Just a few thoughts on the recent Funkstorung show at The Spot,
Baltimore, July 22, 1999....
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I certainly enjoyed their material, and the fact that it was very LIVE
(Jega [at The Edge, Wash. D.C., last May?] was cool, and it was fun to
watch him do a bit of a jig to his own stuff, but it was still mostly
pre-recorded). Funkstorung did great, complex rhythms with a very
low-tech sequencer (Alesis MMT-8), which is impressive. Maybe the
stuttering, "speed-up-and-slow-down" rolls were done with the arpeggiator
in the Nord Lead? That kind of effect is the single most baffling thing
for me as far as current trends in 'techno' go. The 'bouncing ball'
effect and the like. Are they just done with algorithms in computer
software or new, 'dance-oriented' boxes like the MC-303? Or is it more
complicated than that? I still haven't figured it out....
BTW, any idea what the word "funkstorung" actually means, if anything? I
haven't got a German dictionary handy, so I can't check to see if it's
even a regular word. Could be just some made-up word like 'autechre'....
At any rate, it was great to see this kind of underground IDM act
'touring' the U.S. Sure, Orbital will likely do an extensive tour in the
near future, but that kind show is completely different to seeing a small
act with fewer than ten pieces of gear on a table-top, working out with a
small audience to some cutting edge, first-rate IDM. My hat's off to
Sonic Soul for, in my view at least, bringing the spirit of 'Artificial
Intelligence' to the greater D.C./Baltimore area. (They even had fliers
designed by local grafix-miesters Airline Industries "in accordance with
the Funkstorung Design Standards Manual set forth by the Designers
Republic....")
Neil Hetrick
nhetrick@idsonline.com
p.s. -- for those interested, Funkstorung's setup included:
Mackie CR1604 mixer
Alesis MMT-8 sequencer
Yamaha RY-30 drum machine
Access Virus synth
Nord Lead synth
Nord MicroModular synth
Alesis Wedge fx box