Warp Chamber II @ The Bakery,Perth (02/12/10)

Tue 7th Dec, 2010 in Gig Reviews

If you were greeted at the split in a pathway by a magical sphinx who riddled of each direction; one would lead you to euphoric sunset highs having the best sex of your life with an angel of Babylon (or whatever gets the kids rampant these days); the other to a Thursday night in the darkest depths of The Bakery at Warp Chamber II; without a doubt in your mind, you would choose to dance with the audio visual devil in a slightly twisted Willy Wonker cake house.

Warp Chamber is a concept dreamed up by two local experimental artists, Salamander ( Alex Last of Mauna Loa) and Solar Barge ( Lyndon Blue of Seams / Brow Horn Orchestra). The shows bring seamless sets between experimental performers to a theatre-like environment where visuals and meditative viewing are the central themes. This second edition saw a six-speaker surround sound set-up especially engineered by sound artist Kynan Tan which created an ‘interior chamber of sheer sonic immersion’; to quote the artists themselves. It did all these things and more; Warp Chamber II was a momentous sensory overload; but not for the weak minded. This was challenging viewing, even more challenging listening, yet the rewards were immense.

Kicking off the evening was glitch artist Obscotch ( Jake Moore ) who probably was the most accessible act on the bill, with music inspired by artists such as Autechre and Squarepusher. Moore could create chaos and cohesion simultaneously; getting people head banging to glitchy hip-hop and dub-step grooves whilst simultaneously fucking shit right up. It felt like a drugged up house party / club scene from the first season of Skins; an edgy night out with twists and turns in all the wrong directions. Moore’s visuals were less important (simply a psychedelic array of colours with no particular relation to the music) but this was made up for by a very visual (non-laptop) physical rack mount of gear that really allowed the audience (seated barely meters away) to see the organic reaction of hand twisting knobs to musical counter-changes. While all this was taking place near the sound desk, Kynan Tan was sending the audio into different realms of the surround sound set-up defying your ears into a complete chamber like experience. The name dared not lie.

Suddenly the music started to melt away into cold soundscapes as Salamander brothers Chris and Alex Last joined Moore on stage to transition the music. Visually we were thrown into dark Koyaanisqatsi inspired visuals depicting what one could interpret as the birth of time and life itself. It was David Attenborough gone wrong, twisted and mutated without the reassuring authoritative British tones. The music in this chapter was much more sporadic and experimental than its predecessor but with perfectly synced visuals, it all just made sense. The brothers literally jammed to the giant projector screen directing their music or slightly speeding up or slowing down the visuals to maintain the warped story they told. Salamander combined a series of laptops, keyboards, Kaoss pads, drum machines, loop pedals into a sparsely laid and complex set-up that could easily distract you from the big screen itself. As a swarm of bees visually took control, the music heightened and exploded into different surrounds throughout their set from haunting forests, to sonic spaceships and underwater realms. One of the most poignant moments was when underwater visuals and stalagmites dripping perfectly synced up to a chilling droplet of water during one of the movements in the music.

With the trance-like performance fading to a close, an intermission took place and the fairly large crowd of roughly a hundred people (for a Thursday night at an experimental gig) flocked to the Bakery bar or to inspect the outside surrounds. The refurbishments on the venue have been well worth the downtime. With an open-air back and the buzzing city behind you, this certainly feels like Beck’s Music Box’s biggest competition for best venue in Perth this summer.

Heads still spinning we’re greeted back inside for the second half of the show with the set-ups now actually taking place on the Bakery stage. A masked and cloak wearing figure Solar Barge begins what initially seems like a very ordinary grungy guitar riff as visuals depict the tale of an Egyptian sun god Ra aboard his celestial boat with his companions. It isn’t long into the song before the loop pedal builds up from the simplistic start into an immense and beautifully laid wall of sound. Drone tones and mesmerising, heart-throbbing music locks eyes with the visuals and you can feel the journey unravelling as the story is uniquely told. The music is dark and twisted; sometimes rocky, sometimes contemplative but always building up and then pulling back like a wave. With guest recorder spots and radio static sounds from a female companion picked up through a warped vocal microphone; this might have been the best Solar Barge show to date; particularly with such prominent focus on the visuals.

Headlining the event and probably the most well known duo on the bill were Brules Rules, comprising Steven Aaron Hughes (of Injured Ninja) and Carl Properjohn (of French Rockets). The pair had the most sporadic and loudest set of the night; with intense television static visuals and an array of audible sound clippings amongst thick distorted guitars from Hughes and sample triggered MPC-like sequencing from Properjohn. The music was intense and ferocious; unforgiving and almost always piercing but with ear plugs in place, immensely rewarding. There were even humorous undertones with subtle samples and visual grabs of someone trashy like Oprah Winfery in the mix.

All that was left with the show coming to a close was a warm summer night; the lucky inspired crowd left dumbfounded, still unsure of what had just hit them.