Electronic Music NewsThree years or 30 it’s always Saturday night in D-town techno
The News Review:
- Three years or 30 it’s always Saturday night in D-town techno
- Music Review | Wordless Music Series
- Concert Halls Hit High Notes
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- Return of the missing Lynx
- The Sea And Cake Returns To Straightforward Rock
- Yes: Fragile (Expanded) : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone
Three years or 30 it’s always Saturday night in D-town techno
Detroit Metro Times – Sep 26, 2007
The same night I met Sebastian Riedl who records under the cheeky name Basteroid. He and his friends Michael Schwanen (aka Metope) and Matthias Klein (aka Konfekt) started Areal another label that turned techno on its ear in 2000. Also in Berlin I met Mark Ernestus whose influence on electronic music has been well documented and championed by insiders but is largely unknown anywhere else. Ernestus and studio partner Moritz von swald are directly responsible for a seismic shift in the music that took place in the early to mid-1990s. By creating the Basic Channel Chain Reaction Burial Mix Rhythm & Sound and Main Street projects the pair combined Detroit Chicago and dub inspirations by reducing techno and house music to rare essences akin to the subtlety in making a sumptuous meal or a fine wine. n other occasions I met fellow travelers Thomas Köner and Robert Henke who helped retool techno in the late 1990s with their groups Porter Ricks and Monolake. Back in Detroit I’ve roamed around the Movement Festival with Stefan Betke (who as the stripped-down jazzy digital-dub performer Pole has consistently challenged the techno status quo) and with Kompakt’s Superpitcher (Aksel Schaufler) and Thomas Fehlmann the latter just hours away from performing with Dr.
Music Review | Wordless Music Series
New York Times – Sep 26, 2007
But there’s also something off-putting about the project’s scope. The organizers promise that the concerts will “demonstrate that the various boundaries and genre distinctions segregating music today — ‘popular’ and ‘classical’; ‘uptown’ and ‘downtown’; ‘high’ art and ‘low’ — are an artificial construct in need of dismantling. ”But surely there’s something artificial about its conception of popular music with its narrow focus on respectable indie-rock and mellow electronic music. This year’s lineup includes the instrumental indie act Do Make Say Think the dreamy Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear the Icelandic collective Mum and a new composition from Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Judging from that list the organizers would do well to avoid making any claims about ending musical segregation. For their part the members of Beirut did their best although there remains something tantalizing or frustrating about seeing this band live. The oom-pa-pa rhythms and minor-key melodies have a way of blending together and you may occasionally find yourself longing for the heft and propulsion of an old-fashioned (which is to say newfangled) rock ’n’ roll rhythm section.
Concert Halls Hit High Notes
BusinessWeek – Sep 26, 2007
Making the Hall a Landmark"It was one large acoustic exercise" says MA partner Ellen van Loon of designing the Casa da Música in Porto. "[Musicians] basically use every square centimeter to perform even the [outdoor] hall square. " This concert hall includes a room for presentations of electronic music along with daylight-filled backstage areas—an unexpected treat for musicians more accustomed to cramped drab surroundings. Increasingly a concert hall is marketed as much more than just a place to hear the occasional classical music concert. Developers are keen to encourage a slew of eager visitors to stream through the building on a near-constant basis. The Berliner Philharmoniker offers tours and young musicians studying at the onsite rchestra Academy are regularly to be found hanging out. ther spaces such as the Walt Disney Music Hall in Los Angeles blend bold interior and exterior architecture as a way to lure tourists to the site.
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Rocky Mountain News – Sep 26, 2007
We’re happy both ways. Technology is killing some songs but does it help you with yourwork?”It doesn’t become easier to write a book with a word processor;there’s still the idea that’s difficult. It’s the same with music. Whenwe started making electronic music there were certain restrictionsthat were good. They narrowed what you can do. Now when you sit down tomake music you’re bewildered with the amount of things you can do. You’re doing one thing and you find yourself buying something you don’tneed on the Internet.
Return of the missing Lynx
Vail Daily News – Sep 26, 2007
“I use the element of surprise definitely” she says. “People see me at an acoustic show and they think ‘oh she’s a singer-songwriter whatever I’ve seen it before. ‘ Then when I start beatboxing they’re like ‘what’s going on?’ It’s the opposite if I play an acoustic guitar at an underground electronic music show. I bring out my acoustic guitar and it takes people a second and then they get it. High Sierra was a cool festival because I was able to play a whole spectrum of mellow music and people were really receptive. Colorado rootsIn addition to opening for Matisyahu Lynx has opened for String Cheese Incident and recently embarked on a successful cross country tour. But Lynx’s (real name: Caitlin DeMuth) roots in performance begin right here in Colorado.
The Sea And Cake Returns To Straightforward Rock
Cleveland Free Times – Sep 26, 2007
I'll say though that we're hoping to start on another record soon after all this touring is done and it will sort of feel like the old days again. "That "other stuff" is daunting; Prekop has released two solo records and guitarist Archer Prewitt has had a string of well-received albums. Drummer John McEntire is well-known for his work with post-rock greats Tortoise and also serves as the house engineer at Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago while bassist Eric Claridge has had a series of shows featuring his visual art. When it came time to record Everybody the band was taken by the idea of putting aside all other projects to focus on just being a band. This in turn led it to utilize the services of an outside producer for the first time since its debut as well as the decision to record away from its hometown. "The initial impetus was just to see if that would shake up things a little bit in a gentle way" says Prekop. "Also I think we felt that it would be helpful to have someone involved [who is] not in the band just to gain that outsider's perspective but who is involved in the project.
Yes: Fragile (Expanded) : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone – Sep 26, 2007
” It’s a tour-deforce a complete knockout and perhaps the most quietly devastating moment to appear on a record in recent memory. The heavily atmospheric “South Side of the Sky” is also a grabber a song that goes from full chorus and band (that’s loud) to a segment that is nearly riental in its pristine simplicity just wandering piano electronic swirlings and the whoosh of an icy wind. “Heart of the Sunrise” is the third extended cut and it puts everything they’ve got into a wide-ranging and most impressive package which demonstrates that progressive (remember progressive rock?) doesn’t mean sterile and that complex isn’t the same thing as inaccessible. When it’s all working the music made by Yes is what the best music always is a powerful and moving emotional experience. It’s probably the first music to come along since some of the Kinks’ older stuff that actually brings the beginnings of tears to these jaded eyes of mine. Don’t bet it can’t happen to you… The heavily atmospheric “South Side of the Sky” is also a grabber a song that goes from full chorus and band (that’s loud) to a segment that is nearly riental in its pristine simplicity just wandering piano electronic swirlings and the whoosh of an icy wind. “Heart of the Sunrise” is the third extended cut and it puts everything they’ve got into a wide-ranging and most impressive package which demonstrates that progressive (remember progressive rock?) doesn’t mean sterile and that complex isn’t the same thing as inaccessible. When it’s all working the music made by Yes is what the best music always is a powerful and moving emotional experience. It’s probably the first music to come along since some of the Kinks’ older stuff that actually brings the beginnings of tears to these jaded eyes of mine. Don’t bet it can’t happen to you.