• Theater of the Mind: The Legacy of the Electrifying Mojo | Red Bull Music Academy Daily
    http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/05/electrifying-mojo-feature

    But Mojo’s most famous segment was saved for last – the Midnight Funk Association. (It was the only segment that continued in every manifestation of Mojo’s show.) Called MFA for short, the Midnight Funk Association came complete with a special member’s card for devoted fans. “In the metro Detroit area, there are thousands… and more about to join now,” Mojo would croon at the beginning of the segment. “Will the members of the Midnight Funk Association please rise?”

    Mojo would then ask listeners to turn on their porch lights and honk their car horns in an act of solidarity. “We would literally go on the porch and turn the light on,” recalls radio personality Lisa “Lisa Lisa” Orlando. “We would be in the car and would flash our lights and honk the horn... He made you think that this was really happening.”

    One of Mojo’s most famous lines could be heard during the Midnight Funk Association. “Hold on tight, don’t let go,” he’d say. “Whenever you feel like you’re nearing the end of your rope, don’t slide off. Tie a knot. Keep hanging, keep remembering, that there ain’t nobody bad like you.” After calling the Midnight Funk Association to order and declaring, “May the funk be with you, always,” Mojo would drop the needle on funk and New Wave jams like Parliament’s “Flashlight“ or Gary Numan’s “Cars.” “He was playing New Wave before we even knew what it was,” says Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale.

    #detroit #techno #Electrifying_Mojo #musique

    • tiens donc :

      In the mid-’90s, following the crack cocaine epidemic, Mojo released a limited edition poetry and prose book The Mental Machine. It was a deep dive into political and societal issues affecting both black culture and the world, with poems about teen shootings, prostitution, single mothers, the AIDS epidemic, and drugs – a continuation of messages often heard throughout his shows. He precedes each poem with statistics and a cry for change. “If our society continues to turn out violent children, the whole juvenile court system is antediluvian and should be realistically revamped for the protection of society from itself,” he writes before “$80.00 Mother,” a poem about an expectant mother shot to death by a teenager.

      The Mental Machine was Mojo minus the music. It was Charles Johnson unsheltered from his almost mythical radio guise – a passionate individual rallying against political corruption and violence, a voice for peaceful and positive revolution. Mojo believed in his mission: When he was fired for talking too much (rather than playing music) on one of his stations, he allegedly shut down the transmitter and chained the studio doors shut, resulting in undisrupted dead air – probably the worst stunt one can pull in radio. While his whereabouts today remain a mystery, rumor has it that Mojo later worked as a program director for a handful of Detroit radio stations. Perhaps it’s better not to know, though. Some things are better left to the theater of the mind.

  • Heretik - We had a dream - YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNILLCS1yOA

    En Angleterre au début des années 90, le Criminal Justice Bill de Margaret Thatcher interdit les rassemblements autour des musiques électroniques, les "rave party". Les aficionados les plus engagés, quittent le pays pour continuer à vivre leur passion. Parmi eux, la mythique "Spiral Tribe" commence à sillonner l’Europe. A partir de son modèle, des groupes se forment en France, République Tchèque, Italie (autres pays) et créent un nouveau moyen d’expression. La "Free Party", une fête libre, illégale, alternative, qui réunit un public marginal et libertaire.

    En France, les fêtes libres sont inconnues du grand public. Quelques centaines, voire un ou deux milliers de participants profitent de ces zones d’autonomie temporaires (cf. Hakim Bey, TAZ / Zone Autonome Temporaire) importées par les travellers anglais. Dans le même temps, l’Etat français, suivant le modèle anglais, réprime les soirées techno légales, et pousse les "raveurs" à la clandestinité. Beaucoup d’entre eux viennent gonfler les rangs du tout nouveau mouvement des "Free Parties". Quelques années après l’arrivée des anglais, un collectif français fait ses premières armes. Les "Heretik" se définissent comme "ne souscrivant pas à la doctrine établie".

    « Pendant quelques années, on a multiplié les free. Musique, drogue, accidents, prison, activisme et succès rapide. A la fin des années 90, à la place du credo "pour vivre heureux vivons cachés", on décide de développer une stratégie de coup d’éclat pour revendiquer le droit à la fête libre. Des "attentats sonores", des fêtes illégales qui réunissent des milliers de personnes jusqu’au cœur de la capitale. »

    Le film retrace sans tabous plus de 10 ans d’activisme de cette tribu moderne, qui mène des premières fêtes clandestines jusqu’aux temples de la société du spectacle. Les Heretik auront gravi jusqu’aux marches de l’Olympia, la mythique salle parisienne. Plongez dans l’intimité tourmentée d’un groupe phare de la contre-culture.