Kode 9 and the Spaceape & Juha from Viral Radio/Beat Dimensions
Kode9 is an awesome DJ and when I’ve seen him play he’s always torn up the dancefloor. Kode9 and the Spaceape is a different kind of music project that is not so dancefoor friendly and you rarely get to see them play their own material live. It’s great to see an act like this play outside the confines of club culture. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good party as much as anybody else but years ago I moved to DJ’ing in chill out rooms and bars as I wanted freedom to play interesting music and to avoid the tyranny of the dance floor. Live electronic music and bass culture should not be just about the party and getting the dancefloor moving and grooving as there are many more dimensions to the music.
In certain spectrum’s of the electronic music world it is rare to see such artists perform their work live with the original intent of the music. Last week Beat Dimensions organized a night at the Bimhuis that did just that. To quote William Gibson, “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet”. This is curated electronic music performed in the formal context of a classical concert setting. Why do we not see more events like this? Why should the great concert halls and Jazz venues not program (more) contemporary electronic music?
First up was Dimlite who took to the stage in front of a delicious urban backdrop. I’d heard his records and liked them but live he was something else entirely. He bobbed up and down like a string puppet beating out a staccato rhythm on his array of keyboards. This is music for the mind and for the soul. He brought the audience into a sonic dream world, a shared space of the collective mind with his carefully crafted tones and textures. If you ever get a chance to see this guy play live do not miss it.
The curtains were closed and in the faint glow of a dimmed spotlight one could just make out the shilouette of Stephen Samuel Gordon, aka Daddy Gee…the Spaceape. He created the Spaceape after graduating from Goldsmiths college as “an audiovisual project that generates experiments in perception”. This he did, along with a shamanic dance that gave us a glimpse of the ghost of Jim Morison hopping to a dub step beat.
Behind a macbook and a host of controllers, sampler and synths was Kode9 (Steve Goodman). He has a Ph.D in philosophy and teaches at a London university. He hails from Edinburgh and is very much in the vanguard of the electronic music scene with his own music and his groundbreaking Hyperdub label. This month he is the main feature of The Wire magazine.
They treated us to tracks from their first and aptly titled debut album, “Memories of the Future” as well as lots of new material from their forthcoming album. The new tracks have the same dark sonic intensity of the early work but it also has more energy and seems a little less inward directed. We were massaged by throbbing sub bass and a synth score reminiscent of a science fiction film that has yet to be made, a soundtrack awaiting a film. This music is to me science fiction… the music of worlds imagined by Philip K Dick and the late J. G. Ballard. After the gig they told me that the new material is still being crafted and they hope to get us the album before the end of the year.
Some photos from the night.
