[Dancecult-l] Music, Mind & Politics

[Wolfgang Sterneck]

MUSIC, MIND & POLITICS

- International call of musicians for free spaces, far from the  
mainstream -

About forty musicians have already signed the manifesto "Rhythms of  
Change - Music, Mind & Politics". Most of them have a pioneering role  
in their specific musical scenes. Above all artistic differences they  
are all connected by an idealistic approach, which calls for  
engagement and a clear delimitation from the cultural mainstream. The  
manifesto itself describes the need for free open spaces, which are  
based on "self-determined creativity and communal responsibility".

The list of signatories includes (ex-) members of the bands MC5,  
Crass, Dead Kennedys and Asian Dub Foundation, and the Techno- 
Projects Underground Resistance and Spiral Tribe. In addition many  
different musicians have signed including Free-Jazz-Saxophonist Peter  
Brötzmann, the Country-Musician Rattlesnake Annie, the Industrial- 
Percussionist Z'ev, the Hip-Hop-Artist Telephone Jim Jesus and the  
Agit-Pop-Group Chumbawamba.

The English and the German written versions of the manifesto as well  
as a linked list of signatories can be found online at:
www.sterneck.net/manifest

Contact: contact at sterneck.net


--------------------------


RHYTHMS OF CHANGE

Manifesto on ’Music, Mind and Politics’

Far away from the soft-rinsed TV-Shows one can still hear rare  
rhythms and breaks, which cannot be silenced. It's nearly all the  
same no matter which music culture one examines, or in which city one  
moves. Anyone who looks beneath the surface will find underground  
projects, which oppose the cultural conformity and try to forge new  
directions.

The rhythms differ sometimes and the lyrics vary in their symbols,  
but their fundamental messages are similar. It's always about free  
spaces in which the first steps of an other life can be realized.  
Free spaces based on self-determined creativity and communal  
responsibility.

Ideally a party or a session, a concert or a festival can be such  
free spaces. Therefore it is necessary. time and again, to break open  
the structures of consumption and commercialization. Not conforming  
to stars and trends, but common development in the flow of a night.

But it's not enough to search for the experience of the alternative  
reality on the dancefloor and the concert alone. In this age of  
ecological destruction, globalized exploitation and religious  
fanaticism, nobody can withdraw into their own worlds. In the long  
run the social conditions must be forced to dance. The energy of  
danced-through nights open their real strength only if they are  
unfolded in the reality-remix of the everyday life as a commitment  
for consequent change.

Hack Reality - Dance for Change !


Signatories:
Babu Dinkins (Underground Resistance; Detroit),
Chumbawamba (Leeds),
Conni Maly (Lava303 / Playground; Frankfurt),
Dallas Swendeman (Moontribe; Los Angeles),
Dick Lucas (Subhumans, Citizen Fish; Bath),
Dirk Ivens (Dive / Sonar / Klinik; Belgium),
Eule (Fusion-Festival / U.Site; Lärz),
Eve Libertine (Dial House / Ex- Crass; Epping),
Fermin Muguruza (Afro-Basque Fire Brigade; Irun),
Gerry Hannah (Subhumans; Vancouver),
Grup Yorum (Istanbul),
Ian MacKaye, (Fugazi / Ex- Minor Threat; Washington),
Jarboe - (Ex- Swans; New York)
Jet Moon (Queer Mutiny; London),
John Sinclair (Ex- MC5; Amsterdam),
Jost Gebers (Free Music Production; Borken),
Klaus Flouride (Dead Kennedys; San Francisco),
Louis Fleischauer (Aesthetic Meat Foundation; California),
Luix Saldana (Consejo de Visiones; Nierika),
Maggie Nicols (Ex- Feminist Improvising Group; London),
Martin Paul (Ton Steine Scherben Family),
Massimo & Pierce (Black Sun Productions; Zürich),
Milan Markovic (Stani Pani Kolektiv; Belgrade),
Not4Prophet (Ricanstruction Network; East Harlem),
Penny Rimbaud (Crass Agenda / Dial House; Epping),
Peter Brötzmann (Free Music Production; Wuppertal),
Rak Razam (ResisDance / Barrelfull of Monkeys; Melbourne),
Rattlesnake Annie (Nashville),
Stefan Knappe / BarakaH (Drone Records / Troum; Bremen),
Sun-J Tailor (Asian Dub Foundation; London),
Telephone Jim Jesus (Anticon / Restiform Bodies; Oakland),
The Ex (Amsterdam),
The Fire This Time (Indigenous Resistance; Toronto),
Unknown Writer (Underground Resistance; Detroit),
Wolfgang Sterneck (Connecta / KomistA; Frankfurt),
Yeastie Girlz (San Francisco),
Z'ev (Rhythmajik; London),
69db / Sebastian Vaughan (Ex- Spiral Tribe / Network 23, France).

Text: Wolfgang Sterneck.
contact at sterneck.net
www.sterneck.net/manifest
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