"Live At The Electronic Music Open Mic Night #2" is the extended title of this almost 14-minute recording, burned to a 3" CDR packed in a sleeve with a picture of the artist on the front. And I can feel you all wondering, is there also a "Live at Electronic Music Open Mic Night #1"? The answer is yes. The first in the series was the first performance by Zebra Mu - the alter ego of Michael Ridge - in six years, and it was recorded at Gringos Mexican Tequila Bar, Norwich, UK, on 24/02/2022. Number two, however, didn't take that long though. Exactly four weeks after the first, Michael was drinking tequila again, and Terri Ridge pressed record on the trusty Zoom H4n.
The performance is roughly divided into two parts. The first 7 minutes consist of ambient sounds layered on top of each other, creating an atmosphere with a lot of tension. The kind of tension where you are wondering what's going to happen, it could go anywhere ... Very well used and placed feedback sounds create high pitched anomalies in the atmosphere ... So when after six minutes, the sounds become a bit more concrete with loads of delays, you think you've entered the second stage of the soundscape, but nope. It's only the bridge to a massive piece of harsh pedal/junk noise, which continues for the second 7 minutes of this release.
The recordings seem to have been made through the microphones of the Zoom as the audience can be heard applauding justly afterwards, but I would have liked it better if the recordings had been made from the mixer. Maybe with a few extra tracks for "room ambience". The combination of the room's acoustics takes away a bit from the extremities of - mainly - the noise part of the performance. This kind of stuff needs to be hard, loud, sharp and in yer face. It's all there, but it even could be better. Then again, for a £3 CDR release, you can't complain too much. Saves you some money for another tequila.
Comments
Post a Comment