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[WARPbot] Aphex Twin: Remote Orchestra show at The Barbican, London

Joyrex

By Joyrex
in Aphex Twin

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TechDiff

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Hey that was nice - Sat in front of some bloody numpties (in fact I felt an overwhelming sense of schadenfreude after the first half when they were utterly baffled and disappointed about wasting their money, saying they were waiting for it to 'drop' at some point, one of whom were expecting it to be like 'Bucephalus Bouncy Balls' - a track which "Samples a whole load of those Newton clicky things")

 

The first half was the Remote Control orchestra as seen on his Poland performance. If I had any criticism of this section it was that the choir section didn't really nail the transitions between dynamics as well as the strings - they seemed to either be loud or quiet with little inbetween. There was also one vocalist a little too loud (and I think, not 100% sure due to the semi-atonal nature of the performance) slightly out of tune ruining some of the harmonics. I think I pretty much nailed all aspects of the on-screen display, so much so that with a bit of knowledge of Max/msp and a decent string & choir VST I could probably create a midi controlled recreation of the set with not much hassle.

 

The second half was split into two sections. The first was very much unexpected to me (any I think most of the audience), there was a piano on stage (well a Yamaha Clavinova) that slowly suddenly started swinging left-to-right like a pendulum and as it built up so momentum individual notes of a broken chord started, with each swing an additional note was added to the chord until it was a beautiful arpeggiated thing that reminded me a bit of William Basinski's Melancholia. Obviously as it swung the notes caused a naturally panning and resonance and it was over far too soon for my liking. I think something might have cocked up as when it 'finished' the chord that each note was being played in the arpeggio just came out of nowhere, which I'm pretty sure wasn't meant to happen

 

The final section of the second half had about 6 people come on stage who each swang two (what looked very much like) disco balls, on this mini pendulum structure. At the base of the structure I think was a sensor, next to which also shot out a laser beam upwards - the sensor (I'm guessing this is what happened) then detected when the disco ball crossed the sensor and let out a brief sinusoidal-like feedback (kind of like when you put a mic to a speaker). I'm not sure if each sensor had it's own frequency or that it reacted to the speed at which the ball passed but either way it started off with a range of frequency feedback sounds (kind of like Florian Hecker) that slowly descended into bass and sub-bass rhythmical drones. It also looked ace as when the laser hit the disco balls it then reflected all over the auditorium - It was like falling inside a level of Rez, I bet those that thought to indulge in chemicals before hand had they entire brain melting at that point.

 

Finally Mr. James gave two big thumbs up to the audience and buggered off.

 

In conclusion - A little scatty in places, some great ideas (and a lovely little piano performance), had a laser show that beats any 3d film hands down, and idiots remain idots.

 

(I'm going to live on the edge and not proof read what I wrote, I bet it's nonsense)

 

Ah man, wish I could've gone. Alas London is a bit too far away, and cant really afford the money this time around.

 

Have to say, I wasn't particularly taken with the idea of the remote orchestra. Or rather, I like the idea, but from what I'd seen from recordings of the Poland performance, it seemed a little early in the development stages. Does sound as though it's been advanced somewhat since then though.

 

However, the other 2 pieces sound really quite interesting. I especially like the sound of the piano one, very cool idea and I really like the piano pieces on Drukqs. Wish I had known about these in advance, may well have been enough to convince me to come from Sheffield.

 

Does raise a little thought in my head though. You hear those stories of composers causing riots with their compositions, Stravinsky, Berg, Reich etc. Aphex turns up, remote conducts a microtonal piece, mirror ball pendulums with lasers, and a swinging piano, no riot.

 

Obviously it's pretty amazing that the audiences have apparently become so much more open minded to contemporary orchestral music, but I cant help but wonder just what it would take nowadays to elicit such a response as rite of spring did.. slitting the throat of the first violinist, pooping into a bassoon, eating a piano?

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Guest jasondonervan

Guest jasondonervan

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Just got back from this after the long train ride home. mcbpete nailed the review, so not much to add other than to echo certain sentiments. It was a mixed bag, and very much a performance of two halves. Granted, the orchestra piece didn't go anywhere special, but fuck me if the foyer at the interval wasn't awash with chin-stroking twats moaning about it 'not being an Aphex Twin gig', ie not what they'd paid for. It's not exactly like it was some big secret as to what the nature of the performance was going to be... so he was hardly going to bosh out 'Selected Ambient Works 3' or an Analord party set (don't get me wrong, I'd happily have some of that). Seeing some people walking around with their Bangface hoodies on... they really did seem to miss the point right from the off.

 

The flying piano was wicked, totally unexpected and the absurdity of it all raised a smile. The pendulum disco ball predator lasers hypnotised me quite well, I got lost in their spell... although a few drinks beforehand helped.

 

bRRom.jpg

 

orLe7.jpg

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fenton Mentor

fenton

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The best afx gig I've been to for years due to the now boring formula of his dj sets - the first and last piece went on for a fair bit and I don't think this helped either due to my and other's shorter attention spans , again, the choir kinda fucked up the vibe but for the first 10 minutes it relaly was Selected Ambient works.

 

 

The 'flying piano' was so gorgeous, with the sounds of the swinging like that of a playground and the sad little melody.

 

 

Afx ft Pendulum - Laser attack was a right old mesmerising piece of sound art but yeh, 5 shorter pieces woulda shoulda been better.

 

 

top,

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Guest Masonic Boom

Guest Masonic Boom

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For you Masonic Boom....1 of 2 pages. I didn't get hold of the other page

Symbols.jpg

 

Thank you so much!

 

I was trying to read the other sheet, the one with the pictures on it - scream mask, lungs, pair of footprints from the music stands. Seemed like similar sorts of instructions.

 

The first half was more impressive from a technical point of view, trying to work out the relation between the things on the screen and the things they were playing (the volume commands were easy, but the patterns at the top, and the width of the fader controller things seemed to do something ... and wasn't sure what instructions they were getting in their headphones?) I'm not really that much of a Penderecki fan, and that seemed to be v v Penderecki influenced with the tone clusters and whatnot.

 

But the sheer "OMG holy shit" spectacle aspect of the second half was just jaw-dropping. I was right in front of one of the banks of disco balls and it was dazzling. The kind of "tuned feedback symphony" thing reminded me of a lot of Experimental Audio Research, but about a thousand times more full on. It was also just visually very, very stunning. There is nothing that doesn't get better with the addition of 1) disco balls and 2) lasers so adding the two together times several dozen was the best thing in the world. Why oh why couldn't he have done the Shard laser show a few months back?

 

Not much in the way of merch, though. Had to buy the Aphex jewellery. That was too much for me to resist. Funny to see it was made by St Justin's like all proper Cornish tat.

 

 

He looked really good, as well. His hair is proper long again and he looked v v fit and healthy and seemed in quite a good mood with the grinning and the thumbs up. Fangirl in me was well pleased.

 

 

The best thing was just seeing him doing something new and genuinely "experimental" (whatever that means these days) like he wasn't just working to a standard Aphex script, he seemed to be having fun with it, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but it was good to see him stretching himself creatively.

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Guest Masonic Boom

Guest Masonic Boom

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bRRom.jpg

Hah, you were pretty much behind me - I was right in the front row, in front of where you can see that bit of blonde hair (I must be just below the camera POV)

Wait, what seat number were you? First row, towards the right?

 

I really really hope you were not that drunk dude who kept loudly complaining "well, that was just a waste of £17.50" at the end of each piece because I wanted to smack him.

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mcbpete Grand Master

mcbpete

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Nah that was the twunt sitting right behind me that I mentioned in my review on the previous page (though there were some rumblings by the 3 guys the right of me too - do people not research what they're going to hear before spending that much money on tickets ?!) - My seat was A5

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Guest jasondonervan

Guest jasondonervan

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Haha, seems most of the watmm folks were placed in the same area, most likely for security purposes ;)

 

We were in C7/C8, and I have no greatly distinguishable features other than being very tall with thick short dark hair, perma-5 o'clock shadow and glasses :D

 

Oh, and no, that loud guy wasn't me - but I did hear some guy early on during the orchestra piece loudly moaning to the girl he was sat with for a few minutes... but it was no longer than that.

 

Ach, I would've been up for a watmmeet... missed opportunity. Time was pretty tight as we were a bit pushed for time - we got inside the venue 5mins before it kicked off thanks to slow-going tube and having to grab some dinner beforehand.

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Guest Masonic Boom

Guest Masonic Boom

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I think we were all in the same area because we were the freaks who logged onto the Barbican ticketing system first thing in the morning and grabbed all the front row seats.

 

 

It's funny, the thing that comes back to me was that a lot of my favourite things about the pieces were actually the accidentals.

 

Like, the Pendulum Piano thing, what I liked best about that was not actually the music (though that was beautiful) or even the amazing stereo Leslie Speaker effects of the moving piano - it was the way that the creaking of the ropes and the whooshing of the platform as it flew through the air and all the mechanical noises formed this odd rhythm track to accompany the music. I don't know if it was intentional (it probably was, given how he's often used the mechanics of that piano) but it provided a lovely counterpoint to the music.

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mcbpete Grand Master

mcbpete

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Yeah the creaking sounds added a real nice aesthetic to the sound. Another (possibly) unintentional sound I noticed was of the final lasery track - right near the end as it was just the bass-frequencies remaining suddenly this rhythmical percussive seemed to emerge, like this continually evolving drum loop that was coming out of a sub woofer. S'nice !

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funkaholic Veteran

funkaholic

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thouroughly enjoyed the piano, the first piece i liked the ideas and parts of it, but it was a bit to long, the last piece i could of felt the same but the lasers where grand.

 

edit: hmm, always changing my mind about it, it was very inspiring the whole thing.

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Guest Masonic Boom

Guest Masonic Boom

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It's amazing how stochastic and chaotic the disco-laser-feedback balls were, and yet how skilfully he mixed and cut them up and wove them into a lovely and cohesive piece of music. It looked so spontaneous and effortless, yet I could see him back there, concentrating pretty intently on mixing the sounds to get interesting textures. There was so much skilful editing going on, so that even as the pendulums were slowing down, the music kept its momentum.

 

I didn't think that bit was long enough.

 

To be honest, I wanted him to go round and set all the balls spinning again and do it all over, I'd have been happy with another half hour or so of that.

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Guest jasondonervan

Guest jasondonervan

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I recorded 24bit WAV of the show. Looking forward to hearing that again.

 

Coooool

 

http://youtu.be/NJHsT8kEyzs

 

Ahhh, fond memories already. Glad someone caught this in such nice quality, now I don't have to rely on my rubbish memory to remember it.

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