Au Revoir Simone @ S. Mamede, Guimaraes
Captivating a mainstream world where Auto-tune is king is hard. And when it comes to a genre which goes in limbo between dreamy and psychedelic, beatbox kicking within synth atmosphere, you can imagine what it takes.
Au Revoir Simone are, let's face it, an odd bunch. Three geek-looking girls armed with a couple of keyboards and an electronic drum pattern box defy most of today's band recipes. But there's no real recipe with these girls: it just works fine.
The show was, as Erika Forster put it, divided in two different parts: the first one, very pleasant and very amusing - particularly to a few pre-teen hardcore fans on the first row - which she properly labeled as "the hit section of the show". This was probably the most antecipated hour, featuring most of their well-known songs and setting the right mood for a very participative crowd. As for the second part - "the psychedelic part" - the girls went a bit further with more experimental and heavier sounds; people almost felt like a different band was playing here and there - which was very interesting.
All in all, the band did what was expected: a mellow groove show with a chilled-out atmosphere which entertained the audience and left no-one disappointed.
Autechre at L’Usine (Geneva, Switzerland)
Pitch dark - it's the only way I can describe the visuals that accompanied their performance of March 23rd, at the Post Tenebras Rock (PTR) room, located at the heart of the Genevan alternative scene, "L'Usine". For the connaisseurs of the British electro scene, "Autechre" is for sure not an unfamiliar name - the Manchester duo is signed to Warp Records, a record label specialized in Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) that is known worldwide for signing acts such as Squarepusher (who I saw live one year ago) and Aphex Twin. If you don't like experimental music, complex rhythms and over-processed samples, chances are that you won't enjoy Autechre. It's not exactly the kind of electronic music that plays on the radio, or even in "regular" nightclubs - glitchy, dark, sonically bare, raw, sometimes to the point of becoming disturbing - these guys have a very particular way of approaching composition, going well beyond 16 step sequencers and vintage drum machines: they've used Max/MSP extensively, and the fact that both use only a laptop (and what seems to be a MIDI console) on stage suggests that soft synths do most of the work nowadays.
Unfortunately, I didn't know at what time they would take the stage - the concert was advertised as beginning at 20:30, but started (surprisingly) a quarter of hour later. Since there were still three acts taking place before, it was not before 23.30 that Rob Brown and Sean Booth made themselves heard. First, the darkness, then a lonely, slow paced, growing drum beat... then the darkness, the growing background sound, melodies materializing from noise, the darkness, the darkness... it seems, from the footage available on YouTube, that Autechre decided to impose this ban on brightness throughout the whole Oversteps tour - almost as if they wanted you to experience the sound, only the sound and nothing else. Thumbs up for the stereo - I always wondered why most electronic musicians didn't take advantage of the benefits that playing small venues with reasonable acoustics provide, but these guys are a remarkable exception.
Pitch dark - monochromatic, even; the artwork of Oversteps is clear about that. If you love sound for sound's sake, I'm sure Autechre won't leave you disappointed.
:papercutz at CCVF (Guimaraes, Portugal)
Led by Bruno Miguel, this experimental electronic pop band got to my ears very recently, and, out of the blue, I got a chance to see their act live yesterday. Their very interesting sonority and depth has been noticed by Myspace and Vodafone's "Ones to watch" event in the past year, and the presence in the alternatively famous South By Southwest festival increased their fan base to some extent. So, I was quite curious to see if they would be able to bring the mood of Lylac - their debut album - to the (small) stage.
The act was set up by the usual live crew: Bruno Miguel behind the keyboards, samplers and effects and acting as a back voice, Marcela Freitas as the lead singer and Bruno R. playing classical guitar, bass, xylophone and handling some synthesizers. There was some lack of organization within the whole set list display, probably due to the understandable stress and lack of experience. Also, they had some real trouble with the overall sound - most of the times the bass was so pumped up it felt like a lousy trance festival, and at some point they even opted to repeat a song. But these were the bad parts, which I can't blame the band itself for: one can't expect to have a U2-like show on a low budget / few years of live experience, right?
Now for the good things. They really have something good going there. After the first songs (and the first problems) I remember thinking something like Let's just hope they can make it to the second or third album and this will be huge and throughout the show the songs just kept on getting better. Marcela's voice was almost pitch perfect in every song, and it seemed like she really was enjoying the whole thing, bringing happiness to the hard-to-please audience; Bruno seemed a bit worried as the sound issues became clearer but showed he was able to handle the leading role; Bruno's guitar and bass playing were quite impressive (I'm wondering if he has some background as a classical musician, as the technique he displayed was far from the obvious self-taught player). "Do Outro Lado Do Espelho" and "Ultravioleta" were the most beautiful moments of the night, combining Portuguese lyrics with a Lamb-like ambiance and a beautifully crafted set of vocals.
So, to sum it up, Bruno's work entertains, allows us to drift and is setting a new high on many fields in the Portuguese music scene. It's almost impossible not to find Lylac a very attractive album, and I'm quite certain that the charisma, attitude and boldness of their live displays will be boosted with time. I'm hoping to see them in a year and check that!
:papercutz's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/papercutzed
:papercutz's Lylac first single, "Ultravioleta": http://vimeo.com/1143816
