| StoreTags: decibel festiva, moobs
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People who enjoyed reading this: cloudburst, mixedtape, SenorFrio, frnortnr, airliner, opticecho, DrexonField, Logo, celibacyclub, yghartsyrt, mlbot, djugel, jef
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so how was it? any surprises disappointments? stories?
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edited: Sep 24 2007
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cloudburst
my take..
i only saw two showcases.. ambient and raster-noton.
ambient - enjoyed it to a certain extent, was nice to have biosphere here, but i lost focus after a while, at least with guthrie and budd at the end.. i'm glad they were there, just not my cup of tea. also some nasty technical delays and issues that really impacted the performance aspect... worth 25? as a performance i'd say no, as a chance to see a slice of where things have gone in the last 30 years, maybe.
raster-noton - this made my trip worthwhile. pixel's initial offerings sounded great, but not terribly dynamic. i was just happy he came though, i look forward to more offerings of his on raster.. then came olaf bender, and for me, he summed up everything i love about the label.. minimalistic and dynamic, powerful, loud, strong, clean, atmospheric, texture texture texture.. kick-ass visuals and his sound seriously needed a dance floor. .
kangdind ray really took me by surprise, a fantastic set, a total counter-point to olaf's clean purist aesthetic.. delay drenched vocal utterings, warm atmospherics, organic textures, and a lot more motion and drive than i expected, going off of his debut raster disc.
09/24/07
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ignatius
was attendance comparable to previous years? i hope it all went well. too bad about the occasional technical difficulties.
any time i've gone to decibel there were so many things to ponder on the drive back to portland. in hindsight i kind of miss not having that drive home experience this year... though,.. one year those ponderings almost turned into dreams and asleep at the wheel driving on the I-5.
09/24/07
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airliner
It was fantastic. I think last year's was probably a little better, but this year was still good.
Highlights:
*Speedy J's 2 hour closing set on Saturday night. Total dance mayhem, in a brainy, experimental but still physical way. I hear he played an afterhours set later that night too. That guy's a workhorse.
*Truckasaurus. I was working the merch table during their set, and they sold about 20 CDs in 45 minutes. Crowd was totally feeling it, and they have a distinct aesthetic that's gimmicky, but not cheesy.
*AAM. Holy fucking shit. probably the biggest surprise of the festival, from my point of view. Laptop/drums duo duing krautrock by way of Mexico, accompanied by old Super-8 footage on two projectors. Absolutely killer, and their Kraut Slut CD is really good too, but way mellower than the live show.
*Chris De Luca: Super fun glitch-hop bangers. Dirty spazz hip hop with a touch of Funkstorung's beat-fuckery.
*Olaf Bender: started out clean, pure minimlaism, with lots of clicks and pops and static pulses and deep bass, but kept adding denser beats and textures. It was like....industrial shoegazer music? I dunno. Great though.
Sadly, I missed the ambient showcase, which I heard was excellent. I was really looking forward to the Budd/Guthrie set, too.
Oh, and I thought Wolfgang Flur ended the festival on a weird note. He was basically DJing his own tracks off a laptop while playing a "highlights reel" of his time with Kraftwerk on the projector. It was more like a presentation or lecture than an actual "set." But I was also tired as hell by that point. But he was really just standing there looking bored and snapping his fingers the whole time. Weird.
I think attendance might have been down a little, but the festival was also a bit more compact. I remember at first they were talking about it being significantly smaller, but it ended up almost as big as last year's, just slightly less spread out. Fewer venues and fewer competing showcases...maybe 2 at a time instead of 3.
Last but not least: Pics or STFU
09/25/07
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djugel
I wish I could care .. but I just can't get into pops, clicks and the sound of digital bacon.
09/25/07
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djugel
also .. why is is that every pic I ever see of someone playing a laptop .. they have this look on their face like they know it's bullshit...
09/25/07
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djugel
makes it a tuff sell.
Just feels like people are trying to carry some torch that blew out 4 people ago...
09/25/07
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Roshi
LOL @ digital bacon
even vegans can enjoy the bit-flavored taste of digital bacon
09/25/07
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mlbot
djugel said: "Just feels like people are trying to carry some torch that blew out 4 people ago..."
LOL, didn't you just do an all-D.A.F. cover show or something???
People enjoy what they enjoy.
09/25/07
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SenorFrio
Maybe you would rather see this live instead: Sheep Beats
The forlorn laptop look is very fashionable... and it allows people to play out some wicked sounds.
09/25/07
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djugel
@mlbot ... yeah but it's a joke for a halloween show..
I just really don't like laptop performances because they feel like an updated version of a rave performance (be it live P.A. or DJing) ... I don't think there is any other genre before where you could get away with so little... but the rave is over and there's no more "feeble minds" to bend and distort... Once again maybe some people here never liked that aspect of the culture ... and thinks it's better now with just a collection of nerds... but I have always been fascinated by some of the things you can learn from "stupid people".
09/25/07
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ignatius
@djugel...
go tell it on the idm mailing list.
09/25/07
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lgo
SenorFrio said: "Maybe you would rather see this live instead: Sheep Beats
The forlorn laptop look is very fashionable... and it allows people to play out some wicked sounds."
oh my god.. how have i not seen this before?! best thing ever.
09/25/07
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jef
I had a good time this year, i would definately say that it was underwhelmingly attended. I was tricked on thursday at the Diplo show, as it was pretty packed. There were surprisingly less out-of-towners than i thought there would be. Performances were good, though pretty narrowed down to 'ambiance' and 'dance' musics. which was fine. I must say, that for putting it all together in a couple of months, they did a rad job!! There was always some place you could go to hear good music, which is a good sign.
pros/highlights
-Moe bar VIP in the 'bassment' - sweaty, small, dancing...most of the time. I really liked Jeff Samuels, also all of the NY guys on friday. missed out on speedyj secret set though.
-seeing the harold budd show- mad technical difficulties at that show, but it was a neat townhall/church-like space with pretty good sound. i was a little miffed that i was there for 4.5 hours though.
-truckasaurus - seriously the best visuals of the fest, and also that airwolf cover is the best ever!
-Memex showcase was rad, too bad there wasn't anyone there because the venue was so far from all the other places.
-raster noton - good stuff, i was exhausted and actually fell asleep for some of bender's set...interesting though...i love that venue!
cons / lowlights-
-way too spread out - last year, chop suey was the farthest away...this year, i had no idea where i was half the time.
-no workshops/panels, etc - severly disappointing for those of us that came in from out of town. we had to actually find things to do?! what?! mostly we just sat in coffee shops, which was fine.
-lack of variety - like i said, mostly ambient-ish stuff and dancy-stuff. not much inbetween. again, this was ok..
my cons are weak. so, i guess it was good! i had fun.
interested to see what happens next year!
09/25/07
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SenorFrio
Truckasaurus did an airwolf cover???? Damn.... Double Damn...
09/25/07
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jef
oh, it's so damn good. full on matching visuals from the show, etc. OMG!
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