review: µ-ziq live
I got into Mondo Kims at 3:50 and Mike P. was in the middle of performing Brace Yourself Jason. The start time was supposedly 4p so I'm not sure how much I missed. The layout consisted of a table covered with 2 mixers, an AkaiMPC3000, THE Yamaha keyboard, a SY-ll, a SCSI hard drive, and some other goodies.
Mike ripped shit up! He played tracks from Lunatic Harness, some older stuff, and some new stuff I've never heard before (sounded like recent stuff). Standing in front of a sea of wires, he plugged in cables mid-song, and proved how excellent of a knob twiddler he is. The synth lines and breaks were pre-recorded but he mixed them together in new spontaneous ways through his incessant knob-twiddling. This was where the performance lied....making a bunch of scattered equipment create a manic symphony in real-time. During one track (either approaching menace or windwinter log), Mike broke out into an extended breakbeat jam, which really got the crowd, um, head-nodding. It was sort of like the craziest moment of 'approaching menace' extended to a few minutes. Things never got repetitive or stagnant because of the continual mixing. The entire show was fucking brilliant, with things like ambient synth sections soothing for a bit and then getting blown away with killer breaks...
He also played a track that sounded like a remix of "Mr. Angry". The repetitive scream was chopped up and even more piercing. The beats were also redone in a more broken fashion. This track sort of morphed into a drill-like phase which eventually reached pure ear-piercing noise, the end of which dropped off to a final squeal.
Overall, it was an excellent show for an excellent price. After the show I went upstairs to check the electronic racks, and a minute later Mr. Paradinas was flipping through the rack right next to me. He's really not that different from any of us, I guess. I didnt really have anything to ask him at the time, but I did learn that he was a vegetarian and that he wears Dread jeans.
Before the show I went to Etherea to exchange my mispressed copy of Lunatic Harness. The cashier told me it might be worth something some day, but i'd rather have Brace Yourself Jason, Hasty Boom Alert, and Mushroom Compost than the commercial house track that was on the first side of my LP. I also went next door to Strange? to pick up the new Photek, Modus Operandi, on Astralwerks. I'll review it after I have a chance to listen to it all...so far it seems sorta boring.
If you are in the NYC area and want to hear some great techstep, tune to Steal This Radio 88.7 on Sunday nights at midnight for the "Renegade Breakbeat Show". Great stuff like Ed Rush and Nico and stuff from local and UK DJs. I'd consider techstep to be IDM because the intelligence lies in creating something so hard-hitting, so rough...
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cdr206@is7.nyu.edu