Turner Prize winner Mark Leckey created 'Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore' in 1999 as a homage to British dance culture from Northern Soul of the 70s though the Casual culture of the mid 80s ending with the acid rave scene that lead us into the 90s. It's a dreamlike work that works with splices, loops, alternate speeds and is accompanied by an equally mesmerising soundtrack that Leckey created from the songs and MCing of the time. There's no doubting that these were British working class phenomena and brilliantly proves the theory that I've long held that rave was the bastard son of Northern Soul.
If you watch other contemporary videos of the dance scenes they show groups of mainly young men, inevitably with drugs attached, often only drinking water for rehydration and completely lost in their own little world whilst the film forever freezes them in their own time. I've seen this video maybe a dozen times and always leave it a little bit more informed about my musical heritage and my working class background and the role music has played in shaping those and me. There's also unbridled escapism from the drudgery of normal life that the dancehall brings. This is why it had to be a working-class movement and why the establishment never got it. And inevitably when the powers that be don't understand something then they fear it. Fear leads to misinformation leads to the outcry. It will be interesting to see whether the craze of Donk, which seems exclusively popular around the satellite towns of Manchester. I did read a year ago about a documentary about a hard house style of dance music popular in Valencia in Spain and the North East of England but sadly can't find any trace of it.
As a work of art it feels timeless but saying that, I think Leckey was ahead of his time with video mixing. I've seen Safy the video scratch artist support the Fall many times, equally as talented as he is annoying and I imagine as zeitgeist-y as it feels it will inevitably seem old hat.
As a piece of social history, Leckey's film is an essential roadmap of UKnunderground fashions for the 'Top of the Pops' generations. Here it is in its entirety.
No comments:
Post a Comment