Out of the fray
Back from MUTEK, with round one of reflections posted on Pitchfork, under the unsubtle title, "The Month in Techno." And what a month, at least first eight days of it. I've got a suitcase full of dirty clothes, some 500 photos to sort through, and more promos than I have time to listen to, but mostly I just want to go back to the live set from Galoppierende Zuversicht (pictured here) and figure out which passage swept my brain away like a shady van with tinted windows. Styro2000 did have some amber-colored buttons on his homemade gizmo... Coincidence?
Comments
nice mix, got to it thru blentwell.. compliments from italia, check out my mixes on omnidrive.blogspot.com!
Posted by: sergio omnidrive | June 9, 2005 07:10 AM
nice mix, got to it thru blentwell.. i publish mine on omnidrive.blogspot.com, feel free to check them out!
Posted by: sergio omnidrive | June 9, 2005 07:12 AM
Nice piece for Pitchfork P, you'll have to carry the instant-Mutek coverage this year, I'm no longer doing the daily ramble on the fest -- rather I'm considering the return of acieed house .. (for e/i) .. Do you really hear it as new? I enjoyed the Swiss duo and Atom's collaboration as you did, but doesn't this sound all so similar to a mid-90s techno? Perhaps it's more or less hearing a bit of the MidWest influence, as it seems much of what was heard at Mutek this year was undertaken some 10 years ago. Is this a decade too late or the prescient showcase of what should have happened regenerating the future? This IS of course our present, but isn't acieed's haunting return simply techno's electroc(l)ash moment?
It may have been a better dance party, but was it at all laying out the cutting edge for electronic music as Mutek has managed to do the past few years? (Unless that edge is its retrogression ..).
I mean the Swiss duo to me sounded like Prototype 909 live.
What a DJ brings -- I like how you opened with this -- is historicism and the narratology of continuity and rupture. A DJ spins not only the blend of the year's crop, but the remixing of the old with the new, to see where we've been and where we're going. Mutek, by eschewing DJs, has also unfortunately eschewed its own historical tangents, and this year I can't help but feel that it seems to have fallen for the make-up of the past .. because it has neglected an important segment of its past: the dj as part of the electronic circuit.
On other notes and levesl, nice subtle cuts on Ricardo's fade-away. I hope the V. reasserts his time in the studio and decides to honour his contracts -- these music careers are never as stable as anyone thinks.
Good to see you, albeit briefly.
Keep it up.
best, t
Posted by: tV | June 9, 2005 07:20 AM
great article philip - next best thing to being there ;)
so pete doherty and ricy v - seperated at birth?
www.plasticbag.de/junk/villalobos_des_monats.gif
Posted by: rcd1 | June 9, 2005 09:02 AM
nice one!
Posted by: geeta | June 9, 2005 09:40 AM
nice article! i was "there" but i was busy interviewing everybody all the time. zuversicht were quite adorable when we filmed 'em... i'll send you a copy of the video if you like!
Posted by: slocki | June 9, 2005 03:32 PM
wow, that foto of Villalobos, las drogas destruyen!!!!. Im so bummed out missing mutek this year, oh well, next year, with bells on. saludos.
Posted by: ejival | June 9, 2005 07:46 PM
"Ricardo Villalobos, one half of the headlining duo Sense Club, had "missed" his flight and/or "lost" his passport (perhaps the Libertines are looking for a backup laptop player?)"
that's the funniest thing i've read all year.
Posted by: stirmonster | June 9, 2005 09:01 PM
eji! te extrañamos, te veremos el año que viene, seguro....
Posted by: philip | June 9, 2005 10:11 PM
LOVE the pictures, too.
Posted by: adamrl | June 10, 2005 09:55 AM
Dear Philips,
Yes, thank you. We are so glad everything went so well. Did you fly in an airplane? We hate airplane food.
Your truly,
Charles Fat
Posted by: Anonymous | June 13, 2005 08:19 PM
Great article in Pitchfork...
your writing is always on point, and super detailed - you reminded me of things I had forgotten, which are recalled to the front of my mind upon reading. Equally funny, the PLURy comment made me laugh! :)
Posted by: Amanda Connon-Unda | June 14, 2005 07:50 AM
yes, i liked the plur comment too. have seen anyone type that out in a while, and never thought i'd see it on pitchfork.
Posted by: matt | June 14, 2005 09:07 PM