Sauce

The sign out the front said “Electro/Jazz”, and as I stand out the front, finishing my bag of hot chips, a couple of uni-student-looking people tumble outside for a smoke commenting that “it wasn’t anything like electro/jazz … it was more like some nature … thing …” “Hmm…” I thought to myself as I walked up the stairs. I was going into this cold, with no prior knowledge that it was on, and before now I hadn’t really heard of electro/jazz. And what is an electro/jazz/nature … thing, anyway? I knew for sure that I was about to put myself through something completely new and different –well, at least for me.

The guys on stage had their hands on some pretty mad gear with a lot more Apple logos than I have, which made me bristle with envy – using traditional instruments like guitars and drums with electronica and an army of a billion little knobs, sliders and switches at their command. Their sound is very tense and edgy with rare moments of timid, ambient sounds of the forest and nature, and a filthy, dirty distortion polluting and crackling beneath it, invading harmony with dissonance. It made me think of oily, metallic fingers clawing and digging at earth, chewing and spitting soil and ash into the air. Which brings us to why I usually don’t get into this particular form of artistic expression; it makes me think too much.

If I were directing a thriller, these are the guys I’d get to do the soundtrack for me. There’s horror to be found lurking in this pool of ambience that wobbles on the brink of collapse and terror. See? There I go again! You just can’t listen to this stuff without getting lost in your own head. The small gathering was fully getting into the grungy, thick soundscape they were traveling through – eyes closed and heads nodding. There were some very controlled and innovative electric guitar stuff going on in there that turned my head – at some points sounding like an almost broken cello, or furniture being pushed across the floor. One of them carried a cymbal around the room, tapping it in rhythm above the heads of all that were seated on the lounges, which actually had quite a powerful impact on me, as well as achieving a surreal kind of 3D surround sound.

I could best sum it up as being constantly on edge. Did I dig it? Aw, look – it’s not really even in the realm of my cup of tea really, but I found it mysteriously compelling; admiring it more from a movie director’s perspective than any other. They were like the Que Experience if all the members were DJs – understanding so much more about the sounds they are manipulating than the casual listener could ever comprehend. Oh … interpretive music does my head in.
IAN MURTAGH