| #588 |
|
2002 |
Perilous 588 Its an exciting week this week. Having witnessed the chaos and mayhem, animal intestines and lashings of sangria, courtesy of La Fura Del Baus’ crazy, almost psychotic reinterpretation of Macbeth, the Hordern returns to its more musical role. New Order play one show there on top of their Big Day Out appearance. Its been a long time waiting for them to tour. Of course, whether seeing these old crusty rockers turns out to be more than a hipper version of Elton John’s infamous ‘night of classics’ kind of thing remains to be seen. Amusingly, even older crustier electro producer Arthur Baker (the chubby guy at the mixing desk in New Order’s film clip for Confusion) joins them as support. Outside of his immense commercial pop production credits, Baker produced the seminal Planet Rock and the classic Criminal Element Orchestra cut up track Put The Needle On The Record. It should be amusing. Also this week, a trickle of new music is starting to emerge post-Christmas. The long awaited new album from Bola on Skam called Fyuti has been released. The follow up to the exceptional 1999 release Soup which, along with Boards Of Canada, seemed to put Skam on the map, Fyuti is a solid record. Fyuti is full of warm synths and moments reminiscent of early 90s chill mashed over clever beats. Unashamedly retro one track even moves close to the chord progressions of Coldcut’s classic chill track Autumn Leaves, complete with Mixmaster Morris ‘shimmer’ effects. Not so much easy listening, but uncomplicated listening. The complete opposite of such reassuring manoeuvres comes from Richard Devine whose latest album for the Miami-based Schematic, Aleamapper, is a dense fog of noise and sound. Best listened to on headphones, Aleamapper is almost completely beatless yet a swarm of rhythms play consistently across the stereo field as glitch and white noise static fight for your attention. There are moments where it is almost unbearable but when listened to in the right setting where you can lose yourself in the endless complexity of the sound it is very rewarding, almost calming. Insomniacs play themselves white noise to help get to sleep, Aleamapper plays on the same idea except jarring your into some sort of inbetween space. Devine’s album makes the most abstract Autechre sound like pop music. Less abrasive and also new on Schematic is the second album from Otto Von Shirach. Von Shirach, known for his work for Beta Bodega as well as Schematic, reveals his hip hop and electro influences running a few odd rhymes over his mashed up beats and processed sounds. Noisy, at times mangled, distorted and strangely funky, Von Shirach’s Escalo Frio is worth checking out if you dig Matmos (who guest on one track), Phoenecia or other similar. Strangely funky also are our guests at Frigid this week. For the long weekend, Melbourne’s nuttiest hip hoppers Curse Ov Dialect drop in for their only Sydney club show (they are playing at the Lilypad stage of the Big Day Out). They are joined by Brisbane live dub funk outfit Hot Rubber Glove. On the 3rd of February we launch the Other Animals compilation, a benefit CD for the Humane Society released and compiled by the Ultimo-based Couchblip label. Featuring a palette of the new wave of IDM crews both from Australia and overseas, including Funkstroung, the Other Animals CD is a very strong compilation. There will be live sets from Robokoneko, Disjunction Reunion, Bloq, Alex Davies and a DJ set by the ever impressive Buggin. Also, mid February sees the legendary Cryogenesis event return . . . see the web for details. www.snarl.org Yellow Peril  Goto
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