From Peter Hollo Sent Mon, Oct 5th 1998, 15:06
From Peter Hollo Sent Mon, Oct 5th 1998, 15:06
Well dear IDM, I got the new Neotropic album about a week ago, and it's excellent. Last night Riz played in Sydney, and was fantastic. Before her Zeitgeist (female Sydney DJ) did a storming drum'n'bass set - lots of DHR type stuff, really great. Near the end she started mindfucking a bit with weird rhythms (or arhythms) and shit, which was a weird way of going into Neotropic. Anyway, I was right up the front (got in free via my friends Sub Bass Snarl whose club Frigid is usually at that venue on Sunday nights) and watched her play... She has an Akai sampler hooked up to a Roland keyboard of some sorts, two turntables, a CD player and DAT machine. I'm not sure what sounds come from where but it was pretty amazing. Started with just ambient stuff, aka Future Sound Of London, beautiful stuff sounding like it could've come from the Baraka soundtrack. She seemed to be triggering it all from the sampler - different notes corresponding to different samples. Eventually the beats kicked in - I think a large proportion came from the latest album, I remember "Apple Sauce" with its fucked up beats and the distinctive vocal sample! I don't have the first album (yet!) so I can't say what came off that. Anyway, mostly funky beats but one didn't (in my case anyway) come to dance so much as take in the music (and the FSOL-like slides in the background) and watch what she did. Beautiful hands triggering all sorts of sounds. Well, *I* was impressed. After her set, Sub Bass Snarl (who I play cello with sometimes) did an amazing over-90-minute drum'n'bass set, going from the more complex stuff (mostly older I imagine) to some pretty cool 2 step (not so much into 2 step myself but last night it was incredible) and even the crazy Jackfear track "Grated Chicken" from the 0161 track, complete with the slowdown to the 6/8 middle section and back out again. Seb even played Polynomial C by Aphex Twin in the middle and the breakbeats fitted in perfectly with the rest (great to hear that lush track on the PA there!) All in all, I danced all night and had a great time ;) Afterwards I hung around to take Seb home and thus met Riz (she was on their radio show on Tuesday - Paradigm Shift on 2SER, 1-2:30pm for anyone in Sydney!) She's really cool, and as well as making some of the most interesting music around (in that kinda genre anyway) she's pretty gorgeous to boot (yeah shuddup, I would've been *just* as laudatory had she not been, but she was). So why aren't there more female electronic artists around? There are some great female DJs in Sydney (eg Zeiteist) and no lack of talent. My girlfriend's a composition graduate (although admittedly Australia does have a very good number of high-profile female composers), and in general I know there's as many girls as guys coming to Frigid and suchlike clubs around, so why don't we see them on either the high-profile labels like Ninja tune and Warp (one female act each isn't it?) or indeed on the smaller labels? Anyway, Neotropic's live show was much more satisfying than seeing some guys dance around their DAT machines and twiddle knobs occasionally; there are a couple of acts in Sydney who actually do play *live* to some extent (5000 Fingers of Dr T are excellent, as is Quark Kent) but on the whole watching electronic acts is not very exciting. Apart from the excellent music, this was a performance worth seeing. Everyone should go and see her live if they get the opportunity. Now if only Amon Tobin would consider doing a live show like that... Peter. -- Peter Hollo xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx http://www.fourplay.com.au/me.html FourPlay - Eclectic Electric String Quartet http://www.fourplay.com.au "Of course, dance music can be a music where you lie on your back and your brain cells dance" -Michael Karoli of Can, quoted in Wire mag.