There was a ton of Halloween stuff (and the Series as well) going on around town, so these guys picked a less than ideal night to hit town. But Antimc got the sparse crowd warmed up, traversing between his two Korg keyboards, sampler, turntables, laptop, and then strapping on his Stratocaster for a few cuts, while his partner switched between bass and keys. His electronic set was mostly instrumental, save for the third cut where Busdriver hopped on stage and grabbed this mike.
By the time Daedelus took the stage, the crowd had just about tripled. He got behind his laptop and his own invention that he calls Monome. “It’s a machine that only runs on good will,” he said. Turns out the Monome, which was a box rigged with a bunch of small round buttons, was used to trigger samples on his laptop. Throughout each song a few of the buttons would flash green, and for the most part he seemed to be tapping the flashing buttons, almost like some sci-fi fingertip version of Whack-a-Mole. Judging from the samples he used, it was clear that his music palette was undoubtedly broad, whether it be a bossa riff with flute, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” or Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out.” But they sounded seamless over the dance beats he laid down.
More people had trickled in by the time Antimc and his buddy started rustling up some wicked beats for Busdriver’s vigorous set. At one point, Busdriver went from talking about slutty nurses and slutty astronauts to getting the crowd to sing “lets make friends.” Near the end of his set, he said he thought he was sweating so much because of our city’s altitude. “I’m from L.A., where it’s two feet from hell,” he said. He then launched into “Imaginary Places,” where he rapped with mercurial fervor over a flute sample from J.S. Bach’s “Suite No. 2 in B minor for Flute & Strings, BWV 1067 - I. Overture.” See, the only reason I knew what Bach piece it was because I remembered it as the flute piece that was performed in the film Hilary and Jackie, which was based on the renowned cellist Jacqueline Du Pre. Anyhow, Busdriver was rapping so damn fast on the tune that it was nearly impossible to decipher what the hell he was saying. Hell, it was hard to decipher most of his songs because of his frenetic Charlie Parker-paced vocals riffs, which are a bit easier to make on out on his albums like Temporary Forever and his most recent, RoadKillOvercoat. -– Jon Solomon
Critic’s Notebook Personal Bias: OK, I’ll admit that I’m not entirely schooled on the ways of hip-hop and IDM, but these cats tore it up. Random Detail: Daedelus was formally trained on double bass and bass clarinet. By the Way: The Hip Hop Chocolates dude was in the house.
