Pure Rave is a Detroit-based abstract turntablism collective bringing elements of chaos, experimentation, musique concrète, and a DIY approach to the dancefloor.
For this season's theme of Minted Chaos, Refraction and Pure Rave are partnering on an audio experiment inviting the extended Refraction community to create their own Chance Dance audio piece in Pure Rave style. Selected tracks will then be published on Nina.
Following Pure Rave’s updated manifesto, laying out the techniques, rules, and limitations used to create Chance Dance audio pieces from a variety of setups and considering all experience levels (from full DJ rigs, to DAW, and smartphones), participants will have until September 30th 2022 to create and submit their own Chance Dance audio piece.
Selected tracks will be published and available for purchase on Refraction’s Nina Hub early October.
Nina Protocol is built on the Solana blockchain so you will need a Solana wallet and will be asked to provide your wallet address (string of numbers and letters displayed by your wallet name) in order for us to distribute funds back to you.
Learn how to create a Solana wallet with Phantom here, or reach out to an admin on the Discord channel for help.
Audio Specs
You will be asked to list the gear you used and tell us about how you applied Chance Dance techniques to your production so remember to take notes during the process.
All tracks produced following Pure Rave’s Chance Dance techniques will be considered. Please do not submit any previously released material.
From Nina: a release on Nina is a limited edition digital work. Think of it like a digital CD. Fans can purchase and listen to your work. Once a fan owns a release, it is a permanent digital artifact that will remain even if Nina Protocol stops operating. Because releases are on a blockchain, any time a fan sells your release you can earn whatever percent you set on the resale transactions.
To simplify the process, Refraction will take care of publishing the tracks onto Nina and distributing funds to selected artists. Once one of your tracks is published on Nina, you will be able to access your account by connecting your Solana wallet at https://www.ninaprotocol.com/.
At the end of this experiment, Nina will send a credit to your wallet to be able to create your own Nina Hub (Hubs are otherwise invite-only) allowing you to access to future publishing on the platform.
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About Pure Rave: Pure Rave is a collective based in Detroit, Michigan and an ongoing experiment in "chance dance". Using various prepared turntables, "damaged" records, the occasional drum machine, rudimentary CDDJ loops, and 133.33 bpm loops. The effect is an indeterminate arrangement of patterns and rhythmic sonic collage. Real-time experimentation with the goal of hitting your pleasure center for whatever your brain thinks is interesting.
Set amidst the context of contemporary Detroit electronic music, the group has no trouble finding endless bins of trashed Midwestern dance records and no problem hosing them off in the front yard of their apartment building. Cheap or free turntables of questionable condition are also bountiful in this town.
Expanding on techniques developed by experimentalists Christian Marclay, Pierre Schaeffer, Otomo Yoshihide, Maria Chavez, Qbert, Graham Dunning, Institut Fuer Feinmotorik, and anyone who's ever enjoyed what happens when their record starts skipping, Core members Nick George, Bryan Dulaney, Will Lawson and Cy Tulip approach the Pure Rave project as a set of rules and limitations for an inaccessible academic experimental music scene and vapid modern DJ culture. In Fluxus-like fashion, the result is often humorous.
Updated manifesto (Sept 2022)
Links: Instagram Nina Hub Bandcamp
About Nina: Nina is a new infrastructure to buy, sell and stream music online. Nina is designed to solve inequity and opportunism in the music industry by providing a new model that doesn't siphon revenue from artists and helps everyone play a role in amplifying music.
More info in this FAQ.
Links: Website Twitter Instagram Discord
About Refraction: Refraction is a diverse community who produce festivals and ongoing events, release NFT projects, and create written, visual, and audio content around art, culture, and music today. This year’s festival will happen across the globe, with the performances, installations and music sets being recorded to culminate in an extended festival in the Open Metaverse.
Artists Connie Bakshi and Ellie Pritts reflect on how AI influences their work and perspectives on storytelling, identity, and the evolving role of the artist following their curation in Livepeer x Refraction's Limitless AI exhibit in Bangkok.
