Data Breaker

The Schnebly: It doesn’t sound like a promising title
for a work of electronic music. Your initial impression may be that the
sounds therein will possess much dorkiness. But immerse yourself in
this disc’s hour of rampantly dynamic electronic music (call it IDM, if
it makes you happy), and you will come away with a renewed appreciation
for the aural diversions a lone white guy behind a PowerBook—in
this case Seattle producer the Naturebot—can generate.

Besides making music you need eight limbs to dance to, the Naturebot
(aka Ian Price) cothrows the monthly Bonkers! soiree at
Re-bar. His new album, The Schne-
bly (Pleasure Boat
Records), embodies the playful spirit of that event with its sparkling
timbres, surprising tempo shifts, happy-go-plucky melodies, and
boundless energy.

Much like the roster of England’s Rephlex Records during its
late-’90s/
early-’00s heyday, the Naturebot micro-
manages his
hyper, busy tracks, but instead of producing sterile, dry studies in
laptoptronica, he churns out cuts that dazzle from a technical
standpoint while not skimping on the unhinged fun factor. At his best,
which is on damn near all 14 tracks of The Schnebly, the
Naturebot recalls the joyriding rhythmic convolutions and manically
gleeful tunesmithery of Squarepusher, AFX, and Bogdan
Raczynski. That’s heady company, but the Naturebot is more than
qualified to join that perplexing lineage of OCD/IDM complexity.

•••

The weekly beat-diggers’ paradise known as Stop Biting gets
an infusion of new blood in January. Ubiquity Records hiphop
recording artist Ohmega Watts (Portland DJ/MC Milton
Campbell) will become a resident at the Fourthcity-affiliated event
that happens every Tuesday at Lo_Fi Performance Gallery.
Watts—whom I saw DJ an excellent set in Orange County last
year—is as adept at waxing lyrical as he is at spinning wax. The
man knows his funk/soul/jazz/hiphop history, so he should fit in well
with the rest of Stop Biting’s crew, including Zac Hendrix,
Introcut, Absolute Madman, WD4D, and Sean
C.

•••

Also at Lo_Fi, the semimonthly event known as Ruff Gemz gears
up for another round of hellraising electro, blog house, indie-rock
rerubs, and, if you ask nicely, maybe some le disco cosmique from the bulging hard drives and exquisite vinyls of Sam Rousso
Soundsystem, DJ FITS, and DJ Spirit Fingaz, plus live
funky drumming from Head Like a Kite’s Trent Moorman (two of
these characters have ties to The Stranger; we recommend the
night anyway).

Ruff Gemz is Fri Jan 23, Lo_Fi Performance Gallery, free before 11 pm/$5 after, 21+. Stop Biting is Tues Jan 27, Lo_Fi Performance Gallery, 9 pm, $4, 21+.