Nineties Chemicology

The 90's were my glory days. Not only for grunge and indie rock, but especially for dance music.

Techno, jungle, rave, hardcore (gabba), goa-trance, (true) trance, house, garage. It's all I could think about for an entire decade. Day and night all I ever had on my mind was "when are we going out to dance?"

The days of being up on a box next to a DJ in a shitty club, dancing my ass off with sweat pouring off the walls, my shirt drenched, pissed, e-ing, speeding, coking, fuck knows what. It was my life. The beats... my god, those fucking mechanical beats... they delivered to me an ecstatic abandon like I had never known to exist, and never again experienced anywhere else.

The end of the 90's, and especially, the dawn of the new millennium saw (in my opinion) a big change in dance music. The true artistry waned. The real composers vanished back into the underground, and garbage cheap shit has invaded the mainstream with crappy remixes of remixes of remixes, one after the other. Every club plays a mishmash of soiled and stenched toiletry, devoid of any credible artistic merit and the populace laps it up. I feel sorry for the club generation of today, they just have no idea how diluted their experience is in comparison to the first generation's experience.

It's by chance today that I rediscovered an old favourite record label of mine, Tresor Records from Germany. A pioneering label in it's time, with a club of the same name, Tresor has consistently stayed true to its roots since 1991, continuing to seek and expose true minimalist techno-art, to educate the weak-minded into the realm of mechanic and intelligent soundscapes, and all the while maintaining its brilliant longterm relationships with its artists.

I pray for the day when true electronic music makes its return to the clubs, when this earpleasing doof oversampled elephant dung finally vanishes into the sewers where it belongs, and the true DJ's and composers take their place back on the throne of dance music. It's the biggest hurdle which stops me from going back to clubs. I cross my fingers and wait with anticipation, but perhaps for nothing?

Welcome home, Kevin.

It seems only yesterday that we saw one of the biggest, if not the biggest election in Australian modern history. We've had a decade or so of conservative rule: fear propaganda, an alliance with the United States (which the Australian public generally opposes), increases in military spending and presence in a war which we have nothing to do with, and the introduction of a workplace system which provides no benefit to workers (and yet all the power to the employers). Combined with a gradual regression of Australian culture which saw us slowly heading back towards the 1950s, these factors all contributed to the crushing and fatal blow delivered to the Coalition by Labor on Saturday 24 November 2007.

I followed the election from the day Mr Rudd took the Labor reigns. He excited me, as he did many others, in providing the final return of a powerful Labor to the federal boxing ring, landing blow after blow on the Howard Government in parliament, and providing the Coalition constant annoyance with his passive, cool tactics.

In the final sitting of Question Time in 2007, we witnessed the finale - an explosive Peter Costello and Tony Abbot, both devout Christians, exhibiting completely unprofessional behaviour while attempting to bully Kevin Rudd. Rudd hit back, sure, but in the end, it was water off a duck's back.

The ashes of the Coaltion's reign are still smouldering, and the Coalition itself seems to still be in a state of disbelief. They certainly haven't taken their defeat in good sportsmanship, with Peter Costello resigning straight after the election and then publicly blaming John Howard for the loss. While not a fan of the Coalition's policies, I would have liked to have seen Costello leading the Opposition. It would have provided for very interesting battles between the new Government and the Coalition.

As it did with Labor from 1996 to 2007, it will take time for the Coalition to re-fuse, rebuild and re-balance, but all this will be worthless if the Coalition does not attempt to modernise itself. With the old-school style influence of Howard now gone, the Coalition will need to modernise its brand of conservatism in order to properly compete against the new Government if it has any chance of contesting the leadership of the country at the next federal election. No doubt, there will be a lot of shuffling of seats over the coming months, and we may not even see Brendon Nelson as the Opposition leader for long, but that is all part of rebuilding your team so it can perform again.

The new government has got off to a flying start and the public has taken this in good stead. Only less than a month into the new Prime Ministership, and Mr Rudd has already delivered (if not begun to action) on his election promises. Sometimes I have to blink twice - is it really possible that we have a new Prime Minister who is really listening to the people? Is it too good to be true? Does my KEVIN07 shirt which I wore so proudly on November 24th, causing gorgeous after gorgeous woman at the Bondi Hotel to hug me or peck me on the cheek actually still have real market value?

For me, New Year 2008 is an exciting time not for the usual fireworks and parties, but because we will soon see a return of a Parliamentary Sitting, and it is here that the nation will turn its eyes to the new Prime Minister and also to our female Deputy Ms Julia Gillard, of whom every woman across the country should be proud of.

Following a busy schedule since Novermber 24th, Mr Rudd returned home to Australia today. In his wake lies the death of Workchoices, Australia's signing of Kyoto, increased rights for gay women, a stronger anti-stance on Iraq (and most importantly more in-line with our country's feeling about it!!), reduction in Japanese whale hunting, and this is all just the beginning.

Welcome home, Kevin. Your country awaits.

I can't help it

Everytime I see the words "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd" I beam with pride. I can't begin to describe how happy I am that the bastardous Coalition is off the throne.