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Autechre. Live. Twentytwentytwo.


Iwanttobefree

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I was at C2C for Aphex Twin and Skee Masks a couple of years ago. Both great sets, but the festival itself was a mess. On day 2, the security decided to confiscate all lighters upon entry because the day before, there had been some smoking inside. Huge amounts of cops at the doors too.

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On 11/6/2022 at 10:08 PM, Draft78 said:

It is not propely an electronic festival, but more a social event

Aren't all festivals / concerts like that ? No matter who's playing, the music is - alas - a sonic tapestry to most in such context.

btw, Lyon gig pls.

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5 hours ago, dr b0rk said:

The Milano variant of the current set had significantly more balls and the beautiful garden gave it pretty great acoustics, unlike the overly big Convention Center (shopping mall?) hall c2c was using in Turin. Bass response was very muddy and uneven, that super low thick hiphop stuff in the second half of the set could not deliver at all due to this. Highs were ok (line array) but due to the out of control room acoustics everything sounded too far away and a bit undifferentiated.

The current set, like the ones in the last decade+ , have these same building blocks which can at times make certain twists in this or that direction, and sometimes the ensuing chaos checks out and falls into a pretty good macro groove, for example some semi-random drum bit occurring just at the right moment, and sometimes it’s a bit hit and miss, a hole in the sound where something interesting could happen. The Milano set had a much more pleasing hit/miss ratio compared to c2c, and also compared to Helsinki. Just some baller little drum fills, and very distinctly, the beautiful bit in the middle of the set with these falling bomb-drop-like sweeps, was not present in Turin. 

When it comes to acoustics of the venue, I would love it if they could play in the concert hall of Bozar in Brussels. It's supposed to have amazing acoustics, some of the best in the world for a concert hall. At least for orchestra, classical or jazz. I don't know if Ae's setup would work there, though I'm pretty sure it could.

Brussel_Bozar_Grote_zaal_Henry_Le_Boeuf_29-01-2019.thumb.jpg.e87b15bd057904eb7b037e7bc14034b6.jpg

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5 hours ago, Nil said:

Aren't all festivals / concerts like that ? No matter who's playing, the music is - alas - a sonic tapestry to most in such context.

No ! fortunately. there are concerts where people do come for the music.

actually most of the time you have a part of the public that come for the music, and some others that would come to a place to have a good time, meet people and have a few drinks, because the venue is cool...whatever the music is.  - well, at least for shows I have been to.

5 hours ago, Nil said:

It is not propely an electronic festival, but more a social event

I think a concert or a festival do is a social event, de facto : people gathering to share a moment. either they are attentive to the music or not.

 

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8 hours ago, Nil said:

Aren't all festivals / concerts like that ? No matter who's playing, the music is - alas - a sonic tapestry to most in such context.

btw, Lyon gig pls.

yep, my sortie was a bit generic and inaccurate. Electronic events (like any event) are inherently social. In the case of club2club there are several variables that make it different from what, for example, could be sacrum profanum. Partly due to the choice of artists, which is generally oriented to a dance context, as a sort of augmented disco (legitimately, since it is called club to club), partly to the environmental and cultural context. In writing "social" I wanted to translate the word "mondano", that in Italian has a meaning relating to a moment of collective fun for an average, non-specific target. Although my polemical tone, in reality I have nothing against club2club (it is simply what it wants and has a right to be, and indeed constitutes an exception, considering that such things in Italy are very rare), but it is not the right place for ae, which, on the contrary, are very specific in what they do. And it is not so both for autechre and for audience, which, the latter, finds itself listening to something it does not know, and that requires a lot of attention even for those who know it well

Edited by Draft78
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11 hours ago, dr b0rk said:

u have mentioned before that this festival would be not so good and I have to wholeheartedly agree. Glad you had a good time in Milano, I was there too, and hope that you find relief in that you haven’t missed anything at all by not attending c2c.

the Milano variant of the current set had significantly more balls and the beautiful garden gave it pretty great acoustics, unlike the overly big Convention Center (shopping mall?) hall c2c was using in Turin. Bass response was very muddy and uneven, that super low thick hiphop stuff in the second half of the set could not deliver at all due to this. Highs were ok (line array) but due to the out of control room acoustics everything sounded too far away and a bit undifferentiated.

The current set, like the ones in the last decade+ , have these same building blocks which can at times make certain twists in this or that direction, and sometimes the ensuing chaos checks out and falls into a pretty good macro groove, for example some semi-random drum bit occurring just at the right moment, and sometimes it’s a bit hit and miss, a hole in the sound where something interesting could happen. The Milano set had a much more pleasing hit/miss ratio compared to c2c, and also compared to Helsinki. Just some baller little drum fills, and very distinctly, the beautiful bit in the middle of the set with these falling bomb-drop-like sweeps, was not present in Turin.  

To sum up c2c itself, to get a drink you had to top up your wristband with prepaid money. My friend wanted exactly one small beer (7eur) so he topped up the minimum amount of 10eur, of which 2 were deducted as a fee. The remaining 8eur were then not enough to buy the beer, because you’d also have to deposit 2eur for the plastic cup. So he had to top up another 10eur. 11eur of his money remains in some c2c bank account at this point, and we will see whether it finds its way back out of there. This is in my opinion clearly a borderline rip off deal, counting on people being too lazy / forgetting to go to their website after the festival and filling out the Google Forms thing to reclaim your small money.


after the ae, we were seeking to enjoy the place but it was not possible. The bands / DJs after ae were not good, and we could not imagine sticking around in there until later in the night where some potentially worthy acts would play, due to there not being anything to do other than stand around or walk between the two halls, and our mood dropped significantly while trying to figure out how to get our prepaid drink deposit moneys back while some mediocre techno band was making any conversation with your mates or the bar clerk near impossible.

Turin is an interesting city tho, we had a grand time walking around for two days just looking at things and eating.

TLDR: avoid c2c

 

reading this a little consoles me, even if ... well, I would have missed even if the situation had been excellent, but you would have had a very different kind of experience: i'm sorry that things sucks so hard
...Yes, another thing about c2c is the austere place, and the whole mess to drink or find a corner to relax for a minute: no way.
And yesss, Milan was a memorable trip.
As for Turin: it's fascinating city, it is dark (i mean, legend want it as the "esoteric capital" of europe) and overflows with history. There is an almost cinematic sense in its streets poised between the decadent and the prestigious, and the interiors of the buildings (mostly seventeenth-century) are still in a vanished time.
Forgiving the councilor for tourism digression, I read "Turin" and ineffable nostalgia rises

Edited by Draft78
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11 hours ago, dr b0rk said:

u have mentioned before that this festival would be not so good and I have to wholeheartedly agree. Glad you had a good time in Milano, I was there too, and hope that you find relief in that you haven’t missed anything at all by not attending c2c.

the Milano variant of the current set had significantly more balls and the beautiful garden gave it pretty great acoustics, unlike the overly big Convention Center (shopping mall?) hall c2c was using in Turin. Bass response was very muddy and uneven, that super low thick hiphop stuff in the second half of the set could not deliver at all due to this. Highs were ok (line array) but due to the out of control room acoustics everything sounded too far away and a bit undifferentiated.

The current set, like the ones in the last decade+ , have these same building blocks which can at times make certain twists in this or that direction, and sometimes the ensuing chaos checks out and falls into a pretty good macro groove, for example some semi-random drum bit occurring just at the right moment, and sometimes it’s a bit hit and miss, a hole in the sound where something interesting could happen. The Milano set had a much more pleasing hit/miss ratio compared to c2c, and also compared to Helsinki. Just some baller little drum fills, and very distinctly, the beautiful bit in the middle of the set with these falling bomb-drop-like sweeps, was not present in Turin.  

To sum up c2c itself, to get a drink you had to top up your wristband with prepaid money. My friend wanted exactly one small beer (7eur) so he topped up the minimum amount of 10eur, of which 2 were deducted as a fee. The remaining 8eur were then not enough to buy the beer, because you’d also have to deposit 2eur for the plastic cup. So he had to top up another 10eur. 11eur of his money remains in some c2c bank account at this point, and we will see whether it finds its way back out of there. This is in my opinion clearly a borderline rip off deal, counting on people being too lazy / forgetting to go to their website after the festival and filling out the Google Forms thing to reclaim your small money.


after the ae, we were seeking to enjoy the place but it was not possible. The bands / DJs after ae were not good, and we could not imagine sticking around in there until later in the night where some potentially worthy acts would play, due to there not being anything to do other than stand around or walk between the two halls, and our mood dropped significantly while trying to figure out how to get our prepaid drink deposit moneys back while some mediocre techno band was making any conversation with your mates or the bar clerk near impossible.

Turin is an interesting city tho, we had a grand time walking around for two days just looking at things and eating.

TLDR: avoid c2c

 

Thanks for the report. I now feel relieved in a way. Acoustic was not good and it was not me. I can't say I was surprised by the drinks system as I don't go to festivals very often. But a shitty system it is indeed.

Couldn't agree more about the rest of the artists playing that night. I tried to stay as long as I could to catch Kode9 and Kouligas but I was already too tired. And a huge mass of people started to come in at around 11 PM so I left.

Would have been better to go to London.

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On 11/18/2022 at 6:26 PM, siisx said:

Same for me. From what I've heard Barbican's second set is my favorite with the scratching part... Just need the proper release now.

I got a feeling (totally unfounded) that the second set (or sets in that style) won't be released til after a North American tour. What's the chances they sit on that for the rest of Europe, release Europe sets (all in style of first set), then tour NA using mostly the second set, so NA gets to hear something totally fresh, then releases those sets after as per 14/15 sets.

Being selfish I hope they don't do this and release the second Barbican set with the first batch, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

Edited by EXTRASUPER81
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On 11/9/2022 at 9:14 AM, Nil said:

Aren't all festivals / concerts like that ? No matter who's playing, the music is - alas - a sonic tapestry to most in such context.

btw, Lyon gig pls.

Wait they're performing in Lyon or has the show already happened????

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17 hours ago, EXTRASUPER81 said:

I got a feeling (totally unfounded) that the second set (or sets in that style) won't be released til after a North American tour. What's the chances they sit on that for the rest of Europe, release Europe sets (all in style of first set), then tour NA using mostly the second set, so NA gets to hear something totally fresh, then releases those sets after as per 14/15 sets.

Being selfish I hope they don't do this and release the second Barbican set with the first batch, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

woodpechre shirts incoming...

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18 hours ago, milkface said:

Wait they're performing in Lyon or has the show already happened????

Nope, nothing planned, pure wishful thinking from me. But, as they've played here quite a few times (from memory, at DV1, Epicerie Moderne, Plateforme and Le Sucre... and a fifth place ? not sure on. that last one) over the last two decades, I suppose there are local promoters likely to book them.

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Listened to the Bergen recording this weekend. Sometimes felt like it's some monster that's constantly morphing, there's rhythms and sounds from all of AE's history trying to break through and settling in new combinations, so much beauty and emotion in it. Also, something that sounded like a remix of an older track (can't remember which) using SIGN/PLUS patches. And then there's ambient opening, the melodic opener of the second Barbican set moved to the end, and that sick, sick 'double bass' track from the Helsinki set. Great to hear the enthusiasm in the crowd too. I loved it, and was exhausted by the end. So much to sink your teeth in.

Can't wait for the soundboards, and I hope they'll be able to EQ the soundboards in a way that does justice to the actual live sets. Still, I'd be a pity if there'd only be so few live performances of all this material they've created. This was really made to be performed and experienced live. 

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8 hours ago, Nil said:

Nope, nothing planned, pure wishful thinking from me. But, as they've played here quite a few times (from memory, at DV1, Epicerie Moderne, Plateforme and Le Sucre... and a fifth place ? not sure on. that last one) over the last two decades, I suppose there are local promoters likely to book them.

Fingers crossed then. DV1 looked like a sick venue too it shut soon before I turned 18 I would've loved to see them there.

Edited by milkface
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17 hours ago, milkface said:

Fingers crossed then. DV1 looked like a sick venue too it shut soon before I turned 18 I would've loved to see them there.

It was a pretty weird venue actually, wild bouncers at the doors. At least in its pre-2010ish incarnation. WATMM Lyon meetup whenever's Ae's back in town @d-a-m-o @milkface  ?  

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