There was definitely a spirit of revolution in the hardcore scene in the 90s, a lot of people believed in this and followed it. i assumed hardcore could kickstart a worldwide revolution, and that by 2005 i was living inside some kind of liberated zone where anarchy and hardcore music met.
just like the anarchist revolution that the anarchists in the 19th century envisioned, this revolution did not happen, and a lot of people reverted back into "real life", or continued with some attempt of "music without politics".
i lasted a bit longer but gave up too - until my rationality took part of the better of me again and i knew again that anarchy is true.
in the end we behaved like children. our one attempt at revolution did fail full-scale - or so it seemed - but that doesn't mean all attempts have to fail!
imagine a remote village mostly untouched by civilization somewhere. they heard about planes and that they're able, so to the best of their knowledge they cut chop and build a plane of wood and then are disappointed that they can't fly away with it. this is what happened to us!
because it is indeed possible to change the world and to start a revolution. but we used the wrong methods for it!
take DHR records for example. they wanted a revolution too. alec said he used a basic idea of williams burroughs. media can change social structures; the content of media has an influence on people of society. thus, "riot sounds produce riots". (it's more complicated, i reduced it to some basic terms here). but there is exactly the problem. william burroughs' concepts on this are extremely flawed. you will not have the right effect with it. burroughs knew more than a lot of people, but he really knew very little and his ideas were hindered by being "of their time".
so DHR couldn't start a revolution or even a riot with these methods. yet they still achieved a lot. literally hundreds of producers were inspired by them to generate radical sounds. their sounds and those of DHR literally reached millions of people. this is a *big* effect. so the burroughs method "worked" - but not in the way intended!
this is typical of using flawed methods to change the world - you achieve something, even a lot - but not what you intend!
so with the right methods we can change the world and this is what we should do. i will write about this elsewhere, but if you're curious, the core focal point of it has to be *rationality*.
On Breakcore Part 2
i said i left the breakcore scene not because of its political swing to conservatism around the year 2000, but because i could not formulate a criticism of this particularly virulent form of conservatism. but today, i can. breakcore is haunted by what i call "intellectual blindness"; the inability to realize what ideals are and their importance, and how they're different from the bullshit of everyday life. using a speech by durruti or mussolini or stalin, sampling bland pop or death metal or avantgarde, it's all the same to the breakcore crowd, interchangeable, dull, of no importance. they don't realize that the struggle for anarchism, for a better world, for love or truth is a very real thing that effects very real living beings - to them it's just another "ideology" like the speech of the potus or even the words of a manic salesman. because they don't understand that having and fighting for ideals is something very real and true. that ideals have true meaning and glory and can and will change the world to the better.
Teach A Man A Poem
teach a human to fish and he won't be hungry for a day
read a human a poem and he will learn to dream and both transcend the need to fish and give him the ability to create a world where he won't go hungry anymore
read a human a poem and he will learn to dream and both transcend the need to fish and give him the ability to create a world where he won't go hungry anymore
My Shift In Music
the music i did in my first period of producing (1997-2004) and the music i do now (2008 and after) is vastly different. my early music was more experimental with focus on noise and drones and breakdown on rhythm and structure.
some might think, perhaps i've mellowed down. or i found taste in more conventional structures, found merit in that, and that is responsible for my shift.
but this is not the case at all.
with my first period of music, my intent was to do experimental music. to get as far away from any convention in western music and to challenge any "rule" on how music has to be.
but i soon ran to the point where it seemed impossible to go on.
for example, the traditional rhythm in most of current western music, if we look at pop and electronic music, is a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm. but if you use a rhythm like 7/4 or 3/13, and still using a pop or techno or hardcore set of drums, are you not still following convention? and even if you used different drums, is not using a steady time signature or one that can be expressed in rational numbers still a limit?
schoenberg did some of the most experimental music in his day, yet youngsters could sneer at him for employing the traditional instruments in his compositions.
stockhausen's electronic releases don't have that flaw; but it's still music on a CD that is listened by people at home; a convention that neither traditional nor techno music had and has.
so, how to get rid of this almost infinite amount of rules and conventions in music?
easy: annihilate music altogether. to hell with all rhythms and tonal structures and song schematics.
but how to do this?
to focus on something outside of the music you create. an idea or ideal.
for example love, or anarchism, or truth, or revolution.
the goal of the track is to express an idea. how the track expresses this is meaningless. how the track is produced is meaningless.
love could be expressed by a folk song, or indie rock, or gabber, or black metal. it is no difference.
i just use sonic forms to express ideas, and often the form is techno, but that is just the form, it is of no importance. the idea or ideal is important.
but this is not the whole truth; different forms have different merits (abilities to express ideas) also i love the techno form, or new wave form, and it best, but not necessary if both the sonic form and idea behind it is great.
but the idea or ideal is the most important thing.
some might think, perhaps i've mellowed down. or i found taste in more conventional structures, found merit in that, and that is responsible for my shift.
but this is not the case at all.
with my first period of music, my intent was to do experimental music. to get as far away from any convention in western music and to challenge any "rule" on how music has to be.
but i soon ran to the point where it seemed impossible to go on.
for example, the traditional rhythm in most of current western music, if we look at pop and electronic music, is a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm. but if you use a rhythm like 7/4 or 3/13, and still using a pop or techno or hardcore set of drums, are you not still following convention? and even if you used different drums, is not using a steady time signature or one that can be expressed in rational numbers still a limit?
schoenberg did some of the most experimental music in his day, yet youngsters could sneer at him for employing the traditional instruments in his compositions.
stockhausen's electronic releases don't have that flaw; but it's still music on a CD that is listened by people at home; a convention that neither traditional nor techno music had and has.
so, how to get rid of this almost infinite amount of rules and conventions in music?
easy: annihilate music altogether. to hell with all rhythms and tonal structures and song schematics.
but how to do this?
to focus on something outside of the music you create. an idea or ideal.
for example love, or anarchism, or truth, or revolution.
the goal of the track is to express an idea. how the track expresses this is meaningless. how the track is produced is meaningless.
love could be expressed by a folk song, or indie rock, or gabber, or black metal. it is no difference.
i just use sonic forms to express ideas, and often the form is techno, but that is just the form, it is of no importance. the idea or ideal is important.
but this is not the whole truth; different forms have different merits (abilities to express ideas) also i love the techno form, or new wave form, and it best, but not necessary if both the sonic form and idea behind it is great.
but the idea or ideal is the most important thing.
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