Header photo: Press/Red Rack’em; T2 Trainspotting
Last week, Groove launched Off The Tracks – a new format that provides an open-minded platform for artists writing about music, film, literature, art, as well as more personal insights on their experiences on the road, dance music related topics, and sharing their all-time influences. Off The Tracks is intended to change roles, offering a weekly contribution narrated by various artists in- and outside the electronic music scene per invitation of Groove editor Sebastian Weiß.
After Sunil Sharpe who wrote about his first time DJing at Tbilisi’s Bassiani club, up next is the Scottish DJ and producer Red Rack’em who watched T2 Trainspotting for us.
The original Trainspotting film was a huge success in 1996 due to its colourful depiction of junkie squalor and degradation in early 90s Edinburgh. Danny Boyle and co. managed to bring Irvine Welshe’s literary depiction of Scottish street hustle to the big screen in an authentic and unquestionably honest manner. Iggy soundtracked heroin chic, rave euphoria and a good old-fashioned “lets get high and fuck tomorrow” caper mixed with a uniquely Scottish aesthetic. Intelligent yet brutally fucked up at the same time.
The greatest thing about Trainspotting was the amazing characterisations. Renton the junkie punk survivor, Sickboy his best friend/backstabbing bitch who he would eventually stitch up at the end, Begby the quintessential psychotic Scottish “heidcase” complete with the leather tassled loafers (popular with alcoholics I have observed as no laces) and Spud, the nice but dim fuckwit who’s the butt of many jokes – the softest character, but still a hopeless junkie.
As someone who grew up in a Scottish fishing village in the 80s and lived in Edinburgh in the mid 90s in the same area as the film is set, I have to say the characters in the film are real. I had to fight people like Begby as a teenager and align myself with people like Mark and Spud in certain “retail” situations.
