SXSW 2011 Highlights

Aaaaand we're back, what a week. The dust has settled, the tourists have mostly left, and downtown smells like pee, even in the parts that don't ALWAYS smell like pee. Shows were seen, and a few shows were missed, for reasons ranging from exhaustion to canine ocular trauma to gorgeous weather. I won't bore you, but here's some broad strokes.

Wednesday: Sumerian Records Showcase

This was the first actual show I sought out, mostly to see Tosin Abasi's outfit Animals as Leaders, but I'll get to that. Opening the show up was New York's Ultrageist, a forward thinking act specializing in idiosyncratic breakdowns and bizarre vocal textures. Vocalist Gabriel Perez at first brings to mind Glassjaw's Daryl Palumbo, but strikes out into his own sonic territory by using an array of delays, distortions, and octave pedals to warp his voice on stage in real time. Interesting stuff, I'm looking forward to more. These guys were followed by Tamworth, England's Structures, leaning both melodic and death metal, but rarely at the same time, making dynamic songs out of crushing verses and the occasionally merciful break.

And then, Animals as Leaders. I was impressed by AAL's self-titled debut when it came to my attention last year, for a few reasons. Despite being something of a 'virtuoso' album, Abasi actually writes songs that have their own merit, instead of just being a framework for his shredding. There's long been a battle in heavy music over who can tune lower, and while AAL's low-E tuned 8 string guitars are certainly front runners in this, it's the way Tosin Abasi manhandles the damn things that really sets him apart. Rather than just relying on competitively low notes, he really stretches out into the space an instrument like this affords, utilizing broadly spaced intervals and chord voicings, and occasionally being his own bass player, using his low string for percussive patterns and slapped lines, while his right hand taps melodic runs on the tree trunk of a neck his guitar has. On AAL's self-titled debut, all strings were played by Abasi, with drum and synth programming handled by Misha Mansoor (guitarist with fellow djent O.G.s Periphery), but the album's striking elements translate well live, and rhythm guitarist Javier Reyes and drummer Navene Koperweis (who is an absolute monster on his kit) enhance the sonic landscape, rather than dilute it. Tosin Abasi and company make music that is more than just skillful or interesting, it really is beautiful. This right here is Mr. Abasi solo, playing "Wave of Babies", a digital single released shortly after AAL's eponymous debut.


Thursday: Friends of Friends Showcase

I was at this thing all damn day. Thankfully not an official SXSW event, but a free party hosted by Friends of Friends Records, Barcelona on 6th evolved from a sparse early afternoon gathering to a heaving molasses of bass over six short hours. A varied set from DJ Sodapop (aka Anticon label manager Shaun Koplow) opened things, followed by a brief set by Baths. After Non Projects labelmates Asura and Anenon, Shlohmo took the stage and delivered a set with an energy his albums don't really indicate, making good use of Barcelona's impressive system. The next big highlight was Ernest Gonzales' masked luchador alter-ego Mexicans With Guns (pictured below left), a throbbing ghettotech Hyde to Gonzales' shimmery Jekyll.

Closing the party was beat scene lifer Daedelus (pictured right), whose recent shows have been seamless club sets, fully of glitched highs and huge modulating basses. Definitely one of my favorite days of last week.

Saturday: Buck 65 @ M for Montreal Party

I've waited to see Buck 65 for a long time, and after a handful of badge-only shows through the week, he played at the free M for Montreal party, accompanied by the talented vocalist Jenn Grant. Combining Grant's sweet voice with Buck 65(aka Ricardo Terfry)'s gravelly but thoughtful raps and live turntable work, the duo offered reworkings of oldies like Roses and Bluejays, and new songs (such as Paper Airplane, shown here in an early incarnation circa 2009) from this year's 20 Odd Years, touted as "The most beautiful hip hop album ever made". Terfry is a pleasure live, as interesting on stage as on his numerous records. Check out the album version of Paper Airplane and other new songs at Buck65.com.

And that was the gist of things. Not by any means a full list, but a few high points from SXSW 2011. So here I am, sore and sunburned, exhausted in the best way possible. Back to work everyone.

ARTISTS: Brainfeeder and Modern Beatcraft

People are increasingly fascinated with the L.A. beat scene... no wait, I mean the L.A. beat scene is increasingly fascinating to ME. Names from this small but growing circle of regulars are getting dropped with increasing frequency. Flying Lotus' 2010 release Cosmogramma (on Warp Records) features a visit from Thom Yorke amidst it's 17 track space jazz beatdown, and Low End Theory, Brainfeeder (Flying Lotus' label), Dublab Radio, and other keywords are showing up just often enough from different enough angles for my brain to sonar together a fuzzy picture of the amoebic form of whatever the "L.A. beat scene" even actually is. I'm sure natives will tell me I just have to be there, but it's been interesting and ambitious enough to reach it's tendrils through the internet and reach lil' ol' me, half a country away from the rooms that hold this movement, just digesting all the free podcasts I can with my borrowed wireless connection. Any artist I find turns up two more, and the unifying element of 'their' sound is elusive, even within a single entity like the Brainfeeder collective. Flying Lotus' bass bounces between jazz noodles and waterfall drops over the edge, while label-hopper Daedelus' albums brim with island guitar, woozy bass clarinet, and his deftness with the futuristic monome (pictured above with his weird weapon of choice, his 2010 release is his first with Brainfeeder). Shlohmo and Dr. Strangeloop are almost polar opposites within electronic music; Strangeloop (Brainfeeder) brings twitchy schizophrenic blasts, and WEDIDIT Records' Shlohmo's (aka Henry Laufer's) beats often skirt the middle ground between beatbuilding and ambient music. Strangeloop often lends his VJ talents to his contemporaries' live performances, and his own sets are long movements of audio/visual sensory drills, deeply symbolic and decidedly pushing away conventions of mainstream film.

The easy route is to say that this is all experimental music, but what does that ever tell you? Sure people dance to it, but these are songs that sink you into your couch as easily as electrify your limbs. A common thread, if there is one, is the willingness of most of these artists to stutter out of lock step into very human feeling, unquantized pace. But this rhythmic wandering takes place in many different contexts. These dudes all make sense together, but aren't pushing identical sonic agendas, except that the beats move people, and they've got quality control on lockdown.

From it's west coast origins, it looks like the L.A. beatsmiths are pushing outward, but mostly they're being pulled, as more ears tune to the sounds at the borders of beatcraft and electronic music. A local force teasing some of these fine folks our way is Austin's Ron Strong Productions (the brainchild of Aaron Miller and Emily Strong), whose Hot Sh!t series has had guests including Dr. Strangeloop and Take, and Anticon newbie, the beat-minded Baths (whom I reviewed here) and also showcases similar local talents like Butcher Bear & Charlie, Deejay ChickenGeorge , and the spellbinding Ernest Gonzales, giving a common stage for local heroes to mingle ideas with like-minded visitors. Keep your ear to the ground for the Hot Sh!t summer finale, with Mono/Poly (from Brainfeeder), in late August.

Watch Brainfeeder Ras G cobble a song out of records from Austin's own Top Drawer here.

Download a free Shlohmo EP from Error Broadcast here.