Neglected to mention after last entry last month that a week later I got to see another longtime musical favourite, this time the majestic minimal electro-dub of Pole. Stefan Betke of ~scape records came to visit us in Vancouver at the invitation of the New Forms Festival and the inimitable Lighta! soundcrew, to play their influential running series, Dubforms 8 at Open Studios.
Matt Trent has taken some awesome pictures from this event series, which you can boggle over on matttrent.com, flickr, and flickriver. I want so badly to hype these events, but they already operate at capacity, so, better you stay home or stick to the overground clubs, you probably wouldn’t have fun anyway… [LIGHTA!!!!] …
While we’re on this subject, and evasive discretion aside, I’d be remiss if I didn’t impel you to check out the killing sounds of Max Ulis, Taal Mala, Phowa, Sub Osc, Michael Red, Calamalka, Prince Sho, TankGirl, the Tusk, Flat Grey, Sorcerers, Baron, Deseptagon, Self Evident, Dj Collage, Daega Soundsystem, Dj Cure, Ian Wyatt, Vincent Parker and Artemis Jackson, Square Root of Evil, Colby Sparks, Pixie Mountain Rainbow Quest, Kuma… there’s so much talent blowing up in this city’s subterrean right not… listen close…
Cascading dub riddems bleeding reverb through tunnel corridors beneath a sleeping city… science fiction novels have come true - William Gibson and Neal Stephenson caught wind of the temporal pressure wave of dubform eschatology, and wrote its mythos into Vancouver’s underground identity. Meanwhile up on the surface, word is George Clooney and the Sci-Fi Channel are producing a miniseries based on The Diamond Age, and Neuromancer is finally looking like it might get a long-languishing film treatment - if they’re not playing dubstep in the Drummers tubules beneath False Creek, and boomin’ in the orbital cargo cylinders of Zion and the Marcus Garvey, sci-fi’s producers haven’t got their ears close enough to the ground.