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review: Bjork/Mu-ziq at Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC
Bjork's performance was really good, but presented some problems. On
Homogenic, despite the abrasive, astounding production, she remains the
emotional center of the album. Her voice is great, expressive in the way=
only
Bjork is, and she somehow manages to beat Mark Bell into a supporting role.=
=20
That balance changed live. Sometimes live shows are made great by=
interplay
among the band =97 that wasn't the case here, as was pretty understandable,
since it's hard to get a string octet and Bell to jam coherently within the
limits of Bjork's existing songs. Instead, Bjork pretty much stuck to the
album versions of her songs. That would have been great, except her voice
just didn't match up to the one that comes out of my home speakers. Maybe=
she
was too low in the mix, or maybe she just isn't powerful enough to hit the
high notes and belt to drive an emotional point home (probably a bit of=
both).
Instead, she was overpowered by Bell's beats, which were astounding, even
better than on Homogenic. Without Bjork playing any forceable role in her=
own
songs, the show lost part of its point.
On the way back home, I commented to someone on the train who was at the=
show
that "her vocals were mixed too low", and he replied that it's always this=
way
when she performs live. Maybe Bjork was trying to remix her songs live, and
change their context. That would have worked if she had turned off the=
lights
and let people dance. however, she insisted on a(n astounding) light show
that kept the whole room bright. It was if as if she wanted both to hide
herself behind the beats, but remain a rock star =97 a pretty fundamental
contradiction if you ask me.
Anyway, the show was fine, but it didn't completely do it for me.
Bachlorette was a highlight, as was Violently Happy. For her encore, she=
did
Joga, in which she finally got rid of all beats, and just sang. For once,=
her
voice hit all the emotional peaks it needed to (although that might have=
been
due to some electronic effects she used for a bigger sound on that song).
Whatever she used to augment her voice, I'm glad she did, becuase it was the
first time all night that the show made sense to me.
Mu-Ziq was alright, not as good as he was in the Kim's instore. Most of his
songs were standard fungle breakbeats, funny basslines, etc. which just got
boring quickly. Same went for his techstep ripoff. Just like at kim's, his
Mr. Angry remix was a highlight =97abrasive as hell, and it kept on changing=
so
it didn't get boring. he concluded with another great track, something that
started off almost hardcorish, mostly a few loud and annoying sounds tht he
proceeded to recombine into a total meltdown. pissed quite a few people=
off,
and that's a compliment. As soon as he went off, Ventolin came on over the=
PA
:-)
Sam