MEANWHILE IN THE RAVE'O'SPHERE

To say that DnB isn’t a male dominated universe would be a lie. The wheels are turning slowly, that stronghold is being diluted and we are heading into a much better place for women, but it has been a long old journey. The last decade has been a time of reflection for a lot in the culture, one of the positives of the Covid lockdowns in the early two thousands meant that everything stopped and the uncertainty of the scene ever going back to normal forced people to revise the whole culture, take stock and notice gaps in gender and race. The old hierarchy that had been crumbling since the mp3 revolution, took another hit and a new generation who had grown up surrounded by technology took to streaming, podcasting and socials to springboard their career and further the culture. It was a big turn of the wheel, and whilst you could hear the echoes of the moaning from some of the old heads, the whole culture took strides forward and thus cemented drum and bass as a force in dance music for years to come.

The echoes from the old heads always wear rose tinted glasses about the past and there were some great times and great things that no longer form part of the cultures existence. In my old cranium the days of record shops, events without tickets, no socials, no smart phones, all made it great back then. But when you really look back there were some dark moments, pieces of the full puzzle were missing. One of my biggest gripes with the scene when I was younger was the lack of females within the culture. ‘It was a sword fight, a sausage fest’ were some of the enduring reviews of disdain we’d use to describe a male dominated dance floor at a rave. It wasn’t because we were Casanovas or looking to pull, it was because the energy was different in the rave when the population is skewed to one gender. Without female presence the night would be prone to more violence, it was much less peace, love & unity, more cocaine, beer and snarls. As an old skool promoter it was a sign that you’d taken your eye off the ball, the event was dying and if you didn’t adjust during these moments the well would run dry.

I’d been really lucky growing up, I travelled around the United Kingdom going to events and because I didn’t drink or take anything, I took everything in, noticed the details, noticed the people, noticed the energy and how it felt. One of my biggest lessons was how the DJs and MCs conducted the rooms energy, how some artists made the room feel claustrophobic and everything went tight, there was less air in the room and the whole venue would feel oppressive. A different combination of DJ and MC in the same room, with the same people would give more oxygen, make the space around you fell bigger and more airy and it was with these observations that I made my name in promoting. I never was up on the names of tunes or charted the latest releases, I just knew the vibe of the DJ, what energy they could bring to the dance floor. I’d go to other nights and take notes on what DJs would fit where and how they would complement or contrast each other so as to conduct the vibe of the night from start to finish. Make the raver go on a journey and leave thinking they had travelled on the dance floor.

One of the easiest ways to do this was to have females take centre stage in a male dominated arena. On my travels I would notice when Storm, Kemistry, Flight or Alleycat took the decks or when Ayah Marar, Deeizm, Jenna G or Chickaboo took the mic, an unseen wave would cross the dance floor and the vibe would change. I knew I wanted that power up my sleeve when promoting and actively sourced that for my own night. Shouts Jessie Jane, Gemuffle, Lubi J, Boo Goulding, Becs from when I started promoting in Cardiff back in the day. They paved the way for the abundance of local female artists we have today in Wales. It was their energy and vibe changes that made Aperture a dominant force for me in those early days. As I say I was lucky to have noticed these small changes that had unseen, unnoticed big impacts on the raves I’d been too, it was a the ace up my sleeve that I’d use when I could see the night turning to a sword fight or a sausage fest. As a designer I’d also use the visuals and fly posters to attract female attention, in a time of tanks, grenades and guns, I’d use poodles, cats and horses. Just to let the people intuitively know this was a safe space; female, male, gay, straight the dance floor was for all and the better the mix, the more even the ratio, the better the vibe and the more long lasting the night. I eventually left full time promoting to pursue art and design. I honestly think most people leave promoting because the money has dried up, because the night has turned to a sausage party. The secret sauce is in the mixing of genders and seeing the whole picture as energy and how to project what is going on on-stage too what is going on on the dance floor and how that energy goes back and forth. This isn’t a compromise, seeking validation, pink washing, people pleasing, its a truth. Something I learned a long time ago and have tested over decades. If you want your night to have longevity, if you want a better vibe, if you seek more peace and less trouble at the dance, seek a more gender equal stage.

Fuck the Man’O’ Sphere.