Is it ketamine’s turn to drive club culture?

Simon Reynolds – Feeling wonky: is it ketamine’s turn to drive club culture?

“Quite the most intriguing meme I’ve, er, bumped into recently has been the alleged link between ketamine and wonky, an offshoot of dubstep that has got all the dance-bloggerati burbling with excitement in recent months. Now that really awakes my interest because it’s been a long time since there was a drug/music synergy of real consequence in UK post-rave culture, one where a particular chemical actually seemed to be driving the direction of a style of music and shaping the vibe on the dancefloor.”

“Beyond the statistically monitored rise in usage and the anecdotal evidence, it’s also true that certain drugs become “It drugs”: their effects come to define the mood of an era, affecting people who never actually take the substance in question. Amphetamines defined punk and postpunk; there was a talk-talk speediness, a brittle, irritable feel of intellectual unrest to British music culture at that time. LSD, via not just the sounds but the album covers and poster art and clothing styles, affected far more people in the Sixties than ever actually took acid. Ecstasy, likewise, set the tone for much of the Nineties. The fact that K has been a fixture on the clubland drug menu for a good while wouldn’t necessarily prevent it from being suddenly promoted to “It drug” status. MDMA (and its close relative MDA) had been in existence for decades before taking off and becoming the zeitgeist drug. Sometimes chemicals are “waiting” for the social conditions to be ripe and for the exact right sound that synergises with their effects to arrive.”

and our own Zomby post

Posted in de-dans, dezbateri on March 6th, 2009 by de-dans | 23 Comments