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moreeditsplease! · 2012-08-20, 20:13:59

Hello all,

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on here. I think when they restarted the comment count it knocked my confidence.

Anyway, I'm researching an article about political djs and how, while music has deep connections with political comment and protest, it is more bands than djs. I can't really think of any politically motivated house or EDM. The only thing that really springs to mind is Scuba's political rants on Twitter.

Can anyone help a brother out and think of any politically-motivated electronic music or music which makes a political or social commentary? Or just has any insight into the subject?

Love.

x

R0B0 · 2012-08-20, 20:29:02

Acid house got pretty political back in the day I think, what with the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act and everything.

Paul Van Dyk is also apparently quite political:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entert...08891.html

Apart from that... No idea.

Evangelink · 2012-08-20, 20:49:16

Think Tommie Sunshine is fairly outspoken on his political leanings. Although I haven't followed him on Twitter for a while.

DiscoCreep · 2012-08-20, 20:56:59

I think he means the actual music tho, not the artist. Any political house tunes floating about?

moreeditsplease! · 2012-08-20, 21:02:39

I saw that Independent feature - good shout.

Artist and music would be helpful.

Can you think of a dj/producer who even gets close to the likes of, recently, Pussy Riot, or RatM, etc...

housecat87 · 2012-08-20, 21:28:21

ewan pearson blogging about his decision not to dj in israel

http://ewanpearson.com/groove-columns/gr...pril-2011/

its going to be hard to find protest music in a genre that doesnt rely on words to get its message across, but perhaps youd find something somehwre in detroit or unified germany/ post wall berlin if you looked hard enough. would definitely be interested to see what you find.

edit:

just googled techno portest and found a dutch article about exit festival, apparently its origins lie in a protest started by uni students that lasted more than a 100 days against the milosevic government back in 2000. i had no idea that exit had any political element to it, maybe something to look into. a book also came up on the search, 'Repetitive Beats: Free Parties and the Politics of Contemporary DIY Dance Culture in Britain', parts of which is on google books, might be of use.

edit 2: found this video regarding exit festivals counter culture. my internet is sluggish atm so cant say if its actually insightful or not

rickman · 2012-08-20, 23:21:00

Yeah I heard that about Exit, Prodigy played there when there was some sort of war/unrest on? Anyway they have massive respect from the local Serbians and play pretty much every year I think.

TempestDisco · 2012-08-21, 00:52:20

33% relevant, 100% awesome

housecat87 · 2012-08-21, 02:10:02

on a similar tip, i used to love this back in my breakbeat days

there was also that adam freeland ''remix'' where the vocal spelled out obama over daft punks aerodynamic, around the same time, during the US election season, but even as a lefty that was just lame

PaoloTramezzani · 2012-08-21, 09:32:43

freeland also did that tune 'we want your soul' with some awesome bill hicks quotes

you are free to do as we tell you
go back to bed america, your government is in control

more bandy but chumbawumba and klf?

Patrick122 · 2012-08-21, 14:14:48

Seriously though:

Terre Thaemlitz and Underground Resistance are both very inspiring.

Also see Muslimgauze http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslimgauze.

Jack Fruit · 2012-08-21, 21:44:41

UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE

auxrevoir · 2012-08-22, 01:05:30

bassnectar just posted his view on the pussy riot thing. Check his facebook.

Evangelink · 2012-08-22, 08:11:08

(2012-08-22 01:05:30)auxrevoir Wrote: bassnectar just posted his view on the pussy riot thing. Check his facebook.

Jesus wept, some of the comments on that are depressing. Perhaps this is why we don't have more DJs airing their views on anything more important than wub wub.

PaoloTramezzani · 2012-08-22, 09:12:51

Tony Benn was a pretty handy MC back in the day, David Cameron was a prominent figure in the rave scene, I think it was Santero that posted the evidence.

Fike · 2012-08-22, 11:13:52

I've seen two Labour MPs try their hand at DJing, and apparently Chuka Ummuna used to be a grime DJ.

Labour discos always feature D:Ream at least once.

Guy (Boratto?) · 2012-08-22, 19:11:05

I daresay a lot of DJs are political, it's just that dance music has such links to the drug scene - nobody is going to be particularly susceptible to a dissident political message when in a state of medium-heavy euphoria (not to mention the general lack of lyrics)

That said, there is a surprising total lack of even politically,*named* dance tunes out there. My suspicion is that as with every field there has been a near-complete depoliticisation in the past 30 odd years, in my opinion reflective of the neo-liberal hegemony that has pervaded alongside the loss of a viable left alternative since Stalinist Russia collapsed and the resulting splits of leftist political parties. You'd be hard pressed to even come up with many political bands in that time. That'll all be changing now though as people become more politically active.

dc-sux · 2012-08-23, 08:56:36

Have a listen to last Friday's 6 mix with Weatherall and Adrian Sherwood. As well as playing some bloody great tunes, they talk about the origins of dub, and it's relevance to various movements in the 70s and 80s. They namecheck quite a few djs from that era who had political agendas. Might lead you down the right path?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0072pz7

PaoloTramezzani · 2012-08-23, 10:38:05

on the Weatherall tip, i think Loaded by Primal Scream is about as political as any dance tune should be

Patrick122 · 2012-08-23, 10:39:13

Speaking of Weatherall, do check out his fireside chat with Red Bull: http://www.rbmaradio.com/shows/andrew-we...eside-chat

He talks about how dance music was 'made' political in the late 1980s thanks to a prohibitive Tory government, who didn't understand that the kids just wanted to dance.

(Not to mention, the whole interview is soundchecked by some fantastic music.)

rockfallsonegg. · 2012-08-23, 12:23:59

(2012-08-22 19:11:05)Guy (Boratto?) Wrote: That said, there is a surprising total lack of even politically,*named* dance tunes out there.

So true. I'm sure we could eventually think of some but for now all that springs to mind is Huoratron. His track titles are a bit political ie: "Cryptocracy" "Corporate Occult" and his track and video "$$ Troopers". Seems like it anyway...

Really curious to see what you can find.

Champiness · 2012-08-23, 19:41:53

To give an example from back in the day, Deee-Lite of all groups had a number of songs espousing their political beliefs (particularly on their sophomore album "Infinity Within"). Apparently they objected to the public's opinion that they were all about smiley-face optimism and tried to use their spot in the public eye to try and make a difference. If the comments of their lead singer are to believed it was part of what prevented them from having any more hits. Some of their attempts were surprisingly successful; take this one for example:

I'd just like to note that all politics aside I think they're criminally underrated.

Hsct · 2012-08-28, 00:42:28

I'm not sure if he still does it but Bassnectar would go of on mini rants during his live sets and how he doesn't like advertisement industry or what not. Also! it's a bit of an oldie but... "Romanthony - Hold On" has a great inspiring speech audio clip on the intro you must check out.

Patrick122 · 2012-08-28, 17:05:42

^That's brother Malcolm, son.

housecat87 · 2012-10-06, 18:23:31

(2012-08-28 17:05:42)Patrick122 Wrote: ^That's brother Malcolm, son.

source? couldnt find anything on google.

also interested to see how this article came along