From Selway212 Sent Thu, Feb 12th 1998, 17:25
From Selway212 Sent Thu, Feb 12th 1998, 17:25
Last night I attended the Discord performance, it took place in the Winter Garden (a large glass enclosed sort of atrium/auditorium area) inside the World Financial Center (adjacent to the World Trade Center) Quite a turnout, there was a line to get in extending from the venue, through the bridge across West St, and out the door and down the stairs to the street next to the WTC. Big VIP turnout too, especially with sponsors such as Georgio Armani. Merrill Lynch, and American Express. I'd heard a bit of this new material from the album, and the Ninja Tune 12", and it's interesting home listening material for the most part. Live, however, in that situation, it was all a bit tedious. You could feel the crowd's collective boredom in the air. The higlight for me was the Remote Piano which was a midi-fied mechanical Yamaha grand controlled by members of the internet audience, and the projected computer graphic visuals - very, very beautiful images. Overall, I was dissapointed, it was just so much Corporate illbient. I didn't hear anything I'd never heard someone else do before, and it was all packaged nice and neat for a mass audience. Although I suppose that's whats new about it - who else is selling minimallist orchestral composition combined with dark ambient and DJ technique via the corporate pop structure? And Paul "DJ Spooky" Miller looked better with dreads rather than his recently shaven head. -John