moment that I’m alive. I’ve been painted by the brush of raving with a palette
of vibes, people, love, music, unity, movement, peace, and togetherness. I am
in color.
(posted on the sfraves discussion list, 13 June 2000)As has been discussed elsewhere in this collection, writers and ravers have noted that
a main motivation for participants is immersion in a feeling of communitas
generated at the event (Somberg n.d.: 6; Saunders 1995:1). This communitas (or
even ecstatic trance), it is significant to note, is achieved through high-tech means—
particularly through mass dancing to music comprised of simulated and sampled
sounds, often enhanced by pharmaceutical technology In Generation Ecstasy, Simon
Reynolds refers to the various musics (or “hallucinogenres” of rave) as
“sampladelia,” or “perception-warping music” which deconstructs “the metaphysics
of presence” (1998:41, 44). Ravers, involved in what they themselves term “ecstatic
trance dancing,” speak of submitting themselves to the will of the DJ, often referred
to as a shaman: “House music is the sound of the cultural blender running at warp
speed. It’s a techno-shamanic dervish” (Heley 2000).
As René Lysloff writes, “trance is actualized via the interaction of the human and
the machine, implicating a postmodern “secular religion” where technology itself is
worshipped” (Lysloff n.d.:11). In fact, the credo of techno-paganism may be found
at hyperreal.org, along with prayers such as “We thank the Technology Goddess for
giving us the ability to rave” and “We finally wish that the Technology Goddess will
receive our ecstasy while raving as an offering and a celebration of her
omnipotence.” This ethos of abandoning oneself to the will of the machine and
dissolving into a communal mass of dancers has remained one of rave’s most salient
aspects, dating back to proto-rave techno music of the early 1980s.
Rave is also distinguished as a technocultural artifact in that its planning and
restoration phases take place in virtual space. This forum, in scope and nature of social
relationship, is not something that could be replicated in reality, due to the
anonymity afforded by faceless interaction in virtual space. As the drug Ecstasy
removes fear, allegedly the element which controls our behavior (Saunders 1995), for
the purpose of establishing a greater communitas, I suggest that the virtual forum
serves as an extension of this chemical agent for some ravers.
‘I reached a nirvana/euphoric state sitting right in front of the
gamelan...’I have drawn attention to a nostalgia for the “primal roots” of mankind among
ravers and interpreted the rave event as a technocultural practice. I will now
introduce Gamelan Anak Swarasanti and discuss the ensemble’s role(s) within the
San Francisco rave scene.
Anak Swarasanti primarily plays a type of ceremonial orchestra known in Bali as
gamelan angklung. It is a four-tone ensemble consisting primarily of four-keyed
bronze metallophones of different sizes or registers, the keys of which are suspended
198 GINA ANDREA FATONE