"This event includes strong language and references to drug culture"

Election Eve anxiety was momentarily alleviated  last Monday when I got to moderate a really fun discussion about rave culture's visual aesthetics and its ongoing legacy in graphics, fashion, music and pop culture. Title "The Spirit of Rave" and involving Jeremy Deller, Martine Rose, and Trevor Jackson, the conversation - convened by The Design Museum as part of its current exhibition Electronic: From Kraftwerk to the Chemical Brothers - goes out live on Thursday, November 12th, at 7pm UK time.  Information about tickets can be found here. 

From The Design Museum's announcement for The Spirit of Rave:

Rave was a defining counterculture movement in Britain. Responding to the social, political and economic conditions of the 1980s and 90s, it joyfully disregarded design convention from cut-n-paste techniques to neon colours and brash imagery.

Join artist Jeremy Deller, fashion designer Martine Rose and graphic designer / deejay / producer Trevor Jackson and music author Simon Reynolds for a talk exploring the legacy 90’s British rave culture has left in art and design today.

Please note that this event includes strong language and references to drug culture.

metal dance

while we're on this industrial-techno / Eurohardcore continuum tip (i.e. Gesaffelstein, Horrorist, Soulwax's Belgcore 'n' gabber slowed-down mix), one of my fave archaeologies of 2013 was  Trevor Jackson's Metal Dance:  Volume 2

like the first volume, an exploration of the hinterland between postpunk and techno-rave -- EBM, second-wave industrial, dancefloor-oriented Goth

like the first volume, a lot of this stuff I'd probably have shunned as past-its-avantfunk-moment in the actual mid-Eighties, when I was listening to Husker Du and Schooly D, but which now sounds really fresh

here's the tracklist:

01. Tuxedomoon - 59 To 1
02. Logic System - Unit
03. Psyche - The Saint Became A Lush
04. Skinny Puppy - Deadlines (400 Blows Remix)
05. Propaganda - (The Echo Of) Frozen Faces
06. Visage - Der Amboss (Instrumental)
07. Rusty Egan - The Twilight Zone (Trevor Jackson Edit)
08. Material - Secret Life
09. Rene Bandaly Family - Tanki Tanki (Rabih Beaini Edit)
10. Experimental Products - Work That Beat
11. Crash Course In Science - Jump Over Barrels
12. Liaisons Dangereuses - Etre Assis Ou Danset
13. Esplendor Geometrico - Necrosis En La Poya

01. Ministry - Over The Shoulder (12-inch Version)
02. Test Dept - The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom: Face 3
03. Mile High Club - Walking Backwards
04. CHBB - Ima Iki-Mashoo
05. Front 242 - Body 2 Body (2trax)
06. Vice Versa - Riot Squad
07. Chris & Cosey - Driving Blind
08. Doris Norton - Personal Computer
09. Plus Instruments - Vom Ertrunkenen Mädchen
10. Conrad Schnitzler - Das Tier
11. Neon - Lobotomy
12. Arthur Brown And Craig Leon - The Conversation
13. Haruomi Hosono - Platonic
14. Godley & Creme - Babies

Here's Trevor Jackson talking about the compilation at Resident Advisor

Here's a promo minimix TJ did



Here's a video mix, official or unofficial i knownot

 And finally some of my fave tunes from the compilation

via FACT, cool mix of UK rap and hip hoppy stuff from early 80s to early 90s, by XL's Richard Russell and Trevor Jackson