| #663 |
|
2003 |
Perilous 663 At last Perilous we were at Day Two of Sonar in Barcelona, so onwards to Day Three. The fortunate thing about Sonar, which we only really realised after the all nighter on Day Two was that the daytime events really only kick in at 5pm which gives plenty of time for sleeping in and then getting a leisurely late lunch at any of Barcelona’s excellent cafes. Day Three in the outdoors of the MACBA/CCCB started off with a calm set from Safety Scissors. Like many US artists, Safety Scissors has left the States to escape the climate of oppressive patriotism/imperialism and set up in Berlin where the rents are considerably cheaper and the support for interesting art is much greater. Playing a selection from his Parts Water on Plug Research on a laptop and shy live vocals, he snuck in a few new tracks including a cover of an old New Order song (Ultraviolence from 83’s Power Corruption & Lies). Also sneaking under many peoples’ noses was the performance by Haruomi Hosono former Yellow Magic Orchestra, one of the most important Japanese electronic pop acts from the late 70s and early 80s. Now probably in his 50s and with his three piece Sketch Show – all laptops and headset microphones and software vocoders, he is making some lovely quiet synth pop mutated by digital effects. Back out on the main outdoor stage two big inflatable backpacks appeared on either side of the stage and a curtain set up to herald the Puppetmastaz, a hip hop puppet troupe who put out an album Creature Funk a few years ago. Kind of like the prank call puppets of Crank Yankers, the Puppetmastaz were pretty funny for the first ten minutes . . . . oh, and then Yoda appeared . . . . Back inside the first of a series of sets by acts from Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound. Starting with an almost obliterating set of raw noise from Jazzkammer the same stage later featured a stellar show from Jaga Jazzist whose Tortoise-on-amphetamines sound was even more engaging in their 12-piece band format. Crammed onto the small stage, Jaga Jazzist’s drummer, programmer and lead Martin Hornveth complete with heavy metal mullet, built up a wild sweat slapping out sensational double and triple time rhythms that would make a drum machine jealous. Back outside Kenneth James, boss of US label Aesthetics was spinning a mix of his favourite hip hop and post-rock (apparently not such an odd combination) in preparation for a live set from his hip hop signing Seth P Brundel. Brundel’s set was disappointingly generic and James’ set provided one of the strangest moments of Sonar. On retrospect I think it was an incredibly ‘American’ thing to do and it made most of us laugh – he played The Streets ‘Stay Positive’ then gestured wildly jumping up and down pointing at the record then grabbing the mike and yelling “this is the shit . . . its for my wife . . . I just got married . . . . this is what its about”. It was just so ‘average’. Akufen’s laptop crashed mid-set, then Pulseprogramming closed the last day of Sonar with a great set of melancholy electronics – three guys with laptops and grainy black & white visuals. And then it was all over apart from the big Underworld and Carl Cox event later that night . . . we decided to head elsewhere. It is times like this that the other events that are timed to coincide with Sonar come in handy. During the first days of Sonar the Wrong Festival took place at the other end of town with noisy cut up and plunderphonic artists like Donna Summer, Hrvastki, and DJ/Rupture playing in a small bar. In the last two years Wrong had been highly praised but this year the new venue and terrible PA made it difficult to enjoy. On the other hand, the Versus Festival had two amazing venues – one a converted medieval church (with amazing acoustics) featured Karsten Pflumm and other melodic IDM artists, and the other in a old theatre with everything from a Kompakt showcase through to Mitchell Akiyama and Aoki Takamasa. The sheer volume of people that come to Barcelona for Sonar make these kind of event possible and viable. Most importantly these events demonstrate the healthiness of Sonar as an event – that these are not so much competitors as symbiotic events – mopping up the crowd who don’t want to go to the more commercial night time artists . . . . . next June, I’d highly recommend you check it out. Back into the swing of things at Frigid we have Kode9 from UK dubstep night Forward on the 27th then make sure you don’t miss the only show from the inimitable Prefuse73 at the Gaelic Club on August 1 followed by Yo La Tengo at the Metro on August 2. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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