This paper was originally presented as an informal talk at the Rebelstar Activist Retreat, Crescent Beach, BC, Canada on November 26th, 2001.

Musikal Resistance: A Short History (I)

History.

Rave Culture began at the juncture of several political social movements.

i) Jamaican Dub Soundsystem Culture of the 70s/80s

ii) UK Traveller Culture (ex-hippies); Punks; New Agers; also a centuries old tradition of Carnival on the Common Lands

iii) Austin, Texas, 1986: the impact of Ecstasy

iv) Continuation of Chicago Disco into house music; the rise of gay culture and the Funk Movement

v) Detroit: the artistic-social backlash to the failed modernist city-project resulted in Detroit techno and rap.

vi) The late 80s in the UK saw the rise of Acid House music (Chicago house with a 303 overtop, the combining of Chicago dance culture with UK rebellion), which took on new social importance due to its context: “dj’ed,” on turntables, mixed by djs with pitch controls (this is a new thing!), in illegal spaces: occupations of warehouses, farmlands, public and private spaces.

More here

A likkle history of jungle music, as told by Carlos Soul Slinger:

In the early 1990s, MCs who were predominately Black and from the ragga scene, began to add their flavor to techno beats from the white dominated rave scene. This eclectic marriage of styles, roots and electronic music, laid the foundation for modern jungle. Jungle began as the integration of musical forms which came from a variety of cultural perspectives. The socio-economic mix of the London underground community fostered an environment which encouraged the intermingling of cultures and one love between all people. The natural evolution of this, musically, is jungle. The pioneers of UK jungle were Rebel MC, Ragga Twins, Shut Up and Dance and Two Bad Mice (Rob Playford). In July, 1991 underground white labels’ records from these groups started showing up on the NYC dance scene. Fortunately, I happened to be in the right time at the right place and realized my responsibility to start playing and producing jungle. I first spun jungle at the infamous NYC dance club, the Limelight, at the major techno event called Future Shock. The Future Shock promoters didn’t get jungle and shut me down. A year later, I helped to found NASA (a new, different kind of underground party) with db, Scotto, Jason Jinx and On-E. This became the first successful breakbeat party in America and launched the US jungle scene. The next major turning point for US jungle was a party called Jungle Warriors. This was the first big jungle event in Manhattan that brought together top junglists and live drummers (including Marque Gilmore). Here we learned and taught each other and changed the course of US jungle forever. Today in NYC, Koncrete Jungle (props to Mac and Kathy) and Egg (Liquid Sky posse) have maintained the tradition of NYC underground parties and are the weekly family gathering places for the NYC underground.

From Soul Slinger/Jungle Sky Records myspace bio…

LTJ Bukem released his first jungle choons in 1991-92: Demon’s Theme / A Couple Of Beats