From Will Samuels Sent Tue, Oct 27th 1998, 01:34
From Will Samuels Sent Tue, Oct 27th 1998, 01:34
--Brock Suter <xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote: > zimbo wrote: >> this time electric company and lexaunculpt played >> separately.. which i think worked to their advantage >> -- though last two times i saw them play together >>(kuci and spaceland) they did come up with some >> rather brilliant >> collaborative moments (and much criticism from folks >> on this list). i hope they decide to play together >> at some point in the near future. > I strongly disagree. IMHO, alex's music is for the > most part extremely delicate and exquisitely > programmed where Brad's live stuff is impulsive, > spastic, overbearing and unstructured. It just > doesn't seem to work for me. I agree with Brock on this. First of all, I would like to say that Alex's music has a stronger appeal to me. I really like music with great melodies, good beats and some experimental edge to it. I am very impressed with Alex's (Lexanculpt) work. I also like the new Electric Company cd and was a fan of the first two Medicine cds. But when Alex and Brad collaborated, their styles seem too different as Brock suggested above. You would hear Alex's part of the song which was melodic and very intriguing and then out of nowhere Brad would throw on some super loud shrilling noise which didn't seem to fit and was overpowering. I can see the collaboration working. But they need to work together instead of against each other, which is how it seemed to me > As for 'brilliant collaborative moments', alex is > mainly playing pre-sequenced tracks off his computer > and occasionally playing a melody or doing some > effects tweaking, where as Electric Company consists > of Brad abusing a bunch of un-sunk up noise makers. > The parts I disliked the most of them playing > together is when alex would have a nice little > tune going and out of no where this big > 'swooppppppppppxxxxnonxonxonxoxnoxnxonere' would come > flying out the speakers at about 30 times the volume > of everything else. Nice collaboration... Agreed >> electric company was the first performance i saw >>(kraig grady played as well, but i missed him). this >> time around, brad seemed to play a "slower set" than >> when i saw him with oval/jim o'rourke. i found it >> quite enjoyable -- though a number of folks i was at >> the show with were not that into to it. > I found it odd that the majority of the IDM > contingent there (including zimbo too!) all ended up > in the lounge area less then half way thru brad's > performance, yet the theater remained quite packed > with extremely 'hip' people for the whole set, most > of whom left immediately afterwards. As I said to some people at the show, I wish there was a little more structure to Electric Company's set. I heard some cool stuff going on during Brad's set. my mind wandered from liking it to what the fuck is that obnoxious noise. There were parts I liked and parts I didn't. I know Brad Laner is a big fan of Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle. It could be he prefers leaning in that direction than going for a more structured set which I prefer. Maybe I am getting old and I have a smaller attention span to super harsh noise squelches or maybe i just prefer more melodic stuff like Alex's set. > Then when alex went on, the place was mostly empty! yeah what the hell was up with that? They didn't even give him a chance. When I go to shows I at least listen to a LITTLE of the other artist's set. I try to keep open minded, I guess the "hip" people can't be bothered in that respect. >> "electric company seemed to be too much in the >> middle of noise and beats. i kept wanting him to >> either go more structured or noisy.. but not >> in-between." >> i have to agree with this, except that i rather >> enjoy that effect of electric company... perhaps im >> just an audio masochist and enjoy music that makes >> me feel on edge and disoriented. but whatever, to >> each their own :) i could compare the feel of it to >> the farmer's manual, vvm, phthalocyanine type stuff >> that folks recently have had a backlash against. Damn it where is the Audio Masochist newsgroup!! :) Just kidding > After last night, electric companies live performance > has, in my opinion, joined the ranks of dj spooky > (doing his little 'deconstruction' bit), > phthalocyanine, the mego guys live and alec empire > (when he's being a dick). > This exclusive group, IMHO, are people doing noisy > shit that doesn't make any sense to me and take what > they are doing way too seriously. If they could only > laugh about it when people say that it's bad, then I > wouldn't have as much of a problem. But usually > their answer is 'you just don't have the intelligence > to understand what I do', which is a joke. Intelligence = Strong threshold for harsh noise Damn it! All those kids that like that Terrorcore gabber stuff must be smarter than me :) --------no further replies below----------------------- > > can't wait to see him perform again. > I can...but I must admit, seeing him live twice (plus > playing records and dats at KUCI) has made me want to > find some of his CD's to find out if it's just his > live shows that aren't to my liking. >> lexaunculpt was next -- and, yes. the hype is >> correct.. alex is the shit. very good tweeky beat >> driven stuff (very hip hop inspired). dont know >> what else to say about it.. other than he looked >> cute laying in his calvin kline type pose while >> performing. a very good, non suprising set from >> alex (he's always one to perform a solid set). > I agree 100 percent. Alex's performance was > wonderful as usual. One of the songs he played > almost brought a tear to my eye. I've been > listening to his music for quite some time and have > seen him play live 7 or 8 times...he never ceases to > amaze me with the depth of his talent. > On of the cool things is that his live setup is > constantly changing. This time around he had nothing > but a laptop running midi to his K2000, with > everything coming out the one unit. Other times, > he's also got his desktop computer running audio, > effects units, a mixer and other gear. > The first time I ever saw him play, he even had a > friend along with a electric guitar (albeit extremely > effected), a portable CD player with a CDR he made > with dozens of small 'snippet' tracks (ala the gescom > minidisk, but months before) and a ton of other > strange stuff in the mix. > Here is someone who's not afraid of trying out new > shit and different methods of achieving his > goals...and all the while, everything still > ends up sounding great. > > Keep up the good work, kiddo. :-) > > peace out, > > brock > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com