Greetings,
Well, here's my experience with the autechre/space time continuum/mark
broom event that happened here in Winnipeg last night.
There were a lot of cock-ups, but in the end, I felt quite satisfied.
Those guys simply kick ass, and its a pity so many people here didn't
feel the need to stay late (i saw people leaving before mark broom even
came on)
so. Here's what happened to me.
By pure luck, I managed to get picked up by some friends (Dave and Skid)
who were carting the sound system to the space. That in itself was an
adventure, mainly because it was _really_ snowing. (and the truck was
probably older than I was too)
We got to the space alright, and things seemed to be rolling well. There
was stil a lot of stuff to be done, and people were running around every
which way, and I was the odd one out, so I offered to help. I was sent to
"keep the boys company, and tell them that everything is alright".
An afternoon with Autechre et. al? Wouldn't pass that up for the world.
So, off I go to meet "the band" :) All I can say is that they are all
some of the most straight-up, real people I have ever had the pleasure to
meet. I won't bore you with niggling tiny details, but there happened to
be a fire alarm in the hotel (a moment of panic) followed by a shopping
spree at the Army Surplus store across the street. (they sure like their
camo-prints) Some talk about "Canada" and how its so different from the
states, and britian, and talk about "scene stuff".... all well and good.
Oh yeah, Autechre also tagged my Gescom EP =)
well, they story isn't over yet.
Jonah was dead tired, so he retired to his hotel room to get some sleep,
while the rest of us headed over to the space.
My heart almost stopped.
The sound hadn't even been set up, none of the musical gear we gathered
for them ws there.
They were in the midst of pulling together another space, a much smaller
place, but with a sound system, and decks. This new venue wasn't exactly
what I had anticipated...
Anyway, the group took it all in stride, being pretty cool with the whole
thing..as long as they get to play _somewhere_ i guess.
My friend Neal and I went off to gather stuff for projections, but that
turned out to be too much of an effort, too much gear for only a few
hours. Not really worth it unfortunately.
We finally get to the space around 9ish, and the sound checks haven't
even begun yet. By now, people are tearing their hair out, and
apologizing profusely to our guests.
I actually got to play some records, which was okay I guess... Had a
great talk with Mark broom about various pieces of vinyl...
(remember that Serotonin record of drum loops? He has it... I think that
it is an essential purchase.. I must have it... it's amazing)
Well.. to cut a long story a bit shorter, Mark Broom didn't come on until
quarter past one.... He played started out in electro-techno style, and
moved into some straight up, great techno....
Space Time Continuum was next, and he played all of 5 minutes when the
mids and highs of the speaker stacks clipped out. urk!..
things got back on track though.... Iloved his music... soaring chords,
driving beats and breaks... yummy!
Mark played another short set, then autechre came on (about 3ish? i lost
track) by then the space had cleared out considerably.
Autechre was crunchy.. and the sound system was straining to its
limits... the sound wasn't that good at all.. a lot of resonance and
distortion from the bins... I fully enjoyed autechre, although some of
their tracks were.. umm... difficult (in a good way :)
After everything was over, I said "bye" to the guys.. and went
home..well.. tried to.. my ride and I very nearly got stuck in the snow
on the way home.
Well, that was _my_ day yesterday...
Michael
ps. I envy all of you in Toronto. Not only are you gonna be blown away by
the folks from sheffield, but there's so much _more_ talent at the
trancendence party too... (legion, hawtin etc etc)
Not to mention a whole truckload more people that are into that music.
--
/----------------------------------\Michael Simla: umsimla0@cc.umanitoba.ca
|Alien Visitation: alien@passport.ca\______________________
|Website:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umsimla0/alien.html \Ting ya fine!
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