review

well here we go with the start of the month of reviews. will i be able to do it? probably not. will it be a glorious failure, nope just a failure.

well first up for this was a laptop event, which given my infected ear (antibiotics working the pus bubble has popped making an interesting sound an startling me).

the club delectronica (the website is a bit to flash for it's own good - simple would have been much better) has been going for a while, but about 6 months at it's current location. i have been to all the events that have taken place at the poet pub. the place itself is atmospheric and almost more suited to the chin stroking and navel gazing of laid back drug fueled jazz than it is to cutting edge laptoppery.
it all takes place in the dim lit basement, atmosphere is created by the judicious placing of candles around the place (even getting up and down the stairs involves candlelight - not good for someone of my increasing years...)

last nights event consisted of two laptop acts, djs and visuals.
taken as a whole event it was a good night. the first act, cubus, was two guys playing their sounds on two laptops (generally these are always apple ibooks or powerbooks...) their sound was ambient with a noticeable drumtrack type sound. luckily they gave out a cd at the event so that i can sit back and listen to them a bit more at my leisure at home. (there is an mp3 sample of them on the website). the second act was ochre, much more musical in that there more peaks and troughs in the music.
both are acts i will go and see again.

there is a problem with laptop music at events such as delectronica and that is that people tend to talk and talk and talk. it becomes hard to concentrate on the music, (normally i am a heavy listener at such events - oh hell yes i am a chin stroker... but last night it was a chatty night as my friend richard was there (hi richard) so not as much attention paid to the music as i think it deserved).

i think part of the problem is that the event is free and so people don't feel the need to pay attention, but given the cinema audiences (where they are paying a lot) it does seem that most people have trouble sitting quiet for something.

i have an issue with laptop, and an ongoing argument with another friend (joel), i don't really consider the guys who are doing on stage to be musicians. joel argues they are, i don't think that they are in the same sense that a guitarist or violinist playing live is.
at most of the laptops gigs i have been to there seems to be little room for improvisation (a few have had to pass on encores because they had played all their files). in some sense these "operators" could in fact just be playing a cd through their laptops, and to be honest i wouldn't know one way or the other....
what these guys are are composers they create sounds and these are sounds that probably only they can play - not sure many people are going to be covering a scanner song or a leafcutter john song. it is through the composing of the sounds, whether as a minimal soundscape or a densely layered sonic picture.
as with anything there are good and bad out there (and because of the almost universality of computers there is potentially pool of such composers).
last nights two acts were good ones, i hope to see more of them.