Mann, Fraser (2026) Breach the Peace: Revisiting Spiral Tribe’s Utopian Techno Future. Humanities, 15 (131).
Preview |
Text
humanities-15-00131.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. | Preview |
Abstract
This article explores the complexities of revisiting, remembering and revising the cultural philosophies and aesthetics associated with the free festival and rave scenes of the early 1990s. The analysis here examines and comments on the rave sound system Spiral Tribe and the moral panic that resulted from their activities during the infamous rave on Castlemorton Common in May 1992. Informed by scholarship from figures such as Mark Fisher, Danny Cookney and Graham St John, the article engages in a close reading of archive footage found on YouTube. From this, a discussion regarding the complex interplay of mediation, techno aesthetics, memory and narrative emerges and develops. Viewing the footage now is both curious and uncanny. The clear and optimistic vision of the future offered by Spiral Tribe clashes and contrasts with our atomized and passive relationship with technology in the twenty-first century. As such, watching these faded versions of a potential future is a hauntological experience full of ghosts and spectres.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Subjects: | M Music and Books on Music > M Music M Music and Books on Music > ML Literature of music > ML3797-3799.5 Musical research M Music and Books on Music > ML Literature of music > ML3916-3918 Social and political aspects of music |
| School/Department: | School of Humanities |
| URI: | https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15758 |
University Staff: Request a correction | RaY Editors: Update this record
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
