RE: (idm) Redbox review

From Brendan Nolan
Sent Mon, Jul 6th 1998, 11:42

What a disaster. Went out on Saturday night all hyped up and ready
to groove to Autechre playing live. It would have only been my second
time seeing them live. Last time being that excellent gig in the Funnel.

Invisible armies came on and were o.k wasn't really all that impressed
found then quite boring except for about 2 really nice tracks but then I
was there for Autechre. About half way thru this I began to hear nasty
rumours about Autechre not playing live because of some technical glitch.
Began to worry.

Invisible armies finished playing and the some guys came out and started
clearing off the stage. No new equipment came on. I was pissed. I headed
over to the sound engineer and asked if he knew what the story was. Turns
out someone forgot a vital piece of Autechre's rig so they couldn't play
live
and were going to attempt a DJ set instead except they had no records.
ARRGGH!

They did play a DJ set and it was quite intresting because as far as I can
tell
they only had 2 records Anvil Vapre and Cichlisuite managed to do quite
well. I
really enjoyed it. It was definetly fun to see the rest of the crowd get
their
heads around it.

All in all pretty disappointing. Won't stop me going to see them again
hoping they'll
make it up to the Irish IDM crowd by playing here again real soon

Brendan

>
> First up was invisible armies, I'd never checked these out before
> on record or live and had no idea Ireland was outputting talent
> this good, well impressed. ( currently downloading an mp3 from
> http://www.iol.ie/~murraycp/invisarm.html if you want to check them
> out). A fine melting pot of hip hop, electro, breakbeats, obscure
> samples and tech noise, two electric guitars onstage tweaked into
> barely recognizable sounds from the rock twang we're used to and
> three tech-bods doing the tweaking.
>
> The slam boys up next, Stuart Mcmillan continued the funky beats
> with some fine electro from phreax and the like. Half an hour later he
> was back to the usual 4/4 stomping, which I usually enjoy from him but
> wasn't in the mood for tonight, the mood already being set with the funky
> stuff. Kept with it after an hour of beats but I yearned for a string or
> a smidgeon of soul, anything. Finally he let Mrs anna log creep atop
> those bare beats which kept me on the floor.
>
> Autechre next, have to admit I've not heard a load of, only got
> two records
> but those fucked up, off kilter crunchy beats were exactly what I needed.
> This IS dance music (even if some of the ken & Barbie fluffy bra brigade
> did look around in dismay ). Neither playing live or really Dj'ing...
> didn't play any records ... just plugged in a minidisc or something and
> pressed play, didn't even know this until a friend told me later though.
> Finished off with a mad fast semi drum & bass monster before Andy
> Weatherall
> got on. Back to the stompers, we left, I think I'm getting past my
> sell-by-date.
>
> Seeyez,
> John
>
>
>