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Ecstatic Melancholic: Ambivalence, Electronic Music and Social Change Around the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Ecstatic Melancholic: Ambivalence, Electronic Music and Social Change around the Fall of the Berlin Wall Ben Gook The Cold War’s end infused electronic music in Berlin after 1989 with an ecstatic intensity. Enthused communities came together to live out that energy and experiment in conditions informed by past suffering and hope for the future. This techno-scene became an ‘intimate public’ (Berlant) within an emergent ‘structure of feeling’ (Williams). Techno parties held out a promise of freedom while Germany’s re-unification quickly broke into disputes and mutual suspicion. Tracing the historical movement during the first years of re-unified Germany, this article adds to accounts of ecstasy by considering it in conjunction with melancholy, arguing for an ambivalent description of ecstatic experience – and of emotional life more broadly. Keywords: German re-unification, electronic dance music, structure of feeling, intimate publics, ambivalence. Everybody was happy Ecstasy shining down on me ... I’m raving, I’m raving But do I really feel the way I feel?1 In Germany around 1989, techno music coursed through a population already energised by the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The years 1989 and 1990 were optimistic for many in Germany and elsewhere. The Cold War’s end heralded a conclusion to various deadlocks. Young Germans acutely felt this release from stasis and rushed to the techno-scene.2 Similar scenes also flourished in neighbouring European countries, the United States and Britain around the 1 ‘Raving I’m Raving,’ Shut up and Dance (UK: Shut Up and Dance Records, 1992), vinyl. Funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions Associate Investigator (CE110001011) scheme helped with this work. -
Techno's Journey from Detroit to Berlin Advisor
The Day We Lost the Beat: Techno’s Journey From Detroit to Berlin Advisor: Professor Bryan McCann Honors Program Chair: Professor Amy Leonard James Constant Honors Thesis submitted to the Department of History Georgetown University 9 May 2016 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 5 Glossary of terms and individuals 6 The techno sound 8 Listening suggestions for each chapter 11 Chapter One: Proto-Techno in Detroit: They Heard Europe on the Radio 12 The Electrifying Mojo 13 Cultural and economic environment of middle-class young black Detroit 15 Influences on early techno and differences between house and techno 22 The Belleville Three and proto-techno 26 Kraftwerk’s influence 28 Chapter Two: Frankfurt, Berlin, and Rave in the late 1980s 35 Frankfurt 37 Acid House and Rave in Chicago and Europe 43 Berlin, Ufo and the Love Parade 47 Chapter Three: Tresor, Underground Resistance, and the Berlin sound 55 Techno’s departure from the UK 57 A trip to Chicago 58 Underground Resistance 62 The New Geography of Berlin 67 Tresor Club 70 Hard Wax and Basic Channel 73 Chapter Four: Conclusion and techno today 77 Hip-hop and techno 79 Techno today 82 Bibliography 84 3 Acknowledgements Thank you, Mom, Dad, and Mary, for putting up with my incessant music (and me ruining last Christmas with this thesis), and to Professors Leonard and McCann, along with all of those in my thesis cohort. I would have never started this thesis if not for the transformative experiences I had at clubs and afterhours in New York and Washington, so to those at Good Room, Flash, U Street Music Hall, and Midnight Project, keep doing what you’re doing. -
Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture
The Vibe of the Exiles: Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture Feature Article Graham St John Griffith University (Australia) Abstract This article offers detailed comment on thevibe of the exiles, a socio-sonic aesthetic infused with the sensibility of the exile, of compatriotism in expatriation, a characteristic of psychedelic electronica from Goatrance to psytrance and beyond (i.e. psyculture). The commentary focuses on an emancipatory artifice which sees participants in the psyculture continuum adopt the figure of the alien in transpersonal and utopian projects. Decaled with the cosmic liminality of space exploration, alien encounter and abduction repurposed from science fiction, psychedelic event-culture cultivates posthumanist pretentions resembling Afrofuturist sensibilities that are identified with, appropriated and reassembled by participants. Offering a range of examples, among them Israeli psychedelic artists bent on entering another world, the article explores the interface of psyculture and Afrofuturism. Sharing a theme central to cosmic jazz, funk, rock, dub, electro, hip-hop and techno, from the earliest productions, Israeli and otherwise, Goatrance, assumed an off-world trajectory, and a concomitant celebration of difference, a potent otherness signified by the alien encounter, where contact and abduction become driving narratives for increasingly popular social aesthetics. Exploring the different orbits from which mystics and ecstatics transmit visions of another world, the article, then, focuses on the socio- sonic aesthetics of the dance floor, that orgiastic domain in which a multitude of “freedoms” are performed, mutant utopias propagated, and alien identities danced into being. Keywords: alien-ation; psyculture; Afrofuturism; posthumanism; psytrance; exiles; aliens; vibe Graham St John is a cultural anthropologist and researcher of electronic dance music cultures and festivals. -
Krautrock and the West German Counterculture
“Macht das Ohr auf” Krautrock and the West German Counterculture Ryan Iseppi A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of BACHELOR OF ARTS WITH HONORS DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES & LITERATURES UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN April 17, 2012 Advised by Professor Vanessa Agnew 2 Contents I. Introduction 5 Electric Junk: Krautrock’s Identity Crisis II. Chapter 1 23 Future Days: Krautrock Roots and Synthesis III. Chapter 2 33 The Collaborative Ethos and the Spirit of ‘68 IV: Chapter 3 47 Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht: Krautrock in Opposition V: Chapter 4 61 Ethnological Forgeries and Agit-Rock VI: Chapter 5 73 The Man-Machines: Krautrock and Electronic Music VII: Conclusion 85 Ultima Thule: Krautrock and the Modern World VIII: Bibliography 95 IX: Discography 103 3 4 I. Introduction Electric Junk: Krautrock’s Identity Crisis If there is any musical subculture to which this modern age of online music consumption has been particularly kind, it is certainly the obscure, groundbreaking, and oft misunderstood German pop music phenomenon known as “krautrock”. That krautrock’s appeal to new generations of musicians and fans both in Germany and abroad continues to grow with each passing year is a testament to the implicitly iconoclastic nature of the style; krautrock still sounds odd, eccentric, and even confrontational approximately twenty-five years after the movement is generally considered to have ended.1 In fact, it is difficult nowadays to even page through a recent issue of major periodicals like Rolling Stone or Spin without chancing upon some kind of passing reference to the genre. -
Doctor of Philosophy
RICE UNIVERSITY By tommy symmes A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE Doctor of Philosophy APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE William B Parsons William B Parsons (Apr 21, 2021 11:48 PDT) William Parsons Jeffrey Kripal Jeffrey Kripal (Apr 21, 2021 13:45 CDT) Jeffrey Kripal James Faubion James Faubion (Apr 21, 2021 14:17 CDT) James Faubion HOUSTON, TEXAS April 2021 1 Abstract This dissertation studies dance music events in a field survey of writings, in field work with interviews, and in conversations between material of interest sourced from the writing and interviews. Conversations are arranged around six reading themes: events, ineffability, dancing, the materiality of sound, critique, and darkness. The field survey searches for these themes in histories, sociotheoretical studies, memoirs, musical nonfiction, and zines. The field work searches for these themes at six dance music event series in the Twin Cities: Warehouse 1, Freak Of The Week, House Proud, Techno Tuesday, Communion, and the Headspace Collective. The dissertation learns that conversations that take place at dance music events often reflect and engage with multiple of the same themes as conversations that take place in writings about dance music events. So this dissertation suggests that writings about dance music events would always do well to listen closely to what people at dance music events are already chatting about, because conversations about dance music events are also, often enough, conversations about things besides dance music events as well. 2 Acknowledgments Thanks to my dissertation committee for reading this dissertation and patiently indulging me in conversations about dance music events. -
Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance
Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance David Robb, Belfast ISSN 1470 – 9570 Dave Robb 130 Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance David Robb, Belfast This article documents the musical evolution of German techno from Kraftwerk to West Bam and Sven Väth and examines the reasons behind techno’s phenomenal success in Germany and its high profile in the media. It charts the convergence of international DJs on the newly reunified Berlin in 1990 culminating in the famous Berlin sound. It looks at how this underground subculture (claimed as the first area in social life where German unification took place) was subsumed by the fashion and musical mainstream. With reference to cultural theory, the article examines, both aesthetically and socially, the significance of club culture and mass youth events such as the Love Parade. It examines the dialectic relationship between the manipulations of the culture industry and the ‘creative appropriation of culture’ by the ravers and DJs themselves. It probes behind the claims of the German techno mainstream to be a model of functioning democracy and tolerance and looks at the aesthetic philosophies of techno rebels such as Attari Teenage Riot, the Fuck/Hate Parade and the music of the Mille Plateaux label as guided by the theory of Deleuze and Guattari. It’s Saturday 21st July, 2001, weekend of the Berlin Love Parade, the biggest annual techno festival in the world. The railway station at Alexanderplatz echoes with the piercing shrill of whistles, as youth from all over Europe converge and head off towards the Reichstag. -
Mit Der Technik Tanzen. Technokörper Im Berlin Der Frühen Neunziger Jahre
Original citation: Karwath, Leonie and Häberlen, Joachim C. (2018) Mit der Technik tanzen : Technokörper im Berlin der frühen Neunziger Jahre. Body Politics, 6 (9). pp. 95-122. Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/98018 Copyright and reuse: The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work of researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. This article is made available under the Creative-Commons-License CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Germany) and may be reused according to the conditions of the license. For more details see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/de/ A note on versions: The version presented in WRAP is the published version, or, version of record, and may be cited as it appears here. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Body Politics 6 (2018), Heft 9, S. 95-122 Mit der Technik tanzen. Technokörper im Berlin der frühen Neunziger Jahre Leonie Karwath und Joachim C. Häberlen English abstract: The article investigates how technology, especially music, was used to produce specific bodies in the Berlin Techno scene after the fall of the wall. It argues that dancing was a mode of appropriating technology, as not only music but also visual ef- fects affected bodies. The article describes three configurations of the techno body: the desiring body, the exhausted body, and the connected body. Rather than seeking to un- veil the naïveté of a search for liberated bodies, the article suggests that Techno allowed protagonists to experiment with the body and thereby to produce new and exciting bod- ies. -
Techno City Berlin
BEATE PETER Breaching the Divide: Techno City Berlin. Music has often been linked to place, not only with regard to a geographical location but also to a certain group of people or a lifestyle. In the case of Electronic Dance Music (EDM), some genres are known to have originated from particular areas such as Dutch Gabber, trance from Goa or techno from Detroit. Occasionally, as is the case with techno, the origin of a particular genre is debated (the Germans like to claim this genre too). And yet a geographical connotation seems to help people identify a certain sound, especially in times when the classification of subgenres within EDM presents us with an overwhelming variety of supposedly distinctive sounds. It becomes harder to define the music by its traditional features such as instrumentation, notation or compositional methods and one has to wonder whether the definition of genre should include aspects that only indirectly contribute to the production of sound: aspects such as social conditions, cultural backgrounds or economic changes. Berlin is considered one of the most vibrant musical cities in western society. It is a unique city not least because of its role in German and European history. It is this history that has helped to create a sound that is unmistakable: Berlin techno. At a time when other countries and cities lament the death of EDM and clubculture, Berlin is a progressive example of musical development. It is a city that seems to be able to permanently reinvent itself and its culture, and part of this energetic process is its Electronic Dance Music Culture (EDCM). -
Techno » Techno
Club Guide » Techno » Techno http://www.clubguide.it/?p=1023 Techno Techno is a form of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, USA during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988.Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built. The initial take on techno arose from the melding of Eurocentric synthesizer-based music with various African American styles such as Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz. Added to this was the influence of futuristic and fictional themes that were relevant to life in American late capitalist society: most particularly the book The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler.Pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Toffler’s phrase “techno rebels” as inspiring him to use the word techno to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the aesthetic referred to as afrofuturism. To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central preoccupation; essentially an expression of technological spirituality. In this manner: “techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness“. Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use of the term; so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related but often qualitatively different styles, such as tech house and trance. “Techno” is also commonly confused with generalized descriptors, such as electronic music and dance music. -
Mit Der Technik Tanzen. Technokörper Im Berlin Der Frühen Neunziger Jahre
I I I Wir empfehlen Ihnen, auf einem Blatt jeweils zwei Seiten dieses Artikels nebeneinander auszudrucken. We recommend that you print two pages of this article side by side on one sheet. Body Politics 6 (2018), Heft 9, S. 95-122 Mit der Technik tanzen. Technokörper im Berlin der frühen Neunziger Jahre Leonie Karwath und Joachim C. Häberlen English abstract: The article investigates how technology, especially music, was used to produce specific bodies in the Berlin Techno scene after the fall of the wall. It argues that dancing was a mode of appropriating technology, as not only music but also visual ef- fects affected bodies. The article describes three configurations of the techno body: the desiring body, the exhausted body, and the connected body. Rather than seeking to un- veil the naïveté of a search for liberated bodies, the article suggests that Techno allowed protagonists to experiment with the body and thereby to produce new and exciting bod- ies. In that sense, the article traces the potentialities of using technologies to affect and produce historically specific bodies. „Das Licht noch mehr reduzieren, noch mehr Nebel, noch mehr Strobo- skop, noch mehr Bass, noch mehr Rhythmus. Ich wollte das Gefühl in- tensivieren, einfach in der Musik zu sein. Tanzen, die Augen zu machen und abfahren. Den ganzen Abend.“1 So beschrieb der Techno-Künstler Wolfram Neugebauer, bekannt als Wolle XDP, die Idee hinter der von ihm zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre veranstalteten Partyreihe Tekknozid. Die Flyer, die zu den Partys einluden, sprachen eine „Warnung“ aus und versprachen gleichzeitig die „härteste[n] Techno-Beats“, die nicht nur „totale Ekstase“, sondern auch eine Reise ins „Unterbewußtsein“ und den „Cyberspace, jenen undefinierbaren Datenraum hinter Monitoren, Synthesizern und Satellitenantennen“ ermöglichen sollten.2 Die Tekkno- zid Partys waren Teil einer Subkultur, die nach dem Fall der Mauer und dem Zusammenbruch der staatlichen Macht in Ostberlin urbane Räume wie alte Fabriken und stillgelegte Kraftwerke zu Orten des Rave machte. -
Remembering the Space Age
PART II. REMEMBRANCE AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATION OF THE SPACE AGE ~ CHAPTER 10 FAR OUT: THE SPACE AGE IN AMERICAN CULture Emily S. Rosenberg pace has long provided a canvas for the imagination. For me, the early SSpace Age intertwined with a sense of youth’s almost limitless possibilities— the excitement of discovery, the allure of adventure, the challenge of competition, the confidence of mastery. As a girl in Montana, I looked up into that Big Sky hoping to glimpse a future that would, somehow, allow my escape from the claustrophobia of small towns separated by long distances. But the Space Age was also bound up with the encroaching cynicism of my young adulthood: the fear of a future driven by thoughtless fascination with technique and a Vietnam-era disillusionment with the country’s benevolence and with the credibility of its leaders. The night that the first American landed on the Moon, I was in the audience at the Newport Folk Festival. Someone from the audience yelled “What were the first words on the Moon?” the announcer replied, “They were: ‘The simulation was better!’” A cluster of people grumbled that the Moonwalk was probably faked, a suspicion that my barely literate immigrant grandmother—and a few others in the country—shared. The new Space Age could promise giant leaps and also threaten Hal of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Space could be far away or “far out.” Anyone who has been around for the past half century harbors private memories of the early Space Age. A toy, a TV program, a book, a painting, a school science fair project can each touch off remembrance of a place, an emotion, the person we once were. -
Born in East Berlin, This Uncompromising DJ/Producer's Outsider Graft and Visions of Dystopia Have Made Him One of the Leading
0123456789 Born in East 0123456789 Berlin, this uncompromising DJ/producer’s outsider graft and visions of dystopia have made him one of the leading techno stars on the planet Words Mark Rowlands Photography Rødhåd Matthias Wehofsky Grooming Katrin Boelke rødhåd Not for dancing Rødhåd recommends some of his favourite ambient and drone artists THE MACHO PYRoteCHNICS accompanying edge, is one that Rødhåd carefully nurtures. And or an affiliation to any of Berlin’s globally renowned his earliest club inspirations. Slowing down from the For many years I played in a small club called tonight’s show only really begin to flex their muscles it is one that his audience has grown to expect. As label or club brands. If, sitting in his hotel room 145bpm sets he first publicly played as a teen, the Zementgarten, playing mostly weird and non- towards the end of Rødhåd’s set. An expensive- comfortable as he is setting the scene in tonight’s before tonight’s big event, he shows no sign of dub he refers to is not the Jamaican sub-genre but danceable music and a lot of ambient and drone. looking bank of dry ice cannons, fired in sharp unison, warm-up show, these days he’s more regularly to nerves, that’s because tonight’s undertaking is a music by the likes of Maurizio and Basic Channel. He It’s a key part of my roots as a DJ, so here are startle the 5,000-strong audience. As Rødhåd be found playing extensive sessions, such as the responsibility he knows only too well.