Last night was again surreal and incredible. In addition to the mind-bending artistry, there were a lot of surprise dudes showing up (Like my friend Mike, who I met last month at a business meeting [he's a fellow mobile audio guy] – and, we just learned last night, who had seen Hally perform in Japan years ago!!)
Here’s my rundown:
Rabato: So, this hairy Spanish dude takes the stage and I’m really hoping he’s just going to go insane and start screaming, but instead these utterly blistering dance beats start exploding out of his Game Boy. Meanwhile, herr_prof is sitting next to me, telling me stories about how he used to give this guy tips on LSDJ, and now he’s basically godlike.
Quarta330: Ah, the first Japanese artist of the festival, and a hard one to beat – he started out playing some impressive dub beats (with delay all over the place) and ended up rocking the floor with heavier stuff later. The one thing that struck me most of all about his music was that the bass HIT HARD. The whole building shook when he played sustained basslines, requiring a suspension of disbelief as to their origin.
Pepino: AWWWWWWW!!!! They’re SO CUTE!!! A Spanish Game Boy artist (who lives in Japan) and a Japanese singer, who got up together and started doing the most adorable songs and dances. He wore a little bear hat, she held a tambourine, and they cheerily played everything from improvisational “metal solos” to a cover of .. ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”. I can’t make this shit up.
Mark Denardo: MARK! MARK! MARK! One of my favorites, and one of the strangest and most unique acts in the whole scene. When Mark gets up, nobody knows what to expect, as his idiosyncratic guitar/vocal routine never plays out the same way twice. He fought against bugging-out equipment and sang about Street Fighter characters, and asked that everyone be his friend. Please indulge.
Coova: AWWWW! Are all these Japanese artists this adorable?? Coova came out with her Game Girls blazing, really really interesting polyrhythmic experimental stuff. Couldn’t really nail down the skittering beat, and there was a lot of stuff happening at once, sort of modal impressionist stuff. It was funny watching people try to dance to it, as I imagine it must be for the majority of “intelligent dance music”.
Bit Shifter: The man himself – easily my favorite Game Boy artist, and one of the most prominent names in the scene – and for good reason. He refuses to hear it when I tell him how much I enjoy him, but then went and nearly blew out the speakers again with the ludicrously heavy beats and metallic Nanoloop drones. He played some new material in addition to my old favorites. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Herbert Weixelbaum: I am ashamed to admit that I’d never heard of Herbert before the festival, and I didn’t know what I was missing. By this time we were all totally exhausted, and he basically said fuck that, we’re not done hopping around, and played Austrian elektropop, a cover of “Back in the USSR” and some bizarre surf rock that sounded at home in California Games.
Random: Whenever we talk about Random we just kind of look at the floor and shake our heads. The thing with Random is that he went from a total beginner to just unreal in a matter of weeks. Somehow he hasn’t plateaued and is STILL improving, and last night was one of the best sets of music, from anyone, that I’ve ever heard. The entire set had people just BOUNCING, shouting their lungs out, and tripping on exhaustion. By the end I was soaked in sweat, dancing my fat ass off with Hally and Chibi-Tech – this is one half hour that will remain with me forever.
Afterwards, Bubblyfish told me a “few people” were going out to grab a bite after the show, and somehow a “few people” became “35 people, including most of the weekend’s artists from Europe and Japan” – we all packed into a subway car (instantly 15 people whipped out their DSes), headed to the Village, went to a Japanese restaurant and spent the early morning celebrating and drinking.
I got home at 6:30 and slept for about 12 hours, and I’m typing this on a wifi link at BLIPFEST DAY THREE, with Prozax sitting next to me (wide-eyed) as Bud Melvin blows our minds out with his banjo. More on that tomorrow! ROCK ON!
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