03 - JUNE & JULY VOX
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Transcript of 03 - JUNE & JULY VOX
As I have been in the pastmany years; an activespectator and participant in
the community of electronicmusic; and recently it's critic andcommittee member; I have beenwitness to it's growth anddecline, the wax and wane ofgood times and bad, the times Ithought dancing all night wouldsave the world, and times whencertain official bodies weretrying to save the world from ourdancing... This summer, I'mletting go. This summer, I'm justdancing.
The two festivals this summerso far have become intangiblecreatures that seem to movewithout the explicit consent ofits organizers and no longerneeds their constant supervision.This year's Detroit ElectronicMusic Festival performanceswere once again a variety enmasse and phenomenal as awhole; the Reese Project was anunrequited smooth concoction ofnew jazz and funk, Ayro asalways amazed me with themultitudes of layered noise,sounds and improvisational organsynth music one man couldcreate, and of course theperennial favourite StaceyPullen, for lack of better words,tore it up Sunday night. But itisn't the music itself whichgrabbed me this year, but theattitude. For those not in theknow, let me tell you that thegenre known to the masses as'techno' was created in Detroit.Derek May, Juan Atkins, KevinSaunderson and the boys haveartistic license and merit over it(in my opinion anyway), I findmyself now inspired by the factthat it's something they want toshare, in their home town, to asmany people that want to listen,and for free.
During an impromptu pressconference in a nicely loungedout sheltered area right behindthe main stage, the question wasraised by one of the press corpsabout a genre predominantlyenjoyed by white people beingcreated by African Americans.While few in the room actuallyagreed with that particular lineof questioning, it did segue into amore important string ofthought; it could have beenpossible to imagine from theoutset the immense popularity of
the genre, but now years later,what control do the 'godfathers'of techno still command?Saunderson put it most raw andhonest when he admitted that henever really saw a black andwhite thing. The proof, hetestified, is "watching peopledance... all over the world, withtheir eyes closed".
So at what point does onerelinquish control of a thing?Though I would agree withneeding to re-establish Detroit asground zero for techno, andwholefully support it, the subter-raneous reasons seem to ringmush more poetically; that onlygiven four months to do so, anddespite the controversy, Derek,Juan, Kevin and the boys,alongside with Transmat Recordsmanaged to pull off the world'slargest celebration of electronicmusic... simply because they feltcompelled to.
Where Movement is in waysthe living description of howmusic becomes idea, then it isthe OM Summer Solstice Festivalthat releases control of the idea.What started six years ago by aToronto based collective as acelebration of the summersolstice in the wooded northernareas of Ontario has now come tothe edge of phenomenon.Whereas the purpose in Detroit isto serve the music, at OM it isthe inverse happens; the musicserves the idea. Ranging fromthe ambient soundscape stylingsof Michael Moon and the poetictrip hop of LAL, to the Asian dubsounds of State of Bengal,Telefunk Soundsystem andIntergalactic Faerie Funk, to thepsychedelic trance that only theBlack Light Activists canbring, the experience ofthe festival is somethingthat perhaps is sharedafter the fact, but only asmemories. Theexperience of that nightis an indescribable thingthat perhaps we keep forourselves.
The tailored musiccoupled with theworkshops, lectures andkey note speakers, plusthe theme campsoffering all sorts ofservices, from swimmingpools to sensual healingand balancing, it is more
than a party but a congregationof a large number of minds fromour generation. Open minds. Inthe years past, OM has enjoyedthe company of open-mindeddreamers, seekers and spiritualwanderers from across thecountry, and as a result, grownin size and popularity. Whatappears to me is that the ideaof OM so badly wants to hold onto its 'grass roots' status that itmay in fact suffocate itsprogressive nature. The realityof the work of the Sumkidz (thecollective who organizes thefestival, as well as other eventsin and around the Toronto area)is that is seems to inspire, fromyoung university students toentire towns to even youngprogressive designers. Thepeople who have workedtirelessly at birthing this thing,this 'OM' should wean it, let ittouch the lives of more. Let itembody that ancient Sanskritsyllable, and maybe then OM willoccur not just once a year, but365 times.
Maybe in twenty years we'd allget back together and celebrateit with a free festival in a majorurban center...
It seems two of the threesummer festivals which makethis damn heat bearable arequite at odds with each other;where one needs a more human-istic approach, the other shouldadopt a more phenomenologicalrepose; where music leads inone, it follows in the other; butshare the most importantcommon cosmic thread, theability to inspire.
And the third festival? TheWorld Electronic Music Festival.For ten years running, it haswitnessed the birth of the raveera in our country, contributedconsiderably to it's success and
has kept it on life support fora few years. The incredible
variety of just dance music fromall over the world coupled withthe uncontrollable urge to party,two sleepless nights and twentythousand others make for surethat even if you can't enjoyyourself, you're gonna dance...
Like the Sheep Man from theannals of the Murikami mythospreaches; "Yougottadance."...but I guess we can discuss thatnext issue...
e-music: letting gophotos and article by francis wong
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