May 11, 2017
live music show poster 2014
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Switzerland
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
live music show poster 2014
Bing & Ruth, Trevor Shelley de Brauw, & MT Coast Live Show Review: 4/13, Constellation, Chicago
BY JORDAN MAINZER
The best ambient music can put you in a trance. That’s exactly what happened at last night’s Bing & Ruth show at Constellation. Playing their new album No Home of the Mind, the collective led by pianist David Moore also featured Jeremy Viner on clarinet, Greg Chudzik and Jeff Ratner on upright bass, and Mike Effenberger operating tape delay. Live, when you weren’t hypnotized, you noticed that, as compared to listening to the record, two things stood out. The first is its alternating piano styles, whose thrilling transition from minimal to maximal and vice versa seemed more abrupt live than on record. In the case of minimal to maximal, it woke you up, like on “Flat Line/Peak Colour”. The other way around--well, the collective doesn’t stop on a dime, but they can certainly end a piece with very little transition or at least less than the expected amount for this type of music. The other most noticeable thing live as compared to the record is the tape delay. Watching Chudzik and Ratner’s bows move across their basses but not hearing it back and amplified until a few seconds later on songs like “As Much as Possible”, you realize how much of the entire composition’s swells and emotional outpouring relies on Effenberger’s mastery.
Opening for Bing & Ruth were two local experimental sound artists: Trevor Shelley de Brauw, better known as a guitarist in hometown heroes Pelican and who just released his debut solo LP Uptown, and MT Coast, the project of local musician Jeff Milam. Trevor de Brauw started his set by asking for the sound engineer: “Is Che here?”
“Yes.”
“You ready?”
“Yes.”
He then turned to the audience. “Hi, I’m Trevor. I’m gonna do this thing now. Apologies in advance!” As soon as he said “advance,” de Brauw hit a sample pedal out of which came and explosion of noise, and before you knew it, you were enveloped in riffs and feedback. He shredded and banged his head like he was playing in Pelican, but the music was obviously way different. He operated his pedals even more than he played his guitar. It was the loudest set I’ve ever seen at Constellation--and I’ve seen Ben Frost there--and people in the front row there to be subdued by Bing & Ruth covered their ears and, in some cases, got up and went to the bar.
At one point, de Brauw got on his hands and knees with the top of his head on the ground as if he was giving an offering to his pedals. The ever-present and ultimately beautiful noise became a deep drone slowly pulsating and dying down. After a few pedal-affected strums and some finger tapping towards the end, the set was over. It was undoubtedly indulgent and remarkably awesome.
MT Coast, meanwhile, was overall much more dancey. Like Bing & Ruth, he relied on swells of noise and abrupt musical shifts, but he juxtaposed them with immaculately constructed hip hop beats and masked spoken words. Like a lot of experimental dance music, it was heavy on hi hats and hand claps or clicks on the off beat. Even the more straightforward ambient music, which simply subtly increased in volume, had the same timbre has his dance stuff.
So what made him unique? His equipment. Along with his laptop and synths, Milam used a LOM Instruments Elektrosluch, an open-source stereophonic electromagnetic listening device that picked up the signals generated inside the laptop, giving some much-needed randomness to the creaking door electronics of his compositions.
Overall, last night’s show, even if your normal touring show with local openers, ended up being a fantastic meeting of the minds--and meeting of the machines.
Video by On The Real Film.
Upcoming Show: Oct 23 at Smart Bar, Chicago
ADSR with... JASON SOLIDAY - Jason has been the definition of a crucial underground presence operating in the Chicago experimental, noise and electronics scenes for well over a decade. His crushing solo performances are a mastery of precise execution and control of texture, jagged cuts of noise and alien soundscapes. STAVE - Jon Krohn returns to ADSR, this time with his solo act Stave, an industrial techno juggernaut. Expect some harrowing excursions into claustrophobic caverns and dark places. MT COAST - Jeff Milam is a digital sound artist exploring acoustics, field recordings and the manipulation of spaces, recontextualizing the common into strange, shimmering new landscapes. PHIL STONE (dj set) makes his ADSR debut and many Chicagoans will recognize Phil and his longstanding presence in the techno community. A superb technician and selector, Phil will get to dig deep into his crates to serve up some compelling beats and strangeness.
SMART BAR
FREE / 21 & Over / Doors: 10PM / Show: 10PM
An excerpt of MT Coast's 30-minute audio component to Michiko Itatani and Judith A. Kasen's exhibition in Audible Gallery, "The Gift of Broken Tracking Devices: Thinking with Our Hands." On view from 01.25.14 to 03.09.14. Opening reception 02.07.14, 6-9pm, special performance by MT Coast around 7pm.
Upcoming Show
Wednesday, March 26th, 2014
MT Coast mtcoast.com
KG Price soundcloud.com/kg-price
J Soliday soundcloud.com/crank-satori
Cafe Mustache http://www.cafemustache.com/ 2313 North Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, IL 60647