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Fennesz / Rowe - Live, MIT, 5.25.2004
May 26, 2004 at 01:51 AM | Link
Christian Fennesz and Keith Rowe played at MIT's Kresge Little Theater on Tuesday night. First Rowe played alone, then Fennesz played alone, then they jammed together. I only caught the two solo sets.
Rowe produced layers of noise, adding rare bursts of FM-radio recordings or an occasional measure of beats. I was struck by how immediately I would latch onto the snippets of pop songs, which lasted no longer than two or three seconds. I would detect the rhythm of a song in a flash based on a couple of beats, and that rhythm would play out in my mind even though the snippet had long ended. Maybe it shows how much the generic structure of a pop song is ingrained in me for better or worse. It's partly why I listen to certain types of electronic music: it breaks the delicious monotony of pop. Or why I admire artists like Bjork or Manitoba (or, indeed, Fennesz), who often rely on familiar elements and still make me marvel with that rare and precious feeling of what-the-fuck-was-that.
Fennesz's set was almost pop in comparison. I'm beginning to love how he pulls off the combination of the abrasive and the sweet, and how much sweeping emotion lies within tracks that do not attempt at an epic nature in some overt, cheap way.
I don't listen to much ambient or glitch or heavily-processed laptop electronica - I'm too much of a slut for melody - but a night like tonight reminds me that it can be a cleansing and revealing experience. It's like drinking the pure cold water from nature: you are made aware of the tastes of lesser waters that you had been unable to sense.
