Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

[evilC]

Short Circuit presents Mute.

Day 1:

Richard H. Kirk
Carter/Tutti
Recoil
Komputer
Nitzer Ebb
Thomas Fehlmann
Pole
The Balanescu Quartet
Thomas Brinkmann
T. Raumschmiere

More details of the whole weekend (in .pdf format) here.

So... d'ya think I'm going?

:-D

[Furtho]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

If you can report back on whatever it might be that Komputer are up to these days, evilC, that would be corking.

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Hello Furtho.

"Not much" is the short answer.

A quick look at their Discogs page reveals that they self-released an album in 2007 - 'Intercom' - but I don't have it, so can't comment on it. Looking at their individual pages on there shows that they either co-wrote or produced one track on OMD's 'History Of Modern' album, from last year. Other than that, nothing. Their homepage URL leads to a dead end and, although they have Myspace and Facebook pages, they are hardly ever updated.

However, if I hear anything from anyone, I'll let you know. I would expect that there is likely to be a release tied in with this appearance, at least.

[Benjm]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

I'm going to this on the Saturday - Erasure, Laibach and The Residents among others. Alison Moyet is billed as a special guest so hopefully Vince Clarke will be taking a wander through a varied selection of his back catalogue.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

My brain's turned into a revolving petrol station sign with "looks amazing" on one side and "£45 + bastard tax" on the other. It'll probably be stuck in this state until tickets sell out, at which point I'll begin kicking myself.

I've just bought a ticket for Factory Floor + JD Twitch's surround sound set in East London next month, though, which is exciting. Only £8, at that.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

By the way, Clive, yesterday I twigged where Kirk got his Sandoz moniker: it's the name of the drug company that synthesised LSD, innit. (They produced this film about hallucinogens with Henri Michaux.)

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

I balked at getting a weekend ticket due to the price (vs. my finances) thing, too. However, with so many acts I love (or find interesting, at least) on the one day, I just had to go. It's not often Kirk plays 'down here', so when he does, I have to make the effort.

I'm hoping it'll turn into a bit of a social too, of course, so if any of the rest of you are going, it'd be good to have a drink (there).

[Furtho]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Thank you, evilC, I actually meant report from the Mute event rather than just generally, but while I suspected that they hadn't been doing much it's good to have things confirmed. I have such a fondness for The World Of Tomorrow, I'd just like them to get back to doing that sort of stuff again.

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Blimey!

There's more!

Back To The Phuture - featuring John Foxx, Gary Numan, Motor, Mirrors and Daniel Miller DJing.

(This is actually a re-scheduled thing from a little while ago.)

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Right then...

Thread revival time.

I'm off to this on Friday. Anyone else coming?

Oh, and Furtho - I thought you might be interested in this*, which is associated with (and allegedly only available from) the event itself.

(* - Scroll down past the Balanescu Quartet bit.)

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

By the way - for anyone interested, this pdf seems to represent the most up-to-date running order for the event.

Looks like I'll be making it an all-nighter after all, since Kirk only comes on as my last train home is leaving! Of more annoyance is the fact that his set will clash with Daniel Miller DJing in another room. Gah!

[Benjm]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Saturday highlight for me was Erasure, including a Yazoo section with Alison Moyet and capped off with Feargal Sharkey coming on to do the Assembly's Never Never. Vince Clarke really is the man.

Not so good was nine quid for a chicken burger - you could feed a family of one and a half at the O2 for that.

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Yep - Vince Clarke is god, in electropop terms. I'm a little jealous, Benjm, but I realistically couldn't afford it. Plus, I only got to bed at about 9am after the Friday night!

It was great to see the acts I did - Kirk, Carter/Tutti, Pole, Thomas Fehlmann, etc. But the highlight for me came from an unexpected source: the very final act, T.Raumschmiere, who blew everyone away with his performance. That was the first time I'd ever seen him, but I suspect it may not be the last.

I agree about the extortionate food prices in a lot of venues these days - not just the Roundhouse. This is why I stuffed myself, earlier on in the day, at the Sir Richard Steele, just up the road. It was less than that for a very nice toad-in-the-hole with bubble & squeak.

[Benjm]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Envy reciprocated for the Friday night, Evilc - on reflection Friday looked the more coherent line-up overall.

Were they selling the little 'Mute synth' gadget at the shop on Friday? I was very tempted, despite it resembling one of those Thomas Salter build-your-own radio kits from years gone by. Luckily (I think) they sold out while I was umming and aahing about it - it's bad enough having a drawer full of bought in haste t-shirts without upping the souvenir ante any further.

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

Yeah, I agree that Friday looked like 'the electronic stuff' while Saturday looked like 'everything else'.

As for the synth thing... well, I noticed that they were giving one away as a prize but, given that they were describing it as "unique", I didn't even bother looking for it on the merchandise stalls! It did look a bit minimal, I thought. Like some circuitbenders had just glued some stuff to a record label, or something. Then again, I didn't play with one, so I can't really comment. It might have been brilliant! I liked the display of the analogue modules, but I didn't dare have a go, though.

I didn't get any merchandise at all, in fact. I'll wait until the T-shirts have come down from £16 quid to £10 a piece - then I might treat myself to a Fad Gadget one.

My one gripe about the event (and I expect this is going to be a widespread one) is that, while the music arrangements were all pretty damn good, the organisation regarding space, its allocation and the treatment of the audience were all seriously lacking. They (the Roundhouse people) closed the (very handy) 'beer patio' at 11pm and the main hall and foyer before 1am, meaning that the hundreds of people remaining for Pole, Gudrun Gut and T. Raumschmiere were all confined to the bar and the tiny 'studio'. It was hellish! A lot of people were so outraged by this when they were herded in that I thought there was going to be a riot. It was getting quite ugly.

In retrospect, despite it being possibly the best single-space large venue in London, the Roundhouse may not have been the best place to hold this event. Both the South Bank Centre and the Barbican would have been better, with their multiple large and mid-size spaces. On the Friday even the large number of people dancing to Moby and Richie Hawtin were rattling around in the main hall, while Non - in the studio - was oversubscribed by at least 3 or 4 times. A massive queue to see him was snaking out into the main foyer. (I didn't bother with him, you see, so I was actually looking down on the queue from above.) He could have easily filled the main hall, I reckon. Still - it's done now. I doubt there'll be a 'next time', but for anyone else planning such a festival ...maybe not the Roundhouse, eh!

[Benjm]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

The Barbican would have been great - they could have put life size cutouts of JG Ballard on the walkways for added early synthpop authenticity.

[evilC]

Short Circuit present Mute (and Raster Noton)

The Quietus' write-up of the event.