björk/matmos dvd mini-review

[graham miller <grahammiller@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

i just watched the bj=F6rk dvd 'live from the royal opera house' last
night which i had ordered from europe. unfortunately it's not available
in north america, but hmv will import it as a ntsc regionless dvd.
anyway, there is an amazing little documentary on the end of it with
focuses almost entirely on matmos, laptop techno, the role of mp3s in
music distribution, glitch, microsound, you name it... great stuff.
matmos themselves are really quite brilliant, although the geek factor
is in high effect:) definitely worth checking out. the concert itself is
still exactly as i remembered it from toronto: weighted down by a ton of
unnecessary musicians which did little or nothing to enhance the
arrangements... the orchestra could still be stripped down to an octet
and the choir from greenland was a definite distraction, particularly
when they're onstage doing very little other than jostling about in
disarray. that said, the throat singer we got in toronto was really
great. bj=F6rk seems overly concerned with all the pieces, more like an
art director on stage, stressed out about pulling something off, rather
than the focused musician she should have been.  the vocals are
spectacular, as usual, particularly on an echo, a stain, (a matmos
tour-de-force) but considering her superhuman capabilities, i've heard
her sing better.  plus i was never crazy about the whole lighting
aesthetic...  i get the idea, but i'm sucker for trippy computer
controlled lighting and fog machines... it's all very flat and with hard
bright white lights... very monochromatic and stark.  that whole "i'm
high in a 7/11 at 3am" has never been conducive to a musical experience,
i think:) the dvd is 5.1 which i haven't got a chance to listen to yet,
but i do have the vespertine dvd-audio disc in 5.1 which i've checked
out properly and it's fucking brilliant. matmos microbeats ping-ponging
and panning diagonally across the room... very psychedelic and
remarkably tastefully done - never as a gimmick. anyway, it's worth it
for the documentary alone... i love listening to hear talk about the
artistic process... everything that comes out of her mouth is
beautiful:)

graham.

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