Audio By Carbonatix
Iuengliss, BDRMPPL and Josephine and the Mousepeople
Friday, April 17, 2009
hi-dive, Denver
Better Than: The mixture of snow, slush and thunder that barraged the city all day.
In spite of one of the most schizophrenic patches of weather in recent memory, the show went on at the hi-dive and came as a much welcome respite from the dying throes of old man winter. BDRMPPL came out of a prolonged period of inactivity to start the show
off with a new set of music. Displaying the same sense of fun and
creative appropriation, Ryan and Nick pasted together a dazzling array
of tones, rhythms and samples that continued to push the dub and
collage electronic hybrid into interesting directions. The duo’s use of
a snippet from M83’s “Graveyard Girl” was an especially nice touch in
the orchestrated flow of sounds. For one number, Nick went into the
crowd to sing as he used to when playing as Transistor Radio Sound and
made what was already a friendly music more inclusive.
Josephine and the Mousepeople has apparently been woodshedding its
sound lately, because not only were the songs more cohesive and as
finely crafted as ever, but Danny Shyman and Avi Sherbill both seemed
to be really having fun, in spite of a clear attempt to keep things
more controlled — not as a concession to a false sense of
professionalism, but more so that the songs could be more genuinely
dynamic.
Still, Sherbill cut loose in the middle of the set and played
percussion and sang as passionately as I’ve seen him. On this night,
the band’s combination of Bright Eyes-esque emotional fragility and Red
Pony Clock’s splintery pop exuberance resulted in some of its best
moments on stage in recent memory. These guys are in no hurry to put
out a record, but when they do, it will probably be remarkably good.
Anyone who has met Tom Metz and had even a passing conversation with
the guy comes off thinking he’s a cool, creative person crackling with
positive energy. And he brought plenty of that to the stage for this
performance. Throughout the set a series of eye-catchingly shifting
images were projected on a screen in the back: sometimes textures,
other times recognizable shapes, organic and otherwise – a general
theme of movement and evolution.
Metz played an acoustic kick and,
well, toms, at various points in the set to accompany his beats, and
that helped to create a wonderfully thick percussive atmosphere to buoy
up the soaring synth and keyboard parts sequenced into the mix. Metz
was joined on stage only by a videographer and mostly played from the
latest Iuengliss release, Motion In Mind.
Something about his unique,
melodious singing voice is soothing to the soul, and I don’t think I
was alone in thinking and feeling that I was transported away from the
economic and political turmoil of our time while thoughts of the bad
weather were swept away in the parade of uplifting songs until the very
end of night. Heck, even long afterward, on the drive home through the
slushy streets, the music of Iuengliss stuck with me, and, I firmly
believe, helped me get home safe.
Critic’s Notebook:
Personal Bias: Tom Metz is, to my mind, is a singular talent in the realm of electronic music.
Random Detail: David Kurtz of Bocumast was wearing a Tom Metz t-shirt
while hawking merch wearing a clear plastic hat paneled with Iuengliss
CDs.
By the Way: The drive to the venue wasn’t nearly as scary as the roads looked.
