![]() ![]() Music: A means of communication. If the music is the words, then a mix is a sentence, a paragraph, perhaps even a book. It may be emotional or it may be not. It may be breathtaking or relaxing. Whatsoever. A lot of DJs are, often without recognizing, not Dadaists [1]. Their sets are books that prove themselves to be readable, even to make sense. But how can one "write", align and overlap "words", with full consciousness? How can one not just state an expression (senseless or not) but "tell" a "story"? [2]. This question led to writing "The message spin". If one has identified what certain records are saying - something that is of course very subjective, but art IS subjective - how can he or she transmit this message to an audience? Regarding (Detroit) Techno as political music, I could identify two main plots within that sound. The first one is all about hope, about the possibility of a positive future. The second one, though, is dreadful and dark, relentlessly identifying the mechanisms of the subtle fascism that we live in, picturing where our carelessness towards our enviroment will lead us, showing the enormous dimensions of social injustice, uncovering how programmer forces control and shape us according to their needs of gaining ever more power. These two plots, or themes, are unified by a strong demand for change which is inherent to both. Now, how could one fullfill this demand? The probably most promising method is to transmit it to one's audience, in other words, to shift the music's characteristic demands to one's listeners. Due to man's psychologic nature, a very subtle way of message transmission has emerged as the most promising one. Infact it seems to be a lot more successfull not to tell them "Change, we want you to change something" but to show to them the need for changes, breeding in them the wish to proceed to a new stage of civilization! Such forces can be activated in almost every individual. If used properly, a mix set can stimulate these forces to an astonishingly high degree. This stimulation is carried out through the very comparison of opposites. It gains its momentum by emphasizing the juxtaposition of IS and COULD, of reality and (possible) ideality, of the present and a practopical future. A dj can achieve such stimulations through analysis and synthesis of the different plots within the sound. For example: Creating hope, showcasing an utopia, then, drawing a relentless picture of the present through gloomy and dreadfull sound, thereby underlining the divide between IS and COULD - delivering to the audience a demand for a change for the better. What about creating hope and commitment by a tonal flow from a dark present to a bright future? All of this is highly emotional, passionate and personal. It's not about recruiting masses, it's about making the highest possible number of individuals think, be human and once and for all act as such. Act as human individuals concerned about their own as well as their children's future. Helmholtz Watson Contact Helmholtz Watson at: f-dpart@hyperreal.org Annotations: [1]: An art movement in Zurich and New York at the end of WW1. Concentrated on the power of coincidences, spontanous arrangements and the seemingly senseless. Nevertheless highly political, pacifistic and critical. Intensive questioning of the status quo. [2]: I do by no means intend to devalue the matter of coincidence and intuitiveness. |