i have to say, that i had my doubts, but after last night i have to agree
with the camp that says that Cex is brilliant.
the show was part of the :transmit: series in cleveland OH, unfortunately
only about 30-40 ppl made it out, and it was very muggy inside SIT, the
venue...but the brave ppl who ventured out late on a sunday night were most
def rewarded with an awesome line-up and sets.
starting off the night was la-plage aka frank masura...la-plag's set started
off with the pretty obligatory glitch+breaks hyper rythmn, not to say that
this is a bad thing for sure...when done well, it sounds great, and it was
done well by frank. his set lasted about 30-40 mins and as it went on, it
became much more randon and elastic in nature, i was very impressed with the
feel and execution of the entire set, especially the last half, expect good
things from this guy.
next was stars as eyes, i did not know what to expect from these guys as i
have heard little, but these two gentlemen equally impressed me...very
melancholy like fizzarum, but tighter on the rythmn side...their use of
melody and beats and bass ranks right up there with BOC etc...
next up was cex aka ryan kidwell, like i said i knew i was expecting
something, what exactly i was not sure...ryan started right off by starting
his i-book sequence and invading the crowds space, most of the ppl reacted
bybpulling back at first, but once things got going all were lured into
cex's set. i have to say that his performance is much more powerful than
his recordings as most good music is...his set was one part IDM, one part
hip-hop, one part rock, one part performance art, executed brilliantly.
the highlight of his set was the freestyle jam, at the end...he asked the
crowd for some subject matter, and began to weave and incredibly funny and
dense topographical story around the pretty obnoxious and incongruent themes
that the audience gave him to work with. cex gets an "a" for taking command
of the stage, and getting the audience involvved activly vs passively. also
he is a very nice guy.
the IDM rulebook is getting pretty thick and it was great to see some-one
disregard it. hopefully ppl will be able to make some room for cex and like
acts in the future, as i see this "style" of IDM being the most
"embraceable" by a larger audience in the near future. it's not for
everyone thats for sure, but i think there is room for everyone's distinct
take on the music that we all love.
also kudos to DJ T Knight for spinning some pretty dope beats, i have not
heard dr octogon or cypress hill in years!!
and phase 4 and wes rock the visuals as usual.
anyhow just my two cents
GM
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