April 28, 2008
Review: The Analog Girl live at La Bella
We left a little disappointed after The Analog Girl's gig at La Bella Cafe last Saturday. Recent hype aside, we had been hooked on the Singaporean musician's 2005 The TV Is On album and had been in eager anticipation ever since to catch her live. Never mind that the venue was intimate and our mojito well-mixed, The Analog Girl only performed a few tracks off her new EP Sometime Next Galaxy, scarcely lasting half an hour when the gig schedule promises an hour and a half.
Her instrument of choice for the evening was the Nintendo Gameboy and the 8-bit soundchip pretty much dictated a dreamy-ambient, crunchy monotonous sound with barely a hint of her characteristic electro-rock influences which only surface a little (too late) in her last song. We wished she had brought along her MacBook Pro, and played for a little longer though.
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half an hour of watching some girl play on a Gameboy? I'd have been more than a little disappointed.
Electronic Music has got to get its own vocabulary. I don't think playing stuff off your laptop upgrades it to a 'gig' or get's near 'live'.
While we're at it, we need some definitive language to discern between 'DJs' who host radio shows, 'DJs' who produce complete sets of wholly orignal music that they wrote themselves and 'DJs' who are basically changing the songs at your mate's wedding, no matter how flash they do it.
Are there existing terms I don't know about? I've come across all three of the above types all calling themselves 'DJ'.
andy - to be fair, the analog girl doesn't just "play stuff off her laptop", she actually incorporates live vocals, writes and produces original music using software synths and programs such as ableton live.
though I have to admit her gig last sat was a little lacking in these aspects, considering it was mainly nintendo tinkering coupled with weak vocals.
def agree with you re the misleading use of the term 'DJs' these days. and perhaps that's why the analog girl chooses to call herself electronic musician instead.
I don't mind some electronic music, I still don't think of it as 'live' if any of it is sequenced and requires only a bit of button pushing.
Not saying it's invalid artistically, only that there needs to be other words for it.
Look at it this way. The Subs composed some music and recorded it onto their CD. What if they did a show where they just played the CD over the sound system. Should it be called 'live' and should they charge the same as a regular show?
"What is a dee jay if he can't scratch?"
andy - got to admit I'm not so familiar with the intricacies of electronic music-making, and sure your logic stands of course if the music has been pre-sequenced. yet I would think electronic gigs would qualify every bit as "live" as bands prancing about on stage with real instruments if they involve live samplings, improvisations and manipulations on turntables, mixers or other laptop-based software programs - both being equally demanding on techniques and skills of the musicians involved.
DJs who play 100% other artists records are equivalent to cover bands in my eyes. To mix is about up there with learning the chords to Hotel California.
I'd rather listen to most DJs than another Fillipino cover band, though at least you don't have to applaud every time the DJ gets to the end of a song.
haha, good point.
I saw YACHT at Yue festival last year and he turned up, put his tracks on on his Macbook, and then sang along and danced around like a crazy person. It was basically a bloke dancing to a CD and singing along, but it was brilliant. He was so entertaining, i went and saw him again the next night at Logo. If Subs did that though i'd be seriously pissed off.
I think when you go to see someone "live" you expect different things based on what kind of music they do. Of course, some people will blur the boundaries (Lemon Jelly incorporate live instruments into their "DJ" sets for example) but as long as its entertaining does it matter too much? Seeing someone live should be about them putting on a show and adding something different to just listening to a CD. As long as they do that, i'm not too bothered how they do it.
maybe it's not so prevalent here but in clubs in the UK you normally see acts advertised with loads of info:
"Decks 'n' FX"
"Three turntables, synths, percussion"
"Ableton, live vox and those glasses with lights on"
or whatever they're doing.