In the temporary zone

Here's an interesting interview that US magazine XLR8R did with Ricardo Villalobos. Apart from the fawning intro - is he really a "mystic and rationalist"? I don't think so - what makes this piece different is one of the answers that Villalobos gives. He has talked before about his concept for the 'club of the future', but so far, it had been vague. This quote, however, gives a far greater insight into what could lead to a huge cultural development: "There is a French friend of mine who is working for the American brand, Meyer Sound in South America, and he is working on developing a ring where it is a dancing ring. It is a ring–big or small–of speakers and you can be inside the ring. And inside the ring there is sound. And then outside the ring there is no sound because the little speakers in the back, which are deleting with the opposite phase, the sound coming out of the ring. So this is the club of the future."
In effect, what Villalobos is describing is a techno equivalent of ontological anarchist Hakim Bey's concept of a temporary autonomous zone (TAZ), a place that is free from the control of governments or authorities for a brief period of time. Villalobos also speaks about the police trying to shut down parties and clubs, but this is nothing new in Ireland where I am based, the country with the biggest youth population and the most restrictive licensing laws in Europe. Seen from this perspective, the work that Ricardo's French friend is doing can't reach its conclusion quickly enough. One of my ongoing frustrations with techno is the unwillingness of its main proponents to use it as a platform to campaign for socio-political change and more freedom. With the exception of Undeground Resistance, who have their own, defined agenda, no one has stepped up to the plate yet. Maybe he's not a mystic as the piece claims, but the concept Villalobos is describing could well prove to be the catalyst for social change all over the world - even if it is somewhat self-serving.

Comments

[James]

Excellent post. Couldn't agree more about the untapped potential for techno as a socio-political force. But what would that look like? Is it the use of space (e.g. the early parties in Detroit's abandoned industrial spaces were political; a louder counterpart to something like Object Orange).

www.thedetroiter.com/nov05/disneydemolition.php

Or can the music itself be more politically engaged? The democratization of technology, its faceless nature - maybe it's the form, not the content...

[tom/pipecock]

i'd be interested to see how that could really work. i mean, theoretically out of phase waves will cancel each other but that is of course totally negating the idea of the acoustics of the space involved. and what happens if the system distorts? and what about when the floor/bar/whatever resonates with the frequencies, won't the original frequency overpower the out of phase negating signal?

it would be super-useful to have an essentially sound leakage proof club soundsystem, but im not sure what kind of social change can really come from that alone. the vague notion of the autonomous space had been central to raving for years until the police found a way to break it up (which im sure would happen again if there really was a perceived threat). but even before then, how effective was that really? i can't think of any truly positive lasting effects of the rave scene on society.

and yeah, i think the music in general can be alot more politically/socially motivated than it is now. yeah, its all good for the party space to be about release and whatnot, but if the people "releasing" aren't even aware of the crazy problems facing the world outside of their own little circle of influence, what can really come of that? it becomes more about hedonism (which is where raving ended up) than the collective release (which is where disco started out!).

[Ronan]

surely one of the qualities which makes techno captivating is that it is the ultimate "music for music's sake".

even in UR stuff the political messages are not in any way an overt part of the package, especially not compared to so many political rock acts.

mostly overt political stuff gets in the way of good art in my opinion.

also as regards hedonism...this goes pretty deep but you can care about what's going on in the world and still be a nihilist.

today moreso than ever.

[n.f]

This seems pretty wierd though, should music hide itself for the sake of others who would shut it down. It would be understandable if this made the experience more enjoyable for clubbers though.

As for as politics go I guess the politics of pleasure have their own unspoken agenda, but talk about confusing....

Sorry for the poor wording.

[smn]

RV's mate's work might result in some interesting speaker designs or listening experiences but change the world? I really don't think so.

And with regards to RV's vision of "... no drug policy because it is during the day. Perhaps someone’s smoking in the corner. But outside, it’s an open place with a lot of air. And it’s a bright place, and the sound is absolutely incredible and kicking."...

Firstly, when has the fact that it's daytime ever stopped people taking drugs? (At least I think this is what he's getting at?)

Secondly, I remember a club in Madrid in the late 90s called Midday which, appropriately enough, started at midday (on a Sunday). There was a park with a children's playground outside the main entrance to the club and I spent some very sunny, hazy afternoons sitting out there, mingling with the other club goers, kids and their ever watchful parents. It was beautiful for sure, but a bunch of stoned clubbers sitting in the sun aren't going to change shit, or be taken seriously by anybody serious.

I think that in a lot of people's minds "dance music" is and forever will be associated with drugs. This is unfortunate as I believe - from my own experience - that the hardest partygoers are very rarely the ones with the real love for and understanding of the music. They come, they party, they go, and they come again next week. If the music, or rather the musicians behind it, really want to be the instigators of major social change then I believe that they need to distance themselves from the scene (and associated drug use) which, to a large extent, allows them to exist in the first place. I guess a lot of them just aren't taken seriously, and perhaps don't want to be?

Anyway... Serious or not, RV is one hell of a producer. So here's hoping he keeps pushing it forward...

Keep the posts coming too. Always interesting.

[beat]

The influence of drugs on dance music is horrible, and unfortunately irrepressible. Here to stay. But I'm over that topic.

The "noise cancelling ring" is a cool idea, I( assume it works on the same technology as Bose and Sennheiser's noise-cancelling headphones, which are at a disadvantage because they have to monitor external sounds and react. In a club, the speakers creating the "reverse wave" would have the music plugged straight into them, ready for reversal verbatim.

It sounds extremely viable to me.

I think this a fantastic idea in a world where big cities (well, this city, Melbourne, anyway) are increasingly telling clubs to be quiet.

You could have a 120db party ten metres from a house and the inhabitants could sleep soundly, bar the faint thud of the bass...

[tom/pipecock]

"In a club, the speakers creating the "reverse wave" would have the music plugged straight into them, ready for reversal verbatim.

It sounds extremely viable to me."

except that reverberations and other distortions mean that you would definitely hear alot of things, possibly very loudly. if the output of a speaker is distorted at some point in the signal chain after the part where the signal is also being routed to the noise cancelling speakers, those waveforms are gonna be different and will not totally cancel.