“Dance culture exploits the power of music to build a future on the desolate terrain of the present.” 

— Drew Hemment, “e is for Ekstasis” 

From Wasteland to Eden

Said aloud, Detroit, Michigan, Kyiv, Ukraine, Peckham, England, Toronto, Canada, Berlin, Germany, Brooklyn, New York and Tbilisi, Georgia are unsuspecting metropoles. Set apart by language, rivers and oceans, subcultures and relative wealth, the average Substack travel blogger might assume the sole dividing line between Williamsburg and London is the local connotation of ‘chips.’ Yet under repression and even revolution, each city similarly produced havens for a socially disenfranchised counterculture to finally surface in a medium — raves — that knew no direct ancestor. 

Often condemned to the peripheries of cities, drained watersheds or factories left to waste by corporate exile and outsourced labor or recession, the scene birthed from aggression enables the liberation of mind, mouth and body — at least temporarily — from the grasp of malevolent politics and invaders. 

Why has the innocuous rave taken root again in the most barren soils? And what leads Thatcherian aggressors to their boiling point as a result? The answer ranges from war to civil conflict to brewing revolution — but at its core responds to symptoms of an unrooted society. 

In 2014, contempt for Viktor Yanukovych, a Russian cheerleader-turned-president, spilled into Kyiv’s streets. Post-industrial edifices assumed the role of insurrectionist meeting grounds and disgruntled students kickstarted Cxema, a rogue group planning secret parties that, if you know, you know, fostered the desire for rebellion.

Detroit’s underground rose quite literally from melted polyvinyl and ash when the White Sox’s “Disco Demolition Night” incinerated hopes for the ’70s genre to make it big, forcing pioneering Black artists into the far reaches of their city. The result? DJs like Frankie Knuckles engineered a new, soulful electronic wavelength, house........

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