Whoa. So 2 weeks ago I saw Stewart Walker and Shawn Rudiman in DC. Now, I get to see The Kooky Scientist. I kind of feel like I've seen techno done brilliantly live 3 times.
Fred used Ableton Live to do most of the sounds, with a few of his mysterious black boxes. Working from an original set of loops and samples, it was a seamless piece that lasted over an hour -- the whole idea of tracks is broken down -- rather Fred plays extended moods. He has a knack for toying with audience response, always holding a mix as long as it feels good. So while he varies percussion, synth sounds etc throughout the mix there's really no delimiter on 'tracks.' Nearly any arbitrary 10 minute slice of what he did could be considered a track, but the smooth way new sounds creep into the mix really plays with a listener's sense of time. Perhaps the best way to say it is that Fred played one banging techno track that just happened to be 75 minutes long, and interesting all the way through. Opening was DJ Redeyez from the Quad Cities, who played a fierce techno set, flawless as usual. Why does nobody believe me when I tell them there are kids in Iowa who could go anywhere in the world and rock the house? He played a relentless, emotional mix of hard techno and got people moving early. After Redeyez, Vince Woolum played some deep drum and bass with Juan and Austin of the committee on the microphone. I thought it was a great idea -- the Committee MCs are becoming polished performers, and they were performing stuff they'd rehearsed with Vince, so it was like a really high energy hip hop set, to top drum & bass tracks. They're talking about touring around the midwest -- book them ;-) Thanks to all the Rotation crew -- Michelle, Darian, Jeremy, Matt, Dan (who did video) Mike, George for putting on a great show. The video was sweet -- from the large screen abstracts to the live video of Fred Giannelli, glowing in a Blue Light. He really looked like a scientist at work. And thanks to the Iowa folks who really came out to support the event, and showed great enthusiasm. I don't normally associate techno this agressive with a deep vibe, but for me tonight felt deep. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
