hrvatski & haco

[david turgeon <david.t@xxxxxxxx>]

the other night was kind of busy.  at the casa del popolo there was a trio 
of haco, martin tétreault & diane labrosse.  of course i didn't want to 
miss that so i stayed for the whole gig.  it was pretty diverse, starting 
with a duo of martin & diane (turntable & sampler, what else) which was 
what you would expect from these expert operators.  haco started by doing 
this really strange song with unmelodic sinewaves (her singing however was 
extremely melodic) to follow with a hoahio (her ex(?) band with sachiko m) 
song she performed on electric guitar (there was a drum sound every so 
often too, coming from somewhere).  following this disconcerting debut, the 
remainder of the show usually involved all three performers.  haco did some 
really wild things with the objects she used: she used a small pot (in some 
way unfathomable to me) to create feedback, with varying degrees as she 
would bring the lid to the pot.  it was humorous & poetic.  the second set 
was much more ambient, not much vocals there, mostly minimalist 
ambience.  i might have liked the first half better but that was great too.

across the street at the sala rossa, there was hrvatski playing.  i missed 
mitchell akiyama & greg davis (a friend told me they were both very good) 
but i arrived just in time for mr. whitman.  he started his set by asking 
what kind of stuff people wanted to hear, most people responding they 
wanted breaks, so i said "academic!" just to cut through the consensus & 
elicit cheap laughter.  at any rate, the set was both breaks & intense 
electroacoustic maneuvres which would not feel out of place in erm, a 
university for instance (well, he's from cambridge, maybe that rubbed off 
on him.)  needless to say it was amazing, every second of it.  now, all i 
had heard from hrvatski was _oiseaux 96-98_ which if you recall is quite in 
the drum n bass area of things.  his set, although only sometimes sounding 
like drum n bass, had all the qualities of this album: it can turn on a 
dime at anytime; the sound is pristine.  in fact, it showed a stark upwards 
evolution in keith's work.  utter complexity & extreme skill is how i would 
put it.

& shall i add that neither show had very much audience in it.  wherefore 
art thou, montréal music afficionados?  (y'all better come to the no type 
launch at the casa in 2 hours!@)  oh well, so just to say.  2 great, 
satisfying shows for anyone who likes their electronic sound with a certain 
amount of bite.

have a nice day
~ david