I got to the head of the line in at the Knitting Factory just after the
last ticket for Amon Tobin had been sold - decided to check out the Mutiny
(New York Asian Underground) event downstairs which proved to be very fine
indeed.
It started with a brief warmup set by DJ Rekha - heavy on the d & b but all
kinds of cool sampled bits (everything from grand piano to tabla drums)
flying around - she's one of the ringleaders of this scene but hasn't
released anything to my knowledge.
The longest set that I stayed for was from DJ State of Bengal who uses a
lot of Indian elements and long trancey sections - he takes his time
getting to the real dance floor-stirring action but for overall pleasantly
swaying, beer-drinking attentive listening, he fills the bill - he has
stuff on the Singh "Anokha" comp, yes? Is he from the UK - is everyone
that's on that compilation?
I'm sure everyone here has said everything they have to say about that
comp. ages ago, but if someone could resurrect a few sentences pro or
con...
DJ SoB had brought another UK friend whose name I didn't quite catch -
sounded like something that almost comically underscored the fact that he
was the only non-Indian - Mark Blond or something (sorry for the half-info)
- his set included a lot of reggae, not usually my favorite thing but very
skillfully deployed on this occasion.
The atmosphere at the show was at least 50% cigarette smoke - I was
thinking of all you Los Angelenos at the Lexaunculpt etc. gig toking on
those oxygen tubes!
So did anyone see Tobin and how was it? I wasn't entirely sorry to be
missing openers DJ Logic and Melvin Gibbs which I feared would be
overloaded with show-off thumb-popping bass (but wait, I like Squarepusher)
- I'd be happy to be wrong though!
Bob Bannister