[eraser] friday, april 11th
with special performances by...
nobukazu takemura w/ john herndon of tortoise, lux
from isotope 217 and vocals, keyboards and textures by
aki tsuyuko (thrill jockey - japan)
If you're a bit benumbed by the gargantuan heaps of
electronic/laptop/mix & scratch that's reached our
ears in such carloads of late, you could do a lot
worse than to tune out the entire bunch and focus on
the work of Nobukazu Takemura. The Kyoto-based
composer has refined and redefined an approach to the
IDM/electronic way of life with such sui generis and
standard-setting works as Scope, Sign and the recent
10th (all on Thrill Jockey), which deal in both
intricate minimalist samples and pure-electronic
generation - tone poems - alongside peppy rhythmic
nods to his hip-hop roots (among a thousand other
things). "Hip-hop is something that changes its
meaning with the times, like all things that are built
around a language," he says. "The kind of hip-hop I
loved was the '80s hip-hop, when everyone was trying
to figure things out by trial and error. That was when
people were making something new out of all the
records they could put their hands on; it was a way of
thinking that was very similar to pop art." You can
hear that way of thinking in Takemura's beautiful
version on the Reich Remixed album (Nonesuch); Steve
Reich's way of thinking, as well as the childlike
"freeform creativity" of Robert Wyatt, had a major
impact on Takemura. "The minimalist composers don't
build anything; they build nothing - they show you the
depth of the material, instead of impressing you with
the structure." Takemura, who recently had the
interesting job of programming 200 audio emotional
responses for Sony's Aibo robot, takes that
from-nothing-to-nothing (non-dramatic) view to purist
extremes on his new Assembler 2 disc, an album of
found sounds electronically splintered, mashed, melted
down and enhanced. For tonight's appearance Takemura
will collaborate with a live band that includes John
Herndon of Tortoise and Lux of Isotope 217, as well as
Takemura's Childisc label partner Aki Tsuyuko on
vocals, keyboards and sundry sounds. (John Payne)
ufo! (laptop/decks set)
Phunckateck, Commercial Suiside, Violence, Phracktal -
San Francisco
Widely regarded as one of the US's pioneering drum and
bass artists and DJs, UFO! continues to edge forward,
staking a position on the outward perimeter of the
music. Inertia and momentum are things he's had little
use for in the past, and 2002 has seen him sharply
accelerate his progression away from the center of
drum and bass. Drawing on iconic pictures like Blade
Runner, UFO!'s oft-stated vision of the future is
unsettling, stark, and convoluted. In his eyes-and his
music-it's a place where the tendrils of data and
digital logic reach deep into the fissures of decaying
concrete and collapsed steel; an imagined place and
time that is the true forge of his brand of
mechanistic funk.
A San Francisco native, UFO!-born Ed Garro-was
musically baptized by hip hop. Quickly aspiring to the
status of battle DJ, he proceeded to learn the skills
and exercise them every chance he had. An intensely
visual person, Ed's love for the visual component of
art had him drawing at an early age, a skill that
morphed into graffiti. Later on, rather than repress
his graphic work, he found the world of music a
perfect place to utilize it. His hand drawn record
labels, sleeves and posters are coveted by collectors.
He's designed limited edition prints for the clothing
label LB-426 in San Francisco and true to the futurist
B-Boy ethos, you might see his improvised riffs
sketched over bills and bus-side ads in New York and
San Francisco.
Between his youthful days in hip hop and the present,
Ed found himself enthralled with the new urban sound
of London: hardcore...jungle...drum and bass. In it he
saw a portal into the future, wider than any before.
He stepped through. Soon after he formed the
Phunckateck collective, and since has released over
two dozen singles on labels such as Thermal, Position
Chrome, Phylum, Vortex, Commercial Suicide, Green and
Phunckateck Communications. He also released his first
album The Future is Listening on Thermal in 2001, one
of the first full-length albums by any US drum and
bass artist.
His forthcoming album Defrag Life..... on Phunckateck
Communications provides far-reaching evidence of how
much he's developed as an artist, including a surprise
track that finds him venturing into the role of
vocalist for the first time. The album traces an arc
that incorporates a myriad of other forms and genres,
each deconstructed and refabricated in the forge of
his imagination. It's an intense, sometimes jarring
excursion through a dystopian landscape; urban but not
urbane. It's also an intensely honest and personal
collection of music. Every note and wash of color
bears the imprint of an artist trying to communicate
something bigger than himself
Recently relocated, Ed's move to the less forgiving
environment of New York was a personal challenge to
himself, mirroring the uncompromising demands he makes
of his music. He's busier than ever, traveling often.
True to form, his DJing-and his idea of it-has
evolved. Seldom appearing without a laptop now, he
incorporates live digital processes into his sets,
seamlessly switching from vinyl to live pieces. Even
if his sets appear unsettling or unpredictable, his
facility for creating larger contexts out of the music
makes it work. To Ed, the computer is a whole
instrument, not merely a sequencer or emulator of
existing sounds. Not content to exploit it as a mere
tool, Ed's music embodies the very notion of the
human-computer interface, tapping into the essence of
the machine which in turn is driven to reflect the
vision of the man.
The consummate urban artist, UFO!'s world is one where
music, painting, graffiti and DJing are not easily
separated. Championing an idiosyncratic form of urban
futurism, his work in all forms is defiantly rooted in
the industrial shadows of San Francisco bridges and
New York high-rises, honed by the warrens of London's
tube and the mechanistic biology of Los Angeles'
concrete arteries and veins, while envisioning places
where the grid of city blocks gives way to the grid of
nanotechnology...a rupture that UFO!'s art rides with
committed abandon, joyriding through the crumbling
detritus of an industrialized society colonized by
data and information...a place where the man is no
longer easily distinct from the machine.
jasper vs dj nobody (decks and effects set)
echo vs pieter k (dj set)
at spaceland 1717 silver lake blvd in silver lake
cost :: $10
age :: 21+
doors :: 9pm
support by :: XLR8R magazine, dublab and spaceland
set times ::
echo vs pieter k 9pm to 10:30pm
ufo! 10.30pm to 11.30pm
nobukazu takemura 11.30pm to 12.30am
jasper vs dj nobody 12.30am to 2am
for more info?
www.erasereraser.com
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