international news _ 6th April, 2007
New Rave. New What?
Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
American indie/ dance band The Rapture took issue with the 'new' in new
rave this week and mocked the relentless media reclassification of rock/
dance hybrids.
"I donšt think indie dance is dead, I've never thought so, there are still
bands doing what we're still doing," Rapture drummer Vito Roccoforte told
Australia's 3D World.
"In England, there are a lot of bands that are still coming up and they're
calling it new rave there. They're a bunch of different titles for basically
the same thing," he scoffed.
In more 'what-is-new-rave?' news, New York's Village Voice defined it as
the trendy revival of early-90s techno with a nod to indie rock this week
and branded Justice as new rave icons though Parisien producer Xavier De
Rosnay was not so sure.
"I think the phenomenon is real, but I am not sure new rave is a good word
to describe us," the We Are You Friends star told Voice writer Trish Romano,
"It should be called new big beat."
America's old rave scene, meanwhile, came under the mainstream media
spotlight in Seattle this week as mourners gathered for a memorial service
to mark the first anniversary of the murder of six ravers who were shot dead
by Kyle Huff last year, in a spree killing incident at an after-party.
Survivors of the massacre, in which Huff stormed through a house firing
randomly and repeatedly at partygoers, spoke of their continuing grief and
shock at the killinsg which reports later suggested were prompted partly by
Huff's envy of their lifestyle.
Party organiser Keith Salender, who hosted the rave at which Huff met his
victims, told reporters he refused to change his attitudes, which remain
centred on rave culture's PLUR (peace, love, unity and respect) principles.
"I will still talk to strangers, I will still make friends with the lonely
guy in the corner, and I will still invite him to be a part of my extended
family," Salender told the Seattle Intelligencer. "I cannot say that I still
do this without caution, but I refuse to allow this horrific event to rule
my life."
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