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// United Vibrations
© Dwiko Arie
Galaxies Not Ghettos
On Saturday 6 August a local protest following the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham was the trigger for an intense wave of urban rioting across London and other major UK cities. Looting broke out on an unprecedented scale and continued for 5 days. Commercial and residential buildings were literally burned to the ground, five people died and over 2,700 were arrested.
It felt like there was a revolution kicking off, but this wasn’t articulated as an uprising for human rights, it was one focussed on the most covetable material goods on the high street. The universal targets for attack were the mobile phone outlets and shops selling trainers (JD sports was hardest hit...the ultimate confirmation of brand superiority?) and flat screen TVs. “We’re getting our taxes back”, was one rioter’s comment. Despite a media attempt to characterize all the looters as fitting one profile (essentially young, black and criminal), the riots have lit up a deeper debate about social exclusion, urban policing and economic breakdown. There’s rage and there’s a burning need for change. Water canons alone won’t put out this fire.
On Tuesday night, at the height of the riots, one 4 piece band from south London spontaneously decided to go out and play on the streets of Brixton and mark a positive presence in what had begun to resemble a ghost town (how Jerry Dammers’ words echoed that night). Reclaiming the streets from an as yet unofficial curfew the crowd that gathered were treated to an inspiring improvised set, a collective catharsis that went on into the early hours. The band was United Vibrations and Mondomix went to meet them to get their thoughts on what is happening this summer in London and beyond.
Based at the Deptford youth music charity Midi Music Company, United Vibrations is three brothers, Yussef, Kareem and Ahmad Dayes, and Wayne Francis. Their sound is a fired-up mix they call 12tone. And their utopian vision ('galaxies not ghettos, equilibrium not domination, deeds not empty words’) comes fully tuned to grounded action.
A jam session in words with Yussef (18), Kareem (23) and Ahmad (29) on 11 August 2011:
What are your thoughts about why the riots are happening?
Kareem – With the Tottenham thing and the shooting – there was a spark, there’s obviously a real issue there. But what’s happened in the last few days...by the end it was one big free-for-all. The police stood off and things snowballed. I think 90% of it was opportunists who didn’t have a political vibe. And it wasn’t just kids, we’re talking about hardened criminals, coming down with vans and doing over shops...i think the political side of it got lost.
Yussef - I think there’s been a lot of unrest. It’s hard to grow up in London. There are no jobs, people are broke and they’ve cut a lot of the youth services for the summer holidays - they’re bored, they’re frustrated and it just built up...
Ahmad – How come, en masse, so many people from our own community can get up and tear the city to shreds? I think that overall it’s that people are tired. And they’ve been tired for a long time. That’s how one little spark can set something like this off - mass discontent. I think there are political reasons for this – people are unhappy with the status quo. It’s not wealthy people out on the streets – it’s, let’s say, the “have-nots” who are out on the streets. We’ve been brought up in a society where we drill the values of capitalism into people, it’s all about possessions, about ownership - it’s about money, status from your possessions and that’s what they’ve gone for.
A lot of community youth services have had to shut. We (MMC) are lucky to be still open, there’s been a lot of pressure here just to keep the building open, to keep it running. Other places have straight had to close, places that have been unable to deal with that change, whatever it was that they were providing is now gone.
In this country people get up and march a lot when they have an issue with something. But ever since the war in Afghanistan it’s obvious the government doesn’t care or listen. Two million people hit the streets for Afghanistan, they still went to war, they didn’t even blink. They don’t care when people come together and do a peaceful march – they’re not listening. And then something this destructive comes along and brings the country to a standstill....
Kareem – I think the people have been completely outdone on strategy with this...right now no-one is talking about Murdoch or the shooting or the cuts. Everyone is talking about the fact that they are rioting and saying we need more police...
Yussef – I don’t think these riots have been a totally negative thing. There’s some positive energy from this looting...it just showed how fragile everything is...you can stop the whole thing. But I think it’s sad that a lot of what happened was in peoples own area. They’ve ruined their own area...if they’d gone to Westminster or Downing Street...
It felt like a revolution but without a direction?
Kareem – Exactly. They actually showed how powerful they are but they are missing that cohesive element of “why are we doing this?” And that’s what made me the saddest. These kids really are organised, and in fact not apathetic. We’re always accused of being so apathetic... I actually am one of those people who wants to see total transformation in everything, from inside out, bottom to top. I see in the kids’ energy that they want to see change too. It’s been destructive and I don’t think violence can bring about positive change. But how can anyone look down on these kids and moralise - when this country is profiting from war and the arms trade? Where is the moral high ground?
Ahmad - Institutional racism goes deep. In Britain we love to think that we’re civilised, that we’ve gone past this but that’s bollocks and a lot of the youth know that - in the way they’ve been treated at school and looked down on outside school – the whole stop and search thing. Black kids get it the most – they are most angry with laws like that because those laws are most aimed at them.
Kareem – But how has this helped? The message got lost and potentially this has made things worse – now there’s this vivid, negative image which the media has jumped on. All the people are not sympathising with the kids, they want to send them off to boot camp.
Yussef – It’s not “them” – I’m with them – I wasn’t looting or rioting but I feel suppressed too.
Ahmad – Yeah it’s not us and them. These are our kids - we are one as a people – you can choose to separate us which has given us half the problems we’ve got – or you can look at this as a joint problem and we have to take responsibility for it. We’re collectively responsible for the next generation – you get out what you put in.
Kate Tempest – Cannibal Kids
What made you go and play in the street in Brixton on Tuesday?
Kareem - I was so angry about it - everyone was being told to go home, lock up. You are seriously going to tell me kids can bring a 21st century modern city like London to a standstill? The hysteria added to the situation - the streets emptied, people shut up, they went indoors. I saw in Dalston, the Turkish community, and the Sikhs in Southall, they came out, stood up and said it’s not happening here. But everywhere else, everyone was basically glued to Twitter, Facebook and the BBC – panicking - they locked up and stayed indoors. That just makes it easier for a mob to get together and go and do what they want because there’s no one there to stop them. So I thought, I’m not going to submit to this. Because people were cancelling gigs, so many nights got cancelled because it’s “too dangerous”. I just thought you know what, I’m going to go out in the middle of Brixton and play music. Don’t tell me it’s too dangerous. I knew for a fact we’d get a good crowd of people who wanted to have a good time and dance. And that’s what happened.
Yussef – This generation is being messed over, from what’s going on at the top. I’m 18, there were loads of people my age stealing shoes, for me personally I don’t think that’s the right way. A pair of Nikes is not saying anything, you should be doing something to make a real point. I was online watching how things started getting racist in the media - we just said “no let’s go out and play, let’s show them who we really are”.
Kareem - People detached from the London community were looking in at these monstrous, vivid images of how ‘wild and depraved’ we are. We just wanted to show what is really going on in London.
Yussef - It was a vibe thing, it was spiritual, all kinds of people were right there in this circle – we felt this is powerful, it wasn’t busking, we weren’t doing it for money. It was about playing. It was deep. In the background people were getting arrested, things were crazy.
Ahmad – We just kept playing, keeping our focus. One guy just started shouting, it triggered something – he went into a monologue – I saw him open up, loosen up, saying this is about peace and love and unity! This was a guy who was probably susceptible to the fear before that. Some of the people who had been scared about coming out opened up by coming together.
Yussef – What we all did on that day brought a lot of people together. In a way I think the riots have brought people together – people went out to clean the streets together – and apparently a lot of the gangs were out there together..
Ahmad – Yeah it’s interesting - we know London is very much about postcodes - gangs have their areas and it’s very difficult for them to move between them. Monday all that was dropped - years of violence against each other dropped. It’s hard to say where things will go from here. But I don’t think curfew and water canons are the answer.
Yussef – Playing in Brixton was my way of expressing my anger with what has been going on for the youth. I was playing drums and everything just came out of me.
United Vibrations – No Space No Time
So you think music can help a community?
Kareem - Even more fundamental than that – it’s the simple mechanics of humanity, vibrations, people coming together, essentially music is something that literally, physically joins people together.
Ahmad – Sometimes music for me is like a meditation – as I’m working through a piece, I’m working through things in my life and unscrabbling my head. Unfortunately a whole generation of kids unscrabble their heads by playing Playstation...
12tone is your own independent platform...do you feel part of a movement?
Kareem - The initial idea for setting up 12tone three years ago was to establish a new genre. The gripe I had with the music industry is that it’s all filtered and defined by genre, with very strong racial undertones. Urban, rock, pop, indie – it’s marketed to two different demographics - exploiting the difference. Our music never fitted neatly into those streams, I don’t want to call it jazz, hip hop, rock – it’s influenced by all of them but it’s about creating a new genre.
Yussef – People are calling our Brixton jam a “jazz riot”!
Kareem – We share a connection with other people out there making music, some of them were there on Tuesday. We’re all grassroots, people like Ruby and the Vines, Sound Species, Shabaka Hutchings, The Resonators, Kate Tempest, Sound of Rum. And obviously Fela and Sun Ra are massive influences...there’s something higher in that music, it has substance and people will always go back to it. It’s about your truth, your craft and your talent. It’s our life and Brixton was the best example of that.
Ahmad – We need to join forces – we don’t need to live in an atmosphere of fear. This is our city, these are our kids, they’re our police too – everyone has a claim to this. You can choose how to interpret this – you can take it as an opportunity to be fearful and take draconian measures. But if you have actually got something to say about the status quo and society, now is the time to stand up and say it.
United Vibrations – Galaxies Not Ghettos is out now on 12tone
www.myspace.com/unitedvibrations
Thanks to Wozzy Brewster, Midi Music Company and United Vibrations.
Jody Gillett
// ALSO
- People & Things
- Tabou Combo
- Day by Day
- Ivory Coast: artists speak out
- Aged 16 – 25? Fed up with the injustices around you? Shake!
- Joe Bataan & James Pants live at Cargo 11 June plus dates in Leeds and Birmingham
- Mariachi El Bronx, Mariachi El Bronx
- Rio de Janeiro, Rio - The art of transformation
- Oliver Mtukudzi, Oliver Mtukudzi - African Soul Rebel
// ALL UNITED VIBRATIONS'S INTERVIEWS
Galaxies Not Ghettos
19/08/2011
// LINKS
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