At the end of December I managed to catch Reverb just before it finished. It was an exhibition that featured many pieces, by different artists, all on the subject of music culture. I went on a Friday afternoon, so it was quiet and I got to take my time through it. One of the pieces, a film, really stuck with me. It was just over an hour long but I sat and watched the whole film, which I never do.
Everybody In The Place - An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 is a recording of lecture that the artist, Jeremy Deller, gave to an A Level politics class. It covers the introduction of house music to the UK, how that music became more electronic, and eventually, how Acid House came to dominate Britain.
Deller shows that Acid House was part of a pivotal moment in British history. Happening just after the Miner’s Strike, it was part of a shift in how people, and especially young people, socialised. The film has many standout moments, but the section on Castlemorton and how people outside of the movement reacted was one of my favourite bits.
Dance Music started as a counter cultural movement, emerging from gay clubs ran by Black men in Chicago. It’s now one of the dominant forms of culture worldwide. Everybody In The Place is amazing piece of art, not only because it covers part of that rise, but also how it explains what it means to be part of a culture like that.
Honourable mentions
- 🎮 Indiana Jones and The Great Circle was delightful from start to finish. It’s got some issues with cameras and pathfinding, but that’s common with AAA games these days. There’s also lots of to enjoy, like whacking Nazis in the nads with guitars, Troy Baker’s voice, intricately detailed locations all around the globe, and most surprisingly, it’s a first person game where you barely fire a gun.
- 🎧 What Did You Do Yesterday? has been a nice new bit of background chatter between comedians.
- 📺 The Rehearsal was fantastically weird, and my first experience of Nathan Fielder. We’ll definitely be watching Nathan For You very soon.
- 📺 Fantasmas is another weird watch this week. The dialogue, sets, and plots, are so bizarre and I love it. It’s been a weird week of TV I guess?
- 🎬 I thought The Fall Guy was better than lots of the original reviews said. A lovely silly action comedy with impressive stunts. The behind the scenes shots of the stunts during the credits was a nice touch.