Data Breaker

How would you expect a Buddhist John Cage disciple to sound? Vermont-based composer/multi-instrumentalist Greg Davis provides an exemplary example. His message to all who purchased his stripped-to-the-bone drone album Mutually Arising: “With good will for the entire cosmos, cultivate a limitless heart: above, below, and all around, unobstructed, without hostility or hate.” The music that arises from such a mind is, unsurprisingly, largely tranquil and beautiful, and shorn of superfluities.

Full-lengths like 2002’s Arbor and 2004’s Curling Pond Woods exhibit Davis’s folkier, more song-based inclinations. The pastoral bliss-tunes on these works fall somewhere between the Books and Fennesz, casting unassuming spells via acoustic-guitar plucking (Davis studied classical and jazz guitar at DePaul), faintly glitchy synth embroidery, laid-back beats, and the occasional mellow vocal. Beach Boys and Incredible String Band covers further hint at Davis’s pop and folk roots.

Like the most highly attuned minimalist composers, Davis unveils the essence of the most sonorous tones and textures, and wrings subtle changes on them, letting each facet gleam under his microscope. See Mutually Arising‘s “Hall of Pure Bliss” for proof. For this Seattle date, Davis will execute a minimalist set on a modular synth accompanied by his own vocals. If recorded evidence is indicative, this show will be a total mind cleanse and peace feast. John Cage would approve.

Glasgow, Scotland’s JD Twitch returns to Trouble Dicso at Re-bar on Friday after a triumphant performance there last September for the disco-and-beyond monthly. As a DJ, Twitch is the epitome of eclectic excellence. With his partner in Optimo, JG Wilkes, Twitch is renowned for curating far-ranging, epicurean sonic journeys behind the decks, both in clubs and on disc.

Optimo are masters of making unlikely stylistic juxtapositions flow coherently, with psych rock, dub, various African styles, early electronic music, punk, funk, soul, disco, experimental, jazz, post-punk, Tropicália, house, and techno all figuring into their mixes. When you have 25,000 or so records, as Twitch does, it gives you serious options, and he forges his diverse raw materials into exciting sets. Check the duo’s two How to Kill the DJ CDs for, uh, optimal proof of this. Optimo’s most recent high-profile release, Fabric 52, narrows the focus to ass-moving kinetics. This they do with panache, courtesy of cuts by Fad Gadget (bold opening gambit!), Basic Channel, Altz, Thomas Brinkmann, the Tyrell Corporation, Levon Vincent, Matias Aguayo, and others.

Now that Optimo have ceased running their Optimo (Espacio) weekly event after 12 years, Twitch will surely have more time to focus on DJing and remixing. One door closes and at least two more open for this amazing human jukebox.