Itchy York article

New Year, nu rave, new attitude

Jim Warboy talks nu-rave and old ideas

All You Can Eat promoter Jim Warboy recently told us chatted to us about the fast developing ‘nu rave’ scene his club helped create last year - and suggested the genre is mutating faster than ever.

“Nobody seems to really know what nu rave is but, ultimately, it seems to represent a change in attitude,” Jim suggested, “It is no longer about being cool and isolated - the mood is much more about hedonism and a wider range of people having fun together.”

Nu rave icons Klaxons told the BBC this week ‘…it's now a global media phenomenon. You read something in a foreign language and you don't understand a single word of it, and then the two words pop up next to each other’, prompting a weary response from Jim.

“The desperate attempt to define and sell nu rave is a media phenomenon, but one that is taking advantage of a current cultural shift. On the London scene this is very loose and certainly not that easy to package and sell,” he said.

“Is nu rave an umbrella term trying to describe a rich and diverse scene or is it, as certain parts of the press are trying to push, a narrower definition of some current rock-based music?” he continued.

“The places I go out in London that are regarded as 'nu rave' certainly do include those rock elements within the music played but they are much more diverse than just that.”

Citing musical influences as diverse as rock, pop, electro house, baile funk, and Balkan beats, the former Kashpoint promoter said he’s unconcerned at the prospects of media backlashes, beyond intimidating more cautious types.

“The immediate impact of the marketing hype has been a lot of people shying away or fearing an association with nu rave but I think that the enthusiasm the press and a lot of the public now have towards nu rave is indicative of their desire for change. It's a new generation defining this decade and pushing forward into the new century,” he suggested.

“Whether it's called nu rave or not is irrelevant, the change is already in motion. People worry that calling it nu rave is killing something but what is it killing? People who are making things happen are not simply nu rave, they are creative. Putting a label on them won't stop them being creative,” he added.

http://www.myspace.com/allyoucaneatlondon (All You Can Eat)

http://www.myspace.com/badgelondon

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