Re: Expectations, artifice, and a hell of a can of worms

[Matthew Ross Davis <regis@sounding.com>]

If I may add my own few worms to the can...

I've been pondering these sorts of questions for quite some time, as I've
been very interested (and involved) in the role of improvisation and 
spontaneous music making in electronica - specifically *danceable* 
electronica.

The work I've done with looping extends from my work in free improvisation,
where it has never been as important to align the audience with familiar
patterns or sounds (nor is it considered a goal). The migration into a more
tangible listening experience for a wider audience proves to be difficult
because they are expecting very specific parts of the sound with which 
they can
relate.

I've found it very challenging to move into a dance-music aligned mode of
improvisation, and I depend a great deal on looping as an element of the 
sound.
So much so that it characterizes the sound and feel - and indeed, the 
overall 
pacing - of what I do, which has come to be quite downtempo and minimal in 
feel 
(regardless of tempo) and very developmental due to these constraints.

The issue I've been struggling with at times is when the line between live
performer and DJ becomes blurry and treacherous. Indeed, there have been 
more
than just a handful of times when folks really enjoying my live sets 
haven't 
been within eye-shot of me and thought it was a really good 
downtempo/IDM-ish
DJ set (and in some cases, believe it's me DJ'ing - which I do - and not
performing live).

So, that brings to a point exactly what people have been discussing here: 
even
though I'm doing the sorts of things that are seldom experienced in a 
dance 
music setting (#1, live electronica, #2 *improvised* electronica), it may 
not
be that people realize it's even live music, much less anything non-canned 
or 
even just non-sequenced.

The difference seems mostly to do with the venue and the setting. When 
folks
come to a gallery opening or a live show that will feature Craque doing 
live
music, they know to expect something that may or may not be a continuous 
mix of
music, but that will definitely be live, electro-acoustic, improvisational 
and 
experimental.

But when I do a live set at a club or a party, people are just expecting to
hear good dance music, regardless of how it's created - though hopefully 
they
will see that it's live and appreciate it all that much more.

The challenge in both these cases is to provide something that is both
interesting to the ear and challenging to the musical mind, but that still 
grooves. I find the same challenges DJ'ing, and I definitely believe that 
we
underestimate the audience's ability to be exposed to new sounds.

matt
(aka Craque)
http://craque.net