Well, after finding out that the show got moved out of the Phoenix area
and into the Flagstaff area, I debated about still going since now we had
a nice 4 hour drive ahead of us. However, since we already had purchased
our tix for $20 a pop we made our decision -- take it like a man and
drive! (Apparently, the decision was made to move the location of the
event because police have gone in a frenzy of shutting down events in
Phoenix lately.)
We arrived at nearly 1AM at the secluded forest location. Since, there
were no markers on the winding dirt roads we ended up taking a wrong
turn. After about 5 minutes we could see a string of headlights coming
down the road towards us. Oh shit, the show got busted already, we
thought. No, just a bunch of people realizing they were going the wrong
way also. We made a U turn and followed their lead. After a couple
minutes we could see the lights and lasers cutting through the dark
forest. We had arrived.
Being from Tucson, we're used to the warmth. However, we were forwarned
to bring heavy jackets because the show was outside at 6000+
ft. elevation. I'm glad we listened because at around 3AM it got damn
chilly!
Anyway, immediately we heard minimal electro bass as we approached. The
DJs were keeping with the theme of the night, except for one who decided
to play trance tracks that didn't seem to go anywhere. After about 20
min. Soul Oddity took the stage.
The two members of Soul Oddity hunkered down behind their equipment and
electro blips and noodlings began to pour from the speakers. I'm assuming
they were using sequencers and/or DATs because I couldn't see any
keyboards and there wasn't much equipment up there with them. However,
they made up for the more preset nature by reworking album tracks and
creating elaborate patterns and textures that even Autechre would take
notice of. In fact, my friend and I could only think of Autechre fused
with electro to describe them. Some elements of Atom Heart's Mono
Trademark sound could be found also since both artists are pushing the
electro sound to new limits. Basically, though, they were in a league of
their own. People would dance and bob their heads for awhile and then
Soul Oddity would take the music to another experimental level and loose
some crowd motion. Then people caught on and got back in motion. This
went on through their entire set. They obviously spent a lot of time
adding to and remixing their _Tone Capsule_ album. After hearing their
restructuring abilities I am on a quest to find their 3 12"s released on
Astralwerks prior to their album. Props, by the way, go to Peter Wohelski
of Astralwerks for adding Soul Oddity to their roster. Hopefully, he made
it to the show.
After Soul Oddity confused and entertained everyone, next came Uberzone.
For those unfamiliar with Uberzone, he is best known for his EP called
"The Botz". After you hear that EP you can't get the filter sweeps and
acid lines out of your head. Keeping this in mind, Uberzone started with
a long intro of filter sweeps and slowly dropped in the beat and 303. His
style of electro is much simpler than Soul Oddity's, but the simplicity is
overshadowed by the higher energy. Uberzone spiced up his set by having
live drums done via electronic drum pads. This added quite a bit to his
sound even though the build-up snare drum rolls ala' Hardfloor were used
on too many times. However, the crash cymbals and toms worked well in the
mix. My favorite track was one I'm guessing was called "The Brain" as
there was a sample of a guy discussing the brain in a documentary
style voice. This song went into a noisier beat direction, not at all
unlike Meat Bat Manifesto's style. Most people seemed more into Uberzone
than Soul Oddity and this mentality was summed up well when my friend
asked someone what they thought of the show and they said, "Soul Oddity
was cool, but you can dance to Uberzone".
After Uberzone finished there were a couple lengthy DJ sets. The first
was the trance set that I mentioned earlier. Some tracks had some nice
elements to them, but they were all way to repetive and played too long.
After this DJ Emile came on and got to drop some nice electro bass. I've
seen him DJ only once before back when Prototype 909 played Phoenix. This
time I was truly impressed, however. Each track seamlessly moved into the
next. Most of the music I didn't recognize, but my friend and I did
notice some Drax, Fuse and Plastikman. These tracks really stuck out,
though, because most of the music Emile played was minimal electro. I'm
still convinced he had a sampler with the mixer because at times it
sounded like there were three layers of music yet there were only two
turntables. Anyway, he put on a great show. His set was extended quite a
bit due to the fact that Aux 88 had a keyboard that crapped out on them
while setting up, so they spent way too long trying to get it working
before replacing it with a different one.
Aux 88 didn't finally get started until the wee hours of the morning.
Having not heard anything by them except for their "Electro Techno" track
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. They took the stage and apologized
for taking so long, which I thought was nice since most electronic artists
are so quiet on stage today they would probably just start playing
without saying a single word to the crowd. Once they got started I knew
they were going to be different than the previous two artists. Aux 88 had
two dancers on stage that performed coreographed moves during the whole
set. Plus they had their own DJ, DJ Digital, who supplied beats and crazy
scratching that blew me away. DJ Digital was flipping through records so
fast it made me sick. He just kept all the ones he needed without
sleeves in a stack next to the turntables and sorted through them like a
machine. (On a side note, has anyone heard his 12" called "Prototype"?
I'm thinking about getting it now after his brilliant show.) To each side
of the DJ were the other two members of Aux 88 who manned the sets of
keyboards. They actually played quite a few synth lines, which was
refreshing to see. The sound was definitely old school electro and took
me back to the years of Cybotron and Egyptian Lover. One member would
sing/talk out brief sci-fi lyrics somewhat like Kraftwerk while the other
spoke through a vocoder. Their sound was even more sparse sounding than
Uberzone with their synth washes over electro style beats. Later in the
set they let DJ Digital go solo and take everyone for a ride. All I know,
is that he's been DJing a while to pull off that shit. Then Aux 88 worked
the crowd by getting one half to chant "Electro" and then have the other
half chant "Techno". This took me back to the days when I'd see Doug E.
Fresh, Eric B. & Rakim, etc. work the crowds like that. Today's
electronic artists could learn a thing or two about stage presence from
Aux 88 that's for sure. Granted, the crowd chanting can be a bit
cheesey, but at least there's some interaction with the crowd. After
their set they tossed out free CDs, cassettes, posters, and T-shirts. At
least they made us forget about the extra hour we waited while they
tinkered with their broken keyboard. Also they made mention of the fact
that their new album is due November 11th. Aux 88 fans take note. Before
they left they said that back in Detroit they heard the Phoenix scene was
nothing but now they know differently. I must say I agree since the sun
was coming up as a good 1000 people were still moving to the sounds of Aux
88 in an out of the way forest over 100 miles from Phoenix.
________________E_r_i_c___F_r_a_n_s________________
[mail]--------------------->franse@engr.arizona.edu
[web]->
http://www.azstarnet.com/~slyons/exoticblend