- Confusion is One - Gamma Ray Dali
Since the energy of the acid house and techno scenes was dissipated in the late 1990s, with the rise of the super-club and dance music becoming another mainstream commodity, there have been few nights willing to push the boundaries. Both the glamour of house music and the ferocity of techno have been reduced to the same bland soundtrack that the musical revolution of the "second summer of love" was supposed to replace.
Confusion is Sex is a rare gem in Edinburgh's nightlife. Housed in the unpromisingly named Bongo Club, it is the fantasy of Gamma Ray Dali, caught squarely between art project and an uncompromising dedication to heavy beats. Now approaching its first anniversary, with a special event featuring pole-dancers, live bands, burlesque performance and two floors of dancing, Confusion has connected Scotland's performance art revival with cutting edge electronica.
Making Dance Music Special Again
Although Confusion's first anniversary has been tagged as an extravaganza, it is only upping the ante on its usual format. Live bands have always been part of the show, and the cream of Scotland's burlesque has moved from its home in cabaret to add drama. During the past year, Gamma Ray has gradually introduced and trained her hostesses, The Freaky Brides, whom she calls "women married to rock'n'roll", until they have become a vital ingredient of the evening, both performing on stage and bridging the gap between event and audience.
Immersive Theatre Meets The Night Club
The Brides capture the spirit of Confusion: frightening yet sexy, part of the crowd yet clearly performers. Confusion has attracted a crowd that is not afraid to dress up: not in fashionable, designer label gear but in whatever fantastic outfit or make-up excites them. One regular wears a horse's head; another is dressed in Islamic hajib. There is a hint of Berlin decadence, and a more contemporary German techno atmosphere, next to the iconoclastic designs of The Lynch Mob, who take their cue from David Lynch's surrealism and decorate the walls with provocative art.
Gamma Ray has been careful to shape the club beyond the music: it can be difficult to tell where the performance ends and the audience begins. At the same time, her choice of DJs is more than a couple of name disk-spinners: she works with Dolby Anol, a sparky duo who use lap-tops over decks to create a live fusion of beats and samples and has booked Platzblanche from Berlin. This trio attack the idea that electronic music is cerebral and dry, assaulting bass, guitars and microphones and finding common ground between hard rock and furious beats.
For a final edge, new performance art act The Muffs have been added to the bill. Calling themselves "a farcical dance duo", they choreography around Le Tigre's music to recall the satirical surrealism of Dada cabaret.
Transgressive Rock'n'Roll
The key to Confusion's success is in recognising that popular music has always been about provocation, about sex, about breaking the veneer of mundane life. It is also a place that is female friendly, despite the pole-dancing Kamikaze Girls and the aggressive rhythms. It is disorientating: home-made videos flicker on the walls, the bands smash up polite genres of music into unique fusions, but the atmosphere is safe and inclusive. It recalls the vision of the early acid house clubs in its dynamism and imagination and balances danger with inclusion. Beyond this, it offers a vision of how clubbing could be: beautiful, sexy, intelligent and gripping.
Gareth Vile - Theatre Editor of The Skinny, I travel across the central belt in search of performances that challenge my understanding and keep me warm ...
