No, I disagree - I would have been damned pissed myself if when I
went to go see Aphex Twin I'd instead seen Mike Paradinas walk on
stage, press "play" on a piece of gear, and then walk off while a
bunch of James' music played. I'd have been fuming!
While I agree that the music is somewhat faceless, in the sense
that there's usually less "human" content (i.e. vocals) than other
genres, that doesn't mean that when you go to see a "performance" you
can just see some person standing still. Video perfomances are
different, thought - I saw EBN once, and the performance consisted of
a video of his being projected on a couple of huge screens, while he
stood in front wearing a security guard outfit. After it was over,
you could buy the exact same video! For this sort of artwork, that's
completely acceptable, and damned funny to boot.
I think that Aphex live does a good job of being "faceless" while
still exerting his artistic talents. He was just hiding on a low
platform onstage surrounded by his gear, but that's still present and
performing. He even performed facelessness via his dancing bears,
who actually seemed trained to come out and frolic in the front of
any and all professional cameras. He'd enlisted his mates to block
him from the eye of the camera, and kept his head down while making
his music. But he entirely switched up some of his songs, inserted
sounds from one into another, etc. - all of which made it a much
better performance than if he'd just played his cd on a huge
soundsystem.
Sorry if I'm overreacting to this, but I've already gotten tired of
explaining to people how people with synths or samplers can be
considered "live" musicians, so to hear this hooey coming from a fan
got my boxers in a bunch.
Ryan Randall
np : Skampler
quoted 2 lines I'm in no way blaming Coil/Elph for this, it's possible they never
>
> I'm in no way blaming Coil/Elph for this, it's possible they neverquoted 1 line to play anyway, but the ARS electronica organizers deliberately lied to
> to play anyway, but the ARS electronica organizers deliberately lied toquoted 5 lines public by stating they would play, taking their money, and then duping the
> public by stating they would play, taking their money, and then duping the
> audience into thinking they were by using a stand in..
>
> Sorry if I'm rambling, but am I over reacting to this? Or are we just
> expected to be fobbed off, ripped off and then quietly go home........