Komedia, Brighton
22nd February 2000
First round on a rare night of electronic experimentalism in Brighton, held in the converted supermarket cabaret venue Komedia and hosted by Semiconductor was Lucky Kitchen, an electronic duo between Alejandra Salinas and Aaron Bergman (AKA Alejandra and Underwood as the handy little placards placed on top of the mixer for each act stated). Their music was accompanied by a little video projection story, which strained at being cute, while we strained our eyes to read the sometimes garish captions. Apparently the story was about a creature called Pip and its misadventures, done in Hello Kitty style among other little creatures. For all its adorable stupidity, the Pip story really was lost on the audience, and the music could have done without it. Conversely, the music creations were clever enough; loads of natural sounds such as birds and insects and storms emerging in synch with the storyboards. There was a carnival type classical theme which was far more successful in disturbance than the video with its childhood comforting. There are two ways A&U could possibly go with all this, one being to ditch the fairy-tale and go on with good music, or second, they could bring a more sinister aspect to toyland and project a showdown between Pip and Badtzmaru, soundtracking it with their provoking audio backings.
Next up was Dummy Run. If someone can create pop music out of crackling buzzsaw fire pop ear-pierce noise, here’s Nic Birmingham to try. Grating sounds which should cause me to wince blend and form into melodies, bass-driven musical prose, rattling harmonies. There’s a mean sound coming from the fingertips of that mild looking man, no manners required. He paces, it gets louder, he looks confused, the crunches mount in attack. He concentrates and a chill goes down my spine. The sound manager fucks up – the audience protests. Nic frets, we are back in sonic torture heaven. He nods along as if to cartoon sing-alongs, sound becomes bombastic with echoes and derision. The music turns into the kind of soundwalls one can easily have as background to an interesting conversation, but I am compelled to watch Dummy Run, closely. He knows what’s coming; he has a plan, a scheme even. He’s listening himself and moving RCA jacks around quicker than a turn of the century telephone operator in a New York hotel. And he scares me, another assault, he looked puzzled, another attack, another rhythm. I could dance to this, if I were on drugs. This vocoder type voice is screaming at me through relentless static, I wonder if Mr. Dummy (Mr. Run?) has found the secret to A.I.? Fuck, now its over, and I thought I’d be bored. Could this be future of pop music? Brain-pop maybe.
Now as if my head wasn’t stretched out enough already by Dummy Run, up comes Vicki Bennett doing People Like Us. Immediately I realise there is to be no aural mercy, so I stay as tuned as DR made me get, and consume. Visual, phonic, PLU has created an experience so fresh as to quiet this whole full room audience. Recycling found sources of film, songs, words, People Like Us is making the most out of an economic approach to creativity. In a world where nothing is original anyway, and everything is disposable, PLU lends newness to previous genius and novelty to that which may have been overlooked in the past. It is all forms of expressionism and re-expression which make sense. Especially when true heart and mind are put to the task. This is the overwhelming feeling which emmanates from Ms. Bennett, that she has wrapped and spiralled her soul into this work, and she intends to get yours in there as well.
“What kind of sounds would be like this music?” Visual affrontation. “What’s music? The beat we live our lives to. It’s very important, just like lycra.” Epiphany! This could help us understand music! There is a childish temptation to come hither, to listen. PLU uses our human tendancies towards nostalgia to bring us all into formation. Homemade Clay! Delightful! Vicki wanted everyone to pay attention, finally all the poor bastards shut up and paid their debts! Looking around at the stunned and still quiet room full of people who are that normal sort of group where it’s trendy to be bored, I have to smirk a little at their general raptness with PLU. “Water coming off the eaves is good music.” Austria – coincidence/genius? “We used to do it this way – now we do it this way…we are leaving the land…This is our thing, this is our faith, this land, this is our life…”
Vicki Bennett uses media to show us our own growth, our own progress. She shows us how we once were idiots who worked too hard. She shows us that we are still idiots, but when entertained, we can learn. We can improve. And there is hope. “What’s the use relying on others for entertainment? The best thing is to make your own enjoyment, if you can…”. And if you can’t, People Like Us will. Grim reminders constantly run through the show of our own follies. Blame ourselves, hate ourselves. “The silence of the day is broken by a gun at nightfall…” It is amazing to find this stuff and put it all together, she shows us our future through the audiovisual pasts of people like us! Complete submission? OK, Vicki. More quickly and accurately? OK, Vicki…Data incomplete?…OK, Vicki. Maybe next time…
-Lilly Novak-
