Spiral tribe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
logo

Spiral Tribe is an international sound system that is one of the protagonists of the freetekno and rave movement. The group has its origins in the London squatter scene and became widely known after being arrested at the Castlemorton rave in 1992. The group then moved to mainland Europe, where it worked internationally until 1996. Most of the still active members now live in France after varied paths and appear together under the project name SP23 .

history

Origins in England

Spiral Tribe has its origins in the London squatter scene around 1990. The founder is the Briton Mark Harrison, who at that time organized raves with his friends that were supposed to stand out from the previous colorful raves with a dark atmosphere. The name Spiral Tribe was inspired by the symbolic content of the spiral as a sign of evolution and part of DNA . Harrison also created the logo of the sound system, one for black / white totem modified Smiley .

Harrison's circle of friends quickly gained popularity, including the Scottish musician 69db ( Sebastian Vaughan ), who had originally come to London as a drummer but then turned to electronic music and stayed in the squatter and party scene for ten years, and the musician Crystal Distortion ( Simon Carter ), who had some studio skills. In 1991, the group acquired a 4000 watt system and a truck and began organizing the event and participating in unannounced Tekno events lasting several days to several weeks.

Castlemorton 1992

After an unannounced seven-day festival in Castlemorton (England) in May 1992 with several sound systems and 20,000 visitors, 13 activists from Spiral Tribe were arrested as alleged organizers and their equipment was confiscated. The Guardian sees this event as one of 50 key moments in the history of dance music and the massive police operation in the tradition of the action of the English police against the hippie festivals of earlier years, especially against the Stonehenge Free Festival with what has become known as the Battle of Beanfield Action against New Age Travelers arriving despite the ban in 1985. Due to the political disputes about unannounced festivals that followed the deployment in Castlemorton, Spiral Tribe also became known to a large public. The group had to answer in a four-month process because of the festival in Castlemorton, but was ultimately acquitted. The British authorities cracked down on attempts to hold unannounced festivals in the summer of 1992. John Major spoke out publicly against New Age Travelers in October 1992 , and finally a law was passed that banned unannounced events with over ten people.

In 1992 Spiral Tribe received a record deal with the Coldcut label to produce their first album, which was released the following year.

Change to the continent

In the summer of 1992 about half of the activists left England and moved to mainland Europe, where there were less restrictive laws against festivals and where activists quickly turned to hardcore techno , which was then widespread in Holland and Germany .

After the end of the process because of the Castlemorton Festival, the remaining activists followed to the continent. The group gathered in Berlin , where they teamed up with the Mutoid Waste Company , which created installations and visuals for techno parties. They jointly organized festivals in the Czech Republic and Austria. In 1993 Spiral Tribe opened an office in Paris , from where they organized the production and distribution of their self-produced records. At the same time, they held numerous festivals across France. One of the principles of Spiral Tribe was the anonymity of the members of the collective. Numerous records were released under the common name Spiral Tribe or SP 23 on the group's own label Network 23 , the respective authors of which remained unnamed and which are now sought-after techno rarities.

In the mid-1990s, Spiral Tribe operated across Europe. However, the group no longer appeared as one, but a large number of cells with activists from different countries spread across the continent and internationally coined the term Teknival for subcultural techno events. In 1996 the group broke up completely. Most of the original members turned away from continental Europe. Founder Mark Harrison returned to England to start a fanzine . Simon Carter first went to India to found the Sound Conspiracy Tribe . Sebastian Vaughan worked in North America for a long time. Carter and Vaughan later settled in France.

present

The French label Expressillon, which released several Vaughan records from 2000 (69db), has also been releasing reprints of the old Spiral Tribe releases since 2005 under the label Network Repress . The members living in France are now appearing together again under the project name SP23 in a more commercial environment .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spiral tribe report within the program Tracks , Arte, November 17, 2011.
  2. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/artist/23985-69db
  3. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/artist/15584-Crystal-Distortion
  4. ^ Spiral tribe report within the program Tracks , Arte, November 17, 2011.
  5. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/15/castlemorton-triggers-rave-crackdown
  6. ^ Spiral tribe report within the program Tracks , Arte, November 17, 2011.
  7. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Spiral-Tribe-Spiral-Tribe-Sound-System-The-Album/release/222243
  8. ^ Spiral tribe report within the program Tracks , Arte, November 17, 2011.
  9. ^ Spiral tribe report within the program Tracks , Arte, November 17, 2011.

Web links