Other people have already commented upon this but...
Radioboy (Matthew Herbert's new incarnation) performed an excellent set in
the Engine Room. And in this case I do mean performed, as anyone who has
seen him live will know. The sound of kettles boiling, a typewriter, a
lightbulb, a spray paint can etc.
The Surgeon/Mick Harris thing was really good, I thought - interesting to
see Surgeon collaborating outside his normal field and to very good
effect.
The Deacons (Jim O'Rourke and some Tortoise people) seemed rather
disappointing but inadvertently provided a classic moment. In one of the
quieter improvised moments you could hear the opening few bars of
Powerpill being spun by Squarepusher in the Engine room - comedy moment of
the whole day. Of course I rushed downstairs to hear the full tune. Pity
he didn't play that Trumpton/Chigley/Camberwick Green thing while I was
there.
Mike and Marcus (Boards) were excellent DJs, this being mainly manifest in
their deft mixing of John Denver and The Byrds over today's tunes (or
possibly last week's).
Autechre as good as usual although one of my companions maintained that
their recent Blech performance was the finest rendering of the current
set. Strictly Kev also up to familiar standards.
Good to see so many people at such an event in Sheffield.
I also went to the Farmer's Manual/Pita Lovebytes launch party thing on
the preceding Thursday. Strange venue for a strange event. Most of the
people there were either networking Art types or bewildered filmgoers. Ae
span for a while, including an abstract noise section and a stretch of new
Squarepusher and their own Lexis remix. This got a few blokes excited to
the extent that they remonstrated with Farmer's Manual to bring that beat
back. In vain, of course. Interesting.
Looking forward to Plaid tonight...
The Squarepusher track on the Chaos AD single is really rather good, isn't
it.
adam