[microsound] moments of mutek .01

["tobias c. van Veen" <tobias@xxxxxxxxx>]

[ moments of mutek .01 ]

http://www.zed.cbc.ca/go.ZeD?POS=1&CONTENT_ID=139383&FILTER_KEY=92045&page=c
ontent&user=saibot




Mutek always hits with the heat, but this year it has dropped with thunder
and drizzled the downpour. It's been a slow creep into a week that has snuck
up with more punch than expected. What would Mutek be like this year? How
many corps into the 'esprit Mutek'? With the late line-up announcement,
where are we at with digeratti, the mountain of avant-garde electronic music
and culture at 4 dots into the 21c?
 
(At the panel, Philip Sherburne, XLR8R journalist, is questioning  .. 'does
anyone read? I don't even read music magazines .. I just pick up and flip
through ...')
 
Last night @ SAT, tripping over bodies. Schneider TM rocks out the floor in
three suits of white, lab-rats in a cage. Singin', sputterin', shootin' from
the hip and chanting songs about the soundman: "The LEFT SPEAKER IS NOT
WORKING!" -- in a mass fucked up vocoder, the drummer slammin' down the MIDI
pads, squelch and squelch. The Germans know how to rock the techno-pop. (And
to send out the cliche: non-stop).
 
Earlier, Junior Boys on the geek-tip: is this the incoming of vocal emo
techno? (All the reasons we fled indie so many years ago - and here the
journalists, hear them now, singing the popification of techno. Hail the
song genre, the loop of the moment has faded. But is it really pop? What is
pop when sent to the genetic strain of techno?).
 
Another fragment of the night, the very end of the night, 3am-- and then
there was Smith 'n Hack: boing beats slammin' down but without sticking to
the 4. Interesting? No, just undanceable skipping samplers. Played song
style. Is Smith n' Hack brilliant or just goofing off with gear, stripping
work that any other producer would name the beta and not the final release?
All these questions that are more or less aimlessly circling the question of
aesthetic judgement. But also something else: a stench of death in numbers.
 
So forget the numbers. Follow the eyes to the trip-out of Fluux. Ah, Fluux,
at the new salle in Ex-Centris. No longer do we cramp on the cement floor.
Mutek has gone upscale, to the theatre (and sweet surround theatre sound of
precisely alienating frequencies). And to the beautiful world of Fluux, the
incredible and sustained animation, of gravity and wireframe models swimming
in pools of physics. Hands-down, Fluux's performance constituted the most
spectacular moment in visual and music production that has graced Mutek's
stage (and yes that includes Bola).
 
Chessmachine: Richard Chartier and COH (Ivan Pavlov). The game: pink vs.
blue. Sonic chess. Microscopic to noise. Moves and parries. At this point,
sound has become conceptual: the entirety of the performance mimes Duchamp's
chess game in New York, on the arch above the park.
 
http://www.chessgames.com/player/marcel_duchamp.html
 
'Chess is a sport. A violent sport. This detracts from its artistic
connections. One intriguing aspect of the game that does imply artistic
connotations is the geometrical patterns and variations of the actual set up
of the pieces in the combinative, tactical, strategical and positional
sense. It is a sad means of expression though - somewhat like religious art-
it is not very gay. If anything, it is a struggle.' -- Marcel Duchamp
 
++ And a struggle it was, producing through its conflict of moves an
intricate back-and-forth. Low rumbles and hard hits from Pavlov; complex
rhythms and strategies from Chartier. Increasing frustration as Pavlov gets
up from his chair. Deadpan, in his blue. Chartier, in his pink. Each with a
coloured flag, hitting the chess timer with a mark of combat and a
gentleman's agreement.
 
Again, another move in electronic music's development: toward the larger
concept of the generation (Beyond laptop, the laptop as a piece in a much
larger structure. The homology of the laptop to the chess game; the binary
moves of the dot and the dash, retreat, encapture, en passant.)
 
[ fragments arriving // ]
 
 
 
 



tobias c. van Veen -----------
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org
http://www.thisistheonlyart.com
---McGill Communications------
ICQ: 18766209 | AIM: thesaibot


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