Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 07:04:20 -0500 (EST)
From: eluna
To: mwraves
Subject: a history of sorts...
MIME-Version: 1.0
Sender: mw-raves-owner@hyperreal.com
Precedence: bulk

(subtitled: WHY I RAVE *snicker*)

well like a lot of people my age (mid-20s) i got into techno via the industrial route. MEAT BEAT and 808 did it for me, as well as the more ambient stuff of SWANS, THE CRANES, COCTEAU TWINS, etc all that lush-sounding 4A.D. stuff...

now at that time, anywhere from 1989-1992, techno was not really split into too many categories...MEAT BEAT, YOUNG GODS, LFO, and ERASURE could often be found in the same section at the record store, for example... "techno" covered a lot of ground, from industrial to house to ambient. but the differentiation which has taken place since (jungle/hardcore/ acid/trax/trip-hop etc) is misleading, because even then, most of today's categories did exist (if unnamed and undeveloped). acid jazz/trip hop originally existed in the `70s, played on real instruments...of course then it was called "soul" or "free jazz" or "instrumental funk." electro, or "breakdance music" was often called "techno" and just as often not even differentiated from hip hop. acid and acid house existed as early as 1986 (probably earlier, going back to disco!), but it was slower, and only a few people in chicago and other big city-clubs even knew about it. jungle existed, but it was a lot poppier and was called "break beat" or "hip house" (and it was often slow enough to even be mixed with house!). really hard industrial dance stuff existed, verging on gabber. etc.

(ok, enough of that shit)

i appreciated the more electronic side of things, and saw the difference between what was the house-culture influence of bands like DEE-LITE, as opposed to the teutonic-influenced NITZER EBB, for example, but i liked it all, even though my real exposure to the origins of those musics (on the one hand, club culture, and on the other, punk/industrial culture) was limited by where i am...columbus ohio. not too clubby or punky here :)

in late 1991 i met titonton duvante, who was doing music with a band called BODY RELEASE. later i found out that an old industrial mate named charles noel was also with the band (todd sines and mike szebczek were the other two band members). BODY RELEASE sounded like a crossbreeding of LFO, old-skool breakbeat (esp REINFORCED), and house. i saw them play a couple times, liked them somewhat, but then i realized electronic music, and especially techno, was getting too "busy" for my taste.

my turnoff point: in summer of 1992, i heard a song called "there is no law" and i just couldn't handle it. it was too fast, crazy, changed too much, and i knew i just wasn't ready for it. so i thought i was "over" techno and basically pulled out of what little scene there was for that kind of music, and went back to rock 'n' roll. (ok, ok, so sue me)

at the same time, however, i worked with titonton on some new-agey type of music, playfully called DISCO BREAD, with me on guitar and him on keyboard, which we didnt take very seriously (especially with a name like THAT! :).

but just from being over at that house (where the whole B/RE cru lived), i soaked up a lot of information which i had never really put together before. i saw the lineages through which techno could be traced:

titonton was into early breaks and especially new classical stuff like MEREDITH MONK, PHILIP GLASS, and TERRY RILEY. charles came into techno through hip hop and house...and he never understood that what was so obvious to him (that house was a "black" thing to a great degree) was totally misunderstood by his own black culture (now, it's the opposite... the white kids don't realize how black techno is ;). todd was the one i most related to musically; he listened to a lot of "intelligent" industrial such as early P.I.L., COIL, etc...

it made just as much sense to approach techno from titonton's minimal classical stuff as it did through hip hop as it did through industrial (of course i only really realized all of this JUST NOW AS I'M WRITING IT ;).

and they were _always_ playing breakbeat! especially off the REINFORCED label, and little by little i realized that that stuff had some of the same avant-garde flavor that i so admired in the dark music of the SWANS, THIS MORTAL COIL, etc...which i had been really into. the beat-cutting really woke me up because here was a music that was really taking sampling into new realms, like no other music (STILL) has really done. also, APHEX TWIN and SOURCE, which todd was playing a lot, led me to a deeper understanding of the lushness and beauty which techno could be capable of...

now, as far as "raves" go i really didnt understand what the big deal was. it just seemed like another name for an afterhours. so when todd handed me a flyer for RAVIN BRAN in november 1992, in cleveland (where BODY RELEASE was playing), i just laughed and said "it's not worth driving up to cleveland for _that_."

in early 1993 the B/RE cru threw a house party and i showed some nasty old stag films on the ceiling. the djs sucked but the party was still great because no real dj culture had really developed in columbus, outside of the clubs. so to hear everyone just faking it was a real great time (all except charles, who had been spinning hip hop since he was like 13). i still didn't feel like i could "stoop" to the level of techno again, "it's a fad," i thought. but then i heard 2 songs that really changed my perspective: "zig zag" and "percolator." dude, this was _music_. these were minimal little dittys with jazz clips and truly innovative sounds... and man, i was hooked. little by little i started "getting" it, i kept finding more and more songs that i "understood." then i understood that the point of some techno IS to be totally obtuse and relentlessly repetitve; in fact the whole traxx/trance thing really started getting to me. and then all that "busy" stuff, embodied by the new spirit of breakbeat, which at first had almost literally scared me away from techno (!), also made sense. i loved it!

but my first "real" rave wasn't until march of 1993, called FELICITY'S BLISS in cleveland. the only reason i went was because i was starting to do visuals for BODY RELEASE, showing silly films and such. it was a terrible party but interestingly, a band called BIG ENGINE played (2 members of which are now in the ele mental posse: stephen/kingSize and rich/ihannoa). if i recall correctly, i really didn't get much into raving at all, except as the visual guy. the first party i think i went to just for the fun of it was CRYSTAL'S BIRTHDAY in dayton (gee, anyone remember THAT chestnut?). (on second thought i think i did some visuals for that party, but oh who cares)

anyway, to move along here, i got into event-throwing soon after. basically this sculptor dude wanted us to use his space for a party and of course i saw it as a cool opportunity to make it a lot more artsy-fartsy than the silly parties i had already been to, but the sculptor dude went to a cheesy rave in town and said "uh, never mind." we said, "fuck it" and so todd found a parking garage and we threw our first party (where we got our name): ELE MENTAL, in may of 1993. dieselboy and a couple club djs spun, as well as titonton (who still didnt know how to spin) and charles... it was a great time. then we did a little bigger one called COMFORT in the summer of 1993, which turned out pretty nice (over 500 ppl came!), but then shortly thereafter, something happened.

the scene died.

for months, it seemed that parties were barely happening. was the "fad" over? (well of course you know the answer)

then BODY RELEASE broke up...everyone was doing their own thing and it was just no use trying to squeeze it all into one band. and altho the breakup was a positive one with lots of promise, the state of the scene raised serious questions about what might happen to techno...in other words, was it worth it?

then THE VIBE IS ON happened in dayton in september of 1993, and it seemed like a culmination of sorts...an amazing party to end an era.

i often reflect on the significance of that moment where we all thought, here in columbus at least, that the scene was dead. what were we to do? titonton and i, at least, used to have conversations like "what will breaks sound like in 10 years?" the answer was unspeakable; we just _couldn't_ imagine it (the last 3 years have certainly born _that_ out, as jungle has gotten more and more out there...). but it was our own curiosity, our own need to find out what would happen, that forced us to keep hope.

in december 1993, i spearheaded an event (for the first time), called SNOW*BALL (named by titonton). it was my own attempt to get ele mental back involved in the process...our statement to the world that we were here to STAY, at least long enough to find out where music was going to go, and with or without a "scene." the scene picked up bigtime soon after SNOW*BALL, and hasn't stopped since...in fact it's gotten bigger, more diverse, and more uncontrollable. ravers, more than ever, do NOT share a common experience, as there are too many parties in too many places on the same night.

partially because of this, ele mental did not do a big event in 1994 at all. we did house parties and helped jj in kentucky a couple times, etc...but it just seemed like doing a party wasn't the same with so much going on. we also thought that with such a glut of events, and such an influx of the drug culture, that very few of these "ravers" could ever care about the things we cared (care) about.

but we kept our faith, ultimately, through the smaller stuff, and because we saw what was going on in other cities. detroit was instrumental in this...especially dat and his POORBOY parties...i mean, if people in such a FUCKED UP CITY could do it, then why not us? the ILLUMINATORS also opened the doors for us, letting us spin and involving us in the process...coz they understood what was up, too (even tho they have yet to do a "weird" event ;). charles put out a couple tape compilations of columbus music called FUSION, which was yet another important statement: that columbus has MUSIC GOING ON and that you got to reco'nize, foo'...

by luck of circumstance and finding a couple usable spaces, ele mental hit the big time in 1995 with kevin/placebo's MINIMAL STATE, me and aum with MANTRA, and doughboy's RED TEMPEST. charles released his own slab o vinyl. todd had something released on peace frog. more FUSION comps. so shit was starting to happen!

but as far as the events go, again, they were ultimately unsatisfying... and _incredibly_ stressful. i tried to dig deeper at an untitled event on jun 30 but was hit so hard that i, for one, felt that the scene could not support the deeper kind of event i had in mind.

now, the last 6 months have been the best we've had. why? we went smaller. we dug deeper. from august until last week, we've done almost _10_ free house parties, concerts, or small events. and we've all had a hell of a lot more fun doing them and being involved in them. less stress, less expectation, and also...more people have been getting the message and thanking us for it. also, more music has come out: 2 more by todd, one more by charles (self-released), and one by titonton (which people seem to especially like)...and an ambient tape compilation called TEXT 1 which i compiled...

so what's the point of all of this? well, right now the scene (or the more appropriate phrase, "scene_S_") is at an all-time peak. you have all kinds of parties: house parties, small parties, big raves, and mega-corporate raves. we have a situation where the "consumers" outnumber the "appreciators." in other words more people are going to parties for reasons related to consumption: drugs, alcohol (in some cities), "prestige," to "fit in," or by pure accident.

now i'm not saying this is exclusively bad, but it is harder for people in today's scene to really appreciate the true nature of the scene, or rather the deeper shit which i would say has to do with the music, djs, ppl that make the music, technology, visuals, the tribal gathering thing, self-discovery THRU drugs, and most especially: the grass-roots nature of the whole process. it is hard for "consumers" to appreciate these things when it is so easy for them to take the scene for granted.

"there's always another party" is a typical attitude. well in mid-1993, the scene almost did die, let me tell you. (and in some ways it is always in danger of dying...)

very few of the "consumers" are asking themselves just those questions that may lead them towards this deeper understanding, such as: "why am i a `raver'?" "who am i?" "what is _really_ going on here?" and VERY FEW promoters are making that extra effort towards providing an environment where this kind of dialogue and self-reflection can take place.

my involvement in ele mental--as the loudest voice on the net and sometimes otherwise, as an event-thrower/designer, as a webpage designer, as a "raver" just out to have a great time--has been a slow but steady process of coming closer and closer to that understanding: the understanding of my (admittedly self-appointed) responsibility to try new ways of making this environment of self-discovery possible.

THAT's what the events that i have spearheaded are all about. i'd say even the ones that weren't/aren't by me (such as MINIMAL STATE and RED TEMPEST, and GENERATOR coming up this april) have had/will have some of this aesthetic in mind.

THAT's why i rave. THAT's why i throw events. THAT's why i post. THAT's why i did the webpages, for ele mental as well as mw-raves. to be an example of someone who loves the music and the scene so much that i'm willing to put my money and time where my mouth is. to do what i can to encourage that self-reflection, and not all the shadiness, frivolity, and excess of many other events/crus. and to give props where props are due...to the promoters, musicians, djs, and the people and history that has gotten us here...

do i expect a big smooch? hell no...all i really want is for you, yes i mean YOU reading this right now, to ask yourself those deeper questions... and find your own answers. ele mental is not about preaching, it's about living by example. sometimes i do feel i have to preach and bitch and moan just to be heard, but so be it (maybe that's wrong, but sometimes i think it is necessary).

so there you have it.

and that, my net homeys, is what SNOW*FALL is all about. it's part 2 of SNOW*BALL, our appropriately-named party at the true beginning of our long road towards...ourselves.

one more thing: i hate to turn this into a whole promo for the event, but SNOW*FALL is truly a collaboration between us all. several of us are putting up the necessary funds to get this all together, and almost all the people you see on the flyer or on the net post are PLAYING FOR FREE. that's right. todd sines and stephen/kingSize are playing for NOTHING, titonton, charles/monochrome, chris, placebo, doughboy, etc etc etc. and even the detroit cru which are our guests (shake, paris, billeebob, brian gillespie) are doing it for next-to-nothing because THEY understand, and in fact it was them who helped US through the downtime. we both owe each other a lot. and obviously this means that the people throwing it aren't making a dime...and if we do (an unlikely scenario), well, it's "payment" for doing all of this for free.

so there. that's what my "rave" experience has been all about.

i hope to see you here on fri, feb 2. :P

and thanks if you read this far, yer a real trooper if ya did ;)

(more later)
++
e d

now that you've read some of my words, please go back to who, or back to
.