Blog archive June 2025
29.06.25 / 01 / in pursuit of repetitive beats
Yet another instance of my life being treated as history. Nobody under 50 was there.
In pursuit of repetitive beats - a virtual reality adventure at the Barbican.
It's 1989 and finding the party is the only thing that matters.
Join in this culture revolution and travel back in time to the heart of the Acid House scene with the UK's biggest VR experience.
Using technology to create a truly collective experience, groups of four people can share the same virtual space and interact together as rave culture pioneers.
The rave scene has always been about organic, energised communities creating shared experiences in physical and spiritual spaces. With the world premiere of its newest version, In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats honours that spirit and unifies us all in a new and transformative way.
Strangely, they have an Access pack which describes everything, so I knew what was going to happen.
You need to see the making-of movies:
So…
The Tron-style parts took up too much time and contributed little. The exception was the radio-tuning part which was stunningly pretty, but we didn’t get enough time to really listen to the different 1989 stations. This lack of time was an issue elsewhere - you just get really into a scene and you’re being moved on - less of the Tron-filler please so we can spend longer in the content-rich parts! Of course, because I was there I’m more interested in the truthfulness of the detail, whereas some things that maybe seem exotic to a 20 year old are banal to me.
When you get to the rave scene, the crowd are grey silhouettes, not fully rendered people which would require a lot of computing power. And you don’t spend much time there, or hear a selection of tracks - which was the point of going there after all! The track is ‘Energy Flash’ which is from 1990 not 89! Our virtual hands are given virtual glow-sticks to wave around - this is a terrible cliche that didn’t really happen until 90s trance superclubs.
And then there is a weird section involving ‘glowing euphoria’ then floating through an empty wood and over a town. The documentary narrative gets lost here. Why not do a proper chillout and watching the sunrise section?
It was sanitised. No mention of the problematic aspects - drugs, drug dealers, money, untruthful promoters, criminal trespass, heavy-handed policing. Some of these things could be add-on modules or happen to random punters:
- police beatings and arrest (one for the haptic vest)
- buying drugs
- being sick from bad drugs
- being hit on by loved-up punters
- arriving to find it has been called off
In the car for the journey home sequence, the simulated guy in the back seat next to me looked ill - I don’t think it was intentional but the sheen on his face and the way he licked his lips didn’t look good. It would have made an amusing shock ending if he threw up. Virtual vomit of course so no-one would get splattered.
It’s funny how the experience of the music gets neglected. It becomes a background to the visuals. But the scene was built around exciting, euphoric, innovative music, and we need to hear and feel that excitement to understand the motivations. It wasn't the music of Kylie Minogue or Guns'n'Roses that drew people out to warehouses and fields. They went to hear a particular kind of music put together a particular way, that could not at that time be easily heard in any other way - unless you were part of the clubland in-crowds of London and Manchester. It democratised a marvellous experience that had only been available to a few.
I wonder how much the people who made this were into the music, even if they were there. Instead, it feels like there's a 21st century emphasis, on having a social experience with your friends because it's the must-do thing to do, and the actual content of the experience is secondary. Note the wording of the introductory paragraphs above which talk about community and experience but don't mention music.
So hmmm. Amusing but 1989 was not like this. I went home and listened to actual 1989 music from a cassette that was simulated in the VR.
