Si-cut.db is Douglas Benford’s
musical nom-de-plume, the format of the name giving
a clue to the style of music he produces from the iBook
in front of him tonight. He’s dressed anonymously
in dark clothing and stands head bent, focused on his
bright LCD screen. The music is gentle, mellifluous
and crests just above the level of chatter coming from
the bar at the back of the Spitz’s top room. There’s
something oddly muzak-like about the music, with sounds
closer to presets than hard-won textures. The creation
of smooth, warm bubbles within which musical structure
and melody gradually become apparent is surely intentional,
but it’s an approach which risks dismissal because
of its subtlety.
Stefan Betke takes to the stage after a short interval.
His releases as Pole have delineated a territory in
which dub, glitch, electronica and ambience meld into
a convincing hybrid that acknowledges the dub roots
of much contemporary music-making while exploiting the
potential of digital technologies to contribute to that
history. Betke’s engagement is intent and physical:
energy appears to flow from the whole of his body through
the tips of his fingers and into the instruments before
him. These instruments comprise a small mixing desk,
a keyboard and a Powerbook, each a different aspect
of the music’s heritage and possibility. One moment
he’s crouching down with the tabletop almost at
eye-level, the next he’s playing melodica into
a microphone or pausing to listen.
The music’s defining characteristic – apart
from digidub plasticity - is its acute sense of dynamics.
This is experienced both vertically in the interaction
between the crackle and hiss of percussion with the
infinite malleability of bass, and horizontally in the
temporal exploration of repetition, tension and release.
Unusually for a laptop performance, it seems as though
the music might disintegrate at any moment - only Betke’s
expertise and intense concentration keeps the music
functioning to achieve an almost baroque-like complexity.
Both Si-cut.db and Pole are done no favours by the graphics
displayed on the videoscreen behind them. It’s
the all too familiar clips of skateboarders, silent
movies and animation: hideous in its moribund inanity.
It does, however, do some of the audience the unintended
favour of prompting them to close their eyes. The result
is a greater concentration upon the movement of multiple
event layers and a strong spatial sensation of floating
past these elements as they move in four dimensions.
One piece is almost shockingly minimal, a brief figure
alternating this way and that for minutes on end. Another
sees a melody tiptoe carefully between big, threatening
blocks of bass - Betke knows bass and one track centres
around the foggy, mystical bass sound recognisable from
Basic Channel’s Porter Ricks. Calls for encores
prompt Pole to switch from digi-dub to two and a half
tracks of electronica. That final piece is nothing more
than a sketch, almost a failure but welcome as it confirms
just how much Stefan Betke is actively experimenting
rather than just running loops.
Text & photos: Colin Buttimer |
