nospectacle

consumables

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:28:00 -0500

View audio and video footage captured by iPad 2 here! It’s about an hour and a half long.

Friday, November 25 · 7:00pm - 11:00pm at 2739Edwin, Hamtramck USA

nospectacle presents: a night of dub/ambient audio/video overstimulation featuring matthew hawtin (ca), nospectacle (usa/ca) and special guest siobhan mckeown (uk).

mckeown splits time between bristol and london, where she is a post-graduate student at london university. she has collaborated with mythogeographer phil smith, with whom she has made four digital films, and the laboratory of insurrectionary imagination (which produced ‘bike bloc,’ a creative tool for civil disobedience launched at the united nations climate summit). mckeown is also a techno dj known as shibby shitegeist.

matthew hawtin is a visual and sound artist best known for marathon chill-out dj sets that he developed in the 1990s as counterpoint to brother richie hawtin’s dance floor rave-style sessions.

nospectacle is a detroit-based dub-ambient sound-sight project made up of chris mcnamara, jennifer a. paull and walter wasacz. the group performed at movement 2011 and mutek in montréal in 2010.

nospectacle #Movement2011 by csgholz on Flickr.

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:45:37 -0400

nospectacle #Movement2011 by csgholz on Flickr.

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:45:09 -0400

nospectacle #Movement2011 by csgholz on Flickr.

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:44:58 -0400

nospectacle #Movement2011 by csgholz on Flickr.

Movement 2011

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:25:08 -0400

nospectacle welcomes collaborator Markus Guentner to Detroit for Movement for a live audio-visual happening, 2-4 p.m. at Hart Plaza’s Underground Stage.

Guentner is best known for his contributions to Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series and for his tech-house productions on the Ware label. Guentner played a solo DJ set at Movement in 2006 and performed live with nospectacle in Ann Arbor in 2009.

nospectacle is a Detroit-based ambient electronics project made up of Christopher McNamara, Jennifer A. Paull and Walter Wasacz. Performances feature live audio and video mixing and remixing, elements of improvisation, grounded by dubby sub-bass vibrations.

nospectacle last played at Detroit’s Movement Festival in 2008 and performed at Mutek in Montreal in 2010 as part of Nocturne 5: Soul Control, the closing party of the festival. The event included Moritz von Oswald Trio and Detroit’s Theo Parrish.

The group has curated events at Cranbrook Art Museum that included a performance by Berlin-based Klimek at a showcase event for the Andy Warhol: Grand Slam exhibition (2008). nospectacle played with Hyperdub’s Kode9 at the Crofoot Ballroom the same year.

McNamara is a lecturer in film and electronic media at the University of Michigan and has installed multi-media works in Europe and North America. He is a founding member of the Canadian-American sight-sound collective Thinkbox. Paull has a background in electronic arts, photography and live band performance on bass and trombone; Wasacz is a critic, writer and editor. His column on underground dance music, the Subterraneans, has appeared in Detroit’s Metro Times since 2004, and he is a staff writer for XLR8R magazine in San Francisco.

nospectacle is launching its own boutique label of limited vinyl editions in 2011. A transoceanic collaboration between Guentner, who lives Regensburg, Germany, and McNamara will appear on nospectacle 001.

contacts:

http://nospectacle.com

http://twitter.com/nospectacle

nospectacle@mac.com

DEC. 11: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Over here, over here.

nospectacle live digital sight sound performance • 2739 Edwin

Saturday, Dec. 11 • Doors 8 p.m. • Showtime 9 p.m.

Suggested donation $5

2739 Edwin St. • Hamtramck

Muxing it up at at MUTEK

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:16:00 -0400

Check out the nospectacle feature on MUTEK blog

DOWNLOAD nospectacle’s live set from MUTEK in podcast form for a limited time!

MUTEKMAG Interview: Chris McNamara presents nospectacle from MUTEK on Vimeo.

Here are some of Chris McNamara’s videos!

The Use of Movement (excerpt) from Christopher McNamara on Vimeo.

Establishing Shots from Christopher McNamara on Vimeo.

Intersection 2 (Barcelona) from Christopher McNamara on Vimeo.

Star Command: nospectacle at Nocturne 5: Soul Control. Mutek 2010.

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:18:00 -0400

Photo credit: Caroline Hayeur.

The Subterraneans: Songs of the hour

MUTEK Roundup

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:24:00 -0400

nospectacle performed at Mutek in early June, opening a final night program called Soul Control. The lineup included Moritz von Oswald Trio, Brandt Brauer Frick and Theo Parrish. We performed a 45-minute set of original Christopher McNamara material, both audio and visual, interpreted and mixed by Walter Wasacz and Jennifer Paull. With one exception: an homage to the recently departed Malcolm McLaren — ‘Walking with Satie’ from the Paris LP. It was sublime. We thank the graciousness of the promoters and the entire staff at Mutek, the warmth showed by the fans and the city of Montreal for its gritty beauty.

Here is Walter’s review of the festival for XLR8R:

The first thing that gets your attention at MUTEK, even before you experience the music, is its clockwork efficiency. Drivers, merchandisers, sound and lighting technicians, curators, paid staff and volunteers are all wonderfully in sync. And all incredibly nice.

The venues, nearly all central and walkable, are perfectly matched to human-scale Montreal urbanism. The only stage that took an effort to get to was also the prettiest: the picnic grounds at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Isle Ste-Helene on the St. Lawrence River, accessible by boat, subway and motorized or pedestrian bridges.

It was there that hundreds of us danced beneath a huge sculptural Alexander Calder piece, just down the path from the even more massive Biosphere designed by Buckminster Fuller for the 1967 World Expo. Sweden’s Minilogue were on stage, live jamming exquisite techno from the word go, as fans arrived from all directions, ducking raindrops in between trees and lovely architecture.

Minilogue is a versatile group on record, moving from acid trance to minimal to ambient with ease. But seeing them perform in this location, with the city’s skyline at their backs, was sublime. They seemed to love it, too, feeding off the energy of the bodies gathering up front. Big ups for playing a crazy version of “My Teenager Gang.”

This was Saturday, which began with a light mist, turned into a downpour, opened up briefly with blue skies before the rains came again. The following day’s picnic was a washout: the party was moved to the Metropolis Club in midtown.

Launched in 2000, MUTEK is a five-day festival held in seven locations, which means you can’t see it all. Though it’s not for lack of trying. In one notable instance, we had to choose either Demdike Stare or Actress, both going off at exactly the same time. We picked Demdike Stare — Manchester’s Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty — making its North American debut. The group’s music might be best described as autumnal ambient with elements of post-industrial noise. Whiffs of Basic Channel and Detroit dub techno (think Deepchord/Echospace/Mike Huckaby) lurk just below the surface. The shambolic program started patiently, tumbling forward as it went deeper, swirling with effects, all made coherent by buzzing bassline vibrations. Nasty stuff, guys, all good.

King Midas Sound (in another North American premiere) jumped on stage only minutes later. Kevin Martin, appropriately wearing a Sun Ra Research T-Shirt, performed in front of a huge mixing board, surrounded by a laptop, controllers and other gear. Stage right, Vocalists Roger Robinson and Hitomi joined him on mics, guitar and keyboard. The sound was immense, tracks from last year’s stellar Hyperdub full-length Waiting for You making up a large portion of the set. This is hardly a large complaint, but the set worked more like a stage production by the Bug, Martin’s ragga/dancehall project, rather than the more subtle soul jazz vibe of the newer group. The voices had a tough time cutting through the thickening din, however tasty.

Ikonika finished the night with a DJ set that started on a UK ravy tip and remained there until we left. She was good, but the job following a live wire techno animal like Martin is thankless. I’m not sure if anyone can do it.

Other highlights included an improvisational set by the Moritz von Oswald Trio, which featured a dapper von Oswald decked out in a suit stage center, flanked by Max Loderbauer (Sun Electric, nsi) and Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) on drums. The group borrowed phrases from its 2009 LP Vertical Ascent but altered them in a way that made them appear entirely new, more dub jazz then dub techno. It was a cool performance, maybe too cool for a hopped up closing night crowd prone to nervous chatter, bursting at the seams, ready to dance.

And dance they did from the first drop of Theo Parrish’s needle to the last. It was an amazing performance by a vital DJ artist in his prime. He played vinyl exclusively, no computers or Serato digital mapping gear in sight, including records from his own Sound Signature catalog and other Detroit, Chicago and new wave hits (never thought “Bed’s Too Big Without You” by the Police would ever sound so good again).

There were other much-talked about sets, panels and Q&A’s that I did not see: the Caretaker swilling Scotch, playing characteristic morose soundscapes than crooning Streisand’s “The Way We Were” at the edge of the stage was the talk of the festival the first few days; also missed Matmos, Mossa, Nurse with Wound, Senor Coconut and his Orchestra and the soft-spoken French house prince Pepe Braddock, with whom we shared a car and elevator before figuring out who he was.

It was a stunning weekend of electronic music and electric people, the best combination there is for a winning series of parties, never mind the damn rain.

Click HERE to view MUTEK 2010 photos on FLICKR.

Chris McNamara presents nospectacle at MUTEK 2010

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:27:00 -0400

nospectacle live at movement 2008

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:26:00 -0400

happy audio from paxahau archives

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Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:46:00 -0400

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Vague Cities

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:43:00 -0500

Look for changes in the next month or so. This site will be revamped, materials archived and searchable. We will also be launching walterwasacz.com, a home for all things Walter. For now, here are some photos from the Vague Cities release party at Motor Burger in Windsor

Download Chris McNamara’s “Vague Cities” on Overlap here.

Walter talks to Klimek and reviews King Midas Sound for XLR8R.

In with the new

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:02:00 -0500

It’s official. 2010 is here and it finally feels like we’re living in the future, the ideal setting for Chris McNamara’s sublime innerspace travelog Vague Cities, issued late last year on Christopher Willits’ San Francisco-based Overlap digital imprint. Listen to the five-track EP and buy it here.

Now it’s time to celebrate. nospectacle presents a release party for Vague Cities Saturday, Jan. 23, at Motor Burger (formerly Noi), 888 Erie St. East, in Windsor’s Little Italy. Excellent food, full cash bar, good times. Original music by McNamara plus combo live-DJ sets by nospectacle.

Admission: free. 8 p.m. - 1 a.m.

—-

Walter’s best of 2009 column and blog from the Metro Times:

All signals — analog, digital, auditory, sensory — lead to and from Detroit. No other city remains so dedicated to the connectivity of mind, body and 4/4 beats. Go ahead, name one: London? Berlin? LA? NYC? All filled with sexy or rad club life. We humbly grant you that, and more. But for sheer day-to-day local inspiration and global influence, this vast, post-industrial, near-mythic place is the space for electronically-enabled music creation. It is what we rhapsodize about this time of year, when we scan our feeble memory banks, and all our stacked vinyl, CDs and little blue compressed MP3 folders looking for the best music of its kind of the last 12 months.

What else could make us so giddy (frozen lemon-flavored vodka helps) as an otherwise bleak 2009 — threatened with economic collapse, escalating war and the sobering realization that one half of the country cares little that the other gets basic health care — thankfully disappears into history? We have our sonic visionaries. They produce on a grand scale. They walk among us, one foot in the present, the other in the future, largely undetectable, immeasurably cool. Micro-attentive critics in the music sub-genre blogosphere are noticing, as they have since the 1980s, sprinkling Detroit respect in liberal doses on best-of lists across the planet. For such nuggets of gratitude we are overcome. We offer you a toast, all the young dudes, glammy girls, lovers and dancers with impeccable taste in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Paris, San Francisco and, yes, Williamsburg. We reciprocate by throwing our own picks — including recordings, performances, labels on the upswing, noteworthy emerging trends — atop the fire, straight outta the mighty fucking D. We’ve reduced it to an essential three categories. Remix the order anyway you like. May their contents burn in your hearts and souls forever.

Detroit theatricality. Surprised? You needn’t be. While most of us were worried about getting paid, artists here were paying it back. Exciting new projects were started locally: Macho City, a smart discoid duo (Mike Trombley and Scott Zacharias), brought fun, forbidden colors and international talent (Nancy Fortune and the retro-futurist rediscovery of the year, Bernard Favre’s late-1970s Black Devil Disco Club) back to an impoverished creative club scene. Aaron-Carl, one of the godsons of funky-dirty house to whom young producers around the world owe an increasing debt, launched W.A.R.M.T.H., a D-based collective that aims to go where no man or woman has dared go before: crossover peace, harmony and good times in the ego-driven, fiercely independent techno and house scenes. Carl  Craig was re-established as artistic director for the Movement Festival, an inspired move by promoters Paxahau, who continue to impress with growth and business savvy after a dozen years of formal promotions. Ditto for Adriel Thornton (aka Fantastique) and his 13 years of Family (and other FreshCorp-related) party productions. Another sweatbox institution, Funk Night, only got better with the addition of live big-band jazz courtesy of Will Sessions and support from the emerging Few Records imprint. Dethlab and Haute2Death reminded us monthly, if not more frequently, that art and design, guitars and synths, and jet boys/jet girls dressed in black will never go out of fashion.

Detroit hyperreality. No surprise here. Detroit producers worked their asses off all year, making original tracks, remixing others, touring the world, making intuitive connections and inspiring new scenes. Let’s start with the ornery brilliance of Omar S, who refuses to play in Detroit, but draws lines around buildings at 5 a.m. in Berlin and London. His (real name Alex O. Smith) audacious Fabric 45 mix CD included only his own tracks from his homegrown FXHE label (based in the Conant-8 Mile area). When told minimal global all-star Ricardo Villalobos had recently done the same for the same series, he responded: Ricardo who? We love you, Alex, you crazy bastard. Underground Resistance techno original Robert Hood put out the massive Minimal Nation comp; and perpetually off-the-radar house music prince Rick Wilhite had two classics re-released by The Netherlands’ Rushhour, ‘Soul Edge’ and ‘The Godson,’ featuring remixes by Theo Parrish and Moodymann (aka Kenny Dixon Jr.). Also making the interplanetary rounds: Scott Grooves’ ‘Detroit 808’ on his own Natural Midi label and three platters on Kai Alce’s NDATL Muzik celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fabled Detroit Music Institute: the artists were initially listed as unknown — in anonymous, Detroit white label tradition — but have been revealed as Mike Huckaby, Derrick May, Parrish and Alce himself. The busy, ever productive Parrish could also be found remixing DFA’s ‘45:33’ and Dixon (call him KDJ) released the soul/jazz/funk full-length Anotha Black Sunday. Ann Arbor’s Ghostly International/Spectral Sound powerhouse rolled closer toward world domination with stellar releases by the Sight Below (Tip: the ‘Murmur’ EP, including heavenly remix by arctic Norway’s Biosphere), new wave shoegazer Deastro (Sterling Heights’ Randolph Chabot) and various digital only comps (featuring School of Seven Bells, Matthew Dear, Dabrye and the grossly under-appreciated Dykehouse).

Detroit soul & inspiration: No, not everything great about the ninth year of the bloody new millennium came with a Detroit fix. The fertile and increasingly funky dubstep scenes in Bristol, London and in the north of England largely remain outside the magic circle. For those not familiar, we push hard the virtues of King Midas Sound (the latest project of the Bug/Techno Animal’s Kevin Martin); nearly everything on Kode9’s South London’s Hyperdub label, which released the sweetest, wonkiest love-dub single of the year, Darkstar’s ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer.’ It included a b-side by Detroit’s Kyle Hall, qualifying it for our category built of phenomenological essences on top and bass vibrations below. Also hot and D-inspired: ‘Ghosts Have a Heaven’ by London’s Actress; Berlin-based Redshape’s The Dance Paradox LP; the dark, dubby, bewitchingly entertaining releases by Manchester-based projects Demdike Stare, Pendle Coven and Millie & Andrea (pay attention fans of Basic Channel and Deepchord); London-to-Berlin transplant Scuba’s ‘Speak/Negative’ sides; and A Made Up Sound’s ‘Rework/Closer’ and 2562’s full-length Unbalance, both projects fronted by low-flying Dutchman Dave Huismans. And two for the househeads who think they’ve heard everything: Joy Orbison’s ‘Hyph Mngo’ and Pangaea’s ‘Memories.’ Free your stuck-up asses, divas, your minds will follow.

We would be remiss to end the year without a Happy New Year shout out to all the artists we support and admire. We wish you prosperity in the studio and raging love on dancefloors everywhere. 2010, like it or not, here we come.

—-

Chris McNamara & Markus Guentner in Ann Arbor

Gilded Eternities

Without spoiling too much of the current thrill-a-minute Subterraneans column, which puts to rest a bloodstained year in a fractious imperial democracy and looks ahead to even stranger days ahead, I thought I’d jot down some essential tunes to take with you to the island of your choosing, when you need to get away from it all. Here is the best of what I’ve returned to again and again in 2009, shared in some random kind of lyrical disorder. Jams that made my mind and body turn and twist and shout. Crossing genre borders, including comps, singles and re-mastered and reissued stoner-approved classics.

Hyph Mngo (Hotflush) - Joy Orbison. Ecstatic funky legit house-dubstep blender that gets better and better before your virgin ears. A young talent (Pete O’Grady, 22) to watch. Good pairings to seek out: Hotflush label owner Scuba’s two side-sided powerhouse (‘Speak/Negative’) for Naked Lunch; and Hessle Audio co-head Pangaea’s one-sided ‘Memories’ released on (our favorite) label unknown. Next up, freaks: flame out to the Dark Knight’s highly combustible ‘My Bitch/Mutant Funk’ sides. We’re dancing to it right now, in a bass haze, in case you want to join us.

Exploding Head (Mute) - A Place to Bury Strangers. Heavy, mysterious, loud, mumbled psych-punk poetry. Yes, the Jesus & Mary Chain comparisons are apt, but it has me reaching further for my Loop reissues, A Gilded Eternity (Beggars Banquet) and The World in Your Eyes (Reactor), each filled with hypnotic drone pop and proto-ambient metal, initially released in those golden years, 1987 to 1990.

5: Five Years of Hyperdub (Hyperdub) - Various Artists. Sexy greatness is all over it, beginning with the sublime modern poptones of Darkstar’s ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer,’ Cooly G’s ‘Weekend Fly’ and Ikonika’s ‘Sahara Michael;’ reprising a Burial track (a beefy ‘Distant Lights’), finally losing its temper on ‘Fukkaz’ and the Specials’ ‘Ghost Town,’ the latter two grindcore dubs courtesy of Kode9 + Spaceape. And there are close to 30 other gorgeously-produced tracks. Rock!

Tracks and Traces (Gronland) - Harmonia & Eno ‘76. Trance rock of epically-beautiful proportions, matching members of Germany’s Cluster and Neu! with new wave Brit synthesist Brian Eno. The original 12 songs are plenty to digest, but plan to add smart remixes by Appleblim & Komonazmuk (‘By the Riverside’) and Shackleton (‘Sometimes in Autumn’) issued by the Amazing Sounds label.

Great Lengths (3024) - Martyn. Almost everything he touched turned to hipster gold. One of the first to build bridges between Detroit techno, Chicago house, LA hip hop, UK jungle, drum ‘n’ bass and rave, this debut shows off the transplanted Dutchman’s (from medieval Eindhoven, now living in suburban Washington D.C.) skill at shaping dub desire into coherent, universal pop.

Fever Ray (Rabid) - Fever Ray. Karin Dreijer Andersson’s (The Knife) unchallengeable synth/goth/pop masterpiece, now in special three-disc edition including live tracks and video. Dead sad exquisite northern beauty. Here’s your chance to surrender, slave. I did.

Self-Assessment and Symbiosis (both Modern Love) - Pendle Coven and Demdike Stare. Two LPs, two separate Manchester, UK projects connected by the presence of warehouse techno-house/evil dub producer Miles Whittaker, Berlin’s Dubplates & Mastering studio wizardry and kinship with Detroit otherness and self-mystification of artists like Rod Modell and his Deepchord and Echospace crews.

Waiting for You (Hyperdub) - King Midas Sound. Narco-dream dub from London space-bass producer Kevin Martin, who doubles as the man behind the Bug, featuring acid-dread vocals by poet/MC Roger Robinson and Hitomi. The lovely voices float over waves of melodic sub-bass and crazy effects all pitched down to a junkyard crawl. How low can you go?

The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre (Lo Recordings) - Black Devil Disco Club. Amazing recordings from 1975, revived and re-worked for instant groovy dancefloor reaction by the now 63-year-old Fevre. Ripping French disco basslines meet German space rock elements, suggesting a careful listening to Can and Faust. If you like it, and you will, also dig around for another more tragic re-discovery: Wolfgang Reichmann, who was knifed to death in a bar brawl in 1978, the same year his Wunderbar debut was issued on Hamburg’s Sky Records. Big, ambitious recording (re-released on Bureau B) will make you shiver if you like ‘Man Machine’ era Kraftwerk or even Tangerine Dream. Say you will.

Until Then, Goodbye (Smallville) - Lawrence. What’s the most quietly consistent house-techno combo player in the world, Peter Kersten (Lawrence/Sten), been up to lately? Pristine productions, as usual. The new one is for you, closet Emo girls and boys, pure melancholy danceable 4/4 pop for now people. Don’t bother dressing up, the party is at your house tonight and we’re coming over.

Also riding the year out on a high: the Netherlands’ Dave Huismans, whose A Made Up Sound (‘Rework/Closer’) and 2562 (Unbalance LP) projects continue to impress; Detroiter Omar S went to the plate swinging and went yard on Fabric 45, a mix that contained all original material; Berlin-based Redshape’s The Dance Paradox, was pure Detroit love in all the right ways, as was Actress’ (Londoner Darren Cunningham) stomping ‘Ghosts Have a Heaven’ and Quantec’s Basic Channel-Deepchord flavored Cauldron Subsidence. Moodymann (Westsider Kenny Dixon Jr., lusty and re-invigorated at 42) stayed chic in the global underground with Anotha Black Sunday, and contributed tracks, along with fellow Detroiters Theo Parrish and Rick Wilhite, to 3 Chairs’ Spectrum LP. LA funk was re-born (sounds a lot like Seven Mile and Ryan neighborhood to us) on Dam-Funk’s massive, soul-stirring Toeachizown. More good dubs from the UK came via Untold’s ‘Dante/Sweat,’ Millie & Andrea’s ‘Spectral Source/Ever Since You Came Down’ and Ramadanman’s ‘Humber’ and ‘Justify’ (with Appleblim). Mordant Music developed hauntological kitchen sink surrealism as a new sub-sub-genre on the monochromatic SyMptoMs LP; Blue Daisy somehow made shoegaze and wonky-funky space-disco riddims work on the ‘Stings Detached’ four-track EP; and Klimek continued on his alternately grimy, haunting and beautiful journey through the ambient ghetto of the imagination on his Slavoj Zizek/Van Dyke Parks/Brian Wilson-inspired Movies is Magic LP.

Bristol’s Peverelist dropped a tasty full-length bass bomb, Jarvik Mindstate; Deastro (early-twentysomething Randolph Chabot of Sterling Heights) produced the kinetic Moondagger, for Ghostly International; Matias Aguayo put another stake in the heart of boring elitist minimal with the populist South American-European street party-club music hybrid, Ay Ay Ay on Kompakt. From the vaults, we were digging the Soul Jazz collection Can You Dig it? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-1975 and the Kill Rock Stars reissue of the stunning Mayo Thompson-produced Raincoats debut, originally out on Rough Trade in 1979. We raise a toast to 30 years of post-rock relevancy with a glass of champagne that tastes just like Cherry Cola.

The hits kept on coming: Editors’ In This Light and On This Evening, the Depreciation Guild’s In Her Gentle Jaws and The Mary Onettes’ Islands brought pop poetry to club life, shaking fists at God, nature and human failure. Thanks to the marvelous ears of Pop Ambient visionary Markus Guentner, those LPs are on heavy rotation on various iPods, iPhones and computers all over the house. As is yet unreleased material from Dresden’s Malory (Pearl Diver, out in early 2010), though it has been galloping in my head since November. That’s when the digital A/V trio nospectacle (Chris McNamara, Jennifer Paull and yours truly) performed with Guentner at a special event called Collapsing Borders on the University of Michigan’s North Campus. I mention it partly because I have a great picture posted here of McNamara (mixing live video, left) and Guentner (right) playing sublime live original material for the first time — anywhere, ever. It’s one of many secret best moments of a pretty great year in Detroit music. You missed it, but the afterlife in the blogosphere is made for eternal second opportunities like this. Enjoy! Not to mention vicariously experiencing other rare live appearances by Move D, Scion, Faust, the Sight Below, Flying Lotus; and less rare happy hours and hours by local mischief makers Macho City, Disco Secret, Aaron-Carl, Kevin Reynolds, Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway, Jamie Easter, the Wolfman Band and, of course, all the discerning music lovers in Detroit that kept it all kicking like a sleep twitch in 2009. Stay safe and don’t dare lose your fever knife edge in the new year.

—-

Words: Walter Wasacz Label: Modern Love XLR8R Rating: 9/10

Miles Whittaker has been a bewitchingly busy fella of late, releasing warehouse techno under his MLZ moniker, playing dubby doubles with Gary Howell in Pendle Coven and Andy Stott in the cheeky Millie & Andrea, and now teaming up with Sean Canty in the earthy, neo-pagan Demdike Stare. Spread too thin on the dark side, you say? Not by a long shot. “Suspicious Drone” gets the (witches’) ball rolling rudely with an effects-treated gong and sustained subsonic bass tremors, “Haxan Dub” is a slo-mo 2-step march, and “Jannisary” samples world-beat strings and riddims to come up with something deliciously otherworldly. Sneaky, sinister, and sick in all the right ways.

more features and reviews found here: http://www.xlr8r.com/contributors/walter-wasacz

Nov 20 afterglow

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0500

Collapsing Borders - Einstürzende Grenze

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:16:00 -0400

Markus Guentner (Regensburg)

nospectacle (Detroit)

Video and Performance Studio
Duderstadt Center, University of Michigan
2281 Bonisteel Blvd

November 20
6 - 9 p.m.
Free

This special audio-visual live electronics presentation features a North American exclusive: an appearance by Markus Guentner, a German artist known as an innovator of the pop ambient sound for Cologne’s Kompakt label, with Detroit-based digital dub stylists nospectacle.

The performance, Collapsing Borders - Einstürzende Grenze, at the University of Michigan’s Duderstadt Center will include composed and improvised music and video, mixed and sequenced by the artists. The point of focus is to show how art and entertainment technologies play a crucial role in transcending political, cultural and psychological borders. It is part of a series of events at the University of Michigan this fall commemorating 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Guentner is best known for his work on Kompakt, which released his full-lengths In Moll (2001) and 1981 in 2005, and various single tracks on its annual Pop Ambient series. He has also released minimal house and techno music (Audio Island, Lovely Society) on the Ware label, also based in Cologne, and has a new LP, Doppelgaenger, released this fall on the Dutch Sending Orbs label. He has produced soundscapes for Ambient Works, a comprehensive workstation for creating cinematic atmospheres for feature films, documentaries, commercials and new media project applications. Guentner’s only other area appearance was at Movement, Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, in 2006. He lives in Regensburg.

nospectacle is an electronic music, video and DJ hybrid project based in Detroit. The group is made up of Christopher McNamara, Jennifer A. Paull and Walter Wasacz, and performs original works by McNamara, a founding member of the Windsor-Detroit laptop group Thinkbox, re-shaping the source material into drones, dubs, disembodied voices, subsonic bass immersion and streaming images. McNamara’s new release Vague Cities includes a remix by Guentner.

The group has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), the Detroit Institute of Arts and at the Movement Festival. In 2008, nospectacle hosted Klimek, another German pop ambient artist, at the Cranbrook Art Museum. Listen to nospectacle live at Cranbrook 2008 here.

Check out Chris McNamara’s track “oooohdear” on the Lend Me Your Ears blog.

RSVP or add event to iCal on Facebook.

LIT

Mon, 18 May 2009 18:45:00 -0400

Virgil Moorefield, Merge and nospectacle in Live in Time, May 21, Detroit Film Theatre, @ DIA, 5200 Woodward Avenue. Doors 7 p.m. $10.

Live in Time - May 21, 2009

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:07:00 -0400

Subterraneans Best of 2008

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:02:00 -0500

Call me old-fashioned, but I actually like most of the music I write about, making each year-end, best-of list I do a delight not a chore. Sure, there’s lots of bad stuff out there, horrible shit, in fact, but the good work that makes it through the din of mediocrity makes it all worthwhile.

And looking back over a year’s worth of tunes gives the period some weight it didn’t immediately have. In techno, it’s 1995 that brings meaning to memory, when Berlin’s Basic Channel (and everything associated with it: the artists, the label, the brand) morphed into Chain Reaction, and 1996, when it launched the murky and immersive Burial Mix imprint, still the most compelling template for all pitched down, digital dubs to follow.

Instead of the individual works themselves, I’ve listed the top dozen labels that kicked out the most incredible product of the year. Nothing revolutionary, just pure techno investigation; you follow the label, find the sound you like, identify the artist (or sometimes not, with so many hiding behind bewildering pseudonyms and akas) … and just crank those knobs to the right.

As always, the list is built on a foundation of subjective imperfection, and leans heavily toward dub and dread techno sounds from the UK, where the current action is. Minimal, in case you care, is over, in rapid freefall into institutional narcissism and increasing irrelevancy. We feel sad for the loss, but spill whisky and dance gleefully over its not so pretty corpse. It was nice while it lasted, baby. Now, in order of achievement, on with the new and improved show:

Skull Disco – The undisputed princes of an organic movement that brings techno and more roots-based music into low-end unity are Sam Shackleton and Appleblim (Laurie Osborne) of London and Bristol-based funky bass project Skull Disco. They destroyed everything in their path with badass black jams like “The Rope Tightens,” “Death is Not Final,” “Grit” on the brilliant Soundboy’s Gravestone Gets Desecrated by Vandals double CD and double-12-inch remix pack that ended a four-year run of venturesome soul-dub partnership. Plus: degenerate cover art by illustrator Zeke Clough is mad as hell, authentically hardcore.

Hessle Audio – Tight, house-inspired dubstep with warm, layered vocals and wild effects on top of junglist shimmer ‘n’ shake — and hard and deep bass thrusts for good measure. Ooh, ahh. Pangaea’s “Router / You & I” is both romantic and tough, musical kin to similarly out (there) local producers KDJ and Piranhahead. Tracks by Ramadanman (one of the label co-owners), Untold and Romania’s TRG (featuring remixes by Martyn, who also had an incredible year on his fledgling 3024 label) are true bad blood, like sex in your soul.

Echospace – Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell have been on a serious skyward trajectory since 2007 and even speeded up production activity in 2008 by releasing a CD of remixes of Juan Atkins’ classic “Starlight,” side projects by Intrusion and CV313, and a reshaped/re-mastered/re-engineered version of DeepChord’s 2002 Vantage Isle sessions. Combustible, brooding techno art without beginning or end.

Modern Love – Manchester label affiliated with Boomkat and Pelicanneck Records had another sweet year with new groovin’ dubs by Andy Stott, Claro Intelecto, MLZ and Move D. But what really gave the label weight was its release of limited edition white label dance 12s by Unknown / Hate, freaky-fractured mind/body beat music said to be from anonymous hardcore tapes recovered from ’93 or thereabouts. One of the sides contains the best title of any single this year: “Pretty Boys Don’t Survive Up North.”

Hyperdub – Still hot after two straight years of releasing what were the smartest, loveliest full-lengths in ambitious global clubland (the self-titled Burial and Untrue LPs), Steve Goodman’s South London power center contributed Zomby’s double 12-inch pack, King Midas Sound (featuring the Bug’s Kevin Martin and including a remix by Ann Arbor’s Dabrye) and his own Kode9 productions, one of them (“Konfusion”) with longtime psychotropic audio/visual collaborator the Spaceape.

Smallville – Hamburg-based label had probably the most spectacular debut of the year, Move D (David Moufang, who has been releasing records since ’94) and Benjamin Brunn’s Songs from the Beehive LP and the duo’s follow-up, the New Horizons EP. Sophisticated techno also influenced by the pillow talk of (Detroit) house music and mind games found in space jazz. Oh, so nice. Hamburg homeboy Sten (Peter Kersten aka Lawrence) also kept his elegant grooves rising with the Squares EP.

Echocord – This Danish imprint puts out heady, danceable deep techno, rough stuff like Detroiter Mike Huckaby’s remix of Mikkel Metal’s Peaks and Troughs and suburban spaceman Quantec’s Berlin-Detroit, greyscale-glamorous Unusual Signals LP. Score an extra point for colored vinyl releases and classy graphics.

Mule Electronic - Japanese label with just the right touch marries techno, house and ambient tones to create crafty new electronic world music. With contributions by Sweden’s Minilogue, Japan’s Koss, the ever-present Lawrence and the electoacoustic find of the year, the Imps, a real time band with electronics that creates tasty dream-jazz vignettes as if for a surrealist ballet.

Tectonic – New releases from Bristol by Skream, Peverelist, 2562 (aka Dave Huismans, who also records under the name A Made Up Sound) and RSD gave dubstep the swift kick in the ass it needed by building sexual heat on the bottom end and letting the high end drift into radiant abstraction. The hits were everywhere, especially the mighty “Techno Dread” (2562) and the rankin’ “Midnight Oil / Joyride,” the latest single by label owner Pinch (Rob Ellis).

Ghostly International / Spectral – A year of renewed pop energy for the Ann Arbor-based label celebrating 10 years in the fast track next summer. Colorfully adorned millennial newbies included Michna, the Sight Below, the Chap and School of Seven Bells. But the best record to come out on the franchise this year was by Spectral pillar Todd Osborn, whose “Osborne” debut full length went deeper into the mind of the Detroit night then all others combined.

12K - Taylor Duepree’s inventive Brooklyn-based label project never fails to sound weirdly pristine, as on his own re-mastered Northern solo effort, on Sawako’s Bitter Sweet or especially the violently beautiful Ocean Fire, a collab between legendary modern classical composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (Yellow Magic Orchestra; Academy Award winning soundtrack work on The Last Emperor) and the planetary Max/MSP/Jitter-guitarist Christopher Willits.

Caravan – The future of body music takes another turn through Bristol, where culture on the ground is apparently not afraid to trade in multiple inspirations and creative file sharing. Crossover dub, 2-step garage, grime, house, techno, rave and seemingly every underground sound worth re-imagining can be heard on new records by Emptyset, October (tip: “Houston / Listen, Move, Dance”) and TG’s Feign EP, which includes a remix by Markus Guentner.

And we would be remiss not to include more than honorable mention to the sounds found this year on Anticipate, Barge, Meanwhile, Millions of Moments (which released Modell’s sublime remix of local treasure Aaron Carl’s Crucified), Punch Drunk, Tempa, Touch, Type, Vakant, WerkDiscs, and International Freakshow, not just because we love the name but for the fact that the criminally under-regarded minimalist Jens Zimmermann dropped four hypnotic drumzzz-driven jams (the C30 double EP) on the label this summer. Happy New Year, freaks everywhere, and much weird love from Detroit.

By Walter Wasacz

nospectacle DJ set Wednesday in Hamtramck

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:09:00 -0500