Originally, tarantism was specific incidents of mass hysteria in Italy over a period of several hundred years. Supposedly brought on by local spiders, the incidents resulted in people compulsive dancing until they collapsed from exhaustion.
Tarantism is the compulsion to dance: being pulled in by an experience so throughly that it can only be expressed through movement. Anyone who helps facilitate that experience in others is a tarantist, whether through music, visual art, creating immersive environments or being part of a festival; by becoming a conduit for the energies that motivate us to dance, they become the cause & the cure of the compulsion.
Carl Keys, aka Tarantist, seeks to express his love of movement through high energy journeys, challenging audiences to lose themselves on the way. His explorations started with halftime & fulltime drum & bass over a decade ago, coming up in Canada’s West Coast bass music scene. Since then, he’s indulged journeys into dubstep, techno, footwork & breaks, with his fascination ultimately being exploring the nooks and crannies between them all; anything driving, deep or dark whets his appetite & gets him in the groove.
https://stagingwww.pechakucha.com/presentations/raves-matter
As a theatrical sound designer, Carl has worked on a variety of productions over the last decade. He strives to bring the rave into the theatre, and theatre into the rave. In a theatrical context, this means incorporating bass music production techniques to create motifs and patterns that heighten tension & moods in scenes. Carl also focuses on recording found sounds whenever he finds them, working them into pieces in creative ways to add texture & dimension to his designs.
It’s not about blowing minds, it’s about shrinking heads.
https://www.mixcloud.com/tarantist/
http://tarantist.bandcamp.com/releases
Tarantist 