basic_sounds: November 2010

Decibel / Seattle / September 22 - 26

Decibel celebrated their 7th year, but it might as well have been a milestone year as they went above and beyond all expectations putting Seattle on the map as being one of the main North American cities honing in on the best electronic music in the world. This year, the addition of an extra day to the festival meant even more showcases and venues than ever.

The opening showcase took place at Neumos featuring artists from the Detroit-based label Ghostly while including a magnificent closing set by Pantha du Prince who recently signed to Rough Trade for his latest album Black Noise. Pantha’s latest album is internationally recognized as being one of the best electronic releases of 2010, so needless to say the first showcase started off with a bang. Mux Mool was hilariously entertaining and enthusiastic, offering humorous one-liners like “Can you feel that? That’s bass” and “Does this look hard, cause it is.” I don’t know if anyone was laughing along with me, but his infectious personality definitely won points when it came to his performance. Gold Panda was next. Everyone is talking about his latest album, but I personally don’t get it. It sounds like electronic music made for indie rockers. I found his set to be boring and flat, but the crowd seemed to disagree with me. Lusine was Lusine, who never fails to deliver a quality well-crafted minimal techno set with beautifully produced pop-like elements. And then German producer, Pantha du Prince entered the stage in a large hooded jacket, like some mystical creature coming in from an ice storm. He began to slowly build his unique voice of organic minimal techno by incorporating various excerpts from his past albums. His bell like introspective beauty emulated the space. My only criticism for one of my favourite producers is at times his mixing seemed a bit choppy, as I would just get into a groove and then it would jump to something entirely different, regardless his music is encapsulating.

Mux Mool

Lusine

Pantha du Prince

The following day started off with Austraila’s Room 40 Label’s 10 Year Anniversary Showcase at the Pravda Studios. Rafael Anton Iriasarri began the showcase by mixing untraditional guitar methods with organic atmospheric sounds. I only wish his set would have gone on for a little longer, as his alias as The Sight Below was one of my favourite albums to come out this year. Lawrence English took charge of the crowd by asking everyone to get comfortable and lay on the floor for his set. People and chairs were scattered about for his low frequency drones and heavy internal vibrations. Californian artist Grouper delivered a hauntingly delicate set full of druggy atmospheric drones combined with enchanting distant vocals. Having seen Ben Frost’s aggressive guitar performances before, I chose to hustle to the Baltic Room to hear London based producer Clubroot (aka Dan Richmond) for the Lo Dubs label showcase.

Rafael Anton Irisarri

Lawrence English

Grouper

I’m not a huge dubstep fan unless you’re Scuba or signed on Hyperdub. I feel like dubstep is for teenage boys with short attention spans. I don’t understand what’s appealing about listening to music that incorporates sirens, however Clubroot is on a completely different playing field. After being introduced to him by his self-titled release in June 2009, I knew his performance was not to be missed. His moody rhythms with atmospheric undertones created an enthusiastic intimate crowd on the dancefloor.

After Clubroot, I had a dilemma on my hands with the option to see dubstep producer Distance at the Lo Dubs showcase, the cutting-edge house music producer Disco Nihilist at the Made Like A Tree Showcase, highly acclaimed Flying Lotus with a live band at the Flylo And Friends event happening at Neumos or Dan Bell at the Simply Shameless night located just up the hill at Chop Suey. The majority of festival goers were at Neumos for Flying Lotus where he performed with a live bassist and drummer. The bassist was amazing and offered a unique performance for the festival. The highlight for me that night was legendary techno producer Dan Bell. He delivered a seamless house set that gradually got into some wonkier harder stuff and was the first artist to make me go off on the dance floor. The crowd was warm and fun with space to move. What an exceptionally incredible and overwhelming night.

Clubroot

Flying Lotus

Dan Bell

Friday started with checking out a Panel discussion regarding the uncertain future of file sharing. In the past years, labels have seen file sharing as money lost in sales, thankfully this perspective is changing as label owners are realizing that sampling does help the promotion of the artists and that now labels are learning to work with bloggers like myself rather than against. I found this commentary to be refreshing as downloading actually leads to more sales in music overall. The downfall to this panel was the self-entitled behaviour of Room 40 label owner Lawrence English, as he dominated the discussion and led it off topic on several occasions. It looked like the moderator had a rough night as he appeared too out of it to rail it back in. At this moment I wish Patti Schmidt was around to keep it on track, but regardless I always enjoy listening to people in the industry ramble on about what we mutually love.

The first Optical Showcase was set in Benaroya Hall, a modern clean performance theatre in downtown Seattle. The highly regarded Robert Henke launched the Optical series with a deep throbbing drone set against slow morphing grey-toned landscapes that would slowly dissolve, revealing glimpses of two images at the same time. It was the perfect pairing creating an engaging meditative experience. Murcof incorporated haunting strings with cracking washes of ambience to create grand cinematic landscapes that beautifully encapsulate every emotion. The only unfortunate part of his set was his visuals that mostly focused on distorting a chimney with birds flying out of it. Most audience members closed their eyes as the amateur visuals distracted them from the beauty of Murcof’s compositions. Mark Van Hoen closed the showcase with a slew of video mash-ups. Each song element was sectioned off on a different corner of the screen with its own looping clip, taken from random musical references. At one point, he let the audience know he was having technical difficulties and was just going to play his own music. He looked frustrated with his computer, but if he didn’t say anything the audience would have never known, as his music accompanied to humourous looping visuals were a refreshing delight.

Robert Henke

Murcof

Mark van Hoen

Afterwards I raced back up to Capital Hill to see the newly anticipated Mount Kimbie. Dominic Maker and Kai Campos performed live and created technically complex dubstep infused with ambient constructions. My only complaint is each track seemed far too short as I would have liked to lose myself in their uniquely crafted gems. Fun loving duo, Modeselektor closed the Red Bull Music Academy night at Neumos with another epic infectious performance. It’s hard not to smile while they ham it up on stage to their adrenalin-fuelled jacking beats. Across the street was the Trust Showcase, which offered a little bit more breathing room on the dancefloor. Trus’Me (aka David Wolstencroft) closed down the night with an eclectic deep delicious house set.

Mount Kimbie

Modeselektor

Trus'Me

Outside Neumos + Soul Repair

One of the best discoveries for me this year was Seattle based house duo Lawnchair Generals who launched the DB afterhours showcase at Motor, this strange dark burlesque themed dive bar. Peter Christianson and Carlos Mendoza create well-crafted dancefloor friendly house music. They instantly had me dancing as soon as I walked through the door and remained the highlight of the night. Chilean producer Dinky closed the night with a tech-house driven DJ set, offering an assorted mix of new and old tracks from back in the day. I was a bit disappointed she didn’t play live as her Anemik release in 2009 remains one of my favourites.

Lawnchair Generals

Dinky

DB in the Park was held under 1962’s World Fair’s Seattle Space Needle, a major landmark and symbol of Seattle. It’s the perfect iconic tourist symbol for all out of town festival goers, however the fenced in stage was not as lush and open as last year’s park choice. After grabbing food and eating under the needle on the first sunny day to hit Seattle, I went in to see what was happening even though you could hear the bass from all around. I’m not a huge dubstep fan so sadly Nasty Nasty’s performance was underwhelming for me – but it still turned in to a glorious day in the city and it was exciting to catch the monorail to the next Optical showcase.

Brooklyn based, ambient solo guitarist Noveller launched the second Optical Showcase with a stunning performance of delicate guitar distortions and intricate looping pedal work. Her compositions encapsulated the audience and became one of the unexpected highlights of the festival. Prolific producer, Fennesz was next with visual artist Lillevan. His colossal sounds filled the theatre and mimicked the spastic and aggressive storm imagery on the screen. His performance ended with a collaboration with Rafael Anton Irisarri, who did a superb job of curating the Optical Showcases. Oneohtrix Point Never entered the stage with a miner’s light attached to his forehead, and performed in the dark on the far right of the stage. His experimental transgressions turned slowly into icy emotional ambience that was beautifully paired with stark black and white morphing digital graphics. It was one of the better visual performances of the festival and a magnificent close to a superior optical showcase.

Noveller

Fennesz featuring Lillevan

Oneohtrix Point Never featuring Killingfrenzy

Back at Neumos, Detroit Techno innovators Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig dominated the night by delivering sets that highlighted the best of Detroit as they honed in on the famous tracks that defined the genre. At the end of the night, Craig shared the stage with Derek Plaslaiko and closed it by saying “Techno is Detroit.” During the same time, at the Hotflush Label Showcase, Scuba apparently blew everyone away. Despite the unfortunate luck of getting his laptop stolen and performing on blown speakers, he managed to deliver a top-notch spontaneous set that had everyone talking. When you hear statements like this, it takes a true artist that can still deliver under difficult circumstances. Every night offered so many choices making it tough deciding where to be.

Kevin Saunderson + Carl Craig

Carl Craig

At the Late Night Soul Kitchen, Seattle based producer Pezzner stole the show with his live mix of percussive themed tech-house tracks that organically evolved and kept everyone grooving. After seeing Theo Parrish’s quirky set at Mutek this year, I was waiting to see what he would pull out of his hat this time. Unfortunately, he was completely in his own world and failed to keep the attention and motivation of the dancefloor by delivering a choppy soulful set that didn’t really go anywhere. I didn’t mind, as everything else from the day had been amazing up to this point and it meant I could go and get some much needed rest for the last day of the festival.

Pezzner

Theo Parrish

On Sunday, Sanso-Xtro, Tim Hecker and Tycho performed at the Triple Door, an amazing 1920’s dinner theatre. The theatre is beautiful and historically preserved creating the perfect ambiance. I have personally seen Tim Hecker and Tycho several times before, but couldn’t miss seeing them again in this gorgeous setting. Type label artist, Sanso-Xtro (aka Melissa Agate) delivered an experimental child-like melancholy set. She sat on the stage surrounded by various instruments and gadgets and sang sentimental haunting compositions. Tim Hecker performed next with Lillevan, the same visual artist that performed with Fennesz. Hecker delivered an amazing rich powerful set full of coarse granular dronescapes. San Francisco artist Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) delivered a marvelous nostalgic sun-warped set and shared the stage with his band. One member of his band was particularly comical to watch as his enthusiasm and over dramatized expressions added to the overall enjoyment of the performance. Scott Hansen is also known for his design work as ISO50 and performed against a backdrop of his own saturated visuals. His nostalgic polished compositions were immaculate and concluded yet another amazing Optical showcase.

Sanso-Xtro

Tim Hecker featuring Lillevan

Decibel Crew on stage

Tycho

Due to visa issues, Cassy was unable to perform at Decibel, but to be honest no one cared because the festival crew managed to get French house music producer Pépé Bradock which closed down the festival on a high note. Young Kyle Hall performed across the street at Soul Repair and delivered a long funky grooving soulful set that had everyone closing down the festival in smiles.

Pépé Bradock

Kyle Hall

Overall, the festival was a great success with many standout performances and experiences. Decibel managed to successfully attract more people than ever before making this year a triumph on many levels. For me attending festivals has become about celebrating with my international friends. I have met so many amazing people over the years and celebrating with them once or twice a year in this context is what keeps me coming back. Being around friends that all share the same appreciation and passion for music is magic and this energy and warmth only attracts new comers. Decibel’s only concern for next year will be about accommodating the growing number attendees.

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