Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 20:28:39 -0500
From: Dr Jamie Brassett <jamie-AT-brassett.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: BWO + dance


I enjoyed reading Steve Goodman's stuff on BWOs & breakbeats.  As a Drum &
Bass dj & D+G reader I always wondered if there was a link....

Also, I've much enjoyed all the recent stuff from the list on "Contact
Improv."  I've never come across this before, but the nearest in my own
experience is the performance/game/fight of Brazilian *Capoeira*.  I've
been learning this martial art/dance for six months now & have always been
astounded as to how 'orchid + wasp'-like the two "players" of *capoeira*
become whilst "playing"...but maybe that says more of my reading of the
*jogo*.  Is it time to expand upon D+G's elucidation of "assemblages" here?


[At the recent D+G conference at Warwick, Michael Eardley gave an
*astounding* paper which mapped a reading of D+G's "assemblages" onto the
cognitive science/ethological accounts of primates.  If the proposed
publication of papers from this conference comes off, then it would be
worth buying for this paper (& El Albert's) alone.]

Which brings me back to Drum & Bass...some of my *Capoeira* academy's
performances take place (Sat. nights) in a London club called 'The
Complex'.  The room we perform in is the one usually given over to Drum &
Bass...the Brazilian/Angolan rhythms we chant & play are not a million
miles away fom this music.  As I don't have any *Capoeira* music, I train
at home to D'nB...it helps.  And if I had the vinyl, I'd drop *Capoeira*
tunes into my own sets.

What bizarre desiring-machine, mutant-assemblage is being built around me?
over me? through me? sweeping me along as it smooths space between south
London, Angola, Brazil, the Histories of Slavery, European Imperialism &
20th C. popular music, Acid House & Drug Culture in Britain since the
60s...

Any more deleuzoguattarian jungle capoeiristas out there? maybe we could
form a support group....

Jamie