BIG NOISE review

[John Dunning <jdunning2@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

i drove a little bit to catch this event, and i was rewarded with a great 
night of experimental media, music and visuals.

the space was converted small theatre, complete with flying cherubs hanged 
from the ceiling.  a raised stage for the performers, and many screens for 
the projected visual shows, at least three-four going on at any one time. 
when i got there, about 10:30ish there was already a fairly large crowd, and 
the first act aliele had just gone on.  his was a noisy/ambient (at moments) 
guitar set.  he had about 20 assorted foot pedals, and made good use of 
them.  aliels set reminded me of a less structures glenn branca meets steve 
reich, quite enjoyable, although at some times uncomfortably loud.

next up was a mysterious performance, by a masked dj?  he did a 20 min or so 
set of some of the most kistchy/experimental music i have never heard a dj 
perform.  kudos to the wham record slowed down and sung over by the masked 
man.

beating eric was next, and i must say i was very impressed by his ingenious 
use of 5 turntables, old solid state radios, and assorted effects.  he 
basically did a dj set using wieghts on the turntables to create 
locked-grooves and improvised to this for about 45 min.  this reminded my of 
some of the better moments of dj scratch crews, but WAY abstract.  very 
nice, and this was a perfect transition into the nights headliner.

i have heard alot about twine, and i can say: believe the hype.  twine did 
an hour long laptop set of pure bliss, glitchy beats collapsing into warm 
swarms of static.  long atmospheric drones, and sudden digital, seemingly 
random torn/frayed edits kept all on the edge of their seats.  it was all at 
once ambient and noisey, microsound and IDM.  this performance brought to 
mind dok era oval w/AE touches and alot of the new glitch stuff coming out 
of central europe, hard to believe twine is from ohio, very well done.  one 
of the best performances i have seen in awhile, and definately on par with
the twine 12" on hefty.  i picked up some other twine material at the show, 
and will review these soon.

so all in all a great night out, i think the madlab will be hosting another 
BIG NOISE event next month.  so if you didn't make it out this time, 
definately try for the march show.

JD2

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