JAMES PENNINGTON:
"The outer space stuff has always been a fascination because life on earth
has always been so hard for us being black. Maybe outer space has no rules.
No one has gravity in space."
>from an interview posted on www.undergroundcommittee.com
Let me preface this post be saying that I haven't posted on this list
in a long time, but I feel that this topic is too important to ignore. It
is impossible to analyze or understand cultural products without looking at
their social context; now some of you may not want to understand, would
prefer to be entertained without understanding, but I'm going to assume that
if it is art then techno has potentials to raise consciousness and on a list
dedicated to discussing DETROIT techno we have an obligation to try to
understand rather than simply consume and enjoy. First of all, it's
impossible to understand any AMERICAN music, much less DETROIT techno,
without looking at issues of racial injustice specifically the relationships
of whites and blacks. WHY IS THIS? Because the rhythms that are behind all
of our popular musics are to a great degree African derived, that's what
funk and soul is, it's the memory of these African rhythms passed down from
generation to generation by a people who were taken from their homeland.
Billy Hart, the great jazz drummer (in the 70's played with Pharoah Sanders
and the Herbie Hancock sextet) has lectured about the African derivation of
many of these rhythms, and has mentioned the possibility that these rhythms
may even have specific characteristics, that they may have physical and
spiritual aspects that act upon us when we hear them, an intriguing
possibility. The point is, these rhythms were brought over by African
slaves, and although the white masters attempted to completely destroy their
culture and humanity, these rhythms were preserved and passed down... And
then, in the 20th century, we find a new situation--slavery has ended, and
again and again African-Americans are innovating and creating brilliant new
styles of music, combining the sounds of their and environment and Western
European influences with their own funky rhythms that they have preserved
through all these years, rhythms rooted in African spiritual culture. But
what happens??? Their rhythms are constantly hijacked and glossed over,
their innovations are taken from them, their names are erased, and
white-washed cultural commodities are produced that the white masses can
handle, commodities that no longer preserve the memory of an African
spiritual heritage.
Blues, jazz, rock/pop, house, techno, it's been happening the whole
20th century and now it looks like it's going to continue right on into the
21st. Meanwhile, in a city like Detroit you have a state of de fact
segration, a city full of African-Americans who have been abondoned to live
in a wasteland while the suburbs that surround them prosper, a place where
white people from the suburbs are AFRAID to visit the city, a city full of
black people. Now there are a lot of aspects to the problems with Detroit
that I can't get into, but how can you possibly understand "DETROIT TECHNO"
without looking at Detroit which is a segragated city. Not to mention the
fact that in America there is usually only one type of black artist that is
acceptable, and that is the one that smiles, jokes, makes a fool of himself
and panders to a white audience... I am a working musician (keyboards) and
I SAW IT MYSELF, just last week, I was on the bandstand. It made me sad,
but I can tell that behind the scenes these brothers are certainly not
smiling and dancing. Even hip-hop and R&B, while perhaps coming on as more
hardcore, seem to be producing a lot of music that can simply be enjoyed as
a big spectacle, that stereotypes what "blackness" is, you can watch it from
your home in the suburbs and say, "OH, so that's what the ghetto is like..."
As if the ghetto were now a spectacle for us all to enjoy rather than a
disgrace that no civilized people should allow to occur.
At this point let me relate something personal, I am white and I grew
up in a small town north of Lansing Michigan, and there were probably only
two black families in town. One day I was shocked to hear a classmate say,
and I don't like to repeat this but I'm going to because people need to
understand, "If I ever catch a nigger on my property I'm going to grab my
shotgun and kill him..." THAT is still the attitude of many white
Americans. And so when an African-American makes a techno record you can
BET that everything they have experienced, including racial injustice, is
going to go into that record. Why would Kevin Saunderson make a track with
a sample of MLK Jr saying "We find these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal...", why does Jay Denham have a track that goes "Black
Power, it's time for Black Power", it's because these kind of conditions
still exist and art is a potential means to raise awareness of them. Racial
problems only get worse when you ignore them. And to forget historical
injustice is to erase the victims from history and let the oppresors win.
We should never forget slavery in America, we should never forget Auswitchz
either (or Dresden and Hiroshima for that matter...) Only by remembering
can we hope to change the course of history so that these things don't
happen over and over and over again. Yes we should imagine utopian spaces,
"maybe outer space has no rules", BUT we should never confuse these utopias
with the world we live in, we have to fight to create these spaces and that
takes active recognition of the many forms of injustice on this planet. And
that is why in the here and now we cannot afford to be color blind.
MAD MIKE:
"...The programmers taught them that all brothers that didnt have on silver
shoes and didn't smile or laugh at bullshit jokes and small talk were
probably criminals... I am a very serious brother nothing that I do or have
done with UR is funny or entertaining, I am not a clown and I will never tap
dance on cue..." from a message to the 313 list
/cyborgk: TECHNOLOGY IS POWER.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Super Coffee Beans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Phonopsia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
<313@hyperreal.org>
Subject: Re: [313] Black techno artists]
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 18:50:08 +0200
put emphasis on the music, and the person who make, by asking this racial
questions u only make the racial problem. if u think about the persons who
make the music as REAL live person and not as black or white but as human,
things will be better. you might say i am just one little person and racial
problem is a fact- well if u want a change do the change. and those try to
demolish all this racial stuff from the discourse.
i know what i am saying i am jewish.
y.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phonopsia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <313@hyperreal.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 6:23 PM
Subject: Re: [313] Black techno artists]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "armin holzgethan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <313@hyperreal.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 7:51 AM
> Subject: Re: [313] Black techno artists]
>
> > i still don't get it.
> >
> > what are you aiming at? how & where should this recognition express
> itself? on
> > mtv, usa today? how many people know stephen king? and how many know
> malcolm
> > lowry?
>
> I'm aiming at recognition in the electronic music underground. How to
> quantify recognition? Sure it's oblique... How about references in
histories
> of house (AV and textual) for one. Prolly a lame definition, but you get
> what I'm on about.
>
> > all those you mention are more or less known to people into this music.
> some
> > will reach a certain status as "innovators", some will be forgotten.
some
> will
> > blow up by accident because the time is right and/or because they work
> towards
> > it. maybe this has sometimes to do with the quality and the aim of
their
> work
> > too? to blame it all on the circumstances seems to me as banal as the
> opposite,
> > which is to blame it all on the lack of marketing skills.
>
> I don't think that's the whole cup of tea. There's a mythos attached to
the
> term "Chicago House DJ" that is not parallel to "Detroit House DJ" in the
> mind of the average club-goer who is somewhat in-the-know. For instance,
> "Chicago's Gene Farris" immediately has a credibility to the average
house
> club-goer that "Detroit's Terrence Parker" does not. To see this in
effect,
> look at a poster for Gene Farris' "Booked" CD.
>
> > tp has a relatively huge fanbase in germany because of his djing. all
of
> his
> > records i know of are mediocre. alan oldham's stuff lacks originality
big
> time.
> > just to be a detroiter and having started in 1988 is not enough.
>
> Yeah. TP has built a dedicated fan-base in Germany over the years, but he
is
> relatively unknown and hasn't played in Washington DC in years (if ever).
> This is a house music city and has been for over a decade. Ron Trent has
> been here (but he's known here for his work living in New York) and Alton
> Miller has played here once. At the same time, at least 10 Chicago house
DJs
> have played here, not to mention endless DJs from New York (although they
> have a geographical advantage to DJs form the midwest). In addition to
that,
> most "scenes" in the eastern U.S. "buy into" a New York version of the
> history of house/garage. Statements like "everyone knows house came from
New
> York" would not be uncommon, and generally reinforced through local
> promotions/myths/regional email lists, etc. Not only is the Chicago
history
> of house downplayed if recognized at all, the Detroit history of house is
> completely absent. You could almost flip the coin and apply all of that
to
> Chicago - but not to the same degree, and again Detroit is missing from
the
> puzzle. History's are being written today, and it takes a history of
house
> and techno *in Detroit* to recognize Detroit House, although the impact
of
> Detroit house from the 80s was just as lasting as any other. Couldn't we
put
> the Music Institute right near the Warehouse and the Paradise Garage in
> terms of legendary clubs that defined and nurtured scenes? You can't try
to
> tell me this is even 1/10th as recognizable as either of the former in
> today's music histories.
>
> > self-esteem is not supposed to grow because of one's name in the paper
or
> a
> > certain number on one's bank statement, but because one feels that
he/she
> is
> > doing the right thing and maybe because one lifts the artform to new
> heights.
> > the name all over the paper and the big bucks in the bank are most of
the
> time
> > & and as long as this capitalist etc society stands a sign that one
> submitted &
> > adapted oneself successfully to the expectations of society. same as
good
> marks
> > at school. same as any institutional or mainstream recognition. in this
> sense
> > most of the time mainstream success can be used as a sign for
irrelevance.
>
> What I was noting with my list was people who generally don't get the
same
> acclaim as their peers from the '80s in Chicago and New York in the
> histories of house - not specifically in terms of bank rolls. Detroit
house
> is something that most people into house can't even recognize.
>
> Tristan
> ----------
> http://www.mp313.com <- Music
> http://www.metrotechno.net <- DC techno + more
> http://www.metatrackstudios.com <- DC DJ/Production studios
> http://phonopsia.tripod.com <- Hub
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <- email
> <FrogboyMCI> <- AOL Instant Messenger
>
>
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