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Mutek. [4]. - Desire in the House ..



Mutek [4]. - Desire in the House

 .. there are a few corrections to be made: any gonzo-report, direct from
the frontlines, speculations made amidst the thump of speakers and the
driving bassbins, or the extreme aural frequencies of a Mego showcase--whic=
h
we are getting to, slowly--all of this fucks you up, a little. So here's
some more on women & gender at Mutek: namely, that there was a woman
panelist, none other than Patti Schmidt, with Brave New Waves, the infamous
CBC late-night radio show which has maintained the alternative music scenes
in Canada for eons. Patti's deep voice is probably the most recognised in
underground radio up North .. and unfortunately I missed the panel. Had to
sleep sometime. Had to write this all up sometime, even though a good chunk
of it was actually written during various showcases, have passed-out on som=
e
stage or basking in the cold clouds at some caf=E9 between shows .. Mutek is =
a
marathon, and this year, now that all is said and done-- probably the best
marathon yet, rewarding all with superb endorphins culled from the aural
ectomorphs of the globe's experimental audio regions .. but enough: Mutek
this year also featured the highest number of women performers. These were:

[sic], Diane Labrosse, Myl=E9na Bergeron from Montr=E9al; Tina Frank from
Australia; Magda from Detroit; Marina Rosenfeld from NYC; Tujiko Noriko fro=
m
Japan and Robin Judge from Toronto [although she is, as of Monday, a
Vancouverite .. ]=20

This is important to note, as the discussion of gender in electronic music
raised some response from various people at the festival who read the
coverage, posted to http://www.microsound.org, while the festival was
underway. Specifically questions of tactics; why we must, in the first
place, recognise women as anything different from men in this regard, and
how specializing women's contribution to electronic music could simply act
as a way of excluding women from an equal terrain. It comes down to managin=
g
the politics of "community" and how the creation of a "community," at the
same time, is the creation of the outsider, the other, or even the enemy to
a specific coagulation-i.e., a clique, plain and simple. That women are not
on equal footing in the domain of electronic music, and that moreover, thei=
r
position has been used to exploit women in such positions--the numerous
female trance DJs letting records run out their grooves while handing out
autographed photos & swinging their booty .. mid-90s bad memoirs.. comes to
mind--has only served to make difficult a critical position or any kind of
critical action. Even in writing on Mutek, and offering critique of two
women performers (Magda and the critique I will write on Marina Rosenfeld)
is a difficult task due to these considerations; however, it should not
affect one's critical appreciation or consideration of the art-work at hand=
..
It should, however, inform the context that one employs, even if it is
possibly negative ... For, on the other hand, those I talked to agreed
agreed that addressing the politics of gender on a panel, and not women
exclusively, would benefit the community as a whole. It would be a step or
an act to at least acknowledge the situation. I would say that Mutek's
programming this year in many ways is the best yet, in terms of overall
flow, tension and release, and yes, gender distribution. I think, however,
this needs to be reflected in the developing "professional" side of the
festival -- the panels. So here's an idea for next year, basically;
hopefully Mutek will embrace the dialogue.

While I am at it, I should note that when I quoted Ben Nevile and Colin the
Mole in the first report, it was in a casual matter and should not be taken
as their tried-opinions .. An "unnamed producer" threatened to "beat me wit=
h
a cane" if I did that again. And point taken -- because oft-hand comments
kill not lives (there was a British WWI motto to this effect), but label
contracts and international back-scratching.

All of which brings up the issue of "scene politics"--another big no-no to
discuss openly. Oh well. "Ooops" ...

But let's get onto the event .

STUDIO ANTICS
If Friday was somewhat of a grab-bag, Saturday's Studio event was a concise
elaboration of a singular concept: the exploration of sound with
experimental turntablism. Philip Jeck, Marina Rosenfeld, Martin T=E9treault
and Martin Ng played an improvisational *group set* that worked along with
jazz parameters; basically, one of them would begin a section, and the rest
would follow in. Often T=E9treault would cue the others.. the result was a
treat for lovers of phonography, hearing this quartet improvise live. Each
had their own unique approach; while Martin Ng works with stock Technics SL
1200s, focusing on line noise, needle noise, and processing it through
effects and a Kaos pad, Martin T=E9treault utilises home-made & altered, olde=
r
turntables, one with two tone arms, and a number of built-in knobs,
pick-ups, and other innovative rewirings and routings of the basic turntabl=
e
concept. Philip Jeck is along the same lines, although his focus is upon
carefully selected cuts and loops, often taped on the vinyl, carefully mixe=
d
and timed [he had a score sheet of maneouvres, much like Janek Schaefer].
Jeck also works with older turntables. Rosenfeld, however, utilised stock S=
L
1200s and basic vinyl... and to be honest she was probably the least
impressive out of the four. While I've read of her sound installations and
all-women guitar orchestra [plucking with nail polish bottles] & her
soundscape work, her turntable work was basic; it was basic because it
relied upon her turntable skills only, lacking as it did any effects or
focus on surfaces / line noise like Martin Ng, or any home-built apparatus
like Jeck and T=E9treault, or any programmed series of cuts and loops. In
fact, it seemed she was utilising the same records for most of the session;
and unfortunately her basic beat-juggling and general mixer skills simply
weren't up to par. I'd like to see Rosenfeld push herself much farther in
this respect, as I feel she has much more to offer than what she pulled out
at Mutek. Altogether, it was a beautiful excursion into weird and wonderful
spaces of loops, with Jeck often providing the harmonies necessary to give
the collective aural atmosphere some direction, and T=E9treault pulling it al=
l
apart with his random and non-linear, and often frantic, tone-arm mashing
and spate of pocked sounds, while Ng provided counterpoint noise and tonal
disturbances. The crowd was enthusiastic, and a friend of mine from
Vancouver, who had never heard this type of thing before, was "stoked" afte=
r
hearing this needled quartet ...

Then, ladies and germs, came Colin the Mole. I was expecting the infamous,
ex-Vancouverite and now-Montr=E9aler Mole, who holds down a Saturday residenc=
y
at L=E4ika, to bring out his dub-atmospheric loop project which he demo'ed at
the Micro_Mutek featuring Basic Channel & Tikiman. At the Micro, the Mole
layed out 5 decks replete with loops culled from a strange array of
source--Muppets records, the laugh from a Monty Python sketch--all cut to
skip at the right moment, run through delays and echoes and all intricately
layered with delicate beatjuggling, cutting, and scratching .. Well, the
Mole was not to disappoint, but this was no dub: Colin the Molar Mole pulle=
d
out the techno crates, juggling five decks of loops through three DJ mixers
and a master mixer, all run through various effects. At one point, he trade=
d
off contrapuntal (offbeat) rhythms across all 5 decks, the concentration
straining his slight frame. Impressive to say the least, the Mole
demonstrated an analogue reconstruction of techno, basically recreating
techno records by grabbing jazz loops, beat loops, percussion, all the
elements of tracks, and (de)constructing it live... While some speak of
Hawtin's innovative use of Final Scratch, this was, in difficulty, an
immensely innovative techno set that went far beyond a DE9 set. Certainly
the Mole should have been given the pleasure of playing on the Metropolis
soundsystem [I'd like to say "he should have opened for Richie & not Magda.=
..
but as I know this was out of the control of the Mutek organisers, I can
only say this with hindsight, which is never all that forceful]--maybe next
year.

& on to Metropolis, to a night dedicated predominantly to house. If Friday
was the technohead coven, then Friday brought out the househeads and.. the
Yuppies? Fifty-year old couples? Yes indeed: Senor Coconut, the entire
full-piece band, was to play. We'll get to that conceptual fuck-over from
Uwe Schmidt in a minute. Because before that were a few acts that threw dow=
n
the house.. or brought it down.. even if not all house: these were, to begi=
n
with, Toronto's Jeff Milligan, aka Algorithm, who played a live set,
manipulating, to the best of his turntablist skills, a live set of his own
material on a laptop and knobby box. While one would wish he had been able
to DJ his own material with Final Scratch--as his techno-turntablist skills
are second-to-none, a DJ's DJ, so to speak, a real cutter and one of the
fastest mixers I've ever seen--his impressive tweaking and mastery of his
set-up enabled an invigorating journey through his more abstract
compositions, full of miniscule pings and pauses, through to his 4/4 minima=
l
techno compositions, layered with precise sounds and precision mastering.
Next was Cobblestone Jazz. Let me say that again, for it's a name you'll be
hearing again: Cobblestone Jazz.

Cobblestone Jazz rocked the shit out of us. The Victoria, BC based trio,
composed of minimal techno composer Mat Jonson, DJ Tyger Dhula, and jazz
keyboardist Danuel, got on stage in front of a _full set-up of live gear_.
No laptops here: just a few selection of synths, drum machines, a 303, an
808 and 909--and proceeded to lay down the deepest, hardest-hitting yet
minimalistic jazz-house to ever grace Metropolis .. Danuel, once he began
playing those keyboards with his long and lanky arms--he's thin like a rake
and quite tall--smiling away, this obscene smile, eyes closed, head-back,
just grinning, loving every moment, throwing down *excelled* jazz keyboard
work,-- then we knew we weren't watching producers, but composers, real
composers, a jazz keyboardist who, instead of playing in a jazz band (which
he easily could), chose techno--chose the difficult path, for a jazz
musician. And in every bone in our bodies we followed their path, through
two house jams, and finally a pause.. and a bout of screaming from the crow=
d
.. Next was an entirely different beat--uptempo, it was techno-time, and
Cobblestone Jazz entered a track that could only be described as akin to
early Rob Hood, with stripped synthlines playing offkey rhythms over live,
sung vocoder from Danuel, while chords echoed in and out every few bars, an=
d
the thud of the techno rhythms took over.. when it finally ended, the house
was brought down: these local boys, working at this for years, "Did It;"
some "play Mutek," others *play* Mutek for everything it is, could be, and
was: such was Cobblestone Jazz's performance.

Cobblestone Jazz could only be followed, it seems, by Senor Coconut himself=
,
and his Orchestra. Now let's get this straight from the top: this entire
thing is a conceptual project brain-childed by Uwe Schmidt, aka Atom=81, aka
Atom Heart, etc.. I remember the original album fooling many an indie-rawk
DJ at my old radio station, CiTR; it took a bit before everyone realised it
was an electronic project by Atom=81, and it took some a while to even
understand that "Coconut" were covering Kraftwerk tracks. Well, it seems
that some still haven't figured this out, and that the Coconut guise was so
successful--perhaps even in spite of this layer of conceptualism--that they
invented the band, taught them the tracks, and brought them up to Mutek,
replete with cheese-light show, all yellow and red, all-in-white suits, the
whole deal... A big, Latin dance party to slow, slow rhythms, all that
electro transmogrified into cha-cha's and marambas... Is it a "faithful"
replication of Latin American music run through Germany? A cheese
faux-spectacle from the start? Kraftwerk on downers? Whatever it was, it wa=
s
sincere: the lead singer of Coconut is none other than Venezuelan Argenis
Brito, one half of techno act Mambotur (the other half is Chilean Pier
Bucci). And away they went, taking us all into some fucked-up land where
South America uproots its continental plates and collides with the heart of
Europe... All very strange indeed. What was even more strange was the 100 o=
r
so 50+ Golden Age couples who came out to see this "Latin Band".. I was up
in the stands talking to a few, and they couldn't understand why it was
proceeded by this "horrid bang-bang music," as one elderly lady put it. The=
y
had, afterall, come to see the Real Music. I didn't say much, of course,
nothing about the layers to the project, the German connections [or the
ex-pat German community in Chile and vice-versa], all this piling up,
rolling into a big, stinking onion, or even about how most of the musicians
were not even Chilean. Hell I think some were not even from South America
whatsoever. Regardless, then, the entirety is a success: a conceptual-art
success, a financial success [it seems], and a showcase success: they playe=
d
two encores, the crowd digging every moment, cheering and stomping for more=
,
Metropolis rammed to its gills, rafters, and balconies, everyone
horrendously drunk, so very, very drunk. I needed a drink too, although I
couldn't tear myself away from an excellent rendition of "We are the
Robots."

Well, after this, it was time to boogie to something a little more upbeat,
and Chilean-Swiss Luciano, who is my age--makes me feel like I'm not moving
fast enough, sometimes--got up and let loose with a minimalist exfoliation
of what was essentially South American percussion over a stripped and
minimal trance recombinated through a techno aesthetic.. kind of like an
uplifting Ozy .. and it was beautiful, although somewhat predictable: but
what we needed then was exactly what Luciano delivered. And as a whole it
provided an uplifting end to the night--almost every act that night was
reinventing a genre; Algorithm deconstructing techno and house and the
limits of performativity, Cobblestone Jazz showing the real limits, talents
and energies of live, analogue, jazzed-out performance, Senor Coconut
remixing an entire tradition through two, if not three continents, and
Luciano doing what I've been waiting to hear for many years: reworking
trance from the inside out, bringing out what is good about it, and leaving
the rest to rot [unlike "deep trance," which just slavishly samples techno
rhythms into the same, boring structure with the same-old stock percussion,
piano notes, and synth sounds]. The beautiful thing about the Chileans is
that they hold few of the preconceptions and techno-bitterness so prevalent
in us technoheads--I am speaking of myself here--who have been at this for
so many years, and become somewhat embittered through the general
downtrodding of techno throughout rave's short history. It took techno's
reinvention, far from its Detroit centre, to bring it back to life. On the
peripheries--that's where Mutek is taking us, a journey that, if it will
remain on the edge, will be ceaseless in its discoveries through its
perpetual motion.

..gathered from notes, 9:48am Monday & 4:12am Tuesday

tobias c. van Veen

------------------------------