I attend a performance that I was really pumped about going to on Friday Night, a presentation of DJ Spooky’s, aka That Subliminal Kid, symphonic type work “Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica” that he composed during a trip to the subarctic ice tundra of the Southern Hemisphere. He took a portable recording studio and some video equipment down with him and made music and took eye candy video shots of the surroundings. He then composed (and he specified that he wrote it on staff paper and not just on a computer) a piece based on his experience for Piano, Cello, Violin and DJ. Yeah, DJ, and that is where I got mad hyped. All of you DJ’s surely your taking a lesson . . .
Here is the official Blurp from lawrence.com
“DJ Spooky's "Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica" is a multimedia performance that features sound recordings and images of Antarctica. Paul D. Miller -- a.k.a. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid -- created an acoustic portrait of a rapidly changing continent by traversing remote and often treacherous territories. His field recordings from a portable studio, set up to capture the acoustic qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing and vanishing environment under duress. DJ Spooky presented "Terra Nova" at the 2008 Democratic National Convention; tonight he'll bring it to the Lied Center in conjunction with a four-day KU residency."
So, again, I was hyped, had my head right and rolled up to this thing in a fancy concert type hall setting. I have been interested in classical music for a while (blame for my interest placed here on the hour long break between Aural Skills and Music Theory class and Gray) and I was interested in seeing how he did this. The pre show music sounded very much like field recordings of ice shifts and got me more hyped. Then, the lights went down and the musicians came out. Spooky did a little intro- and two things bothered me with what he said- 1st being that this piece was a work in progress (I got discounted tix for $16 each, originally $24, so if you are going to charge that much, you best bring you’re A-Game not a work in progress that indeed sounded like a work in progress) and 2nd being that he explained that he would in essence “be DJ’ing” the ensemble. Still, my expectations (among other things in my head) were high.
Then the music started. Keep in mind as I say what I say that I still had a good time and I am glad I went. But I was a bit dissappointed. First, the composition at times was partly hookey, it sounded like Phillip Glass with out the genius. At times though, the composition was very expressive and fit the overall mood of the situation. I head very few samples of the field recordings, if they were there, they were mixed very low. Now, Spooky was set up on stage with what looked like a CD turntable set up with some crazy effects. He also appeared to be adding effects and manipulating the mics on the ensemble, which I was down with. He was very subtle in his part, with the exception of two effects that drove me crazy. He had this one pan thing going that was all wet with no original signal and it was not tactful, just annoying. It sounded like the music stopped more than it sounded like the music continued with an effect on it. Kids on E wouldn’t have even liked it. The other was this effect where he spun his CD turntable thing really fast, thus making it sound like he spun the record really fast, only it was digital and annoying. It seemed to happen between every song, so maybe it was his signal to the players that the next section was about to start. Which is fine, unless you are sitting in the audience and know what panning is. I heard little scratching too which I really wanted more of.
Good parts now: The visuals were pretty cool, although some seemed like early 90’s type of video effects that would have been more at home on a Windows 95 machine’s screensaver than being projected on two 15 ft tall screens. There was not any Chris Cunningham shit, but it was still pretty cool. He did seem to have (from the best I can tell) this thing where he would sample the players, then play it back looped and manipulated it. He may have not sampled it and was only manipulating through the mix, but he was adding some cool other textures to the players. But it sounded cool and add this other layer that I wish was present for the whole performance. The musicians were also excellent; they were all local to Kansas University.
Conclusion- This concert was similar to compositional struggles I have had in my life too. It was a great idea and cool concept, but the implementation of the idea was not as cool as the concept itself. I am glad I went, but I wish I had not gone with such high expectations.
DJ Spooky’s page on this composition
Here is the official Blurp from lawrence.com
“DJ Spooky's "Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica" is a multimedia performance that features sound recordings and images of Antarctica. Paul D. Miller -- a.k.a. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid -- created an acoustic portrait of a rapidly changing continent by traversing remote and often treacherous territories. His field recordings from a portable studio, set up to capture the acoustic qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing and vanishing environment under duress. DJ Spooky presented "Terra Nova" at the 2008 Democratic National Convention; tonight he'll bring it to the Lied Center in conjunction with a four-day KU residency."
So, again, I was hyped, had my head right and rolled up to this thing in a fancy concert type hall setting. I have been interested in classical music for a while (blame for my interest placed here on the hour long break between Aural Skills and Music Theory class and Gray) and I was interested in seeing how he did this. The pre show music sounded very much like field recordings of ice shifts and got me more hyped. Then, the lights went down and the musicians came out. Spooky did a little intro- and two things bothered me with what he said- 1st being that this piece was a work in progress (I got discounted tix for $16 each, originally $24, so if you are going to charge that much, you best bring you’re A-Game not a work in progress that indeed sounded like a work in progress) and 2nd being that he explained that he would in essence “be DJ’ing” the ensemble. Still, my expectations (among other things in my head) were high.
Then the music started. Keep in mind as I say what I say that I still had a good time and I am glad I went. But I was a bit dissappointed. First, the composition at times was partly hookey, it sounded like Phillip Glass with out the genius. At times though, the composition was very expressive and fit the overall mood of the situation. I head very few samples of the field recordings, if they were there, they were mixed very low. Now, Spooky was set up on stage with what looked like a CD turntable set up with some crazy effects. He also appeared to be adding effects and manipulating the mics on the ensemble, which I was down with. He was very subtle in his part, with the exception of two effects that drove me crazy. He had this one pan thing going that was all wet with no original signal and it was not tactful, just annoying. It sounded like the music stopped more than it sounded like the music continued with an effect on it. Kids on E wouldn’t have even liked it. The other was this effect where he spun his CD turntable thing really fast, thus making it sound like he spun the record really fast, only it was digital and annoying. It seemed to happen between every song, so maybe it was his signal to the players that the next section was about to start. Which is fine, unless you are sitting in the audience and know what panning is. I heard little scratching too which I really wanted more of.
Good parts now: The visuals were pretty cool, although some seemed like early 90’s type of video effects that would have been more at home on a Windows 95 machine’s screensaver than being projected on two 15 ft tall screens. There was not any Chris Cunningham shit, but it was still pretty cool. He did seem to have (from the best I can tell) this thing where he would sample the players, then play it back looped and manipulated it. He may have not sampled it and was only manipulating through the mix, but he was adding some cool other textures to the players. But it sounded cool and add this other layer that I wish was present for the whole performance. The musicians were also excellent; they were all local to Kansas University.
Conclusion- This concert was similar to compositional struggles I have had in my life too. It was a great idea and cool concept, but the implementation of the idea was not as cool as the concept itself. I am glad I went, but I wish I had not gone with such high expectations.
DJ Spooky’s page on this composition
I'm not surprised it was sort of lame. I saw DJ Spooky once and it was pretty awful. He is completely pretentious and his shit is just not that good. When I saw him he was playing with a live drummer and they couldn't even stay in time with each other.
ReplyDeleteHe should've done the set in a parka and snowshoes. Dude is totally bap.
ReplyDeleteI saw him open for Kool Keith on the Black Elvis tour a long while back and he fucking killed it, but that was when he was doing sweepy glitchy drum & bass stuff. It might sound dated if I was able to hear it now, but who could hate a show where Kool Keith wears fishbowl on his head over a clown wig and throws chicken wings and capri-suns into the crowd. "I like to feed my audience"
ReplyDeleteif Kool Keith had even been at this show watching it, and gave me chicken wings, and the cello player was wearing a clown suit, I would have thrown down at the Lied Center like a twisted nurse with an old lady in a wheel chair at a nursing home stairwell.
ReplyDeleteHey, i know it's a little late to be commenting on this, but i have to say it:
ReplyDelete"I've seen him live too and can conclusively say that he sucks the inside of my dick."
-agl
i initially wrote this response on staff paper before posting so it's basically legit.