WHEN we (my girlfriend and I) arrived, the space was fairly empty and
Dillitex was performing. It took me a few to get into the set and my
surroundings, but the music was very nice. I especially liked the very
last bit of his set — felt very I-F meets Boards of Canada’s Chinook!
Numbers on the Mast performed next. I really like seeing these guys and
think they nicely fill a void that is missing from the Austin live
music scene. (Feel free to prove me wrong on this and point me in the
right direction.) Saturday night’s performance was droney and chill,
and I think if it were in a different setting/lighting, I would have
gotten more lost in it (though it was nice to be able to see their
expressions and how they interacted with each other — and it is always
nice to just watch people tweak out on tons of gear). There were some
comments that the set should have been louder, but I think it worked
nicely at the volume it was. A part of me feels that this sort of set
from Numbers on the Mast would be best as a audio portion to a gallery
showing/installation — sound coming from somewhere off to the side
that just nicely fills up the room as people go about whatever they do.
The best part about the NotM set, and one of the high points of the
night, was the “second” set they did (or encore, or forced little bit,
or “we’re not quite ready for you to stop, the other artists are not
ready yet, please do more” or whatever you want to call it). The music
during this bit was much more active, colorful and rhythmic (though
still noisey/NotM-ish) — a style I was not quite expecting. I hope
someone got a recording of this.
Sometime during the NotM set, the place really started to fill up with
people.
DXM played a fantastic set, one that both surprised me and confirmed
my thoughts that he and Kurt (Buddy System/Pedal) are two Austin
artists that are going to jump to insane levels of production/quality
in the very near future (opinion of course, and a biased one, as I
think highly of them both, but every time I see either of them play, it
gets better and better). DXM’s set was nicely dancy/rhythmic, crossing
into the techno (as a specific genre of 4-4 electronic dance music)
sound that I love.
Andreas Tilliander; At first my reaction was “right the fuck on.” The first 3 songs or so kicked my ass in that SUPER dubbed out way (think
early Pole meets the more dubby world side of Freeform). I
was so very impressed by the sound and production quality. And then he
kept doing the same thing over and over. Every song was just too
similar for me. So he lost my excitement and attention. And that’s not
to say that music got worse, in fact, if I were in more of a mood to
hear that exact sound for so long, I would have eaten it up. Every
track was great. But hearing them back-to-back, and not in a
super-fluid way didn’t quite work for me. But it left me curious enough
to hear more by him in the future.
I was very happy to see video/visual art during this portion of the
evening, something that i think might have added to the earlier part of
the show. The video, produced by Trey Smith of Numbers of the
Mast, was nice and enjoyable. Some very organic, strange images.
The Buddy System closed out the night. And what can i say — he is
quickly becoming one of my favorite artists (both local and otherwise).
As I mentioned above, every time I see him perform, he just gets better
and better (musically). As with DXM, I have a slightly hard time
categorizing or describing the music Buddy System plays (and perhaps
this is why i like what they do so much) — but I will say it is the
perfect thing for fans of more rhythmic/dancy IDM, techno and
experimental music to check out.
All in all, this was a great night. I hope Josh (aka DXM) decides to do
more events like this, and I hope folks continue to support his
efforts.
