2006/09/19

Pan Sonic Show Review

rumor has it that Art Forum was there and a review of it will appear in the next issue, but until then, for those who couldn't make it:

apart from the embarrassingly weak Air Wolf, who played the most wince-inducing entry-level trip-hop with pathetic keyboard melodies like some 5th generation imitation of Boards of Cannada, MASSIVE performances from everyone else.

the audience was about 100 strong in the 2nd floor gallery space overlooking Hollywood Forever Cemetary, as Damion Romero's rumbling wall of feedback re-arranged neurons and internal organs alike in an analog noise session of throbbing bass frequencies. standing in the room surrounded by powerful stacks of "turbo-sound", the music, like heliocopter rotor-blades or Gyoto Monks, is so powerful and all encompassing that bodies vibrate, senses distort and the mind is all but wiped clean for the entire duration.

I played 3 dj sets, about 1.5 hours all together. electro-acoustic static and "no-input" feedback systems co-mingling in timeless fashion; fragmented shards of digital debris sometimes punctuating the stretched out passages; and occasional beats erupt by way of dubstep. highlight is a 30 minute set right before Pan Sonic took the stage - an uninterrupted mass of pure and over-tones including David Hykes, Ryoji Ikeda, Alvin Lucier, and Rafael Toral which transformed the space into a hypnotic psychoactive resonance chamber.

Pan Sonic gave an absolutely devastating performance. comprised of brand new material from the forth-coming album which takes off from the second disc of Kesto Box - track after track of menacing, concise, beats driven, unrelenting intensity brocken by short interludes of tone and texture. metalic, ominous industrial noise-dub like a pack of demon-wolves, like the wrath of old gods reborn in steel -- the exhilaration of consistent, doom laden dark rush of adrenalin has no comparison in any genre, be it Noise, Techno, Hiphop, or Death Metal.

everything was professionally recorded, expect mp3's soon.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

ey, you did? thanks!
congrts for the success

Anonymous said...

man, I have to come out and see you play sometime here... good to see some fresh l.a. noisemakers, keep up the original work zhao

and keep us posted on the next live date

regards,
jonz2

Anonymous said...

ok! I'm not going to be over-eager about these recordings....promise. also, Artforum has been very very good in the last two years (at least) on their "sound" coverage. I'd like to see what they have to say about this. (their offices are 5 floors above me...hmmmm)

Anonymous said...

I really wish I could have gone to this, but unfortunately 8000 miles is a long way to travel for a night out. Please post up the recordings. I'd love to hear them.

mr.A said...

...goddamn, wish i was there!

square dancer said...

demon-wolves and wrath of old gods - Pan Sonic really inspire to wax poetically, it seems ;-) Just kidding, I actually like that part.

Sounds like a really awesome night, looking forward to those live mp3s. Cheers!

zhao said...

or I could have just said "the BADDEST mu'fuckin' shit EVER" :)

seriously. those guys are on some ultimate next level business... no comparison. singular. so focused... so intense. unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

..ok! now its time for the mp3s!