DEAF Festival 2007, Opening Night at Audeon’s Church

I recently attended the opening night of the three day Dublin Electronic Arts Festival and it was a truly amazing experience. The setting of St Audeon’s Church in Christchurch in Dublin was a great way to view such incredible musical and visual talent. There were three acts in total:

Daniel Jacobson (aka Zoid)

I was not a big fan of this set. I do love both listening to and creating ambient/noise music but there is a particular glitch-driven approach often adopted by users of the now astoundingly popular application Max/MSP. Much as I have previously enjoyed the live experience that is Zoid’s live set this time it just did not grab me. That said, I would still gladly go and see him again.

Takeshi Nisimoto

This was just incredible. I have never before seen a set that was created purely with guitar and loops (with the exception of Robert Fripp’s pre-concert set in Tower Records in Dublin, after which he cancelled his concert due to a failure in the quadraphonic setup. Shame) that was devoid of effects beyond some subtle reverb. His technique was just lovely and the songs layered beautifully. This was an incredible set.

Pamelia Kurstin

This was also an incredible set. Her setup included theramin and looping devices. It was truly haunting and a perfect set for an old church. Orchestral sweeps of gorgeousness.

The visuals were also gorgeous for this event.

Battles Play Dublin

Wow! Seeing a Battles performance truly is a singular experience. This was my second time catching them playing in Dublin the the last few months. This time around they seemed a lot more free and easy going about their set, playing at least three tracks from their previous (B EP /C EP) album as well as some a bunch of tunes from their second album, “Mirrored”. The highlights of the show were “Tonto” (one of my personal favourites), “Atlas” (which drove the crowd wild as expected), and “TRAS” from “B EP”.

If you have not yet heard any music from Battles, stop everything you are doing and buy it now. Do not buy it online, for if you do you will have to wait before you hear it. Walk/run/stagger/drive/fly to your closest music shop and pick up a copy of “Mirrored”. To most listeners, the album will sounds like the freshest music they will possibly ever hear. To the more seasoned listener who has heard the later works of Don Caballero (one of whom is a member of Battles), or who may recognise the drumming of John Stainer from having heard Tomahawk or Helmet previously, or perhaps you have heard the debut solo album by Tyondai Braxton (guitarist, keyboard player and singer from Battles), in which case you are highly unlikely to notice any correlation between the two. Either way you will love it. If you don’t feel free to check yourself into your local sanitarium, because you are quite clearly insane.

Album Review - Tomahawk “Anonymous”

I have to admit to being quite the fan of many Mike Patton outfits. I was never that blown away by Faith No More (with the possible exception of the song “Naked In Front of the Computer” from Album of the Year), but Mr Bungle has been one of my favourite bands for the last ten years. To a lesser extent I am also a fan of Fantomas, who are continuing the good work started by Naked City, John Zorn’s jazz-metal outfit from the 1980’s. I am definitely less fond of their bookend first and fourth albums, which feature songs comprising bursts of brutal unforgiving noise in packages of less than two minutes. However, their second and third albums are both astounding.

Anyway, I digress. To cut a long story short (although it is now pointless as you have already read it), I am quite the fan of Mike Patton. I came across Tomahawk around two years ago and at first did not know what to make of their restrained approach to alternative guitar music. After further listens I grew to like them more and more to the point that the first two albums far outshined – in my opinion – anything achieved by Bungle (who I still love).

It is true that Tomahawk is more the pet project of Tomahawk guitarist Duane Denison. The third album from Tomahawk is even more restrained than previous outings, whether this has anything to do with the departing of bass player Kevin Rutmanis is a mystery to me. The band, now a trio, have managed to put together their most accessible outing thus far, even though some of the vocals where they can be distinguished at all, cannot be understood as they are in some (or possibly many) native American tongues.

The idea for the album itself appears to have stemmed from guitarist Denison, who came up with the concept while touring Native American reservations with Hank Williams. The record was apparently recorded in two parts – firstly by (drummer) John Staner and Denison and then Patton recorded his parts separately, and seem to have less of an influence on the end product as a result. The end result is a full, well rounded album with memorable, fresh sounding music and an interesting take on ethnic music styles without cheapening the source of influence as so many projects have done.

Where Shakti was a fusion of jazz and Indian music, “Anonymous” is a fusion of rock and native American music that truly works.

Movie Buffs Talk Crap

Wow! My lunch in Dublin today was almost ruined by the fact that I had to sit beside two movie buffs chewing the fat, both trying to impress each other with their movie knowledge. There is something I find excruciating about the sort of person who only goes to see Art house films in the IFI and baulks at the mere whisper of going to see a mainstream movie. Dublin, being the elitism capital of the globe often lends itself to overhearing such conversations and the verbal ballet is much the same where people are discussing electronic music, independent films or Steely Dan.

For this reason, I was shocked and horrified when the usual “oh, you haven’t seen it? Many people think its his first film but actually its his ninth, not counting the Bulgarian remake of his first Korean horror short” was suddenly punctuated by the words “Kevin Costner is grossly underrated as an actor”.

I believe the term that would follow such a line in a script is “(Beat)”. Wow! I didn’t see that coming. I stopped chewing. I looked around the table I was sharing with many other people besides the duo in question. Everyone had stopped eating. Everyone at the table was wondering how the other protagonist would reply to this comment. He seemed to feel the tension himself, and fumbled for a response, though every fibre of his being must have been screaming towards the contrary, that did not involve decapitating his comrade or running away crying. At last he came out with a flaccid “Oh?”

“Yes”, continued his co-conspirator, unperturbed by the rising tension in the room, “’Dances With Wolves’ is possibly the best western ever filmed”. I stared blankly ahead, ready to drop to the floor when the inevitable coffee mug sailed through the air destined for the young man’s head.

“I’ve just been to see ‘Die Hard 4’. It is the best of the lot”, came the response. Where else could he turn? This was calculated avoidance and I congratulate him for it. Mere moments later I left the coffee shop, happy to be alive, leaving behind thoughts as to which of the four ‘Die Hard’ movies was the best and assurances that certainly Bruce Willis was a contender, along with ‘Costner, for the coveted most astounding actor to grace the silver screen.

I am thinking of buying earplugs.

Another Amon Tobin Masterpiece

This album is possibly one of the most excellent pieces of music that you will here this year. The title comes from the a completely airtight sound room which allows recording with as little intereference from external sounds as possible. This is Amon Tobin’s sixth full length album (seventh if you include “Adventures in Foam” under the Cujo pseudonym). This is undoubtedly his best work yet, and if you have heard any of his previous work you know that it is up against some pretty stiff competition.

According to Tobin himself, all of his previous records were created using samples taken from other peoples work, which is why he gave the albums names like “Supermodified” and “Permutations”. After over a decade of making music, this is the first time Amon Tobin has actually used a microphone. He has recorded the most incredible amount of sounds (everything from ants crawling on tinfoil, to the rhythmic sound of CDs being printed in a factory) and mixed it with his usual array of electronic trickery and has completely Tobinified the outcome.

The result is an astounding album, and possibly his most accessible work to date.

Legion of Disappointed Mike Patton Fans

Last Monday was an eye opening (and ear damaging) experience for me. I joined a posse of very disappointed Mr Bungle and Faith No More fans for an evening of extreme noise from Mike Patton and Fennesz. There was some fantastic support from three Irish electronic acts Checkerboard, Lakker and someone else who never mentioned his name (the main problem with electronic gigs is rarely knowing who is actually playing unless you recognise the music itself). During the support acts some friends of mine who went outside to smoke said there was a lot of scoffing of the opening acts by the Bungle/FNM fans, who really did not know what they were in for.

When the main act finally came on stage to play, the audience were assaulted aurally by a wall of screaming noise without Mike Patton’s signature vocal style (that is, unless you have listened to any of his solo albums released under his own name) and definitely with Christian Fennesz’ signature hectic, screaming drones. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, though obviously many hard core Mike Patton fans left bewildered - quite a lot of them during the main show. If nothing else, the experience has made me finally take action on getting myself a good solid, set of professional qaulity, moulded ear plugs.

(photograph from http://www.fennesz.com/)

Alphabet Set 5th Birthday Party

The Alphabet Set 5th Birthday Party at Kennedy’s on Westland Row was an absolute smash. Fantastic live electronic tunes from Sarsparilla (whose lulling electronic tones remind one of a John Carpenter film score) and Deep Burial. A fantastic way to ring in five years of cutting edge Irish independent electronic music.

The Alphabet Set began its humble roots with a little website called Net TV, way back in deepest, darkest 1999. The site was started as a way to get the electronic music of Mick Donoghue (aka T-woc, but then going under the name Moderob), John Mahon (aka Thalamus), and a few more artists who had met while studying sound engineering in Ballyfermot long before the name became synomymous with cutting edge digital media and animation.

The Alphabet Set began a regular DJ night in Molloys Bar in Christchurch, spearheaded by John Mahon and Mick Donoghue (originally going under the name ‘Perspex’). The regular monthly nights became increasingly popular as the months went by and it all came to a head in October 2002, with the first Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (or DEAF). John and Mick organised a 2 night electronic extravaganza with two floors of music running till 3am on both nights of the festival. They had DJs of varying styles, each doing 45 minute sets on the top floor, a chill out room and bar on the middle floor and live electronic acts running 45 minute sets downstairs. In order to pull it off, John encouraged a bunch of people he knew to be making great electronic music in their bedrooms to being their computers and equipment down to Molloys and play it to a packed house.

It went down an absolute storm and kick started the stage careers of some of Ireland’s more reknowned electronic artists. The lineup included live sets from T-Woc, Mashine, Sarsparilla, Siles, Vibrotronics (featuring yours truly in my first electronic stage performance), Muppet Boy, Thalamus, 2Bit (also playing his first live electronic gig) and CFX.

Now, five years on they have brought over artists from all over the world to help bring notoriety to artist roster of the collective. These have included V/VM, Biosphere, Sound Murderer, Multiplex and many more. They have also established themselves as a mini independent label releasing free 30 minute one-off specials from various artists on the roster and also releasing various CDs and albums from Fairlights, Ebauche, Sarsparilla, Super Extra Bonus Party and many more.

Check out their website: Alphabet Set Website