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Posted: **Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:01 pm**

I have been trying but I just can't vote on this. I have never been so flummoxed by a poll.

Crap

Posted: **Fri Jun 16, 2023 4:04 am**

zorg wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 3:12 am RDJ doing festivals this summer. I'm going, seeing as he is playing just steps from my digs. I thought Syro was too commercial and uninspired, but the two EPs since were much more to my liking. Kind of mellow, "Adult Contemporary" Aphex Twin. Cheetah in particular, I like a lot.

Great Show. Aphex Twin in full crowd pleasing mode, but apparently he's been absent too long, and the crowd started thinning out when it became apparent this super famous old techno guy wasn't going to be playing 4 on the floor dancefloor anthems.

But I have a question, as I don't go to IDM shows. Does anybody actually bother triggering anything live? Is it just fucking with a few parameters for a prearranged playlist in Traktor and tweaking the mix, and that's it? And if that is the case, what is the difference between playing "Live" and a "DJ Set". AFX even played a heavy dose of other people's tracks. I think he did do some live noise fuckery with a eurorack set-up for the big finale, but as a "performance" it seems really safe. Does anybody still do a full Yanni performance with shit tons of gear and all the pitfalls of "technical issues"?

Posted: **Fri Jun 16, 2023 10:24 am**

I mean, the Chemical Brothers had a bunch of gear onstage when I saw them do a live set last year.

Posted: **Fri Jun 16, 2023 7:41 pm**

zorg wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2023 4:04 am Does anybody actually bother triggering anything live? Is it just fucking with a few parameters for a prearranged playlist in Traktor and tweaking the mix, and that's it?

I've seen a lot of different variants of this:
- Squarepusher on his pre-Ultravisitor tour, which means he had an ~8U rack of shit and a laptop in front of him but also a bass strapped on and a ton of pedals. Constantly either playing bass or tweaking something, occasionally stopping the pre-sequenced portions of the show to just play bass for a bit
- Luke Vibert opening at this same show with a DJ set. He was sitting in front of the laptop playing the mix, looking like he was reading his email, smoking a spliff while ppl lost their shit on the dance floor
- Mike Paradinas touring the states in 2004 (ish? Bilious Paths tour). Basically playing a long set of the album tracks from a laptop, occasionally swooping in to tweak a filter or timestretch plugin while he danced
- Autechre's mostly-hardware shows on the Untilted and Quaristice tours
- Autechre's fully laptop shows since then, where it's clear that the music is substantively pretty different each night with some common themes / touchpoints
- Flying Lotus very clearly playing a huge single Ableton set of his own songs and triggering lots of stuff from a pad controller - so mostly sequenced but lots of opportunity for structural change.
- Alessandro Cortini playing his entire album front to back from a laptop, but playing only the main melody from each song on an OP-1 run through some pedals etc
- Alessandro Cortini bringing a small modular setup and mostly noodling but playing a few recognizable melodies/songs of his
- Plaid playing with laptops and hardware together and having a bad crash, show was stopped for 20 minutes (this was early 2000s)
- Plaid playing their recent tours, where it's clear a fair number of tracks on each song are prerecorded but there are 2-3 sounds that they're fucking with during each song. mostly laptops, but also a live guitar player
- Starkey playing with Serato using his own tracks, having to stop his set because of hardware trouble

Distance from home / quality of accommodations probably has a lot to do with how much someone wants to risk "technical issues" or bringing out the really expensive gear.

Posted: **Sat Jun 17, 2023 1:12 am**

I once watched a dude play a breakcore set with wiimotes via bluetooth.

Posted: **Sat Jun 17, 2023 6:53 pm**

Close one, but there is undoubtedly more magic in AFX. I have probably spent more time now listening to AE and have had the chance to see them once. There is a lot of incredible stuff on the Rephlex label aside from RDJ, and there is an equal amount of great self released stuff by Rob Hall. My most recent favorite acid find is Chevron.
Has anyone mentioned this AE cover?

Posted: **Tue Jun 20, 2023 5:55 am**

brephophagist wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2023 7:41 pm
zorg wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2023 4:04 am Does anybody actually bother triggering anything live? Is it just fucking with a few parameters for a prearranged playlist in Traktor and tweaking the mix, and that's it?
I've seen a lot of different variants of this:
- Squarepusher on his pre-Ultravisitor tour, which means he had an ~8U rack of shit and a laptop in front of him but also a bass strapped on and a ton of pedals. Constantly either playing bass or tweaking something, occasionally stopping the pre-sequenced portions of the show to just play bass for a bit
- Luke Vibert opening at this same show with a DJ set. He was sitting in front of the laptop playing the mix, looking like he was reading his email, smoking a spliff while ppl lost their shit on the dance floor
- Mike Paradinas touring the states in 2004 (ish? Bilious Paths tour). Basically playing a long set of the album tracks from a laptop, occasionally swooping in to tweak a filter or timestretch plugin while he danced
- Autechre's mostly-hardware shows on the Untilted and Quaristice tours
- Autechre's fully laptop shows since then, where it's clear that the music is substantively pretty different each night with some common themes / touchpoints
- Flying Lotus very clearly playing a huge single Ableton set of his own songs and triggering lots of stuff from a pad controller - so mostly sequenced but lots of opportunity for structural change.
- Alessandro Cortini playing his entire album front to back from a laptop, but playing only the main melody from each song on an OP-1 run through some pedals etc
- Alessandro Cortini bringing a small modular setup and mostly noodling but playing a few recognizable melodies/songs of his
- Plaid playing with laptops and hardware together and having a bad crash, show was stopped for 20 minutes (this was early 2000s)
- Plaid playing their recent tours, where it's clear a fair number of tracks on each song are prerecorded but there are 2-3 sounds that they're fucking with during each song. mostly laptops, but also a live guitar player
- Starkey playing with Serato using his own tracks, having to stop his set because of hardware trouble

Distance from home / quality of accommodations probably has a lot to do with how much someone wants to risk "technical issues" or bringing out the really expensive gear.

Thank you for this summary...I think that same Squarepusher tour was actually my last electronica live act I saw. So the entire concept of a "DJ set" vs "Live" is kind of a conceit. Fair enough. Oh, I also saw Matmos open for Bjork...that was a pretty interactive set from what I remember.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 5:20 pm**

zorg wrote: Fri Sep 23, 2022 12:22 pm I am a total dilettante, but as such, I prefer the more accessible and dare I say "fun" IDM offerings of RDJ and Squarepusher. Autechre always seemed really severe and technical to me, but I can appreciate their commitment to the form.

I've been listening to a lot more electronic music lately, and have come back around to Autechre. Really clicked (no pun intended) for me now. Specifically the crazy Confield and beyond stuff is really special. I don't know how I rank them exactly, but it's really working for me.

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