Everything starts with an E

November 1, 2001 5:17 AM

Everything starts with an E - it sure does, and apart from nearly suffering from some sort of visually induced fit, i enjoyed this.
posted by semper (25 comments total)

mate! this is a quality link..

way, way back in the day!
posted by monkeyJuice at 6:50 AM on November 1, 2001

Why do sites go out of their way to disable the Back button? All it does is annoy people.
posted by agaffin at 7:01 AM on November 1, 2001

Also see BassQuake for some more "old-skool flavour", as the kids say.

Most of these sites have a distinctly Southern origin though, I'd really like so see someone document the early 90s Leeds scene, Ark and Kaos, the Warehouse and the Gallery, etc.
posted by SiW at 7:52 AM on November 1, 2001

Makes you feel old when you realise you were dancing to this stuff 10 or more years ago though.
I was at a friends 30th birthday a few weeks ago and there were a couple of the DiY crew there spinning all the stuff from the late 80's - early 90's and it all seemed so long ago....

Now, where did I put my white gloves and Vicks........
posted by Markb at 8:34 AM on November 1, 2001

Oh God yeah, I suddenly realised that all the mixtapes I still listen to are a decade old. And that I'm almost 30.

Nothing amuses me more than to see the current "rave scene" in the US and compare it to the UK 10 years ago, complete with media hysteria.

Watch yer bassbins, I'm tellin' yer.
posted by SiW at 9:30 AM on November 1, 2001

I never fail to wonder why it took the US 10 years to pick up on the trend that absolutely changed the UK and European clubbing scene.
Maybe it's the fact that for a long time it was ignored by the big corporates (can't be seen to condone drugs) and so never made it across the pond. It seems that recreational drug taking is far less tolerated by society than here in the UK, maybe thats the reason.
posted by Markb at 9:43 AM on November 1, 2001

Bah. This place isn't complete until they have a copy of the original version of Control the Universe.
Been hunting that damn song for years, now. Although I am impressed with some of the other stuff that is up.
posted by Su at 10:44 AM on November 1, 2001

Well, I'm 23 and I've been going to these things since 1995, and I'm from the USA. My brother's 31 and went to his first in 1992. I think the lag was closer to 2 years than to 10. :)
Check out the Beverly Hills 90210 episode about "Underground Clubs" to see a hilarious early '90s US media attempt to portray the scene. "See the big 4 on his shirt? That's because he sells euphoria."
posted by love unit at 10:45 AM on November 1, 2001

Never made it across the pond? Dance music and raves in particular started in Detroit in the early 80's.

It might have been more mainstream in Europe, but it certainly didn't start there.
posted by Benway at 11:04 AM on November 1, 2001

was that the episode with the egg?
posted by lotsofno at 11:07 AM on November 1, 2001

I love you guys. No, man, I mean, I really love you guys.</etard>

I'm spinning in the chillout room at a rave on Dec 1st. The headliner is the guy that used to be known as Smart E's -- remember "Sesame's Treet"?
posted by lbergstr at 11:57 AM on November 1, 2001

Benway - nobody is denying the origins of house and techno as being Chicago and Detroit, but it is also a fact that the UK was the driving force behind the explosion of these musical genres in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. The US was going further into deep house while the UK was going full-on into rave; and the mainstream charts were taken over. I think that's the point that people are trying to make; that the British public really latched on to this music and made it a big cultural phenomenon, not just a small group like in the US. I could go on for long boring hours about my theories relating to the relative sizes of the US and the UK, and how one group is going to more influenced by mainstream music, but I won't.

Hey, nobody's saying one country owns a particular musical style. Music is global.
posted by SiW at 12:28 PM on November 1, 2001

Yup, it seems that the music hopped Germany (Kraftwerk) to Chicago and Detroit in the mid '80s, then back over to UK and in the late '80s, then back to NYC and SF in the early '90s, then all over the US by the mid '90s. Rave culture is a great mutual creation of the US and Europe...now shared by folks all over Europe in Japan, South Africa, Austrailia, Russia, Isreal, China, etc etc etc.

While the American media is just now cracking down on large scale rave events, these events been going on in the US for about 10 years, starting in NY LA and SF. There have been raves with 25,000 to 30,000 people happening in California and Florida since the mid '90s, so it's hardly just breaking out here in the US. For lots more info, see Hyperreal, DanceSafe, and NWTekno.

Sorry, to ramble: It's just that I edited a rave magazine for four years, and I'm finally being able to use my vast wealth of rave knowledge on MeFi!
posted by arielmeadow at 1:15 PM on November 1, 2001

Thanks SiW, thats what I meant.
I know it all started in Chicago and the scene hasn't been stagnant since then (I've been a huge BT fan since 1996), but it was a revolution in cluubing over here from the early 90's. By the mid 90's clubbers and the 'rave culture' had become a powerful marketing tool, Ministry of Sound and Cream have gone from club nights in London and Liverpool to become corporate entities, selling branded clothes, acessories and music in huge numbers.
It's not all good though, The vitality and diversity with which the whole scene started is increasingly difficult to find here now. You only have to look at the annual invasion of Ibiza each summer by planeloads of gurning, shagging, puking examples of Britain's finest to see the commercialisation of club culture in the UK these days. Popularity and public exposure don't necessarily mean we're any better off.
posted by Markb at 1:50 PM on November 1, 2001

I understand that it's global. I was simply making a point that techno wasn't imported to the states, it originated here and was exported.

Personally, I'm glad its global. It creates inspirational places like Ibiza. I wish I was closer to the scene...but Dallas, isn't exactly a hotbed...*grin*
posted by Benway at 1:54 PM on November 1, 2001

I think it's better that it isn't (quite so) mainstream in the U.S. Media attention never does music any good.

Euphoria? What the hell is that and where can I get some?

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 2:02 PM on November 1, 2001

The happy spirit of E lives on though... ;-)

(Playstation ad, req. Real, via The Guardian's Creative Lab)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:24 AM on November 2, 2001

Ooh ooh ooh... my favourite pet subject. These books are really worth a read:

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life is an excellent pocket history of the art of spinning, from New York jazz radio stations and 7-Up-sponsored teenie rock n roll tea dances in the 50s through to early 70s 'real' disco and today's 'DJ as Superstar'. It's much less academic than most chin-strokey dance culture analyses and is all-in-all a pretty fun read.

Altered States is also a top read, although from a much more academic UK perspective.

A final recommendation is to avoid Simon Reynolds (UK music journalist, now based in NY) like the plague. He is the worst offender of all wrt pseud-y theoretical musings.

Enjoy :-)
posted by bifter at 3:05 AM on November 2, 2001

That is quality. Brought back memories to see a flyer from Spectrum in Leicester from '91.

i'm playing a house party (friends 30th) tomorrow and was going through all my old tunes yesterday.

Can't wait to bring out the early stuff and see him go mental!
posted by Frasermoo at 5:19 AM on November 2, 2001

The occurrance of my 30th nearly 2 years ago and the 30th birthdays of many of my friends since have brought all the tunes from that era back to the turntables.
I've started listening to all those old mix tapes we made in the early 90's, shocking quality but some memorable tunes.
I get to work every day with a different tune in my head, today's is 'There But For the Grace of God' but I can't remember who it's by, Fire Island? I know it was on Junior Boys Own, I remember the label. Anyone?
posted by Markb at 9:00 AM on November 2, 2001

hmmm . not sure will check my JBO records.

As long as your name is down on the guest list.
posted by Frasermoo at 9:04 AM on November 2, 2001

I can't remember who it's by, Fire Island? I know it was on Junior Boys Own, I remember the label. Anyone?

Yep - Fire Island: Farley and Heller in super-camp mode. It was a cover of a quality old disco track by 'Machine' by the way (note: disco does not suck), which I think was a Kid Creole alter ego or something. The original ended up on the 'Jumpin' series of compilations from Joey Negro, which are well worth checking for real quality early-80s disco.

Was definitely on Junior Boys Own. Think it ended up on one of my shocking quality, early 90s mixtapes too... ;-)

Erm... 'choo choo'
posted by bifter at 2:27 PM on November 2, 2001

If you're ever looking for that tune, you know, back in the day, that one that goes, you know like "wheeee bshhhh eee eeee unzit unzit unzit nee naw nee naw", or any other for that matter, then I bet you they've got it here.

HTFR (hard to find records), is just about the best source of classic rave tracks and if they haven't got it in stock right now, they probably will in the very near future.

By the way, did anyone here actually get to Castle Moreton or did you all get, er, "lost" on the way too?
posted by davehat at 2:14 AM on November 3, 2001

anyone here actually get to Castle Moreton or did you all get, er, "lost" on the way too?

Hehe... Castle Morton = the British Woodstock. More people claim to have gone than actually did by a factor of about 500. I'll be one of the first to be completely honest, and admit that I wasn't there. I always thought Spiral Tribe were shit anyway... ;-) In the spirit of MF, here's a link.

In my experience, and that of many friends by the way, HTFR are a bunch of complete fucking crooks. They've got a particularly nice line in running off especially poor-quality bootlegs of 'classic rave tracks', and selling them in a very deceptive way. Watch out for 'em...
posted by bifter at 1:37 PM on November 4, 2001

Bifter: All I can say is that the stuff I got from HTFR was original (old FSOL stuff when they were Yage, Q and Mental Cube, that sort of stuff) as far as I can tell. Sorry your mates got stung. I'm always wary if they claim to have a lot of one particularly fantastically popular and rare item in stock though, so I've probably avoided bootleg copies so far.

Thanks for the warning though.

Incidentally, there is a great record shop in Oxford called Avid that has a good range of second hand stuff and knowledgeable vendors to boot. Its just off Gloucester Green if you're ever in town. The good stuff is in the basement.
posted by davehat at 6:29 AM on November 6, 2001