As electronic dance music (EDM) is on the rise, there’s been no shortage of acts popping up with zany hooks and kookier personas. Stripping away the glitz and spectacle, Jon Hopkins has been producing some of 2013’s most thoughtful electronic tracks. Tomorrow, Nov. 26, Hopkins will be bringing his set to The Crocodile.
His latest album, Immunity, has received high marks all around in reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, The Guardian, and others. And it’s not hard to see why. Hopkins treats his work like compositions. Each track flows into the next, wavering around melancholy with glitch rhythms contorting throughout. Though it’s an instrumental record, Hopkins strays away from lighthearted dance beats. Expect more swaying and less twerking at his Crocodile set. Immunity is atmospheric and introspective, a softer side of electronic music, and Hopkins is embracing it fully.
His work with Purity Ring has gotten Hopkins quite a bit of buzz lately. The remix of his track “Breathe This Air” features vocals from Purity Ring’s Megan James. Her voice sporadically flashes throughout around her lead melody.
Fellow English producers Clark and Nathan Fake will be opening; they create a trifecta of low-key producers without pseudonyms. With the dry, cold weather and this lineup, the dark room of The Crocodile will become a suitable transplant of a UK dub electronic club.
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Midday Veil, one of several psych-rock acts expanding minds at the Triple Door this weekend. (Photo: Tony Kay)
Somewhere around the 1980s, when Baby Boomers began graying and the musical rebel cries of their youth settled into rose-tinted memory, the word psychedelic morphed from its original pharmaceutical context into quaint semaphore for anything with bright colors, or any band that exhibited even the faintest pinch of a ‘60s influence.
But psychedelic music’s about much more than meandering Granola blues riffs à la Canned Heat or The Grateful Dead, or a tie-dyed T-shirt. In the most ideal iteration of the term, psych-rock should be barrier-breaking, strange, exotic, outside-the-box, and informed by an altered state of being (and no, you don’t have to literally be on psychedelics to create or appreciate it).
Thank God there are a few bands out there looking to reclaim psychedelic music by doing their own thing. And this weekend, the Triple Door offers several hits of the best psych-rock out there with the Hypnotikon Seattle Psych Rock Fest.
Spurred by similar musical festivals in Austin and LA, Hypnotikon showcases nearly every bastard offspring of psychedelic music, from swoony shoegazer pop to the metronomic Cinemascope dissonance of krautrock. Both Friday and Saturday night feature local and national psych-rock acts, and at $25 per night (or $40 for both days), it’s a sensory feast at a reasonable price (check out the Triple Door website for all the deets). Here’s how the line-up for both nights stacks up.
Friday:
Fungal Abyss, Friday’s opening band, formed as a side project for Seattle prog-metal titans Lesbian, but FA’s grown into its own distinctive animal. Their long, often-improvised tracks unspool with a well-honed sense of sonic atmosphere and a backbeat that goes from jazzy to seismic in an instant.
Midday Veil, another Seattle-based project, provided Bumbershoot’s most headily-delicious hour this last Labor Day Weekend, and their Hypnotikon set will likely follow suit. Emily Pothast’s rich dark-chocolate chant of a voice gives the band’s wildly-experimental sonics (Indian Raga meets experimental electronic by way of Pink Floyd?) an exotic and mesmerizing center.
Bay area band Lumerians, by contrast, creates a dense, danceable drone that spikes traditional psychedelic rock tropes like trippy guitars and mind-expanding lyrics with stuttering percussion and fuzzed-out keyboards.
Chicago band Cave should make for a great capper to the evening: Sweaty rock energy runs roughshod alongside raga-like repetition, funk grooves, and caterwauling synths, and they’re reportedly as forceful as they are forward-thinking, live.
Saturday:
Seattle’s Jetman Jet Team open Day Two of Hypnotikon with a lovely, textbook example of psychedelia’s romantic kid sibling, shoegazer music. That translates to lush, tuneful, British-sounding pop songs wrapped in a blanket of symphonic guitar pings and whooshes. It’s a familiar formula that’s easy to take for granted, but Jetman do it to the swirly, fetching hilt.
Night Beats moved from Texas to Seattle a few years ago, chewing on the hallucinogenic roots of old-school psych-rock hellions like the 13th Floor Elevators the whole way. Like their psychedelic forebears, Night Beats play straight-ahead garage rock songs with the kind of ferocious live presentation that blows all notions of simple revivalism out of the water. If they’re not the most potently-rocking act all Hypnotikon, I’ll eat both of the hats I own.
Cloudland Canyon contrast Night Beats’ guitar-based sound with a heavily-synthesized style — monolithic, buzzing keyboards, walls of restless electronic percussion, and disembodied vocals that lend a trippy but distinctively human quality to the music.
It wouldn’t be a proper psych-rock fest, however, without at least one rediscovered act from psychedelia’s early days, and Hypnotikon closes out with a doozy.
New York duo Silver Apples began playing in the late 1960s, creating their own mini-universe of strange noises with vocalist/keyboardist Simeon’s handmade synthesizers and wraithlike voice, and Danny Taylor’s pulsing drums. The resulting sounds proved too damned weird even for the drug-fueled Sixties, but the metronomic drive and eccentricity of their catalog presaged current electronic dance music in a big way. Taylor passed away in 2005, so Simeon has carried on Silver Apples solo, partly utilizing the modern technology that his music helped shape in the first place. And hearing this 75-year-old guy creating alien sounds that still sound ahead of their time could turn out to be the most transcendent portion of the whole weekend.
At age 65, Laurie Anderson still defies description. Her performance-art pieces combine visual, musical, and electronic elements into dramatic, highly-personal multimedia events. Anderson’s long career has taken many twists and turns. Trained as a sculptor, she entered the performance-art world in 1969 with a musical work written for car horns. In 1981, her single “O Superman” climbed the pop charts in the UK. Anderson is also known for her experimentation with electronic music and sound, particularly in the area of voice modification. Her inventions often involve the use of the electric violin and keyboard.
Laurie Anderson (Photo: Warner Bros)
On Saturday, Anderson arrived at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall to present her most recent work, “Dirtday!”. Upon entering the auditorium, the sold-out crowd was greeted by a constellation of candles scattered around the sparse, darkened stage. Anderson’s electronic keyboard and violin huddled on one side of the stage, while a leather armchair stood on the other. Just off center hung a blank white screen suspended above the stage.
Illuminated by a single spotlight, Anderson begins the performance with a brief, improvisational solo on the electric violin. Throughout the 90-minute show, she returns to the violin again and again, using instrumental interludes to bridge sections of the performance.
Though music plays a vital role in “Dirtday!”, much of the performance centers on Anderson’s spoken-word monologue. The work is an immersive odyssey into Anderson’s world, a platform for the expression of her ideas, emotions, anecdotes, and musings about life. Anderson’s voice, with the meditative cadence and lyrical tones of a yoga teacher, remains a soothing force even when she’s discussing topics like the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the US government to detain citizens suspected of terrorist activity without trial.
In terms of content, “Dirtday!” sprawls, digresses, and covers much ground. Anderson touches on a huge range of topics, including Darwinism, dreams, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and fond recollections of her piano-playing dog, Lolabelle. At times, her presentation feels like the ramblings of a chatty, dog-loving grandmother, albeit one with sharp political opinions and a wry sense of humor. The ideas don’t always adhere together in a cohesive manner, but we don’t hold it against Anderson. As spectators experiencing her personal, artistic, and intellectual odyssey, we are guests in her world.
Anderson’s monologue is accompanied by simple but dramatic visual and audio effects. Colored lights illuminate the stage and the hanging screen in glowing hues, slowly shifting between reds, blues, and greens. A soundtrack of dramatic beats is enhanced by effects from Anderson’s keyboard, which she plays while speaking. At times during her monologue, Anderson switches on one of her signature voice filters, which lowers and deepens her voice, making her sound manly and ghoulish. One of the most effective moments of the performance involves Anderson singing a duet with herself, her normal voice echoed by the sinister filtered version.
Sometimes, all of this is a bit overly cinematic. At times, the pounding electronic rhythms give the performance the air of a cheesy spin-off of the Inception film trailer. When coupled with the diabolical tones of Anderson’s filtered voice, the glowing colors of the stage lighting turn the suspended screen into a diabolical Eye of Sauron, straight from the set of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Anderson doesn’t miss the opportunity to show off one of her electronic inventions. She incorporates a demonstration of her modified “pillow speaker”, a small device that fits into her mouth and transforms her voice into violin tones. This doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of “Dirtday!”, but the technology is so enthralling that it doesn’t matter. The performance would have been enhanced with the inclusion of more of Anderson’s gadgets and inventions.
Despite Anderson’s constant digressions, the force of her personality and the immersive nature of her presentation are enough to hold one’s attention throughout “Dirtday!”. The Meany Hall audience remained riveted, giving Anderson two standing ovations at the end of her performance. It’ll be interesting to see what this iconic artist comes up with next in her journey of creation, innovation, and expression.
The ninth Decibel Festival, Seattle’s International Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art, and New Media, began overloading Seattle’s senses last night. The Fest runs until this Sunday, October 2. Tickets for individual events are on sale in advance and at the door: Check the links below for prices and venues.
Below are recommendations for the remainder of the Fest from SunBreak Contributor Donte Parks and Music Editor Tony Kay.
Donte:
Amon Tobin [Tonight @ The Red Bull Music Academy Presents Showcase, Paramount Theatre–SOLD OUT]
The premiere of Amon Tobin’s ISAM A/V setup at MUTEK this year was a mindblowing visual extravaganza, leaving audiences awed by the eye candy if not necessarily by the music. If you have the opportunity, this is definitely not one to miss. Now the bad news. It’s sold out. That said, there’s bound to be someone selling a ticket at the door. This is worth taking on that hassle.
Miracles Club [Friday @The Loft Revival, The Woods]
This Portland group isn’t yet a household name, but considering how much they’ve been performing in NYC lately they’re definitely on the rise. Poised to be the most fun at all of Decibel, this group plays house music with tables full of analog gear, a throwback to a rawer-sounding era. Come ready to dance.
Martyn [Friday @ Resident Advisor Presents The Blurring the Lines Showcase, Neumos]
A few years ago, Martyn became a Decibel highlight with his (short) set at the Church of Bass afterhours. Now he’s back to show off his new live set, and expectations are running high that he’ll be able to repeat his past glory. His newest material show he’s picking up right where he left off, eschewing strict genre categorization with his rhythmically interesting productions.
dOP [Sunday @ The Flammable Showcase, Re-Bar]
dOP’s tracks don’t give much indication of just how insane their live shows can be, leaving the audience laughing as much as dancing. Will there be nudity? Probably. Booze poured over the audience? Again, probably. Is the fact that this is happening at Flammable as the Decibel finale going to take this to absolutely ridiculous levels of fun? Definitely.
Tony:
Ladytron [Tonight @ Sinthetic Showcase, Showbox Market]
It’s odd to refer to Ladytron’s blend of detached femme vocals, icy keyboards, and Euro-chic songcraft as warm and fuzzy–but in the context of the Brave New World of modern electronic music, it is. This Liverpudlian quartet emphasizes the pop in synth-pop, and their frankly retro sound should fuel plenty of swoony swaying. If replicant versions of Ani and Agnetha from ABBA fronted Ultravox, it’d sound something like this.
Mountains/Simon Scott [Friday @ OPTICAL 1: Sine Your Name Across My Heart Showcase, Nordstrom Recital Hall, Benaroya Hall]
When My Bloody Valentine fired up their bongs and plugged in synthesizers along with their guitars twenty-plus years ago, they didn’t just influence guitar bands. The first installment of OPTICAL’s Decibel Fest presentations showcases three acts who marry MBV’s shoegazing sound with Ambient Electronica. Headliner Schnauss will likely provide a palatable bed of gently-shuffling dance atmospherics, but the highlights to these ears will be the two openers.
UK artist Simon Scott knows a thing or two about eddying currents of sound: He drummed for the late great shoegazer band slowdive in the ’90’s, and his solo material unearths pockets of haunted romance amongst Eno-esque textures.
Mountains, by contrast, present a deceptively minimal soundscape that has a way of building and metamorphosing unexpectedly. The Brooklyn-based duo’s live sets lean on organic sounds more heavily than most of Decibel’s acts, stretching and molding acoustic/analog instruments and field recordings like so much electronic taffy. The end result is as mesmerising as anything you’ll hear all Decibel Fest.
Oval [Saturday @ OPTICAL 2: Grains of Sound Showcase, Nordstrom Recital Hall, Benaroya Hall]
Oval (AKA Berlin musician Markus Popp) helped pioneer Glitch electronica. He’s a master of manipulating the sub-genre’s hallmark whirs and irregularities into playful soundscapes that somehow manage to soothe, unsettle, and induce booty-shaking at equal turns. This set marks the world premiere of his new music/AV show, and he seldom makes his way to the states, so expect one of Decibel’s undisputed treats herein.
