Edward Pond's writing about his first IDM night at the Reach (London) somehow
makes it necessary for me to write about my so-many-eth IDM, but first WARP
night at the Amsterdam Paradiso last night.
12C> expect. When I finally got there after getting lost in
12C> London, I was greeted by the Boards of Canada (I presume).
When we finally got there DJ Chantal was playing a mean dj-set which she
continued to do on and off through the night. Full marks for music, lacking a
bit in presentation :-)
12C> the previous guys. I had an idea of what Panasonic would be
12C> like but they turned out to be everything I could have ever
12C> hoped for.
That's one act I've not yet seen live. MTV Europe do a e-mail request show on
Alternative Nation, so I asked for Panasonic's 'Urania' which they actually
showed the week after ... loved it. Great music, great video.
Our first act was Freeform I guess. I had been very much looking forward to
seeing him play live as I do already have most of his material on vinyl/cd.
I don't know /what/ happened. On the righthand side of the stage there was a
bearded fellar doing what appeared to be a soundcheck. Twiddling a few knobs,
starting a few dats, playing with his mouse ... At times I got the impression
he was playing some music, but neither me, nor the rest of the audience seemed
convinced. After only half an hour, he suddenly left the stage. I still don't
know who got the worst deal ... me for just not being able to get into what he
was playing, or Simon Pyke?
Paid a few visits to the upstairs room where various Warp-dj's were playing
lots of jungly jazzy idmy ... some good sounds coming from there. Full marks
here as well.
A few aeons later, and B12 had taken the stage. They proved to be the surprise
of the evening for me. Having heard Soma a few times without feeling the need
to buy it, their live act certainly kicked. I even danced myself into a sweat
(that's saying something). Anyways, based on what I heard, I might go and give
their latest album a good listening to. If I like that it will ruin my usual
Soma/Coma joke ...
Hell of a long wait for Autechre ... not until about 3:45 am they finally took
the stage ... (the crowd actually *cheered* ...)
12C> Their whole set was pretty hard (like Second
12C> bad Vilbel) and the tracks went on for ages.
Likewise here. I'd never heard any of it before, but that didn't surprise me,
as the previous time I saw them they went overboard on new stuff and heavily
distorted 'known' material; one of the reasons I love Ae I suppose - nothing
mechanical about those two guys. Having played two very long mesmerizing tracks
they stopped (for an interval?) and as it was time to catch the nighttrain home
I left, probably missing a lot more.
I caught a flyer saying that Autechre are coming back at the end of August when
again they will play at the Paradiso, for the 2-day Sonic Acts festival. This
festival (28 and 29/8/96) has a most intrigueing line up: Scanner doing a
workshop [mapping Stockhausen], as well as students of the Royal Conservatory
playing Stockhausen, a reading by David Toop [Ocean of Sound], and various
known and unknown acts like Scanner, Digital Motion, DJ Angelo, The Woodshed,
Emphasis, DJ Hansz, Autechre/:Soviet*France: jungle dj's Dreazz & Nubian ...
12C> The volume was turned way up the whole night and about half
12C> the people there had ear plugs.
Sissies :-) Everything was pretty LOUD here as well, but I like it that way.
I hear and feel more ... wicked bass Freeform has ...
12C> Anyone have any dates for Mike Paradinas?
From what I heard he's having paternity leave until 1997 ...
(a friend of mine, who writes for a Dutch alternative music mag, just had an
hour long telephone interview with mr u-ziq)
I've learned a few things other last night.
For one: NEVER take an idm-hating friend with you.
Secondly: NEVER take an idm-hating friend with you.
Thirdly: I spoke to Mr Warp and asked him about JEGA ...
Apparently he's a young bloke (Duncan?) from Manchester with lots of unreleased
material still in the vaults ... He suggested I'd ask Autechre for further
details,
Fourthly: I'm really much too shy to go and talk to strangers (talking to Steve
already brought up a sweat - although he's a real nice guy), so I never talked
to Autechre. I guess I'll have to wait till August now to hear more about JEGA.
Fifthly: I can't emphasise this strongly enough: NEVER take an idm-hating
friend with you.
greets and such,
Helen -> pining for more JEGA
OnNow: Freeform - elastic speakers
OnNext: JEGA
Reading: Nicholas Evans - The Horse Whisperer