Yes. A rebellion against becoming a cog in the capitalist clockwork orange. Though at the time there wasn't much work, but even if there had been, the working class children had already become de-conditioned to the idea that work in the traditional sense (in factories, coal and steel industries, etc.) was what a good human being had to do. They knew that the work 'ethic' the Capitalists projected was a lie. They only needed to look at their own parents and how they had become crippled by years of toil in the industrial machine. Left to their own devices and without much hope in a better future, they started to experiment with different schemes to ensure sanity & survival. One of the reasons why art-scenes can flourish is the availability of cheap living space. This was an important factor in Berlin, the British North, and also in New York. They all had places in their environment (abandoned factories & warehouses) that could be annexed as laboratories for their experiments with reality. Add to it the do-it-yourself ethic the Punk movement had pioneered, along with it's defiant rejection of mass culture and history, it's anarchism, and taste for the grotesque and eclectic. Beautiful, and not so beautiful things happened.

 

Dada, Malevich, Futurism, Bauhaus, Tschichold, Gurdjieff, Crowley. Shake well.

Spice it with an assortment of unruly poets from France and Russia, and wherever.

Crown it all with the black olive of anarchy.

Peter Saville. Books thieves of the world unite! (he used to make fun of the fact that he had stolen books about typography while he was still a starving designer, guess what he'd do today)

Oh, btw, there is a big archive of Dada art and documents up here:

Code:

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/index.html

I'm not so sure about Greil Marcus' hypothesis, but I haven't read his book Lipstick Traces. I think you could track back much further than Dada. I also have yet to read an interesting book I found about the Romanian roots of Dada, called Dada East.

 

In the meantime, the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNXUQ1mOrV4

1991, from Czechoslovakia. Funny story about how they became an electronic band. Their house was broken into and all their gear was stolen. So they turned up an old PC and started making electronic music from 1994 onward.

 

@ Feridan Big love!
Very useful thread!

 

Thank you!

Sisters of Mercy....

The Sisters of Mercy - Marian (Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8i8pP3lcAU
from First and Last and Always, their first LP. Video's from a later date.

Sisters of Mercy - Alice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GwWra1sQgo
from Alice EP

 

My Live With The Thrill Kill Kult - A Daisy Chain 4 Satan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN0yI-ambNY
Good video. from Confessions of a Knife..., their second LP, 1990

Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod (Redline/Whiteline Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqzPFyeXGEE
Single from 1991, also on Psalm 69 LP

 

The Normal - Warm Leatherette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5QErPDNcj4
B-side of T.V.O.D. single from 1978; inspired by Ballard's Crash novel that also inspired this:

Gary Numan - Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXEu1odjKZM
ftom The Pleasure Principle

 

Anne Clark - Sleeper In Metropolis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ8GDG6Pygg
from Changing Places, her second LP, 1983

Anne Clark - Wallies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYu7GafLj74
from Changing Places, 1983

 

just found two Nico from a 1982 live gig:

NICO - All Tomorrows Parties - (1982, Warehouse, Preston, UK)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KiU5P4ihIQ

NICO - Heroes - (1982, Warehouse, Preston, UK)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8VMVe3AAWc

 

I went to art school, and i was a big proponent of Dada- most people just didnt get it, which was the whole point, so they actually got it without knowing they got it.

i love a good mindfu*k now and then

from dada i discovered surrealism, of course.

i like to think of my "modern primitiv" particular brand of music as a sort of surrealist-audio excursion in the nether-regions of the human subconscious



thanks for the link

 

Thank you, frito!

Dada was the last great Mammoth.

Everything after was just elephants.

Come to think of it. Dada was the last great mammoth in giraffe drag.

 

I'm not sure whether this thread is about old music or electronics or so but from my pov to put something in perspective I like to share this one with you. I've just recently discovered it and for me it is exemplatory of electronic music maturing an blending in with modern culture. Ofcourse even in the 60's may that be Herbie Hancock or Brian Eno allready integrated electronics with popular music but I think this example is more like the whole new 'bedroom producer' kinda' thing where people have a vast world at their disposal with a simple laptop. I really like the vibe:

My link

Sorry I can't post the preview of the video. Don't know how to do this..

 

very cool video Spiritos!


i need some friends like this where i live!


the cello was excellent addition, and i dug the feedback and stuttered loops

thanks for sharing that


and to post youtube vids simply copy the url with no tags, the forum auto posts it!
(all thanks to Saint for telling me how to do it as well)

 

We could start another thread for introspective eclectic piano music? Like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq-Mw299IM

I was going to post some Charlemagne Palestine anyway

But first, Gudrun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MSyFPcxhNQ
from Pierrot Lunaire, Gudrun (1976)

 

Charlemagne Palestine - Strumming Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bulibjyaQ0s
Rewarding if you stick with it. 52 minutes of one note being played, piano eventually gets bored and starts to come up with its own composition. I think 1974.

And you thought The Necks invented it all. Hah!

Gravity's Angel - Laurie Anderson (Mister Heartbreak)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvhzyOqEMk
from Mister Heartbreak

 

Kurt Schwitters - Ursonate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X7E2i0KMqM
1932

Meredith Monk: Dolmen Music (Part I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNacNzhcNZI
from Dolmen Music (1980-81)

 

@frito zanzibar: Thanks for explaining. I'll give it a try next time.

Sakamoto has indeed done some amazing things as well although I think he got to a point where it got a little too 'slick'.

@Feridan: About Charlemagne Palestine. Yeah, that's a certain niche in music that can be very rewarding indeed. Repetition or serialism. Eno and Reich did some of that as well. You really need to sit down for it to let it overcome you but it definitely has a trance-like effect.

 

exactly...its hard making good "conceptual" music nowadays as most people's minds have been wired for the 3-4 minute radio edit..



alot of my earlier music had intros that were minutes long before i even really started the main melody, but since i have now started my "get rich or die trying" campaign, i have been consciously reducing the length of my songs to make them more radio sized, and as most kids nowadays have fuc*in ADD, they need a build up and drop within like the 1st minute or the "song suxx"


so basically i have to struggle with the fact i am admittedly and knowingly "selling out"




i can always remix em later once i have enough money to relax a bit and stop worrying so much


such are the problems faced, and these are the days of our lives, as the world turns

 

Well, I wish for you you can aqueeze in enought time to to both, As (mindfull) musicians we're always struggling between the love for our muse and the demands of the public.
I say see 'selling out' as 'getting food on the table'. Others have a dayjob and other people may not be so lucky to have a passion in their lives.
An sin the end it's the passion that feeds us and gives us life

Let us all be bold and beautiful man!

Peace!