Fully armed "troops" invade Utah dance party

Riddim Method will obviously be a place for the discussion of the music we love, but for my first post I’m going to zoom out a bit. Rather than focus on details of the music itself, I’d like to discuss the health of the culture that brings the music to life.

Maybe you’ve heard about one or more of the crack-downs on dance parties that have been taking place lately. For instance, the "Czechtek" festival in Czech Republic, which was forcefully raided by riot police this summer. Or closer to the home front; the "Versus II" drum and bass party in Utah—raided by a 90 strong SWAT team, fully equipped with assault weapons, camouflage suits with helmets, attack dogs, the works. Or on the home front here in Boston; the Boston Police Department’s "Operation Party Time" is in effect to come bust an after-hours party near you.


Revelers confront riot police at Czechtek ‘05

These 3 recent examples of anti-party actions by authorities, taken as a whole, suggest a sort of war on culture taking shape. Or at least a war on dance music culture.

Last fall we put together the (((RE:SOUND))) gallery show and party as a way to look at questions about why Boston doesn’t have a strong dance music culture. At least not one that generates a distinctive sound of it’s own. In order to shed some light on this, we analyzed the birth of Jamaican reggae, New York hip-hop, and British rave musics. There’s something that they all have in common. As new sounds they were all incubated in a culture that allowed for dance parties, weather legal, or not.

Dancing has always come under attack by conservative forces, but I’m worried that we could be coming into a particularly dark period for booty shaking. The raids in Czech, and Utah were both against legal parties. Authorities in Utah claim drugs as the reason, but it looks to me more like a crack-down on liberty.

Here in Boston things are particularly difficult for would be dancers. Sure you can visit some small loungy bar, or pub with a DJ; maybe there’ll be a good dance party at a rock club every once in a wile; or you can head over to some ultra-swank, cheese-ball, mafia-club and dance to 4 on the floor till 1:45 am when they turn the lights on and tell you it’s time to go. But these hardly constitute a culture for growth of new and innovative dance musics.

If you want to throw a party in an alternative space, at an alternative time, you better line up and start lickin’ some ass. Heaven forbid you want the party to go past 2am. It’s been known to happen, with the right connections, the right permits, and a stroke of luck, but the amount of work involved is a serious deterrent. Especially since you might get busted anyway, if the recent busts of legal parties are any indication.

One of the most frightening aspects of “Operation Party Time” is that DJs are coming under fire. Not only are the owners of the property, and the promoters being cited for violations, but Police are confiscating DJs equipment, and writing them citations for hundreds of dollars.

I’m sorry to be a bummer here in my first post on our awesome new blog, but as riddim methodists, I believe we have a duty to stand up for our music’s civil liberties. We can talk about what the riddims are, and how they’re made, all we want, but lets not forget the dance.