On Wed, 17 Nov 1999, Mark Stevens wrote:
quoted 12 lines I had the good fortune to see Orbital (with Plaid in support) earlier> I had the good fortune to see Orbital (with Plaid in support) earlier
> this year. I've also seen Autechre live. Now, as much as I find
> Autechre's albums, eps and remixes to be incredible, cutting edge
> stuff, their live performance is about as interesting as watching
> paint dry -- and the audience usually consists of a dozen bearded
> students, stroking their chins as they analyse the fractal structures
> between sips of diet coke. On the other hand, whilst Orbital perhaps
> aren't as "progressive" or "experimental", their live shows are
> awesome. Seeing thousands of people jumping around, high on the music
> as it pulsates throughout the venue in tidal sine waves, projected
> images and icons flying everywhere, is a sight to see (and hear).
>
I saw them on that same tour, and have seen them probably half a dozen
times since 1993. To be honest I was very bored by them this year, though
as you say the vast majority of the crowd held a quite different opinion.
If it's ~IDM live performances you want, then I suggest you can't do much
better than Mouse on Mars, whom I saw on Monday night, supported by Vert
and F.X. Randomiz. Usually when you hear "live drummer" you groan at the
lame attempt to spruce up the head-nodding spectacle. Their drummer was
spot-on though and with a fearsome barnet. One of MoM spent most of the
set playing bass or guitar synth (at one stage we were exposed to a "live
bass-fixing performance"). Sounds like a dodgy idea but it was amongst
the best sets from an "electronic" act I've ever seen. The majority
of the songs were from the recent album, but others included Frosch from
Vulvaland, Schlektron from Iaora Tahiti and Twift and X-Flies from
Autoditacker.
They had a refreshing encore policy too.
Orbital look devoid of ideas in comparison. I remember people praising
their light show/video thing, which consisted of crude sloganeering mostly.
Adam
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