Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Seen that, been there


I'm back from Le NAME festival in Lille, where good friend of mine and a member of Fuck For Friendship posse Linards was VJ-ing. Apart from that, the line-up was impressive.









I couldn't see everything but here are some acts I enjoyed the most:

# Nathan Fake (live)

He performed a live set of amazing and up-lifting music, which, in fact, hadn't so much to do with the standard minimal techno - somehow, despite its 4x4 beat, it had more common with IDM's aesthetics. Also, the way Nathan performed - it was really sincere and energetic - resembled Apparat.

# Paul Ritch (live)

I hadn't expected anything special from him, and saw him rather accidently. The first impression was that his music was a bit simplistic, but actually it turned out to be very good and perfect for dancing. Kind of bleepy and progressive minimal stuff.

# Heidi (DJ set)

The queen of Phonica had a great set in the smallest yet the cosiest of the halls. Great selection, but what I enjoyed even more was her way of DJ-ing - actively and joyfully dancing along and unlike many other DJs not hiding her emotions behind a smart and serious looking expresion. She seemed so natural and music was so good that she managed to make everybody dance.

Other remarkable acts/DJs that come to my mind: Jennifer Cardini, Shonky, Chloe, Loco Dice.

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Few weeks ago I saw Mouse On Mars performing at Exit07 in Luxemburg. Oh, that was awesome! One of the best electronic music live shows I've ever seen. The guys used a lot of different gear, also hardware, which is getting rare nowadays. Their beats were so innovative and sometimes tough, but still so groovy. It seemed that MoM really enjoyed the gig themselves too, and there was a good contact with the public. For instance, they let some volunteers speak into a mic to sample on the fly and then transform and incorporate these samples into their music.

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I've also seen Modeselektor live in Brussels. Sure, they make ones of the toughest and grooviest beats around. Particularly I liked the tracks with vocals, whereas there was something too much in those instrumetal ones with arpeggios and baroque melodies. Anyway, Modeselektor rocks, plus they have very cool video accompaniment by Berlin's visual artists Pfafinderei. As you probably know Modeselektor's album is out, although if you have a chance - see them playing live - it's definetely worth.

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