My favorite recurrent NY electronic music party Warper (check out their new site and amazing monthly line ups) has been going on for years and continues to serve up fresh as well as established talent. Now back at The Delancey (which I vastly prefer to the Williamsburg location) I decided to make stint to see Moldover, the founder of Warped party, the founder of the art of controllerism and the founder of the art of playing the electric guitar with a sock (his own for that matter) over his hand.
Moldover has evolved and is walking new grounds and reaching new hights. He abandoned the concept of live remashing popular rock/pop tunes in favor of remashing his own electro/rock/pop mixture of influences and sounds. I’ve heard an advance copy of his upcoming record and it sounds very interesting (a blend of electronica, some industrial, rock, pop and metal that at times reminded me of the latest Skinny Puppy or KMFDM and other times of Tool or some progressive rock bands). His music is now as original as the music’s treatment itself and the live processing is taken to a new level through the use of his latest self-built usb/midi controller (a light weight horizontal MPC-sized metal box crowded with multiple ribbon controllers, old arcade videogames fire-type round buttons, MPC-type velocity-sensitive pads, DJ-type sliders, big vintage-analog-type knobs, small infinite-type knobs, good old faders and a big trackball). The once shy Moldover who would barely even look up to the crowd from his bent-over-the-controls position is now making more eye contact and not afraid of letting the light shine on his noteworthy guitar playing chops (can you imagine how many chicks he must get now?) and even on his vocal abilities!
The genius of Moldover always resided in his skills as a real-time sonic manipulator of beats, sounds and music but just as noticeable and remarkable is his willingness and ability to reinvent himself and evolve, effectively moving on to a new chapter and corageously showcasing his own songwriting/production. Great show!
I knew Jason Linder was a great keyboard player (he also currently plays with Meshell Ndegeocello, who sat in on the first set) but tonight was the first I saw him with his own band Now vs Now (featuring the tasteful & frenetic Mark Giuliana on drums and the solid Panagiotis Andreou on bass). They recorded their CD at EastSide Sound so I was familiar with the name of the project but not with the material. Needless to say the musicians are great at what they do. Giuliana’s playing (solos, minimal, intense, fractured or around the beat but always in the groove) is soulful and articulated, continuously and reliably supported and accented by Andreou’s deep groovy lines (who also did some middle eastern singing). The backdrop of sounds, patterns, melodies, harmonies and obviously solos is of course all in the hands of Mr. Lindner, who comps nicely on his wurli and plays funky pockets and spacey leads on his other two brightly lit keyboards (often at the same time, as one would expect). Also joining them tonight is Bebe Israel, a talented young word-crafter who spits at double digits speeds or can sit back and improvise rhymes on the spot just just about anything (from newly elected Obama to the birthday girls celebrating at the Zinc bar) and who likes to remind everyone he’s a survivor because skills survive trends that’s why he won’t expire. His beat-boxing in the second set (the one I saw) was pretty sick too, I must say.
Although their blend of acid jazz, world music, chill out lounge, progressive stuff possibly might not be as accessible for non-musicians, for those who can appreciate this was one of those inspiring feel-good nights on the town with lots of musical cats and familiar places in the crowd and good music to take with you into the dawn of a new day.
