Monday, May 08, 2006

5/7, an amazing show at the Black Cat...

The previous show went well.

The 5/7 show was killer. I'm not saying that just because I was involved in it, I'm saying that because I've seen a fair amount of musical performance in my time, and this was killer.

[edited to add this comment, overheard: "Yeh, that's right, $5 for alla this, muthabitches!" ] :)

Now, it *is* the case that this genre relies on a certain sensory overload. So, where a great jazz performance will shift through moods and evoke distant unfelt feelings, and where a classical performance will establish that the sense of humanity felt centuries ago is still experienced the same way today, where a great rock performance expresses the angst, yearning and exuberance of a moment, electronic is about taking you into a virtual, shimmering, pulsing brainspace that exists not only within humanity but between humanity and machine, and leaving you breathless and numb.

There are definitely two sides, two approaches to the computer-based music methodology that were demonstrated: musician/creator/producer, and DJ/molder/producer. The first starts at a little lower level, building in more or less real time from notes, scales, chords and single beats or smaller groups of beat patterns, with a predefined idea in mind, but no predetermined 'set'. The second uses already completed works, morphing and shaping in real time, but with a more or less predetermined 'set'.

The first group is maybe more about expression, the second more about entertainment, but it is the case that in this genre, regardless of approach, it's about audio/visual overload.

And *that*, dear reader, was delivered in kilotons.

It should be noted that the primary organizer and host of this event was D K from 302acid. If you ever get a chance to see him perform, do it.

Went back to update this a little... on the way back home, around 1am, I'm listening to WPFW in DC. They are playing something aethereal and glowing, it's jazz, but it's like pieces of light floating like a cloud. Bass, cool and fluid, piano just barely brushed, trumpet, so softly played, so so purely sweet. The selection fades out, fade fading-- this is late night jazz radio, no 'dump to commercial' here... and the announcer comes on, hushed tones, letting me know that that was Miles Davis, from 1968. It is perfect.

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