allo allo,

I sent these out here last year -- it's been a year! -- so here's another
take on Montreal's ever-interesting MUTEK festival. Coverage can be found
at: http://www.zed.cbc.ca/mutek


- tV




[ moments of mutek .01 - .03 ]

http://www.zed.cbc.ca/go.ZeD?POS=1&CONTENT_ID=139383&FILTER_KEY=92045&page=c
ontent&user=




Mutek always hits with the heat, but this year it has dropped with thunder
and drizzled the downpour. It's been a slow creep into a week that has snuck
up with more punch than expected. What would Mutek be like this year? How
many corps into the 'esprit Mutek'? With the late line-up announcement,
where are we at with digeratti, the mountain of avant-garde electronic music
and culture at 4 dots into the 21c?
 
(At the panel, Philip Sherburne, XLR8R journalist, is questioning  .. 'does
anyone read? I don't even read music magazines .. I just pick up and flip
through ...')
 
Last night @ SAT, tripping over bodies. Schneider TM rocks out the floor in
three suits of white, lab-rats in a cage. Singin', sputterin', shootin' from
the hip and chanting songs about the soundman: "The LEFT SPEAKER IS NOT
WORKING!" -- in a mass fucked up vocoder, the drummer slammin' down the MIDI
pads, squelch and squelch. The Germans know how to rock the techno-pop. (And
to send out the cliche: non-stop).
 
Earlier, Junior Boys on the geek-tip: is this the incoming of vocal emo
techno? (All the reasons we fled indie so many years ago - and here the
journalists, hear them now, singing the popification of techno. Hail the
song genre, the loop of the moment has faded. But is it really pop? What is
pop when sent to the genetic strain of techno?).
 
Another fragment of the night, the very end of the night, 3am-- and then
there was Smith 'n Hack: boing beats slammin' down but without sticking to
the 4. Interesting? No, just undanceable skipping samplers. Played song
style. Is Smith n' Hack brilliant or just goofing off with gear, stripping
work that any other producer would name the beta and not the final release?
All these questions that are more or less aimlessly circling the question of
aesthetic judgement. But also something else: a stench of death in numbers.
 
So forget the numbers. Follow the eyes to the trip-out of Fluux. Ah, Fluux,
at the new salle in Ex-Centris. No longer do we cramp on the cement floor.
Mutek has gone upscale, to the theatre (and sweet surround theatre sound of
precisely alienating frequencies). And to the beautiful world of Fluux, the
incredible and sustained animation, of gravity and wireframe models swimming
in pools of physics. Hands-down, Fluux's performance constituted the most
spectacular moment in visual and music production that has graced Mutek's
stage (and yes that includes Bola).
 
Chessmachine: Richard Chartier and COH (Ivan Pavlov). The game: pink vs.
blue. Sonic chess. Microscopic to noise. Moves and parries. At this point,
sound has become conceptual: the entirety of the performance mimes Duchamp's
chess game in New York, on the arch above the park.
 
http://www.chessgames.com/player/marcel_duchamp.html
 
'Chess is a sport. A violent sport. This detracts from its artistic
connections. One intriguing aspect of the game that does imply artistic
connotations is the geometrical patterns and variations of the actual set up
of the pieces in the combinative, tactical, strategical and positional
sense. It is a sad means of expression though - somewhat like religious art-
it is not very gay. If anything, it is a struggle.' -- Marcel Duchamp
 
++ And a struggle it was, producing through its conflict of moves an
intricate back-and-forth. Low rumbles and hard hits from Pavlov; complex
rhythms and strategies from Chartier. Increasing frustration as Pavlov gets
up from his chair. Deadpan, in his blue. Chartier, in his pink. Each with a
coloured flag, hitting the chess timer with a mark of combat and a
gentleman's agreement.
 
Again, another move in electronic music's development: toward the larger
concept of the generation (Beyond laptop, the laptop as a piece in a much
larger structure. The homology of the laptop to the chess game; the binary
moves of the dot and the dash, retreat, encapture, en passant.)
 
[ fragments arriving // ]
 
 
=====


RASTER-NOTON SOUND-SYSTEM : SAMPLING THE SAMPLERS
 
How many times have you gone out to a ?show¹ only to find it¹s a masochistic
bow-down to the ancient gods of sonus? Roll that again, ?cause we¹re trying
to find words for what passed last night with Byetone, Frank Bretschneider
and Carsten Nicolai on a sound-system. A sound-system: a black skycraper, a
speaker grilled to the target of immolation. Where sound becomes physical
input to genetic remixing (move the body in impossible formats). When the
hairs on your arms stand on end, when the sound destroys all that remains of
your head, your heart, your body. When the muscles flutter involuntarily.
When sine waves coarse direct the techno conduit opens the bodymind.
 
Unfortunately, it¹s too bad most of the crowd could only view it as a
spectacle, mouths agape, arms crossed. As the saying goes, stunned like
sheep, knee-deep. But there were a few getting freaky. Moving arms and legs
to the static, the bleep, the bass drop. Those cold Germans... what is it
that unravelled the sharp ice that cuts from silence to submission....
 
It¹s hot here now. The heat is out in the sun. Crammed into the SAT
yesterday, for the Thinkbox Collective from Windsor/Detroit, unwinding to
the melodic loops of techno in the breaking afternoon. From thunder to sun.
Ah, techno. Forget pop?all that pop has to offer is exciting only insofar as
its horizon is clear. The direction of pop offers all the possibilities we
can imagine within the sphere of pop. And pop will and can mutate. But pop¹s
strain is a horizon that says: here I am, singing that same ol¹ song.
 
³It¹s that what people in the Civil Rights movement died for.. to dance
around in malls..?² ­ Herbert on Fat Boy Slim¹s sampling of a Civil Rights
song, with the accompanying ³humourous² video from Spike Jonze, @ MUTEK¹s
packed sampling panel.

³The Bush administration will go down as the worst in history.² ­Rob
Theakston, powerpoint-style visual presentation during his ThinkBox
performance, SAT
 
Ah the debates are stirring here on the sampling panel. John Oswald, of
Plunderphonics, throwing down the history and correcting Tomas Palermo¹s
narrative of sampling (Palermo?Editor of XLR8R). Jason Forrest, aka Donna
Summer, with the straight-up take-no-prisoners aesthetic, but moving through
the perspective of semiotics?the symbol of sound, the sampling of the
emotive force in a personal context. Herbert, arguing for the
sampling-of-the-world, with a political edge that slices into sampling the
works of others?why sample other music when we can sample anything? Mark
Quail, sound lawyer, instructing all on how it works (and offering the free
advice?laying down the law, and isn¹t it good to know that there is a
sympathetic ear on this side of the fence). Stefan Betke (aka Pole), with
the European mood: let the artist do what the artist does?and let the
industry and the world worry about the rest.
 
And really, the question is: are aesthetics and ethics inseparable? (Jason
Forrest thinks the two can be distinct?Herbert doesn¹t). It¹s all about, as
one member of the audience asserts, the marginalization of the few in favour
of the name of the one.
 
³Jesus was basically telling these old stories, and putting a nasty twist on
the end of it... he was punished a little more than we are now² ­ a certain
member of the Canadian Music Centre, on the historically infinite of
³sampling²
 
³The records are made to be used in a context... some people don¹t get their
piece along the way... those who fight for it are going to be able to get
paid² ­ Mark Quail
 
But what about those who can¹t afford it? [paraphrase]
 
³But there are lawyers who work for free...² ­ Mark [a lawyer who probably
is better than most, pro bono]
 
³...we wouldn¹t be having this discussion if we didn¹t have people pushing
the envelope...² ­ Tomas Palermo, XLR8R
 
³tobias c. van Veen²


======


[3] Mutek Moments: End to End, Techno Again
 
³... the creativity of the lawyers is stifling the creativity of the artists
.. the world is turning upside down... ² ­ Mark Quail, lawyer, Toronto .
 
³... this ugly lawyer bullshit is fucking boring..² ­ Jason Forrest, aka
Donna Summer.
 
³So let¹s talk about something else.² ­ John Oswald
 
³Yah, like ?70s rock!² ­ Jason Forrest, aka Donna Summer.
 
That was the end of the sampling panel. From here the usual amounts of sleep
deprivation that stick to Mutek like vinyl to a hot ass begin to strip
everyone of their mental capacity to comprehend basic logic. Set theory
diminished with a rapid advance in all areas as passes ran amok in Burger
Kings rampant with disjointed, singing men... what the fuck am I rambling
about... here before Plastikman.., ears ringing still from the pounding hard
techno. I must tell you of this: this pounding hard techno. Just yesterday I
was saying: Mutek needs some pounding hard techno as well as pop. And they
did it. The division was apparent and the response was immediate at this
free cinq-a-sept. Lead on, brother, into the world of Mike Shannon and Jay
Hunsberger, and the reappearance of Montreal¹s oldskool Marc Dumais. But
also the incredibly energetic house of Daniel Gardner, aka Frivolous, who in
a chef hat, rocked the piano chords?live?in a set that damn deserves the
title?live. Yah, people playing music, all over again, here at SAT. And
people outside, well one at least, dressed in an orange Guantanamo jumpsuit,
with the noiz-kart, playing the protest beats. Shopping cart, laptop and
metal loudspeaker, why not? None other than Greyg Filastine of Post-World
Industries and ex-!Tchkung! bandmate. Good to see some spontaneous noise,
art and political force arriving in the staid Mutek crowd (and the response
was good from all quarters).
 
Tonight is Plastikman in this moderate weather and the expectations are high
for the sound to eclipse our past deafness and to enter the sublime world of
the meltdown. I desire it, I want it, I beg for it?and if we don¹t get it,
it will be a disappointed moment. But no doubt we will enjoy it. We will
love it. It¹s all about losing it all over again. A few might be already
tired of the acieed revival?as the Editor of De:Bug tells me?but here it
hasn¹t hit yet and we are all seeking it. Why? Because no other genre has
the alien 303. Bring it on.
 
These notes should not be considered verbatim... there¹s more than one of us
writing them now... falling apart at the seams...


======







tobias c. van Veen -----------
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org
http://www.thisistheonlyart.com
---McGill Communications------
ICQ: 18766209 | AIM: thesaibot



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