From Adam Huffman Sent Sat, May 2nd 1998, 13:18
From Adam Huffman Sent Sat, May 2nd 1998, 13:18
Other people have already commented upon this but... Radioboy (Matthew Herbert's new incarnation) performed an excellent set in the Engine Room. And in this case I do mean performed, as anyone who has seen him live will know. The sound of kettles boiling, a typewriter, a lightbulb, a spray paint can etc. The Surgeon/Mick Harris thing was really good, I thought - interesting to see Surgeon collaborating outside his normal field and to very good effect. The Deacons (Jim O'Rourke and some Tortoise people) seemed rather disappointing but inadvertently provided a classic moment. In one of the quieter improvised moments you could hear the opening few bars of Powerpill being spun by Squarepusher in the Engine room - comedy moment of the whole day. Of course I rushed downstairs to hear the full tune. Pity he didn't play that Trumpton/Chigley/Camberwick Green thing while I was there. Mike and Marcus (Boards) were excellent DJs, this being mainly manifest in their deft mixing of John Denver and The Byrds over today's tunes (or possibly last week's). Autechre as good as usual although one of my companions maintained that their recent Blech performance was the finest rendering of the current set. Strictly Kev also up to familiar standards. Good to see so many people at such an event in Sheffield. I also went to the Farmer's Manual/Pita Lovebytes launch party thing on the preceding Thursday. Strange venue for a strange event. Most of the people there were either networking Art types or bewildered filmgoers. Ae span for a while, including an abstract noise section and a stretch of new Squarepusher and their own Lexis remix. This got a few blokes excited to the extent that they remonstrated with Farmer's Manual to bring that beat back. In vain, of course. Interesting. Looking forward to Plaid tonight... The Squarepusher track on the Chaos AD single is really rather good, isn't it. adam