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adventures in modern music
The Wire's Adventures In Modern Music festival is now over, and even with having skipped two nights, I still got my fill of spectacularly engaging music.
My set of personal highlights:
Sunn O))). Imagine death metal slowed down, way down, until it becomes a kind of ambient music. The ambience of crushing doom. Great stuff. This is a band that can get away with both using a smoke machine and performing in Spinal-Tap-style druidic robes. They earn it! Read this Julian Cope review for more hyperbole.
Lightning Bolt. Like Sunn O))), Lightning Bolt are a two-man unit that produces incredible noise with enthusiasm and deep sincerety. Only where Sunn O))) uses the black grind of death metal as their raw material, Lightning Bolt starts off using the palette of hardcore punk: frenetic drums, angular bass. But Lightning Bolt bears the same resemblance to your average hardcore band that the zombies on speed in Dead Alive bear to your garden-variety "they're dead; they're all messed up"-style zombies.
John Butcher, Kaffe Matthews, Andy Moor. Improv set. John Butcher on sax, Kaffe Matthews on laptop and mini-theremin, Andy Moor (of the Ex) on guitar. This set really came together in that way that improv sets often don't: the players seemed to be listening closely to one another, building a texture collaboratively and cautiously. Check out some of Matthews' releases over at Annette Works.
!!!. Party rock for hipsters. What can I say? I don't think that they're particularly breaking any new ground, but it's always good when a band makes you move your ass, and they do it reliably. Labels: audio_commentary, music_commentary |
Monday, September 29, 2003
1:00 PM
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