Second half of day two of #BigEars: Couldn’t get a full look at Jeremiah Chu’s #eurorack cases, but there were definitely a #MakeNoise Mimeophon and Morphagene in there. Anyone into improvised music and synth shit should check out this SML album, to get a sense of what can happen when one member of the band is sampling, morphing and looping the other three members of the band.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/how-you-been

Anyway. I checked out most of the set by DC cello/guitar duo Janel and Anthony, and slid further into full curmudgeon mode because from where I was sitting, their playing was gorgeous and their instruments’ tone was hampered, not improved, by all their fuckin pedals.

I did love that their onstage roadies appeared to be their kids. That was rad.

From there, it was a quick trip next door to see Eliana Glass playing a solo voice + piano set. I sat there and meditated on how brilliant Cat Power’s “Moon Pix” is, and how I hope that it gets a better 30th anniversary treatment than its non-existent 25th. Also, Eliana’s set was amazing, intense, quiet & very personal. And she had t-shirts for sale, which were clearly hand-screened and bootleggy-looking and weirdly gen-Z. I may have to go see her full band set just to pick one up.

And then it was time for as much of SUSS’s Across the Horizon as my butt could handle (Church pews, my god. I grew up Unitarian so we had rows of moveable chairs.)

Highlight among highlights was a completely mesmerizing duet between guitar wunderkinds Hayden Pedigo and Gwenifer Raymond, who had just met for the first time earlier that evening.

Also it was hilarious to see Bob’s nearly successfully suppressed irritation that Pan American showed up without a guitar, rather with a laptop and an Elektron.

Despite my meditations about Moon Pix earlier in the evening, I didn’t make it to Dirty Three. Everyone said it was amazing. Coming soon to a city near you, I think.

I do appreciate the #Makenoise #sound. These instruments do not sound immediately great, it usually requires some work to make them sound good but for me that's not an issue. But they do have a certain harshness or edge to their sound that I find appealing. For me too much of modern electronic music is resolving into blandness and samyness that is just boring. The same is with electronic instruments. I don't think Makenoise is part of that camp.