The idea of live Techno performances has been problematic pretty much from the start. Techno has a paradox at it’s root — it gets produced outside of real time, yet in application its effects on the listener is supposed to be immediate and visceral. One 7 minute slice of dancefloor heaven often represents hours or days of fine tuning and sequencing. This means that a successful producer’s skillset is concentrated outside of real time as well. A good DJ can find a record and get it in the mix in under a minute, while a producer can spend hours dithering in the studio about a transition between sections of a track. More important, a dance track can involve real time manipulation of several devices — a producer can run out of hands pretty quickly.
There’s a lively, ongoing debate about what constitutes a live performance of techno in the first place. Until a few years ago, a performer had to essentially cart out their whole studio to the venue, or take the expedient route of playing pre-recorded tracks and miming a show to them. *cough* MOBY *cough*. In recent years, though,
Ableton’s Live software has become something of a standard. Live is designed from the ground up for live performance of techno, but it is
only a tool — it makes it easier, but it doesn’t make the resulting music any good. In fact there’s a fair amount of animosity among many
towards laptop performers, because they can be less than exciting to watch.
Of course, Techno is a pretty small world with close to zero degrees of separation, so anything you read about Techno is usually by someone very close to the subject.
Stewart Walker Live in Iowa City 4-20-08
Mas música:
http://www.myspace.com/stewartwalker
