 | - Every bit both a gamelan player (I've studied and performed Balinese gamelan angklung, gamelan gong, gamelan gendèr wayang & Central and Westward Javanese gamelan in the U.S., Bali, and Java) and a (sometime) rave participant, I am willing to consider the structural or textural similarities betwixt much traditional gamelan music and music played at raves, and to speculate for a moment on the connection between the roles and contexts of each. The structure of what is believed to be "transformational" music in rave is described past David Roberts as containing a minimum of melody and vocals, "substituting a mesmeric, repetitive trounce as the central element" (cited in Redhead 124). Dance ethnologist Georgiana Gore describes rave music as "minimalist with a relentless iv/4 shell," reputed to drive ravers into a state of frenzy (Gore 58). Numerous sources detail the structural aspects of traditional gamelan music (both Balinese and Javanese) which oft (though certainly not always) involve seamless repetition of rhythmic and tonal patterns over a steady trounce. Ethnomusicologist Margaret Kartomi, in describing the required musical elements in Javanese gamelan accompaniment to folk trance, states that music must be "mesmeric in effect," and contain a steady regular pulsation with repetitive tonal patterns based on a restricted number of pitches (Kartomi 166). Balinese psychiatrist Luh Ketut Suryani discusses the hypnotic issue of traditional Balinese formalism gamelan music on Balinese gamelan players, and describes the music equally having a basic, relatively unchanging pattern, repetitive, rhythmically steady, and tending toward monotony in volume and intensity (Jensen and Suryani 123). Suryani reports that Balinese ceremonial gamelan players feel "as though they are floating to a higher place the ground, 'nearer to the gods' and 'in another world'" (Jensen and Suryani 123).29 In both gamelan angklung (and very commonly in other types of gamelan music) and techno, in that location are simultaneous layers of musical complexity playing themselves out at different levels of tempo and "decorated-ness." Although rave music is much louder than gamelan music, oft the accent (in both musics) is on the creation of a kind of countless "footing" through minimalistic repetition of instrumental "bytes" which tends to entrain the listen of the listener.30
- How is this musical texture related to gamelan angklung? Colin McPhee, in his landmark documentation of Balinese instrumental music (Music in Bali, written in 1966), distinguishes betwixt 2 general forms or textures of traditional gamelan angklung compositions. In the first form, which he designates as blazon A, the tune line is played by the largest bass sounding metallophones in the ensemble (called jegogan) while the higher pitched instruments play a continuous accessory of closely interlocking figuration patterns. In the 2nd blazon of orchestration, blazon B, the tune is played past the smaller, higher metallophones (called gendèr) and the horizontally mounted gong row (réong), while the jegogan "underline" the tune (McPhee 246).
I find the texture of the type A composition for gamelan angklung, with its rather hypnotic, minimalist figuration over a slow moving melody and metronomic tempo, to exist most similar in "aural feel" to certain types of techno music.
Listen, for instance, to this extract from the Orb classic "Picayune Fluffy Clouds." - Coincidentally or not, types of techno and gamelan music, and their corresponding musical textures, are both present in communal gatherings where dance and altered states of consciousness are the intention of at least a subgroup of participants. Institutionalized occasions for entranced dancing (with gamelan orchestra accompaniment) in Bali include the Kris trip the light fantastic toe (male, group trance ritual involving dancers who turn knives on themselves yet remain unharmed) and the Barong/Rangda ritual (protector dragon vs. monstrous witch in a showdown betwixt the forces of skillful and evil). Both dances are part of the sixteenth century Calonarong ritual play (Tenzer, 83). The larger five-tone gamelan pelegongan orchestra, with 13-15 keyed gendèrs, accompanies these dramas involving trance. The repertoire of this gamelan over again involves intricate, closely interlocked figuration played by the higher instruments in the ensemble, equally well every bit circuitous stratified polyphony. Although the dramatic accompaniment requires sudden changes in tempo and dynamics at times, repetitive clichéd figurations over ostinatos and stretches of metronomic tempo remain characteristic of the music. McPhee describes the interlocking figuration occurring in certain slow moving passages:
A very different kind of musical training is required for the syncopated, percussive kotèkan figuration, performed at high speed by a group of viii or 10 players. Equanimous of 2 rhythmically opposing parts which, like the rèongan of the gamelan gong, interlock to create a perpetual flow of sound, the kotèkan adds sheen and intensity to the music, and calls for the utmost rhythmic precision. (McPhee 162) - While the gamelan angklung is not the item gamelan ensemble associated with rituals involving trance in Bali, its textural characteristics are in many means idiosyncratic to much gamelan music in general, including those ensembles that are present in trance contexts. This has led me to speculate nearly the connections between events that utilise similar musical textures and whose participants intend to reach extraordinary consciousness. At Hyperreal's Trance Listing Archives the trance subgenre of techno is obviously characterized as a means to altered states of consciousness: "Through the utilize of repetitive and extended vanquish patterns and/or rhythms, this music often induces trance-similar states in those who listen or dance to it."
- In Rouget'south oft-cited piece of work Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations between Music and Possession, the author states that although music "does play a function in triggering and maintaining the trance state, information technology does not owe its effect to the properties of the musical structure, or if it does, information technology does so only to a small caste" (Rouget 96). Becker applauds Rouget for "putting to rest" the idea of a causal relationship between types of music and types of trance (Becker 41). Information technology is generally understood that the entire trance context as a package—including all sensory stimulation, in improver to the culturally-situated belief system and expectations of the participant—is responsible for inducing contradistinct states of consciousness. Becker suggests that the musical component of trance, acting every bit a "physiological metonym," "invokes" an unabridged "mythology" to which certain emotions and beliefs are attached (Becker 45). In Bali, other deeply sensual "cues," such equally incense, strongly scented flowers, and brightly ornate costumes, accompany ritual. It is likely that in the rave context the volume of the music, the bombardment of visuals, the physiological excitement of dance, the want for an altered land, and the other elements of rave described earlier, heighten the "transportative mechanisms" of the music. All the same, the musical contribution (or "universal" relationship of music) to trance states remains debated amongst scholars, and I am difficult pressed to take consequence with the commonly expressed experiences of many people who feel entrained, "transported," or feel some other hypnotic-like effect when exposed to the musical textures described above, even in a sterile concert hall. Another significant upshot here, perhaps a topic for another newspaper, concerns exactly what ravers hateful when they use the term "trance" and speak of the "trance feel." Possibly clarity lies in a stardom between rhythmic entrainment, trance, and other forms of altered consciousness.
 - I've suggested that one possibility for the cribbing of Balinese gamelan past the rave scene is a similarity in musical structures typically accompanying settings/venues associated with altered states of consciousness in both contexts. At present I'll explore the implications of a 2d possibility. I propose that it is office of the credo of a segment of rave participants to associate themselves with icons of a generic "ethnic-ness"—perceived every bit synonymous with "primitiveness," and the
- s an "exotic entity" affords this association. Notation one raver'due south ideas about how the gamelan might function at an issue:
I recollect it would be Actually absurd to have a couple of Balinese dancers dance to the last gamelan piece, and so take the dj start support with something similarly exotic, maybe Middle Eastern, that the dancers could also dance to. And then bring upwards the music once again slowly, to help tie the different pieces of the anniversary together. (posted to sfraves 27 March 2000) A farther exploration of this ideology will illuminate the seemingly contradictory techno-primitive aesthetic of the San Francisco rave scene. - Another rave participant explains, "What the gamelan was doing was the same every bit what rave was doing. That information technology's all borer into the same roots" (Personal interview, 21 May 1998). This comment, alluding to "the same roots" of a mutual, pre-industrial ancestry, emphasizes the valued connectedness between raving and aboriginal ritual—a connection which serves to distinguish ravers ideologically from what they perceive as industrialized, "mainstream" society. What is especially interesting in the ravers' worldview, is that hi-engineering science (the ultimate product of industrialized social club) and especially technologically produced music, are seen as a ways to accomplish this goal of reconnection with the primitive in us all. Far from contradictory, combining hi-engineering with perceived "tribal values" is viewed as the ultimate tool of collective transcendence and cocky-appearing. This vision is conspicuously expressed by the following characterization of the rave process that appears on the hyperreal.org website:
In that location is a pulsating sensation of sharing primitive understandings, reviving lost traditions…which are all invested with new technological innovation. The sounds are the new epic poetry of this century… The cognition is beyond consumerism and materialism, and associated disaffected, alienated and generally self-destructive style of the industrial being…The sounds and rhythms produced by tekno artists seem to be more and more profound in their ability to communicate the nigh… deeply resonating primal understandings. Information technology's the re-discovered language of transcendence… Here is the 'coming of historic period' ritual which Western civilisation has long forgotten… - Within techno-primitivism then, technology is paradoxically embraced in an try to regain the very thing which mechanization is denigrated for taking away—our basic homo-ness. Reynolds asserts that digital music "abandons all the elements of experience" (Reynolds 44). While revering a music that codes a value for the "less than human," could becoming meantime attached to "the primitive" be peradventure an instinctual endeavor to resist the dehumanizing aspect of the music beingness embraced? An effort to reclaim or hold onto the human element in the face of pervasive applied science, while reveling in the hedonistic aspects of both? This construction, within which participants worship both technology and the primitive, possibly keeps the Vibe in balance, allowing engineering science to have its way, merely at the same time quelling the feet produced by the threat of ever increasing mechanization.
- I don't hateful to suggest that all ravers have the same experience, or share the same philosophy of raving. Equally Gore states, "Rave is multiple" (Gore 65). In fact, there have been complaints recently amongst participants (peculiarly from more seasoned ravers) that the scene is non what it used to be, and that many "newbies" don't understand or don't care about the ideals that raving was founded upon. A mere 24-hour subscription to the sfraves discussion list will reveal multiple layers and levels of experience, meaning, and engagement, ranging from the flaming and name-calling of a community member for posting a naked photo of someone's girlfriend on the list, to the deeply philosophical and ecstatic expressions of transformational experience. Some ravers go to parties go loftier, others to dance, others just to listen, and the same raver may feel different levels of date at dissimilar events or at the same event. Also, the presence of the gamelan at the rave undoubtedly ways different things to dissimilar people, ranging from "this is tedious and weird and I don't know what information technology's doing hither" to "the gamelan is doing what rave is doing." Among the "multiplicities," I have chosen to examine the feel through the lens of techno-primitivism considering this ideology/aesthetic is about prominent in cocky-representations of the San Francisco scene in cyberspace, as well as in the literature about San Francisco raving.
- When viewed from a techno-archaic perspective, the appropriation of the gamelan by the San Francisco rave scene seems like a logical process. The gamelan is successfully integrated into the rave, in part on the ground of its perceived homogenous indigenous-ness, otherness, or primitive associations—in other words, for what it represents. This representation is effected through the "exotic" appearance of the gamelan instruments—intricately carved and painted, sitting amidst carefully prepared offerings, burning incense, and other miscellaneous Balinese "paraphernalia"—and the "otherworldly" sound of an orchestra of bronze gongs and metallophones. I propose that information about where this ensemble comes from, its history, its "accurate" performance exercise, who ordinarily plays information technology, or even what it is called, is irrelevant in the context of the rave. It is not necessary to possess such in-depth knowledge. What is of import is that the presence of the gamelan affirms the somewhat romantic, self-perceived identity of the rave collective every bit role of something "primal," and every bit something that resists the mainstream. I am suggesting that the "exotic" = the "archaic" which is associated with the roots of humankind and the right living to which ravers wish to return.
There are many developments in technology however, that have the potential to create an electronic re-tribalization of society and help humanity remember our place on this sacred sphere.31 - Yet, in the very act of interacting with the surfaces of entities in this way, it may be argued that ravers are engaging in a very mainstream kind of behavior. In Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle describes a current psycho-social operative mode in which representations—rather than transparent entities—are sufficient for interacting with the world. It is frequently claimed that there is an increased tendency within postmodern industrial culture to be satisfied with surface-simply knowledge of relationships with cultural items that make up i's "idioverse" (Schwarz, cited in Turner eighty) and help construct one's identity. Without—I hope—appearing to accept wholesale a totalistic concept of postmodernism, I suggest the gamelan's appropriation into a context (rave) in which it functions as a more or less origin-gratuitous entity speaks somewhat to this claim. Additionally, this aforementioned fashion of "surface-only" (or maybe "surface-ascendant") relationship with the gamelan finds a parallel in some other behavior that is central to the rave feel; that is, interaction with sample-based music in which sonic images are divorced from their original context.32
- Although this article has focused on one regional manifestation of rave, examining the values and operative modes of this late-twentieth-century musical subculture allows u.s. to conceptualize the thought of expressive forms arising every bit artifacts of technoculture. Additionally, this exam brings into relief a at present commonplace style of navigation through a world that often seems overladen with extraneous stimuli and on the verge of producing man perceptual overload. Information technology has been noted that we equally members of postmodern industrial societies must increasingly become able to sift through the glut of information and "separate the wheat from the chaff" in guild keep our brains from shorting out. Perchance "satisfaction with representation/surface cognition" is a way of filtering through the overabundance of cultural things. Instead of weeding out "the incoming" for lack of psychic/perceptual space, an culling strategy, possibly, is to reduce the depth of incoming things. (Analogous to maintaining space in your hard disk by reducing the k in your files rather than deleting them?) Whether this alternative mode of navigation through the "stuff" of "the postmodern feel" is ultimately more or less taxing sociologically, too every bit psychologically, is another question.
- To summarize, via technologically produced sensory experience, customs in virtual space, attributing cosmic significance to technology, and interaction with technologically disembodied entities, raving in San Francisco is firmly located in the technocultural present. My intent for this project was to consider how and why a Balinese gamelan could have possibly made its way to the foothills of the Sierra mountains in the summertime of 1997, and to brand a contribution to the give-and-take of rave as a subculture in the U.S. along the way. To date just Mireille Silcott has focused on rave as a phenomenon in the U.South. Most (off-spider web) contributions focus on raving in the U.Grand., where the subculture originally developed. However, there is a wealth of information on U.South. raving on the spider web, predominantly insiders' personal accounts of the subjective rave experience besides as abstractions and philosophies of the culture. Autonomously from my personal attendance at events in the Bay Area and interviews with participant-friends, rave's ain literature in virtual space served as a main ethnographic site as this paper unfolded; a happenstance that could not take more aptly designated this expressive genre as an artifact of technoculture.33
- Finally, as technology and technoculture are by definition in a abiding country of change, so the space in which the rave upshot takes place is ever a temporary and transient 1. The authenticity of each issue, in all it uniqueness, simultaneity, and dynamism, seems to be constituted by its temporary and therefore elusive nature. Referring back to the "one clinking sonic utterance" of the total rave, I might characterize this undercover utterance as a loud, defiant, powerful, ritual claim to space. There'southward something nearly the transitory, yet very "proactive," rave event that reminds me of the driver of an over-amped car stereo that drives through your neighborhood, staking out a piece of "aural territory," moving forth, thereby avoiding apprehension. She knows you hear her—she has forced herself on your aural space through sheer volume. She wants to be heard, yet remains aristocratic and perhaps dissever. Simply there is autonomy and power in the transitory nature of his deportment; she knows you won't come out looking to silence her, because you know in that time she'll be gone. Gina Andrea Fatone
University of California, Los Angeles | | | | |
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