andrea lai
At Brancaleone, space shaped identity beyond labels. What do you think is missing today of that ideological freedom to exist on the threshold?
It’s hard to compare those years to today; cultural movements belong to the time in which they exist and operate. Squatted pla- ces in Italy had begun to change from the early 1990s, with the Pantera protest movement brin- ging people not born in militant politics into squats, people who went there just to drink, smoke, and be together through music. Back then, the music was hip hop. Then, after the peak of the rave scene, clubbing in squats in the mid-90s was the next step. It was the form of clubbing most respectful of the roots and stylis- tic elements of dance culture: Jamaican, African, American, and English roots which carried the essence of promiscuity, free- dom, conscious substance use, rhythmic research, and counter- cultures.
What made that movement spe- cial wasn’t
isolationism; it was
quite the opposite. There was a desire to share with as many people as possible. Within the movement were journalists pus- hing new dance music sounds on RAI Radio frequencies (the na- tional Public Italian Radio), DJs working in record distribution or promotion,
producers already
building their own personal sonic language, organisers with clear and divergent ideas. Together, we sniffed the air and reacted. At ni- ght we pushed music; during the day we smuggled words. It was a network fully immersed in socie- ty, trying to change it from within. What’s missing today from that freedom to be on the threshold without labels? Nothing is mis- sing in terms of possibilities; the- re are incredible means to hack and use in search of a suprana- tional clubbing alternative. Per- haps what’s lacking is the desire to be in the middle, to not choose an affiliation before understan- ding what one is looking for and feeling. The threshold is an un- comfortable space, and today’s culture – including social media culture – rewards defined identi- ty, clear positioning, identity and identicality. But the most interes-
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ting things for me lie in the indis- tinct, in the not-yet-classified, in the different and the utterly nor- mal. Gotta be brave and stand on the threshold.
Riccardo Petitti would thank the dancefloor saying ‘A Wonderful Audience’. Reviving him and your friendship through this book – more than a decade on – is that also a political act?
It’s a personal act. An attempt to put a story in order, even if I ha- ven’t found a sense or an order to it. Riccardo was a foundatio- nal encounter for me, he allowed me to legitimise the thinking and reflection on music and cultu- re that until that moment I had been doing alone. Together we wrote a grammar of our own, made of ideas, ideals, ethics and freedom of thought, high and low, irreverent and respectful. We had arrived at having things you can and cannot do behind the decks. For instance, I don’t know why, but to this day I never pitch a track beyond +2 on a turntable or a CDJ. It’s a rule born in those years. Told like this it sounds like
a technical matter. But behind it was a respect for the music and for those who had made it. If you need to pitch a record be- yond plus or minus 2 for it to fit in a set, it means that record has no business being there. Sound changes with pitch, it loses dy- namics and body, and sound for us was the king of the club. You go to a club to listen to music, wi- thout staring at the booth, not to watch the DJ or shoot videos of him. Sound is also a political act. I’m not sure this book is, for me it remains strictly personal, but I hope it gets picked up by those who can draw something from it, ideas and practices. Even exam- ples of what not to do.
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