May 25, 2016
Moogfest Special this week! I saw all the following artists perform in Durham for Moogfest, http://www.moogfest.com/
Disasterpeace created the original motion picture soundtrack to 2014's It Follows, one of my favorite horror movies and soundtracks of all time. The last performance we saw at Moogfest was a showing of It Follows and a Q&A with Disasterpeace after the movie. He let us know that this was the first time he watched the movie since he finished the soundtrack, which is pretty rad.
He did the writing and production of the It Follows soundtrack on Logic Pro, using all with software, no hardware. The director picked him to do the soundtrack after listening to his video game Fez (2012) soundtrack. The director pulled from Fez to inspire the soundtrack to It Follows (and after listening to Fez, I see it all come together). Disasterpeace felt like he was competing with himself when he was putting together the soundtrack.
Puzzle: Disasterpeace (Oakland, soon LA)(from 2012's "Fez")(0:28-2:24)
Fear: Disasterpeace (from 2012's "Fez")(2:25-5:46)
Heels: Disasterpeace (from 2014's "It Follows”)(5:49-8:27)
Larry Gus was one of my favorite live acts, hilarious and a nut. He layers upon layers of sounds, "psychedelic pop", and definitely an ethnic flavor - he's from Greece.
NP-Complete: Larry Gus (Greece)(2015)(8:28-14:46)
Another one of the best performances was Tara Busch, who did a LIVE scoring of (3) short horror films, one of which she helped produce. Not only was she incredibly precise and professional doing the live score of the films, she was stunning. She is one-half of the audio visual duo I Speak Machine. Her new project is the "unprintable book" Strata: http://analogsuicide.com/introducing-strata/. The following song is from the super short film Gagglebox.
My Girl (Theme to the short film Gagglebox): Tara Busch(LA/UK)(14:47-19:17)
Gary Numan was a diva. He came on an hour-and-a-half AFTER his scheduled time, DURING A FESTIVAL. But he was bad-ass, and we lined up to see him the next night – they played from the album Pleasure Principle. Gary is super sexy and hot, and knows it. The following is from his 2011 album, Dead Son Rising, which is incredibly industrial, dark electronic, and Gary Numan's style of minimal and great vocals.
For the Rest of My Life: Gary Numan (UK)(2011)(19:18-24:19)
Zombi is AWESOME LIVE, and we were lucky enough to see them since everyone was in line to see Gary Numan. This was the band I was dying to see live.
Pillars of the Dawn: Zombi (Pittsburgh)(2015)(24:53-28:12)
Dawn of Midi is a meditative and cerebral, minimal, loop-based, free jazz trio. And three cute indian dudes! They are all about precision and keeping time. They play the standard jazz instruments: stand-up bass, piano and drums. Crazy to see them live - as their precision was machine-like. I fell asleep, but that is not surprising: this type of music is definitely trance-inducing. This shit is supposed to be pondered, which is difficult for my lazy brain.
There is no way you will be able to stop watching this video, trust me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyI1yH78h4A&index=2&list=PLiXKw4QanRplZQrNA7iXglwJttTik7rjr
Nix: Dawn of Midi (Brooklyn)(2015)(28:13-31:57)
Rival Consoles is a cute English guy doing his THANG in electronica. He is a guitarist, and the new album is inspired by running synths through guitar pedals. He was an artist we stumbled upon, waiting for another, and loved his creations.
Ghosting: Rival Consoles (London)(2015)(31:58-36:21)
We heard M Geddes Gengras at the back of a dive bar: he is avante garde and truly modular. When he’s home, he likes to leave complicated synth patches and return to them later.
PERSONABLE-CAN-AU: M Geddes Gengras (LA)(36:22-46:14)
Ben Frost took the stage and then the smoke machines pumped, which annoyed me until his light show started. And then we were flown to another world. Talk about layering sound and light for a senses-feast. His performance was mind-blowing
Nolan: Ben Frost (Australia)(2015)(46:45-53:42)
Grouper is one person, her most recent album is "unplugged" - soft with piano, sounds of nature, and some drums. Her show was intense - obviously layered -there is ALWAYS layering, multitracked, fuzzy and gorgeous vocals.
Call Across Rooms: Grouper (Portland)(late 2014)(53:43-56:28)
The exact opposite of the previous song is Sunn O))), who we could hear all over town the day they played. First, we heard them do soundcheck from about 2 miles away. Then we saw them set up a billion amps for their OUTDOOR show later that evening. While we were walking to the field, we could hear the sonic booms. Then we watched them on stage, in a billowing cloud of smoke and cloaks and bad attitude. I've played from their most recent album, and I'll play them again dammit.
(part of) Kannon 2: Sunn O)))(Seattle)(2015)(56:29-END)