CLUSTER
with
WHITE RAINBOW
TUSSLE
white rainbow
tussle gear
steering wheel of the omniscient Odin
AC's visuals
gaunt navigator, the Mobius himself
cluster
the nature of the layout at GAMH doesn't lend itself easily to analyzing gear; very dim lighting, high stage, musicians set far back, no-flash photo policy. regardless:
WHITE RAINBOW
i walked into this set with 3/4's the room empty and the lights barely dimmed to what i thought was a dj but upon closer inspection realized the Portland, OR djin had actually already begun his set. seemed he wasn't concerned with pushing the mammoth speaker array of the GAMH, a shame as his records are incredibly lush and symphonic; output was far too quiet and lacking in low end. i couldn't recognize any compositions off PRISM OF ETERNAL NOW, his latest record. more geared into an improv nu-trance realm, still very enjoyable results but too muted. BOSS giga delay, moogerfooger [ murf? ], some kind of drum machine with an lcd display, stratocaster guitar, vocal mic, boss flanger.
TUSSLE
began without introduction and not a single word uttered throughout the set. two drummer staple included but this time with dude from THE VANISHING and BRONZE on a kit. jazz bass, ampeg 4x10 [ wayyyy to quiet/trebly for me ] kicks were incredibly prominent and thumping in the mix, crucial to their motorik oriented dance efforts. synths churned out discordant stabs with cat & mouse pawing, filling in where needed. a strong set without many risks or enthusiasm.
CLUSTER
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_%28band%29
Dieter Mobius and Han Joachim Rodelius are two pilots of the cosmiche [ or roughly: german synthesizer anthems of the 70's ] duo Cluster, who also split minds wide in the more melodic oriented HARMONIA of which Brian Eno also collaborated with.
i won't even attempt to detail what equipment the spirits manipulated [dudes been at this for 30+ yrs, the gear's gonna be exotic ] , but what did strike me is the lack of any visible keyboard synths. the platform was a barebones rig of what i imagine were a few consoles of some kind of patch synthesis variety, though i could make out one discernible keyboard towards the end as a heartbreaking piano melody ended the second encore of the set. easily flooding the low end threshold of the house system, the volume and reverberations were absolutely delectable to all senses, unfortunately 35% of the crowd appeared disinterested enough in massive cascading waves of phantasmal drone and ambient suites, as they bantered through most of the set. the visual accompaniment by shaman Allison Childs shrouded the event in a very agreeable wigwam of line graph rainbow and shimmering static fields. true mind zoo.
6 comments:
man, don't blame me for not being loud enough..playing first at these big pro places means you get rushed on stage regardless if anyone has shown up or not plus the front of house guy puts you at about half volume. you can either whine about every little thing or you can just put your head down and try to do your best in the situation given... lame to say the least, and i'm the one who's got to live with the reviews...
oh, and the drum machine with the flashing lights is actually a korg kaoss pad. i use it to sample things. any beat you heard that night was made on the spot, using the drums on stage, looped and sampled, and yeah i don't play stuff off of my records as they are either deeply multitracked and arranged on computer or are straight improv, so unless you like people playing their CDs, it doesn't work like that. anyway thanks for taking the time to review and take pictures, just wanted to express that i had the same frustrations that night as you, especially since i flew down from portland just to play that show.
cluster was awesome (even with the distracted crowd) and all the people that put on the string of shows are amazing people. maybe the GAMH isn't the right place for this sort of music, regardless of its fanciness and grandeur...
oh and as for Cluster's gear, check out my detailed analysis: http://flickr.com/photos/yarnlazer/2528673186/
(the picture has notes on everything i could figure out they were playing)
basically moebius had 2 CD players, a mini kaoss pad, a microkorg virtual analog synth and a mixer. i think thats about it.
roedelius had 3 DJ style CD players, a mixer and a nord electric piano type synth, with what was possibly either an alesis microverb half rack effects unit on top of the nord or a small midi sound module, possibly an old roland "sound canvas" type of thing.
most of the sounds they were using were coming from the CDs which i thought they did an amazing job of collage-ing into strange sometimes harmonic sometimes atonal clashes of different sound scapes.
there are a few more pictures of cluster on flickr from this string of shows if you dig around. some have pretty good shots of the gear if you want to dig deeper.
many thanks for commenting. i actually had my person as far up front as i could to catch your set and thoroughly enjoyed it. i realize after re-reading my post that the tone might've seemed spiteful; hardly my intention. agree there are innumerable factors that play into volume, especially at mass auditoriums like the GAMH, appreciate the clarification. now you live with the solace & clarity your comment gives and not merely the review of a patron unaware of the pre show issues involved. i couldn't make it to the early 8pm showtime to catch the beginning of your set, did you record and loop the drums live before the crowd? i really would've dug to see that. the hardly accurate gear profile attempts on this column are meant as a guessing game for folks interested in starting bands/augmenting their own/fun factoids, similar to guitargeek, so it's really killer to have the talent involved chime in on what the real live apparatus is. especially on CLUSTER. i know many that'll feed pretty on this info. regardless of your issues with the review i'm looking forward to your next performance & hopefully enough preliminary breathing room to get the vibe right & proper. SF salutes.
peace,
-dion
nothing but respect, mang. all and all, it was a killer show! a rare treat to see those guys play, to say the least.
I wonder if back in the day when they were young and still used their swords if they ever tag-teamed on groupies. I also wonder if once they were done slaying they'd high-five and let said groupie know she'd just been cluster fucked.
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