Friday 13 March 2009

Palingenesis, electronic music, fascism, fusion, transcendence?

ahuthnance, we were talking about Roger Griffin and his [separate] interests in electronic music and Nazi Germany. The interesting question is whether any commonalities could be teased out in how he discusses palingenesis? Or is his musical frame of reference so tightly tied to rave culture that it becomes impossible to imagine other settings and genres being used as props for Victor Turner style liminal rituals (even if the participant is a lone individual not directly fusing with a collective)? What if the music is used to provide a commentary on violence in such contexts as well?

In the absence of other writings on electronic music more generally by Griffin, I've had to content myself with other artefacts, such as the brilliant rescoring of Salo, using Kelly Bailey's evocative soundtrack from Half Life 2 (notwithstanding any historical differences between Italian and German variants of fascism, we would agree that each bears examination as a palingenetic populist form of ultranationalism). And then there is the stunning Tangerine Dream track from the opening of The Keep......




2 comments:

roger griffin said...

Dear Acheron (?)

I am Roger Griffin and came across your blog reference to me in the context of fascism and music by chance. I have a great unpublished article to send you on music in the age of apoliteia if you can send me your email address
I am intrigued by your citing me

Please contact

Roger Griffin

roger griffin said...

Dear ? I am Roger Griffin. I was fascinated to come across your cryptic comments about the relationship between fascism and music. I have an article to send you by a brilliant Russian researcher about neo-fascism and music if you give me your email