DISGUISE THE LIMIT – SPRING 2016 Send stuff to [email protected] The online archive can be found at randomartists.org/rupture.shtml French scene TEKNIVAL update Teknival (techno+festival) / Sarkoval local sound-systems and labels; a space ward! It was a festive, happy, tolerant and (Sarkozy: French minister of the interior to buy their merch (records, cds, t-shirts respectful time. at the time the term ‘Sarkoval’ was invent- etc). These were also places to meet with As the movement grew, politicians ed, who went on to become president) / like-minded people and share informa- jumped in and created a new law: ‘La Teknivalls (Emmanuel Valls, current prime tion about upcoming gigs/raves/’teufs’ loi Mariani’ in October 2001. This was a minister) (teuf: inversion of the syllables in the law designed to slaughter freedom and The teknival first cameinto being on the word fête (party), which became a gener- to control rave-partys and teknivals. The 23rd of July 1993, thanks to Spiral Tribe, ic term for raves). Of course, in the early first legal teknival, or ‘Sarkoval’ took place Bedlam and a few other rigs from France days flyers were very handy, as back over the first May bank holiday weekend and the UK who set up near Beauvais then there were no mobiles, no Facebook in 2003 on a disused military base near in the north of the country. On site were and no internet! Marigny (close to Paris). three or four sound-systems and less It was like going off on an adventure – than 500 people – the ‘electronic revolu- finding the meeting points and heading tion’ had begun in earnest! off in convoys of vans full of ravers. No Since 1993 this movement has evolved; one really knew where we were all going; it became ‘democratised’ and went everyone filled with feelings of freedom through a period of being enormously and discovery… ‘mediatised’, which lead to it becoming In the beginning, everything was home- a fad. Despite this upheaval there are still made; un-experienced sound-systems hundreds, even thousands, of sound-sys- with strange looking rigs that sounded tems that can be found all over France even stranger! “OPEN TO ALL!”… TAZ today. (the idea of Temporary Autonomous Local record shops became places of Zones), DIY and PAF (Participation Aux discovery, where you could find out about Frais – donations)… this was the way for- Other legal teknivals took place on this site and the first May bank holiday became the official authorised date for a teknival in France (as opposed to all the others that, to a lesser extent, continued to spring up throughout the rest of the year) and this became the reliable annual European meet-up for sound-systems and ravers. The biggest teknival to date took place in Chambley (Lorraine region, near Germany) in 2004, assembling 100,000 people over five days! Photo from this year’s event... Continued on the next page... Continued from the front... • The spirit of freedom and self suffi- respecting the land. There is also the ex- Over the years, the repression against ciency, sharing, solidarity, respect and tra task of getting in safety services such us and our movement has grown: the bartering has disappeared; the spirit of as fire brigade, the Red Cross, ambu- state seizes sound-systems and acts in ‘being in it all together’ has gone lances, paramedics and field hospitals. blatant disrespect of its own law (amen- • Instead of a freespace, teknivals have We are ashamed of what this has be- dement Mariani 2001), enforcing this re- now become ‘Ultra FlikÈ’ (flic: police), a come – this is no longer our story, our vi- pression by using brutal policing meth- place where one can find the army, the sion of partying free in Tempoary Autono- ods – all to stop us having free parties. gendarmerie (paramilitary police), drug mous Zones. We want our freedom back, This has lead to many people boycott- squads and many more undesirables we are not sheep... FUCK POLITICS! ing the legal May teknival, both for politi- Added to that are the exorbitant costs Therefore, this year there shall be no cal reasons and for others, such as: of hiring land and ensuring the presence consulting with the state – it’s back to total • It became the techno equivalent of a of adequate quantities of bins and water; illegality... come one, come all! RAVE ON! school fete, or a funfair, filled with hired the sites after a teknival are a mess, with A successful illegal French teknival took sound-systems and part-time ravers rubbish strewn across acres of land, dis- place in Salbris, 29 April – 2 May 2016 got Signal is automatically encrypted. The fact that it’s attached to your phone number IN/COMMUNICADO makes it one for an easy everyday-use tool, rather than the prime choice for question- able activities, but its still a tried and tested These days it’s pretty easy to succumb to SIGNAL and easy-to-use little app. the notion that the powers of law and order A very easy to use app for smartphones, SURESPOT are able to spy on our phone and internet Signal provides an easy-to-use encrypted This is the current head of the pack for communications at will. Whether its mass messaging service endorsed by the people private communication via phone, falling interception of our emails by GCHQ, police the government really are out to get (Ed- down only on the fact that although the forces being able to gather text messages ward Snowden’s a fan). Plus points include code is open-source (i.e. that the program- stored for months and months by your net- the ability (on Android devices anyway) to ming that makes it work properly is open to work, phone call data and internet usage make it your default text-messaging app, being scrutinised for flaws by anyone), no history without warrants or email or mes- so anything you text to anyone who’s also external auditors yet have looked it over. saging providers like Google and Face- book scanning the content of your conver- sations for targeted advertising – there’s no shortage of prying eyes keen to have a little listen to what you’re saying to others… But, as the technology and capabilities have advanced to enable this erosion of privacy, so too has the ease of use of meth- ods that allow a welcome wall around our conversations with others… So whether you’re dodgy as they come or simply look- ing to enjoy a bit of private conversation, here’s some simple and easy to use tools for having a quiet word… Note that it’s worth doing your own re- search into these, as their security status will vary over time and to familiarise your- self with the way they work and the most secure way to use them. Its also worth bearing in mind that in the UK it’s a criminal offence not to hand over your passwords when asked for them (punishable by up to five years in prison) – so it’s always worth not just using the meth- ods below, but properly deleting any con- versations that might land you in hot water as well as changing encryption keys and deleting old ones. Sara Maria Klos Nevertheless, it’s had government and messages with a couple of button clicks, with a good old fashioned police warrant, intelligence figures shitting bricks in the and through your existing email service. Al- and you’re forced to give up your password press, to the extent that our glorious leader though very easy to use, it is worth remem- or face prison time. Its ALWAYS worth stor- even promised to ban encrypted messag- bering that storing your private encryption ing your encryption key on a cheeky little ing services under law in the new Snoop- key (the bit that means you can decipher memory-stick/bit of paper that you could er’s Charter (this has however stash/swallow/shove up your been dropped from the latest arse in an emergency rather than versions of the privacy crush- actually on your computer. ing Bill that is currently flying its PRIV-NOTE way through parliament as fast Although perhaps not as se- as the home office can hurry it, cure as the rest, Privnote is still before anyone realises how in- a handy little tool if you’re not in vasive it is). a position to use some of the bet- This is another PGP-encrypt- ter options. You use it to create ed messaging app, which re- online notes with their own web quires no actual knowledge address that are then deleted af- of how to create encryption ter they are read. keys or anything similarly head TAILS scratching for the non-technol- Rather than a single communica- ogy savvy with its very easy- tion tool, Tails is a whole goody- to-use interface. Unlike Signal, bag of privacy tools and much Surespot allows you to create more besides. It’s a memory stick multiple identities not attached containing a version of Linux – to your phone number; instantly that works as a ‘live operating providing an extra layer of an- system’. Basically, you plug it into onymity. Another great feature your computer and boot from the is the ability to permanently de- USB into an operating system lete (in theory at least) any mes- loaded with encrypted chat and sages between you and others email tools, secure Bitcoin cli- from your phone and theirs with ents, wireless cracking and other a couple prods of your screen.