Formication, Emkah and Modulator ESP - Nottingham 13.01.07

[modulator_esp]

an evening of electronica with:

Formication
Emkah
Modulator ESP

at

The Orange Tree,
Shakespeare Street,
Nottingham

on Saturday 13th January 2007

Admission Free - 8pm start

Come early and get a FREE EM sampler

Hope to see any of you there that can make it
Cheers
Jez

[modulator_esp]

Well, that all went rather well

I got a good response to my set, which was quite dark, with plenty of nasty drones and some pounding sequences, with some nice ambient interludes as well.

The other two acts were also great, Emkah was doing fairly commercial stuff, but with mad theremin and MS10 all over it, Formication were kind of industrial ambient, with the occasional ambient vocal courtesy of Kingsley and even a few nice sequencey bits thrown in. I enjoyed this set a lot more than the one last year, probably because I didn't get the wing mirror ripped off my car and I didn't get a parking ticket. Oh and free beer and getting paid helped

I also gave out a fair few of the neusonik samplers and got talking to quite a few people, so hopefully I've made a few contacts who might be able to help out with promotion..

I might even be doing some collaborations with both Emkah and Alec of Formication as they both wanted me to make them some stuff to mangle

One of the high points of the night was when some girl came across whilst I was playing and asked me if I'd be doing what I was doing for much longer as she couldn't stand it, to which my reply was, 'I'm afraid so'

I was not unduly worried, in fact I was quite pleased as I was trying to do something a bit 'edgy' and 'dark' as the gig had been advertised as 'a grand musical evening of cacodaemoniacal dissonances; an exhibition of power and other unimaginable experiments in acabre audio stimuli.'

One of the Formication guys had a similar experience, some guy came up to him near the end of the night, shook his hand and said 'you've ruined my evening'. Job done

But I suppose that's one of the perils of playing a pub on a Saturday night, lots of people who really didn't know WTF we were playing. Having said that a few people I spoke to said it was great because it was so different that it was refreshing.

Gear used: 3 keyboards (VS, P600 and NM), 2 sequencers (P3 and XL7) one sampler (SP404) one drum machine (ER-1) and my racks (MWII, WSSR, M-VS1, MS6)

Photos here: http://www.leftlion.co.uk/photo_galleries.cfm/id/163

A review:

Performance Review Modulator ESP, Emkah, ?DJ?, Formication: Sat 13 Jan 2007, Orange Tree, Nottingham, England.

It's a while since I last saw Jez aka Modulator ESP play. His sound has matured beyond recognition. He is in control of the machines – and there are a lot of them. Jez has scoured the planet in the quest for his racks of vintage instruments. This performance gave us a dense wall of interweaving Phaedra era Berlin School. Lots of flutey, choral melotron and huge chunky analogue 8 step sequences. Jez – this is no criticism, just my preference – I would have liked a build into a classic Blade runner end-titles sequencer blow-out to produce that tingly scalp perfection.

Emkah was not my reason for attending the gig. But a very accomplished set. Just not my cup of tea – a bit too drum machiney for me.

Followed, by a DJ that destroyed the mood and demolished the build up that the two preceeding acts worked so hard to achieve. Why did the DJ leave a ghastly sample loop playing for about 15 minutes after he left the stage???

This left Formication with a lot of work to do. Coupled with a PA and room acoustic that could not cope with the sonic complexity of Formication's latest beat driven dark sample synthesis, the performance did not reach out and captivate - the potential to do so was clearly there. I had to leave half way through the set so this review is very much qualified by a number of downer factors. I would like to hear this performance again at high volume in an acoustically balanced auditorium and then I would love it.

Finally, a plea to Modulator ESP and Formication – try and find an esoteric venue that does your respective genius credit – you've both moved beyond playing in pubs full of a reluctant captive audience. How about this for an idea – look for sponsors that stump up investment capital and save up for a bigger splash venue/PA – you are both ready for the next step up. I would chuck an unconditional 20 quid in the hat to get things started.

From http://www.landschaft.co.uk/other_pages/blog.htm

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