REVIE
LUBS
Pure, dead
good
The role call for Pure’s second trip to Glasgow Barrowland combines groundbreaking new talent with establishment acolytes like Richie Hawtin. Bethan Cole speaks to rising electronic stars Exquisite Corpse, Speedy J and B12 who’ll be providing the live input, while Thom Dibdin crosses swords with guest DJ and one-man dance institution Andy Weatherall.
Amsterdam duo Exquisite Corpse (Robert and Debbie) will play one of their first ever UK dates at Pure 2. In the year they‘ve been together their innovative musical output has attracted ever~growing acclaim. For Exquisite Corpse make anything but music that’s deceased. The pulsating life-blood of their multi-layered percussive workouts stands in complete polarity to the decrepid state that their name would suggest: ‘I do derive a lot of inspiration from percussion,‘ says Debbie, ‘particularly a guy called Guern who’s based in London. It’s the energy of it.‘
Their album Inner Light and recent remixes of the track ‘Between Worlds‘ capture the throbbing vitality of the tropical rainforest imperceptibly inflected with rhythmic house. This symbiotic natural habitat of technology and live percussion also owes a lot to Robert's electronic experimentation. ‘I used to play around with 50s tape recorders,’ he explains. ‘I didn’t really know anything about the creation of sounds to begin with. It's been a learning process.’ With live performance and electronic music fast becoming
‘\ 1
synonymous, the flowing electro-drum oscillations of Exquisite Corpse are one progression of techno you can’t afford to miss.
Fellow Dutch techno-meister Speedy J (real name Joachim Papp) is no newcomer to the Pure experience. After visiting the club two years ago he sent ecstatic faxes to Twitch and Brainstorm claiming it was one of the best nights of his life. A DJ for over seven years, 24-year-old Joachim started making his own tracks because he felt limited simply mixing other people’s records together. ‘I wanted to go
. beyond the dancefloor restrictions, 1 want to make
_ music for it’s own sake not for a setting like a club or
- in the car,’ he explains of his rejection of DJing. ‘I
hardly buy records any more, 95 per cent of dance music coming out now is shit.’
Needless to say, his album Ginger and remixes of Bjork and The Shamen sit comfortably outside this contentious 95 per cent. The kaleidoscopic shimmer of ‘Fill 4’ or the playful digi~syncopation of ‘Beam Me Up’, both on the Ginger LP, are ready examples of Joachim‘s easy textural and rhythmic mouldings. ‘I guess I'm influenced by the black roots of dance music; Arthur Baker‘s twelve inch remixes, late 70s
Exquisite Corpse and early 80$ jazz-funk. I like melody a lot,’ he says. ‘But definitely not Kraftwerk!’
If the combination of these two mind-rocking feet- movers has an adverse effect on your blood pressure.
3 head downstairs to sample B l 2’s soothing crystal-cut lullabies. Working Within the Detrort tradition of
melancholic strings and surging cadences, Mike and
' Steve (the 812 duo) hold few romantic illusions
about their music or the techno scene generally. ‘We‘ve blatantly used Detroit.’ admits Mike. ‘We‘ve moved on, I’d say now we're a slight mutation of Detroit. We don’t try and hide it though. In turn there’s new people now sounding like us.’ The DIY school of electronic music is eschewed by the duo who prefer the simplicity of all that is pre- programmed and digital. ‘You know people say “analogue adored, digital deplored”,’ says Mike ‘but it all sounds the same to me. It is actually mixed live though.’ Honest to the point of self-deprecation BIZ speak chromatic brilliance musically, their I993 album Electra-Sonia and releases on their own 812 label offer a lush retreat from unpleasant realities. Pure 2 is at Glasgow Barrowland on Sat 19 Feb. See
_ listings for details.
n— Sabre rattling
nosebleed techno-monster, pointing to “his residency at Soundclash In leeds, where the music is strictly dubwise. However, it that’s what the crowd want. . . ‘Sometimes I an,’ he adults, ‘Ii I’m in the mood ior It and I think the people that I’m playing to are In the mood ior It then I’ll go ior It and
go “look, they’re tucking mlming”, but that’s what everyone said about Gary Glitter. llo, rave upset the old-folk, it’s an extra progression oi pop music, and that’s all right by me.’ However, when It comes to guitar-based rock, he is not so liberal. “It’s the same old tucking chords, the same old sound on
Andrew WW". ill low Sabre. everyone’ll have a good time and get their guitars. lot that I’m knocking has 8 "WWW" "If “9" 3m. and It out oi their system. But it‘s all about rock music, it’s lust that the the rock when he opens his mouth the words building up a set, starting up and iratemlty tend to be a bit boring, mind also ilow at a prodigious rate. lie getting progressively heavier until you so do the bands, to be honest with mixes outre opinions, hardcore they're sort oi screaming their heads you. Yeah I am knocking rock music: Observations and “Doriatlves, oil and then drop It down and start It’s shite, Its lust going nowhere, It’s punctuated by the stock phrase “know again - it lust depends on the bollocks, apart lrom a very iew
what I mean’, with the saute numeric situation. Know what I mean?’ bands.’
quality that suiiused his recent stint Weatherall Is quick to step up to the One thing Is sure about Weatherall’s OI 38le 1’3 MIMI Mlx- PM Mm WI! deience at any music, so long as It's set at Pure, when he hits the decks, that’s why he’s the man Mlxntag loves At ‘30 no... on mm..- wm" dance. Even rave. ‘To me, it's the Bury hit the dance liner and expect the
to hate: he’s lust too last tor thorn. “our: “com m; rm. .3 Glitter and Sweet oi the me. People unexpected. (Thorn Dibdin)
54 The List 11-24 February 1994