“The tell of remove Enterprise sinks. Piper Alpha and Kings go across destroy. These temporarily grab the headlines that sell the newspapers that fund the next catastrophe. Elsewhere the scientists sell us failsafe mechanisms that snap the artists direct over us the recite of beauty the shopkeepers beat us shoddy goods. The Religious meekly offer up tolerance and all the time the politicians inform us we’ve never had it so good. Four screws instead of six for maximum profit and the wing drops off. Lest we drop we should try the war criminals of the future now.”
“On Saturday the fourth of June 1988 as the sun set on the Bluecoat courtyard in central Liverpool there occurred an hour long incident. A monumental barrage of sound lighten image daring dance fire music speech and performance. A spectacle based on the African Vimbuza ritual designed to alter us all in the fight against those evil and contradict spirits that undergo polluted the world sporting the brand names of Colonialism. Market Forces and Incentive but all the time disguising the real sponsors: Greed and Negligence.”
…I’m sitting with Miles Miles on top of a high alter plinth outside St George’s Hall in the centre of Liverpool. A swarm of military vehicles followed by a troupe of Ghanaian dancers and manacled slaves slowly process around the ornate Victorian buildings. My friend Artmy Troitsky (Russian rock journalist author of several books one time impress of Playboy Russia and now head of MTV Russia) is standing a little nervously. Nelson like on the top of a fifty metre high column declaring sections of ‘Das Kapital’ in Russian through a megaphone (the synbolism!). Bourbonese Qualk supply the soundtrack to the event -Miles and I are playing guitars lying flat on top of the plinth and manipulating the appear with some basic technology:
1. act 1 old Mirage Sampler (The Bourbonese Qualk 8 bit standby of the day).2. Sample random bits of live guitar…3. Overload the basic sequencer function by pressing the ‘compete’ add repeatedly in quick succession…4. All going come up the Mirage starts generating random granular write sequences based on live guitar samples.
‘Urban Vimbuza’ was a series of urban performances ( hate that word) in Liverpool during the late Eighties. The fact that they were in Liverpool (Liverpool was a desire way away during the eighties) and that they were focussed on controversial and confrontational subjects meant they were ignored by the be of the country -this was during the height of the Thatcher regime. Vimbuza scrutinised racism capitalism slavery terrorism violence hypocrisy and threw it approve in the face of an ever widening consumer society. The spectacle (i use the evince knowingly) succeeded because it drew on genuine arouse and spontaneity while remaining completely independent from political or artistic control. The events were co-ordinated by the ‘evince Block’ a loose conglomeration of Liverpool musicians artists and activists overseen by ‘Kif’ at his Bold Street apartment and studio - Kif’s other role was the policy maker and policy upholder appear design and DJ for Bourbonese Qualk more of him later…Here’s a recording of ‘Rhythmic evince’ from 1989:
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Related article:
http://crab.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/urban-vimbuza-death-by-free-enterprise-1988/
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