From KaisrSolze Sent Tue, May 12th 1998, 05:44
From KaisrSolze Sent Tue, May 12th 1998, 05:44
review: Bjork/Mu-ziq at Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC Bjork's performance was really good, but presented some problems. On=0AH= omogenic, despite the abrasive, astounding production, she remains the=0A= emotional center of the album. Her voice is great, expressive in the way= only=0ABjork is, and she somehow manages to beat Mark Bell into a suppor= ting role. =09That balance changed live. Sometimes live shows are made great by int= erplay=0Aamong the band =97 that wasn't the case here, as was pretty unde= rstandable,=0Asince it's hard to get a string octet and Bell to jam coher= ently within the=0Alimits of Bjork's existing songs. Instead, Bjork pret= ty much stuck to the=0Aalbum versions of her songs. That would have been= great, except her voice=0Ajust didn't match up to the one that comes out= of my home speakers. Maybe she=0Awas too low in the mix, or maybe she j= ust isn't powerful enough to hit the=0Ahigh notes and belt to drive an em= otional point home (probably a bit of both).=0AInstead, she was overpower= ed by Bell's beats, which were astounding, even=0Abetter than on Homogeni= c. Without Bjork playing any forceable role in her own=0Asongs, the show= lost part of its point. =09On the way back home, I commented to someone on the train who was at t= he show=0Athat "her vocals were mixed too low", and he replied that it's = always this way=0Awhen she performs live. Maybe Bjork was trying to remi= x her songs live, and=0Achange their context. That would have worked if = she had turned off the lights=0Aand let people dance. however, she insis= ted on a(n astounding) light show=0Athat kept the whole room bright. It = was if as if she wanted both to hide=0Aherself behind the beats, but rema= in a rock star =97 a pretty fundamental=0Acontradiction if you ask me. =09Anyway, the show was fine, but it didn't completely do it for me.=0ABa= chlorette was a highlight, as was Violently Happy. For her encore, she d= id=0AJoga, in which she finally got rid of all beats, and just sang. For= once, her=0Avoice hit all the emotional peaks it needed to (although tha= t might have been=0Adue to some electronic effects she used for a bigger = sound on that song).=0AWhatever she used to augment her voice, I'm glad s= he did, becuase it was the=0Afirst time all night that the show made sens= e to me. Mu-Ziq was alright, not as good as he was in the Kim's instore. Most of = his=0Asongs were standard fungle breakbeats, funny basslines, etc. which = just got=0Aboring quickly. Same went for his techstep ripoff. Just like= at kim's, his=0AMr. Angry remix was a highlight =97abrasive as hell, and= it kept on changing so=0Ait didn't get boring. he concluded with anothe= r great track, something that=0Astarted off almost hardcorish, mostly a f= ew loud and annoying sounds tht he=0Aproceeded to recombine into a total = meltdown. pissed quite a few people off,=0Aand that's a compliment. As = soon as he went off, Ventolin came on over the PA=0A:-) Sam=0A