s h o w
t r i a l s




christian marclay, toshio kajiwara and dj olive/wolf eyes
21 december 2oo2
detroit institute of the arts

quite a different venue to be seeing wolf eyes in... an auditorium, with seats & orchestra pit separating the band from the audience. they seemed to have taken some extra care, with lights connected to sound outputs so that they glowed bright when the audio levels were high. perhaps they adapted to the setting with the choice of sets, too, with a focus on the more abstract noisy parts of their sound. i thought they acquitted themselves well. i couldn't help but keep glancing behind me (i was in the front row, even tho i arrived just before they started playing), to see if there was any perceptible reaction from the crowd. the fist pumping, violence-inciting stuff was noticeably absent. i didn't mind, enjoying the "ahhhrrrt" side of them which is as important as their darker punk-basement-garage leanings.

christian marclay performed in the "dj trio" format, enlivened by the use of video cameras & projections of all six turntables, giving us something to watch. i thought some sounds worked, and some didnt. more specifically, i didn't care much for the opening stuff where the record being used as the foundation of the composition was more obvious, liking it more when much hands-on work was used to obscure the sources, and liking it most when the sounds were so altered as to become mostly sound effects. there was a funny moment or two when the sound went out, causing them to react (after a few seconds) by staring out at the sound man quizzically. there didn't seem to be much they could do without any electricity, so they just waited until it was restored, then resumed their busy mixing. there was a coldness tot he presentation, since i doubt they could see the audience, and even less perceive any reaction, it was as if they were playing suspended in a vacuum. for me, the evening was more of an homage to christian marclay, who's work represents the earliest major experiments with the vinyl surface as performance medium. it was nice to see the man who's "records" will always be a landmark.


aaron dilloway/cotton museum/dj andy roach
3o december 2oo2
buddha bar, detroit

i was worried going in that this would be a bust, attendance-wise, but i needn't have worried. a healthy crowd of cognoscenti & incoherenti made this pre-new year's gig. the dj work by roach was very well received, like playing some faves from your record library for some freinds at a house party. it was very interesting to see the buddha regulars wrinkle their faces at some of the idiosyncratic selections by folks who have spent more than a little time in good record stores.

after dj roach spun for awhile by himself, aaron & chris (cotton museum) joined him for a spontaneous interaction of records, theremin & bent toys, and aaron's tapes & mouth mic sounds. usually sets like these are done at the end of the night, when only the hardcore are still hanging around, but i enjoyed the way it happened at the beginning here. chaotic, but each performer was tossing his 2 or more senses into the mix. hard to describe, maybe a jam session?

cottom museum returned after a break for a short set of theremin & effects. chris' work is a little quieter on it's own, and much of the crowd talked throughout the set. i missed the circuit-bent toys some, for me, they give another texture to the single waveforms thrown out by the theremin. his good sense of dynamics was well-employed, and a raft of stereo effects kept things bouncing from speaker to speaker.

aaron dilloway took over as dj for a fun set of records that had intermittent "fuck yeah's" erupting in various parts of the buddha. then he sat down at his familiar table and inserted first one, then a second mic into his mouth and proceeded to lay waste to the room. it was a conversation with the listeners, not in words, but in popping, clicking, chomping sounds punctuated by open-mouthed synthesized bellows. perfect for the intimacy of the venue, and an adroit combination of the experimental & the interactive. guess i should have videotaped it, cuz it was something to watch the expressions on his face as he played his "ax". i vote for more shows to be held at the buddha, i believe some more intimately irreverent performances would be a don't-miss proposition.


neon hunk/kites/midlife vacation
17 january 2oo3
lj's lounge, detroit

interesting venue for a show like this, a neighborhood bar complete with requisite pool table & a bar crowd with nary a full set of teeth in the whole place. they were very amiable, other than some glassy-eyed stares now & again, the drinkers & the noisemongers coexisted without incident. the bands played in a small storeroom in the back, so the affair had the feel of a party in someones living room or basement, while grampfro & aunt skeeve played cards in the other room, only poking their heads in when it sounded like damage was imminent (or they needed to use the bathroom). midlife vacation (aka mammal & viki) inaugurated the festivities with a loud wall-pasting of electronic signals of various shapes with beat-like rhythms scurrying to & fro in the mix. might have been more effective if it had been louder, as it seemed a bit restrained. good effort tho, and i'd like to see midlife vacation play with more abandon in a more comfortable setting. good music to play bondage twister to.

kites was the reason to be there, rather than at the punk rock show at the magic stick. even the wolf guys stopped by to witness & encourage. kites is a true force, with some seriously inventive electronic devices & a thoroughly circuit bent casio keyboard, all sitting on a table he built with hockey sticks for legs, plus it sure looked like he had modified his clothes too. the guy put out an intense charge of expressive noise, sometimes shrieking in a microphone, sometimes adroitly manipulating toggles & knobs on the devices, sometimes standing back and swaying while he summoned up more ferocity. i was impressed by how well he played thru some slight possible equipment malfunctions, as if he was so well attuned that he could just go with whatever was possible. you could tell he was hearing it, he was busily using his stuff to keep the sounds changing. most of the sounds seemed to be originating from one source at a time, being shaped thru the boxes thru a range of strangeness before moving on to another part. a few times he did vent his voice thru a mic layered with thick distortion and kept right on the verge of out of control feedback, but not losing control. all kinds of mythical beasts that i couldn't recognize seemed to ooze out of the speakers & cavort around in the smoky atmosphere, flapping their leathery wings and dripping body fluids all over the crowd.

neon hunk brought the night home with a much better set than the last time i saw them (at cpop). they seemed to thrive in the intimate atmosphere, and most of the crowd didn't arrive until just before their set. the set had a nice blow it out end-of-tour feeling. at one point the mossmaster reached out with a drumstick and jennipheremone touching back with an outstretched finger, it was sweet to see them make a point of connecting during the set. her keyboards drive the songs with deceptively simple sounding parts that are great to see live as she steps in & out back & forth dancing to the beats laid down by the drums. they are clad in coordinated brightly patterned outfits with combo rubber masks & scarves as if they are about to rob an old west toy store. the only vocals that are audible are laden with distortio effects and you can really only hear anything betweens songs as they converse like japanese movie monsters. they did a great job of filling the room and bring the night to a rousing conclusion.


pauline oliveros with digital music ensemble
24 january 2oo3
university of michigan media union video studio, ann arbor

this was a great show, for me, because it gave me stuff to think about, gave me ideas, and was a pleasant experience all around. the 15 member digital music ensemble performed 3 compositions by oliveros, "sound pieces", "heart of tones" and "sound fishes". "sound pieces" was my favorite, performed on a substantial variety of toys & non-musical instruments (plastic cups, cereal boxes, rubber-soled shoes on wet floor, etc.) along with some occasional interjections by synths. it seemed as tho someone, somewhere in there was processing the sounds as they were picked up by the various microphones, tho i am not sure whether it was according to a prepared patch or whether someone was improvising with the mixing in progress. the result was kinda quiet, but almost classical in the arrangement. excellent use of the space, with performers moving out of the center of the room (including one person who was credited with "movement"), through & behind the audience, playing the acoustic dynamics of the environment along with the sound sources themselves. much more of an electro-acoustic experimental set than a digital music ensemble, in my opinion. "sound pieces" was an exercise in sustained dronely tones emitted by voices, violin, trombone and synths. the entire cast came out wearing a noisy material that seemed to resemble aluminum foil a lot, tho it didnt crinkle, but every movement added sounds. the sounds of the aluminum capes weren't incorporated into the performance, so i guess it was for appearance, strangely enuff. for the final piece, pauline oliveros picked up her accordion for the first time in the evening and exchanged phrases with the synths, laptop, string and horn players in a more musically-orinted performance. i appreciated very much the way the entire performance mixed serious soundscaping, humor, visual elements and appreciation of the possibilities of the room and players.


kevin drumm/iovae/brent gutzeit/dead machines
3 february 2oo3
buddha bar, detroit

dead machines, yet another of the "couples" projects i keep running into... tovah o'rourke & john olson. more restrained than the wolf eyes & other solo performances & recordings i have heard from olson. not familiar with tovah's work. the best sounding part was the manipulated toy piano, processed so that it sounded much like a japanese koto. made a cool sound when it fell off the table after the show, too.

tv pow's brent gutzeit used a laptop. at first, i was afraid that my fears of a temperament mismatch between the detroit noisemongers & the laptop intelligentsia were about to be realized. softly dripping sounds, possibly field recordings of water. then, without warning a huge freaking chorus choir organ loud loud loud mass of sound erupted from the p.a.. i turned to watch the reaction of the buddha bar regulars. lots of faces made & bar stools rapidly vacated. big up brent, much better than the relatively stolid tvpow show i witness a couple years back.

iovae (aka ron ostovich of death beam) faced the difficult task of following up gutzeit, but did well with a fun, fan-friendly smeared electronics sound augmented intermittently by mr. spencer yeh who added sore throat rear brain vox to be processed by iovae. they got an encore (or two), but by this time i was pretty eager to see kevin drumm. and besides, i don't drink. still, not bad.

drumm realized a king-sized distorto drone choral laptop composition that seemed to flatten much of the crowd up against any available surface. within the thick outer shell of noise there moved underchannels of... more noise, but in differing textures, colliding with the searing ear-aching miasma of the whole. i am slowly being awakened to the connections between these compositions and the obvious affection for black metal, both scandinavian & american (ex? -yavohej?). meanwhile dramas played out as the owner of the buddha decided that too many free drinks (or maybe too much drunk-frightening noise) was not what he had in mind for monday nights. a fitting end to this episode of monday night goofball. too bad, because the buddha had that intrinsic charm i haven't really found since i used to frequent the green top in kikalamazoo many blackouts ago. big up to aaron for putting these together & especially for bringing my man kd to play on 8 mile road. you coulda shoulda been there to see a grinning kevin drumm make the heavy metal devil horn fingers to the to the happy crowd after his stun-set.


mystic moog orchestra
4 february 2oo3
crackle #1o: cpop, detroit

since i was involved, i am going to throw this open to any poison pens (or keyboards) out there... imagine a dozen or so analog moog synths thrumming away at high volume... or else listen to an excerpt here... and send your comments for posting click here... & i will post them... look for a cd version of this session to be issued after warn defever gets it all sorted thru... [i will say i had a lotta fun, tho...]

comment #1: "really liked it.... i have to admit it sounded like a very bad traffic jam in some parts to me..."

comment #2: "if you closed your eyes you could imagine being in a movie theater surrounded by the newest sequel of star trek. smooth transitions from one mysterious sound to the next envelop you. buckle up."



 ~ r e b e l   g r i s w o l d
contact
d e s i d e r a t u m 2oo3 front | navigation aid (if you're lost) | previous set of reviews | next set of reviews |

[an error occurred while processing this directive] tried