During the times of the USSR, in an attempt to remove any influence from the West, many art forms and clothing were banned from outside of the Soviet Union, including music. It was illegal to own recordings of any kind other than by Russian composers, and so a sound engineer by the name of Ruslan Bogoslowski created a way to bootleg western albums. He had to make use of the materials available, with petroleum products being expensive and difficult to obtain, and so recovered x-ray scans from nearby hospitals that had already been disposed of to use the place of vinyl. The results were pressings that featured the images of real bones splayed across the circular body of the record. With these, despite the strict laws in place, an underground music scene was still able to exist. Here, music sits in the centre of a unique act of defiance, and this relationship between music and rebellion is relevant across history in a variety of different ways; 'Ribs' is just one example of the beauty that can be found.
On the other side of the world in the US, music was found in underground scenes from the prohibition era in the form of jazz played in the Speakeasies of the 20's. But as Rock 'n' Roll begins to take form in the 50's, its very essence broke away from convention and symbolised a challenge to standard practice. It filled a void of a sound for the teenage youth, where before music was only made for adults or children. It shook the control of the industry itself, with its success beginning in small, independent labels across the country. Its musical influences varied hugely between each rock star, but the fundamental core of it all is that it is an opposition against the norm. The youth was given an identity, a new sound and the passion to change the society they lived in, bringing together marginal Americans and appealing across racial divides.
We can see parallels in rave culture in the UK (and across the globe) in the late 80s and early 90s. A 'golden era' of hedonistic freedom, rave brought many people together with mutual acceptance and empathy, and simultaneously was met with severe response from the police. The Criminal Justice Bill itself directly targeted electronic music in its attempt to shut rave down, describing the music implied as including 'sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.' It didn't stop the movement from becoming an iconic period of defiance, and the further development of these 'successions of repetitive beats.' From jungle and acid house came happy hardcore, gabber, acid and many more, leading on to the vast diversity we have in the electronic music scene today. Once again do rebellion and music come hand in hand to create brilliant results.
This is true right from the beginning of dance music, with house being integrally rooted in queer life in Chicago. Being forced to the edges of society, being refused acceptance for who you are has gone hand in hand with the advancement and innovation of culture throughout history. In the same way that bone music is such a specific and wonderfully complex outcome from a constrained and extreme circumstance, house music is one of the most influential sounds that came from those being oppressed for their difference, rejected from society's expectation of normal. The creation of music is ultimately a form of self-expression, and so those who have their identities challenged or stifled often have the most exciting stories and perspectives; trying to silence something will only drive it to roar even louder.
Something specific to the x-ray records of Russia that I also wanted to highlight isn't quite reflected in the above, but does indicate the determination of rebellion. With the very cheap production of these pressings, they were hardly of the highest quality and in fact would only be useable for a handful of plays. There is such a finite nature to the chance of hearing sounds from the outside world, yet to them this lack of permanence is worth it to rebel against oppression and expand the horizons of their knowledge. The very lifespan of these records actually creates quite a beautiful metaphor; the music takes the form of the human body, with its set purpose to share music with its audience. As it is played through and this body decays and dies, the bones are left behind, the remains to uphold the memory of that life, and the achievements of the generation.
Anyway, that's all I have to say this week. Stories like these Russian Ribs always blow my mind at the details scattered across different events in history that require so many individual catalysts and yet are so inherently human in their nature. To fight against restraint is part of who we are, and music, in its role as self expression, so often plays a huge role in that. Maybe that can be the case with everything going on in the world right now. With the pattern becoming more and more concrete of huge environmental crises occurring simultaneously with political nightmares, I feel that something phenomenal has to happen at this point to bring about change. Anyway, let's just get through January - no new playlist this week as I'd like to let the last two (here and here) have a little longer in the limelight as I really enjoy them. Have a good one. xx
We can see parallels in rave culture in the UK (and across the globe) in the late 80s and early 90s. A 'golden era' of hedonistic freedom, rave brought many people together with mutual acceptance and empathy, and simultaneously was met with severe response from the police. The Criminal Justice Bill itself directly targeted electronic music in its attempt to shut rave down, describing the music implied as including 'sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.' It didn't stop the movement from becoming an iconic period of defiance, and the further development of these 'successions of repetitive beats.' From jungle and acid house came happy hardcore, gabber, acid and many more, leading on to the vast diversity we have in the electronic music scene today. Once again do rebellion and music come hand in hand to create brilliant results.
This is true right from the beginning of dance music, with house being integrally rooted in queer life in Chicago. Being forced to the edges of society, being refused acceptance for who you are has gone hand in hand with the advancement and innovation of culture throughout history. In the same way that bone music is such a specific and wonderfully complex outcome from a constrained and extreme circumstance, house music is one of the most influential sounds that came from those being oppressed for their difference, rejected from society's expectation of normal. The creation of music is ultimately a form of self-expression, and so those who have their identities challenged or stifled often have the most exciting stories and perspectives; trying to silence something will only drive it to roar even louder.
Something specific to the x-ray records of Russia that I also wanted to highlight isn't quite reflected in the above, but does indicate the determination of rebellion. With the very cheap production of these pressings, they were hardly of the highest quality and in fact would only be useable for a handful of plays. There is such a finite nature to the chance of hearing sounds from the outside world, yet to them this lack of permanence is worth it to rebel against oppression and expand the horizons of their knowledge. The very lifespan of these records actually creates quite a beautiful metaphor; the music takes the form of the human body, with its set purpose to share music with its audience. As it is played through and this body decays and dies, the bones are left behind, the remains to uphold the memory of that life, and the achievements of the generation.
