Thoughts on Y2K3 ('03 Santa Cruz Live Looping Festival) CDs

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Greetings loopfolk and lurkers alike,

I just wrote rather lengthy review and my e-mail program 
crashed erasing the whole thing before I could send it. Damn!
I doubt if I can even remember half of what I wrote. But I'll
try to recreate the gist of it if I can. Sorry Robin!

For any of you who are even vaguely interested in what's 
being done with looping (be your interest in hardware or 
software loopers) you owe yourself the twenty-something 
dollars it'll take to buy yourself the 2 CDs that Robin Haas 
has created from his recordings of the Y2K3 Loopfest last 
year in Santa Cruz.

The quality of the recordings is very, VERY good -- maybe not 
"superior" but that's besides the point (and more a factor 
of what the audio stream presented him than his skills 
as a recordist). He's done a masterful job on that account 
and presents us with a very even collection of excerpts 
from a wildly varying group of artists/performers.

It's so even, in fact, that it's amazing to listen to this music
now (after having been there for every performance) 
without any visual distractions and/or enhancements. 
It's darn surprising how good all of this stuff now sounds 
from artist to artist. All of the performers owe a great
debt of thanks (if nothing else) to Robin for all of his 
hard work.

This CD actually serves as a sort of "field-leveling" effect
between acts that were high-energy and visually well-
choreographed in performance and the ones where a "visual 
component" was barely given ANY consideration at all 
(or whose visual presentation was more of a distraction 
than an enhancement).

It's (at least) harder to tell the gifted "shoegazer" loopers
from the gifted, all-around "entertainer" loopers anyway. 
That's my first impression. Perhaps it's my unavoidable 
status as one of the former (rather than the later) that
makes this seem "positive" to me. One would have to 
ask Amy X Nueberg or John Whooley (I guess) to get 
an opinion from the other direction though.

Speaking of Amy X, she opens Volume 1 (and is also
present on Volume 2) and she was as tough an act 
to follow as any. The more sedate instrumentalists and
"knob-twiddlers" who follow her (here and there) in later 
tracks need not feel too embarrassed by comparisons 
here. No one can see her body language, dance moves 
or deft manipulation of her EDP by hitting a drum pad
with a stick in time to the music.   

And no one can see me sweating and drooling all over my 
guitar like some crazed cretin (or my 5 agonizing minutes 
of hellish pre-performance "technical difficulties") either 
. . . thank God. Heheh. So the "leveling" effect of the CD
format even works for morons like me. But enough about that.

There are great tracks here by almost everybody that 
performed. Being a guitarist I lean towards Volume 1
as a favorite. But I am listening to Volume 2 (for the 3rd
time now) at the moment and it gets points for creativity 
risk-taking and "edginess" too.

Both disks have a sprinkling of the Walker brothers here 
and there . . . and both feature a track by the superb 
guitarist Gareth Whittock (Y2K3's headliner) from Wales/UK.
There is really nothing here that is a bummer in any way 
and there's a whole boatload of stuff to like

Of course there is nothing like attending one these festivals.
The sense of community and the valuable exchange of 
knowledge and experience shared is priceless. No CD
can really convey any of that. But, if you'd like to hear
some of what music was being made (by way of a sort 
of "best of" collection) this 2 CD collection is for you.

Run, don't walk to:

<http://www.santacruzcollage.com/Y2K3_page1.html>

Robin! You and Rick rock! You both ought/need to get on 
the local Bay Area college radio stations NOW with this stuff 
and start promoting Y2K5.

Best regards,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

http://www.pfmentum.com/flux.html
http://www.CDbaby.com/cd/tedkillian
http://www.guitar9.com/fluxaeterna.html
http://www.garageband.com/artist/ArsOcarina
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=2845073
http://www.netmusic.com/web/album.aspx?a_id=CBNM_17314
http://www.indiejazz.com/ProductDetailsView.aspx?ProductID=193

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