[Restored post] Review of the Boven Records live, Aug 26, Taipei

by lawrence

Translation of sound artist and owner of Recorderz CHIANG Liwei’s review of the gig at Boven Records, Taipei on Aug 26. The original Chinese-language version is here.

Please pay attention to this name: TSAI Hsinyuan 蔡欣圜, promised to be the next big star in the scene.

Recorderz live at Boven Records
Text: Chiang Liwei, translated by Lawrence Li.

Tsai Hsinyuan live at Boven Records
Ms. Tsai Hsinyuan. Photo by Liwei.

(More photos)
(Video)

The gig at Boven Records on Aug. 26 was very sucessful. Everyone delivered a good performance, and the newer generation of Taiwanese sound artist showed their potential. Here are some thoughts about the Recorderz musicians.

Wolfenstein’s Kef

I always have a great deal of expectation from Wolf’s performance, especially after the crazy, stalwart gig at Nanhai a while ago (the rhythm was challenging Autechre). This time at Boven, he did a live remix of his new CD Napoleon’s Kef. There was nothing new in the electronic noise of the first two minutes, but just when you thought you’re getting used to it, Wolf san took a sudden turn and played a light-hearted, weird little piano tune sample, inducing laughter among audience.

For the whole set, he was just teasing your ear like this, you can never expect what will come next, you must follow him attentively. The velocity-tuning sought order among chaos, the manipulation of sound was top-notch, and the freaked-out percussion arrangement and the essential explosive ending all contribute to a wonderful set. During the process, all kinds of absurd images flashed across my mind: Kenshiro (in Fist of the North Star) in sailor’s costume, or the misfortuned big bad wolf in Tex Avery’s cartoons. What a pure and extreme auditory rhapsody!

Hey Wolf, the two lives make a CD. :-p

The magic-glove of Tsai Hsinyuan

Tsai Hsinyuan is the new blood that surprised me at Nanhai Shasheng 3. The fine art-majored, 24-year-old girl has never played with music software until one and a half years ago. And after one term in Dajuin Yao’s computer music course at Taipei National University of Art (whose students include the ultra-active group i/O), she already wrote a Max/MSP patch for her custom-made infra-red glove controller. But what surprised me is not her capability to write a patch, but the sheer energy and beautiful structure of her sound - a rarity in the toyish-interactivity-centric scene nowadays. The first half of her Boven set was filled with loud, stormy sounds, which had won her the laurel of Miss Noise (laugh), but it’s too bad that the equipment this time was not powerful enough, shielding the energy in Tsai’s sound. Just when I was expecting the noise to continue in the latter half, Tsai switched to the new materials she had prepared for this show. The messy, tired-down ending of Nanhai Shasheng 3 was replaced with a stronger structure, more subtle texture and appropriate amonunt of looping. With all these merits, her exquisite magic-glove is not that important.

Thanks very much for Node Culture, LI Chin-sung, Lawrence English and Spencer of Boven. Spencer’s attention and cordial support for non-mainstream music in all these years are indeed touching.

Related: Bibi’s review of the concert (English)




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