The Beat’s Gregory Paul Silber has been accused of getting a little bit of an… obsessive persona. In Silber Linings, he takes a humorous take a look at the weirdest, funniest, and most obscure bits of comics and popular culture that he can’t get out of his head.
Well right here’s an eyebrow-raising headline for mega-fans of The Matrix franchise like myself: Danny Boyle, the British filmmaker whose numerous resume contains the influential indie Trainspotting, the horror touchstone 28 Days Later, and the Academy Award-winning drama Slumdog Millionaire, will direct a dance efficiency adaptation of Lily and Lana Wachowski‘s unique 1999 motion/sci-fi blockbuster, The Matrix.
We are so gassed to announce our BB bosses @KenrickH2o & @mikeyjdotnet are collaborating with director Danny Boyle, designer Es Devlin and author @SabrinaMahfouz to co-create
Free Your Mind
The @factoryintl official opening show in autumn 2023 🤩 pic.twitter.com/WMJ6yVFLz8
— Boy Blue (@BoyBlueEnt) September 29, 2022
Per Variety, the show can be titled “Free Your Mind,” and the “large-scale immersive performance” is ready to debut in London in October 2023. The logline reads: “Combining the hip-hop choreography of hundreds of dancers with the latest immersive design, ‘Free Your Mind’ will take audiences on a thrilling journey through The Matrix and into a new realm of possibilities.”
This is bizarre for a number of causes. First of all, I don’t find out about you, however the man who directed that film the place everybody on Earth forgets about The Beatles besides one man isn’t precisely the primary identify that involves thoughts once I assume “hip-hop choreography.” Even past that, the thought of The Matrix — a futuristic-yet-thoroughly-1999 retelling of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave that includes evil robots and highly-stylized kung-fu motion — retold by means of the facility of interpretive dance is objectively hilarious.
But hey, choreography is hardly my experience. Music is a wealthy a part of The Matrix franchise’s historical past, and if accomplished proper, a dance efficiency which earnestly seeks to honor that legacy might really be one thing particular.
So Danny Boyle, when you’re studying this – which I’m positive you might be – listed here are a number of strategies for a danceable, hip-hop-adjacent playlist for your dancers to make The Wachowskis proud.
A few notes on my picks earlier than we get began. While “Free Your Mind” guarantees hip-hop choreography, and numerous rap songs made the reduce for this playlist, I didn’t restrict it to strictly hip-hop. Not solely does that make it simpler to search out a greater variety of songs which can be on-theme with The Matrix, however a part of the magic of hip-hop has at all times been that it borrows from and recontextualizes music from totally different genres, together with funk, disco, and rock – all of that are represented right here. Besides, whereas I don’t know a lot about choreography and am an actively horrible dancer, I do know that hip-hop dance kinds will be utilized to non-hip-hop music.
And maybe most significantly, I attempted to make sure all these songs match the distinctive vibe established by the scores and soundtracks of earlier Matrix movies. The Wachowskis appear to have a large musical palette, however a dance efficiency based mostly on The Matrix nonetheless must have their distinctive je nais se quois: futuristic, tense, and eminently cool.
Alright, that’s sufficient preamble. Put in your dancing sneakers, take your pink capsules, and let’s get began.
Filter and The Crystal Method — Can’t You Trip Like I Do (1997)
This collaboration between industrial rock band Filter and digital act The Crystal Method originates from the 1997 Spawn movie. It’s a horrible film, however the soundtrack is shockingly listenable (and danceable) because of its then-novel gimmick of pairing laborious rock artists like Metallica and Korn with digital dance artists like The Prodigy and Moby. Many of these songs match proper into The Matrix‘s aesthetic, with this specific one getting used within the trailer (however not the movie itself).
En Vogue — “Free Your Mind” (1992)
If “Free Your Mind,” the dance adaptation of The Matrix, doesn’t embrace “Free Your Mind,” the funky anti-prejudice anthem coloured by laborious rock guitars, what’s Danny Boyle even doing? While the tune’s lyrics are extra involved with calling out “shallow” racists and sexists than The Matrix‘s themes of existentialism and late-capitalist angst, “free your mind / and the rest will follow” is as good a summation of the film’s message as any.
Funkadelic — “Free Your Mind… and Your Ass will Follow” (1970)
“The rest,” because it had been, contains your ass. “Open up your funky mind and you can fly,” sings funk bandleader George Clinton within the title monitor from his funk rock challenge’s second album. Despite a key scene in a dance membership, we don’t see a lot onscreen ass-shaking from Neo (Keanu Reeves), however what’s most necessary is that his thoughts is funky, and by the tip of the movie, we lastly do see him fly.
Juvenile that includes Soulja Slim — “Slow Motion” (2004)
“Ugh, I like it like that / She working that back, I don’t know how to act / Slow motion for me, slow motion for me” – Neo watching Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) combat a bunch of Agents, most likely.
Okay, positive, I’ll admit that I simply wished a tune that might recall The Matrix’s signature “bullet time” combat sequences, and this was the one one I might consider that prominently options “slow motion” within the lyrics.
Rob Zombie — “Dragula” (1998)
Speaking of songs that don’t actually have something to do with The Matrix lyrically, no, there aren’t any scenes during which Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) DIGs by means of the ditches or BURNS by means of the witches and SLAMS behind my DRAG-U-LAAAA! But the nu-metal basic performs through the membership scene when Neo meets Trinity in particular person for the primary time, so if it’s adequate for Lily and Lana Wachowski, it’s adequate for me. Besides, have you ever heard “Dragula” currently? It fucking rocks. And sure, you possibly can dance to it.
SOPHIE — “Immaterial” (2017)
Unbeknownst to most audiences on the time of launch, the so-called “Wachowski Brothers” had been actually sisters, though it will be a few years earlier than they’d publicly announce their respective transitions. And since trans followers and critics have since embraced The Matrix‘s trans subtext, I wanted to be sure I included at least one transgender musician here. Lyrically, this banger by experimental pop singer/producer Sophie (who tragically died last year at just 34 years old) speaks beautifully to one of the franchise’s key themes: the facility of selecting who you wish to be. “I could be anything I want…” Sophie sings. “Anyhow, any place, anywhere, anyone… Any form, any shape, anyway, anything, anything I want.”
Black Sheep — “The Choice is Yours” (1991)
“You can get with this,” (the pink tablet, which frees you from The Matrix) “or you can get with that” (the blue tablet, which lets you think about dwelling in blissful ignorance inside the Matrix).
Nine Inch Nails — “The Hand that Feeds” (2005)
This hard-rocking but danceable hit by industrial rock icons Nine Inch Nails completely captures The Matrix‘s exploration of the dilemma between choosing to fight for freedom rather than living a life of blissful ignorance serving one’s masters. “Just how deep do you believe?” Trent Reznor asks. “Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Can you get up off your knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you wanna change it?”
Daft Punk — Superheroes (2001)
“Something’s in the air” is actually the one lyric to this monitor off the French home luminaries’ seminal second album, Discovery, but it surely has that all-important Matrix vibe, and the title is a nod to the superhero comedian influences that the Wachowskis affectionately borrow from.
Lauryn Hill that includes Carlos Santana — “To Zion” (1998)
In The Matrix universe, Zion is the final remaining metropolis in “the real world,” unconquered by the malevolent forces that run The Matrix. In this neo-soul tune by rapper/singer Lauryn Hill, that includes the equally soulful latin guitar of Carlos Santana, Hill incorporates Zion’s biblical origins metaphorically as she displays upon her being pregnant. Disparate ideas, positive, however they each use Zion to symbolize the will to combat for a greater world, whether or not that’s for the sake of your baby or all of humanity.
Robyn — “Indestructible” (2010)
What would a Matrix dance show be and not using a reference to Neo dodging bullets? And this synth-pop tune by influential Swedish dance musician Robyn completely captures the facility Neo and Trinity derive from their romance with one another. “Your love is ultra magnetic and it’s taking over / This is hardcore / And I’m indestructible.”
Run the Jewels that includes Zack de la Rocha — “A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters” (2016)
This haunting 2-part epic that closes out the third album by the acclaimed hip-hop duo of Killer Mike and El-P (with a visitor verse by Rage Against the Machine rapper Zack de la Rocha) speaks to their fears in regards to the rise of fascism and the necessity for rise up. Sadly, within the a long time since The Matrix’s launch, it’s develop into all too clear that the specter of a fascist takeover an idea is hardly simply science fiction. “Maybe that’s why me and Mike get along,” El-P raps. “Hey, not from the same part of town, but we both hear the same sound coming / And it sounds like war / And it breaks our hearts.”
Rage Against the Machine — Wake Up (1992)
And lastly, we’re ending the efficiency with the identical tune Lily and Lana ended The Matrix with, a livid cry for consciousness and revolution from the fiercely political rap-metal pioneers. “Networks at work, keeping people calm / You know they went after King / When he spoke out on Vietnam / He turned the power to the have-nots / And then came the shot.” For all their dazzling sci-fi motion spectacle, the Wachowskis made positive to remind us how a lot was at stake in the actual “real world.”
What songs did Greg neglect? Disagree with any of his decisions? Yell at him within the feedback!
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