As one of Unsound’s proud media sponsors, we’re offering a guide to the labs and festival with our favorites highlighted.
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LWE Does Unsound Festival NY 2011
After a week of recuperation, LWE’s Jordan Rothlein and Chris Miller offer their thoughts on this year’s Unsound Festival New York.
LWE’s Guide to Unsound Festival NY 2011
After its successful New York City debut in 2010, the Unsound Festival returns to the Big Apple April 1st through the 10th. As one of Unsound’s proud media sponsors, we’re offering a guide to the festival with our favorites highlighted.
LWE Does Unsound Festival New York
Since 2003, the Unsound Festival has been about bringing the disparate impulses inherent in electronic music under one roof — a music event urging you to scratch your chin one minute and dance your ass off the next. Presenting itself like a film festival but booked like a forward-thinking summertime weekender, Unsound has consistently showcased brilliant and challenging new sounds without ripping them from their underground trappings. Any music festival as likely to feature Sunn 0))) as Zomby is sure to pique my interest, but by nature of it happening in Krakow, Poland, its ridiculously open bookings stood quite a bit out of my reach. New York City — its population overeducated, overstimulated, and relatively accepting of high-end dance music thanks in no small part to Beyond Booking’s forward-thinking Bunker parties — always seemed like the perfect candidate for something like Unsound, and for a week in February 2010, my fair city got it. And not even a knock-off, either! The Unsound Festival New York brought a truly impressive and deliciously diverse line-up of electronic musicians — asking you to ponder, get down, or do both at once — to underground venues across Manhattan and Brooklyn. And I was lucky enough to trudge through New York’s famous February weather to witness the festival on Little White Earbuds’s behalf. (Very big ups are due to Gamall Awad of Backspin Promotions for making this possible.)
LWE Interviews Moritz Von Oswald
Moritz Von Oswald is simultaneously one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in techno. As part of Basic Channel, Maurizio, Rhythm and Sound, and other configurations with Mark Ernestus and a revolving cast of musicians and vocalists, Von Oswald became one of Europe’s first techno innovators. Basic Channel defined dance minimalism early on, both through a love of repetition as a form of change, and a willingness to let the music speak for itself. More recently, Von Oswald has demonstrated that his reach extends far past the dub-inflected electronic soundscapes he helped introduce to dance music, with stunning remixes of not just Tony Allen, but also Ravel and Mussorgsky. Finally, last year’s Vertical Ascent matched Von Oswald with Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo) and Max Loderbauer (nsi, Sun Electric) in an improvisational group, yielding a standout release of 2009 by any measure. LWE had the distinct privilege of speaking with Moritz Von Oswald in advance of his trio’s American debut at New York’s Unsound Festival. Like his music itself, Von Oswald’s approach to thinking about music is simple and direct. But like his music, depth and complexity are immediately apparent.
Download: Derek Plaslaiko, The Unforeseen
Chances are that if you heard Derek Plaslaiko’s name mentioned in the last 15 years or so it was in the context of his internationally renowned DJ sets. These days, however, it seems his focus has shifted towards producing music instead of placing it in context. As an appetizer for his set at the Bunker Unsound Edition 1 on Friday, February 5th, Plaslaiko is giving away “The Unforeseen,” his production debut. The tune can also be found on Halcyon’s free Unsound Festival New York Compilation. We also had a quick chat with Derek about the tune, how a long DJing career impacts his productions, and his new focus on making music.
Download: Groupshow, Pet Hair Magnet
Kind curators that they are, the fine folks behind the Unsound Festival have an event that’s kind even to the emptiest of wallets. At noon on Saturday, February 6th, the experimental German trio Groupshow (known separately as Jan Jelinek, Andrew Pekler and Hanno Leichtmann) will perform an 8 hour long improvised piece to accompany Andy Warhol’s film, “Empire.” The event takes place at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St.) and is completely free. For a hint as to what you can expect from this massive undertaking, check out “Pet Hair Magnet,” generously made available by Groupshow.