Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture
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In this week's patrons-only episode, Tim and Jeremy continue their mini-series on the aesthetic and political content of Afrofuturism. Beginning with Kodwo Eshun's 1998 book More Brilliant Than The Sun, Tim and Jeremy interrogate the thinking of a number of academics and journalists around the Cybernetic Cultural Research Unit, their body of work around cyber theory, and the music of the 'Hardcore Continuum' in the context of '90s intellectual culture.
Tim and Jeremy spend time talking about the Detroit Techno of Drexciya, consider the complex position of soulfulness within Afrofuturism, and dig further into the contested ideas around the promise of technology. Finally, we hear about the origins of dubstep, with Jeremy making a strident case against the aestheticization of alienated urban life under capitalism - with some swinging UK Garage thrown in for good measure.
Tim and Jeremy will conclude with part 3 on Afrofuturism in a fortnight.
Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.
Tracklist:
Drexciya - Andreaen Sand Dunes
Lenny Fontana - Spirit of the Sun (Steve Gurley Full Vocal Mix)
Maddslinky - Dark Swing
Books:
Kodwo Eshun - More Brilliant Than the Sun
Jeremy Gilbert & Ewan Pearson - Discographies: Dance, Music, Culture, and the Politics of Sound
Donna Haraway - Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature