Year two of Decibel Fest bestows a bounty of heady electronic music over four nights. The guide below should help you through the scheduling labyrinth (see also preview, page 34). If you plan to hit everything, reveal your secrets.
THURSDAY 9/22
Seattle Showcase
(Bad Juju Lounge) At a Decibel benefit gig, local DJ/producer Paul Edwards performed live and held his own with German minimal-techno übermensch Monolake. Edwards rose to the occasion with a stirring set of gorgeous, dub-inflected techno. More, maestro! With KFO, Justin Byrnes, Porceline, Electrosect, Tekgnosis.
Merck Label Showcase
(Chop Suey) Miami’s Machinedrum concocts some of the most advanced, hiphop-scented IDM extant. As inventive as Prefuse 73, Machinedrum unjustly gets much less hype. The rest of this solid bill (Deru, Deceptikon, Proem, and DJ Merck) brings disjointed funk, crinkly textures, and surprising dynamics that elevate Merck to godhead status in electronic music’s nerdier realms. (Compliment!)
FRIDAY 9/23
Shitkatapult Vs. Detroit Underground Showcase
(Chop Suey) Berlin’s Apparat excels at grinding-gears IDM and lush, futuristic songcraft that could charm Björk fans. Jerry Abstract generates heat whether laying down knarz-techno bangers, complex, Schematic-style IDM, or spine-compressing electro. With Detroit’s Kero, Derek Michael.
SATURDAY 9/24
Mutek/Musique Risquée Showcase
(Neumo’s) Scorcher! Akufen (Montreal’s Marc Leclair) unleashed the paradigm-shifting tech-house bombs Québec Nightclub (2001) and My Way (2002), taking microsampling to unparalleled heights of creative editing and weird funkiness. Deadbeat (Montreal’s Scott Monteith) is one of today’s premier digital-dub purveyors. His tracks paradoxically encompass both bracingly icy and jacuzzi-warm textures. Surely by now y’all know that Seattle’s Bruno Pronsato creates some of the world’s most tonally and structurally advanced minimal techno. With J. Hunsberger.
Experimental Music Showcase
(Broadway Performance Hall) Austrian experimental guitarist Fennesz began his career as Mego’s most scrupulous noise sculptor. Erecting vividly defined sheets of serrated feedback and computer-processed metallic waves, he updated the transcendent, proto-industrial ambience of Kraut-rock heavies Cluster. Later works like Endless Summer and Venice honed Fennesz’s glitchery into tapestries of mellifluous atmospheres and poignant airs. Montreal’s Tim Hecker is the finest acolyte of post–My Bloody Valentine amniotic ambience. Hakea and Son of Rose compellingly complete this evening of drift, bliss, and static.
Electropop Showcase
(Chop Suey) Cue sweetass melodies—and rampant cuddling. Belgium’s Styrofoam is a linchpin of Morr Music’s empire of twee tunes and twiddly beats. His last album, Nothing’s Lost (featuring Ben Gibbard and anticon’s Alias), solidifies Styrofoam’s rep as a smooth soother of the synth-pop set. Her Space Holiday is the poor hipster’s Postal Service, as he hypes his catchiest, most Jackson 5–ish batch of synth confections yet, The Past Presents the Future. With Mercir, Kristina Childs, Mori.
Fourthcity/Portland Showcase
(Bad Juju Lounge) Portland’s Strategy drops gorgeous, tranquil dub and THC-laced ambient and house for the Kranky and Orac labels. He also drums for the excellent Nudge, who mesh introspective funk with Deadbeat-style dub, occasionally evoking Can’s skewed rhythmic tangents and textural trickery. With Vincent Parker, Kinoko.
SUNDAY 9/25
Ambient Showcase
(Broadway Performance Hall) Pan American (Labradford’s Mark Nelson) proffers platoons of pulchritudinous pings and placid pulsations. Aeroc (Barcelona’s Geoff White) released the intriguing Viscous Solids (Ghostly), which fascinatingly morphs from Greg Davis–like folktronica to Plutonian drones to otherworldly microfunk to sluggish cliphop. Vancouver’s Loscil has issued three albums of luxuriant wombient dub, offering sublimely peaceful tones for overworked taxpayers. The impeccable Lusine will play a rare ambient set.
Headfuk Showcase
(Neumo’s) Last year’s Headfuk lived up to its cheeky moniker. This year’s lineup similarly looks destined to forever tumble around the memory banks. German producer Isolée (Rajko Müller) has released what’s shaping up to be many people’s favorite tech-house album of 2005, We Are Monster. What’s yanking folks’ cranks so hard is Isolée’s merging of distinctive production touches with unexpected instrumentation and playful arrangements. With tracks that broker a perfect balance between weirdness and accessibility, Isolée gets crowds moving in unusual ways. If his 2004 Mutek set is any indication, we are in for a monstrously invigorating experience. A Swiss-born Berlin producer who miraculously still keeps the Orb relevant, Thomas Fehlmann is an ageless wonder behind the boards, as his many great releases for Kompakt and Plug Research prove. Fehlmann’s Visions of Blah (2002) is a poignantly melodic compendium of bare-bones schaffel beats and pacific textures while 2004’s Lowflow ranks as a supreme example of subaquatic dub funk. Tipper used to damage ears and bowels with his bass-terrorist electro cuts. Now he finesses in 5.1 sound with the sort of intricately designed downtempo IDM few do well anymore. With Cepia.
Em:t/Basskamp Showcase
(Bad Juju Lounge) On his debut disc for revered British label em:t, Music Made for You… and by You, I Mean Me, Seattle’s Gel-Sol (Andrew Reichel) forges elegant swathes of melodic IDM and deep-space ambience to propel you light years away. Reichel also plays in Washington, D.C. trio 302 Acid, whose 0005 album probes an even darker vein of atmospheric disturbance. With Obelus, ndCv, Logic Probe. DAVE SEGAL
More info: www.dbfestival.com.
