Data Breaker

At Nectar on Thursday, January 8, Orac Records cofounder Caro (aka Randy Jones) returns to live performance for
the first time since his stellar Decibel 2008 slot in Havana’s parking
lot. His funky, Theo Parrish–like tech-house (bolstered by his
own Cascadian soul-man vox) betokens tropical good times while also
satisfying the geeks with vintage synth tonalities. The Sight
Below—who has a recent European tour and a critically lauded
album, Glider, on Ghostly International Records under his
belt—should serve as the yin to Caro’s yang, with his polar
shoegazer-rock/minimal techno hybrids. They’re
brrrrrrilliant.

The next night at Re-bar, Bonkers! promoter Ian Scot Price lures Gel-Sol and Jerry Abstract out of their bunkers for
some more opposites-attract action. Gel-Sol (Andrew Reichel) is
our resident Orb-lovin’, prog-rock fanatic, a skilled purveyor of
psychedelic ambient/armchair techno that’s like kaleidoscopes for the
ears. May I suggest you check out his collage of Ween samples titled
“Stallion 3000” at www.virb.com/gelsol? By contrast,
Jerry Abstract creates the sort of steamrolling techno that makes bulls
in china shops seem delicate. He’s still got that Motor City
mayhem in his music; let’s hope he never loses it. And keep an ear
or two cocked for the Naturebot‘s alternately demented and
stately IDM (it’s his CD release party and he’ll fry if he wants to).
Peep his album The Schnebly; it was “made in the remote
canyon country of Northern Arizona over a four-year time span,” and it
sounds like it.

Finally, at Chop Suey on Wednesday, January 14, ndCv (Andy
Seaver) will bust out a slew of new material for his headlining
debut. He gave me 18 tracks’ worth of sneak preview, and the result is
some seriously beautiful downtempo funk swathed in lush, Boards of
Canada–like tone miasma as well as stirring cinematic reveries
(Seaver did soundtrack work for Robinson Devor/Charles Mudede’s
Police Beat). WD4D (who is Seattle rapper Gabriel
Teodros’s DJ and a producer who’s laced several cuts for myriad West
Coast MCs) warrants your scrutiny, too, with his serious jazz-informed,
sampladelic funk.

If this week of engrossing beat science can’t vanquish your January
blahs, then you may need to try more conventional medical science. Hope
your insurance
covers it.