RE: Appropriate use of canned material in concert was RE: Fear of "canned" loops

["Will Brake" <wbrake@comcast.net>]

Miko,

I believe you just nailed it! This is certainly the WHOLE point. Well
met.

Respect
 
Will Brake
Soul Fruit Electronics
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Miko Biffle [mailto:biffoz@arczip.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 12:45 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: Appropriate use of canned material in concert was RE: Fear
of "canned" loops

> From: "Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)" <emile@foryourhead.com>
> Subject: Appropriate use of canned material in concert was RE: Fear of
"canned"
> loops


> Many years ago (20 or so), I did visuals for an early electro improv
band
in Boston (Mono Vogue -- I doubt you have heard of it)

> One night, the leader was the only one there at the start of the set.
Undaunted, he started a cheesey drum machine lick (in those days, that
was
the only flavor), started a recording of an  incredibly dry lecture on
industrial engineering, and played keyboard over that.

> This still strikes me as the most appropriate use of precanned
material in
live music performance that I have encountered.

Aha... This gets at my own theory (and reluctance) to use canned loops.

The pre-recorded material should never appear smarter or upstage the
actual
live musicians! I want pre-recorded stuff to be fairly dumb and
obviously
there only to supply some simple function. Either timekeeping; something
to
react to (the above example from Emile); SIMPLE atmospherics.

If anything interesting is going to happen, I believe it should be
applied
in real time. Fancy-pants stereo processing; re-contextualization of the
canned stuff with real-time creativity etc. Canned stuff should always
appear dumber than the performer!

If the canned stuff is the impressive stuff, there's really no
justification
for the presence of the live musician!

-Miko