DiY
Emerging in 1989, DiY were amongst the first party rigs to marry the driving impetus of the new music called ‘house’ with the anarchic quest for freedom of the traveller movement. As Matthew Collin explained in ‘Altered State’, his definitive history of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, DiY “were disappointed when they touched the ideological void at the heart of the new technologically enhanced leisure pursuit.” Twenty years later, the truly remarkable revolution which DiY launched against this void continues.

From Castlemorton to the Café del Mar, DiY extended their punk ethos into a veritable empire of record label, recording studio, production, club nights, outdoor parties sound system and serious international underground acclaim. Although becoming deeply involved in a new movement combining protest with pleasure, DiY themselves remained enigmatic, always avoiding simple categorisation and demanding that the collective ethos that underlay their philosophy was not sacrificed to the temptation of momentary fame.

Central to this was DiY’s design ethic. Whether applied to flyers, record sleeves, logos or book contributions, the publicity reflected the organisation’s anonymity. When the famous ‘dancing man’ logo (cryptically spelling the letters of DiY appeared on a flyer or poster from Glasgow to Jersey, San Francisco to Sydney, those who understood knew that DiY were heading to town.

Despite releasing over 80 twelves and albums on their own DiY Discs label, being present at many of the seminal cultural moments of the last two decades and travelling and living all over the planet, perhaps the most satisfaction was gained by DiY when ‘In the City 97’ described them as ‘culturally, the most dangerous people in the UK.” The graphics were the work of DJ Digs, who along with Woosh, Simon DK and Jack and many others, provided the deep and sensuous soundtrack to the exploits of this legendary outfit and their mission to bring the music of the clubs to the fields and the freedom of the fields to the clubs.

Written by Digs