TECHNOCIDE.

October 1996. More and more signs appear that the age of techno is fading, that rave culture is finished, or become just a part of the entertainment industry and therefore stripped of the elements that made it interesting for us. Of course that is a question of definition - and we should remember that the tyranny of the 4/4 beat was pointed out years ago by some people (e.g.Force Inc. in '92 when they embraced the more subversive potential of breakbeat), certainly with the domination of trance the 4/4 beat became a tool of power and control which eliminated the associated concepts of liberation. From being futuristic and experimental per se Techno became a style and largely conservative. Hardcore tried to escape this development by becoming ever harder, faster and more extreme; but it is only a minority scene that is too busy with little feuds and boring sectarianism - attacking each other rather than any real enemy (like the entertainment industry for example, and its role as a ministry of propaganda for the current political and social system). I am not proposing a hypocritical concept of unity here, the diversity is a strength, what I am suggesting is that changes are about to happen and a new scenery will establish itself in which neither those plagued by their petty bitter jealousies nor those preoccupied with niche marketing will play a role.

If you believe in a certain cyclical development of movements in "youth culture" emerging with fresh strength and getting absorbed by business within a decade, then it becomes more easy to predict what will happen next. While I find most "New Age" writing situated somewhere between the comical and the dodgy, I shall quote from the book "The Sekhmet Hypothesis" by Iain Spence ^[1] where in one chapter he elaborates a thesis about the coming youth culture he calls "Storm" which comes after the Hippie/Punk/Rave trilogy and completes the "cosmic mandala", an ultra-aggressive and dark movement that is more militant and politically sussed than Rave, more organised than Punk and totally hostile to bourgeois society in general. It will also be misunderstood and misrepresented as 'fascist', 'totalitarian' and 'apocalyptic' by the media, but with its brutal force it will ravage old age values over the next few years...of course being opposed to Power and Control Of course we had Technostorm raves in '90/91 sparking off the the massive development in Germany (of Rave) and of course we already have the Stormcore label (& maybe I should mention a flyer we distributed in may '94 - for a party that in the end didn't happen declaring the arrival of the demon forces of techno - 66623 - storm uk london), and in fact it is not hard to see a new "negative" youth culture emerging after the ridiculous positivism of Rave (and we certainly have pushed the militant/dark side of new school hardcore to the max since Praxis started operating), but it is interesting to see such predictions coming from what seems an entirely different camp.

In the rather glossy art magazine Frieze you could recently read an article on Gabba by Simon Reynolds ^[2], one of the few intelligent music journalists this country has - a reason to reply to some points he makes with which I don't agree in one essential matter (not so much to defend ourselves from allegations, I'm just using the opportunity to make a point). Quote: "Alien Underground, a London-based zine that monitors this international ultra-core network, sometimes reviews tracks using 'samples' from Virilio's writings on speed and the war-machine, raves about 'instantaneous explosions, the sudden flare of assassinations, the paroxism of speed... an internal war-machine.' Gangstar Toons Industry's 250 bpm 'pure Uzi poetry' is hailed as exercises in the art of disappearing to the point of vertigo and standstill'. Everything that for Virilio represents an anti-humanist cultural exterminism that must be resisted and reviled, is valorised and revelled in by these speedfreak techno-junkies." In the immediately preceding paragraph Reynolds states: "...thenear-autistic fetishism of technology and the perverse identification of libido with the military-industrial complex is even more intense [than in Gabba] ; fantasies of man-machine interface and of prosthetic access to übermensch powers abound. What's odd is that this cyber-fetishism often goes hand in hand with a militant opposition to the pan-global corporate forces that actually developed this technology, articulated on one label as 'guerrilla warfare on vinyl'.

My point is that this is not odd at all. It needs to be mentioned that these two paragraphs are the ones dealing with things beyond gabba > they would otherwise not be of interest to us, since we see gabba as part of the dying rave culture and along with trance etc. taking part of the aforementioned tyranny of the 4/4 beat, a totalitarianism only transcended by a humour that trance never had. Beyond gabba should also read post-techno, a new school that in fact doesn't share the cyber-fetishism and positivism of the old style, that prefers shock to repetition and that is part of a current that opposes the technologies of Power and Control. While I remain fascinated with and inspired by Virilio's writings ^[3] I don't believe in the alternative of humanism and exterminism. It is a false alternative that is born out of Virilio's Christian beliefs which are hardly mentioned in his books. With the development of real-time technologies of Control and the militarisation of everyday life he sees the world going down the drain in an unavoidable way. To me these technologies are just the modern equivalent to the mental paralysis the church invoked over our part of the world in past centuries, something that can be fought. We will have to discuss the various strategies of breaking with an unacceptable world later, let us just mention that we are looking for a break that is equally radical as suicide, but still affirming a collective future.

Notes: ^[1] I am not suggesting that the book is dodgy, in fact I'm not reviewing the book as such, just quoting some aspects out of context. If you want to know more contact the author @ Bast's Blend Publications, P.O.Box 9600, Oban, Argyll, PA34 4BP. ^[2] Simon Reynolds: "Wargasm" in Frieze, issue 28, May 1996. ^[3] Paul Virilio is the theoretician of speed, recommended early works are 'Speed and Politics' and 'The Aesthetic of Disappearance'. Most of his writing circles around technology and the militarisation of everyday life, from the war-machine to total surveillance, he has recently concentrated on real time technologies such as the internet and their consequences on space, time and our identity as mortals. In any case he insists that we are not using technology, that technology is using us. Nevertheless he says in 'Pure War' a book which consits of interviews by Sylvere Lotringer: "I don't believe in revolution, but in revolutionary resistance" but in the same text he leaves no doubt that he's not too happy if his books are read against the grain, like by the Italian Autonomists, and (I guess) people like us.

Originally appeared in Praxis Newsletter 10, Oct.1996