’ saved the day. talked about moment when police stopped to enjoy a chai in the People were redirected and a new site quickly emerged. morning and had asked about the track that was playing. When you deal with police face to face, issues can be worked out if you forget the uniform and speak to the human being behind it. Communication can break down when there is vested interest involving fear mongering, councils and a sensationalist tabloid media pressuring the police to curtail youth culture. VIBE TRIBE CREW AT HAPPY VALLEY ‘95, NEAR GOSFORD (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) Acquired from 124 © copyright 2001 125 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND About fifteen hundred were still in the house when the underground groups. But not before the Quency PA was taken police and helicopters turned up. A defiant mood swept through on its maiden voyage across the desert. The early Vibe Tribe the site. Hundreds of people ran to face the sea of flashing dream was about to be realised while at the same time laying police lights. They again demanded we clear the site in one to rest the powerful name. hour. No way! People entered into a debate with the cops reminding them of the dangers in sending people home when FREAKY TOUR they weren’t ready. The main sound system was cut off and Triple J, who were in support of the party, transmitted a Happy The first great mission that really went out back happened Valley dance mix. Scores of small events developed around in 1996, when the Quency sound system was taken up through car stereos tuned in to the Js. The cops backed off and the Central Australia to Darwin. Vibe Tribe ambassadors had party continued, though paranoia was rife. But the act of teamed up with the Freaky Tour, a Cheech and Chong style defiance was encouraging. The cops and media were wrong, foursome who planned to hit the road and form a rock ‘n roll and the crowd knew it. They were attempting to close down band. In a converted coaster and trailer with rig we spanned an industry which had become a serious threat to the dominator the great dividing range and hit what we thought was desert, culture of alcoholcentric night club and pub conformity. just outside of Winton in Queensland where we stopped to soak up the amazing ambience. Well, actually we were forced Vibe Tribe’s sound system was named after the to. The 2k sound system was too heavy for the trailer and a Freequency party. Quency was born/freed from the back room leaf spring had snapped. Saved by the BP Winton mechanic of Smithy’s Sound in Newtown from funds raised at the last some 80 kms away, we towed the stricken trailer to a pit stop. full on Vibe Tribe party, Stompede in March ’96. ‘Run to the The bearded mechanic was fascinated by the sound system chill’s, run for your chai’s’, it’s a stompede. The event was and told us he used to roady for Tina Turner. We had been held at another squatted space about to be demolished called invited by a festival organiser in Adelaide to appear at Darwin’s Airspace in Redfern, Sydney—an artspace that had been String festival and as we headed north with a new leaf spring, operating for years nurturing Sydney’s art and music culture. we looked forward to honouring our commitment to putting Chill-guru’s JuJu Space Jazz emerged from its hallowed walls on some dances in Darwin. as did a number of art projects. There was a huge turnout, a wild party and money to buy a sound system that was to When we got to Darwin, the festival had become bankrupt, continue as a community resource long after the Vibe Tribe was being investigated by police, and was in disarray. We had party vehicle fragmented. After some of the original crew to put on fundraisers in the tropical town to be able to leave. moved to Byron Bay, it was soon decided to call it a day— We approached the Bagot Aboriginal settlement about doing though VT multi media continued to offer support to other an interactive event there. When we got there to set up, the elder who had said ‘yeah, bring your disco here’, had gone Acquired from 126 © copyright 2001 127 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND home to fish and no one knew anything about it. Anyway, OMS NOT BOMBS we’d put the word out, and as we arrived and were unloading In 1995 A new group was formed to organise direct action the system from the trailer, a mob of kids came to assist us to with an anti war/nuke focus. Oms not Bombs seemed an put up the décor. They were laughing and interested in every obvious name that derived from a meeting to come up with a aspect of the equipment as the first track was dropped. new project/collective. The name was partly inspired by Food Projections shone and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal danced Not Bombs – originally a US crew dedicated to providing free for hours until midnight. food. The OM sign represents universal peace in the ancient When word came through about noise complaints, we Sanskrit symbology. The name stuck. The group formed in moved the whole show to another location in true Sydney- response to our involvement in an anti French nuclear testing style. At Mindle Beach, site of the famous markets, we set up weekend of actions in Canberra in May 1995. Still in the old and doofed amongst the palms until well beyond sun up. ‘One Vibe Tribe flagship, the ‘Ambi’, a mob of about seven had set For the Road’ was a great way to leave Darwin, kicking off at sail to Canberra armed with a small sound system. On the lawns Bagot and finishing up at one of Darwin’s favorite beaches. of the new Parliament House the genny was cranked, speeches We then traversed the country until we broke the radiator in were made and we started to play doof to a small but eager Mount Isa. An ingenious device feeding water from a gerry crowd. This type of doof protest travelling became a major container into the slowly leaking radiator fixed the problem. theme of the late nineties. A second Vibe Tribe mission to We made it like this to Byron, where a large bush party Adelaide fringe festival in March 1996 saw a couple of good welcomed the tour home to the east coast. Much to the dismay street party’s and a fundraiser. of Vibe Tribe crew there, Quency initially didn’t perform, but Oms not Bombs were a vehicle which could be cranked was eventually sorted and complemented by the Psi-Cada up and ridden when the vibe was there and the ballistics were sound system. Psi-Cada was a small rig from the UK touring needed. In 1998, Sydney was buzzing with the anti Jabiluka the east coast of Australia at the time before settling in campaign. The offices of Energy Resources of Australia, Melbourne. A Vibe Tribe meeting was called and it was decided responsible for the controversial uranium mine, were under to call it a day—though Vibe Tribe multi media and the Quency siege from the combined forces of Sydney activists, political sound system remained for a while to offer logistical support animals and protest techno crews. An inner city project known for other collectives with the free party spirit. as Graffiti Hall of Fame, run by philanthropic businessman Tony Spanos, was central in keeping the inner city blockade going. A permanent camp was formed in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. Conflict with police turned into successful liaison which Acquired from 128 © copyright 2001 129 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND saw police refusing to move the camp on. Many rallies and used to draw straws to see who had to go and tell the venue to sound system nights were had with suit-clad businessfolk turn it down. One disillusioned cop—who had heard of Tony’s dancing with ferals and freaks. The vision and goodwill of work with youth and the local community—later left the force Graffiti Hall of Fame cannot be understated. to help out with some of the Hall’s many projects. During the nineties, Tony Spanos’ inner city meatworks, The main voice of complaint over use of the Graffiti Hall which were inherited from his father, had been transformed venue turned out to be someone involved in the new into a space that aided youth creativity, channeling it into developments whereby industrially zoned areas switched to positive expression. The Alexandria space is covered in residential. This was a recipe for disaster, as the relevant amenities wildstyle murals and is a milestone for Sydney’s dance party are not being put in place at the same rate that the New York loft and graffiti subcultures. Tony’s Graffiti project saw what are style apartments are going up. The multicolored concrete yard now world famous graffiti murals spill out into inner city became a icon in the Sydney dance scene and is much missed. Redfern, Erskinville, Newtown and Bondi. The formally illegal spraypainting practice became legal with artists gaining recognition, business cards and self confidence. Gangs fighting over turf with layers of tagging became friends in the carpark of Graffiti Hall of Fame. Oms Not Bombs, held some of the last of a decades worth of parties in the space before council and the development lobby had the space shut down as an entertainment space. The force of inner city gentrification saw a halt to the much needed venue. A loud but very small minority used to make the noise complaints that saw cops coming down to Graffiti Hall to lay down the law. Tony Spanos’ theatrical and emotional response often had the cops dumbfounded. He had a knack of pushing the cops to the limit of their patience and then somehow getting them to come around to his point of view. Rumour has it that they THE GRAFFITI HALL OF FAME’S TONY SPANOS WITH MOBILE PROTEST SOUND SYSTEM (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) Acquired from 130 © copyright 2001 131 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND The multicolored Omnibus, an old state transit bus bought DIG THE SOUNDS NOT URANIUM from an old depot in Wollongong, came into being at a Graffiti The black hand superimposed over a yellow and red Hall party. With Tony Spanos’ lateral mechanics, it was uranium symbol became the sign of the times. There’s unleashed on Sydney. Like a slice of Graffiti, it cruised the streets something about Jabiluka—we knew it could not be mined. before embarking on its maiden voyage. People used to try to The Mirrar people had openly invited all to join them in hail it at bus stops — one time it stopped and picked up someone opposition to ERA’s plan to mine their land. The more they going to Newtown. The Peace Bus, another legendary bus which tried to push it through, the more opposition seemed to appear. had belonged to Sydney University, was also refitted with a 3k sound system and was used to protest the insane Jabiluka mine. Plans were afoot to get up there and join the blockade that was The old green Oz Experience bus was also painted up with anti well advertised in the major cities. nuke messages, broadside speakers in the luggage hatches, and Oms not Bombs was needed now more than ever. In 1998, an onboard DJ booth powered by a generator strapped to the weekly meetings galvanised a crew of about 12 who were roof. This booming system used to set off car alarms, rattle willing to crew the bus. Food was bought and the bus packed cappuccino cups, enlist much bemused head-scratching and for the mega-voyage. Canberra-Goolongook-Melbourne- bring hundreds of smiles to faces around town. Adelaide-Alice-Darwin-Jabiluka or bust. We packed the roof racks and bus throughout the night and left town wondering what adventures lay ahead. We had the Quency sound system, digital cameras, live techno gear and the crew’s bits and pieces crammed into the old blue bus. We got out of Canberra and headed south and were on the chilly plateau’s of the Snowy’s when fuel lines froze and we came to rest amongst the patchy snow and gums near Nimitabel. But local knowledge got us going and the tour went on assisting the Goolongook blockade before arriving in Melbourne. A great crew of active groups were in Melbourne where a mad party—Oms Away— was held at Swinbourne University. It raised moneys for the tour and for the Jabiluka campaign. The next morning, the recovery party was to join in with the EARTH REPAIR FIRE TRUCK AT TONY SPANOS’ blockading of a meeting of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party SUPREME COURT CASE PROTEST/VIGI, OCTOBER 99 (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) just down the road. A near riot saw police on horses charge the Acquired from 132 © copyright 2001 133 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND huge and diverse crowd; the meeting was disrupted and Hanson cancelled her appearance. Oms member Ben appeared on the front pages of the Sydney Morning Herald, wearing a dressing gown to oppose a police horse. From Melbourne we headed west to South Australia, Adelaide and up to the amazing Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound. The majestic rock formations and energised land was inspiring and a low frequency hum could be heard in the huge crater shaped formation. We continued up the Stuart Highway and veering onto the Lassiter Highway to land at Uluru, where we put on the first doof near the twin rock formations of Uluru and Kata Tjuta in early June ‘98. We found a spot about 20 kilometers from the Babylonian Yulara resort. The vehicles parked up around some short trees, the fine red sand enveloped the feet and we walked amongst the abundant flowers. A camp was established and we headed into Yulara to have a beer and to spread the word on the doof. We gained permission from Rupert a local Aboriginal guide, who showed us around the rock on a free tour telling creation story’s about one formation that looked amazingly like a huge serpent head. As word and photocopies got around the resort, we encountered ridiculous paranoia. The Yulara management had threatened to sack workers and evict tourists from the resort if they dared attend the Oms not Bombs doof. About 100 people turned up—travelers, local Aboriginal people and workers—who had defied the ban. On the cold night, many reported that spirits were present in abundance. People felt they were on the bottom of the ocean, a reality for the region thousands of years ago. In the morning, a group of camels and their stirrer came through camp. DIG THE SOUNDS NOT URANIUM TOUR ’98. OHMS NOT BOMBS BUS WITH DJ MORPHISM (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) Acquired from 134 © copyright 2001 135 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND From Uluru, we hotfooted it into Alice and immediately EARTHDREAM1999/2000 bumped into another camel man who directed us to the Since ’98, the desert tour has become a reality for many claypan—the Earthdream winter solstice venue in years to people as the international Earthdream convoy sent ripples of come. We partied here and traveled up to Darwin via Mataranka energy through the outback in the opening year of the Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek. While in Darwin, we naughties. Oms Not Bombs became known as Ohms Not assisted the Jabiluka campaign, but parties at the protest camp Bombs—‘ohms’ being a symbol of resistance. This can apply were controversial with camp politics often not conducive to to sound or the mass of people power needed in our non-violent spontaneous creativity. On one night, Yvonne Margarula’s war against the enemies of the earth. Earthdream people power brother came to our party thanking the mob from down south maneuvers in ‘99 saw the Peace Bus involved in an Earthdream for supporting his sister in opposing the might of ERA. Another warm-up party protest on the shores of the dry and salty Lake night in town ended in a riot with security guards who didn’t Eyre. The Peace Bus made the mission after the Oms Bus had approve of the bunch of ferals telling them that toxifying the been declared unroadworthy at the J18 protest earlier that year planet with deadly uranium was wrong. The tour ended with in Sydney. As we were expected at Lake Eyre for the solstice the Oms bus falling ill to a broken cylinder, the crew jumped party, we drove hard, running gauntlets over the western NSW ship to board the Peace Bus which had been driven up from border until we descended on the remote and spectacular Graffiti Hall of Fame to save the Oms crew. We then hotfooted Keepers Of Lake Eyre camp. An amazing alliance was forged, it back to the east coast. Passing Winton in far western with Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, who had taken on the Queensland, we witnessed the edge of a cyclone - its epicenter Roxby Downs uranium mine (which is draining the fragile on the east coast. It pumped storm cells as far as the eye could desert ecosystems and threatening Arabunna culture). see across the vast dry plains. We reached Byron Bay Aboriginal activists meet ‘Doof Warriors’—as Sydney’s City eventually to set up a great party amongst the damp glades of Hub (vol 4, no 44 1999) named Ohms not Bombs on their the Funky Forest before returning to Sydney again. front cover spread prior to the desert activist party-conference. Ancient future now, sharing a common vision of a just, sustainable and nuclear free future. Reinforcements arrived the following year. Acquired from 136 © copyright 2001 137 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND We had known the UK’s free party ambassadors, Bedlam Fundraisers were organised, Earthdream awareness-raising Sound System, were coming for Earthdream2000, but it was parties were held throughout the Summer and Autumn, the word unbelievable just how motivated this crew were. Totally self- was put out, through our electronic and cut and paste flyer/zine funded from party fundraisers in London, they rocked up with media channels. The 200 plus convoy set off, gaining momentum a whole shipping container full of sound system—decks, lights, from Port Augusta in May 2000. The crazy Mad Max style and the whole party package. A mad free party in Byron Bay adventure really turned heads in the outback. Connections were called Free NRG saw the crews meet all the Australian free made, fantastic desert parties were held, and the ball was now party contingents. A beach event at Wooyong attracted about rolling for a major reaction against the earth destroying uranium 1500 party crew despite police roadblocks—many had to walk industry. Earthdream saw black and white working together with 8 kilometers laden with chai pots, records and cakes. a common vision. True reconciliation occurred on the dusty dancefloor of Coober Pedy, the roadblock at Roxby, and in workshops at several Aboriginal communities. SOVEREIGNTY NOT SORRY The millennium year also saw Kevin Buzzacott’s ‘Walk for Peace and Healing’ from Lake Eyre to the Sydney Olympics. The 3000 km walk involved Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal activists who carried the sacred fire of justice to finally converge upon the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Victoria Park in September 2000. The high profile squatted park embassy, set up by Canberra Tent Embassy veteran Isabell Coe and a host of supporters, was telling the real story of Australia to the throngs of international media in town for the games. This galvanized the community around the sovereignty and land rights/treaty issue, and the ball was now in motion for an effective challenge to colonial occupation and the lie of terra nullius. The link between indigenous and other activists in both Sydney and in the arid lands of the centre, was EARTHDREAM MURAL PROJECT, ALICE SPRINGS JULY 2000 strengthened. (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) Acquired from 138 © copyright 2001 139 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND The temporary autonomous space reclaimed in Sydney Park in the early nineties has evolved far away from the gravity of the major city planets of this vast land. Out in the green– tinged centre a new society is developing based on non- hierarchy, liberationist principles, and shifting the chains of knowledge and respect back to the custodians of the land. Collective dreaming towards a free energy future is setting an amazing new precedent for a fear-free place for new generations to live in. Acquired from 140 © copyright 2001 141 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND CHAPTER FIVE—TUNING The roots of techno and the underground dance scene came from revolutionary beginnings such as Reclaim the Streets, TECHNOLOGY TO ECOLOGY: LABRATS squat, warehouse and open air free parties and festivals. Like most things in today’s world, dance parties have been SOLA POWERED SOUND SYSTEM1 commercialised and corporatised. The Labrats solar powered sound system brings the party IZZY BROWN AND MARC PECKHAM scene back to its roots as a revolutionary force of beats and breaks, bleeps and squeaks in the face of authority that is destroying our environment and the people that depend on it for their survival. By using solar power and other alternative technologies we are showing there is an alternative to the burning of fossil fuel and the use of nuclear reactors that are polluting our environment. By using these sustainable alternatives we can sideline destructive power sources, proving our independence in an environmentally friendly way. Music is a powerful metaphor when used for political change. A road can be blocked, a piece of land can be reclaimed, a place of oppression can become an autonomous zone to the sound of music. Dancing can change the world and the sun can provide the sounds. THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE (IZZY BROWN) 1 http://lab-rats.tripod.com Acquired from 142 © copyright 2001 143 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND HOW THE SOLAR SOUND SYSTEM WORKS directly affected by land rights and environmental issues, a different medium is required. It was out at the Arabunna Going It’s basically a massive car stereo. Twelve volts is the key Home Camp5 at Lake Eyre South in the South Australian desert to alternative energy efficiency when you’re using solar power. that the Wind Powered Cinema was born, and on it, the We’ve got three solar panels on the van, one on the caravan revolution is being televised. The wind power consists of an art and a wind generator. The power produced is stored in a hefty noveaux looking silver stream lined wind generator, mounted battery bank. We’ve got 12 volt amplifiers and a 240-volt on the front of our silver fibreglass bubble of a caravan. It inverters to power the decks. This enables us to pull up contains a bank of six deep cycle batteries, which run through anywhere and hold a party, ‘cause its all set up in the back of an inverter, which turns the 12 volts into 240. We then plug the the van ready to go. LCD projector into the inverter and let the show begin. Issues important to our survival, like the fate of our forests, The mobile self-sufficient cinema has enabled screenings potential contamination of our environment by mines, waste in all manner of surreal places. During Earthdream2000, at dumps, emissions from industry, human rights violations etc, the gates of Roxby Downs uranium mine, we showed footage are often misconstrued by the corporate media or more often of the Chernobyl disaster to mine workers. We had a debut ignored due to financial interests and basic prejudice. This became more and more apparent with our increased screening of the Beverley uranium mine documentary Emu Spew projected onto the side of the Bedlam sound system truck involvement in different campaigns. Over the years, while the media tended to focus on the colour of your dreadlocks or in the clay pans near the infamous Pine Gap. Yet perhaps our whether you’ve had a shower instead of the real issues, we biggest Earthdream home movie screening happened when Showdown in Seattle and a Sydney Reclaim the Streets doco had our faith restored in the crews at SKA TV (Access News)2, were projected onto the giant silver screen of an abandoned CAT TV, News Unlimited3 and, more recently, Indymedia.4 drive in movie cinema on the outskirts of Alice Springs. These are grassroots community media in which footage from Anywhere, anytime, showing relevant docos to a cross-section different actions we have documented could be broadcast to of society at many more obscure places along the way. The the public without being tainted by commercial interest. objective of the wind-powered cinema is to show a reality of They’re a great outlet for urban dwellers but when it comes to life that you probably won’t see on TV. informing people in remote communities, who are often more 2 http://www.accessnews.skatv.org.au 3 http://www.cat.org.au 4 www.indymedia.org 5 http://www.lakeeyre.green.net.au Acquired from 144 © copyright 2001 145 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND WHO ARE THE LABRATS? Labrats Sola Sound System manifested in Darwin at the time of the Jabiluka protests in 1998. I had IZZY (babbling) Hmmm well the Labrats are me and Monkey Marc and anyone who will help carry a travelled from Melbourne to Adelaide with an over speaker, filter some veggie oil, play some funky sized tricycle that had a bodged together bunch of tunes or freestyle some crazy rhymes on the solar old 12v electric wheelchair batteries, a solar panel powered sound system. Sometimes it might feel like and a small 12v PA on the back. My original vision you’re just a labrat in someone’s big god damn evil was to ride this metal monstrosity from Melbourne experiment and you think ‘fuck this, I’m taking to Jabiluka. After breaking an axle in Adelaide, control of my reality’ because the alternatives are we decided that it was not particularly viable and there. And if we get off that apathetic brain numbing shoved it on the roof of my friend’s landrover. So medication they feed you in the laboratory and use we arrived at Jabiluka with a large broken tricycle the waste of this society to create independence from and a sound system just a bit too big to hitchhike all those things that are messing with the future of with. At this point I felt some form of collaboration the planet, sort it out and have a rockin’ party while was necessary to make this party happen. It was we’re doing it…why not! then that I met Monkey Marc who came to the Northern Territory with similar intentions to play music at the blockade. So we combined forces, becoming partners in mischief and mayhem. Marc had the decks, mixer and records, I had the PA batteries and solar panels. We had a couple of crazy parties, put it all in the get-away vehicle, and hit the road in the van that now runs on veggie oil. MARC I’d come up from Sydney after hearing about the blockade. I’d been doing parties with Trevor Parkee and the All Funked Up Crew and had also been doing a radio program on 2SER with Trevor on a Saturday afternoon. I’d been playing mainly old black funk music and some reggae and dub LABRATS SOLA SOUND SYSTEM AT THE CLAYPAN ALICE SPRINGS, JUNE 2000 (PHOTO. GRAHAM ST JOHN) Acquired from 146 © copyright 2001 147 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I was essentially inspired by people such as Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, James Brown and bands with songs of political and social struggle. I believed at the time that it was music like this that would give us the strength to take on all the baddies in the world involved in such things as uranium mining and cultural genocide. I remember watching TV and seeing loads of worn faces of blockaders up at Jabiluka and thought that if I took this music up there to the front line, we could bring some hope back to the situation, and we may even win. So off I went to Darwin, armed with my decks, sampler, an 808 and a bunch of (in those days) clean records. When I got up there, my mate Peta had a warehouse, later nicknamed the Toilet Block, which became the local feral refuge centre for burnt out blockaders. The first party we did was a classic. About 100 people turned up at the Jabiluka camp. We had these tough little speakers which were distorting so much you could have played the same track all night and no one would’ve noticed. Most people loved it (apart from a few old and young grumps). Every time our 12v batteries ran out people would run over to the nearest car and rip out the battery and booom—off we’d go again. When we ran out of power for the decks we got out two tape (CARTOON. IZZY BROWN) walkmans and DJ’d with that. That was Izzy’s expertise…nothing ever stopped us. There was so much energy there. Acquired from 148 © copyright 2001 149 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND After our many crazy attempts at parties, some of Before we turn the motor off we run it on diesel which became pretty legendary, the Ohms Not for 5 minutes to clean out the motor. It’s as simple Bombs6 crew turned up with their party machine. as that. It is very efficient as we actually get more After a very psychedelic beach party, I decided to miles per gallon on veggie oil than we do on diesel. open up a feral friendly nightclub in Darwin with Also, all the oil we get is old oil so it’s all recycled Pete from Ohms called Molybdonite. Both of them and free. We’ve done just over 20,000 km’s around turned into full-on riots, with the local bouncers Australia for basically nothing. deciding that ferals were nothing but scum and Environmentally, the van puts out much less deserved to be bashed. There’s nothing like red pollution than normal diesel. We haven’t been able neck Australia to make you feel welcome. After to afford proper emissions tests but we were able this, things got a bit hairy and lots of stuff happened to gather a rough estimate of the benefits. It has that I can’t go into here and well …we were forced no net CO2 emissions, no sulphur dioxide, carbon to take to the road. monoxide is reduced by 10-50%, soot emissions HOW DOES THE VAN RUN OFF VEGGIE OIL? MARC Well, first you need a diesel engine. We’ve installed a whole new fuel system so the car, in essence, runs like a dual-fuel vehicle. To get the van running on veggie oil we built a heated fuel tank that heats the oil by circulating hot water from the radiator through a copper coil in the tank. This thins it out enabling it to be used as a fuel. We then installed a fuel pump and an extra fuel line with a re-washable fine filter to clean the oil before it hits the motor. At the end of the oil fuel line is a tap. The basic principal is to start the van on diesel for ten minutes, which heats the oil in the tank. When the oil is hot enough we turn the fuel pump on, the diesel tap off, the veggie oil tap on and brmmmmmmmmm…it’s fish and chips all the way. VEGIE OIL CONVERSION 6 http://www.omsnotbombs.org (IZZY BROWN) Acquired from 150 © copyright 2001 151 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND are 40-60% less, hydrocarbons go down 10–50 % BACKGROUND and importantly a whole range of carcinogenic Izzy All my life I have moved around. When I was a aromatic hydrocarbons are reduced from 60– child my father worked for ASIO which meant that 100%. Of course, by growing veggie oil plants this we moved every two years leaving little contact eats CO2s to produce oxygen. So there are many or connection with places we moved from. These advantages. Also you no longer have to rely on days, I move around for very different reasons. the corrupt world of petrochemical companies. No Though the travel bug has roots in military and more blood for oil. government instruction, it is now used to fight the IZZY We had the solar pumping the tunes and the wind results of their missuse of power. It’s ironic cranking the visuals, but we were still driving really…you could say they trained me well. I left around on diesel. It’s 320 kms to the supermarket home when I was 16, jumped in a van and ended from Lake Eyre camp so the fuel thing really hit up at a forest blockade called Curbia in southern home and just seemed a bit hypocritical. We were NSW. The camp was on the edge of a half logged looking at hydrogen, water power, solar and bio coupe, making the contrast of beauty and diesel but none were viable in our desert location. destruction very apparent. The issue was hot in It was out there that we saw a documentary on the the papers though ‘ferals’ were the press’s main Bougainville Revolutionary Army called Hell in attraction. At this camp, I was lucky enough to the Pacific. It showed the BRA driving around on witness a win to have the forest protected. I have hand ground coconut oil as a fuel, and we figured witnessed very few since then, but it was this initial that if they can do it against all odds so can we — win that gave me the enthusiasm to keep trying. in the middle of the desert. But we’ve got chip This was shortly followed, in 1995, by the Forest shops instead of coconut palms. Embassy in Canberra. Forest activists, loonies and freaks from all over the country converged on the lawns of parliament—it was an inspiring time. The crew from NEFA (North East Forest Alliance) kept me alive with their rocking communal kitchen. With 50 people hanging on, making noise and running amok, the stump truck (a semi trailer with 2 big old growth stumps on the back) did blockies around Parliament House. Acquired from 152 © copyright 2001 153 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND The first techno party I ever manifested was a long arm of the law with all its prejudice and fundraiser for Geco (Goongerah Environment corruption and violent tendencies (though it’s ten Centre).7 I was about 16, had no money, no phone, times worse if you’re black in your own land). no venue, no sleep, knew no DJs, in fact very little They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger at all about the whole Sydney techno scene. But I or maybe but maybe it just drives you insane with had lots of enthusiasm and determination. I figured frustration. It’s definitely more fuel to the fire. I that it had to be done in order to save the forests. So really feel sometimes that we could have saved I drew a flyer, ran around like a maniac, lugging the world by now if it wasn’t for the police—a large things on public transport and babbling at few close calls really makes you appreciate living. anyone who would listen. Thanks to the Vibe Tribe In jail my brain is full of irritation. and everyone supporting the cause, the party went Knowing environmental degradation off. It proved to be an excellent awareness-raising Goes full steam ahead with civilisation Feeling powerless from my position exercise. We got a carload together and went down Its in the shades of grey they took our rights away to the blockade at Sellers Road in East Gippsland. These bars will never make me forget about freedom Loggers, greenies, cops, lock-ons, tree sits, magic These pills they give me wont make me stop thinking mushrooms, glow in the dark fungus, giant tree ferns, Coz I’ll be on the front line Just to give this earth a bit more time (written in prison) crazy possums, snow floods and fires…all the things that make doing what we do such an adventure. Hitchhiking around Australia from forest to desert, I don’t know how many times I have been arrested, redneck town to concrete jungle, broadens one’s bashed or verbally abused. Arrested for some thing awareness of the variety of characters and I didn’t do, denied my right to a lawyer (or a environment that makes Australia what it is. After telephone call), strip searched, had our vehicles, a couple more laps of Australia I decided to camps or houses raided. Once I was even flown hitchhike around the world. A roadside street and with 4 police escorts on a private aeroplane from gutter perspective contrasting the world’s most Eden (home of the evil Daishowa woodchip mill) poverty stricken nations to the most industrialised to be imprisoned in one of the worst women’s countries, affirmed my commitment to prisons in Australia for 7 days with no actual environmental activism. In England, Europe and charge. I’m just one of many who have felt the Japan, I witnessed how humans can practically destroy the natural environment. Dancing in acid rain at a Czech teknival, a riot of a thousand 7 http://www.geco.org.au Acquired from 154 © copyright 2001 155 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND squatters over a piece of concrete in Berlin, too many sun rises over industrial landscapes trippin’ off my scone thinking I don’t want to see Australia turn out like an industrial concrete overdose. We still have so much left to fight for. MARC I too moved around a lot as a kid all over the place. I lived in Greece, Yemen and Egypt and spent the rest of my childhood growing up in Wales. My dad used to fly around the world a lot with his job and we used to follow him. I think I’d been on something like 26 plane flights before I was 10. I saw many different cultures and hung out with all sorts of people — from rich Arabic captains, to the poorest people. We witnessed immense poverty, usually only next door or even under the staircase. By contrast, we had our own body guard who used to accompany me and my brother to the swimming pool. He’d just stand at the edge of the pool with his machine gun. I remember wondering why people always wanted to help the poor when they seemed to be the happiest. Then, when I was eight, I saw the refugees and civilian soldiers of the Palestine Liberation Front coming through the streets of Sanaa, Yemen, shouting and firing their guns in the air. I remember young boys with arms and legs blown off and all sorts of horrific injuries fixed up with bits of old cloth. These people just kept walking and driving their old dodgy trucks because their homelands had been taken. At this point I realised that something was wrong with IZZY @ S11 2000 (PHOTO. GRAHAM ST JOHN) the world and not everyone was as lucky as me. Acquired from 156 © copyright 2001 157 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND In 1986, when I was 13, my family moved to Sydney strange things happened including an instance where having realised that Maggie Thatcher was ruining a couple of spirits visited me and my mate in the Britain. I used to sing that Sex Pistols song where it other room telling my mate that the mine was full of goes ‘…no future, no future for you and England’s restless spirits and that everybody should get out. A dreaming’. After going to school in Sydney, I applied week later, I rolled the company 4WD nearly killing to do a degree in Geology. I’d always had an interest myself again. I felt I was in the wrong place, so I in the way the planet had formed. After a 5-year gave up my job and hit the road. I ended up in Darwin degree, I decided that I was going to be an after my car had broken down in The Kimberleys environmental geologist. Since there were virtually and everything I owned had been stolen. My brother no jobs around like this at the time, I tried to get reckoned it was karma for working down the mines. involved in cleaning up the mess the mining industry Later I took up contracting exploration work in leaves behind. As the last 6 months of my degree Darwin and the Tanami desert. It was here that I met involved working in a mine, I applied for a bundle of the local Aboriginal mob after breaking down on the environmental jobs. But my university found me a side of the road. The driller and I were talking away job working in an underground gold mine in Cue, in to them all excited, but they were totally freaked out. the desert of Western Australia instead. As it was I realised that all they could see was the man who compulsory, I took the job believing how I would had come to take their land away again. clean up the mess they’d created. But, I spent That was it! I was as far away from what I wanted everyday working in the mine—as an underground to be doing in this world than I ever could be. So I sampler—and when my 6 months were up, they switched sides, deciding to do something more offered me a job as one of the geologists for the mine. positive with my life. Though I tried to have some influence over The Labrats Sola Sound System has been involved environmental issues, decisions were mostly made with Reclaim The Streets in Sydney Melbourne from higher places. Next thing I knew I’d been there Adelaide and Hobart. It’s been transported on for two years. skateboards, trolleys, bicycles and in the back of One morning I woke up and my house was on fire. the veggie oil van. The sound system is a statement To cut a long story short I actually died in the fire in itself — drawing attention to pollution problems and my alarm clock eventually managed to wake me and global warming. Although we have copped out of a carbon monoxide induced haze. Everything some shit about driving the van at RTS people are I owned went up in smoke. After this, a bunch of getting educated by this living-driving alternative. Acquired from 158 © copyright 2001 159 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Unfortunately, we have become a bit of a cop There’s nothing better than positive lyrics coming magnet having been defected eight times in seven in over a funky beat. You’re automatically reaching months for any trivial matter. We’ve even been a wider audience. There are many people who told we could be fined for our paint job as it might come to our parties for the music, but who, after be offensive to horses and cattle. This was in cow hearing the message from the street, became free inner-city Sydney.8 involved in campaigns. Music is also the best way Music has been an essential part of my life. After to block a road. Most of the time the cops hate it singing for a few hardcore and funk bands, I started because they don’t get time to think, and when listening to hip hop and doing graffiti - becoming that happens that wonderful element of chaos influenced by people like Chuck D. Rap seemed comes steamrolling through. at the time to be the clearest and funkiest way to get your message across without sounding like you were whingeing (which was what rock ’n’ roll seemed like to me). So I went out and bought myself an 808 drum machine and a sampler— which became my most inspirational tool. I started sampling from the TV and radio. I use vocal samples as they have an ear of authenticity about them. Also, I don’t have the lyrical prowess to rap myself. I’m a classic at putting my foot in my mouth. Luckily, Izzy fills that gap and the whole thing becomes 10 times stronger. The rap element, which Izzy and other rappers have brought to our music, is the poetry of our time, telling our stories in total honesty, communicating our fight to save this planet. So with Iz, the story is our version— 100% uncut. And we’ve got loads to tell. MURAL AT BROADWAY SQUATS (ALTERMOTIVE WAREHOUSE) SYDNEY, DEC 2000 8 For Sydney 2000 RTS action see Labrats website: http://lab-rats.tripod.com. (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) Acquired from 160 © copyright 2001 161 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE EARTHDREAM TOUR? IZZY I’d heard about the Earthdream tour when travelling in Europe a few years ago. In the first week of my return to Australia, I went to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. There, I met Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, an Arabunna elder calling for people to come out to his country in the desert of South Australia. The Lake Eyre South region is currently facing the devastating affects of Olympic Dam uranium mine operated by Western Mining Company at Roxby Downs. I saw the potential for this tour to coincide with the issues and campaigns of the land through which the convoy would pass. I felt inclined to go out there to do some groundwork for the journey. So prior to Earthdream2000, we have been in the desert fighting the mining companies, learning about the land and Aboriginal culture. Earthdream99 was held at Lake Eyre camp, attracting around 200 people out into the desert. Three days of wild parties were followed by direct action on WMC. This was an inspiring time for everyone, seeding the mobile party protest convoy that grew with Earthdream2000. A highlight of EarthDream2000 was the five day ‘reclaim the road’ party where we blocked the main intersection to Roxby Mine and had a rockin’ party, a BBQ for the workers, a mutant cabaret show, and a hip hop sound clash war featuring MCs Oshara and Yohan. Most importantly, we discovered that (IZZY BROWN) cops don’t like Speedbass (ridiculously fast techno Acquired from 162 © copyright 2001 163 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND from San Francisco). Marc reversed the van, the In the Adnyamathanha community of Nepabunna, speakers getting closer to the police blocking the west of Lake Frome, we witnessed the divide and road. Sporadic beats, bleeps, bass and babble of conquer techniques used by Beverley uranium speed bass penetrated their senses causing them mine operator Heathgate Resources, an Australian to literally walk backwards, get in their cars, wind subsidiary to the US military giant General up their windows and piss off in a state of panic— Atomics. With their ‘just sign this for a pair of enabling the Ohms not Bombs Peace Bus to pull cowboy boots and a hat mentality’, they prey on across the road and block it for the next five days. unsuspecting members of the Adnyamathanha There is a secret war going on out there. On the community to sign away their traditional lands. road we have met its casualties and its perpetrators. With token gifts for some, they’ve turned people In Coober Pedy, the children bear the defects and to squabble amongst themselves, uninformed and the old people the scars. There are cataracts in the divided. Heathgate, like many other mining eyes that witnessed the atomic blasts at Emu companies, used the Native Title Act to gain access Junction and Maralinga, but still no recognition to Aboriginal land against the wishes of the or compensation for the innocent victims of the majority of the community—a familiar story. nuclear industry. The battle continues with Pangea Resources In Maree, there is fear and uncertainty to speak out proposing that Billa Kalina (between Coober Pedy, against WMC after they funded an armed attack on Maree and Woomera in South Australia) is the those Arabunna people opposing the Olympic Dam perfect destination for the world’s nuclear waste! expansion of the Borefields into their traditional Due to massive public protest, the international lands. As a result, two were shot dead in self- waste project is still on the drawing board. Yet, a defence. WMC funded conflicting native title national radioactive waste dump has been claims, drugs, guns, cars and payouts. The police approved, unanounced to most of the population. left town leaving locals in the hands of a WMC It’s like they think no one lives out there. Nothing bought and bribed fear campaign that still lingers. new for the elders in Coober Pedy who continue These days they offer gifts of basketball stadiums, to campaign to protect their traditional land. paint for the school, street signs and contaminated water tanks. All this in an effort to gain control over the waters of the Great Artesian Basin. WMC are buying up pastoral leases in every direction. Acquired from 164 © copyright 2001 165 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND I am a senior Aboriginal woman In 1999 I was involved in a three month camel trek from Kokatha country. (Humps Not Dumps)10 with seven other women I am responding to your press release today that walking over 1000km to different nuclear-industry announced the three final nuclear waste site location Your government and all the successive governments are hot spots in the Billa Kalina region to try to draw guilty of committing ‘ecocide’ and genocide against the attention to the proposed radioactive waste dump. It first nations of this ancient country. By the way the old was pretty intense. Lots of physical space, but not people are still waiting for a ‘sorry’ when many of them much head space, romantic idea but a lot of hard were exposed to the black rain clouds that spread shortly work. Maybe it was the gender imbalance or just a after the test at Emu Plain The Kungka’s know first hand about the dangers of personality thing. Either way, I’ll leave it to your nuclear by-products, bombs,contaminated lands and imagination. Eight girls, three months, wild camels, health problems that have resulted over the last 47 years good and bad times, wild country, desert dust storms, Australia talks of reconciliation but how can we can’t see the track in front of me, lightning lighting reconcile when this waste is going to be dumped on the up the night like day revealing wet camels with their ancestral lands of the Kokatha people? How can the government continue to negotiate and make decisions eyes bulging, bucking and jumping like a rodeo show, about stolen lands, without the consent rope burn and blisters, debates about ideology, our of all the Kokatha people who are the custodians and who differences exposed like our bodies to the elements. have already had their lands stolen back in the 1950s WMC is a different story. I have developed a very when their lands were annexed by the Commonwealth Government using the doctrines of Terra Nullius? personal vendetta with this corporate beast of mass This is morally wrong and the Kupa Piti Kungkas have destruction. I am writing this only weeks after they always opposed this proposal. We know the country, bulldozed our camp to the ground for the second time. because of our connection to the land that dates By living in these places, whether blockade camps back to at least 40,000 years. or communities, you develop a sense of personal Scientists don’t have the history like us. How can they offer guarantees that this is the perfect e responsibility to stop the atrocities you are witnessing. nvironment for storage? When you are directly affected, you see the destruction first hand. When your friends or family Irati,Wanti!! are the casualties of this secret war, then statistics, (‘The Poison — Leave It’!! in Yankunytjatjara, propaganda and paper is nothing and it becomes very Central Australia).9 raw. Us and them and the brainwashed soldiers in between. Just victims in denial too busy being part of the problem. 9 http://www.iratiwanti.org 10 www.green.net.au/humpsnotdumps Acquired from 166 © copyright 2001 167 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND EDUCATION, AWARENESS AND DIRECT ACTIVISM painted a mural on the youth centre and screened the local favourite, Bush Mechanics. It was pretty As we all know, the future’s with the kids. On the wild. Some of the kids had never seen records Humps Not Dumps camel trek we visited Roxby before and were keen to use them as frizbees. In Downs High School, camels and all. It was an an attempt at damage control we played music in excellent opportunity to talk to the kids of the a cage in the youth centre. As there was ‘sorry mining town, many quite concerned about their business’ going on (with elders busy mourning the parent’s health and the risks involved with the death of an elder), most of the time it was just us nuclear industry. We tried a similar thing at the and all the kids from the community. The sniffers primary school in Woomera, but because of the found our fuel tank, but to their dismay only found younger age group they ended up laughing at the veggie oil and decided to smash our window camels digging up the sprinkler with their noses instead—all part of the excitement in front of the on the school oval. That night, we showed films at roller disco. the local park about Jabiluka and the dangers of George W Bush’s Son of Star Wars (National More recently, we did a gig for the kids at the Missile Defence) program. This was quite fitting settlement in Redfern, Sydney. Most of them as most of the kid’s parents were Americans preferred to yell into the mike than rap, and others working at Narrungar (ex US base) and the kids preferred to sing along to the cheesy RnB the seemed to know more about the military details organiser requested. One can only hope the then we did. At the school in Leigh Creek we had message is getting to the kids and music seems a the kids sign a replica 44 gallon radioactive waste fun way to reach them. So far so good drum with comments about their views on the There’s definitely a revolution happening on the waste dump. It turned into who could write the streets all around the world. People have simply rudest thing about John Howard—so I guess that’s had enough and nothing’s going to stop them a good sign. getting out there and doing something about it. On Earthdream2000, we visited schools and People want change and can see that governments communities doing cabaret circus-style shows. A or big companies don’t give a stuff, so they’re small group worked with the anti petrol sniffing going to have to do things their own way. While program in Yuendumu in the Tanami desert, where generally we feel like we’ve been tricked in their we ran hip hop workshops and a roller disco, twisted game, we have an advantage. They’ve Acquired from 168 © copyright 2001 169 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND taught us all their tricks through years of social programming, so we know all the ins and outs and we’re going to use it against them. We also have another advantage—street knowledge—and no matter how much they try to infiltrate or undermine us, they’ll never work it out because we’re on different levels. As OB-1 says: ‘use the force’. Believe me, if you follow that advice you’ll always stay one step ahead. I guess its about independence motivation and freedom this is our musical metaphor about the things we’re for and against getting the message in ya head a musical metamorphisisation breeding the freedom of information its about tunin’ the teckno-logy fittin’ it to the ecology and its working we’re working together getting clever with this community-minded unity We got the alternative energy For a nuclear free autonomy LabRAtS over AND out there! Acquired from 170 © copyright 2001 171 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND CHAPTER SIX— Contemporary environmental activist and social justice networks have lately enthused over the zeitgeist evoking TECHNO TERRA-ISM: FERAL dictum: drive out, amp up and lock on. Pirating and harnessing a spectrum of new and old technologies, mobile neotribes are SYSTEMS AND SOUND FUTURES conspiring in a proactive climate to celebrate and protect natural and cultural heritage in Australia. This chapter focuses on the convergence of environmentalism and electronic music GRAHAM ST JOHN cultures in nationwide responses to forest, nuclear and native title issues. It also explores the role of various techno-tribal sound system collectives and technomadic pilgrimage rituals exemplified by the inter(sub)cultural ‘corroboree’ Earthdream2000. Nineties environmental techno-tribalism traces its roots to mobile not-for-profit sound system collectives emerging in the UK in the late eighties/early nineties which themselves drew upon a variety of influences from new travellers, to anarcho-punks to zippies. While the oppositional stance of UK techno-traveller milieus may be as questionable as that asserted by their more sedentary relatives (the entrepreneurial hype, Dance Party politics and reactionary hubris of ravers), convergence with the growing DiY anarcho-punk movement saw technoculture implicated in a more proactive social agenda, of which the anti-roads and Reclaim the Streets1 movements are exemplary. BEVERLEY MINE PROTEST MAY 2000 (REMIXED BY PETER STRONG) 1 http://www.gn.apc.org Acquired from 172 © copyright 2001 173 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Technocultures are developing beyond the ‘e’-volutionary CUSTODIANSHIP AND THE NEW TRIBES diatribe of ‘dunce culture’ with habitueés desiring to make While circumstances in the UK have been formative, sense of their world, uploading their demands for a legitimate historical and environmental conditions in Australia are significant place within it. Travelling the UK festivals in the early nineties, to the emergence of techno terra-ism. Contemporary Australia is the original tech-savvy indicator of this phenomenon was witness to the growth of a consciousness which, through an probably ‘the peoples sound system’, Spiral Tribe. Whereas intimate awareness of the deep wounds of settler history upon the the London orbital party promoters ‘had seen the English environment and Aboriginal inhabitants, is at odds with a countryside as a green-field development site for … [their] colonialist future. An emergent body of literature attends to new leisure concept, the Spirals understood it as a politically processes of Euro-Australian reconcilement and custodianship charged environment, an historic arena for a clash between in regard to native landscape. In his Future Eaters, Tim Flannery rebels and oppressors’. Future-primitives, Spiral Tribe believed hints at a movement towards what he calls ‘ecological they were connected to prehistoric nomadic tribes and that attunement’.3 The wisdom in taking ‘ownership’ of past techno was the new folk music. A loose collective, the Spirals wrongdoings and assuming custodial obligations towards Australian landscape, towards local place, is constituted in what wore black post-apocalyptic apparel with their insignia ‘breach Freya Matthews calls ‘reinhabitation’.4 Alongside permaculture the peace/make some fucking noise’ prominent. projects, ‘eco-villages’ and ‘landcare’, such strategies are According to Mathew Collin, they believed free parties symptomatic of a local ‘ecologism’. Perhaps at a wider level we were ‘shamanic rites, which using the new musical are witnessing processes whereby European Australians are technologies in combination with certain chemicals and long establishing a legitimate place on this continent through ethical periods of dancing, preferably in settings with spiritual action—establishing, in line with the historical project of Peter significance, could reconnect urban youth to the earth with Read, the right to ‘belong’ here.5 In a climate which has seen the which they had lost contact, thus averting imminent ecological growing recognition of a deeply humanised landscape and a crisis’. Partly indicative of the upsurge in Celtic identification, concomitant ‘sorry’ movement, such processes are rarely this ‘pan-global army of techno-pagans and dancefloor disconnected from ‘reconcilements’ with Australia’s indigenous dissidents’ are said to have pursued a ‘terra-technic’ anarcho- peoples.6 mysticism.2 This brand of dissidence has influenced local 3 Tim Flannery, The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, Melbourne, Reed, 1995, p.389. formations. 4 Freya Matthews, ‘CERES: Singing up the City’, PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature no 1 2000, pp.5-15. 5 Peter Read, Belonging: Australians, Place and Aboriginal Ownership, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000. 2 Mathew Collin, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, 6 Deborah Rose, Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape London, Serpents Tail, 1997, p.203-4; S. De Batselier, ‘You Can’t Beat the System!’, and Wilderness. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission, 1996; H Gooder, and New Musical Express January 9, 199, p 13; Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journey J Jacobs, ‘“On the Border of the Unsayable”: The Apology in Postcolonizing Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. London, Picador, 1998, 138. Australia’, Interventions vol 2, no 2, 2000, pp.229-47. Acquired from 174 © copyright 2001 175 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND As nodes in a contemporary youth network committed to defenders have surfaced. With hippie, punk and pagan celebrating and defending local landscapes and Aboriginal influences, throughout the nineties these feral guardians of peoples, techno-anarchist sound systems evidence such heritage have matured at multiple sites of resistance, forming ‘attunement’. These technocultures are ‘neo-tribes’, or activist eco-tribes and engaging in acts of terra-ism.10 technotribes, in Michel Maffesoli’s sense of temporary and ‘empathetic’ voluntary associations, networked in an ‘underground sociality’.7 These are ‘DiY cultures’ committed to both pleasure and politics.8 Far from eschewing a political ‘program’, they pursue ideals consistent with an historical sensitivity and ecological sensibility—transparent in reconciliatory gestures, ethical consumption and their broadercultural output. These ethical technotribal formations have grown from a marginal cultural movement establishing firm roots in Australia—radical ecologism. A multifaceted critical standpoint delineated by Carol Merchant,9 radical ecologism is a system of discourse and practice indicating an awareness of rampant environmental devastation inflicted under the guise of ‘development’ and by the globalising trend of modernity. Here, an understanding of the abuses of ecological rights is closely linked with a growing knowledge of human rights abuses, suffered especially by indigenous peoples at the hands of transnational corporations. Since the early eighties, in campaigns to protect sites of natural significance around Australia, Earth- (PHOTO BRENT TANIAN) 7 Michel Maffesoli, The Time of the Tribes: the Decline of Individualism in Mass Society, London, Sage, 1996. 8 George McKay, DiY Culture: Notes Toward an Intro, in George McKay (ed.) 10 For an explanation of ferality, see two of my own articles — Graham St John, DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain, London, Verso, 1998. ‘Ferality: A Life of Grime’. The UTS Review — Cultural Studies and New Writing, 9 Carol Merchant, Radical Ecology: the Search for a Livable World, Routledge, vol 5 no 2, 1999, pp. 101-113; and ‘Ferals: Terra-ism and Radical Ecologism in New York, 1992. Australia’, Journal of Australian Studies, no 64, pp. 208-216. Acquired from 176 © copyright 2001 177 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Comparison with competing youth cultural trajectories is This postcolonialist disposition persists in decidedly instructive. Where the definitive acronym for ravers may be the extropian youth formations. In a proactive and inspirited neohippy PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect), ferals subscribe to climate coinciding with the turn of the millennium, Australian NVDA (non violent direct action). Obstructing, boycotting and post-rave technoculture is heir to the feral legacy and has performing activist-theatre for the purpose of promoting change provided a culture of opposition with sophisticated campaign is perhaps where ‘feral’ may be distinguished from ‘raver’, for tools—an armory of technology (eg. DAT, sampler, synth, mini whom ‘disappearance’ has been offered as a defining quality.11 disc, internet, MIDI). As Andy Parks suggests in an edition of While the rave massive is implored to ‘get busy’, this is usually a Radio National’s Earthbeat, music has long provided a playful pursuit associated with non-productive expenditure. While powerful tool in environmental and other protest campaigns.13 media may focus on welfare dependence, and resource While electronic musics do not possess an exclusive power to development-dependent communities may dismiss them as ‘unify people and draw attention to a cause’, recent taxpayers liabilities or just ‘bludging scum’, eco-activists claim, technologies nevertheless enable producers to establish new through voluntary efforts to save sites of significance, they make techniques of ‘connect[ing] directly to the heart’. For young productive contributions—that they work for future generations people refusing rampant consumerism and ontological by saving our heritage. disconnection, eco-techno amalgamations have presaged new Raving and ferality are spectacular pursuits. Yet, the risks strategies of celebrating and defending a heritage threatened associated with ferality are not merely sartorial, a matter of style by resource development interests, tactics for combating the or adventurous embodiment as in raving. Ultimately, the feral mining and forestry industries, timely ways of expressing spectacle is confrontational—often justified as ‘environmental attachment to country. work’. And the ‘risk identity’ assumed differs from that which is apparently cultivated by new Travellers who are said to actively Since the mid nineties, audio-visual technologies, embrace chaos by ‘putting themselves in danger from the things aggregated into ‘sound systems’, have been harnessed to serve others fear so much: transientness, eviction, ostracism, placeless the cause. Jellyheads and Vibe Tribe veteran Kol Dimond, aka identities, poverty, harassment and uncertainty in one’s life’.12 DJ Fatty Acidz, has observed the intertwined growth of political Not a ‘placeless’ pursuit of orgiastic expenditure, the feral project, consciousness and the sound system: taking the form of ecologically conscious counter-development action, is a terra-ist life-strategy of (re)connection and defence. 11 See A. Melechi, ‘The Ecstasy of Disappearance’. Steve Redhead (ed.) Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture, Avebury, 1993, pp.29-40. 12 Kevin Hetherington, ‘Stonehenge and its Festival: Spaces of Consumption’, Rob Shields (ed.) Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption, London, Routledge, 13 Earthbeat. Radio National program with Alexandra de Blas on 18/12/1999: 1992, p.91-2. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s74058.html Acquired from 178 © copyright 2001 179 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND [I]n the last five years I’ve seen thousands upon thousands its primary objective has been the defence of Goolengook forest of people [who] weren’t politically motivated, switched on (and its many rare and threatened species)—campaigns funded to more single issue politics, saving things, and fighting for things, anything, whether it is the classic cases of Jabiluka, through Melbourne benefits. In June 1997, Flora Faunacation or rezoning in Sydney or Everleigh Street, wherever there is was held at the Red Room in Thornbury. 1998 saw Eco- a major environmental concern you’ll find a sound system Doofender at Fitzroy’s Shunyata in March, Psycorroboree at now. You’ll find people … are seriously unable to separate The Cage off Little Bourke St in June, and ECOTERRA at the two. (Earthbeat 18/12/99) Brunswick’s Dane Rehearsal Studios in September. Terra- From the mid nineties, sound systems would provide the Techno transpired in Carlton in November 2000. Most of these bass lines for road protesting blockades (and later, Reclaim events, and others held outside the city like GoolenDoof in The Streets festivals). In July 1995, Vibe Tribe collaborated Ferny Creek Reserve in the Dandenong Ranges in October with activists protesting Sydney’s M2 motorway in 1998, have incorporated the performance of often improvised Carmegeddon.14 In September 1997, a second Carmeggedon theatre to electronic soundtracks. RTS event was held in Moore Park where the Quency Sound In recent times, eco-tribes have thus become closely System featured. Electronic musicians and sound systems affiliated with electronic music culture. Geco’s vegan food participated in awareness and fun(d) raising campaigns kitchen has had an almost ubiquitous presence at parties like throughout this period—combating road, native forest and Gaian Thump, Reclaim the Streets and Earthdream events.16 uranium mining industries. In 1996, an early Sydney Yet, perhaps the earliest convergence was a series of Melbourne environmental activists fundraiser was held by the Sisters @ events held by the Imagineer collective in 1991. At these events, the Underground in conjunction with Clan Analogue called according to collective co-founder Andrzej Liguz, ‘the Ferals Doof Punk Tree Trunk. crossed over with the techno subculture and the two groups East Gippsland’s Geco (Goongerah Environment Centre)15 spent enough time together to form their own hybrid child: is a notable beneficiary of funds generated by benefit doofs. the Feral/Techno scene’.17 I recall this child of the nineties Combating the obliteration of Victoria’s remnant old growth surfacing much later at Earthdream ‘97 (the third forest, and recognising the prior occupation status of the Earthdream2000 preliminary event) held on Winter Solstice Bidawal, Geco is a grassroots eco-tribe. Since the early nineties, at Stonehenge Campground in East Gippsland. This was a site Geco has blockaded clearfelling operations designed to service government subsidised export woodchippers. In recent years 16 Similarly the Timbarra Cafe Collective, raising funds for ongoing opposition to Ross Mining’s gold project on the Timbarra plateau (NSW), have been present at 14 Named after a series of UK road blockades in the early nineties (Wall 1999:63). numerous events. 15 http://www.geco.org.au 17 Andrzej Liguz, ‘Ravers Paradise: Festival Meets Protest’. The Big Issue, 1998, p.6. Acquired from 180 © copyright 2001 181 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND where those preoccupied with defending threatened old growth Geco’s Celebrate and Defend Gathering at Goongerah East mixed it with those equally serious about bringing off a party; Gippsland, has been held under a full moon in January since where constructing blockade defences, erecting large scale art- 1994. In 2001, the Gathering featured forest information tours, works and building a rhythm had become integral components NVDA workshops and entertainment (in the form of electronic, in a larger radical scaffolding. Fluro fetishists, and crazy trouser acoustic and hybrid music performances). The Gathering hosted posses were out in die hard numbers, sharing the floor with several Psycorroboree DJs, bands including Pan, and Labrats18 decorated field strategists. Within a ring of gum trees on a and Yum solar powered sound systems The event provided a knoll in a cow paddock, dancers greeted a dawn pitching the means of introducing participants to breathtaking yet unprotected sky in cloudy rivulets of orange/red, animated by a sublime heritage sites continually threatened by woodchipping interests. trance soundtrack mixed by DJ Krusty who played inside one Participants were informed that ‘these Ancient Forests survived of two upended kombi vans forming the base of a Mutoid Waste the last ice age but are rapidly disappearing under the onslaught Co ‘car-henge’. of the industrial logging regime’. As an activist skill-sharing event and a recruitment campaign for logging coup blockades through the summer, the gathering prompted a ‘reclaiming of the future’ through active responses to the unsound practices of the past and present. These and further interventions, such as planting native trees on the camping site,19 signified a proactive response to past environmental malpractice—a kind of ecological reconciliation. Regenerating land and reconnecting with country has been a central preoccupation of the Victorian collective Tranceplant,20 whose ‘Resurrect the Bush’ festival at Easter 2001, for example, was ‘a mission to protect the waterway, thicken the undergrowth and defeat those grizzly weeds’. That Tranceplant acknowledges the authority of local MUTOID WASTE COMBI-HENGE AT EARTHDREAM III 18 http://lab-rats.tripod.com WINTER SOLSTICE ’97 19 www.green.net.au/goongerahgathering (PHOTO. PHIL VOODOO) 20 www.tranceplant.org.au Acquired from 182 © copyright 2001 183 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Koori populations (who have performed on-site permission “DOOFING FOR THE PLANET” ceremonies), strengthens a reconciliatory agenda. Benefit doofs proliferated in the late nineties and it wasn’t Coexistdance, held at Lake Tyres in Victoria on New Year’s just the activities of the forest industry which had provoked Eve 2000/01 by Hocus Focus, was similarly committed to them. Australia is estimated to possess half the planet’s uranium reconciling with native land and peoples. After local Aboriginal ore deposits, and since the 1996 election of the Howard rights activist Robbie Thorpe ignited the main fire with ‘sacred Government — which scrapped Labour’s notorious Three ashes’, ‘fire stokers kept it roaring all night as the sparks proved Mine Policy—nucleocrats have reveled in plans for Australian that fire-works. Four giant gums alight, burning stories of trust industry expansion at both ends of the nuclear fuel cycle: into the memories of the Bung Yarna’. Hosted on the site of an hosting uranium mines and radioactive waste dumps. Such Aboriginal reserve, and attended by 200 Kooris (representing threats have triggered intercultural alliances and cross-neotribal two thirds of the attendees), Coexistdance saw DJs playing solidarity under the chanted maxim ‘keep it in the ground’ under what Karl Fitzgerald (aka Voiteck) called: ‘a shanty of and the oft-sampled soundbite ‘get rid of the Howard old tin and sawn off car roofs, a real survivalist DJ booth’. Government’. 22 In 1997, ignoring Environmental Impact Before New Years Eve, ‘Koori kids helped paint banners, as Statements and strong opposition from traditional owners, the the elders wandered around checking out the sound system Mirrar,23 Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) received and associated dj toys’. Karl articulates something of the federal approval to build a new uranium mine at Jabiluka in event’s significance: Kakadu National Park (a World Heritage listed area). In 1998, The evening sunset was beautifully calming over the stilled Mirrar and environmental groups were attempting to secure lake—sacred ground vibes everywhere. A real sense of World Heritage in Danger status for the Park, and protestors Australian history hit home as you sat watching the setting sun, imagining what had happened on these shores over the were readying for a major blockade to prevent the mine’s years. With old colonial wagons and ploughs rusting away in construction. In mid year, fundraisers were held around the the nearby swamp, it really put a twist to the coming of 2001.21 country. A multiple recipient list email ‘DOOFING FOR THE PLANET — STOP JABILUKA MINE’, stated that it’s ‘time for the doofers of Australia to make their presence felt and show their true colors … GREEN NOT GREED’ (16 July 22 See Graham St John, ‘Earthdreaming for a Nuclear Free Future’, Arena Magazine, 21 Karl Fitzgerald, ‘Coexistdance — Lake Tyres Trust: Bung Yarnda’. no 53 June/July 2001, pp. 41-44. Unpublished document. 23 http://www.mirrar.net Acquired from 184 © copyright 2001 185 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND 1998). In June-July 1998, two key events were held in Jabiluka has been a key issue to which activists and Melbourne. Hosted by Monash University’s Caulfield campus, aesthetes alike have rallied. Originating in 1995 to protest Yellowcake was the first dance event to convene most of the French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, the post Vibe underground crews in the city, raising thousands of dollars for Tribe techno-anarchist crew Ohms not Bombs has been similar parties around the country and a fund to buy vehicles prominent in fund and awareness raising activity. Ohms not and supplies for the Jabiluka blockaders committed to fighting Bombs is a repository for disaffected yet inspirited youth ‘the corporate greed machine and protect our futures’. This insisting on making a ‘public new sense’. Gretta, who, as was followed by Oms Away on July 18 at Swinburne Adrenalentil, plays live music using an analogue synthesizer University. The well attended event raised money for the and an 808 drum machine, was attracted to Ohms through a Melbourne Jabiluka Action Group and assisted the Ohms not feeling that was something like ‘a religious belief that we were Bombs crew to undertake their planned mission to Jabiluka gonna save the planet’. ‘We just love this country’, she says. that year. The event accommodated three dance floors ‘We wanna help save it from the nuclear fuel cycle. We love supported by many of Melbourne’s underground DJs: Ground being on the road’. The ‘Dig the Sounds Not Uranium’ tour of Zero (‘the impact zone’), The Fall Out Shelter, and The ‘98 saw Ohms take their ‘multi-media infodelic sound system’ Mushroom Cloud. on the road in an old State Transit bus dubbed ‘the Earth Defender’. Manifested through two key benefit doofs in Sydney, and assisted by the Melbourne doofs outlined above, the tour was a Mobile Autonomous Zone (MAZ) which saw Ohms hold 30 events around Australia. At the primary destination, Jabiluka, doofs were held where anti-mine voice samples were ‘activated over the various forms of funky beats’. On the day of mass action when many protestors were arrested wearing John Howard masks, Ohms played Yothu Yindi’s Treaty ‘as everyone got put in paddy wagons…it was like the soundtrack to revolution’.24 24 Peter and Faith Strong, ‘Oms Not Bombs’, Alan Dearling and Bendan Handley Alternative Australia: Celebrating Cultural Diversity’, Dorset, Enabler, 2000, p.44; Mick Daly, ‘Doof Warriors: Turning Protests into Parties’, Sydney City Hub June 17, PEACE BUS AT BROKEN HILL, 1999, p.9. Going on to develop a clean energy sound/cinema system, with their EARTHDREAM 99 infamous vegie oil van and ‘toaster’ caravan which functions ‘like a music studio and (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) a little video edit suite’, Labrats emerged out of this top-end campaign. Acquired from 186 © copyright 2001 187 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND During ‘98, the Graffiti Hall of Fame Peace Bus — which Mix Up program, Filthy Jabilucre became anti copyright was to join the Earth Defender at Jabiluka and revisit the desert shareware. Organarchy burn individual CDs for a small in ‘99 and 2000 — had been providing nightly sounds for a donation and distribute them to community radio stations, ‘tent embassy’25 pitched outside Sydney’s ERA offices for activists and even making master tapes available for further several weeks: duplications, sampling and remixing by other culture jammers. Like some crazed pirate galleon on wheels, the bus would broadside earth destroying mining company offices, with a barrage of sonic arsenal. The steel pulse of ‘protest techno’ was pumped through a 3k sound system emanating from the luggage hatches … The Peace Bus would doof its was around Sydney rattling latte glasses by loudly pumping the sounds through the streets. If this is a war for the future of Australia then this brightly coloured tank is there firing a funky arsenal designed to activate people into joining the growing movement for a more sustainable future.26 Integral to Sydney’s 1998 Palm Sunday March, a mobile 5k rig ‘pumped out beats and voice samples as the march wound its way through the streets’. Marchers halted outside the offices of ERA, where there were speeches, and where experimental techno band Non Bossy Posse (NBP) amplified their anger. ‘End of an ERA’ is an edit of NBP Palm Sunday work available on Organarchy Sound System’s27 Filthy Jabilucre CD.28 Originally a one hour radio show for JJJ FM’s 25 Protest embassies have arisen all over the place. In Melbourne in 1999, Music For Yo’ Mumma, promoted as a ‘Jammin for Jabiluka’ event, took place on August 8, to raise support for the ongoing World Heritage Embassy Camp in Falkner Park. Camp members held daily vigils outside the offices of North Limited, parent company and major shareholder in Energy Resources of Australia Ltd at the time. 26 ‘On the Road – 90s Style’, TRM, March 2000, pp. 36-37. 27 http://reflect.cat.org.au/organarchy 28 Organarchy, a collective splintering from Non Bossy Posse in 1995, ‘is about fusing nature, technology and liberationist ideas and forging this fusion into dance music’ (from Sporadical no 4, 1997, p.50). They first released tracks on the 1997 Beatz Work ORGANARCHY’S FILTHY JABILUCRE CD COVER compilation, tracks slated as ‘underground wave form emissions emanating from the East Coast of Australia’. Acquired from 188 © copyright 2001 189 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Filthy Jabilucre tracks represent pertinent examples of the In these examples, it seems to me that the audio ‘doofumentary’, where bass rhythms are overladen with what assemblage holds significant weight, that it communicates Peter Strong calls ‘liberationist voice grabs’, with significant something more than an anti-industry stance. Audio aural effects engineered to convey a desired message. Here, the technologies are used in a proactive measure to communicate electro-communiqué is distinctively anti-uranium mining. Audio awareness of the sacrality of remnant and threatened sites. agit prop, post-punk cut-n-mix techno, Organarchy tracks are Conveying the significance of landscape at risk, the music itself appropriately described as an ‘alternative newscast’.29 Filthy amplifies reenchantment. The productions, the music and Jabilucre tracks signify respect for and deference to traditional performances themselves thus evidence strong sentiments of custodians. ‘Kakadoof ’ cites a motivating speech by attachment—both to land and co-conspirators. The desire to spokeswoman for Mirrar, Jacqui Katona: ‘Jabiluka is in the Park identify with an absent nature at risk is apparent in various ... Mirrar people, traditional owners, they’re saying “we don’t releases like PsybURBia’s Carmageddon LP, on which the want uranium mining in this country. We wanna keep culture track ‘Urban Forest Odyssey’ features the popularly sampled strong. We wanna have a future for our community. We want a mantra ‘our beautiful forests, our old growth, our wilderness future for our children”. And people are here today because they and rainforests’. The concomitant desire to defend threatened want a better future for Australia’. The final track, ‘Heal the nature is illustrated by ‘My Law is Earth Law, and I’ll do Planet’, features dialogue from senior custodian Eyvonne everything to protect the Earth’, a skilfully digitised audio- Margarula: ‘white fella money … is not gonna fix anything – quote from a female activist on ‘Earth Law’ a track found on it’s gonna kill us”.30 The title track includes ‘Kakadu is sacred’, Non Bossy Posse’s Activista LP. And the issue driven samples a chant sampled from the Jabiluka blockade. As it is explained in such music may strengthen a community of doofenders. As on the web site: ‘Love it or hate it, it’s a hit with the ferals on the Andy Park explains, protest techno ‘reinforces and celebrates picket line, so we grabbed little samples of the chant and then the beliefs of those who identify with its sentiment, and like beat matched them into the music’.31 the old folk songs and union songs, creates a sense of unity amongst the group’.32 29 Mick Daly, ‘Doof Warriors: Turning Protests into Parties’, Sydney City Hub June 17, 1999, p.9. 30 Taken from David Bradbury’s film Jabiluka, this is dialogue also used in ‘Blackfella Money’, a Signal to Noise track featured on GreenAnt’s Ambi-Ant Beatz (downloadable from mp3.com/s2n2s2n). 32 Earthbeat. Radio National program with Alexandra de Blas on 18/12/1999: 31 www.cat.org.au/jabilucre http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s74058.html Acquired from 190 © copyright 2001 191 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND MADDER THAN MAX: EARTHDREAM ELECHTHONICA A beyond Mad Max optimism united this mobile consortium. For rather than post-apocalyptic, the tour was The inspiring ‘doofumentary’ so favoured by Non Bossy underscored by a millenarian objective (or ‘dream’)—to avert Posse, Organarchy and Ohms not Bombs is often deployed current and potential local/global crises in which the uranium within the context of a multimedia edutainment package. industry is heavily implicated. For one reason or another Mad Earthdream200033 provided the context for the performance Max had infiltrated the consciousness of travellers. Earthdream of such a ‘package’. Traveling the last few thousand kilometers was billed as bigger than Mad Max—or ‘Madder than Max’. of the old millennium, from May to September 2000, a radical Radio National’s Radio Eye program34 referred to the convoy road train spiraled up the guts of the continent. It was all part as ‘Merry Pranksters meets Mad Max’.35 Yet, Earthdream is a of the Earthdreaming, an outback odyssey which would attract competing genre, for Max dwells in the survivalist world these hundreds of travellers (including those representing over 20 techno terra-ists strive to avert. While Max is the ‘ruler of the countries) as a party/protest juggernaut rolled north through wasteland’, Earthdream participants seek to hold sovereignty the Flinders Ranges, the Lake Eyre Region, Coober Pedy, Alice over their future, and that of the planet. Questioning current Springs, Darwin and even East Timor. Earthdream represents practices, seeking alternatives, and generating dialogue with a protean cultural movement accumulating agendas, visions Aboriginal inhabitants, these new nomads desire to prevent a and fine red desert dust. range of nuclear crimes the ultimate of which provides the Seeded by Robin Cooke, scrounger-shaman and founding context for the Mad Max trilogy. member of industrial-sculpture collective Mutoid Waste Co, For Mel Arki of the 1999 all female Humps not Dumps Earthdream2000 was envisioned as an annual ‘mega-tribal’ camel crusade,36 Earthdream is an ‘environmental gypsy gathering. In the lead up to 2000, via subterranean communication channels and over the internet, crews rallied convoy’. It is about ‘rejoicing and celebrating the beautiful planet that we are a part of ... re-inspiring our connection with to Cooke’s call. Eco-radical collectives, white saddhus and the land … and re-recognising [that] we are not beyond our sound system crews were ready to integrate his vision with their own. Disembarking from Europe and the US, techno- environment’. She says the tour ‘crystalises’ the reality that the Earth ‘is our life, it is the reason we’re here’, and that ‘we tribes, performance artists and other parties mapped need to manage our impact on it’. Earthdream into their ‘Rainbow Caravan’ itinerary. 34 http://reflect.cat.org.au/mpfree/earthdreamers 35 It was widely rumoured that Mad Max IV would be shot at Coober Pedy coinciding with Earthdream’s presence there, providing temporary work for more than a few travellers (as extras). It remained a rumour. 33 www.beam.to/earthdream 36 www.green.net.au/humpsnotdumps Acquired from 192 © copyright 2001 193 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND A skilled performer, DJ and blockade strategist involved in people to his Arabunna Going Home Camp37 established on organising doofs like Transelements, and active in protesting the southern shores of Lake Eyre South. unethical mining operations around Australia, Rusty Far Eye Robin Cooke himself had been invited by Kev at the desert sees Earthdream as an awareness and ‘reconciliation’ tour: action and music festival ROXSTOP at Olympic Dam in 1997. ‘meeting with the people on the land and working with the people Earthdream was awakening. In 2000, on the heels of an earlier who have been living here before the white man’. In this context, action at South Australia’s Beverley uranium mine in support ‘working’ means taking a stand, acting in solidarity with of the mining-beleaguered Adnyamathanha community, the Aboriginal people to intervene in and disrupt unethical rolling juggernaut of buses, coasters and kombis—a mobile biodevelopment practices. A flamboyant techno-activist, Rusty shanti-town—made its way northwest to Buzzacott’s camp remembers his first action at 15 years of age protesting the South along the Oodnadatta Track. There, they became an inspired African Springbok tour of NZ (his native country): ‘I wore a ‘sonic mob’ prepared to make a stand against Olympic Dam. crash helmet, cricket pads, a cricket box, big fat gloves and Rufus, who runs multimedia outfit Isnt Media and is half of leather padding on my arms and things … it was full on’. Acting live duo WD40, remembers his first trip out to the camp for in solidarity with indigenous communities opposed to the the Earthdream99 doof. Kevin Buzzacott was an inspiration: activities of the uranium industry in South Australia, it still is. Every day we would sit around the fire and uncle Kev would Prior to 2000, Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, known describe his vision of the future, or what he thinks are the as ‘uncle Kev’ to hundreds of his ‘adopted family’, had been steps we need to take to create the future that we want to live in. His ideas were progressive in the sense that anyone rallying support for his campaign against Western Mining who comes out here to this bit of land and feels the spirit of Corporation (WMC) which operates the world’s largest copper- the old lake and dances on the land, they’re welcome. And uranium mine at Roxby Downs (Olympic Dam) 180 kms south you feel the call to defend it. And that’s what uncle Kev’s all of Lake Eyre. WMC’s growing demands on underground water about. He keeps on talking about finding a way home, or finding a way forward, and his idea is that we have to do it sources in one of the driest regions on the planet has had a together. Aboriginal culture and white culture. We sort of devastating impact on Aboriginal peoples (especially Arabunna have to work together in spite of all our historical conflicts. and Kokatha) since such sources feed the precious springs around the Lake Eyre region essential for their cultural survival. In their quest to become the world’s largest uranium producer, WMC hold full state and federal approvals to draw up to 42 million litres of water per day from the Great Artesian Basin. As this is drying up the culturally significant Mound Spring sites, Buzzacott has sent an open invitation to all concerned 37 http://www.lakeeyre.green.net.au Acquired from 194 © copyright 2001 195 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Earthdream99 was indeed a momentous convergence of caretakers—as sacred land’. Caretaker, Kevin Buzzacott green, black …. metallic blue and fluro pink—united under implored those who sat down at his fire, to join his struggle, to the anti-uranium flag (outstretched black hand fore-grounded become Keepers of Lake Eyre: “You owe this to your kids on radiation sign) and a UV lamp. According to Emily and we owe it to our ancestors”. Emily’s description of her Vicendese, reporting afterwards in Tekno Renegade Magazine, participation in this ‘beautiful and unique’ landscape is ‘travelling in a campervan with the rest of the Space Trukin’ decidedly elechthonic: Crew from Melbourne, it became obvious that the red and Without the distractions of the city it is easy to hear the Earth: barren earth is not a terra nullis’ (sic). As government conspires she speaks to us like an electronic frequency which tweaks a line in your neural net and spreads the current down to the with industry to condemn a nation to an intractable toxic and pads on your fingertips and feet. Doofing in the desert to funky radioactive legacy, the counter-message is one of proactive music under a vast blanket of stars was an experience that enchantment: ‘we need to take responsibility for our land, to everyone should know and understand, and fight to preserve.38 respect and revere the Earth, to see it with the eyes of its native Dwelling out at the Lake camp on and off since its inception, doing ‘whatever it takes to look after the land’, Marc and Izzy of Labrats39 sound system—who’ve latterly formed hip hop posse Combat Wombat—had already merited the ‘Keepers’ mantle. According to ‘uncle Kevin’, says Marc, ‘Lake Eyre is calling, and its calling us back. The old spirits are calling us to come and protect the country and look after the country. So we need to be there to make sure nobody comes in and stuffs up the country. So basically we sit on our hill that overlooks Lake Eyre. We keep an eye on Lake Eyre’. Many of those called to the camp in 2000 would form protective commitments to a wounded land. Dingo, a ‘stolen generation’ Kamilaroi, inter-cultural broker and Radio Nowhere shockjock travelling with Ohms Not Bombs, felt it was his duty to be out there helping Kev. At a camp meeting KEVIN BUZZACOTT TALKING AT MOUND SPRINGS 38 Emily Vicendese, ‘Desert Dreaming: Old Lake Eyre is Calling’, Tekno Renegade (‘THE BLOWER’), EARTHDREAM MAY 99 Magazine, August, 1999, p.25: http://omsnotbombs.cia.com.au/hub.html (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) 39 http://lab-rats.tripod.com Acquired from 196 © copyright 2001 197 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND prior to the Olympic Dam action, Dingo roused those gathered: female performance troupe Shelanagig. Inspired by Tim ‘walk your talk … I’m not gonna die with a stomach ulcer at Flannery’s book, she had been dress rehearsing her insatiable 70 years old, saying “I’m sorry kids I didn’t fight fucking hard monster at doofs like Tranceplant. Flannery, Miranda explains, enough for you or your planet”’. Soon enough, the convoy describes humans as ‘future eaters, the ultimate predator headed to Roxby Downs and the site of one of the largest species’, an idea inspiring a character representing a likely known uranium deposits on the planet. future for humanity. From May 21-25, a symbolic blockade was mounted at a The blockade itself became a Reclaim the Streets style T-intersection near the mine’s entrance. Referred to by Marc Peace Camp—a techno activist zone. The Ohms Peace Bus as a ‘Dis-army Diprotodon’, the Labrats van backed up on the and the Labrats van came to rest at opposite ends of the main entrance to the mine on the second day of the camp, and blockade circle, their PAs mounting an hilarious sound clash solar powered speedbass with orbiting djembes animated the (involving rival emcees). Audio snatches of Kevin Buzzacott carnival of protest fanning out ahead. Kev was at the helm to and Adnyamathanha elder Ronnie Coultard taken from video exhort WMC CEO Hugh Morgan to cease an operation which recordings of the then fresh action at Beverley were sampled according to Buzzacott is ‘an invasion, robbing us of our right in tracks played: ‘its our ancient land, our dreamtime’, ‘black, to life’. That afternoon saw the inaugural performance of the white, brown or brindle, we’ll fight this mine’, ‘your party’s Half Life Theatre Company’s anti-uranium road show Consider over’. Extolling the technologies on hand, Rufus claims the it Dug in front of the mine’s gates. Viewed by a large audience action was a ‘demonstration of the power of … [camcorders, of protestors and police, the show was repeated two nights computers, samplers] to make art in a really immediate way. later for miners and Roxby citizens inside the protest enclave. To take some really contentious vocal samples from the action The day afterwards at the town’s primary school, a ‘mutant that’s only a couple of days old, and rework them into a track circus’ pantomime was performed dramatising corporate greed, and pump it right back at them. I think that’s really powerful land dispossession and radiation sickness to a hip hop rhythm. and really funny’. Protesting within the context of ‘having some Performances from Miranda Mutanta, Commander Starlight, serious fun’, this was technomadic activism — a contemporary Minnie the Mutant, the Uranium Sisters and rappers MC Yohan battle in a long running campaign for a nuclear free future. (as Professor Half Life) and Dr Chau (Ishara) were most entertaining. The central character was Miranda’s pantomime villainess ‘The Future Eater’—a monstrous ‘embodiment of greed and consumerism’, in possession of several huge gaping mouths. Miranda had arrived in Australia seven months before from Europe where she had traveled for several years with the Acquired from 198 © copyright 2001 199 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART TWO — SOUND SYSTEMS AND SYSEMS SOUND Under the authority and leadership of Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, Earthdream’s reclaim the uranium edutainment action against WMC’s Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs in May 2000 was a momentous episode in an outback odyssey which assisted technomadic participants in becoming closer to country. The event encapsulates the will to an historical and ecological consciousness at the heart of a low impact, tech-savvy youth culture. The nineties feral-rave union has progenated new tribes and rites through which radicalised youth seek legitimacy against the colonialist legacy of the parent culture. HALF LIFE THEATRE CO MIRANDA MUTANTA AS THE FUTURE EATER OLYMPIC DAM COPPER-URANIUM MINE ROXBY DOWNS 2000 @ ROXBY DOWNS 2000 (PHOTO. GRAHAM ST JOHN) (PHOTO. GRAHAM ST JOHN) Acquired from 200 © copyright 2001 201 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Acquired from 202 © copyright 2001 203 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION CHAPTER SEVEN— MUTOID WASTE RECYCLEDELIA AND EARTHDREAM ROBIN COOKE MUTOID SKULL & CROSS SPANNERS MUTOID WASTE SPINNING DNA RINGS AT BY ALEX WRECK EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY, NOV 97 (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) Acquired from 204 © copyright 2001 205 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION KICK START jubilant jeering a Vespa scooter was ceremoniously impaled on the spit and allowed to rotate slowly above the inferno. First the London ‘82, Shepherd’s Bush, Freston Road, The battery exploded showering sizzling acid into the flames and Independent Republic of Frestonia. Here at one of the largest then, gunshot-like, the petrol tank blew—echoing its rapport squats in England, an entire street full of Victorian terraced between the towering stacks of housing commission blocks that houses had been joined attic to attic, bedroom to bedroom and surrounded us. ‘Shit … these punks are fucking crazy man’ garden to garden. The water main had been punctured and a yelled a distraught hippie as he rolled his chillom back into its river babbled freely through the green backyards. Frestonia Indian print cotton scarf and fled for the safety of his brick built had its own passport office and all citizens were called either smoking-den. The sirens screamed in and the red and blue Mr or Mrs ‘Freston’! The last stronghold of hippie-community- emergency lights stabbed over the top of the corrugated iron idealism, the ‘authorities’ were confused and for a while back wall of ‘Fortress Frestonia’. The First axe tore a two foot children of flower-power lived free within the choking confines vertical gash in the corry followed by three more, rending a of Thatcherite London. The bakery, the bicycle repair shop, vulva-like slot wide enough to birth a stream of clanking yellow- the signwriter, the ufologist, the herbalist and the astrologer helmeted firemen. ‘What’s the trouble?’ the first-born yelled. were there. One house stood unoccupied … it leaked too badly ‘No trouble mate—just having a bit of a barby’ returned the and even the rats had a damp time there. biggest punk. The firemen stared at the Vespa, by now well The bi-monthly parties in the gardens were relaxed cooked … ‘Yeah well … Bon apetite … keep the fire down affairs… Guitar strumming, chillom-toking, quiche-eating get lads’. Jubilant yelling ensued as the firemen duly exited, with a togethers, where friends were all around and the local gossip little more difficulty, back through their slot. circulated … ‘What was going on in the empty house?’ There A cast iron drainpipe was jammed at 45° into the fire and was some strange activity; tarps were flapping gently on the half-empty Aerosol cans dropped mortar like down the barrel. roof, the guys and dolls were wearing black leather and body After about two minutes an earsplitting detonation signaled the piercings; an enormous hand painted red and black sign was fact that somewhere above us spun the remnants of a Dulux nailed and tied to the front of the house at a rakish angle … product. Three times that night the fire brigade returned, called it yelled fearlessly ‘Apocalypse Hotel’. in by the same old woman who from her concrete box halfway Things were about to change. The next party had a wedge up the tower-block was convinced that a terrorist war had broken driven into it. Behind the Apocalypse burned a massive bonfire out in the urban backwaters below her. She wasn’t far wrong. fueled by doors and windows from within the building, a great double tripod frame supporting the spit-bar sat over the fire; the hippies watched nervously as amid flying sparks and Acquired from 206 © copyright 2001 207 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION I soon began to befriend these punks, in fact they soon became better friends than most of the now shocked and disturbed hippies of Frestonia. When two years previously, I succeeded in getting the sack from my night job sweeping the streets of Earls Court and Notting Hill, I realised that I must be ‘unemployable’, and after a spell as ground man for my tree-surgeon mate, I shared part of his premises to set up my own business repairing and restoring Morris Minors. This quiet cobbled mews also housed the office of ‘Gentle Ghost Removals’ and a couple of artist’s studios. Joe Rush occupied one of these studios and was also one of the Apocalypse Hotel punks. He and Alan used to ride around the streets of London at night with planks of wood tied across the pinion seats of their motor bikes pretending to be fighter planes in a dogfight. I used to ride around on an old butchers bike with baskets fore and aft and a small noisy, smoky, two stroke engine powering the rear wheel pretending to be a 1930s eccentric from outer space. Twice a week, I would see Joe unloading his Royal Enfield 350 of its burden of old washing machine and motor cycle parts into his studio and twice a week I would wonder what in the hell he was doing with it all. One week I had to ask. ‘I’ve seen all this stuff going into your studio—but nothing ever comes out. What are you doing with it all?’ ‘You’d better come and look then’, he replied. Up the creaking stairs. Sam Lightning Hopkins blasting from a couple of ripped speakers, through piles of junk, to a proud, ROBIN COOKE, 1994 magnificent, poised sculpture of a chopper-scrambler bike and rider, its shadow silhouetted against the white gable end wall, and for all the world looking as if it was about to kickstart itself and take off through the window. Acquired from 208 © copyright 2001 209 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION ‘Shit, what is it?’ I asked. ‘Joe Exile’ replied Joe. I observed how the chest of the rider was actually formed from an old BSA fuel tank and how the biceps were actually shock absorbers from a Norton. I touched it … the arm fell off … ‘Sorry’. ‘No that’s ok, the welding ain’t up to much’ said Joe staring at the small car battery, some coiled coat hanger wire and a cracked electrode holder that comprised his welding kit. ‘Hang on a minute’ I said and ran back downstairs to get my Italian Arc Welder. Three hours later, we had the sculpture welded and had had the realisation that Joe was a mechanically- minded artist, I was an artistically-minded mechanic, and that thus were fused the idealism of the hippie and the anarchic reaction of the punk; the Mutoid Waste Company was born. Where ‘mutation’ implies the ‘production of a new species through alteration or change’, I was forced to rethink my conceived notions of the word, up until then loosely connected to the results of nuclear warfare. I had walked away from a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally at Hyde park Corner in the ‘70s despairing at what hundreds of people in duffle coats and Wellington Boots singing songs in the rain was actually going to DO for the situation. Mutation was something that would slowly and painfully devolve the human race as a result of some idiot on one side or other of the Atlantic pushing a button! But here this young punk dropped a bombshell of realisation into my own consciousness. Sure we in the Northern Hemisphere may be bombed flat at any second, so much had the tentacles of the cold war insidiously inserted themselves into the mindsets of a JOE RUSH AND BIG ANDREW, whole generation. But we weren’t dead yet. LONDON ‘86 Acquired from 210 © copyright 2001 211 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Joe told me stories. I told Joe stories. Over many pints of GETTING ON THE ROAD Guinness at the local, which was very local, we began to share Now there was no looking back; we knew we could scale visions—his born of the rat infested basements of Portobello, this up to a level whereby a whole mobile road show consisting cranked into a Surrealistic realm by the ingestion of heavy snorts of mutated personnel and vehicles could actually travel the country. of Butane lighter gas—my own from the hash and LSD Within a year Joe had inherited and restored his father’s beautiful perceptions of my adolescent journeying. Joe was King Rat, as coachbuilt Commer Lambourne horse transporter, and I had a 29 a rat had once told him from its position amongst the empty seater Plaxton-bodied Bedford Embassy Coach complete with mouldy baked bean cans of the basement floor. I knew there was a lighter realm—a dimensional interface that was accessible all the curved glass and ‘50s style Bakerlite and chrome to the human mind-matrix. embellishments. We were getting there. Fearless Frank from Frestonia who had just finished touring with Floyd and the Stones The mutation and creative recycling of waste materials into saw our potential and ‘let us in’ to the now neglected gardens. Joe sculptural and artistic form was a template that suited us both. had built a fibre glass skull onto the front of an old army ‘Green But first and foremost Joe assured me one has to empirically Goddess’ Bedford bus subsequently used by World Domination Mutate oneself. This was my initiation. I had spent years pulling Enterprises, the local acid-trash band responsible for the anthem apart and rebuilding Morris ‘A’ series engines to the point that I ‘Lead-Asbestos’. On return from their European tour, World Dom had nearly become one. So OK, hang loose and actually become one! Joe had some gigs fixed at the Palace theatre and Olympia donated the ‘Goddess’ to Mutoid Waste Co. and we had a weekly free rampage up Portobello Rd Market on Horsebox, Coach and our first large scale vehicular mutation, Saturdays that a German TV crew were coming to film. Joshua the Skull Bus (a forty foot apparition sporting a full skeletal rib and Kitty Bowler who ran Crucial Gallery became our cage frame trailing off to a sporty rear end accessing the flat-bed ‘managers’. My first mutation saw an army back-pack frame loading space come stage area), comprised the first official supporting a Morris Minor Rocker Cover and spark plugs for a Mutoid Waste Co Roadshow outing with a gig in the muddy shoulder piece, an Austin Atlantic dashboard and instrumentation paddock of the ‘Theatre Field’ at Glastonbury Festival 1985. By for the chestplate; my crash hat supported the ignition distributor ‘86 we had amassed a supportive group of like-minded crew and a flashing orange indicator lamp. Joe had a banana and a and squatted the empty land at Evesham St by the absurd M40 Tannoy speaker glued to his head. Along with Justina the envy motorway. Rickey-Lee, from the old gypsy Lee family, joined girl as nurse, an old side car bolted to a three wheeled rickshaw us as resident scrapman. Richie Bond, Big John, Greg, Sandi as an ambulance, and Joshua, aka ‘Harry Chrome-Head’, as and others all had vehicles suitable to our mission. We squatted body guard, we proceeded up Portobello Rd among much hilarity the old Coach Station at King’s Cross and met with local squat and amazement to offer a Free Instant Lobotomy service to support and embryonic warehouse party group 3CP, and the first anyone who may have felt in need of it! of the infamous Mutoid Waste Exhibition Parties was born. Acquired from 212 © copyright 2001 213 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Our motif was designed by Joe and held a neolithic skull Someone once asked me ‘why the Skull Bus; its grey, its backed by the cross-spanners —the technological evolution death, its threatening’. I replied ‘that it may never actually be of creativity from that first branch of mutated humanity via a reality, that this fibre glass and steel be only as such, that we the Masonic symbol of Autonomy through Piracy, to the post- never see the reality of the nuked out shells of a public transport industrialist Thatcherite wastelands and on into the ultra-violet system!’ The penny was beginning to drop. Mutant here-after of the future. ‘86-88 saw an incredible series of party events growing Joe felt that rock ‘n’ roll had died alongside the great exponentially in attendance. Publicity was always minimal British motorbike industry, but when it came to finally bury relying instead on word of mouth networks. Regular evictions its body it had already gone. We were enacting a search through served to freshen our outlook and sharpen our vision and make the rock and roll graveyard for that body. The punks strutted the next party that much harder to find. Under the guidance of their existence through the black bin-liner tunnels of their own Joshua Bowler, MWC was becoming flavour of the decade. labyrinthine trap. Here was an impossible future—everyone London Weekend Television produced a ‘South of Watford’ was wearing black as if trudging home from someone else’s zany arts program that gave us leeway to script and direct the funeral. We injected so much ultra violet colour, so much totally program. Hugh Laurie got fully worked over! Meanwhile the impossible future that I believe we helped steer a generation artistic merit of our work was gaining recognition. The Mail away from self-destruction. What, when you queued for three hours to pay £3 to enter an environment that was more post- apocalyptic than the post-apocalypse? What then? Burning cars hanging from roofs, giant robots smashing themselves in the head with pnuematic hammers, dark murky floodwaters separating the dance floors, open fires, gallons of beer, the Mutoid band thundering out the Zombie-Beat, angle-grinder spray-spark audience attack. Screech-rock full fluro Goddesses, World Dom grunging and thrashing through a smoke haze from the back of the Skull Bus, two car shells drummed flat by six foot scaff poles in the manic grip of the Zombies. This was truly phenomenal. It was impossible to leave a Mutoid Waste party and see the world through the same eyes. Reality had slipped. Perhaps one was glad to be alive after all! SKULLBUS AT GLASTONBURY 1985 (PHOTO. ROBIN COOKE) Acquired from 214 © copyright 2001 215 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION on Sunday ran a major feature article and we toured our eclectic Yes Thatcher had really done it this time. ‘86 saw the Battle collection to TV studios in Newcastle for Eurotube; back to of Stonehenge mash up 300 travellers headed for the eleventh London for an Eric Clapton video shoot; Network Seven caught annual Stonehenge Free Festival. 500 army squaddies wearing on, and probably the most inspiring gig to date was our police overalls were given aerial backup to ‘Smash the Peace involvement with Fisher Park Productions on the Jean Michelle Convoy’. Blood, teeth and broken glass splattered the earth of Jarre Docklands Revolution event. the ‘Beanfield Massacre Ground’. The old law that if ‘a public This felt good—at last as artists we were reaching a wide gathering continues for twelve years consecutively, it be allowed audience. Joe’s supposition that the only license we needed was to continue annually ad infinitum’ was obviously too horrendous Artistic License and that the only rule on the license was that and threatening a reality for the Home Office to entertain. you did not have to carry or produce it, was starting to ring true. In ‘87 the Mutoid Waste road show hit Glastonbury In ‘87, Joshua had fixed for us to go to Munich and create Festival once again. Two full ‘car-henges’—two cars upright an environment for a party hosted by Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, and one across the top—were constructed and a compound the new young wife of the patriarch founder family of the German boundary fence of assorted scrap completed the installation; a Postal System and one of the richest women in Europe. We turned tractor based dinosaur and Joe’s immortal ‘Pterodactyl’ that city upside-down. Blasting up and down the main drag, sculpture overlooked the whole scene. This was the turning outside the Speir designed and Hitler–built Kunstler House, in a point for thousands of people. Stonehenge Festival was dead; Volkswagon Beetle with no mufflers, enormous truck wheels Glastonbury charged a high entry fee and had top line acts; fitted and pieces of F1-11 Starfighter jet welded to the arse-end; MWC that year bridged the cultural gap between the yuppie the police didn’t even know which license to ask for, least of all weekend party goers who took their pressed denims out of the artistic license!! I returned via Berlin. bottom drawer once a year and the now confused and dazed remnants of the Peace Convoy who had had their cultural Ivan Dredd had joined us as master drummer. Carl and Barry headstones confiscated. The car-henge installation became the the identical twin DJ Deck masters. Lucy Wisdom, publicity iconic substitute for the real thing. ‘Fuck you—if you want and fire juggling whiz. Strapadictome stalwart toilet builder, the stones [which now ‘belonged’ to British Heritage and had rhythm ace and insane notions guru. Gerry Gester genius a fence and guard dogs around them] you can keep ‘em— constructor. Dave Godshite mouth master. Sam Hegarty, the we’ll build our own!!’ The dictum ‘Mutate and Survive’ was genius cyber art pioneer who later held an exhibition at the Royal born and a whole generation of ‘New Age Travellers’ had their Academy in London. Alex Wreck, graphic artist and sculptor spirits restored. A Marathon drum-in took place from sunset extraordinaire. And a host of other brilliant multi-talented back to Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere) dawn with the up crewsters ready to steam in and enact the people’s revenge. Acquired from 216 © copyright 2001 217 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION resonant harmonics from 1000 people beating 15 tins of scrap It was time for Joe and I to have a few pints of Guinness together ringing far out into space. Two months later would and one of our talks. It was now illegal to hold unlicensed see the global activation of many major planetary energy parties. It was now illegal for more than 12 people to gather centres as the Harmonic Convergence movement heralded the together and cause ‘sounds wholly or predominantly dawning of the New Age on Earth. characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive ‘88 saw the beginnings of the Criminal Justice Bill poke beats’. It was now illegal to hold a public gathering on private its tapeworm like head from the arse end of the guts of land even with the owner’s permission—and if this did occur, Thatcher’s Law Machine. It didn’t look good. The new beats it was the landowner (through a Draconian reversal of the of Acid house were beginning to arrive from Ibiza. They looked trespass laws) who became liable for prosecution. Fines real good! Joe was single handedly holding an enormous escalated to £80,000. It was time to Mutate and Survive if we squatted rail shed back in King’s Cross on Battlebridge Road— ourselves wished to continue to be freely creative. the site of Boadecia’s last insurgence into Roman London We Sandi, who had given birth to our son Luke in January put our heads together once again and decided on two more ‘87, chose to move to Tasmania and it was in the course of our killer parties. By now other ‘warehouse party’ organisers farewell discussions that the concept of a massive gathering ducked out and cancelled as soon as they knew Mutoid Waste in central Australia in 2000 was seeded. was going in on top of them. Westworld had suffered heavily New Year’s Eve at Brixton Academy went off in true when we staged our ‘Worstweld’ event on the same night. Mutoid style with Rockets, Smoke and Droids Bungying down ‘Battery Acid’ I and II were in my opinion the Acme of MWC’s from the ceiling. For the first time every vehicle had its own London activities. Five separate sound systems, massive battery and was able to start ‘On the Button’. From this the sculptures, three stages and musical styles ranging from Mutoid thumb to thumb hand-shake evolved. Mississippi blues through to hip hop and the thrashing acid house of the Sex2 set up; throw in 5000 people and ten confused police officers and you have what Time Out and Face magazine voted as the ‘Party Event of the Decade’. Acquired from 218 © copyright 2001 219 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION FORTRESS EUROPE Robot figure with a VW Beetle for the chest offering a silver Bird of Peace to the east. Both sculptures would be on wheels Joe and I decided the only course of action was to go and capable of rolling on the tracks. back underground, earn enough money to put the whole show on a boat and resurface in Amsterdam. We wrote letters to Gorbachev, Bush and Eric Honnecker asking them to open the gates in the wall and allow us to push the Summer Solstice ‘89 saw the ceremonial raising of a car- Bird of Peace through to the Eastern side as a symbolic gift. The henge sculpture on ‘The Island’ in Amsterdam which at the man was to stay in the west smiling over the top of the wall. If time was Europe’s biggest squat holding about 500 people from ever the wall came down the two sculptures could be reunited in all over the world. Two big shows there and the sale of t-shirts central ‘no man’s land’. Gorbachev and Bush did not reply but and beer fueled our whole show to Berlin. Lucy Wisdom had Honnecker did stating that ‘East Germany would never open its followed up on my ‘87 visit to Berlin and arranged for the use frontier’. I wonder if Bush and Gorbachev knew something he of Gorlitzer Rail Station, which was being sifted of un- didn’t or indeed if he had any idea of the events that would rock detonated bombs and turned into a public park. After the show the world within the next couple of months! there, a small group of Mutoids including myself, Lucy and Thomas chose to stay on at Gorlitzer and construct a two part It was an exciting and bizarre time. The Mutoid presence sculpture on the rail lines. This would consist of a massive in Berlin had forged strong bonds with Rainer from Interglotz and with the Dead Chickens who were now both fully supportive of the Volkswagon Man project. Since writing to Honnecker, we were put under 24 hour military surveillance by the East and they watched our every move through cameras, binoculars and high power telescopes. One evening the gates clanked open for the first time in 20 years revealing a group of well armed intelligence officers. ‘Do you still intend to give us this gift?’ ‘Yes’ we replied. At one point they were convinced that we intended to fire the bird with rockets over the wall to them! By the 13th September ‘89 the sculptures were welded into position on the bridge followed by a party which involved setting up mirrors so that the soldiers looking over the wall could also see the slides being projected onto the west side of the wall. CARHENGE @ AMSTERDAM 1994 Acquired from 220 © copyright 2001 221 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION The tour continued via Wykan Zee and Amsterdam to Paris where we occupied an immense rail shed in Pt de la Chapelle in the north of the city. Squatting laws in France are reasonably humane, as no evictions can take place until the Spring Equinox. This allowed us six months to build up a full-on show. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, the day before my birthday and Lucy dragged me off to a Party for Channel 9 TV where Archaos— with whom we had worked in London—were performing. Mutoid presence in Paris served to act as a uniting force for the four or five squats that already existed there but who had thus far managed to avoid speaking with each other. We worked with Nina Hagen, who built a mock up of the Berlin Wall across the front of a cinema where her after-party was to be. Our job was to smash it to pieces! Las Kuras det Banas also performed with us at the time. KAFERMAN ON GORLITZER BRIDGE, BERLIN, 20TH SEP 1989 (PHOTO. ULRICH HASSE) ROBIN MUTOID AT NINA HAGEN’S WALL, PARIS ‘89 Acquired from 222 © copyright 2001 223 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Our show in Paris entitled ‘Where’s the Party?’ called in ‘World Dom’ from London and Rainer Interglotz from Berlin and totally went off. Five thousand people rocked the night away. Paris needed a kick in the well-manicured arse and we gave it to them!! THE ANCIENT REDLAND My focus was turning to Australia and one night whilst Joe had his nose deep in AD2000 and the antics of Judge Dredd and the Air Surfers, I asked him ‘what about Earthrock 2000 at Uluru?’ ‘No, its called Earthdream 2000’. I knew he knew! I drove to London, sold my bus and brought a return ticket to Australia. On the tarmac of Sydney airport carpark, I shut my eyes, turned through 180° and opened them again for my first ‘official’ impression of Australia … Wow, a full spectrum 180° Rainbow—a good omen. On arrival in Melbourne, I rang Andrzej Liguz who had photographed the Mutoids heavily in London. Within three days, through him, I connected up with Ollie Olsen, Geoff Hales, Adam Jaffers and Troy Inocent, who at that time had come away from the Max Q project with Ian Hutchence of INXS, to work on their 3rd Eye project which, along with Gus and Andrew Till, would later mutate to become Psy-Harmonics. My tools arrived by sea just in time to sculpt the Wizard of Oz for a Mutoid Party at the Esplanade’s Gershwin Room in St Kilda. Hugo, Brendon and Fiona of the ‘Blue Meanies’ Tie-Dye surf-wear factory were setting up shop in Ormond Rd and commissioned MWC to mutate their shop; a massive fluro muffler-tree acted as a clothes rack and a cyber rainbow CARHENGE @ CONFEST WALWA ’91 serpent mezanine floor acted as a communal meeting place. It (PHOTO. ANDRZEJ LIGUZ) Acquired from 224 © copyright 2001 225 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION was here that Johnny White Ant taught didjeridu and several meetings with the 3rd Eye crew and LizMania took place. I was warned of the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ by Ollie. Geoff Hales (aka Rip van Hippy) was amazingly supportive at this stage. Andrzej introduced me to the Down to Earth Co-operative and, after some tricky eco-discussions, they agreed to a car- henge at their NYE 1991 ConFest at Walwa. Karen and I single handedly dug the foundations for the cars (two utes and a station wagon). It was a memorable event heralded by an extreme cool change marked with an awe inspiring electrical storm. One clairvoyant woman present claimed that there were three UFOs above the clouds choreographing the lightning. Meanwhile, it was time to check out Sandi and Luke in Tasmania and soon I found myself inspired by the horror of the logging machinery there to produce the ‘Panamaniac Mk III’. A vast mechanical droid with chainsaws for hands and feet that hung in a tripod at the Jackies Marsh Festival was the centre piece for our performance which Sandi directed. The Wild Pumpkins at Midnight played a beautiful set and the newly formed ‘Horehound Posse’ was to connect with them again in St Kilda, London and Berlin. I returned to Melbourne to focus on Earthdream and conspired with Paul Auckett, DJ Andrew Richard, Andrez, Hugh McSpeddon and LizMania to hold the first Earthdream party at Liz’s Basement in Munster Terrace. We flooded the dance floor with ultra violet paint and water, Anna and Karen built a Skull Throne around the only toilet, Hugh’s Projections adorned the silos above us and 500 people ‘went off’! Beat and Impress articles of the time carried hints of an Aeroplane- henge in the desert in 2000. To my knowledge, this was the “THE SILOS’ BY HUGH MCSPEDDON, first party to be held at the venue, which is still in regular use. MUNSTER TERRACE ‘91 Acquired from 226 © copyright 2001 227 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION I needed to feel the spirit of the centre. Karen, Anna, Paul Joe and I both knew that Berlin was calling us again. We and I mutated the interior of the Pier Hotel in Port Melbourne knew that no where in the world had as much waste and scrap building on an underwater feel with fluro watery entrance- metal lying around as that city. The Russian military has pulled ways leading to a Submarine engine room theme in the main out and anything that didn’t function properly was left behind; floor. I flew to Alice and spent two weeks with Paul’s mate literally thousands of trucks, military tanks and aeroplanes were James Nugent, who was the ‘flying lawyer’ for the Central heaped up in vast towering masses around the old camps. For Land Council. He showed me the red centre from the air and artists adept at working with waste, this was a once in a lifetime the road—a spiritual awakening which is still strong and close opportunity. to my heart. It seemed that the destiny of the Earthdream project was beginning to solidify. The seeds were sewn. I flew out of Melbourne on the June Solstice and passed over Uluru at 30,000 ft. Just as the last orange rays of the sunset tipped the top of The Rock. To this day that remains the closest I have ever been to the Global Solar Plexus Chakra. EUROPE UNITED On returning to London, I caught the Wild Pumpkins at Midnight playing at Bay 63 under the Westway, and caught up with Joe who had his own gallery in Portobello. Two days later we were on the road to Italy where after touring from Paris to Barcelona the MWC had been invited to perform at the International Theatre Festival in SantArchangelo near Rimini in the north of the country, and had set up a permanent HQ camp in an old gravel quarry. There the Italians had welcomed us and soon two Fiat trucks were winched upright to form a truck-henge, the largest ‘henge’ to date, and the centre piece of that year’s performance. TRUCKHENGE, ITALY ’91 (PHOTO. ROBIN COOKE) Acquired from 228 © copyright 2001 229 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION We pulled into Berlin once more and how strange it was to be on ‘the other side’ of the wall! With the invaluable help from friends we met in 1989, we secured the use of a strip of ‘No Man’s Land’ running by the great River Spree between Charitée and the Rieschstaag for a massive show. The Spiral Tribe sound system came over, hot from the Castlemorton Gathering in England, as did Kennie’s LS Diezel, Sam Hegarty and the Circus Normal outfits. This was to be the largest confluence of alternative sound systems, circus art and performance to date. Karen had flown over from Melbourne and we were ready to go hunting. In the next three weeks, with Thomas’ trucks, trailers and cranes, we were to pull in six armored amphibious personnel carriers and two Mig 21 fighter jets. The shit hit the fan. Media, police, government and military officials began queuing up for explanations as to how none of them knew about any of this until they had read about it in the morning newspaper. One popular question was ‘Is this a political statement?’ Our reply was ‘No, this is simply a logical artistic progression. We work with waste materials. In 1989, the easiest materials to access were Volkswagons and Mercedes. In 1992 it is easier to access tanks and aeroplanes!’ This was ‘Swords-to- Ploughshares’ time! ‘DIDJING THE MIG’, ’92 (PHOTO. ROBIN COOKE) Acquired from 230 © copyright 2001 231 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Things quietened down and we got on with the art. Rainer ‘Tachelles’ hosted our NYE pasty ‘Blast off 94’ which Interglotz executed an amazing paint job on one of the Mig’s featured one of the Migs raised on the boom-arm of a crane depicting a skeletal twin-headed serpent crushing a and the crashing sound tracks of the Spiral Tribe sound system. Kalashnekov automatic weapon. The other Mig ended up nose It was here that I first met Steve Bedlam and shared the down in the ground at the base of the bunker from which Earthdream vision with him. escapees to the west were-shot. Construction work on ‘Tankhenge’ began and thus the build up for one of the most amazing alternative/techno events. A four foot diameter drum was re-skinned with cowhide by Janos, a Hungarian Gypsy master drummer, and played every night at sunset to call in the protective energies. Tankhenge was raised using two cranes and three military truck winches and a celebratory ‘Tankquette’ feast was held underneath it! ‘SWORDS TO PLOUGHSHARES’, MIG 21 BERLIN ’93 TANKHENGE FRAMING RIESCHSTAAG BERLIN ’92 (PHOTO. RAINER WAHNSINN) (PHOTO. RENE MENGES) Acquired from 232 © copyright 2001 233 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION After some months in Amsterdam, where Gerry Gester and I had built a Ford Escort car henge at Americahavens and developed an insane flame throwing system, I packed my four wheel drive East German military truck and other toys into a 20ft shipping container and I was ready to return it and myself to Melbourne. Fearless Frank, Joe and Spiral Tribe were by now transporting one of the Migs to Prague for a memorable ‘Teknival’ event there. SET FOR ‘BLAST OFF 94’ ‘BLAST OFF ‘94’ TACHELLES BERLIN TACHELLES, BERLIN. (PHOTO. RENE MENGES) Acquired from 234 © copyright 2001 235 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION BACK DOWN UNDER Earthdream meanwhile was beginning to get a life of its own. Earthdream II and IIb were held in the Global Village Within two weeks of arriving in Melbourne I had hooked complex and threw a mix of live percussion and angle grinders up with Richard and Heidi, John, plus Phil Voodoo and Sioux into the musical equation. Earthdream III was held at of Melbourne Underground Development (MUD), who were ‘Stonehenge’ Caravan Park in Buchan Sth, Gippsland. A running the massive Global Village complex in Footscray. beautiful green hill that supported a circle of trees with a Affiliations soon developed with Down to Earth, Hardware, solstice-sunrise-facing gap just big enough to house a car-henge Earthcore, Vibe Tribe, Transelements, Psycorroboree, Green Ant consisting of two VW Combis as uprights and a Kingswood and Psy-Harmonics. Mutoid Waste thus side-stepped the political station wagon as a nicely proportioned top-stone. Murray, bullshit and focused on producing unique installations (such as Damo and Ev were instrumental in effecting other brilliant spinning DNA rings and the spinning-car fire-shows), that were site work – a giant bonfire in the shape of an acid smiley-face popular with all the major rave, doof and techno promotions. visible from the other side of the valley. Mark Hogan, Bam Bam, Sugar and Krusty all played killer sets (from the car- henge), but shit it was icy cold and we were all grateful for that beautiful sunrise. In ‘97, the Roxstop event at and around the Roxby Downs uranium mine was a further opportunity to explore the Earthdream path to the desert and to erect the ‘Giant Radweed’ sculpture. This piece was made from an old windmill mutated into a flower that breathed fire. It seemed, and indeed was, a long way from that ‘70s public rally in London. It was an honour to be two hours drive from the biggest uranium mine in the southern hemisphere where perhaps we could actually do something about it! I travelled north and visited the Western Arrernte elders with Lisa (aka DJ Blue Lama) and Paula from Down to Earth—an astounding meeting which confirmed further the potential of the project. SPINNINGCAR @ EARTHDREAM IV ’98 (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) Acquired from 236 © copyright 2001 237 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Earthdream IV was held in June ‘98 at Sub-city, the old By now, Humps not Dumps and the Labrats were part of chocolate factory above the Nas-car track in Sunshine, the equation and the Mutoid Waste Co premiered the radio Melbourne, run as an arts village by Tim Meyer. This major controlled quad rotary fire strobe installation at Earthdream gig featured the Mutoid Waste Fire Organ and Mega Zortche’s ‘99 which was held for the first time in the desert. Uncle, incredible Tesla Coil together with the colour-frequency- brother and Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, Ronnie and chakra-sequencing of our Band ‘Manual Overide’. The Reggie Dodd and I had all met at Roxstop ’97 and this land embrionic Techno Healing Machine had proved itself. with all its beauty and mining problems seemed to call out to host E.D. ‘99. This final Earthdream before ‘The Big One‘ served as a crew communication and planning platform. Ohms not Bombs were instrumental in both the musical and logistical sense with Pete Strong only now informing me of how inspired he had been by our ’87 car-henge gig at Glastonbury. Things were tying up and all the years of work and connections made began to make sense to me as an organo- human consciousness network that was by now many times greater than any of the individuals that comprised it! I had visited the Rainbow Gathering at Omeo and passed the word to Feather on Earthdream. She smiled her knowing smile and said ‘all is as it is meant to be’. From the early days of Earthdream planning, I had innocently assumed that Uluru was the venue and that New Years Eve was the time. It wasn’t long before I realised that summer in the desert was going to fry people, and by ‘97 Andrzej had assisted in breaking that rumour by publishing an article globally in the Big Issue that stated that Earthdream was not at Uluru, nor was it on NYE. Perth’s REVelation Magazine also carried an article on MWC with information to this effect. E.D. ‘99 WINDMILL-FLOWER @ SUNSET, ALBERRIE CREEK 2000 proved that the desert winters are in fact very pleasant weather- (PHOTO. ROBIN COOKE) wise with long cold night but warm t-shirt days. Acquired from 238 © copyright 2001 239 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Fearless Frank and Mark Bedlam had contacted me stating The Bedlam crew had arrived in Australia and were on that Steve Bedlam had got it together and that there was a 40k their way from Byron. The Great Northern Rail Co and sound system ready to be shipped to Sydney. ‘Was there any Australian Southern Rail had agreed to transport the planes money?’ ‘No’ was the definite reply; everyone on this gig was from Melbourne to Port Augusta at ‘neutral costing’, an act paying their own way. which restored my faith in humanity! I realised too that Earthdream2000 was not a single solitary Richard Martin, who was at E.D. I in 1991, set up the event but an entire journey to begin on May 1st 2000 in Port website free of charge and was reporting increasing numbers of Augusta and travel over the ensuing months via Wilpena Pound hits. The scene was set for Earthdream2000 to start moving itself. to Alice Springs and Darwin returning down the east coast via The International Rainbow Gathering was held in Australia Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne. early in 2000 and the great eco-warrior Rusty did trusty and Krusty and Pip from Earthcore invited MWC to put heroic work reinforcing the Earthdream ‘myth’ to those people. together the main dance floor for their NYE 2000 gig. The The publicity machines of Labrats and Ohms not Bombs had event provided the opportunity to access a couple of scrap gone into overdrive, the planes had left Melbourne, and Frank metal aeroplanes from Liecster Wise at Moorabin Airport in and Steve and crew were ready to hit the desert and would Melbourne, and Bernie and Ray from the Great Northern Rail meet us there before collecting the planes from Port Augusta. Company lent us the front section of an ‘S’ Class Locomotive Frank and I did an emergency run to transport the Spinning that happened to be sitting around their yard ‘making the place Car to Alberrie Creek. We were ready. look untidy!’ The spinning car beautifully mutated into a giant clock face by Sandi; the Fire Organs and Mega Zortche’s Tesla Coils spat sparks and flames around the locomotive-based DJ booth and the two Beechcraft Baron aircraft suspended from the trees in the background provided a set that truly honoured the start of the new millenium. Oz from Squiffy Vision Lighting Design brought the whole thing to life with his amazing light show. Stig and Pascal, whom I hadn’t seen since ’89, showed up from Paris and filmed the event as in fact they had at the Paris gig. Acquired from 240 © copyright 2001 241 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION EARTHDREAM2000 Seven heavenly bodies including the sun and the moon were about to move into alignment in the Earth house of Taurus ‘Form One Planet’ read the Port Augusta road sign that in the form of a ‘Grand Stellium’, a configuration that occurs used to read ‘Form One Lane’. I knew that some once every 13 thousand years or twice in the 26,000 year ‘Earthdreamers’ had already passed through. The authorities sidereal orbit. The wind powered cinema was up and running at Wilpena were expecting us and had gone out of their way to showing carnage-movies from previous activist encounters. provide camping space for an unknown number of people. We The plain-clothed police were sneaking around generating lists were stocked up with provisions and headed up into the of license plate numbers and everyone was looking to see who beautiful Flinders Ranges. We were directed to ‘Eagle’ camp would arrive next. Camp fires were lit and we settled in to get where amidst a sea of strangers I began to meet people I’d last to know each other. seen in Berlin in ’89. Astrological Linda from pre-Mutoid days in London was there. Earthdream was happening; the The next six months would see what I believe to be some atmosphere was electric. of the most significant and important learnings in our slow evolutionary climb out of the swamps of genetically inherited amnesia. Yes, the sound systems thumped; yes, plane-henge was erected; yes, gallons of capsicum spray was emptied on us; yes, we met Aboriginal elders; yes, babies were born; and yes, thankfully, no one died! Yes, but what good are any of these experiences unless they are contributing towards an awareness of the Higher Realm? What good unless that dimensional interface is to be accessed by our own localised human group-mind matrix? A young woman approached me on the verge of tears, having just seen some of the messy footage of hysterical activists getting reduced to pulp by police. ‘What are we to do?’ she pleaded. ‘How do we get rid of that little shit John Howard?’ she asked. ‘We need our own elders … white people … to be responsible’. I looked her in the eyes and gave her a quote from an astrological piece from Dan Furst regarding the PLANEHENGE EMBELLISHED WITH TWIN WINGED SERPENTS ALBERIE CREEK SA implications of the Grand Stellium. ‘When the greater number (PHOTO. ROBIN COOKE) of humanity realise that focussed intent is both far less messy Acquired from 242 © copyright 2001 243 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION and violent than revolution, governments will not have to be The Earthdream group would very quickly build its own terminated, they will simply evaporate through lack of serious 100th Monkey Syndrome within itself. When one sits in the desert attention and regard. Humanity meanwhile will have much for a couple of weeks, just watching the sun and the moon ‘go more important work to be doing!’ ‘Thank you!’ she said, and around’, one’s own emotional shit and baggage starts to bubble smiling, walked away. to the internal surfaces. No television here to distract one, no Are we to continue to be sheep obediently bleating the consumerist gratification tactics can be employed here; soon one narrow emotional bandwidth of yesterday’s television sagas is having to face, deal with, process and heal one’s own shit. to each other? Are we to continue to swarm mindlessly from This leaves an empty and clear space waiting to be filled. one consumeristic generation of gadgets to the next? Must we There was some heavy physical and emotional violence continue to look up, powerless and helpless, through the multi- at Beverley uranium mine. There was fear amongst the layered hierarchy of our own elected shepherds? Can we allow authorities and residents of Roxby Down ‘Copper’ mine. Fear the fear based, negative limitation of authorities everywhere that ‘they’ were coming, fear of job loss and fear of radioactive to maintain domination, manipulation and control? No, I contamination. The best thing we could do was to bring love believe not! But the question remains ‘How not?’ The answers and humour to the situation. The true warrior’s best weapon is are coming… slowly. Love. This is exactly what happened. The self-formed Earthdream 2000 was to be an experiment in lateral open- performance cell (which incidentally were the first to recognise ended, autonomous, self-governance. No ‘leaders’, just each other amongst the amorphous mass of 2 or 3 hundred specialists. No central funding, just what you have in your people that were Earthdream) had Star Force, security, miners, pocket. No meetings, just the lateral passage of communicated Aborigines, ferals, locals and activists all standing around the ideas. No committees, just the allowance of self-forming same fires in the middle of the same road blockade cracking- groups or cells of common interest and focus. No arduous up laughing at the same show which was taking the piss out of itinerary, just a loose thread of key dates and places. the whole thing anyway … Oh what a healing!! Most of us are now aware of the ‘100th Monkey Thus healed, the group was, I believe, beginning to form Syndrome’, the apparent critical-mass threshold over which a crystaline awareness of itself and its power, that was both the instant telepathic transport of information and ideas, within holographic and fractal in nature. With the final realisation a group or species, becomes the norm. The apparent learning that no one was telling anyone else what to do, and with the en masse of new behavioural patterns, or the apparent inception humorous suspicion that if we didn’t apparently know what of a ‘new’ idea by many individuals—remote from each we were doing next how could the authorities have the remotest other—in the same instant of time. inkling of our plans, we surged forward. Acquired from 244 © copyright 2001 245 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION We surged forward not as a group but as individuals from the same hive. The Croatian owner of a Coober Pedy Op-Shop dreamed in detail of our arrival there weeks before we actually arrived! Just as the reluctant security guard at a Western Mining Company pump installation deep in the desert had dreamed graphically of our arrival, before we actually arrived! Were we beginning to access the ‘Dreamtime’? We surged forward knowing and trusting that the apparent utter chaos of our progression was in fact the finely tuned order of universal intelligence. That intelligence activating our pre- encoded genetic blueprints and handed down to us via central galactic, Alcyonic, solar and finally Gaian anthropomorphic fields. Do we really use 10% of our brains? What is the other 90% for? If the conscious mind can handle 15 bits of information a second, the subconscious can process 70 or 80 million bits a second as fluid intelligence. If a box of tissues sits between these two levels of consciousness, separating them, I believe as a group we pulled a single tissue from that box; thus raising the level of our ‘consciousness’. If this tissue removing process has ‘exponential potential’, then in a few years we can chuck the whole lot out, on a necessarily steep learning curve, and access consciously the 4th and 5th dimensional realms, where we can instantly generate our own realities. Time is collapsing. This leaves only Now. EARTHDREAM2001 PLANEHENGE @ MUTONIA (PHOTO. ROBIN COOKE) Acquired from 246 © copyright 2001 247 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Joe and I used to surmise the existence of a wall in our future. This wall was made of rubber and many who were attempting to break through it were in fact simply bouncing off it and ending up further back and ’behind’ their original starting point. We knew we had to build a ‘machine’ that was heavy enough, sharp enough and fast enough to rip clean through this inertial wall when we encountered it. This happened in 1988 with our exodus to Europe. I would like to suggest that through the cyclic nature of time that we should be aware of a new wall in our ‘now-future’. This wall is, I suspect, far less tangible and made of the mists and fogs of the etheric realm. To get through this one we need to raise our bodily vibrational rate and trust with open hearts and tuned intuition that we can and will transit this ‘veil of miasma’ and emerge intact into the timeless reality of our own envisioned future. Ronnie Dodd, one of the last Arabunna still living on the land south of Lake Eyre, explains the potency of proper guardianship of the land in reference to the activities of Olympic Dam mine (at Roxby Downs): ‘Them mob goin’ to blow ‘emselves up you wait! Diggin’ like rabbits in the ground— there’s a fault line under there … when they go through that the water goin’ to come in and flood ‘em out like rabbits’. He squints at the ground before stating a truth that I believe is so enormous, so simple and so pivotal to our sustained future that it is impossible to ignore and must as such be worked toward and honoured fully: ‘You don’t have to go bangin’ your heads on their fences and barrages, you just love the land, you just dance the land, and land will do the rest’. Acquired from 248 © copyright 2001 249 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION CHAPTER EIGHT — INTRODUCTION In the half decade since this discussion with Ray Castle, PSYCHIC SONICS: TRIBADELIC dance culture has come to permeate the pores of society. In the fast evolving cyberworld of more memory, options and access, DANCE TRANCE-FORMATION the tranceremonial space we discussed has shifted orbit. With the freaks replaced by fashion and the music commodified, the artistic heart supplying the visionary lifeblood to these events EUGENE ENRG (AKA DJ KRUSTY) receded and the events suffered as a consequence. INTERVIEWS RAY CASTLE While the tribes still gather to pound their feet on the earth, indoors or out, and the incessant beats of bass crash African drums into the classical symphonic frequencies of the west, their pulse seems to offer a weak reminder of the beat of the earlier trance dance gathering. This was a time when it was all just dance music and no categories, the drug was primarily LSD, one or two DJs would play all night long, the multi- dimensionality of space-time would open on the dance floor and magic would happen. After the shock of the new and the magic of that first bite, the moment, like all great moments in cultural art, passed. Nowadays, eight or more DJ’s compete to persuade the dance floor of their prowess and the music played must be of a certain style or it is no longer deemed ‘trance’ or ‘psychedelic’. The drug of choice is MDMA, and few venture out onto the perimeter - where it was all happening before 1995. Yet, like an organic cycle of life, death and renewal, a resilient magic once again takes root. Indeed, the truths discussed here are timeless. This ‘communion’ was held in 1995, during the peak expression of the Goa trance phenomena, which by then had evolved into a world wide underground dance tribe full of enthusiasm and possibility. Having GREEN ANT FULL MOON DOOF NOV 2000 (PHOTO. BRENT TANIAN) experienced the full cyclical spiral of this culture, I am now Acquired from 250 © copyright 2001 251 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION confident that the many branches and splinters which have grown from the psychedelic trance tree trunk, will develop and procure a new aspect of dance culture refocused on evolution, multi-dimensionality and fulfill our destiny towards mass consciousness transformation. Change Is The Only Constant (Universal Law) A DIALOGUE KRUSTY Ray, thanks for taking this time to share. From the way I understand art and culture, I see you as a PSYchoactive cyber shaman: from the foothills of Byron Bay (Australia), via Neon Tokyo (Japan) Studios, via Goa (India) Spiritual Global freak party Disc Jockey evolution, scribing magical alchemical sounds. I see you as embodying a KRUSTY @ SUMMER DREAMING 99 (PHOTO. SIOUX ART) visionary voodoo quest to awaken consciousness through sound as a technician of the sacred. RAY Part of the shamanic richness I strive for is the magic of trying to extend the natural universal laws into trance dance music and channeling this music in my role as a DJ techno shaman. So that the collective group dynamic can come into alignment, to use these potent spatial moments to access certain knowledge or data in our DNA or the transpersonal self. We are like the Australian Aboriginal who, for eons, have contemplated the planetsphere with their dreamtime, while beating their sticks and blowing through a hollowed out pipe (didjeridu). These open- air, wilderness, tribadelic, pagan-like parties RAY CASTLE Acquired from 252 © copyright 2001 253 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION (rituals), are along this line of primordial KRUSTY I reckon what your art is all on about is sound communion. I see cathartic dance as a reconnective frequency alchemy, ritual magic, image media, art therapy, and a rekindling of a free-form play space, installations … The Dance Party … Your intention which we had as children. however, behind all this is for the dance floor folk KRUSTY You seem to understand the communally, unifying to achieve the transcendental bliss states: a potency of this art form, where this practice walks consistent plane of existence known to the mystics hand in hand with the evolution of the multi- and cultural practitioners throughout the ages. The dimensional human body/brain/spirit somatic. techno-music aesthetic of Cyber Shaman/Artist/ Cyber shamans are pilots navigating the future Human Ray Castle then must be specifically amidst the turbulence of the all prevalent designed for people to enter trance states while information wars being waged. The Middle dancing, allowing the body and mind to go beyond Ages=Techno Age we are currently fumbling the mundane everyday world of the mind/ego/ through, fossicking for the fundamental frequency. illusion to arrive at the NOW! A zone which the I sense a deep spiritual intent to what you do as if mystic strives for and the drug user is seeking. you are guided by hidden hands, to assist in the rebirthing of new sound paradigms. RAY This pursuit is very ‘TransNeptunian’. The dissolving of boundaries. You can see why rave culture is so addictive. Kids want to escape the mundane, and this euphoria is amplified by the use of psychedelics. I think the popular—kiddy rave—drug, ‘ectasy,’ is the lowest rung on the chakra ladder. I wish to push it to higher plateaus of consciousness expansion, and ultimately not with the use of drugs, although they are powerful psychic amplification agents. These substances open doors, but unfortunately habitual, dependent users, get psychologically stuck in the door. Its like regressing back into the womb, where there is no pain of being a separate entity, in an GREEN ANT FULL MOON DOOF NOV 2000 undifferentiated fusion state. (PHOTO. BRENT TANIAN) Acquired from 254 © copyright 2001 255 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION RAY The peak experience, whether it is a sexual orgasm the mission of challenging existing media as well or the self abandonment we feel at a trance dance as the manipulated and manipulating world views party, is a letting go of the defences which bind us of the dominator culture. to our ego, our aloneness, and the controlling KRUSTY The cybershaman is an info-warrior out of personality of the mind. One aspect of the Goa necessity, and what better way of dismantling mythical dance party movement has been to bring obsolete thinking and action, than with the cyber a more spiritual vibration into this art form, and artillery of the techno-fluro-tribal party. make the whole experience more cosmic, and RAY It’s to do with very subtle realms of energy related ultimately more holistically edifying. This has to the strange attractor theory in the ‘new physics’. encompassed a neo-hippie fashion trend, which has The relationship of technology to organic identified with the taoistic East and its deities, and interdimensional consciousness. It comes down to a revisioning of sound frequency alchemy, ritual fractal harmonics, numerology, sacred geometry magic, image media, ceremonial art installations. and manipulating symbols and sound signatures All of which are infused into a potentially healing, (beats and frequencies), thus creating a digital unifying social event, for the individual, the occult—a holistic-hip-gnostic—music of the community and the planet. When we dance together, spheres. So that we realign with organic we are one. There is a micro/macro reverberating rhythmystic cycles of becoming, at one with the affect. Like people meditating or praying together. galactic dance. Ultimately this reveals that we are A now post-Goa, anti-podal mindscape. A mystical all individually, co-creators of the universe; each experience mediated via the technology. It relates of us is everything. The heavens do incline but they to the maxim of the Aquarian age, where science do not compel. We do have free will and we create and a more individuated religious experience can our fate, the stars do reveal connecting patterns, merge. Composers and DJs of Trance Techno, tend and mirror life on this earth plane. Astrology is to be anonymous communal artists, and don’t have the study of the relationship between time, space, the hierarchical, narcissism of the previous rock cycles of nature and internal/external personal and musician archetype. The author of Cyberia, Douglas collective events. When I do a party I always cast Rushkoff, states that, ‘the mission of cyberspace an astrological chart to check out what energies counterculture of the 90s is to explore unmapped are involved, to gauge what kind of art to present realms of consciousness and to re-choose reality and what type of music to emphasise. Obviously, consciously and purposefully’. I would add to that, the Moon cycle is a very powerful barometer on Acquired from 256 © copyright 2001 257 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION the psychic atmosphere and mood of the public, KRUSTY Dance has always been central to any ritual magic but also other celestial alignments, so you know and God Head experience. Shamans and priests/ what kind of powers you are playing with. Deejays priestesses from all societies and known are power freaks ! I feel a huge amount of civilisations throughout the world have used music responsibility in this role. If you sense the need to and dance to induce trance states. A basic esoteric cast yourself in this directing, controlling, position, teaching is that each being is a microcosm—a then try and do it in a clear minded way, without reflection or miniature—of the macrocosm, or unconsciously projecting too many personal universe. Each of us truly does contain the energies agendas through the prime time of these trance- of the cosmos within us. Ecstatic sacred dance is dance, altered state, sacred spaces. The dancers a means of stimulating these energies and bringing put themselves in your hands to take them on a them into expression and activate a deeper level journey, it’s like psychic surgery. Its important to of consciousness. Such dance is the intent of this understand the dynamic of raising this energy in techno tribal movement, offering the sacred the body and psyche, through progressing the opportunity for people to experience their BLISS. various levels of intensity in the music, to make a spiraling progression. Its to do with raising the kundalini serpent energy in the body’s chakra system. The party is a chakra journey, and finally you reach a crown-chakra-type unfolding, like a flower, when the light comes in the morning, and the progression of the music should reflect this. But this can only come if you have ridden through the more interior, darker, dimensions of the vigorous, visceral night groove. This darkness into light, sound into light, dynamic is a powerful quality of the Goa style wilderness parties. If you can adjust the sound with this celestial shift of energy, it creates immense, ecstatic rapture, which can take the gathering into a melting, ascension, state. GREEN ANT FULL MOON DOOF NOV 2000 (PHOTO. BRENT TANIAN) Acquired from 258 © copyright 2001 259 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Non-believers and non-participants will never sense it connects us to a very communal, tribal, understand the true ritual power of dance. There element in our social nature. The Greeks strove to is a connection between the catholic mass religious recreate this archetypal need with their emotionally- ritual and a trance techno dance party. Participants charged, mythological, theatre. The mass hysteria at at raves, especially outdoor ones, feel a connection a sporting event, matches that of a full blown rave. with another level of consciousness and realise a Perhaps one is seen to be more regimented than the personal, rather than an institutional, deified, other, but there are codes of conduct, mind sets, and dogmatic, spiritual experience. regulatory factors, whether that be referees, DJs, rules, bpms, or beat/style genres of music and body RAY This transcendent, dissolving, unifying experience expression. And of course, psyche-lubricating- is fundamental to the psycho/spiritual nature of substances, or soma, are a part of the whole dissolving humans. Deep down we yearn to experience this process which assist in the dropping of our defences, connectivity to the whole, which is what we temporarily. So that we can let go and feel connected experienced when we were in our mother’s womb; to something greater than ourselves, but then we have at that initial stage, our spirit is taking form, coming to come back down again and be alone with all our into a body. We truly feel that we are the centre of conflicting feelings. the universe, floating in space (the oceanic womb), So its always this pull between wanting to be in a where there is no ego, no sense of self, no fusion state, the bliss we experienced in the womb, separateness, we feel a total interconnectivity with and the pain of having to become a separate entity everything. The innate desire to lose one’s self in a and live in the boundaries of the body and work transcendent, transporting experience, pulls us back with mental and emotional processes which to that primordial source experience; it is like a challenge us with a vast array of dysfunctionalism returning home. This can be realised in various in our innate quest for unconditional love, both communal spiritual practices which all the religions interpersonally and communally. Transcendence tell us about, or to lesser degrees, even just going to is about rising above existential angst, which the pub or being in a crowd at a sports match. This translates into the flight of the spirit out of the body. ecstatic state of intoxication of the spirit, or just being It can be seen as, escapism from the mundane, part of an event, is the craving we have when we seeking nirvana or shunyata, the religious bliss gather together for social intercourse, or even as a state. Music is the most powerful, emotion passive audience. Humans have a strong need to come catalysing, vibration, artform, we have as spiritual together for a unifying collective experience and I warriors. Frequency and rhythm activates the Acquired from 260 © copyright 2001 261 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION chemistry in the psychosomatic body/mind. Deep KRUSTY The modern shamans are midwives to a pregnant images, sensations and memories are re-ignited. universe (which I see as the birth of human/cosmic These dance rituals are about the gestalt of the expression of a self conscious state of awareness) body, releasing regenerative, primitive, who are helping to prepare the way for the shift in psychosexual energies, which we as ‘civilised’, consciousness which is so sorely needed today. The mind-driven westerners, fret about, with our shift from mechanistic rationalist modes of thought awkward, retentive, neurotic social programming. to what has been called a sense of ‘participation The dance cathexis—a group cathartic mystique’ in life. This is the dance party experience: psychodrama—on tribal, techno, beats, offers a dancers/artists/organisers are one tribe, one potent temenos (sacred space) for reintegration of heartbeat, either everyone gets it or nobody gets it. disconnected parts of the Self, which becomes a I sense, Ray, that when you do your digital sound therapeutic sonic homeopathy of sorts. alchemy in an event, you impart a direct experience So tekno tunes are like tinctures, and when we dance of the infinite, which is the empirical experience to them they activate cellular memory, in our held within the dance, the In The Eternal Moment metabolism, like electronic enzymes. Combining Of Bliss state. The social, audio and visual sampling this with psychotropic drugs creates a powerful of innumerable cultures and timescapes compresses catabolic, biochemical reaction. Raves and techno the history and future of civilisation into a single trance parties are easily seen, by the outsider, as a moment, when anything is possible. This then is dance-drug-cult, where the participants are the power of the Goa realisation. predominantly on the drug ‘ecstasy’, and emit a synthetic sensual, fluffy love aura, which often creates a euphoria or autoerotism. But for me, personally, I find when the celebrants are not dosed or contrastingly are on hallucinogens, (ie. acid, mushrooms, mescaline, DMT), there is a much deeper transpersonal, Gaian-mind-like resonance in the event. I often get the feeling at a party with people on ‘e’, speed or amphetamines that they would be just as content to convulse to the sound of a train coming down the tracks. RAINBOW SERPENT FESTIVAL 2001 (PHOTO. KATH WHEATLEY) Acquired from 262 © copyright 2001 263 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION RAY I feel that Goa trance is tapping into a quantum vase of Goa, India, by the seasonal nomadic jetset quick step. This movement in contemporary music hippies, who are most definitely outside of mirrors the present transit of Uranus in Aquarius. conventional society. They sustained their Which suggests a free, independent, spirit, with unshackled, fringe, bohemian, lifestyle, by smuggling mystical, cosmic, consciousness. A promethean bomm shankar (charis) out of India to the West and quest to awaken spiritual ideals and experiences Japan and collecting the latest mind-blowing via technology with a popular, collective, art psychedelic dance music. Charis (hash) had been movement. The hippies, in the ‘60s, gave us legal in India, up till the mid ‘70s, and its use by aspects of that, and now it is coming around again Hindu yogis and sadhus, as a soma, or heightener of on a higher arc of the spiral. Rushkoff defines it as the senses, was a part of that culture’s tradition, until ‘a synergistic congregation of creative thinkers America put heavy anti-drug pressure on all Asian bringing the tools of hi-tech and advanced countries at that time. spirituality together’. The foundations of our most Goa techno trance actually originated from hard deeply held beliefs and myths are being shaken line, electronic body music, groups, like Nitzer (Pluto in Sagittarius), with a rebirth and revisioning Ebb, Front 242, Frontline Assembly, as well as of ancient spiritual ideas. The dilemma of a fixed, Eurobeat. This international, underground cult, static, traditional religion, is that it struggles to network, of outer space travellers and drug dealers, maintain a position in the present which is wholly then brought this music with them, on tape, to Goa, conditioned by the perceptions of the past. to play at beach and jungle parties that they made, India, the home of religion, has been a sanctuary for which were non commercial, spontaneous, dharma bums, mystics, truth seekers, misfits, freaks, extremely flamboyant, outrageous; and bomm! druggies, drop-outs, hippies, anarchists, futurists, new …the Goa trance, hyperspace, collective mind set agers and a plethora of world travellers, who are evolved. On top of this, there was a copious supply seeking to escape the mundane world, questing for a of acid and other hallucinogens always free at most higher experience and answers to the big questions. parties there. After 1989, the party season in India India and psychedelic trance-dance is for those who has been intermittent, because of politics, want to shed their egos and embrace something quite especially related to drugs and the growing numinous (spirit reflecting) and potentially more popularity of the scene. This once, secret, dance- psychically edifying. This tribadelic techno trance dharma-zone, became much publicised and the movement was started in the time-warped, ancient parties more difficult to make and less magical. Acquired from 264 © copyright 2001 265 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Goa, the actual place in India, has now become which has some substance. It’s amazing it took this more mythical than the free environment for long to become hip, it’s been going on now, for ten partying it once was. With its present commercial, years, but its basic principles are ancient. London tourist treadmill, commodification, and the is very good at whipping up fashion-fad-fusions attention focused on it, via this music fashion, it’s with its infectious media, but in reality, England, now been tamed into a kind of clubby Ibiza, and with its Criminal Justice laws, is one of the most has lost its raw, out-there, wildness, which the repressive societies for such events, and this just freaks gave it. But at least it’s in India, which is fuels its underground, shadow offshoot—English totally mad, chaotic and surreal, and will maintain eccentricity—which I see as a curiously creative some degree of unhinged, unpredictability, as rebellion against a very traditional class society. opposed to other Asian tourist traps lik e Thailand Let’s see where this freaky, flavor of the month and Bali. India is freak friendly, hardcore and in- implodes too, now, globally. Pop always your-face. Its more conducive to time travellers regurgitates itself. Goa is not about one scene calling and truth seekers than straight tourism. That’s why the shots, it’s a universal frequency freeway. The it’s a hippie Mecca, and will continue to be so. party scene in Goa, India, had always been very A unique genre of dance music has been spored international, which flushed out narrow, parochial from this, a cyborganic counter culture of attitudes and tastes. Although the quality of psychonauts, distinct from the mainstream of urban psychedelic music being produced in London, has house, hip-hop, rave, acid, techno which was being been very prolific and quintessential, of recent, its generated in Europe and America, for clubs and root 4/4 beat form is grounded in ‘80s Euro techno. urban venues, with lots of commercial Similarly, if you look back to the ‘60s, you can see manipulations and hype by music press and labels, what the British electric guitarists did with American just like we are ironically, currently, witnessing in blues music. It’s all about innovation, whatever form London now, with ‘Goa Trance’. DJs and it takes, and obviously now, the present immense musicians who have experienced the exotic palette of technology offers infinite possibilities for seduction of the Goa vibe, then went back home psychic, sonic, evolution in this medium. Which is to the West to do custom made tunes for the an electronic umbilical chord, that links us all occasion and set up labels to promote it, and now together in one pulsating, doofadelic, trance dance, it is being packaged as a pop fashion, which and offers the possibility to break down inevitably happens to any social art movement psychological, cultural and political boundaries. Acquired from 266 © copyright 2001 267 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION The vibe in abstract trance music is about universal of sound sorcery, all of which enhances the themes, not subjective personality fetish, soapy capacity to do this sacred work. There is often a romanticism or urban frustrations. This has made thin line dividing and defining the various qualities it rather illusive to market by the music industry of doof, techno, acid, trance or whatever you want corporations (ie. give it a face). Its production and to call it. Basically it comes down to whatever networking has been by a very alternative, grass evokes the spirit to a state of emotive, euphoric, roots, international subculture. Now we have a ecstatic, aliveness; but within this there is a potent whole new psychedelic wave of computer whiz- fertile space for subliminal suggestion. And for me, kids, who didn’t party in the ‘60s, but many were it is steering it towards a connection with the born then, thus are fully hip to its revolutionary Universal OMM. The psychic sonic harmonic that spirit, and are now redefining and reinventing it, unites us all to the cosmos and creation; a with a midi maverick, post modern, attitude. I theosophical trance. remember, in ‘86/87, having to dig around the b- sides of dance records, or their dub versions, to find more spacey, weird, instrumental mixes, to suit our more, off-centre, way-ward, esoteric needs. This thread of meta-music is like a sound track for a journey through time; past, present and future. There were always too many insipid vocals, and often tracks were too short. So we used to use Sony Walkmans—no DATs then—to cut up the track, edit it, and stitch it together with various versions to make custom Goa mega mixes for the party. At this time techno musicians had no idea of what was being done to their material and the context it was being played in. The elecktrickery of the techno shaman’s cybertools allows for a kind NRG 4 2001 (PHOTO. KATH WHEATLEY) Acquired from 268 © copyright 2001 269 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION KRUSTY I sense the current pop rave scene isn’t where you KRUSTY So what you are suggesting with this quantum quick are projecting your energy, rather you are step is that a kind of phase locking is occurring. facilitating a spiritual ritual mainframe: booting The ingredients, the strobe atoms, sonic beams and up the techno genre software. organic cells are syncopated into linked, chain RAY I don’t want to focus too much on my role, myself as reaction cycles that promote the creation of a single, DJ, in the environment of a dance party. Essentially interdependent organism, where feedback and the DJ is a channel, for sound-morphing the vibe, affirmation can take place immediately and which creates a force field, or magnetic resonance. effectively. Rushkoff defines it as ‘a phase-locked The essence of dance music is that it has brought the group of dancers with sound and light, which begins main event back to the individual rather than focusing to look like a living, breathing, fractal equation, on a creative ego on stage or live musicians, as in where each tiny part reflects the nature and shape rock music. Even live techno tweaking musicians, I of the larger one’. The ultimate phase-locking occurs am dubious about. Laurie Anderson says ‘Watching in the dance itself, where 10s, 100s, 1000s of like- someone play a keyboard is as interesting as watching minded people play out the techno tribal ceremony. someone doing the ironing’. I would much prefer some abstract, symbolic, theatre. It’s all to do with People learn to communicate with their bodies on personal empowerment via movement, as the psychic hallucinogenic, spiritual (white light) levels, frequencies and beats move the air in the space which instead of being only dialed into this extremely triggers your emotional body. The lighting and art cerebral, narrow-band-width TV society which also tunes and sanctifies the space, preparing the dominates the mass mind. At this type of techno ground for magick to eventuate, rather than formula, event there is no need for people to say anything, commercial, fashion, fictions, with lots of voyeurism but just to bond with everyone around; all defences and ego jerk-off. I wish to strive for higher are down, there is this transpersonal love, you talk consciousness events and music is a powerful about, and an uninhibited, non-judgemental catalyser. Esoterically, as the dervish dancers knew, openness. The unification, merging, fusing we are able to tap into invisible realms of meaning, experience. Unlike the hierarchical, patriarchal, to penetrate the true nature of the physical space- traditional Christian ritual, which is dominated by time continuum. The electron does behave like a a priest, techno cyber shamans, such as yourself, particle, with access to information about the rest of open the space as a pagan ritual, free-for-all, that is the universe. These parties are like a pluton, neutron, created by a group of equals, and offers a vehicle to electron dance of pure energy, which flushes out experience one’s own BLISS. blocked psychic residue. Acquired from 270 © copyright 2001 271 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION RAY A dance party is a chiros satori experience (time outside of regular time), where one can gain a bright-light-bulb-like experience of illumination and understanding. As when the raver or dancer states that s/he feels most alive when they are dancing, and this religious-like ecstasy, offers a healing of our various splits and a reintegration with our instinctual self, through such peak, bliss, experiences, which will permeate through into all aspects of our life; so it can have a very transformational, life-altering, affect. And yes, dance parties have transmuted the role that organised religion once had to lift us onto the sacramental and supramental plane. Acquired from 272 © copyright 2001 273 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION In a place affectionately referred to as ‘Disco Valley’, the CHAPTER NINE— music has been pumping continuously for hour after kaleidoscopic-light-filled hour. The sun is beginning to rise CHAOS ENGINES: over the rainforest mist; dancing feet create intricate patterns of tread over the geological patterns of earth; the rock on DOOFS, PSYCHEDELICS AND which we dance seems to breathe, to be flesh. The ecstatic and tender expressions on the faces of participants reveals RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE that they have shared in something ‘other’, perhaps in something ‘sacred’. The preceding vignette strives to convey that very special DES TRAMACCHI place doof participants can access when all the elements of ecstasy enter into alignment. In this chapter I use perspectives and methodologies from studies in religions and the anthropology of consciousness to examine aspects of the quest for experiential transcendence and spiritual autonomy within DiY parties, or doofs. Much of the material presented here is (PHOTOS. KADAICHA) Acquired from 274 © copyright 2001 275 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION informed by my personal experiences attending various Potential Movement, Transpersonal Psychology and Neo- outdoor psychedelic dance-parties in southern QLD and Paganism are also often present. The emphasis on ritual northern NSW—including ‘Stomping Monster Doof #3’, ‘The expression through space at doofs is quite distinctive and Nam Shub of Enki CD launch and Partee’ and ‘Dragonflight pervasive. Doof organisers often aim to imbue an atmosphere 1998-1999’.1 However, what I offer here is not an ethnographic of sacrality to the events and may perform ceremonial and description of doofs, or a detailed analysis of their ritual magickal activities to consecrate their selected site. At the Nam structure, but rather, a discussion of some of the theoretical Shub of Enki Partee individuals marked out sacred space prior implications arising from the study of doofs as these affect to the party by arranging seven candles around the other cultural, spiritual, and political domains. circumference of the dancing ground. Further down the beach While my analysis focuses on the use of psychedelics as other people placed nine candles in a formation somewhat an ingredient in the doof rapture, I do not wish to imply by reminiscent of the Qabalistic ‘tree of life’ glyph. The ‘trance this that everyone who goes to a doof uses substances. Drug space’ at the Dragonflight party was modelled on a seven- use at doofs is a matter of personal choice. While people may pointed star, in the center of which was a cylindrical black ingest LSD, Ecstasy, cannabis, shrooms et cetera, others are altar decorated with white hieroglyphs (the most prominent happy to become exhilarated through ‘dancing all night to being the Tjet sacred to Isis) and surrounded by monstrous beautiful music, in nature and under the stars’.2 Nonetheless, heirloom pumpkins. tripping has been a central and significant practice and I feel I wish to pursue three different themes in connection to that its role in parties warrants more serious discussion. psychedelic dance parties and spirituality. The first theme, It is my contention that the various psychedelic dance- Substantial spirits, deals with the controversy that has been cultures contain virtually all the elements of putative new associated with the spiritual uses of psychoactive substances religious movements. Indeed, certain characteristics of ‘the in the ‘western’ context. The second theme, Trance and sacred’ are present to a remarkable degree. Elements of the transgression, focuses on the ritual significance of iconography of Hinduism and Buddhism, such as the elephant- transgression in psychedelic parties. Finally, Sacrificial NRG headed divinity Ganesha or the mantra
(om) are frequently considers the relative absence of the ritual acknowledgment represented at doofs. Influences from the New Age, Human of sacrifice in doofs as compared to entheogenic dance rituals in other societies (an entheogen is a substance that purportedly induces experiences of divinity). I argue that this absence of the sacrificial is a consequence of the cultural context of 1 Organised by Jilly and Raze; Phil/Nam Shub of Enki, Matt, Matt, and Kath; and Jilly, psychedelia within what some sociologists optimistically refer respectively. 2 PIP, “Everybodies Doing it! the Byron Bush Dance,” FreakQuency 1 (1996): 23. to as ‘late-capitalism’. Acquired from 276 © copyright 2001 277 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION SUBSTANTIAL SPIRITS Leaving the question of the religiosity of the psychedelic movements aside, psychedelic parties suggest—at the very The religious quality of the use of psychoactive plants least—systems for inducing and using collective ‘peak- and fungi as elements in ritual practices in various non-Western experiences’. As Abraham Maslow7 has emphasised, many societies is generally accepted.3 However, controversy has psychoactive substances certainly seem capable of triggering hovered for some time around the question of whether or not peak-experiences, and peak-experiences are intrinsically the ‘psychedelic experience’ as a western phenomenon is a valuable in Maslow’s model. Indeed, the term ‘peaking’ is used properly religious experience.4 The psychedelic movement has by trippers to describe the more intense phases of a psychedelic been accused of agnosticism, extreme heterodoxy, disrespect experience. Psychedelic dance parties are all the more for civil authority, and rampant eclecticism: none of which interesting for their being ostensibly secular, yet borrowing constitute sufficient grounds for excluding it from the category ‘religious’. Sometimes psychedelic humour is construed as liberally from the terminology and iconography of religion and spirituality. Incidentally, Maslow felt that ‘…LSD and irreverence, especially by members of mainstream religious psilocybin, give us some possibility of control in this realm of and social institutions who may feel they are being mocked. peak-experiences. It looks like these drugs often produce peak- For example the catechism and handbook of the Neo-American experiences in the right people under the right circumstances, Church, The Boo Hoo Bible,5 was interpreted by United States District Judge Gerhard A. Gessel to be irreverent and clearly so perhaps we needn’t wait for them to occur by good fortune’.8 However, in general Maslow advises a moderate agnostic, ‘showing no regard for a supreme being, law or civic approach, warning against becoming attached to the peak responsibility’.6 experience as an end in itself, or trying to ‘escalate the triggers’ without integrating the experience.9 3 P. Furst, Hallucinogens and Culture (Novato, CA: Chandler & Sharp, 1976); Michael J. Harner, ed., Hallucinogens and Shamanism (London: Oxford University Press, 1973). 4 Walter N. Pahnke, “Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness,” MA, Harvard University, 1963; Huston Smith, Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam, 2000); R.C. Zaehner, Drugs, Mysticism and Make-Believe (London: Collins, 1972). 7 Abraham H. Maslow, Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences. 5 Art Kleps, The Boo Hoo Bible (San Cristobal, New Mexico: Toad Books, 1971). (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1976). 6 Thomas B. Roberts and Paula Jo Hruby, Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: 8 Maslow, Ibid., 26. A Bibliographic Guide (DeKalb, Illinois: Psychedelia Books, 1995). 9 Ibid., ix. Acquired from 278 © copyright 2001 279 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION The motif of communality has been one of the more MDMA effects, interpersonal differences appear to evaporate recurrent elements in discourses about psychedelic parties10 producing a condition of almost total identification of self with and there exists a general consensus about the centrality of other. Within the psychedelic dance rapture, participants may experiential transcendence—sometimes conceptualised as lose or suspend subjective experience of themselves and merge ‘dance-delirium’ or the ‘implosion’ or ‘disappearance’ of into a kind of collective body, a place where desire and subjectivity among party-goers:11 production meet in a state of flow.14 The overall impression is of losing oneself or transforming In forest settings this magickal transcendence is very potent, oneself through shared, multifaceted sensation…participants as the energies are charging and morphing and zinging understand their experience in terms of community, around people and the ether. We may become little ‘animals’ interconnectivity and mass unity…This feeling of extending investigating the primal, orgiastic, instinctual aspects of our the self to become other, is a kind of imagined nature. We may find ourselves in swirling vortexes and see metamorphosis…representing fascination not with forces but people moving as one with each other—completely tranced with metamorphosis…Metamorphosis occurs as the self is out and sharing some unknown luv.15 destabilised, disembodied and “dispersed across social space”12 Marghanita Laski has argued that the attachment of religious ‘overbeliefs’ to experiences of aesthetic or ecstatic intensity is Sam Keen has suggested that ‘LSD, DMT, and mescaline’ gratuitous rather than essential. Laski felt that ecstasy is more may give rise to a ‘Dionysian consciousness…based upon a important than ideology.16 Laski’s published views on psychedelics body ego of the polymorphously perverse body’ in which the (in particular mescaline) were that their use did not constitute a self is reduced to a focused awareness of sensations and the form of ecstasy. However, Laski wrote at a time when there were world becomes ‘totally eroticised’. 13 This collective relatively few accounts of psychedelic experiences; and she seems consciousness is especially pronounced at parties where to have succumbed to the kind of fallacy of relevance known as MDMA is a conspicuous element. During the plateau of the ‘converse accident’, arguing that, as some accounts of mescaline (such as that of R.C. Zaehner) are clearly more absurd 10 Desmond Hill, “Mobile Anarchy: The House Movement, Shamanism and than blissful, then those of others (for example, Aldous Huxley) Community,” Psychedelics ReImagined, ed. Thomas Lyttle (New York: Autonomedia, 1999) 95-106; Tim Jordan, “Collective Bodies: Raving and who claim to have been graced by beatific visions, must the Politics of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari,” Body and Society 1.1 (1995): 125- necessarily be mistaken. 144; Rhonda Nolan, “Transcendence, Communality and Resistance in Rave Culture: An Observation of Youth at a Townsville Rave,” Northern Radius 5.1 (1998): 7-8. 11 Susan Hopkins, “Synthetic Ecstasy: The Youth Culture of Techno Music,” Youth Studies Australia 15.2 (1996): 12-17; Thomas Lyttle and Michael Montagne, “Drugs, 14 Jordan, “Collective Bodies”. Music and Ideology: A Social Pharmacological Interpretation of the Acid House 15 Kath, Trance Magick, 1998, Available: Published by the Albert Hofmann Foundation Movement,” The International Journal of the Addictions 27.10 (1992): 1159-1177. at http://www.hofmann.org/voices/aussie.html. 12 Hopkins, “Synthetic Ecstasy”, p.15. 16 Marghanita Laski, Ecstasy: A Study of Some Secular and Religious Experiences 13 Sam Keen, Apology for Wonder (New York: Harper & Row, 1969). (London: The Cresset Press, 1961). Acquired from 280 © copyright 2001 281 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Margaret Mead, while accepting the mystical validity of that extravagantly or even violently exceed that other world’s some LSD experiences, is careful to distinguish variations in boundaries. For Bataille, taboos circumscribed activities that individual responses: are ‘violent’ in the sense that they are intimately connected to It must be recognized, however, that there is no necessary the vertiginous cycle of reproduction and death. Taboos attach relationship between the use of drugs and religious to ‘violent’ behaviours such as sexuality and murder because experience. The ordinary LSD ‘trip’ has no more necessary these behaviours are antithetical to work, which Bataille relationship to mystical experience than the drinking of ten constructs as humanity’s attempt to deny the explosive cocktails has, after which many people experience various alterations of consciousness.17 profusion and wastefulness of nature—an unstoppable extravaganza in which life annihilates and replaces life. In such Indeed, much of orthodox religious practice has no a vision, nature in its orgy of creativity and destruction necessary relationship to religious experience either, but the possesses both poles of the Holy: the mysterium tremendum point is still a valid one: not all who have ‘tripped’ at a and the mysterium fascinans. These twin qualities are also happening, rave, or doof have had epiphanies, and not all arrive conferred on taboos which are attracting and difficult to resist: at the same interpretations of their experiences. the transgression of taboo is tantalising, yet to complete the transgression is to invoke terror of the consequences. TRANCE AND TRANSGRESSION Transgressing the taboo does not eliminate the taboo; indeed Transgression literally means ‘to step across’.18 The social it reaffirms it. Yet, perversely, without the taboo the and religious worlds have a moral character. Rules, laws and transgression is less attractive and yields less pleasure. In any taboos govern society. Georges Bataille 19 has written case, taboo and transgression are ideal ritual tools for creating extensively about the ways in which taboo and transgression a sense of the strong emotional paradox that is the Holy. fulfil and complement each other. In the writings of Bataille The most frequently used and most favoured psychoactive we find a link to the opposition between the world of work substances at psychedelic parties are LSD and MDMA. and sobriety on the one hand, and a sacred sphere of activities Because of the current illegal status of these materials, their use necessarily constitutes a form of transgression. Transgression of laws provides a valuable mechanism for 17 Margaret Mead, “Psychedelics and Western Religious Experience,” Sisters of the Extreme, eds. Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz (Rochester, Vermont: Park transcending the logic of the everyday. Transgression is Street Press, 2000) 180-182. therefore frequently one of the ingredients in the category 18 William Morris, ed., The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language. Originally published in 1969., New College International ed. (Boston: American disruption that is a central mechanism of liminality. At the Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975). very least, the possibility that any rule may be transgressed is 19 Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Translated by Mary Dalwood. Originally published as L’ Erotisme in 1957. (San Francisco: City Lights Books., 1986). indicative that cultural categories are not absolute. Acquired from 282 © copyright 2001 283 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Transgression can also be a sign of inconsistencies within the epitomised by catchphrases like ‘be free’ and ‘do your thing’. moral life of a community—that the rules and organisational Among the more important of these individualistic principles of one part of a society are not adhered to by another philosophies were existentialism and the ideals of Gestalt segment of the same society. However, such a lack of moral Therapy as practiced by Fritz Perls at Esalen.21 The ethos unity may be not so much a sign of social dysfunction as an behind doofs is also one of freedom, expression, and resistance. indicator of a society’s vigour, a sign that there are works to One of the most vocal contemporary proponents of be performed and there is still room to create. antinomianism is Hakim Bey, author of TAZ: The Temporary What then of the general taboo against chemical Autonomous Zone.22 Bey’s iconoclastic and anarchistic ‘poetic modification of consciousness? Inebriation takes the chaos of terrorism’ has exerted a considerable influence on the cultural nature to new dimensions of extravagance. The instability and style of the neo-psychedelic movement and Australian edge- discontinuity that accompanies life is in total sympathy with culture generally.23 the dizzying onset of substances such as MDMA, tobacco, or The use of LSD and MDMA at dance parties in Australia the yajé potion of the western Amazon. The insistent sensuality is a transgression of the various State laws, and this of many psychoactive substances, and the conundrums into transgression accentuates the fundamental division of moral which they lead the intellect, speak of the close affinity of unity at the level of the State: the split between the State as a inebriation with sexuality and death. The triad of inebriation, republic of free citizens, and the State as an abstract, sometimes sexuality, and death are related by their sensual aspect, and repressive, law-dispensing authority. This transgressive act can defined by their opposition to work. be seen as a method for rupturing the continuity of structure Huston Smith has argued that the psychedelic movement and entering the ‘liminal’ orbit. Transgression of public of the Sixties responded to the moral inconsistency of western morality is of course a common element of the liminal phase society by adopting a strongly antinomian stance. of rites of passage and amorality is also a frequent characteristic Antinomianism refers to the belief that the individual can of the Holy. develop their moral faculties to the point where external laws become obsolete.20 The Sixties counterculture was influenced by a melange of philosophies stressing self determination, 21 Neville Drury, The Elements of Human Potential (Longmead, UK: Element Books Limited, 1989). 22 Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism (Brooklyn, New York: Autonomedia, 1991). 23 Des Tramacchi, “Field Tripping: Psychedelic Communitas and Ritual in the Australian Bush,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 15.2 (2000): 201-213; Graham St John, 20 Huston Smith, Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of “Going Feral: Authentica on the Edge of Australian Culture,” Australian Journal Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam, 2000). of Anthropology 8.2 (1997): 167-189. Acquired from 284 © copyright 2001 285 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Transgression of identity can be achieved through Dancing can also be a powerful mode of transgression. metamorphosis. Many doof participants transform their The movements of bodies at doofs can be read as social texts appearance through highly elaborate and beautiful costumes. defining new and creative lines of flight. Hard-house, trance Examples that I’ve observed at local parties include a Halloween and other new forms of electronic dance-music played at doofs witch costume; a rainbow-coloured, plumed headdress and a catalyse new modes of dancing. Free-form dance promotes long white robe; Chaplinesque garb; bizarre, electronic, bleeping exploration of novel ways of being embodied: glove puppets; leonine prosthetic tails; and a menagerie of other Disco, heavy metal, grunge, punk, acid house, and hardcore costumes composed of furry, shiny, luminescent, and metallic techno pose generic ‘rules’, and these distinctions are manifested by diverse behaviours on the dancefloor. Dance looking materials. One striking costume observed at music radically alters bodily expectations and possibilities Dragonflight consisted of a pink and white gingham bodice … The aural space between the amplifier and the ear is a clasped around the form of a chrome-haired woman with site for political struggle. This is a queer space for bodily enormous matching gingham platform shoes—like the diva of circulation … Dance music is continually being restyled, importing aural sensations and defamiliarising the semiotic ecstasy itself—mouth full of fragrant bubble-gum, and clasping encounter with the mobile body.24 in each hand the attribute of a lit magnesium sparkler, frenetically dancing like a fleshy avatar of the goddess of meteors. The fluidity and flexibility of the body is used by dancers as a loom on which to restructure the fabric of social identity. Ingesting psychedelic materials that give rise to dramatic changes in somatic awareness would appear to augment this process of corporeal de-subjectification. The dancing bodies of doofers are potent sites of resistance, experimentation, autonomy, and transcendence. Psychedelic parties provide expressions of body-oriented awareness that reflect changing attitudes toward sexualities, socialities, and genders. Tripping at doofs can be truly recreational in the literal sense of facilitating the dynamic re-creation of social beings. This is a process of stepping across the limen, with a strongly initiatory sub-text; and, significantly, it takes place in a highly public and communal ‘participation framework’.25 MATT COOKE 24 Tara Brabazon, “Disco(urse) Dancing: Reading the Body Politic,” Australian Journal 12 DEC 98 of Communication 24.1 (1997): 104-114. (PHOTO. SASKIA FOTOFOLK) 25 Erving Goffman, Forms of Talk (Oxford: Blackwell, 1981). Acquired from 286 © copyright 2001 287 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Tripping is usually discursively constructed as pertaining concept that the ‘reality’ of everyday sense perception is to the mind, but it is as much about the body. Indeed, only actually maya—an illusory construct—has become axiomatic minuscule quantities of any orally ingested psychedelic ever among many contemporary spiritual seekers. States of make it to the brain. If we free ourselves from the Cartesian inebriation can be interpreted as configurations of maya which model of body/mind, then tripping can be analysed as a kind are more ‘transparent’ or which contain ‘flaws’ that afford of ritual sub-cellular body modification in which vast numbers glimpses into an ‘ultimate reality’ or ‘ground state’. of psychedelic molecules are temporarily attached to receptor Psychedelics, after all, are said to ‘alter’ or ‘distort’ the sites on the surfaces of sensory neurons within the Central perception of reality; reality is said be illusory: ergo, Nervous System (CNS). This act, ingesting a psychedelic, is psychedelics might provide a portal to a non-illusory condition. charged with great territorial, political and ontological significance. These cellular surfaces are perhaps the most hotly SACRIFICIAL NRG contested regions of the body as they are the interfaces between Psychedelic dance parties in Australia can be compared the sense-mediated environment (which is controlled by and contrasted with entheogen-oriented all-night dance rituals exterior power regimes) and the transcendent subject (and the in a number of other societies. Such rituals are widespread, anarchic order of the Self). Psychedelic drugs may be used to and are particularly well-represented among the many reconfigure unsatisfactory relations to external control regimes indigenous peoples of the western Amazon27, the Huichol of and to affirm the autonomy of the transcendent subject. Mexico,28 and members of the Bwiti cult of Gabon in equatorial Another form of transgression associated with west Africa.29 One is particularly struck by the similarities psychedelics is the transgression of states of consciousness. between doofs and these other rituals. Even a perfunctory The Sixties counter-culture borrowed freely from the analysis reveals a great deal of overlap: all the rituals involve philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism.26 Many of these special preparations such as fasting and beautification; ritual philosophies have since diffused into popular awareness, space is always created; the music is nearly always loud, especially through the proliferation of new religious continuous and hypnotic with a pronounced percussive movements, particularly the polymorphic New Age. The component; ecstatic group dancing is used as a trance technique; coloured light sources are often used; the 26 Susan Love Brown, “Baby Boomers, American Character and the New Age: A Synthesis,” 27 G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Shaman and The Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs Perspectives on the New Age, eds. James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, SUNY Series in Among the Indians of Colombia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1975). Religious Studies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992) 87-96; Robert C. 28 S.B. Schaefer and P. Furst, eds., People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Fuller, “Drugs and the Baby Boomers’ Quest for Metaphysical Illumination,” Novo Religion, and Survival (Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996). Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 3.1, 1999: 100-118; R.C. 29 James W. Fernandez, Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa Zaehner, Drugs, Mysticism and Make-Believe (London: Collins, 1972). (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982). Acquired from 288 © copyright 2001 289 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION psychotropic substances used all have a net stimulating effect, The theoretical model proposed by Maurice Bloch30 places but also induce visions and a degree of dissociation or ‘de- the dynamics and emotions associated with predation close to subjectification’; and sociality always takes the form of an the heart of religious ritual and sentiment. In Bloch’s view, rites immersion into a collective state of Gemeinschaft or –≠. In of passage involve instilling in those undergoing initiation, in view of all these similarities the differences that do exist require the first instance, a sense of vulnerability—of being prey— explanation. Why, for example, is the idea of ‘sacrifice’ through such devices as being ritually stalked or otherwise extremely important in these other rituals, but less evident in victimised. In the next phase of ritual the initiate is brought into doofs? a sense of power and an identification with the hunter. The The theme of this collection is ‘freeNRG’, but at this point suggestion of threat is occasionally present at doofs: for example, I wish to introduce the possibility that there is a cost associated when I attended a dance party at Fingal Head Beach I was told with psychedelic energy, and I don’t mean the cost of the by two independent informants about an ectoplasmic ‘devil- generators or the outrageous price of an ‘e’. The first law of dog’ that is said to haunt the location. In the case of Stomping thermodynamics predicts that energy inevitably has at least Monster Doof, the theme itself suggests supernatural danger. one cost, and that price is transformation. According to the The ‘prey into hunter’ ideas of Bloch’s converge with the very foundation myth of western physics, the energy of the universe widespread religious idea of ‘sacrifice’, in other words, the ritual is constant: it cannot be created, only transformed. Living acknowledgment of the transformational costs of energy. systems such as ourselves are subject to a series of surrenders Another theorist of religion, Bataille,31 emphasised a and transformations that collectively comprise the condition further set of transformations involving the shift from states of mortality. One series of transformations which intersects of continuity to states of discontinuity. Human reproduction the human condition are those related to nutrition. Solar light involves a series of cellular shifts to and from continuity and is transformed into bio-chemical energy by plants, and some discontinuity, commencing with the sudden ejaculatory of these plants are subsequently converted into chemical discontinuity of spermatozoa from their genitor and ending energy, cellular growth, and excrements by herbivores, which with the discontinuity of expulsion from the womb. Life is may be subject to further predation or may become hosts to conceptualised by Bataille as a state of anguished isolation other organisms or to ideational systems. from other orders of existence, while death and putrefaction constitute an eventual relaxation of discontinuity and merging into continuity with other matter. Human energy requires that 30 Maurice Bloch, Prey into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 31 Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Translated by Mary Dalwood. Originally published as L’ Erotisme in 1957. (San Francisco: City Lights Books., 1986). Acquired from 290 © copyright 2001 291 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION other organisms are sacrificed to sustain us, and it also means Throughout the western Amazon the entheogen yajé is that we ourselves are destined to become the fuel of other taken in conjunction with stimulating Amazonian coca, tobacco transformations. Some of our bodies will fuel the funeral pyre, and cashirí—a kind of beer—during ecstatic, night-long dance while Bataille speaks eloquently for the buried ones… rituals.36 Yajé or ayahuasca is compounded from a number of …death will proclaim my return to seething life. Hence I can different plants. The entheogenic properties of yajé are the anticipate and live in expectation of that multiple putrescence result of a unique and sophisticated pharmacological that anticipates its sickening triumph in my person.32 synergy.37 The basic ingredient is nearly always the stems of For Bataille, both eroticism and the religious impulse are the vine Banisteriopsis caapi. Depending on the region, leaves part of the human response to these life and death transformations. of other plants, especially oco-yagé (Diplopterys cabrerana) and chacruna (Psychotria viridis), are added to intensify the In other words religion involves coming to terms with sacrifice enchanting properties of the drink.38 These latter plants are and discontinuity. Religions afford a number of ways of coming rich in the psychedelic N,N-dimethyltryptamine or DMT. to terms with discontinuity. One of the most effective ways that Substances (b carbolines) found in Banisteriopsis caapi have religion creates continuity is through the formation of strong social distinct psychoactive properties, but also facilitate the more bonds; in its ideal form the intimate and immediate sociality that spectacular visionary action of DMT.39 The myths relating the Victor Turner calls communitas.33 Continuity in the form of origins of yajé often centre on themes of sexuality, sacrifice communitas is an important feature of psychedelic parties. From and death.40 In the mythology of the Desana people of the the collective psychedelic ‘dance delirium’34 to the extended, western Amazon yajé was first obtained by their ancestors as unconditional embraces of MDMA ‘puppy piles’ and the acid a result of their tearing apart the luminous, newly born, ‘mind-meld’, subjective continuity with others is sought and often incestuously begotten child of the supernatural Yajé woman.41 actualised. While this experience of continuity may be fleeting, 35 Sophia Adamson, Through the Gateway of the Heart: Accounts of Experiences the resulting long-term changes in outlook can be profound, as With MDMA and other Empathogenic Substances (San Francisco: Four Trees attested to by the many personal accounts of psychedelic Publications, 1985); Myron J. Stolaroff, Thanatos to Eros: 35 years of Psychedelic Exploration. (Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1994). transformation.35 Sacrificial motifs are frequently prominent in 36 Stephen Hugh-Jones, The Palm and the Pleiades: Initiation and Cosmology in the mythology associated with entheogenic dance rituals in other Northwest Amazonia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979). 37 Jonathon Ott, Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, their Plant Sources and History, societies. Many instances could be cited, but the reader can gain Second edition densified ed. (Kennewick, WA: Natural Products Co., 1996). a reasonable impression of their prevalence from the three 38 R. E. Schultes and R.F. Raffauf, Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazon (Oracle: Arizona: Synergistic Press Inc., 1992). examples cited below. 39 Dennis J. McKenna and G.H.N. Towers, “Biochemistry and Pharmacology of Tryptamines and beta-Carbolines: A Minireview,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 32 Bataille, Eroticism, p.57. 16.4 (1984): 347-358. 33 Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (New York: Aldine 40 G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, Amazonian Cosmos: The Sexual and Religious Symbolism Publishing Company, 1969). of the Tukano Indians. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1971). 34 Jordan, “Collective Bodies”. 41 Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Shaman and The Jaguar. Acquired from 292 © copyright 2001 293 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Another instance of entheogenic sacrifice can be found Bitumu’s wife learned how to use the eboka roots to among the Huichol. The Huichol Indians of Mexico ingest the communicate with her dead husband and with the ancestors vision-inducing cactus Hikuri (Lophophora williamsii) during before she herself was ritually and willingly killed by a sacred pilgrimage to a high desert called Wirikúta where the strangulation.47 cactus grows in abundance.42 Hikuri or ‘Peyote’ is also The above examples are sufficient to demonstrate that harvested for later use in a ritual known as the Hikuri Neixa or entheogens in other societies generally have a sacrificial ‘Peyote dance’.43 The Hikuri has a central sacrificial aspect. It character and are often viewed as intermediaries between the is mythologically associated with both deer and maize. During realms of continuity and discontinuity. These sacrifices are the harvesting of Hikuri it is first stalked as if it were an actual often recounted or alluded to during ritual. On the surface, deer. The pilgrimage leader, the mara’akáme, ritually slays sacrificial themes appear to be absent from Australian the Hikuri/deer by firing an arrow into it. The hikuri is later psychedelic dance cultures. ceremonially divided between the pilgrims.44 Two elements of sacrifice come to mind in connection Among the Fang people in Gabon, West Africa, members with DiY psychedelic parties. The first is the idea that the party of the Bwiti religion eat the powdered roots of the stimulating itself is an offering. The party is often an extravagance that is and visionary eboka plant (Tabernanthe iboga) during all-night not firmly anchored in the mundane profit-oriented economy, religious dance ceremonies.45 The last of the Fang creator and which often involves a great deal of volunteer effort. beings—Zame ye Mebege—is said to have made eboka from Further, the party participants must contribute a lot of energy the slain body of the Pygmy Bitumu.46 Zame cut the little in order to ‘make it happen’, so there is considerable fingers and little toes from the corpse and planted them expenditure of sacrificial or ‘free’ energy. The second sacrificial throughout the forest; they grew into eboka bushes. Eventually aspect of the psychedelic party is a volitional and temporary sacrifice of individuality to the ‘collective body’.48 In particular, the use of LSD at high doses is frequently associated with a 42 Barbara G. Myerhoff, Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians (Ithaca N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974). phase of consciousness sometimes known as ‘ego-death’ or 43 Schaefer and Furst, People of the Peyote. ‘ego-annihilation’.49 Ego-death involves a suspension of 44 S.B. Schaefer, “The Crossing of the Souls: Peyote, Perception, and Meaning among the Huichol Indians,” in People of the Peyote subjectivity and a surrender to perceived transpersonal 45 Harrison G. Jr. Pope, “Tabernanthe iboga: An African Narcotic Plant of Social Importance,” Economic Botany 23.2 (1969): 174-184; James W. Fernandez, “Tabernanthe iboga: Narcotic Ecstasis and the Work of the Ancestors,” Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens, ed. Peter T. Furst (London: George Allen 47 Fernandez, 1982. & Unwin, 1972) 237-260. 48 Jordan, “Collective Bodies”. 46 James W. Fernandez, Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa 49 Stanislav Grof, Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982). (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1976). Acquired from 294 © copyright 2001 295 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION realities.50 Such an experience may be extremely confronting The relative lack of sacrificial expression in psychedelic for some people, but is often seen as psychologically or party culture may be linked to certain tendencies of the western spiritually liberating.51 form of modernity to suppress or censor overt, explicit Dance parties can function like a generator. People bring expressions of sacrificial reality. Indeed, capitalism and to the party an enormous range of energies—metabolic, kinetic, consumer culture require that the sacrifices of production psychosocial, as well as cultural energy stored in signs, remain concealed in order to fortify monopolies and to obscure mannerisms and styles—these surpluses are given or released the unpalatable links between the chic boutique and the Third to the party as a whole. People are then able to draw on specific World sweatshop. Capitalism is embedded in myths of free energies that they desire or can constructively use in their own energy or ‘unlimited growth’. In this regard Berger52 has lives. At a psychedelic party, people all around me seem to be characterised capitalism as a variety of cargo-cult that assumes paying for their energy with transformation or ‘morphing’ to that commodities can manifest in a socially equitable manner. use a psychedelic turn of phrase. The party can be a tool for Christianity, industrialisation, and the sciences can all be seen catalysing social exchange and facilitating radical personal to emerge out of a striving to dematerialise sacrifice. change. The sacrificial energy is like a current with negatively The major ‘sacrament’ of the dance cultures—LSD—is a and positively charged poles. The processes of radiating and product of organic chemistry, a tradition emerging from an absorbing energies at parties is cyclic and is often expressed alchemical philosophy that sought to transcend sacrifice and as oscillation between dancing/walking and resting/chilling- halt ‘corruption’. LSD is a semi-synthetic substance. The out. This alternation between phases of activity and surrender production of LSD generally proceeds from ergotamine necessarily implies a form of sacrifice. While these kinds of tartate.53 For commercial purposes, this substance is usually sacrifice are an intrinsic aspect of psychedelic parties for some, extracted from submerged cultures of the fungus Claviceps there is little explicit aesthetic, mythological, and ritual paspali.54 The fungus is sacrificed to the process. Other costs representation of sacrifice as compared to those representations associated with the production of substances from clandestine found in Desana, Huichol, and Bwiti traditions. laboratories are the environmental and occupational health impacts of procedures involving toxic solvents and reagents. In the popular imagination LSD is often perceived of as ‘synthetic’, which is to say that it is somehow created ex nihilo 52 Peter L. Berger, Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1977). 50 Grof, 1976. 53 Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin, TIHKAL: The Continuation 51 Stanislav Grof, Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy (Berkeley: Transform Press, 1997). (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York, 1985). 54 Siva D.V. Sankar, LSD-A Total Study (Westbury, NY: PJD Publications Ltd., 1975). Acquired from 296 © copyright 2001 297 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION without any need for sacrifice and without any connection to Having made the above distinctions regarding sacrifice, the biotic world. This is in sharp contrast to societies such as DiY parties nonetheless provide a vital response to the way of the Desana, Huichol, and Fang Bwiti, where participation in a life that Berger describes as ‘…the insensate offering up of reciprocal web of sacrifices promotes personal psychological lives to a petrified concept’.55 The psychedelic party eclipses affinities to the ‘spirit’ of substances. many other religious forms in the arena of techniques for The entheogenic or ‘psychedelic shamanistic’ sensibility inducing and sustaining strong trance states. The party can be that has emerged during the last decade can be seen as a move seen as a great engine of ecstasis containing numerous to redress the western alienation of spirit from substance and synergistic triggers: auditory and photic drivers, archetypal an active engagement in the sacrificial processes of cultivating symbols, aesthetic stimuli, ‘freaks’, ‘trippers’, planet Earth and and harvesting entheogenic organisms. The current popularity a big dose of spirited high energy, PLUR, wonder, and ‘happy of the entheogenic epistemology can also be seen, in part, as a vibes’. At an experiential level, doofs open a juncture where counter-trend to the commodification of some post-rave dance- individuals are able to share in a kind of agape or collective cultures. For entheogenists, the production of semi-synthetic ecstasy that mitigates against the sense of ennui and isolation psychedelic materials in laboratories is superseded by the so often associated with modernity. Doofs also provide an extraction of natural products using simple kitchen equipment. opportunity to experiment with new social forms, meanings, and identities through a variety of modes of creative transgression. Finally parties afford the possibility of a more concrete engagement with life through ‘ego-death’ and experiential transcendence. GREEN ANT FULL MOON DOOF NOV 2000 (PHOTO. BRENT TANIAN) 55 Berger, Pyramids of Sacrifice, p.22. Acquired from 298 © copyright 2001 299 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION CHAPTER TEN— OBJECT OF THE GAME Is to pick up all 100 monkeys one at a time without DIRECTIONS TO THE GAME: dropping any. Everyone is needed because this is a closed system. NRG needs open circuits to travel within a closed BARRELLFUL OF MONKEYS: system, which means everyone has to link up on the same A GAME OF SKILL TO TEST wavelength to transmit the NRG flow. In the beginning ... there was DOOF. There was music NERVE AND BALANCE and dancing and much mischief, monkeys and dogs running round and great fashion and we smoked a lot of dope and took more psyberdelics than I’d ever taken before in my life and (AGES 3 AND UP) GOD was it GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!! It was my first time, right on through to the other side and RAK RAZAM don’t look back only forwards and I met a whole bunch of crazy people and lost my Bugs Bunny slippers and dragged my beanbag all over the festival like it was my lounge room and broke the dawn overlooking the beach with Kurt and met Nicole on the football field and we played Twister on the dance floor while Tsuyoshi DJed, back when trance was his gig and the music twisted and tweaked and got into places in my head I didn’t even know existed and nothing would ever be the same again. In the beginning there was Transelements 2, there on a football field in the Otways, replacing the cultural power spot of football and Western ideology with the tekno-pagan revival of the dance floor, as sport gave way to Saturnalia and the festivities began. And there was this cartoon assed girl lost in the MIX like a fluro acid Fraggle and grooving on the edge of the dance floor with the biggest smile and funkiest pants made of old ‘70s bedspreads with tassels around the feet and a hand made yellow t-shirt with a yellow Barrel of Monkeys figure BARRELLFUL OF MONKEYS LOGO Acquired from 300 © copyright 2001 301 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION on it, a sigil into the PLAY. Monkeys one and all, wrapped in … when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, bedspreads and kids toys and huge smiles and the music doof this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, the Hundredth doof doof doof doof doof unwinding like an orange peel as Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited I’m deconstructed on Superman blotter acid and ‘e’s and number of people know of a new way, it may remain the melting into the beat, into the music and the sound and the consciousness property of these people. But there is a point sights and the MIX, soaking in a sonic satori and everything’s at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by golden with these sunglasses on and beautiful, the days just almost everyone!346 go on forever and it’s only breakfast time and some ferals have set up a stall selling fruit loops for a dollar and they’re dancing For those of you who came in late the name of the Game is and smiling and everything seems just right. FUN, at all times. It says so in the DIRECTIONS TO THE GAME that come in each red, yellow and blue Barrel of Monkeys game, This is the story of one crew—the Barrelfull of Monkeys— Ages 3 and Up ... Just give it a good hard shake and scatter the in the Tribe of DOOF and the parties they went to and some of monkeys into the dirt, and the Game has begun. the things they did. This is a real story and this is how it happened to the best of my memory, which was never all that HOW TO PLAY linear to begin with and has been evolving sideways orange in long lateral flows of information juggled in interconnected 1 Be yourself. Tune into the Now and go with what you feel, networks of data, triggered by the sound of the future as it melding your NRG and thoughts with that of your crew, so doof doof doof doofed through the Australian bush and the you all influence each other to a group consensus. dirt dance floors and the dancers, penetrating our DNA and 2 One or more monkeys will have a brilliant, impossible, waking us up to the genetic story coded in a 4/4 beat as we totally outrageous idea. shook our butts for Shiva and the Shakti man. This story is 3 Synchronization and focus will occur as a mission develops, about Parties. And Art and Drugs and Fun and a whole group a creative venture that mobilizes all your actions into a of people who lie round and get OFF it and listen to music that common goal: ART. makes them feel good and think up ways to change the world 4 Hook monkeys together so resources and skills can be and be free and then go out and LIVE it. shared until you pick up at least 5 good people, forming a WHO ARE THE BARRELFULL OF MONKEYS??? crew. Well, we ALL are. Some of you just don’t realise it yet. 1 Ken Keyes Jnr, The Hundreth Monkey, Vision Books, Oregon, 1980, p.17. Acquired from 302 © copyright 2001 303 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION Everyone’s shining like their insides have been let out onto their outside for the first time, like they’re truly alive and the energy is building, riffing off the music and the dancers and the VIBE as the collective energy builds and the group mind is set and all systems are go, the dance floor’s pounding to a sliding 4/4 beat quicksilvering through the night air as the stars shine down past fluro string webworks and there we are sitting on the edge of the dance floor with wide eyes and open hearts and giggles, down where the toys live ... Inflatable palm trees, inflatable couches and pools and crocodiles and animals, the future is inflatable and instant just like those ‘thwuck’ self inflating tents they advertised on late night teleshopping shows, instant, disposable, NOW, it’s all about the NOW, about switching yourself ON and throwing yourself into the moment. Kerri, Mel, Paula, Idan and I are playing Barrel of Monkeys in the dirt at a Rainbow Serpent doof in 1999 in an altered state of mind, having an illegal amount of fun. It’s a hot breezy night and Mel and Paula are indulging in magic gum that crackles on the roof of their mouths and pops like lightning and thunder exploding along the tastebuds ... Mel is picking up the monkeys scattered in the dirt and hooking them together arm in arm, creating a rainbow chain. Red is worth 25 points, yellow 10 and blue 2, but if you get three colours in a row it’s a rainbow string that doubles the overall points and if you get all rainbow strings in a row it doubles again and red is a fire- earth monkey and yellow is air and blue is water so if you pick up the colour that matches your elemental sign you’re off to a good start and there are as many ways to play the Game as there are players and the only rules are there are no rules and once you know that you’re ready to play the Game. BOM CREW Acquired from 304 © copyright 2001 305 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION In becoming familiar with magical ideas, reading books, the TAZ, the Temporary Autonomous Zone where the players learning symbol systems and correspondences, one comes get to shed their skins and hard regrets and tune into the NRG to learn the ‘game rules’ of magic. Like any other game, the rules define the framework of activity. For a game to be bouncing off each other, free of fear, the great social worthwhile, its rules must be flexible, open to different conditioner, stark raving mad and we’ve all lost the plot and interpretations, and allow for different needs and situations. it’s only when you lose the plot that you truly GET IT. Monkeys Involvement with magical practice shows that the game rules barking like dogs changing form breaking down barriers, of Consensus Reality are more flexible, and have more carried away into the starry night and the music and the dancers loopholes than one may have originally thought.2 and a bobbing sea of smiles and every dog has it’s day and it’s A shooting star blazes through the cloudless sky as the own doof, too, you know. How could you forget the DOG pop and crackle of magic gum fills the air and Paula and Mel DAY DOOF, when ultra-high frequency music that only dogs lean forward with open mouths and hold up their monkey string could hear overlapped the trance and sent them into altered as a dog barks and rushes past and the crowd surges and groans states like the humans ... Dogs and monkeys, monkeys and with appreciation as the DJ kicks the vibe into overdrive here dogs—they’ve been with us at the parties right from start round at the heart of the doof, where the magic lies and everything is the tribal fires and as the vibe builds all across the world and timeless and eternal and in the flow, all kids at PLAY. the paradigm shifts and people let go of their fears and wake And then I’m off, shapeshifting with the music DNAing up to the age old ritual of the dance, they’ll be with us at the its way through the air and changing us from the inside out, end, too. Which is to say, all parties are the same. Not on the purging all the negativity and stress of the Old World Corporate outside, but at the core, where it really counts. In the MIX , Culture as we dance on the earth, off racing on hands and the group mind. The Vibe of the Tribe, where the FUN is and knees and barking mad chasing the dog and do you know how where it takes us to. Where the Barrelfull of Monkeys shake good it feels to get down and dirty and take on the form of a their thang. dog and sniff the air and smell the sweat and strange earthy smells and hear the music in modulating frequencies and run around with no fears and be free? In the heart of the doof lies 2 Phil Hine, Prime Chaos, New Falcon Publications, 1999, p.25. Acquired from 306 © copyright 2001 307 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION NUMBER OF PLAYERS a ute in the wet campground field, grass-skiing fine as you please on a Sunday afternoon when the dance floor floods and it turns A crew/cell/affinity group needs 5 people. Assign them into a real mudfest and we slip slide along to funk assed elemental roles, Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit and teach them electronica as the rain keeps coming down. about balance. Discover each others best skill and teach it to each other. Watch monkeys come and go from your crew as But the vibe lives on, a whole crowd can be swayed by the numbers ebb and swell through the Adventure, arm in arm and vibe of one mad fool dancing in the rain with a smile on his face big smiles on faces, united in madness. Always gather your core and the last desert island tuft of mud under his feet in a totally crew around you to initiate and close each venture, to integrate submerged swamp. And Jimmy knows Matt and Sia from the and grow from each surfing of the Novelty Wave. Planet Maya party years ago, the little Green Ant one out in the bush with the wonderful fluro artwork from the Japanese We’re deep in the MIX and it’s Psycorroboree 99 at the Equinox Trybe, where it rained again, curse of the Green Ant Bavarian Boy Scout Doof Camp in the Otways again and I’m Full Moon Parties stomping on the dirt and calling down the on a raft with Andy, Queen of the Ferals in an artificial lake, heavens, where Leon and I met Dr.13, the acid casualty DJ that playing down by the chill with the other monkeys, listening to could do the Rave Safe Chaos Ball in only 13 seconds, best of a urban disco grooves on a sunny afternoon. Andy and I are almost dozen bush doofers that passed by our van that all had difficulty taking each other’s heads off with the paddles and splashing with it. Every driver should have to complete the Rave Safe around as another dog goes by with a stick in his mouth and all Chaos Ball - the kid’s toy with shapes of stars and squares and the parties blur together. Idan’s parked next to Paul and Trish’s circles in - in under a minute or they shouldn’t be allowed to teepee, the one that got flooded at the same site at Alienation 2, drive, better than a breathalyser and more fun. The PLAY is in water slowly encroaching on the beanbags and everyone too the toys, you know, but the fun comes from within. stoned to move and Idan’s the boyfriend of Mel who knows Paula and was almost going to be my ride up to the party and And Dr.13 introduces me to Ken and Arwen, long time six degrees of separation doesn’t cut it, it’s more like three Earthcorians who meet Paul and Trish through us as all our degrees in the dirt banging doof scene, a real TRIBE of freaks lives intertwine around lost weekends and music and good united across space and time and long working weekdays by times with friends dancing in the bush, rail hail or shine and the dance. And Paula’s best friends with Mel and knows Jimmy, Trish’s hooking fluro hula hoops over the teepee as part of the whom I bump into when Nicole falls over him on the edge of never ending Rave Olympics and singing the ‘Buffalo the dance floor when she’s OFF it, which is most of the time Sunshine’ dance counterclockwise round the camp, which and later in the day Jimmy and I are carrying round light globes never fails to bring out a ray of sun if you stomp round chanting and breeding mad ideas as we wander through the crowd looking “buffalo sunshine buffalo sunshine buffalo buffalo buffalo for baking trays to strap to our feet so we can be towed along by sunshine!” and put your heart into it and believe in it like all Acquired from 308 © copyright 2001 309 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION good dances. And you haven’t seen the king of the phreaks till Is it possible that trance-dancing is one of the most basic you’ve seen Paul in his Purple People Eater costume with tiny forms of intentional suffering and conscious labor? Is it possible that such dancing, performed by the right people in felt dragon wings and unicorn horn and purple cartoon dragon the right way with the right intentions, is capable of suit standing on the roof of his four wheel drive with the producing exactly that same energy Gurdjieff believed bubblegun blowing out rainbow bubbles into the day as the Mother Nature needs from us? Could it be that the use of monkeys dash round with water pistol cannons shooting the psychedelics in conjunction with intensive dancing to certain specific rhythms, by a new breed of individuals, may be a local yokels all decked out in medieval armour. way to fill our cosmic obligation without the life-long NOW it’s Psycorroboree2000 and full on Excalibur extras spiritual training otherwise required?3 from the local re-enactment society are decked out in replica Medieval armour with swords and shields and they’re getting a rusting from the Sarge as he kamikazees by in his Colonel Blake army hat with fishing hooks and camo pants and thongs, beer belly hanging out proudly as his water pistol mows them down like a Monty Python Vietnam-Rave sketch. NOW it’s Planet Maya again, where the illusion of time and space melts out there on the dance floor as the whirling dervish energies melt the old world culture and feed a new type of mythology into being, a new type of human free from the imprints of the exoteric culture and the same all over the planet, peaking and pulsing on the dance floor, TURNED ON to the VIBE and radiating energy back in cosmic feedback loops to the planet and the stars above ... can you hear it? Gliding down the Murray River on a six foot discoball and it’s beautiful, shining against the muddy brown water as we float along one Earthcore at Moama, March ‘98, and I name it Kali and man it like, broke my heart to give it back when they found us glistening on the COSMIK PARTY (RAK RAZAM) water like the crash of an alien discotheque. Can you hear it? Party after party after party ... the music and the dance ... the secret is the dance...” 3 Jason Keehn, aka Cinammon Twist: http://www.duversity.org/archives/rave.html Acquired from 310 © copyright 2001 311 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION IMPORTANT in the middle of nowhere and it feels like home. Clae, Robin, Alyce, Helen and I are reading children’s books under a big Everyone has a piece of the puzzle. Everyone has a right to dark sky with a fire burning and Issac’s just travelled 80 km play the Game their own way, at their own pace, according to each way into Marree along the bumpy Oodnadatta track for whatever programming language they happen to be working with. Tim Tams and we’ve bitten them off at each end and are sucking And Diva Knievel and Nicole are there at S11 with the tea through them and don’t tell me this isn’t magic and a Big Blue Chimp, the giant five foot totem of the crew as it monkey’s Dreaming ‘cause it’s all too beautiful for words and blocks police batons and bursts at the seams, fighting against the sweet beat sounds of electro disco funk are rippling out on the Corporate Hive to shut down the World Economic Forum, a cloudless night as dozens of Mad Max ferals funk it up under chanting “The R-Evolution Starts @ the Funnybone!” and shooting stars as the fire organ bellows bursts of flame and playing Totem-Tennis on the lawn of the Crown Obsceno as everyone is a performer and everyone is Art and the MIX is the boys in blue look on and smile... And we’re bumping into melting into the flames and on to Earthdream2000 near Uluru people we know and losing others and meeting new ones for and the next party and the next and the next and the next and the Tribe and Glenn has gone home and Tim and Mandy are the next as we all come together. there at times with Phoebe and Brett and other times not, and we meet Clae and Robin and Al and Zoe and Martyn and Lou and Natalie’s wearing the Mexican wrestling mask and Arwen’s got the Donald Duck inflatable round her waist that first got broken in at Transelements 3 in a nude run across the dance floor and NOW: it’s Yellowcake 98/Anti Uranium party and Syl is there, mad French Syl in his Kaptain Khaos superhero costume—green and blue tights with polka dot cape—selling mescaline cactus freeze dried in the Oslo backbackers in St. Kilda and transferred to little bags at ten bucks a pop and it makes you go all telepathic and sink into the electronic swamp music as it buzzes round and I’m melting into Clae’s head and he into mine and all the boundaries are shifting, surfaces intersecting, the envelope is pushing against the organic edge of the unknown and Syl is passing another joint and NOW: it’s Earthdream 99 at Lake Eyre on Aboriginal land and we’re NUEARTHDREAM (RAK RAZAM) Acquired from 312 © copyright 2001 313 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION And everyone knows everyone, eventually, inevitably, and HOW TO SCORE the monkeys have lost it so we’ve got it and it’s all Planet Once you have your rhythm, you can ride the Flow. Bob, it’d be so much easier to remember names if everyone Everything becomes grist for the mill. All things are good. was a Bob and if only there was a hand signal to say I recognize Everything becomes a learning experience, a GAME. The your face in the crowd and it gives me great pleasure to see universe is an interactive software mirror that reflects whatever you again and I don’t remember your name but have a great you give it. It feeds us NRG to help us grow, even negative day and I’m sure we’ll see each other again, and there can be situations challenge our Browser preference settings to polish a word for it if we invent it and the whole crowd’s a canvas our rough edges till there aren’t any left, no hooks to snag the making ART... We’re developing a new way of telling time steady flow of NRG. All ideas create reactions which affect through STORIES, see, like the Dreamtime. No need for years, the physical canvas. Ideas breed negative entropy, something just remember the cultural legend of the PARTY, all of them from nothing. The GAME replicates in the void. The Rules all over the world, what happened at each and what music was change a lot, but the end goal is always the same: FUN. played, what psyberdelics you took, the ideas you had and the What was it Terence McKenna said, way back in the chill ART that went down. Get as much of it recorded for out zone at Transelements 2, doing his spoken word riffs against transmission into the global datasphere and sell your exploits a muted theremin (electronic musical instrument) backdrop, as ART to pay for more creative living that will shape the glaring fluro sarongs splattered with Oms and stars and DNA fashion of mainstream culture and THE LOVE OF ART prints and suns and the more you look into them the more they SHALL SAVE THE EARTH!!! Because these are our personal open up like a thousand petalled lotuses blossoming in your histories, our stories, our dreamings. This is when we were head ? Ah yes: OFF it, when we lost the plot and found out what the story When you cease to believe that you’re Nobody and you begin was really about. When the physical, the mythical and the to believe that you might be Somebody, this is considered Dreaming all flowed together, outside time, in the party. Which, proof of severe mental disturbance, and you become a candidate for sedation at this point, because usually the as all hardcore pleasure terrorists know, the only time involved discovery that you’re Somebody excites you into with the doof is how long till the next one. inappropriate states of arousal, which means you interfere with other people’s being asleep, and you run around trying to inform them of the true nature of things ... The only conjuration against that developing into a problem is Humour. You have to have a completely jaundiced view of reality; you can’t take anything seriously, including your own most serious constructs and expectations, because it is ultimately some kind of joke.4 4 Terence McKenna, Archaic Revival, Harper Collins ‘fight Acquired from 314 © copyright 2001 315 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION I know I’m talking the sizzling beancurd here and I’m effects that are re-projected back onto the original reality canvas strung out and speeded up and maybe it’s that it’s all just and I’m trying to explain about feedback loops and nature and soundbytes linked together and going nowhere put perfectly how the sky is falling and the old world is changing, rapidly self contained like spiders on acid spinning silken circles in a changing all around us as the focused flight of a balloon crumbling memory bank losing the plot off and on forgetting punctuates the sky, rising up to wherever it is that balloons go what we’re talking about and falling into kodak moments all when they die and all of a sudden like a bolt out of the blue it around and strings of building synchronicities weaving over hits me that Mandy’s idea is the same as my idea just expressed the day and the night before in deep resonances and according to the level of the Player, which is drawn from data coincidences as the Game shows its source code like a quantum strands which have already been seeded in the fertile minds of hussy flashing a leg. a whole generation at the same time, that we’re all starting to It’s the year 2000 and I’m surrounded by friendly ferals get the same ideas and everyone thinks they had it first when at an urban doof TAZ in the back streets of Fitzroy, feeding its not linear, its lateral, everyone’s getting it at once, it’s what me bongs in the back of their van and sunning ourselves in the McKenna calls the Logos phasing in through us and the whole gutters without a care in the world and we’re talking the talk culture is one giant information engine pumping out new and meeting faces and forgetting names going round and round, programming code for the job ahead as the paradigm shift people meeting people in ebbs and flows of information accelerates and the world turns, shifting headspace gentle lap exchange like wave packets in the quantum foam and new of waves, magic magic magic language flowing like wine, faces and old faces and everyone looks familiar like old photos datastreaming pulsing all around till the brain’s just of ‘40s actresses and everyone has a special story and riffs off deconstructing reality feeds like a TV and propagating each other and if you ask them nicely at the right time of day immediate programming code metaphors of what’s going on or night their story becomes part of yours and vice versa and and then leapfrogging to the next nodal point, trying to ride everyone has an earliest memory to share and a facet you’ve the flow as long and lovely as it allows you to go before never seen to them before. Tim runs barefoot with the camera breaking into gibberish. And for a few brief moments of clarity up to the Black Elvis busking by the side of the road and I’m it all makes sense before it’s soundbyted into digestible packets having the same conversations over the course of the day with of the overall puzzle for individual heads and reduced to words; disparate people about the same shit, like crews and individual so we all contain unique information in billions strong parallel autonomy and elemental roles for each of the five members processing units called individuals that are starting to link up and Mandy’s explaining how she wants to capture live feeds and pool data and memes and melt together in the DOOF, in of reality at doofs and instantly autoremix and edit with digital the MIX of group consciousness out there on the dance floor and fuck me, does it feel GOOD! Acquired from 316 © copyright 2001 317 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART THREE — TECHNO-ASCENSION FOR PLAYING ALONE has to end then it might as well be with a party, I’ve always said. Off to my right that old drug pig Tsuyoshi is up there on Stop. Slow. Unfold. Find your place and grow in it. the decks with the Tek Crew, transmitting the party in live Express yourself to the best of your abilities and encourage streaming footage to other monkeys all across the globe and the same in those around you. Follow your heart. PLAY. You as the last party begins it overlaps through the quantum foam now have the Rules to the Game. Pass on. with the first and all the ones in between ... And we’re all >>>MONKEY ISLAND. DEC 21/2012. GPS/ 23* North there, monkeys, on the beaches of paradise and waiting to surf 74* West/ the BLUE ZONE>> the last wave of culture and dance in the new world order; and ...And I look out from my morphing, sapient banana we’re building human pyramids and wearing firemen hats and lounge and take a sip from my Mai-Tai with a disposable robo- big smiles and playing with all the dogs running into the surf umbrella with it’s LCD advertising screen and continue trying to catch disco bubbles in their mouths as we play the dictating into the GOODBOX tm, pulsing the Tribal history light fantastic and drink beer and smoke cigarettes and dance onto the group’s mental intranet, the thoughts transmitted by and talk the sizzling beancurd and we’ve all got the answer the data-bindis on our foreheads. Switching to HIVE mode I and it’s different for all of us but it’s the same thing and the can ‘hear’ the others in my head, louder now, the Vibe coming more words we have for it the deeper the GAME goes and the on strong like a digital spiderweb through the Network. We’re more it flows till you can almost see the edge of the barrel and coloured red and yellow and blue with bio-dyes to protect us this is IT, what we’ve all been waiting for … from the harsh UV rays here on Monkey Island as we set up the party area down by the beach. Giant Elvis holograms DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? pixillate together from a laser over the crowd and there’s this barrelfullofmonkeys@yahoogroups.com giant 30 foot transparent beachball with a dozen naked people in it rolling along in the foreshore of the waves just like the old Coca-Cola ad from the ‘70s except they’re breathing in FOXY-MDMA in a fine spray mist and elongating through the surf in slow-motion, golden late afternoon beats. People are doofing on the surface of the water through transmolecular technology, sinking into the bass, all of us friends and Tribe mates networked together through the years, now gathered for the party to end all parties, the ALOHA doof for the End of The World As We Know It And I Feel Fine tm! If the GAME Acquired from 318 © copyright 2001 319 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE Acquired from 320 © copyright 2001 321 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE May 1968 and France on the verge of anarchy... An CHAPTER ELEVEN— atmosphere of martial law in Paris and hundreds of factories occupied ... 140 American cities in flames after the killing PRACTICE RANDOM ACTS: of Martin Luther King... German and English universities occupied ... Hippie ghettoes directly clashing with the police RECLAIMING THE STREETS OF state ... The sudden exhilarating sense of how many people felt the same way ... The new world coming into focus ... AUSTRALIA1 The riots a great dance in the streets.2 Labour Party? Liberal Party? National Party? One Nation Party? Bugger the lot, let’s STREET PARTY!3 SUSAN LUCKMAN In the 1990s, one of the more interesting and contentious claims to have emerged from within dance music cultures (in particular those involved in raving per se as a personal and collective practice) is that it functions as a model of positive political action, opening up new spaces for joyous and non- oppressive experiences of both self and community. While progressive claims vis-a-vis electronic dance music practices should not be taken on face value, there certainly remain clear instances where contemporary dance musics, dance and the spirit of ‘carnivale’ have been employed strategically by diverse groups of activists both in Australia and overseas. As a vehicle for oppositional political movements, raving (or more specifically its music and dance), as a claiming of space—both physical and metaphysical—has provided a locus for creative oppositional activism in the nineties and beyond. Such activism RECLAIM THE STREET is perhaps exemplified by the Reclaim The Streets movement. DECEMBER 16 2000, NEWTOWN SYDNEY (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) 1 An earlier version of this paper was published as: “What are they raving on about?: 2 Christopher Gray, ‘Those Who Make Half a Revolution Only Dig Their Own Graves: Temporary Autonomous Zones and Reclaiming the Streets” in Perfect Beat 5.2, 2001, The Situationists Since 1969’, On the Poverty of Student Life. Situationist 49-68. With thanks to Graeme Turner, Graham St John, jj, RTS-Adelaide, Ken Miller, International. Brisbane: Brickburner P, 1981. 23-24. Karl-Erik Paasonen, the two readers of the Perfect Beat article, and the party ppl who 3 Massive, Critical Mass Sydney Newsletter October 1997: ‘fight the good fight’. http://www.nccnsw.org.au/member/cmass/resources/massive/oct97.pdf Acquired from 322 © copyright 2001 323 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE The esprit de corps felt at a good doof, rave or dance [t]he masks and voices of carnival resist, exaggerate, and party has commonly been associated with the carnivalesque, destabilize the distinctions and boundaries that mark and maintain high culture and organized society. It is as if the or as a sort of Bacchanalian festival. Thus, it is to the work of carnivalesque body politic had ingested the entire corpus of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin 4 that some high culture and, in its bloated and irrepressible state, released commentators (writers and/or participants) have been drawn it in fits and starts in all manner of recombination, inversion, in order to make sense of the experience. Writing in the specific mockery, and degradation. The political implications of this heterogeneity are obvious: it sets carnival apart from the context of the European night-time experience of the club, merely oppositional or reactive; carnival and the academic and DJ Hillegonda Rietveld compares raving to carnivalesque suggest a redeployment or counterproduction holidays, arguing that ‘nightlife is a moment in which the of culture, knowledge, and pleasure. In its multivalent established order is undone, where one can relax’.5 Rietveld oppositional play, carnival refuses to surrender the critical and cultural tools of the dominant class, and in this sense, firmly locates clubbing within consumer society. At the same carnival can be seen above all as a site of insurgency, and time, however, she does not undervalue the practices within not merely withdrawal.7 which she herself is heavily invested not only as a scholar but It is this more self-consciously oppositional and playfully as a practitioner. She proposes that those who live the life of postmodern spirit of carnival which has been seized upon by dance music as nocturnal release do not seek to criticise the the ‘Reclaim The Streets’ movement.8 status quo, but rather they wish to escape it. Further, in so doing they are acknowledging that ‘official culture’ cannot provide all the cultural identities the citizenry may require.6 Therefore people seek to fill this void themselves. Talking in a more general sense, Mary Russo reiterates Bakhtin’s contention that the space of the carnival is both a part of, as well as set apart from, the everyday life of dominant cultures. 7 Mary Russo, ‘Female Grotesques: Carnival and Theory’, in T de Lauretis (ed) Feminist 4 Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968. Studies/Critical Studies.. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986, 213-229. 5 Hillegonda Rietveld, ‘Living the Dream’. In Steve Redhead (ed) Rave Off: Politics 8 Elsewhere I have more critically engaged with Bakhtin’s idea of the carnival and the and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture, Aldershot and Brookfield: Avebury, debates regarding the potential ‘oppositionality’ of the festival. See: Luckman, S. ‘What 1993, pp. 41-78. are they raving on about?: Temporary Autonomous Zones and Reclaiming the Streets’ 6 Ibid. 65 in Perfect Beat 5.2 (2001): 49-68. Acquired from 324 © copyright 2001 325 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE ‘WHEN ROAD RAGE BECOMES ROAD RAVE’ – strips, public seating and parklands are being sold into private RECLAIM THE STREETS hands, and ‘undesirables’ are moved on by zealous security personnel. RTS seeks to derail this particular ideological Unlike Rietveld’s ravers who seek to temporarily flee into juggernaut, replacing it instead with a pedestrianised social hedonistic abandonment, those involved in reclaiming the streets space. In words posted to the Sydney RTS website: as a militant practice seek explicitly and deliberately to employ feelings of unfettered pleasure in the service of an oppositional Only if you visit a city like Venice, totally free of cars, do you really understand how relaxing a busy city can really be. critique of global capitalism. They employ the modalities of the Picture a car-free main street. A smooth quiet Light Rail carnivalesque in order to explore the possibilities thus presented running down the centre, a beautiful avenue of trees, luxurious for ‘an alternative social arrangement’.9 Drawing upon the long cycleways, widened footpaths, expansive outdoor cafes—the tradition of environmental protest and opposition to lifestyles best street in Sydney, an economic powerhouse, creating jobs and identities based upon the distraction of compulsory and a livable neighbourhood. Our politicians, councillors and bureaucrats have such limited vision. Let’s do it ourselves.10 consumption, ‘Reclaim The Streets’ (RTS) actions are unrehearsed, informal, illegal ‘guerrilla’ street festivals. They RTS protests seek to challenge and question the ordering are designed to challenge the industrialised world’s addiction of society’s priorities by presenting what for the participants to unsustainable transport practices which rely on polluting and at least is one possibility of a more pleasurable alternative: a non-renewable fossil fuels. society which embodies the freedom and shared sense of Cars are but the end-point of a whole global system, community of the festival. Participant Stephen Dixon offers controlled by oil-producing nations and the multi-national fuel the following explanation on his web site where he provides a corporations. This system employs environmentally destructive report on a Melbourne action in 1998: and human health threatening practices at every level of its Reclaim the Streets is a party with a purpose, a celebratory operation. RTS also draws attention to how local communities taking back of the street space, normally off limits to anyone are broken down through the individuating privatised space of who values their safety. Dominated by inefficient, noisy, polluting and dangerous machines, one third of our cities is the car, not to mention the attendant dominance of roads over devoted to cars. Unlike demonstrations or rallies, RTS is all other forms of public amenity. These roads represent dangerous about having fun, it is an experiment in what the world would and polluting arteries ironically dividing people from one be like without the omnipresent automobile that fills the air another. Further, RTS actions are also a response to the increasing with fumes, noise, fills our media with its image, warps our privatisation of public space in the industrialised world, where economy with its hunger for resources, and which is responsible for a quarter of a million deaths annually.11 even such previously accessible civil amenities as shopping 10 http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/sydneyrts/index.html 9 Rob Shields, ‘The “System of Pleasure”: Liminality and the Carnivalesque at 11 Stephen Dixon, ‘Reclaiming the Streets for People!’: Brighton’, Theory, Culture and Society 7.1 1990, pp.39-72. http://members.iinet.net.au/~rossmarg/sfp/rts.html Acquired from 326 © copyright 2001 327 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE The party is usually centred around a sound system and cars). Since the early 1990s the idea has spread with RTS thumping techno beats, hence the movement’s overt connection interventions having taken place in different cities and regions to the practice of raving. Subtly, it taps into what we can call a around the industrialised world. Globally, beyond Australia, meteorically risen community, united superficially around the actions have occurred in locations such as London, Bristol, East music and dance, but grounded more fundamentally in the Sussex, Cambridge, North Wales, Norfolk, Tottenham, Brixton, overlapping of shared ideological concerns.12 Brighton, Birmingham, Nottingham, Hackney, Ljubljana, Lyon, RTS emerged in its current form in London in 1995, where Utrecht, Berlin, Prague, Stockholm, Turku, Vancouver14 , the prolonged campaign against the further extension of the M11 Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and Tel Aviv. RTS actions motorway through suburban Claremont ‘placed the anti-road have also been organised in solidarity with other groups, such and ecological arguments of Twyford Down in an urban, social as was the case with London’s Trafalgar Square street party in context’.13 In the UK, it has grown and expanded alongside the April 1997 where around 10,000 people participated in solidarity high-profile anti-motorway protests which had begun to come with the striking Liverpool dockers. to the British public’s attention and attract broad-based support at around the same time. Opposition by ravers to the British Conservative government’s introduction of the controversial Criminal Justice Act further aided in facilitating the merging of contemporary dance music cultures and political action. RTS also has conceptual and ideological similarities with Critical Mass, a movement which seeks to draw attention to the value of bikes as modes of transport (especially as compared with 12 In a slightly different though not unrelated fashion, Jordan, writing on direct action politics in terms of RTS, writes that the performance of one’s politics which direct action represents re-centres the individual body in collective political and cultural practice: ‘Direct action takes the alienated, lonely body of technocratic culture and transforms it into a connected, communicative body embedded in society’. John Jordan , ‘The Art of Necessity: The Subversive Imagination of Anti-Road Protest and Reclaim The Streets’, in George McKay (ed) DiY Culture: Party & Protest in MUTANT INSECT MOBILE SOUND SYSTEM Nineties Britain. Ed. George McKay. London and New York: Verso, 1998, p.134. 13 Ibid, 140. While the first group to use this name emerged around 1991, most writers @ RECLAIM THE STREETS OCT 99, TOWN HALL SYDNEY cite 1995 (in the wake of the ultimately unsuccessful occupation of resumed houses (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) on Claremont Road in London which were marked for demolition in order to make way for an M11 link road), as a more accurate date from which to trace the origins of 14 A media release issued via internet discussion groups from the Direct Action Media the current incarnation of RTS. The article ‘The Evolution of Reclaim The Streets’ Network (DAMN) list and available from http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/archives/Apr98/ available from http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/evol.htm provides an excellent overview of 0305.html states the party which occurred in Charles Street, Vancouver on April 18, the origins of RTS in England during the 1990s. 1998 was the first RTS event to be staged in North America. Acquired from 328 © copyright 2001 329 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE In Australia, the southern hemisphere’s first Reclaim the Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Lismore, while kindred, Streets street party occupied Enmore Road, Newtown in Sydney though lesser scale and not distinctly RTS actions have occurred on November 1, 1997.15 Participants met at Lennox Street in in Canberra.18 Websites recording details or anecdotes of nearby Camperdown before moving out onto the ‘secret’ final Australian actions speak of numerous tactical strategies for destination. By all accounts, the ‘party with a purpose’ went off securing the road, many derived from direct action campaigns more or less to plan: the street was reclaimed, thus calling elsewhere. Foremost among these is the tripod which is not only attention—at least to passers-by—to the need for safer, more valuable as a means by which to ‘claim’ space and provide a socially and environmentally sustainable alternatives to the focal point for an action, but is a valued activist tool given its Australia’s car addiction. To the advertised sounds of DJs and portability and the fact that it provides a virtually instantaneous sound collectives/groups including Sub Bass Snarl: scaffold, providing a perch onto which to ‘lock-on’.19 …thousands blockaded the streets to traffic with 3 huge The style of RTS actions share a number of key features. bamboo tripods, erected a bizarre art installation sound tower Rather obviously but nonetheless worth noting, they are pumping out psychedelic dance music, built a permaculture garden in the middle of the road and had an all day street basically an urban occurrence; they bring to the city or town party in the liberated zone—dancing, playing street cricket, many techniques, such as the previously noted tripod structures, reading the Weekend Papers and generally hanging out in a first employed in rural environmental anti-logging or anti- safe, friendly care free environment.16 development/road protests. While there is clearly no formal Befitting its size, Sydney has been arguably the major hub membership system or ‘party line’, RTS events are not totally of RTS activism in Australia with around nine mass street spontaneous. At some point a group of people have to take it parties being held in RTS’s name as of February 2001. Sydney’s upon themselves to become a necessarily clandestine RTS alliances also draw upon the city’s legendary ‘free party’ organising collective in order to undertake such tasks as scene and its historical status as the gay/lesbian/queer dance deciding on a date, time, and location at which to meet, and to capital of Australia, as exemplified in the Hordern Pavilion organise such necessities as a sound system, street signs, and, dance parties of the 1980s.17 Elsewhere in Australia, RTS street ideally, legal support, police liaison and media contact people. parties have become a part of the political landscape in 15 Massive, Critical Mass Sydney Newsletter October 1997: 18 On Sunday, June 11 2000 a ‘critical mass style’ bike ride took off from Garema Place http://www.nccnsw.org.au/member/cmass/resources/massive/oct97.pdf in the City to ‘reclaim the streets of Canberra’, and in opposition to a V8 Supercar 16 http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/sydneyrts/previous.html race also held in central Canberra that weekend: http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/ 17 For more information see: Andrew Murphie and Edward Scheer, ‘Dance Parties: ultimate/2000-June/000897.html Capital, Culture and Simulation,’ in Philip Hayward (ed) From Pop To Punk To 19 Such as is often done with a bike ‘D-lock’ encircling a person’s neck. The dangerously Postmodernism: Popular Music and Australian Culture From the 1960’s to the 1990’s, precarious nature of such a situation makes police removal of the person on the Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992, 172-184. structure a slow and considered affair. Acquired from 330 © copyright 2001 331 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE In a strategic move akin to the system for getting people to the Pretty soon the whole street was grooving to the funky sounds now mythic original illegal raves in the UK, the final destination of the main PA, while the smaller ‘chill’ PA pumped out some very danceable hip-hop & dancehall reggae. The third is not identified. Rather a gathering place is advertised and people PA was for live acts, & being on a hill it was ideal for sitting in the know are told to be cued in one way or another to connect under the shadecloth to watch. The music was varied, a bit with others there for the party. Then the group moves out onto a of everything to keep the diverse gathering happy.20 road and marches on towards the final party site. Once the road Clearly, not all sites can support an event on this scale. site has been secured, the party begins. The Sunshine State’s (Queensland’s) three RTS actions have Attention turns now to getting music happening. Generally been centred around a more modest single sound system this involves moving a sound system and generator into the pumping out techno, house, drum ‘n bass and trance vibes (as street and getting it running. If the amplified system is either well as impromptu acoustic support). At the second Bribane confiscated or otherwise ineffectual, the party’s soundtrack event (May 16, 1998), even this single system did not really may be provided acoustically by the participants themselves. fire up, with the police moving in on the relatively small crowd Through either fate or design, RTS events do not compulsorily fairly early on in the event, their energies focussed on involve amplified music. Eyewitness reports and other forms confiscating the equipment which was eventually removed— of textual evidence point to their significance at other actions supporting car, trailer and all. It is at times such as these that also. Drums can pound out a uniting dance beat both in the the back-up option of percussive beats really comes into its absence of, or alongside, electronically generated aural stimuli. own. This said, however, the first Brisvegas party—powered Further, the types used tend to be highly portable as such by ‘road-rashin’ car-bashin’ stompin music’ provided by DJs provide an accompaniment which can confound even the most Phil from Namshub of Enki and Ben Abrahams—kicked on committed police attempts to close the party down. They are into the evening when the party moved off the road and into a also cheaper than a sound system to replace should the police nearby park.21 Melbourne events have also taken similar turns impound them. such as at the March 28, 1998 Victoria/Lygon Streets action Local dance crews and DJs are the key source of the non- which saw the street party adjourning into the Flagstaff Gardens acoustic vibes; with a big party, in a relatively secure space, with the approach of darkness: road rave becomes free events can even branch out to become substantial dance community doof. Adelaide’s first party in March 2000 went festivals in their own right. Sydney has seen a number of such off with the help of the Labrats sound system, plus tunes events including one on Sunday, February 22 1998, on a scale provided by two DJ areas, ‘live music ranging from african described by a first-time RTSer: 20 Alister Ferguson, ‘Reclaim the Streets’, Ausrave-Digest v1 n538, ausrave- digest@spectrum.com.au 26/2/98 21 Andrew Wood, Ausrave posting March 24, 1998. Acquired from 332 © copyright 2001 333 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE drummers to punk rock bands, [alongside a] permaculture Music itself is obviously a vital part of the RTS vibe: display and a warm happy glow all round’.22 Ultimately, while music has a unifying power. It enables the reclamation of the evolution of RTS actions is unmistakably entwined with aural space. In the words of music theorist Robin Balliger, that of the rave/doof scene, the music generated at the events ‘[m]usic is hardly just sound that is passively listened to, but is in no way obliged to be electronic dance-inspired. a sonic force that acts on bodies and minds and creates its Once in place and manifesting divergent levels of own life rhythms; rhythms that power recognizes and tries preparation, punters set about beautifying and reclaiming the to monopolize through a relentless domination of societal street for the use of people (as distinct from vehicles). Some noise’. 24 Therefore, music’s unique properties ‘can be may bring whistles, cushions, rugs, paint and food, others employed as a powerful counter-hegemonic device that goes games to play (frisbees and hackysacks being popular choices) beyond thought to being. Music as socially organized use- or trees to plant. For Adelaide’s next party, the plan is to create value is a threat to the individuated, consumption-oriented a ‘really laid back sort of affair, lots of acoustic acts and desiring machine of advanced capitalism’.25 She reinforces poetry’.23 To this list of fun and games we can also add: this initial argument, asserting that ‘[s]ound or P.A. systems firedancing (a quintessentially Australian subcultural activity may create an internal spatiality or ‘temporary autonomous which backpackers and activists are slowly bringing to other zone’, but through them music can traverse and challenge corners of the globe); volleyball; skate areas; video projections; spatially organized social divisions’.26 Creating, a larger, net surfing; street art; kids spaces; lounge furniture; rugs, and unified TAZ; beyond yet also within the individual. ambient chill-out areas. Police responses are perhaps the greatest variable in the whole equation; they vary depending on the location, the degree of disruption caused by the event, the seniority and predisposition of the police personnel involved, and the attitudes exhibited by those involved in the protest action. Police ‘tolerance’ wore thin for example when a Sydney RTS action (March 18, 2000) moved from the CBD onto roadway near the Eastern Distributor tollbooths—thus not only interrupting traffic but also, directly, commerce. 24 Robin Balliger, ‘Sounds of Resistance’, in Ron Sakolsky and Fred Wei-han Ho (eds) Sounding Off!: Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution.. New York: Autonomedia, 1995. 13-26. 22 RTS-Adelaide, private correspondence. 25 Ibid. 23. 23 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 24. Acquired from 334 © copyright 2001 335 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONES Reclaim the Streets does not make demands on someone else, such as the government. We want direct action to be Music and dance are an essential element in RTS actions, seen as the norm, the standard way to take action. It’s more but in terms of protest movements this is hardly a new thing. than just a transport campaign. The Left continue to debate Street theatre, music (particularly drumming) and singing are among themselves rather than take action. RTS is not for armchair chats but for those who want real change. I’d like established and valued vehicles for oppositional action to see RTS broaden, and to see people take action to end the alongside, and generally subservient to, the more conventional growth economy. It’s not reformist, it’s essentially protest march and speaker list. However RTS uses music and revolutionary.27 dance as its primary focus; no (or few) speeches are made, Del may well have gotten his wish. Since the publication and the actions ideally seek to claim positive space, only being of his words in 1995 the industrialised world has indeed seen oppositional or negative to the degree that they hope to draw the emergence of a trans-national coalition of activists opposing attention to society’s deficits through positive example. There the unfettered growth of the global economy; a movement are exceptions to this. RTS protests/festivals are linked through whose primary targets are the seemingly all-powerful, their participants and aims, to wider political struggles, in unelected IEOs. particular, activism in the industrialised world specifically In a structure common to many contemporary political directed at meetings of global trade organisations. RTS affiliations (such as S11), ‘Reclaim The Streets is more a protesters were active at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) collection of techniques of operation and a series of points of protests in Seattle, as they also were at similar protests in potential intersection than a specific definable London, Davos, Washington, Prague and the 2000 Asia-Pacific organization’.28 Writer Sandy Newman takes this even further gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Melbourne and in so doing neatly captures the capacious sense of collective (‘S11’). Indeed, these protests represent a logical progression purpose that underpins what for the media and elite IEOs at from the more narrowly conceived RTS actions and as such least, is an apparently unfathomable and disorganised rabble: are a testament to their success in initiating a new cohort of people into direct activism. As the size and frequency of the global movement against large IEOs (International Economic Organisations) grows, given RTS’s activist foundations, I envisage it will become even more overtly tied to, or blended into, these more focussed political— frequently carnivalesque—eruptions. As ‘Del’, a British RTS 27 Quoted in Natalie Moxham, ‘Because Cars Can’t Dance’ Arena Magazine 20, campaigner, states in an article for Arena Magazine, 1995-96, 7-9. 28 Matthew Fuller, ‘On The Road’, American Book Review, 18.3 (1997): 3 & 5. Acquired from 336 © copyright 2001 337 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE There is always a great deal of mystification, real or Methodologically, the ‘spontaneous’ urban guerilla-style pretended, about the purpose of these street parties. They tactics informing RTS and other road protest practice are often are, in Montevideo as in London, protests against whatever individual protesters don’t like. With a modest printing compared to the ideas espoused by the Situationiste budget and a website, anyone can organise one. Pick a time Internationale (SI), and this is a connection acknowledged by and place, advertise a street party, invite absolutely everyone. some punters and commentators, though the exemplary The willingness to party in the street seemingly in every indication of this connection must be ‘Madchester’s’ Haçienda case implies a certain political agenda, which is broadly green, anti-state, anti-capital. They take advantage of the nightclub itself.30 Naomi Klein in her popularly received book existence of a leftist personality, organised by some natural No Logo declares RTS ‘the most vibrant and fastest-growing or cultural force, to replace any necessity for a party line or political movement since Paris 68’.31 Later, the comparison is a rally or a series of speakers. We all know what it’s all demonstrated explicitly in a discussion of the RTS event held about. And: if you have to ask, there’s no point explaining.29 on the M41 in London: It is also important to note that the RTS movement is not Two people dressed in elaborate carnival costumes sat thirty only an umbrella concept under which to organise and loosely feet above the roadway, perched on scaffolding contraptions connect mass actions. If it were a ‘dot.com’ company, the RTS that were covered by huge hoop skirts … The police standing by had no idea that underneath the skirts were guerilla name would be a valuable commodity in a market where gardeners with jackhammers, drilling holes in the highway product awareness is everything. As an anti-capitalist vehicle, and planting saplings in the asphalt. The RTSers—die-hard the name is clearly without copyright, free to be used by anyone Situationist fans—had made their point: ‘Beneath the seeking a focus for their actions. To this end, an unquantifiable tarmac...a forest’, a reference to the Paris 68 slogan, ‘Beneath number of smaller scale protests are also conducted in its name; the cobblestones ... a beach’.32 these may simply be graffiti runs, or, more practically and innovatively, the professional quality painting up of new 30 The Situationist call, ‘The haçienda must be built’, was deliberately evoked at the bikepaths on roadways overnight. opening of the famous Manchester’s club, which, though now sold off to be made into bourgeois apartments, symbolises the heady days of acid house in the UK. Additionally, the SI have emerged as a point of reference in informal conversations I have had with people both at and about RTS actions (sometimes in connection with Bey’s idea of the TAZ), and a quick search of internet sites where RTS is discussed will reveal a similar trend. More tangential links also occur in relation to the closely related anti-capitalist technique of ‘culture jamming’ (as détournement) in Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age, London and New York: Routledge, 1992, and with regard to the frequently utopian imagery around raves in Steve Reynolds, ‘Rave Culture: Living Dream or Living Death?’ in Steve Redhead (ed.) The Clubcultures Reader: Readings in Popular Cultural Studies, Blackwell: Oxford, 1997. 29 Sandy Newman, ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’, American Book Review 21.1, 1999, 31 Naomi Klein, No Logo, London: Flamingo (HarperCollins), 2000, 312. 14.14. 32 Ibid, 313. Acquired from 338 © copyright 2001 339 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE The SI are perhaps best known for their involvement in approach similar to that arguably employed by RTS in regard the 1968 ‘Paris uprising’ when a student uprising provided the to an appreciation for the degree to which the industrialised trigger for wider political unrest including a general strike, world is collectively immersed within a commercial apparatus but the SI were active over a far greater period than this.33 capable, indeed which thrives on, the recuperation—or Underlying all SI action and thought was a commitment to the ‘discovery’—of new trends, oppositional or otherwise. In the basic premise that the everyday and art should not be two words of Sadie Plant: mutually exclusive spheres of social life. Peter Marshall, in [t]he most radical of gestures is indeed vulnerable to his extended history of anarchism, offers the following integration, and expressions of dissent are often deliberately summary of the key premise underpinning the SI: fostered as political safety-valves. But the situationists were convinced that none of this precludes the possibility of Under capitalism, the creativity of most people had become evading, subverting, and interrupting the processes by which diverted and stifled, and society had been divided into actors effective criticism is rendered harmless.36 and spectators, producers and consumers. The Situationists therefore wanted a different kind of revolution: they wanted Situationism has long been critiqued for its elitist the imagination, not a group of men, to seize power, and intellectual avant gardeism, and it would be easy to dismiss poetry and art to be made by all. Enough! they declared. To the RTS movement by tarring it with the same brush. Certainly hell with work, to hell with boredom! Create and construct the eternal festival.34 the vast majority of the participants have at least a cursory level of higher educational experience and uphold elements, To these ends, such artistic ‘actions’ or ‘moments’’would at least on some level, of a classic leftist platform. But RTS’s ‘take place in quotidian, everyday uses of the city and its ‘artistic’ eruptions foreground embodiment and sensory buildings’35; an idea which has clear resonances with the pleasure, pushing aside for the moment at least an intellectual methodologies of contemporary ‘Reclaim The Streets’ activists, or theoretical approach to oppositional consciousness raising. thus explaining at least in part the appeal of the SI and its Furthermore, while the intent ≠may fall far short of being ideas to this later cohort of urban critics. Additionally, the SI’s realised in practice, RTS events—like the ideal rave/doof upon approach to ‘the Spectacle’ was demonstrative of a subjective which they are based—aim to be inclusive and to embrace all- 33 Formed in 1957, the SI brought together a number of like-minded artists and comers. Not everyone is interpellated by this particular intellectuals excited by such avant garde movements as those inspired by Dada, Surrealism and Lettrism. The Lettrist International, lead by Guy Debord, merged at manifestation of the spirit of carnivale, nor do they feel able this time with another group, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus to approach a group of people who do tend to be young, well- (MIBI), and it is from this union that the SI rose. 34 Peter Marshall, Peter, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, London: educated, largely (but certainly not exclusively) white, Fonatana, 1993, 550. generally dressed in at least a moderately non-conformist 35 Elisabeth Sussman, ‘Introduction’, in E. Sussman (ed) On the Passage of a Few People Through A Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 36 Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a 1957-1972, Cambridge (US) and London: MIT Press, 1989, 2-15. Postmodern Age, London and New York: Routledge, 1992, 75. Acquired from 340 © copyright 2001 341 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE manner and claiming space by means of body shaking beats. Romantically drawing inspiration from the ‘mini- But many are, including many people I have been surprised to societies’, positioned physically outside of the control of nation see ‘come to the party’, having made the sort of glib assessment states, which functioned as home bases for the ‘sea-rovers and we make everyday on the basis of highly problematic corsairs’ or, as they are more commonly referred to, pirates of stereotypes. the eighteenth century, Bey hopes that it is possible for people Another way in which the raving-based RTS may avoid in this day and age where everything appears to be mapped the orthodoxies and other pitfalls of Situationist tactics as and ‘discovered’, to find, at least temporarily, ‘free enclaves’.40 espoused by the SI is that for many of the dance music scene’s Drawing as he does on the ideas of key figures in critical theory participants interested in such ideas, their understanding of and other intellectual fields,41 Bey’s prose is perhaps a classic the SI and its raison d’etre comes filtered through the writings of ‘ontological anarchist’ Hakim Bey. Bey, and his musings on what he coins the ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’ (or TAZ), have themselves achieved something of a mythic status in rave/ doof circles. First performed and broadcast as a spoken word performance in 1990, Bey’s prose espouses a call for people to seek out and occupy those spaces which have fallen through the ‘net’ of governmental or corporate systems of regulation.37 While making a quick nod to the Situationists and their ideas, he prefers not to ‘fetishise the Leftism of 68’.38 Ever the existential explorer, he notes in a fashion which provides some insight into his own approach that the ‘Situationists can be criticized for ignoring a certain “spirituality” inherent in the self-realization & conviviality their cause demands’.39 RECLAIM THE STREETS KING ST SYDNEY, 1998 PEACE BUS SOUND SYSTEM 37 In this regard at least, Bey’s essay bares some similarity to the more academically (PHOTO. PETER STRONG) minded examination of the desire to find ‘cracks’ through which to ‘escape’ in Stanley Cohen and Laurie Taylor’s Escape Attempts: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life, London: Routledge, 1992. 40 Ibid, 97-99. 38 Hakim Bey, T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic 41 Saussurian semiotics, Hegel, Fourier, the SI, Bataille, Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard, Terrorism. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1991, 81. Thoreau, Bakunin, Nietzsche, McLuhan, Virilio, the Surrealists, Baudrillard, Foucault, 39 Ibid, 81. Kropotkin, and Chomskyan linguistics are all invoked in the essay. Acquired from 342 © copyright 2001 343 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE example of the sort of thing Russo had in mind when she among communities of activists. In my experiences as both a expressed reservations regarding the fact that what ‘has come participant and observer at S11 in Melbourne, RTS Brisvegas to be called “theory” has constituted [itself as] a kind of carnival and other large-scale blockades/protests in Australia, the space’ taking licenses stylistically.42 It certainly says something strategic use of the carnivalesque (music, dance, games, about the community of people involved in such things as RTS performance, theatricality and the like) at militantly that significant numbers of them are able to make any sense of oppositional protests does provide participants with a welcome such a intellectually intertextual document in the first case. I and necessary positive break from the more direcly do not have the space here to do justice to his writings. Nor do confrontational action. This is especially so for those who I want to leave you with the idea that I uncritically accept engage in NVDA blockading, of which RTS could be them and the utopia they theoretically offer, but in terms of considered an undisciplined form. the object under discussion in this chapter—the RTS A similar point is developed by playwright and dramaturge movement—Bey’s words resonate with a group on the whole Silvija Jestrovic with regard to the use of street theatre and marked by its cultural capital, which is arguably actively performance in Yugoslav citizen’s protests in the 1990s against attempting to find a praxis informed by their exposure to ideas the Milosevic government. Beyond its value as a means by and skills at university. To put it in Harawayian terms: that which to productively focus and organisationally channel many RTS participants wish to explore in practice the participant’s energies, she additionally avers the value of theoretical possibilities they have encountered as theory could elements of the festival or carnival as a valuable self- be construed as a form of situated knowledge; the use, rather preservation mechanism: ‘[t]he theatricality of political protest than denial, of the tools at hand, imperfect though they may has a protective quality, at times transforming the scene of be. To this end, Bey’s prose at least metaphorically fashions a collision and potential violence into a space of play’.43 The means by which to set about the task. sort of violence faced in those moments is something which While, as one friend cynically commented to me, a TAZ even ‘hardened protesters’, a discourse which seeks to palliate is only briefly the thing you have before the police arrive, a the depersonalisation required for a dominant reading of images successful RTS action enthuses and re-energises those present. of ‘violent protests’, need to be able to personally work through. RTS and other like actions are valuable as a politically As such, the discharge of anger and/or other feelings does not sustaining force for the individuals involved. The release inherently need to lead to the divesting of all counter- offered by fun and/or festive political actions can serve as a hegemonic energies, just as ‘debriefing’ is seen as a productive, circuit breaker in the cycles of ‘burn-out’ commonly identified not eviscerating process. 43 Silvija Jestrovic, ‘Theatricalizing Politics/Politicizing Theatre’, Canadian Theatre 42 Russo, ibid, 221. Review, 103 2000, 42-46. Acquired from 344 © copyright 2001 345 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE In an ironic twist, the accessibility and less ascetic demands ‘dance activism’ makes upon its participants, has politically reanimated a significant minority of young people in the industrialised world who have been systemically disenfranchised by hostile politico-civic discourses which have scapegoated young people, turning the phrase ‘youth’ into ‘a significant category for “disciplining” in social policy’.44 The stylish appeal of such actions is not inherently a negative for RTS, indeed it is something to be explicitly exploited in the service of a desire to build a wider movement. Such ludic modus operandi have revitalised direct action politics at a time when discourses proclaiming widespread political apathy, the ‘death of socialism’ and the so-called ‘crisis in the left’, not to mention the meme of ‘political correctness’ which has been successfully employed to marginalise or simply deride progressive voices in the industrialised world, have been repeated so often they have become naturalised. Reclaim The Streets and similar actions mark a renewed visibility of and popularity for direct action which never actually went away, but which in the 1990s in countries such as Australia, had mainly been identified as the sole province of ‘extremist’ environmental and/or anti- militarist—‘single-issue’—campaigns. Leaving the last word to Sydney party people: shunning ‘[o]ld forms of political dissent—the demonstration, the march, the rally’ which reduce participants to ‘passive observers of a “spectacle”. The Street Party is a grassroots celebration of direct action and street-level democracy, empowering, exciting and joyful!’45 44 Steve Redhead, The End-Of-The-Century Party: Youth and Pop Towards 2000, Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1990, 87. 45 Massive, Critical Mass Sydney Newsletter October 1997: http://www.nccnsw.org.au/member/cmass/resources/massive/oct97.pdf Acquired from 346 © copyright 2001 347 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE CHAPTER TWELVE— From September 11-13 2000, Crown Casino in Melbourne was the venue for the Asia-Pacific meeting of the World CARNIVAL AT CROWN CASINO: Economic Forum. During these three days, thousands of people did their best to get in the way, in a blockade organised by a S11 AS PARTY AND PROTEST loose alliance of critics of corporate-led globalisation which called itself S11. Looked at from one perspective, the blockade wasn’t much KURT IVESON AND SEAN SCALMER fun. While only 20 or so protesters were arrested, 400 claimed that they had been injured by police, and 50 required hospital treatment of some kind. There was a systematic removal of police identification badges, frequent baton charges, and continual intimidation. Even when police were not attempting to smash their way through pickets, a general sense of threat permeated the gathering. Large numbers of Victorian police moved around the Casino in formation, some on horseback, and the police helicopters which hovered overhead produced a menacing aural backdrop. On the last day of the protest, one participant remembered that she was ‘dragged along Spencer Street by my hair, dodging vicious kicks and thumps’. Another was run over by an unmarked police vehicle, which sped off leaving her and her comrades in its wake.1 S11 PARADE INTO MELBOURNE (SHUTUPANDSHOP.ORG) 1 For an account of injuries and police actions by a legal observer, see: Damien Lawson, ‘Copping it at S11’, Overland, no. 161, Summer 2000, pp.14-16. For the account of a participant dragged by police, Geogina Lyell, ‘Bruises’, Overland, no. 161, Summer 2000, p.17. Acquired from 348 © copyright 2001 349 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE However, if the conflict between police and protesters raises ‘EVERYONE IS A JOURNALIST’—CYBERSPACE AND S11 a number of important questions, it does not exhaust the The creation of independent media has been central to experience, range, invention, or significance of the S11 protest. contemporary DiY culture and activism in Australia. As Kath Typically, at around the same time as the hit-and-run by police, Williamson and other contributors to this collection have four activists ran a lap of the Casino in the buff, to the delight and noted, activists have invented and circulated alternative and cheers of many on-lookers. Over the three days of the blockade, oppositional values in zines, on community radio, and through violence, trepidation and excited dramatic display coexisted in e-lists and internet sites. The skills developed in these this shifting, paradoxical, unstable way. Even journalists employed by the mainstream media were forced to concede that flourishing alternative media were put to very effective use a kind of political carnival was unfolding. Elizabeth Wynhausen by members of the S11 Alliance. Indeed, the S11 web-site— of The Australian called it a ‘sort of carnival of the left’ (12/9/ www.s11.org—was a fundamental part of the campaign to 2000, p. 4). Damien Carrick of ABC Radio postulated a similar shut down the WEF meeting at Crown Casino.2 So how was view in his report on the morning of September 11 for AM: the internet was used by S11 activists? What were the various It’s quite interesting, it oscillates between a carnival, and … protest-practices constructed through cyberspace? you have ten foot puppets, you have twenty foot dragons, all sorts of colourful drumming, and what have you. The fountains in front of Crown Casino, which are quite enormous, have been filled with detergent, so as we speak there are clouds of bubbles wafting over the street. But then every now and again the atmosphere turns when buses or cars try to enter, and the protest becomes quite serious and the atmosphere changes quite dramatically. And then five, ten minutes later it changes back again, so the atmosphere is really quite strange. In this chapter, we focus on these more irreverent and pleasurable aspects of S11. We trace the carnivalesque nature of the blockade as it unfolded in both urban space and cyberspace. We document its debt to the tactics and techniques developed by DiY collectives at the fringes of Australian dance and youth cultures. Finally, we pose the pressing question— BENNY ZABLE AT S11 can such carnivalesque gatherings represent an effective form (PHOTO. TESS PENI) of protest against global capitalism? 2 At the time of writing, this web-site is still archived at its original address. The web address was also used to promote protests/festivities on May 1 2001. Acquired from 350 © copyright 2001 351 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE Most obviously, the S11 website was used to disseminate an hierarchical mode of political organisation. The basic unit of alternative perspective on the WEF meeting. The site provided a the S11 Alliance was the ‘affinity group’—defined as a comprehensive critique of the WEF, and exposed some of the ‘workable size group from which creative, inspiring and dealings of corporations involved in the Melbourne meeting. autonomous actions can spring, either spontaneously or pre- Radical standpoints on issues such as globalisation, mining, planned’. Through the website, a wide range of protesting tips sweatshops, human rights and climate change were articulated. for these groups were offered, covering issues such as the legal Links to the web pages of other organisations involved in rights of protesters, health and safety, and the layout of Crown campaigns against corporate capitalism were provided. Casino. In the weeks before September 11, the site was Some activists took steps to ensure that the message on regularly up-dated with the latest information on the blockade, the web reached a wider audience. In late June 2000, a still and notices of preliminary events taking place in Melbourne unknown group hacked into the official Nike web-site, and and elsewhere were posted. Artwork for stickers, posters and browsers were automatically redirected to the S11 Alliance leaflets was freely available through the web-site for anyone site. Over the next 19 hours, www.s11.org received almost who wished to download and disseminate such material. The 900,000 hits. The international and national media were meaning and importance of non-violent direct action was astounded, fascinated. Both brief reports and sustained analyses carefully articulated for all those who planned to take part. followed (Herald Sun, 26/6/2000, p.9; Sydney Morning Herald, Of course, this organisational information was available E)MAG, 9/2000, pp.18-22). Less adventurously, but in a similar to anyone who found their way to the website, regardless of vein, ‘cyber-warriors’ supporting S11 set up a site using the whether they were sympathetic to the protest against the WEF name ‘Melbourne Festival’ as well as sites that aimed to attract meeting. Journalists and police alike referred to the S11 website those mistyping ‘Olympics’—<olympisc.com>—or searching as a means of undermining the protest. In an almost parodic for the ‘Melbourne Trading Post’— performance of investigative research, critics of the WEF <melbournetradingpost.com>. In all of these cases, surprised protest continually re-publicised information openly available browsers were faced with announcements on the protest action, at www.s11.org as if it were part of a secret, sinister plot. analysis, and links to further information. Both electronic Internet communications were used by authorities as evidence browsers and newspaper readers soon learnt more about the of a planned invasion of British anarchists (Sydney Morning anti-WEF actions. Herald, 7/8/2000, p.4). The Herald-Sun used information But the dissemination of alternative perspectives on the garnered from S11’s web-site to summon outrage at the WEF was not the only function of www.s11.org. It was also involvement of high-school students in the campaign (18/7/ used as an organisational tool. The web-site was used as a 2000, p.7). Gerard Henderson thought that there was ‘reason vehicle to explain and promote a decentralised and non- for genuine concern’ that the protest would become violent. Acquired from 352 © copyright 2001 353 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE He also thought that the S11 web-site explained why (Sydney flooded an affiliated website, while protesters defended the Morning Herald, 5/9/2000, p.12). Andrew Bolt quoted from song as ‘the people’s anthem’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 25/8/ apparent S11 chat-sites in order to argue that protesters planned 2000, p.3). When Farnham’s distaste for the protest became for violence (Herald Sun, 31/8/2000, p.18). In late August, obvious, fellow rock-veteran Ross Wilson offered his own Sydney Morning Herald journalists noted that the S11 Alliance song, ‘No Soul’, as an alternative (Australian, 31/8/2000, p.5). had posted a list of ‘essential items to bring to the planned The motives of S11 activists are open to question on this blockade’, and they highlighted the advice to bring ‘gasmasks, matter. Publicly, their commitment to the ‘You’re the Voice’ helmets, goggles and energy snacks’ (30/8/2000, p.5). Imre was unwavering and seemingly ingenuous. Officially, the Salusinzsky carefully scanned the S11 site, and managed to enormous media coverage that the issue aroused was only find discussions that highlighted the more trivial or superficial ‘inadvertently’ achieved (indyBulletin, no. 2, p.2). Perhaps this concerns of activists, which he eagerly reproduced for readers was the case. But given the rather large distance between (Sydney Morning Herald, 28/8/2000, p.17). Other journalists Farnham’s brand of warbling and the electronic sounds which reported claims of ‘email bomb-threats’ to opponents of the were pumped from the mobile sound system during the protest, demonstration (Herald Sun, 1/9/2000, p.2), or claimed that there is another possible interpretation of this controversy. The the S11 site had been inundated by ‘furious’ opponents of the entire incident may have been an elaborate ‘publicity-trap’, protest (Herald Sun, 14/9/2000, p.18). engineered to provoke outrage, conflict, and the ‘investigative’ However, activists were not unaware of such uses of the interest of commercial journalists. web-site. Indeed, the fact that journalists and others could The internet was also used as a means to contest dominant access the information provided was used to good tactical effect media representations of the protest event itself. During the in garnering further publicity for the protest. In late August, three days of the blockade, melbourne.indymedia.org3 served for instance, it was announced that John Farnham’s hit from as space through which mainstream accusations of protester the 1980s, ‘You’re the Voice’, had been chosen as the official violence could be dissected and challenged. On this site, anthem of S11. A picture of Farnham and link to a recording blockade participants were able to upload photos and video of the song was posted at www.s11.org. The public attention footage, along with written accounts of the protest. As the was massive. Legal action was threatened unless the link was banner on the site proclaimed, ‘everyone is a witness. everyone removed (Herald Sun, 24/8/2000, p.2). S11 refused (Daily is a journalist’. The Melbourne Indymedia group also published Telegraph, 25/8/2000, p.18). Farnham’s manager, Glenn and distributed IndyBullitens4 on each day of the protest. Wheatley, fretted over the impact on his client’s reputation (Herald Sun, 25/8/2000, p.1). Complaints from sincere fans 3 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org 4 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/indybulletin.php3 Acquired from 354 © copyright 2001 355 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE S11 activists used the net in a variety of ways but they were soundtrack throughout the three days of the blockade.8 The united by both a technological aptitude and a sense of mischief transformation of the urban space around the Casino had been and play. And they were certainly effective. According to the helped by the Victoria Police, who had erected concrete and Australian Financial Review (16/09/2000), the S11 site was the steel barricades around the perimeter of the complex. These four hundredth most popular website in the world over the first barricades, and the walls of surrounding buildings, were two weeks of September. During the course of the blockade, covered with chalk and spraypaint graffiti. more than 700 stories were uploaded to melbourne.indymedia.org and the site registered over 700,000 hits.5 ‘A CARNIVAL OF THE LEFT’— URBAN PUBLIC SPACE AND S11 When the actual blockade finally got underway, it radically transformed the urban space around Crown Casino. The actions of S11 participants were fluid, and varied across space and time. Cars were banished from the roads surrounding the Casino, and entrances were picketed by thousands of protesters. Many of these protesters carried banners of their own making, others wore costumes and played musical instruments, and some carried giant puppets and engaged in street theatre.6 Some even sang ‘You’re the Voice’. Thousands of unionists marched to a rally outside the Casino on the second day of the blockade. On the last day, another large group of protesters danced their way through the Central Business District.7 Sounds were provided by DJs and MCs inside a mobile sound system which was decorated as a giant drum of nuclear waste. SOUND SYSTEM @ CROWN, S11 The contraption was towed around the Casino to provide a (PHOTO. GRAHAM ST JOHN) 5 See S11 Spring: Democracy Beats the World Economic Forum, Recollection and Analysis by Greens MPs and others, 2000, p. 6 (available via archived S11 web-site). 6 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3122 7 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2959 8 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4359 Acquired from 356 © copyright 2001 357 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE The transformation of the public space around the casino the music, the graffiti, the costumes, the bubbles, the humour— was certainly not achieved with precision, despite the best efforts even the apparently hopeless actions—were central to the of some megaphone-wielding organisers. Sometimes a sense blockade itself. In their use of carnival and play, contemporary of humour helped. On September 11, for instance, we spent DiY activists are the latest in a long line of cultural and political twenty minutes walking hurriedly down the river—following movements to have embraced the power of carnival to ‘de- lots of other people who seemed to think there was an urgent naturalise’ the rhythms and expectations of everyday life.10 The need for numbers to stop the loading of barges—only to find a actions of protesters during S11 were designed to unleash the marshal telling the crowd who had gathered that nothing was radical potential within the everyday by upsetting conventional happening. As we walked back, hundreds more continued to expectations about the kinds of behaviour that are ‘in place’ and arrive as reinforcements. A man started shouting to anyone who ‘out of place’ in the urban spaces around Crown Casino. As would listen that we were all victims of an elaborate hoax— geographer Tim Cresswell has shown, while such expectations ‘It’s an old military trick!! They’re stretching our available forces attached to ‘place’ often appear natural, they are inevitably a so they can make a strike!!’. He told us we were doomed to fail, product of domination.11 because of our lack of military experience and organisation. We The de-naturalisation of urban space can have far-reaching certainly felt inept later on that day, when trying to help friends political ramifications. In this instance, the WEF had relied on hang a huge banner from a bridge over the Yarra river. No matter the power of both the local state and private developers to how hard we tried to weigh it down, the wind kept blowing it provide a space in which its meeting could take place. In the back up onto the bridge and smothering us all. The water bottle event, the ability of these local authorities to provide this space with which we tried to weigh it down even conked a fellow was challenged. The expectations normally attached to the activist on the head (thus constituting one of the only cases of— spaces around Crown Casino—which would have allowed for self-inflicted—protester-violence!) the unobstructed movement of cars, conference delegates and To some hard-headed political organisers, all of this was a gamblers—were no longer sustained. Rather, these sideshow to the ‘main event’. However, from a perspective expectations had to be enforced, sometimes violently, by police. moored in DiY culture, just the opposite is true. DiY activists The carnival outside the Casino thus took on a wider are consciously engaged in attempts to fuse pleasure with politics significance; not only was it fun, but it inconvenienced and through the organisation of events in which ‘social criticism is obstructed an institution of global capitalism. S11 protesters combined with cultural creativity in what’s both a utopian gesture were not simply thinking globally, they were acting globally. and a practical display of resistance’.9 From this perspective, 10 For an interesting discussion of such movements, see Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: a Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Cambridge (USA), 1989. 9 George McKay, ‘Notes towards an intro’ in George McKay (ed) DiY Culture: Party 11 Tim Cresswell, In Place/Out of Place: Geography, Ideology, and Transgression, and Protest in Nineties Britain, London, p. 27. Minneapolis, 1996, p. 9. Acquired from 358 © copyright 2001 359 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE But such a deliberate use of carnival and play in protest First, rituals involve public identification with a political raises a number of practical questions. Can protesters pursue group, and this display of open, public commitment can bind different tactics simultaneously, or are there limits to this participants together in a kind of common membership. During process? Can some follow a portable loudspeaker, dancing such events, our dependence on others is brought to the surface. around the Casino, while others maintain a permanent, assailed Our attachment to others increases, and the varied ‘theatrical blockade? Can the trade union official and the anarchist display stimuli’ that make a collective gathering—the changes in light, their particular attachments to the same unifying cause without colour, gesture, voice, body-contact—all generate powerful undermining each other? Can some picketers defend themselves feelings for those that are also present.12 against police violence without weakening the claims of those Second, because those who take part in carnivals or who remain committed to non-violence as an ethical and political demonstrations diverge from the routines of ‘everyday life’, position? These questions of unity and difference have been and jointly challenge the norms governing particular spaces, pertinent to social movements ever since the abandonment of they are therefore likely to develop a sense of ‘communitas’ the centralised model of political organisation. However, it is or affection for fellow-participants. In this sense, the political our belief that the form of the S11 campaign suggests some ritual may be compared with those ‘liminal’ moments in social useful answers, which we explore in the following section. life that exist between the cracks of ordered routine—moments that Victor Turner associated with pilgrimages and ‘coming UNITY AND DIFFERENCE IN THE POLITICAL RITUAL of age’ ceremonies in more traditional societies. During these Following anthropologist David Kertzer, it is useful to moments the order and hierarchy of conventional social life is think of the S11 carnival as a kind of ritual. According to set aside. New possibilities become attainable and social Kertzer, most successful popular movements are generally relations stretch towards universal comradeship.13 accompanied by the development of rituals—forms of repetitive, standardised, symbolic behaviour. Chief among such rituals are not only carnivals, but also pledges of membership, marches, songs, uniforms, and demonstrations. All of them act as unifying forces. This is so in a number of ways. 12 David I. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics and Power, New Haven and London, 1988. For the importance of rituals to popular movements, p.92; for the definition of rituals, p.9; for theatrical stimuli, pl11; for dependence on others, p.62; for increasing attachment, p.72-3. 13 For David Kertzer on communitas and the demonstration, see Ritual, Politics and Power, p.72-3. For more detail on liminality and communitas, see: Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1974, espec. p.202. Acquired from 360 © copyright 2001 361 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE Because the unity engendered by such rituals is emotional, circumstances, differences among protesters on issues like ‘the it can transcend the more doctrinal, tactical or institutional history of globalisation’ or the relationship between the police divisions that beset most campaigns. We may passionately and the State were unlikely to matter very much. disagree with you about the wisdom of Marx versus Bakunin, Second, as already noted, many of the actions that occurred but we feel that we are ‘on the same side’ as we tramp down a under the general umbrella of S11 challenged the existing wide street on May 1. We may think that you are too directive configuration of Melbourne as a city. As in all great carnivals, when you shout from a megaphone, but we feel a sense of actions occurred ‘out of place’. Nudity moved from the strong affinity with you as an angry cab-driver honks his horn bedroom to the highway; dancing from the club to the stock at our joint presence. As a result, most political movements exchange; writing graffiti from the dark of night to the sunny that possess an ongoing career develop rituals—the feminist street. Anthropologist Roberto Da Matta has suggested that movement has its International Women’s’ Day; the labour this process of social dislocation can have profound movement its May Day and Labour Day actions, for example. implications for the cultural experiences of participants and It is such actions that provide for the development of a sense spectators. In his study of the Brazilian carnival, Da Matta of esprit de corps among social-movement members. argued that as objects and actions moved outside of their typical However, if all forms of collective performance allow for spaces, the norms governing individuals were increasingly the cultivation of unity despite difference, the S11 actions shaken; that usually unquestioned dimensions of social life heightened this effect in a number of ways. First, because many came to be questioned; and that the intensity of symbolic participants in S11 were influenced by the efflorescence of display was likely to rise. According to this logic, as DiY culture, their sense of identification with others was demonstrations bring new actions to new spaces, so the increased. They shared a common knowledge and competence questioning of everyday existence, and therefore the sense of in a kind of ‘sub-cultural script’, which took in the more joint marginality from ‘mainstream’ society will also increase.14 superficial matters of appearance (dreads, shaven skulls, Under such conditions, a sense of shared warmth and piercings, tattoos), but extended to musical tastes (head- commonality will develop among the excluded. Unity will bobbings and nods of recognition to the same tunes), and still arise, even as difference continues. more broadly to terms of address and to familiarity with ways of dancing and standing, walking and sharing. As participants rolled in to Melbourne, hopping rides and lobbing on local friends’ doorsteps, ties of friendship were strengthened and 14 The relationship between the crossing of spatial and normative boundaries and the extended. A sense of common identity bloomed. In these intensity of symbolisation is related in: Roberto Da Matta, ‘Carnival in Multiple Planes’, in John J. MacAloon (ed), Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle: Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance, Philadelphia, 1984, p.213-4. Acquired from 362 © copyright 2001 363 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE Unity emerged despite difference within S11 for other S11 participants. As the sense of anger at the mainstream reasons. Crucial here was the action of police. The violence media’s distortion of police action rose, so internet-savvy perpetrated by police upon protesters has been documented activists related their own experiences and views. Through elsewhere.15 What has been less examined is the consequences of the sharing of such experiences, a ‘movement-narrative’ about that violence for the self-conception of protesters. Political the protest emerged, and those who shared the (narrated) scientists have long recognised that when violence is used in experience increasingly identified with each other. They had collective conflicts, the political situation is immediately simplified seen (many of) the same things; faced (much the same) police for those present. Ambivalent potential adversaries can quickly action; understood the event in (largely similar) terms. They become actual enemies. Behaviour and beliefs can become were thereby unified. radicalised. Most directly of all, a sense of shared threat is likely Clearly then, the unifying force that characterises all forms to cement a feeling of interdependence and therefore identification of collective performance was strengthened by a number of with others similarly threatened.16 As police circled menacingly, specific elements of the S11 blockade. In the process, the ties as batons reigned, as stories of brutality and intimidation were between advocates of DiY and relatively ‘straight’ political passed on, so the sense of unity among participants also increased. activists became increasingly strong. All of those present felt Manifestly, this was true for those with arms linked on a palpable sense of unity that seemed new, exciting. As one the ‘front-line’ near the entrance to Crown Casino, especially participant, Jeff Sparrow would soon put it, this seemed to on the morning and night of September 12. However, the presage a novel political formation: technologically-wired nature of the protest ensured that this The blockade also confirmed that the old Cold War certainties unity was especially strong. As noted earlier, the internet served are continuing to evaporate, producing a milieu of quite as both a means of disseminating movement views to outsiders striking ideological fluidity. Many of the S11 demonstrators were six years old when the Berlin Wall collapsed—for them, and journalists, and as a point of contact and exchange between the idea of advising a Marxist to ‘go back to Russia’ simply wouldn’t make sense. With the absence of that historical 15 The most graphic and powerful account produced by the protesters is a video: SKA baggage…the kind of identity politics in which the TV, Melbourne Rising: protest against the WEF, first screened on Ch31 Access News celebration of difference leads to disunity almost as a matter and at the Melbourne Trades Hall, 18 September 2000. The video is available at http:/ of principle proved notable by its absence. I watched a friend /clients.loudeye.com/imc/melbourne/melb-rising.ram . sell a revolutionary magazine to a woman dressed as an 16 For violence and simplification, see Murray Edelman, Politics as Symbolic Action: Mass Arousal and Quiescence, Chicago: Markham Publishing Company, 1971, p.136. enormous beetle without either of them feeling any On radicalisation: Donatella Della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence and the incongruity about the transaction.17 State: A comparative analysis of Italy and Germany, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.137. On growing interdependence as a basis for group fromation see: John C. Turner, with Michael A. Hogg, Penelope J. Oakes, Stephen D. Reicher and Margaret S. Wetherell, Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory, Basil Blackwell, Oxford and New York, 1987, p.19. 17 Jeff Sparrow, ‘The Victory at S11’, Overland, no. 161, Summer 2000, p.20. Acquired from 364 © copyright 2001 365 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE CONCLUSION Debates about the merits of the victory lap of Crown Casino by four naked protesters are illustrative of this tension. S11 is not the first time that cultural and political invention Did the blockade end with a victory march through the streets have merged. All social movements—‘old’ as well as ‘new’— of Melbourne, as proposed by protest marshals? This is the have been characterised by this cross-fertilisation for at least version of events preferred by some of the members of the two hundred years. Most recently in the 1960s, the Diggers Democratic Socialist Party writing in Green Left Weekly and the Yippies of the United States brought a delight in satire (20/12/2000, p. 14-15) after the event. For them, S11 succeeded and sometimes irrational display into a novel form of ‘anti- in spite of, not because of, the affinity group model of disciplinary’ protest.18 organisation. While alliances were important, the protest ‘did However, in the early 1970s the growing repression of rely upon the level of authority which the marshals had won the State fractured that developing ‘unity within difference’. over the course of the blockade’. For others, however, the Political radicals were pushed into increasingly adversarial, victory lap of Crown Casino by four naked protesters provided ‘serious’, and sometimes violent poses. Cultural radicals grew a more fitting end to a protest which, despite the best efforts disaffected with ‘straights’, retreated to music, art and film, of mega-phone wielding revolutionaries, remained fluid and and stayed away from demonstrations and conferences. From spontaneous until its dying moments (see this debate about this point onwards, students of contemporary social movements the end of the protest at the indymedia site20). increasingly described them as dispersed, fragmented, and The challenge of the S11 protest is to see whether the inevitably concerned with symbolic and personal issues.19 contemporary reunification of cultural and political radicalism can be maintained. This may prove difficult. As the improvisations thrown up by S11 are recycled in other contexts, so they are likely to become relatively routinised and structured. The police can be expected to manifest ‘tactical adaptation’, 18 On the long mutual cross-fertilisation between the cultural and the political: Craig Calhoun, ‘ “New Social Movements” of the Early Nineteenth Century’, in Mark and to attempt to neutralize the new combinations of party and Traugott (ed), Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action, Duke University Press, protest, cyber and urban-spatial insurgency.21 The sense of play Durham and London, 1995, pp.173-215. For the Yippies, Diggers, and the anti- disciplinary protest: Julie Stephens, Anti-Disciplinary Protest: Sixties Radicalism and uncertainty may give way to routine inhabitation of an and Postmodernism, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. official new political role: ‘the anti-globalization protester’. 19 For a history of the American New Left in these terms, see Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, Bantam Books, New York, 1987. For a 19 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=5696 portrait of contemporary movements as inevitably dispersed and symbolic, see the 20 For the development of rituals into more highly-structured peformances over time, see influential work of Alberto Melucci, recently synthesized in his ‘Social David Kertzer, Ritual, Politics and Power, p.92. For the notion of tactical adaptation: Movements in Complex Societies: A European Perspective’, Arena Journal, no. Doug McAdam, ‘Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency’, American 15, 2000, pp.81-97. Sociological Review, vol. 48, no. 6, December 1983, p.736. Acquired from 366 © copyright 2001 367 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE There is no guarantee that these snares will be avoided. The best hope will rely less on an attempt to replicate the precise happenings around the Crown Casino, and more upon continuing communication between nominally ‘cultural’ and ‘political’ groups. This needs to take place through old and new media; in urban and cyberspace. It must be based both upon a continued willingness to accept difference, and upon an equal refusal to see ‘party’ and ‘protest’ as conventionally opposing terms. Acquired from 368 © copyright 2001 369 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE CHAPTER THIRTEEN— Technological change, it must be said, is often driven by those who have vested interests in making money from them: APPROPRIATING THE MEANS OF companies such as Sony, Technics, Toshiba, Akai and Denon have thrived on the growth of electronic dance music and PRODUCTION: DANCE MUSIC home-grown recording. Yet, such commercial success in electronic music technology should not be seen to INDUSTRIES AND CONTESTED automatically signal a ‘sellout’ to corporate interests on behalf DIGITAL SPACE of subcultural producers, something Simon Reynolds has suggested undercuts the ‘politics of sampling’.2 Rather, the ushering in of new technologies opens up opportunities for those at the grass roots of musical production (as opposed to CHRIS GIBSON the oligopoly of entertainment companies that own the rights The barbarians are at the gate … they’re in the moats, and to over 90% of the world’s recorded music) to transform the they’re climbing up the sides of the castle. (Robert Goodale, relations between themselves, their audiences and capitalist CEO of Ultrastar, a New York internet firm promoting links for unsigned artists).1 producers in the music industry. Periods of technological change, chaotic flows and surges between ‘stable’ regimes of INTRODUCTION capitalism, can expose weaknesses in the legal armour of corporations and allow reconfigurations of established power There is no doubt that change in the musical orientation relations to occur. Technological changes triggered by capitalist of youth subcultures in the 1980s and 1990s could not have institutions in the search of further profits introduce periods happened without key technological developments. It is of uncertainty, as corporations invest in new methods of tempting to adopt a determinist view of the technological changes that have enabled dance party culture, and its profiteering that, despite all the best forward-planning and associated radical fringes, to emerge: new drum machines market research, inevitably involved risk (something specialist allowed repetitive beats with mechanical precision; samplers ‘risk management’ consultants are now increasingly contracted made reconstruction based on breakbeats possible; home to manage). Such junctures can provide strategically important sequencing software allowed decent master recordings to be opportunities for radical action, and equally, for oppressive produced and digital storage formats (like Digital Audio Tapes) action, if resistance is not articulated quickly or effectively. have meant that small scale producers no longer have to rely on bulky, arcane reels of multitrack tape. 1 Mardesich, J (1999) ‘How The Internet Hits Big Music’, Fortune, May 10, 139, 9, 96-97. 2 Reynolds, S (1990) Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, Serpent’s Tail, London. Acquired from 370 © copyright 2001 371 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE While digital technology was originally conceived as a corporate investment; the popularity of dance music as a means to extract profits from consumers, it has somewhat consumptive disc culture (rather than buying pre-recorded inadvertently become a new way for grass roots activists and dance music) has forced corporate executives to rethink their musicians to appropriate a means of production, opening up standardised marketing strategies; while record companies are new possibilities and spaces for musical creativity, collective less likely to provide large budgets for recordings by new artists action and political consciousness as well as new tactics of (‘risk investments’) and as a consequence, the difficulty of communication for organisers, artists and angry musicians. financing national and international distribution and tours for The longevity of such actions will determine the success of local artists has been magnified. agitators in reconfiguring established power relations in music Central to this change has been the digitisation of all forms production and consumption. of audio and visual information, and the ability to, for example, segue licensed music recordings to computer game RESTRUCTURING PRODUCTION — soundtracks: a system of recording, transmitting and THE ADVENT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY reproducing information with a level of hitherto unparalleled Most commentators have discussed global music accuracy, durability and universality of application, allowing production in the context of a new ‘convergent’ ‘info-tainment’ ‘any signal, whether a sound or an image [to] be transmitted industry3, where information dissemination, entertainment, or manipulated in similar ways’.4 Much has been made of the music, film and computer games are channelled to consumers possibilities for decentralisation in the information industry through shared platforms, by the same giant media corporations in relation to production and consumption; as Celia Lury has (such as TimeWarner, Sony, Universal, News Corporation). put it, ‘The radically democratising potential of these new Yet, in this atmosphere of concentration and convergence, there technologies is thus that all signals, previously confined within are also processes of upheaval, both in Australia and elsewhere, specialised means of production, can now be transmitted to as several factors force structural change on the music industry. the audience within one common means of distribution’.5 While During the 1990s major studios have closed down or have this facilitates corporate convergence and cross-media changed into mastering studios (such as Studio 301, Sydney); promotion of cultural products (as with Nintendo’s the number of live venues has shrunk; new digital technology internationally successful Pokémon campaigns), it has also has shifted aspects of the means of production away from initial given opportunities for producers of much smaller scope and budget to access means of production. 3 Herman, ES and McChesney, RW (1997) The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism, Cassell, London; Sadler, D (1997) ‘The global music business 4 Lury, C (1993) Cultural Rights: Technology, Legality and Personality, Routledge, as an information industry: reinterpreting economies of culture’, Environment and London and New York, p157. Planning A, 29, 1919-1236. 5 Ibid. Acquired from 372 © copyright 2001 373 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE TURNING SOUNDS INTO 1S AND 0S — development of digital technology and the subsequent DIGITAL DEVELOPMENTS promotion of the compact disc format of music distribution was really meant as a way of kick-starting a lagging market Digital technology emerged as a major force in music for popular music, developing strategies of re-selling music production in the 1980s and 1990s. At its most basic, digital already consumed by ‘baby-boomer’ generations on vinyl technologies convert audio sound waves into binary code by albums in the new format. sampling the audio signal for volume (amplitude) and pitch (frequency) at a given rate (the standard for CD quality is There has always been an historically tense relationship 44,100 samples per second). Digital technology has advantages between technical advances in the recording and reproduction over older analog equipment, for example through extremely of music and sound recording and copyright holding low signal to noise ratios (i.e. a clearer signal with no tape companies. As an example, radio broadcasts had a dramatic hiss or background noise) and high levels of flexibility. Digital impact on the recording industry during the great depression, information can be stored in computer files with less danger providing access to new music without charge, as opposed to of deterioration over time, and can be converted into a range the relatively expensive and luxurious shellac phonograph of formats (pressed into a CD, segued with film or television discs. This example of technological development led to a footage, converted into a video game soundtrack) more quickly series of well documented crises in the recording industry, and with more reliable results compared to analogue including slumps in sales of both gramophones and pre- technology with its range of recording media, formats and recorded discs, and national industrial action by the American incompatible equipment. This flexibility remains a crucial Federation of Musicians. Yet, in the context of the development element of the support of digital technology by major of digital recording and formats, such tensions were overridden corporations such as Universal who govern and administer by the aggressive intervention of music companies in the extremely large copyright catalogues and thousands of master development of new technologies. As Jim Fifield, CEO of EMI recordings (Universal Music Publishing, for example, owns Music has been quoted as saying, over 650,000 music copyrights). If you looked at where the big [growth] blips were, you saw that the advent of the cassette brought portability to the music Digital recording techniques emerged in the 1970s, for industry … A tremendous surge. And then here comes the CD, music that was intended to be distributed on conventional vinyl which is of superior quality with instant access to tracks… albums (an effort mainly aimed at hi-fi buffs), yet the main That’s why EMI has always been supportive of new technology. push towards embracing digital technology in distribution Because if any of those new technologies grab hold, the music industry is going to go through another big boom.6 formats only occurred after the widespread slump in the recording industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s. The 6 Haring, B (1996) Off the Charts: Ruthless Days and Reckless Nights Inside the Music Industry, Birch Lane Press, New York, p29. Acquired from 374 © copyright 2001 375 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE Ironically, given Fifield’s statement, the case of the than vinyl records. Yet, technological development in the digital recordable audio cassettes was seen to benefit record realm, aimed at making recording gear more powerful for companies only when those firms controlling the recording studio applications, also made equipment cheaper for the home and distribution of copyright material were involved in the recording and small studio market. Companies including development of technologies, as with the Sony Walkman. Roland, Tascam, Akai, Fostek, and Yamaha now specialise in Previously, the recording industry challenged manufacturers producing equipment that can record professional quality of cassette technology as a potential area for breach of digital information at much lower costs than previous analogue copyright through pirate reproduction. Similarly, the recording technology. In addition to these specialist units, sophisticated industry blunted the widespread diffusion of Digital Audio Tape software for hard-disc recording and sequencing has meant technology (DAT) by forcing hardware manufacturers to adopt that all recording and sound processing activities can also be Serial Copy Management Systems (SCMS), limiting repeat completed within a personal computer. copying of protected material. Digital technology has already meant that producing The development of the compact disc, on the other hand, quality recordings is becoming possible for musicians without involved a joint venture between Sony and Philips Electronics recording deals. Contracts previously required major labels to (who then owned PolyGram Records) in 1978, which led to advance production costs to the performer, to be re-paid as an the development of a standard format, disc size, sampling rates advance against future royalties. In turn, software and specialist and frequency response for the compact disc. The digital recording equipment manufacturers now target amateur implementation of compact disc technology was intended to musicians, bedroom enthusiasts and home studios with replace the vinyl record, making the format obsolete and emphasis placed on the ability to produce high-quality requiring consumers to re-purchase favourite back catalogue recordings without relying on external investment. The rapid recordings in the new format: ‘There’s much higher profit emergence of music editing software, Musical Instrument margin in CDs. So why sell something for $8.98 when you Digital Interface (MIDI) capabilities and sequencers, along can sell it for $15.98? … Well, it was a huge windfall when with advances in digital recording gear, have meant that everybody wanted to go out and buy all the Beatles albums professional recordings are now much cheaper, and within again on CD’ (John Branca, ATV Music Publishing7). Digital closer reach of amateur musicians and localised scenes. Indeed, technology in sound recording and reproduction facilitated the the whole notion of ‘making music’ has shifted, from success of the compact disc as a means of re-routing copyright mechanical skills associated with playing instruments (with material and as a means of distribution with higher margins years of tuition and practice) to expertise with the interface of a computer screen, mouse and keypad. Sequencing, mixing, 7 Ibid, p.45. sampling and looping become a part of the creative process. Acquired from 376 © copyright 2001 377 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE Accordingly, support is no longer automatically necessary from as a way to radically de-centre means of production in terms major labels for recording and production costs, suggesting of the ‘raw materials’ of production, appropriated through new possibilities for copyright arrangements such as artist- consumption of music commodities. As Paul Gilroy argued in held copyright, licensing arrangements with majors, and more the case of American hip hop cultures: radically, anti-copyright stances. The artefacts of a pop industry premised on the individual act of purchase and consumption are hijacked and taken over ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC AND NEW DIGITAL SPACES into the heart of collective rituals of protest and affirmation which in turn define the boundaries of the interpretative Some aspects of dance music production, shaped by community. Music is heard socially and its deepest meanings patterns and sites of consumption (the ‘rave’, the club, the revealed only in the heart of this collective, affirmative ‘mix’) remain distinct from corporate activity in music, consumption.9 requiring more complicated circuits of material than those Dave Hesmondhalgh charted this process in British dance assumed in ‘conventional’ systems of production and music, assessing various claims of democratisation in the field distribution. Digital technology is heavily involved in of production, sampling and DJ cultures, and possibilities for establishing the parameters for dance music production, within structural and geographical shifts towards decentralised which more radical activities and esoteric expressions have production.10 Several hundred dance labels have emerged, flourished. These developments have not been without legal based around small print-runs of specialist sub-genres, with challenge. Sampling forms a core practice of youth cultures in little promotional costs compared with releases from major cross-cultural contexts, yet threatens legal structures for the labels. The British experience has to a large extent been protection of copyright, and departs from established replicated in Australia, although local DJs still tend to favour musicological wisdom regarding ‘creativity’ and cultural overseas releases within live sets. Adam Brown argued that expression.8 Significantly, sampling techniques have been seen democratisation is possible through consumption practices; while Simon Reynolds contrasted the radical DiY rhetoric of sampling practices and crowd consumption with engagements 8 Frith, S (1987) ‘Copyright and the music business’, Popular Music, 7, 1, 57-75; with technology on a musicological level, arguing that its ‘real’ Durant, A (1990) ‘A new day for music? Digital technologies in contemporary music-making’, in Hayward, P (ed) Culture, Technology and Creativity in the Late politics lie in the aesthetic, signalling ‘the death of the Song, 20th Century, John Libbey, London, 175-196; Schumacher, T (1995) ‘‘This is a sampling sport’: digital sampling, rap music and the law in cultural production’, to be replaced by the decentred, unresolved, in-finite house Media, Culture and Society, 12, 252, 273; Tagg P (1994) ‘from refrain to rave: the decline of figure and the rise of ground’ Popular Music 13, 209-223; Hesmondhalgh D (1995) ‘Technoprophecy: a response to Tagg’ Popular Music 14, 261-263; Hesmondhalgh, D (1998) ‘The British dance music industry: a case study of 9 Gilroy, P (1993) Small Acts, Serpent’s Tail, London. p38. independent cultural production’, British Journal of Sociology, 49, 2, 234-251; 10 Hesmondhalgh, D (1998) ‘The British dance music industry: a case study of Reynolds, S (1990) Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, Serpent’s Tail, London. independent cultural production’, British Journal of Sociology, 49, 2, 234-251. Acquired from 378 © copyright 2001 379 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE track; the brain-rotting vortex of quick-cutting in video and CORPORATE REACTIONS AND ABSORPTIONS TV; the supercession of narrative, characterization, and In response to these patterns of consumption, major labels motivation by sensational effects’.11 (and some independents) have attempted to create ‘the star’ in Within more radical electronic dance music scenes there dance music in a number of ways: first, by marketing are particular modes of consumption that stem from the genre’s compilation CDs, often mixed by more commercially- digital base; sampled, patchwork beats are strung together with orientated and well-known DJs, in an attempt to sell the few conventionally identifiable ‘imprints’ of individual ‘experience’ of a whole set. These releases tend to focus on creativity (that might be associated with particular performers, the chosen sets of individual DJs in ways which piggy-back such as distinctive vocal tones, instrumentation, or on the marketing of these names in event promotions (such as characteristic arrangements). In this respect, the construction compilations by John Digweed, Sasha, Carl Cox and others); of composers as ‘stars’—the crucial element of the mass feature music typical of particular genres (hence the rise of marketing and consumption of musical product by majors as many series of releases featuring, in turn, micro-niches of part of ‘ideologies of authenticity’—has been less apparent.12 house, hard house, trance, drum and bass, speed garage and so While some trance DJs, for example, have become ‘stars’ and on); collect together music that characterises particular clubs are the central figures in the marketing of actual events (as (as in the Café Del Mar series based on a popular club in Ibiza); with Tsuyoshi Suzuki), their fame is not always easily or certain geographical places known for dance music. Solo transferred into sales of recorded product. An instrumental artists and groups that are marketed by major labels tend to be focus over an extended set, with a lack of choruses or hooks, signed to subsidiary ‘independents’ as part of niche marketing negates the common popular music convention of repeated campaigns, or linked through licensing, which is a more lines as in-built jingles within songs. Importantly, the credibility common feature of capital’s appropriations of dance music. given to DJs in radical fringe scenes relies on their ability to Rather than provide major investment for a project, mix snatches of sound from different sources (from political corporations are now establishing separate licensing divisions speeches to dentist drills), to blend tracks in terms of beat and between dance labels and local subsidiary offices, a separate key, in ways which mirror the initial re-construction of the layer from conventional corporate structures. Some Australian tracks themselves through practices of digital sampling. labels, including Mushroom Distribution Services (now fully absorbed within News Corporation), Shock and Creative Vibes, 11 Brown, A (1997) ‘Let’s all have a disco? Football, popular music and also handle licensing and distribution agreements with overseas democratization’, in Redhead, S, Wynne, D and O’Connor, J (eds) The Clubcultures Reader, Blackwell, Oxford, 79-101; Reynolds, S (1990) Blissed Out: The Raptures of labels. Figure 1 shows corporate linkages between Festival/ Rock, Serpent’s Tail, London, p169. Mushroom, owned by News Corporation, and Mushroom 12 King, B (1987) ‘The star and the commodity: notes towards a performance theory of stardom’, Cultural Studies, 1, 2, 145-161. Acquired from 380 © copyright 2001 381 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE News Corporation Distribution Services; MDS subsidiary labels; Australian and international labels with licensing arrangements. It has become Television Film Magazines Books Newspapers Other/new media a more common trend for independent dance music labels, many of which have emerged from more radical aesthetic circles, to join into alliances with multinational capital in this way. United States United Kingdom/Europe Australia and Asia News America Digital Publishing epartners News Interactive Such absorption of electronic music into the domain of NDS Americas TheStreet.com (2%)) eVentures (50%) NDS PDN Xinren Information Technology Co. Ltd (70%) corporate interests (largely through licensing deals and other Broadsystem ADS planetRx.com (5%) Juno Online Services (9%) Convoys Group Ansett Australia (50%) Ansett New Zealand ‘flexible’ agreements) does not necessarily spell the end for the Mushroom Records sixdegrees.com (20%) Kesmai Corporation Sky Radio (71%) Ansett International (24%) Ansett Worldwide Aviation radical potential of all dance cultures or alternative cultural Radio 538 (42%) Los Angeles Dodgers Rawkus Entertainment (80%) Sky Radio Sweden (28%) Services (50%) Broadsystem Australia production. There are always more genuinely ‘independent’ and Staples Center (40%) Festival/Mushroom Records radical activities taking place, usually in the margins, as artists Festival/Mushroom Records FS Falkiner and Sons continue to create music free from recording contracts, and National Rugby League (50%) Newspoll (50%) collectives are established to organise and distribute new sounds. Mushroom Distribution Mushroom Records White Larrikin Some of the most interesting examples of these have emerged, Services not in inner-city areas of Sydney or Melbourne, but in non- metropolitan contexts, where digital production and distribution MDS Subsidiary Australian licensees International licensees Labels may have had the greatest impact on grass-roots creativity. Brass Companion Azwan Transmissions Alias Movin Shadow DanceNet Candle Records Asphodel NovaMute Rapido Wild Sound Clan Analogue Dirty House Records Blue Planet Recordings Onefoot Records DECENTRALISED MUSIC PRODUCTION Bolshi Partisan Hi Gloss Ozone Dorobo Gulp Communications Bong Load Records Platipus AND THE NSW FAR NORTH COAST Bullion Records Profile MXL Half-a-Cow Records Crippled Pussy Foot MXL Beats Halflight Deep Elm Rawkus Discourses on digital recording technologies are Hopeless Records Deviant Rawkus Primitive Infectious Records Dragonfly React particularly attentive to geography: recording studios, Lonely Guy Records Fearless Records Reptile Records Rock n Roll High School Flying Nun Records Soul Jazz Records mastering suites, radio stations, labels and management Spinning Top Freskanova Wall of Sound Swivel Disc Records Thunk Go Kart Records Silver Planet Recordings companies—all a part of the agglomerations surrounding music Instinct Records Ultimatum Troy Horse Records Truck Musik Jackpot Warp production—have been generally located in major centres of Jetset Zonar Recordings Ministry of Sound production, such as Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. In non-metropolitan areas, those with aspirations for music (with FIGURE 1 the exception of country singers), suffer from simple industrial NEWS CORPORATION, FESTIVAL/MUSHROOM and geographical factors inherent in traditional paths of career SUBSIDIARIES AND LICENSEES, 1999 Acquired from 382 © copyright 2001 383 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE development within the music industry, what Simon Frith has The NSW Far North Coast provides one case study where called a ‘rock pyramid’, an ethos of ‘working your way up the digital production has been appropriated in an attempt to ladder’ from local to national and perhaps international reverse the seemingly inevitable momentum that draws artists exposure.13 This traditional path to success has been very much into the inner-city. The Far North Coast is a coastal rural region a part of music industry labour politics, serving two main that has undergone significant demographic, cultural and purposes: to encourage labour (bands) to approach record economic change since the 1970s, with the area now thought companies (rather than capital seeking a labour force), who of as a ‘lifestyle’ or ‘creative’ region, in part a legacy of its continue to control the resources necessary for promotion and hippy traditions dating back to the establishment of the distribution; and to instil in musicians a false modesty at early Aquarius Festival in Nimbin in 1973. The region has seen some stages of their careers, encouraging artists to sign individual, of the highest rates of population growth in Australia since and often harsh, contracts. As a result of this, centres of capital then, attracting a myriad of subcultures, migrants, retirees, have always been in large urban areas—and in close proximity students, the unemployed and travellers to its natural and to inner-city scenes that are valorised as ‘credible’ and from cultural environment. The region has a strong ‘alternative’ which most signings are drawn. Crucial areas of national radio/ discourse of economy and identity, being increasingly TV exposure, A and R and national press, situated between positioned as somewhat different from urban consumerism regional scenes and national stardom, can act as barriers for (although this is certainly being augmented by new forms of local musicians without corporate support, while the smaller consumerism in popular tourist towns such as Byron Bay) and relative populations of Australian rural regions prevent a critical resistant to multinational capitalism. mass large enough to emerge that would solidify discrete Dance music genres have become important cultural styles subcultural scenes, laying a platform for future creative growth. in the Far North Coast. The region hosts a number of DJs, The simple issue of distance from productive centres lessens electronic music producers and dance clubs and has a long the chances of electronic artists climbing the pyramid through history of outdoor doofs: some sanctioned, others proceeding to national exposure. The recent rise of home recording cultures without planning permission. Retail outlets stock a large range in some regional and remote areas of Australia, in tandem with of dance and electronic music styles, from drum and bass internet distribution, reflect attempts to rearrange this through to ambient ‘chill’ music. Trance subcultures on the conventional trend. Far North Coast are generally associated with discrete communities of participants: feral scenes (including environmental activists, anarchist political movements such as Organarchy Sound Systems), local music producers (such 13 Frith, S (1988) Facing the Music, Pantheon, New York. as the labels Digital Psionics and Edgecore), and largely Acquired from 384 © copyright 2001 385 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE apolitical backpacker subcultures and styles originating in CONSTRUCTING ‘THE LOCAL’ AS A Europe. These are connected through an increasingly POLITICAL/ECONOMIC POSITION international network of producers, scenes and tourist sites An awareness of the barriers to wider participation in the mythologised as places of origin and consumption (Ibiza, Goa, music industry has had a range of effects on NSW Far North Eilat (Israel), Bali, Ko Samui (Thailand)). Crucial to the growth Coast scenes and artists’ perceptions of production. While few of Byron’s ‘underground’ dance scene was the staging of a series are willing to relocate to capital cities, many have adopted digital of dance parties in the Epicentre complex (and some other sites) technology, self-financing recordings, and re-assessing the during the 1990s, which tapped into both local feral/activist validity of the ‘pyramid’ career path. Artists and labels have been scenes and ‘traveller’ subcultures (made up of itinerants, keen to generate interest through subcultural, technological and backpackers, etc). community networks, utilising new methods of production and More radical doof parties occur at a range of non-permanent marketing, and maximising benefits from local modes of venues, that have included community halls at Corndale and consumption. In a general sense, there is a strong ethos of localism Coorabell, agricultural greenhouses, open spaces on private land, and local production apparent on the North Coast, based around state forest clearing areas, beaches, rock-climbing gyms and popular knowledge of the importance of local agglomeration and converted abattoirs. The use of the term ‘doof’, reflects important multipliers throughout the regional economy, and emphasising links between the underground dance party scenes in Sydney the importance of do-it-yourself (DiY) philosophies. and the Far North Coast. Many Sydney-based promoters and Levels of localism in the music scene are a part of the organisers have moved to the region, in part a reaction to wider community’s interest in maximising the ‘boundedness’ increasing surveillance and pressure from authorities in Sydney of the local economy through dense networks of local (such as the 1995 closure and police violence associated with producers, services, suppliers. Such sentiments are not the Vibe Tribe’s Freequency party at Sydney Park), but also as necessarily articulated as resistance to global capitalism; part of the wider processes of counter-urbanisation of youth indeed, many local producers of art and craft goods maintain cultures which has transformed the region’s demography and profit accumulation as the mode of business operation. Yet, cultural identity. On the one hand, electronic music activities the ethos of local community exchange does provide the on the Far North Coast emphasise ‘the local’, with local systems context within which several types of DiY production flourish, of production contrasted against corporate music, and at the same including ‘shoes, beds, jewellery, art and craft, clothing, time, new systems and networks are sought by local musicians furniture, home wares, one-off glassware, cosmetics, surfing and labels in efforts to both lessen dependence on the corporate goods, even baby-wear’. 14 Until recently, local music sphere and create new global linkages as part of a more radicalised agenda of subcultural alliance. 14 Our Times (1995a) ‘Sound Reality’, Our Times, 2, February/March, 13-14. Acquired from 386 © copyright 2001 387 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE production primarily consisted of the manufacture of low-cost are broken down into details on distribution and copyright. cassette ‘demo’ recordings for folk and rock bands, who would Here information on the production and distribution attempt to secure live music bookings, and perhaps lure interest agreements for releases is organised into those wholly self- from record labels further afield. More recently, however, with funded and distributed, those distributed by independent labels the advent of more affordable technology, digital home production (or labels established by the artists themselves) and those with has been taken up in much more serious ways by musicians of support and financial backing from major labels. These trends all descriptions, and in particular by techno artists such as Paul reflect a boom in local production since the more widespread Chambers, Fred Cole, Kol Dimond, AB and Luna Orbit. Artists availability of digital recording gear. Figure 2 also shows now control CD pressing, either as self-funded projects, or as copyright arrangements for CD releases in the area, from those independent releases signed to local labels, or through labels recordings where artists retained copyright, to those where established by the artists/scenes themselves. In an immediate mechanical copyright over a master recording were held by sense, digital recording provided decent quality sound at a more independent or major labels. accessible and cheaper price. As one composer commented, [Digital technology] is a great thing democratically. It’s empowered people who previously couldn’t afford studios. You couldn’t afford to do it. It was an elitist thing, and it was part of the framework that enabled the multinational labels to maintain a stranglehold on the industry, so in that sense it’s great. In terms of quality and accessibility for 25 people of lesser means, it’s a really positive thing.15 Number of releases 20 Dist. major A typical self-recorded DiY CD in the region is either 15 Dist. Independent Self-released sold through the promotional efforts of the musicians Copyright major 10 themselves, or through independent distributors such as Copyright independent 5 Copyright artist Edgecore, based in the hills inland from Byron Bay. Figure 2 0 represents the number of releases per year recorded as part of 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 a database of production details compiled during 1999 in a Year (* there were 9 releases where copyright was not indicated and 3 wider PhD project on North Coast music production. Releases with anti-copyright declarations) FIGURE 2 15 Gibson, C (2000) Decentred sounds: systems of provision for popular music and a DISTRIBUTION AND COPYRIGHT DETAILS regional music industry, PhD thesis, University of Sydney. FAR NORTH COAST MUSIC PRODUCTION 1990-1999 Acquired from 388 © copyright 2001 389 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE In a general sense, copyright (the central plank of corporate Other elements of ‘local’ production systems for DiY property rights in music) has not completely disappeared in material involve the distribution channels used to promote CD local music production, with artists on the whole affirming releases. Networks of communication and information flow the need for legal protection of their works. To some extent an are crucial in sustaining the region’s various electronic awareness of copyright has probably been heightened through subcultures (psy-trance, drumnbass, house, doof). Flyers and the advent of digital technology, where artist control of posters around towns are important ways of disseminating copyright (through ownership of masters) has replaced the information with little expense; community radio stations abstractions of copyright held by a third party. At the same support specialist shows; local papers and street press list time, issues of copyright were not given the same prominence venues and performances. In the North Coast region the social as in national and international debates on technology and praxis of production is usually interlinked with consumption; music. While copyright issues were spoken of in interviews, musicians are usually regular customers of retail outlets who they were not identified as crucial to the future of the region’s accept their releases on consignment, while social groups, music industry. Accordingly, twenty-five releases provided no subcultures and political/lobbying organisations provide the details on copyright ownership. For DiY enthusiasts in smaller support mechanisms for musicians at benefit gigs, community production agglomerations, the stakes are simply not as high events, festivals and markets. These groups then make up the as with multinational catalogue owners. Meanwhile, electronic target audiences for releases that appear in the region. In this music collectives aligned with more radical political agendas, regard, music promotion capitalises on already existing social notable Organarchy Sound Systems (based in the small hamlet networks and political-economic beliefs; networks are of Rosebank) adopted anti-copyright stances, encouraging established through political circles—environmental activists, sampling and copying of their work through association with anarchists, students, socialists—that lead to electronic artists MACOS (Musicians Against Copyright on Samples), sharing friends and musical spaces with those performing folk, articulating a more direct affront to the systems of private spoken word, poetry and some thrash/funk. The most well- property ownership upon which multinational profit is based. known examples of these are regular events held in village dance halls, that were rediscovered as part of a search for alternative, non-alcohol aligned and cheap sites for parties. Often connected through non-government organisations and protest groups to particular audiences, hall gigs place a distinctive emphasis on ‘community’ and the singularity (rather than regularity) of particular events. Acquired from 390 © copyright 2001 391 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE BEYOND THE LOCAL — also helped to stage larger events in more rural locations such DIGITAL NETWORKS AS RADICAL SPACES as the 1999 Summer Dreaming Festival at Drake, inland from the North Coast region. There have also been other reactions to the position of the region in relation to music capitalism and means of production. During 1999 Luna Orbit, under the name Orbit These emphasise going beyond localism, but in ways that do Constructions, released the CD Fresh Green Eggs, featuring not automatically assume intentions to travel through expected low-key trance electronica with samples and drum loops. In chains of production, distribution and consumption. With an this case, music was produced that was not intended to be emphasis on mobility and the erosion of geographical distance initially consumed by people in their own homes through mass and barriers, these strategies attempt to go beyond the ‘local distribution. The mini discs and CD-Rs produced by members as site of resistance’ paradigm and aim to integrate local of the Digital Psionics collective were distributed through musicians in wider networks of influence and dissemination. global social networks of trance DJs and producers (largely With these changes come new sets of linkages between music based on email), radio stations and event promoters, with and place, and an emerging political economy of music intended consumption in (re)constructed dance party production connected to a wider sense of radical activity. environments and DJ sets. Fred Cole, another local electronic music producer (and half of D*Ranger) describes a particularly Electronic artists in the region taking advantage in the vivid example of these sorts of networks: growth of digital home recording technology aimed to produce I recently produced a track in DAT format that was played commodities that were not intended to ‘take off’ in terms of in London three days after first being played on the NSW retail sales, and instead were targeted at networks of subcultural North Coast. A few weeks later the same track arrived back influence and alliance through which products move for on the North Coast via a visiting Israeli DJ who had received consumption in particular social spaces. One example of this it from a German DJ in Tokyo.16 is the trance/techno label Digital Psionics, run by DJs Luke Psywalker and Luna Orbit. In similar ways to those apparent in the North Coast’s folk scene, the production of psy-trance compilations by Digital Psionics was funded through staging a series of events at halls and local venues. These involved low overheads (Luke estimated only A$150 in costs, mainly for hiring a generator); collectively-owned P.A. system and DJ equipment; and grass-roots promotion through flyers and their weekly trance show on Bay-FM. Digital Psionics have 16 Cole, F and Hannan, M (1998) ‘The place of (music)ology in the study of music production’, Perfect Beat, 4, 1, 118-120. Acquired from 392 © copyright 2001 393 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE This reflected a number of particularities of the politics of CONCLUSIONS: DEFLATING THE ‘DIGITAL REVOLUTION’? contemporary electronic music production. First, releases were Is it possible to assert that technological change in the music not targeted for retail sales. The subcultural capital assigned to industry has enabled musicians in regional areas greater access these commodities comes from being unavailable for purchase to recording technology and opened up potential systems of through conventional retail. The preference for trance DJs to production for local music? In the first instance, the advent of beat mix with CDs, minidiscs and DAT tapes rather than vinyl, home recording has unambiguously enabled artists to control the standard in other fragments of dance cultures, was buttressed more aspects of the production process, something that often on the rarity of a commodity rather than its ubiquity as a mass- consumed product. Indeed, the credibility of dance DJs as troubled many studio engineers interviewed for this research. cultural gatekeepers relies on their ability to filter releases and The recording and production of commodities was often carried select tracks from personal sources and informal networks, out by musicians, a shift from divisions of labour which posited promoting their own individual style over the imprints of the musician as one component in a production process alongside creativity found in the recordings themselves. In interviews with sound engineers and assistants, production directors, mastering producers at Digital Psionics, they discussed the extent to which engineers, pressing plants. Musicians are now the target they would reserve material they had received for special events consumer group of equipment required for production rather (rather than play it on their radio show, in order to limit its than high capital intensive companies. On the Far North Coast, exposure and the risk of home taping). It also became apparent this meant that quite diverse musical experiments were released that for them it was more important to be seen making cutting- and stocked on shelves of local music stores, leading to a rise in edge music in an international landscape of producers, DJs and the general level of musical experimentation and involvement. promoters than to maximise retail sales in local or national Like the advent of any new technology, there is always a markets. Rather, emphasis was placed on creating a combination tendency towards an inflation of the importance of changes in of rarity and high demand for their expressions among a small production processes. While digital recording gear is capable number of ‘influential’ people within the global trance music of producing high-quality material, this does not mean that all nexus, in order to promote the credibility of the label and assert digital recordings will indeed achieve a professional level of its identity in a tightly interconnected trance distribution network. sound. Conventional studios are still likely to be utilised for In October 1999, the label released the compilation CD Psionic projects funded by major corporate interests, mostly established Sounds, featuring tracks sourced from various points throughout artists. In addition to this, artists keen to use digital technology their electronic network of associate DJs and friends, including still have to raise necessary funds to purchase equipment and/ Morphem (Berlin); Dogma (Zagreb, Croatia); In Sect (Uppsala, or a powerful home computer. While the costs of such hardware Sweden) and Fripic Bounce (Torino, Italy), alongside Byron are dramatically cheaper than previous recording technology, Bay sound systems. Acquired from 394 © copyright 2001 395 www.ozauthors.com.au FREENRG PART FOUR — RECLAIMING SPACE these developments do not automatically infer a completely In addition, systems of production that have emerged in democratic musical production environment, most obviously Australian electronic music circles and on the Far North Coast for those unable to afford a computer, racks of effects or digital only partly deal with the dilemmas of distribution: the fact mixing desks in the first place. that power in ‘conventional’ music capitalism is now So, it would be highly premature to suggest that the concentrated in the nexus of control and distribution of emergence of these forms of music production and distribution copyright material. While music production of the type have completely replaced, or even made a significant impact described here tended to exist in discrete networks of producers on the established means of production in the music industry. and consumers, it is unlikely to impact on wider markets for Paul Chambers, who runs his own digital suite in the hamlet music commodities. Internet distribution has been discussed of Possum’s Creek and participates in the Edgecore collective, as one way of bridging gaps between artists/producers and acknowledged the advances in home recording equipment that wider markets, beyond the reach of multinational interests in have enabled his own creativity to emerge in the field of the music industry. Yet these too, can only succeed with points electronic dance music, yet offered a less utopian view of the of access from other key sites. At the same time as home wider commercial viability of home recordings, and the need production has become more apparent in Australian electronica for further mastering and professional promotion: and in regions such as the Far North Coast, it has also exploded in Europe, North America and Asia (such as Japan’s taku-roku To a certain extent it’s changed. You’ve got access to a lot more software, and it’s quite easy to make your own music, ‘home recording’ movement). While this is a very positive which wasn’t available 10 years ago, 20 years ago, but I’ve thing in terms of widening the scope of grass-roots music been making music, we go and get it mastered, and there is production and the possibilities of transmitting recordings a level where the better gear you’ve got, the better sound across geographical space, without strategic linkages as with you’re going to get, so there is still that. We just try to do the best we can.17 Digital Psionics’ subcultural alliances, or Organarchy’s network of activist connections, new and vibrant sounds, as well as the radical possibilities of electronic dance cultures, are likely to be swallowed up in a sea of digital noise. 17 Gibson, C (2000) Decentred sounds: systems of provision for popular music and a regional music industry, PhD thesis, University of Sydney. Acquired from 396 © copyright 2001 397 www.ozauthors.com.au