Vibert/Cole/Muziq The Quest Minneapolis 2/6/0
Urk, was a two hour show worth 10 hrs in the car? Maybe I'm strange but
yes -- seeing Muziq live is something I've wanted to do for about eight years.
Vibert and Cole opened up, presenting about a 45 minute set of sampler
& pedal steel madness. I've not heard the CD yet -- based on what I saw
it is potentially an interesting piece of work. But their set seemed
really odd -- more like Cole jamming over the top of Vibert's tracks, without
much in the way of interplay. A couple of tracks really did gel, and show
some of Vibert's programming working around the pedal steel part, which pointed
to possibilities of this collaboration that weren't otherwise realized.
The most successful material was the more down-tempo tracks -- a couple
of 4 to the floor tracks seemed especially odd and not very engaging. Another
oddity was Vibert's use of a Roland TB303, which meshed with his sampler
based tracks even worse than the steel guitar.
After a short break, Muziq climbed behind his gear and started things up.
His set was a mix of tracks from "Royal Astronomy" and "Lunatic Harness"
which he molded and reshaped with the mixer, effects, and apparently some
sort of strange filtering device. I don't know what reaction he's got
elsewhere, but the Minneapolis crowd was well up for it, and it seemed
exceeding strange to hear people whoop and holler for tracks after 3 notes
of the opening bassline. He played a couple of the string based tracks
from Royal Astronomy which were enhanced/mutilated into a combination
of their original sweet neo-classical melodies and roughening effects.
Towards the end of the set he played a new track more in the vein of
his recent D&B efforts, but containing a new, lovely melodic element -- it
really seemed to have a real organic meshing of his melodic and rhythmic
impulse. Then to top things off he delivered a blistering version of
"hard love" from his Kid Spatula/Jega split 12", and two more tracks
in the noise-core-breaks vein. These tracks, to me, were absolutely sublime
even as they were sonically punishing. I can see many fans of his more
melodic material absolutely hating these tracks, but they were to me
his way of taking the whole dark noise genre to the next level.
It was hilarious watching people trying to dance to these tracks -- they
lurched back and forth between 200bpm distorted beats and short interludes
of crazy beatless noise. Heads would start nodding manically only to pause
in puzzlement when the beat fell apart.
I was disappointed with the venue for a couple of reasons -- for one
they set them up in a little vestibule in what amounted to a broad
hallway, upstairs from the main dance floor. For another, there was
apparently no front-of-house sound at all -- Muziq and Vibert were mixing
with monitors, and their mix was going out unmodified to the house speakers.
Anyone who's worked on live electronic music knows that things sound a lot
nicer if there's a sympathetic soundman riding the mix from a vantage
point where he can actually hear the house sound. The whole mix seemd
rather harsh on the high end and muddy in the midrange, and under-compressed
besides -- occasional 'sharp-stick-in-the-ear' outbursts marred the
performances.
As far as stage presence, there really was none. Vibert occasionally
looked up with a smile for the crowd, and demonstrated his ability to
smoke a joint without ever apparently exhaling. Paradinas looked even
more gaunt and pale than his publicity pics, and seemed to actively avoid
any acknowledgement of the audience. He was pretty busy onstage juggling
his mix, but as far as acknowlegement, all the crowd got was a wave and
a half smile as he fled back stage.
I managed to barge backstage and thank him for the show, and especially
for the noise tracks at the end, and he was aware of our local noise
heros from Drop Bass, and seemed mildly pleased to have those tracks
singled out. But on the whole the whole business of performing in public
seemed a bit of a trial.
At any rate it was a top notch night for me, and I'd recommend anyone
who can to check out the remaining dates on the tour:
Feb 9 -- Lola's in Portland OR
Feb 10 - El Rey Los Angeles
Feb 11 - Bimbo's San Francisco
Feb 12 - Nation@I-SPY Seattle
Is it just me or is this the most ass backwards way to tour
the west coast?
kent williams -- kent@avalon.net
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