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Active Child + Balam Acab + live + review + Mohawk + Austin +

05. 15

Little late on this one but Welikeitindie got to drop in on an excellent show last Friday, once again at the Mohawk here in Austin, TX. 

Avant-pop group Active Child + witch-house wunderkind Balam Acab were playing the outside stage. Both acts have a dreamlike quality, but where Active Child takes you soaring on wings, Balam Acab lets you get lost, adrift on a sea of haunted sub-conscious.  It seemed a slightly odd pairing so I was curious to see how it played out.

Balam Acab was up first. I have to admit I was skeptical of how this would go. Don’t get me wrong, I love Acab’s studio work but the live show amounts to little more than a small skinny dude hunched over a sampler for 40 minutes. There is not much going on to hold you captive & the music is set to such a low BPM that no one can manage much more than an off beat head bob dance wise. A companion told me he needed someone else on stage to keep it interesting, but I have to disagree. One of the things I like so much about the ambient archetypal output of this act is the purity of his approach & the clarity if his vision. To add another member would dilute the product & perhaps limit the scope. But maybe some nice visuals to accompany the music would go a long way. 

Truthfully though, I only struggled with this at first. Once I stopped watching, waiting & wanting some incredible stage show, I was able to start drifting into the broad shallow pool of mixed emotional electro goth that defines Balam Acab’s work. And this is where the real show was anyway, in the music. Standing/swaying there, having a collective experience with more volume than I ever gave the artist at home or in my earbuds was baptismal. Certainly as surreal as the ether the music was founded on. I went away from it satisfied.

Active Child headlined the evening. Admittedly, having only heard a few singles, I was not as invested in them as the previous act & knew very little about the group. But always ready for a fresh experience, I was surprised to find them more versatile than expected. I was most surprised to see Pat Grossi playing an actual harp during several of the tunes & was genuinely impressed with the angelic falsetto voice he is known for. It reminds me of Antony Hegarty, every bit as mournful but less idiosyncratic perhaps. A live drummer & a multi-instrumentalist backed Pat, rounding out the sound & providing the stage presence that Balam Acab lacked earlier in the evening. 

It was an easier show to digest & the crowd reacted well. Acab’s music hinges on subtlety but there was none of that in the Active Child set. The rise & fall of the song structures were immediately recognizable & the pop sensibility in the songwriting made the tunes I hadn’t heard feel like familiar ground. More than this though, I was able to instantly catch the emotional overtones at work & found that insular & cathartic experience that we all seek in a pop song. Amen to that.

-SleeperWolf    

Active Child // Hanging On (GRVRBBRS remix) ϟ download    


Sleep ∞ Over // Romantic Streams (Balam Acab remix) ϟ download
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs + live + Mohawk + Austin + electronic + experimental +

05. 07

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs killed a lot of people in a cramped space on Wednesday night at Austin’s own Mohawk venue. Trampled at the feet of this young UK producer, the large crowd sandwiched themselves into Mohawk’s indoor stage room & danced enthusiastically on top of each other. 

Before the massacre, Austin based duo Dancinatra warmed up the concertgoers, playing their brand of smooth electro-pop topped with a croon. The night was waning & I had work in the morning, but these guys won me over & not only convinced me to remain for the evening but also put some pep back in my step.

The Welikeitindie crew fought our way to the front between sets, prepped for some more dance beats & expecting some of the live antics that preceded TEED’s rep. I was taken aback as the equipment was set up. No less than 3 tables bolstered a plethora of DJ tools, samplers, keyboards, effects pedals & MIDI controllers. Seemed a bit much for one kid to handle…   

Orlando Higginbottom emerged from the green room in his signature style, donning a brightly patterned body-suit & feathered vest that immediately garnered attention & held it. I know it is a growing trend for DJ/producers to wear outlandish masks/clothing on stage, but this was a whole other level of weird. Maybe I am just not hip enough to get it, but I will be the 1st to say you cannot judge a book by its cover. What followed when TEED powered up his magical tables of bells & whistles was one of the most provocative & intelligent dance sets I’ve seen. This was bolstered by the fact the despite his garish outfit & meek demeanor, TEED was amazingly proficient at juggling the multitude of things happening on stage. He wasn’t just hitting the play button, he was constantly moving from table to table, tweaking this & looping that & singing over it in his easy on the ears palatable voice. The sound was pristine, the drum programming exact & the sub-bass had surprising clarity. He made it all look effortless. He made it all look fun. 

& fun we had. The crowd reacted to every new sound & stanza with a fevered ferocity fitting the act’s title. We were Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs stampeding in room with no exit. The only drawback fell on the venue as there was not enough space on stage for some of the props that TEED uses in conjunction with his attire to add stage presence & also not enough space on the dance floor, forcing the audience to grind on strangers or catch a stray hand in the face. Mohawk remains my favorite venue in town, but really they should have had this guy outside.

All in all though, it was a great time & I am now genuinely stoked for the debut LP TEED will have out June 12th. For now be sure to scoop up the “Garden” + “Tapes & Money” singles (the latter of which is packaged with a John Talabot remix that stands apart too).

Oh, & the next time Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs rage through your town, go & get eaten alive.

-SleeperWolf
Justice + live + Video Village + remix + electronic +

04. 27

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts during the last two days. I’m currently in Vancouver & finally got to see Justice live. This was the last date of their world tour, sorry if you missed them! I’ll be back in Austin Monday. I have a lot of goodies sitting in my inbox, stay tuned! 

In the meantime, stream this new remix by Video Village of “On’n’On”.
Lunice + live + video + sxsw + electronic + hip hop +

03. 26

Watch Lunice go bonkers during his live performance at the Broken Teeth (unofficial SXSW showcase). Shot by LFTF. Freebie after the video. 

Photo show in Montreal by Jennifer Dunaj.   


Azealia Banks & Lunice // Runnin ϟ download
Skrillex + live + remix + Aylen + dubstep +

03. 03

Can’t wait to see this youngster again with his 3D projection mapping. 

Photo taken by last month by photo.m at the C-Halle in Berlin. 



“Summit (Aylen Remix)” ϟ download
Maria Minerva + Outfit + NZCA/LINES + Juk Juk + live + london +

01. 27

London mark your calendars:

Maria Minerva
Outfit
NZCA/LINES
Juk Juk

at Elgar Room - Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 22 February.RSVP | Tickets

Outfit // Two Islands (Juk Juk Remix) ϟ download
Ellie Goulding + live + Letterman + remix + polaroid +

01. 17

Tune in tomorrow, January 18th, to watch Ellie perform her hit song “Lights” on The Late Show With David Letterman!  The show starts at 11:35pm/10:35C on CBS.

“Lights (Reflektion Remix)” ϟ download
MiM0SA + live + Welikeit.indie + La Zona Rosa +

01. 09

MiM0SA live at La Zona Rosa in Austin, TX - 12.01.11

Click on the image to see the full set on Facebook.

& yes, he’s wearing the solardip shirt, get yours here. 

“Tiger Blood” ϟ download
live + concert + dancer +

09. 13

security
theophilus london + tour dates + live + mp3 +

08. 15

theophilus london announce tour, click here for deets & a chance to win a trip to austin.