mutek just as you're missing it, part 4/4

[david turgeon <david.t@xxxxxxxx>]

so, part 4/4, get it?  4/4, mutek...  yeah yeah yeah, that wasn't always 
the case this year actually, & there was more evidence today in the mutek 
curatorship of a genuine departure towards new pastures.  the show this 
afternoon was absolutely essential.  it was so jam-packed with excellent 
stuff, & at only $8, one missed it at their own risk.  throughout the first 
3 sets there were visuals by sue costabile (the first set made use of an 
alorenz patch if i understood well) which actually managed to add to the music.

stephan mathieu was back for that show, this time under his full swing 
guise.  the drones were at it again, though this time it seemed easier to 
pay attention to the details within, which were quite complex & 
ever-changing.  the video for this was clever: layerings of coloured pixels 
which were conceptually "in sync" with the music, in that you could see 
them almost as an illustration of the drones produced by mathieu.  it 
provided for a good laidback experience.

timeblind had a long & rather complex set which did not let go an inch of 
silence, except for a short bit when his macintosh quite simply crashed & 
it took a few minutes for it to reboot.  this little bit of technical 
frustration aside, the music itself would be hard to describe: it was very 
rhythmic & somewhat groovy.  lots of interesting high pitched samples, 
too.  the visuals there were a little weaker though, but that was only 
until agf entered the stage.

antye greie-fuchs (agf) was a revelation to me, & i think a good part of 
the audience would agree on that.  her way of putting together her songs is 
very abstract & unsettling.  upon complex layers of drone & glitch sounds, 
she adds her voice, sometimes singing straight into the mix, sometimes 
modified, chopped up, frozen or echoed...  whatever this might sound like 
written, this is an absolutely beautiful & poetic show from start to 
finish.  very unexpected for me as i had no idea what it could be like 
before it started, but this woman has such a deep, empathic control over 
her music, it was impossible not to fall under the spell.  in this set, sue 
costabile provided the most amazing visuals, done with very simple means 
(layering of projections) & yet exploding with boundless creativity.

it got better still.  vladislav delay appeared & took over the stage.  for 
a little while he jammed in solo while agf was taking a bit of a rest.  & 
then she got back on the microphone & sung over delay's ever so sultry 
beats.  the result was magic, for the most part.  delay was feeling rather 
crazy, even going so far as to play his own material (_terra_, from _vapaa 
muurari_, & the rather bombastic _huone_ from a chain reaction 12") 
underneath agf's seemingly stream-of-consciousness lyrics.  the audience 
was also treated to a rather PHAT dub tune, an amazing funky track & some 
more abstract textures only delay is capable of mustering.  the pair seemed 
to have an awesome time playing together & the alchemy was just perfect.

so much music it feels exhausting!  so i went to the metropolis show 
afterwards, but we might as well say i missed it.  :)  just ask tobias, 
he'll tell you how it went.  :)  the only peculiar thing i noted was 
farben: wow, he can be meaner than his records show.  i left as luomo 
(delay again) was about to begin.  i was too far off in the back to 
appreciate the sound anyway.

with this, i have now accomplished my mission.  i'm happy to say that this 
year's mutek was great, in stark contrast with last year's decidedly 
unexperimental (& for me, deceiving) line-up.  this year i think all the 
visitors got to have fun & discover plenty of new names.  the more 
experimental shows attracted a large & captive audience.  with this kind of 
attitude from mutek, things bode well for the future.

wheew, ending on such a happy note, one will think i've been paid to write 
that stuff.  the truth, though you may never know it, is much, much more 
sinister.

have a nice day
~ david