NYS Music 20​12

Tag: jamtronica

  • Eli-Fest at The Bayou in Albany, November 30th

    Eli-Fest, a benefit concert was held at The Bayou in Albany on Friday November 30th was held for Eli Ramos, who was injured in an accident on July 1st. To celebrate Eli’s strength and courage, bandmates, friends and fans gathered for a night full of groovy jams. With first walking into the front of Bayou, you wouldn’t even know that there was a huge show going on. Heading through the various sections of the venue, the smoky atmosphere hits you and so does the music.

    There was constant music being pumped out of the speakers all night. When the bands were not on stage, there was a mixing table set up to the right with DJs, responsible for keeping the party mode at a constant level. Insidious started the night off to a small, eager crowd, ready for the night to begin. His beats were enough to catch everyone’s attention and head to the dance floor. Inverspace was up second with a set that was light and upbeat. It was an easy groove to get into after Solaris. The last DJ for the night was General Korn whose big hit of the evening was a remixed Talking Head’s song, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).”

    Solaris, the three man instrumental band from Ithaca took the stage and quickly warped the crowd. With a slow easy start, they hit hard into jams such as with great fluidity from song to song. The boys debuted a new song, “Deacon”, which had a fast tempo, enthusiastic start and a high build up jam. The trio has been logging in more practice time and it certainly shows on stage where they each have such control of their instruments. They are clean- cut and fresher than ever with their electro-fusion melodies and beats. Their authenticity brings the music to the next level and it’s been a thrill to watch them grow as a band.  Their set is available for free download.

    Solaris Setlist: Complete, Chapman, Deacon, Infrared, Cosmo

    It was my first time seeing digiMUN, which is a collaboration between members of jamtronica bands Digital Dharma, Wiley of MUN and Dan Gerken of Timbre Coup. With the huge crowd and high energy, it was a delicious recipe for a chaotic dance floor. Their entire set was improv, showcasing the vast talent that had come to pay tribute to Eli. Each jam had a funky rhythm, plenty of electronic beats and surprises around every trance infused melody. The encore was a Digital Dharma original entitled “Cloud 9” which featured Eli himself on the iPad. Their set is also available for a free download.

    One of Albany’s finest, Timbre Coup, was last to take the stage that night to the packed out venue with the snow falling outside. Early in the set, the progressive rock band dedicated the song “December” to their dedicated fans in November, an upbeat groove with hypnotizing melody. They covered Rick James’ “Give it to me Baby” as well as The New Deal’s “Deep Sun” both instant crowd pleasers and fed more energy to the band. Timbre Coup looks like they are having as much fun as the crowd and it’s a treat to watch them dance on stage and even switch instruments.

    Timbre Coup Setlist:  June, Jam->December. Give it to me Baby, 55->Jam&->Don’t Fly a Key on a Kitestring, September, July, Something About Radio->Jam->Mother Nature’s Baby Daddy, Verbal Kint->Jam&->55 end, Deep Sun, I Didn’t Know She Had a Moustache

    Throughout the night, all anyone had to say was how lucky we all were to share in the great music and help out a more than worthy cause. The event raised over $1200 and if people would like to still donate they can contact Steve Mink or Aaron Zarabi.

  • First year Festival gets off on the Right Foot: Autumation, November 9th-10th

    Let’s be honest, by the end of August we’re already missing the festival season: the pounding music at all hours of the night while you’re trying to squeeze in what little sleep you can, the endless rows of vendors and the food that by day two is swamped with melted ice in your cooler. Enter Autumation. While it is rare to see this many good bands in one place in the cold of Upstate New York, the stages for this festival were thankfully inside. Not only were they inside but each stage was elaborately decorated with an Autumnal/Futuristic feel that turned each performance into not just a show, but an experience. The hotel was nice, in fact maybe too nice considering the crowd they were welcoming in for a long weekend. I am pretty sure there was a security guard watching over the lobby furniture (which looked like it was straight out of a Victorian era foyer) to ensure no one turned them into a public sleeping area. The main stage was directly across the lawn from our hotel room making it much easier to avoid the cold.

    One serious qualm I had with the festival is that I could not find a list of set times anywhere. When I asked the volunteers at the check-in table they looked at me like I had six heads. Thankfully, one of our friends working the festival scored us an official list of the set times. Due to technical issues most of the acts were pushed back by at least an hour. This definitely added a sense of confusion to the entire weekend. The first show I saw Friday night was The Manhattan Project. The band consists of two guys, Shawn Drogan on drums and electronics and Charles Lindner on keyboards and synths. This duo never ceases to amaze me with the energy they draw in every show they perform. The second they take stage the crowd is moving and the energy is non-stop. For a band that only emerged onto the scene two years ago, they have moved light years ahead of their genre. The one thing I loved most about their set at Autumation is that they kept the crowd guessing throughout every song. Often times they’ll take long exaggerated stalls and pauses throughout songs that leaves you dancing like an idiot while they are frozen on stage.

    The next band I traveled into the cold to see was Higher Organix, playing at a separate stage attached to the main hotel building. The decorations were amazing throughout every stage in the venue. The band was delayed by some time so I kicked around the bar (which had surprisingly cheap drinks for a festival) and watched Last Fair Deal blow glass outside the hotel. The surrounding areas of the festival were strewn with debauchery. At one point I actually watched one individual climb into the freezing cold fountain stationed outside of the hotel patio. Finally Higher Organix came on bursting into a drum centered jam. Drummer Jules Jenssen is always a pleasure to watch perform. He stays consistent with his energy level and vehemence throughout every song, keeping the tempo hot and the crowd hotter. Clayton Squire on guitar takes it to the next level with impressive riffs that spiral the entire band into amazing jams.

    Unfortunately we had to leave early in order to catch the Cosmic Dust Bunnieson the main stage. This was actually the first time I ever got the chance to catch CDB and I am truly happy I got the opportunity. With a name as farcical as “Cosmic Dust Bunnies” you don’t really know what to expect. I don’t know if it was the time of night (3:30 am) or the intense decorations at main stage but the crowd seemed to make a large shift right around when these guys took stage. This was certainly the perfect band to take on the late night crowd with their stellar jams. By this point of the night my friends and I were all too tired to stand so we sat in plastic Adirondack chairs and let the crowd “happen” around us. The crowd thickened almost immediately and it seemed like not a single person stood still throughout the entire set. The keyboardist used intricate breakdowns to feed into the build ups wavering on the line of electronic and jam. I was seriously impressed with the show these guys put on. By the end of their set we all dragged ourselves back our hotel room to retire until the next day of music began.

    My friends and I woke up Saturday morning (afternoon) starving only to find that EVERYTHING in Lake George was closed until the Spring (go figure). We ate a healthy breakfast of mozzarella sticks and French fries from a local Diner and got ready for another long night of music. The first show we saw was Lucid, hailing from the north country of Plattsburgh. Right off the bat their music broke into a bluesy jam accompanied by both a harmonica and a saxophone. Often times with a band as talented as this I get distracted by a singer but in this case I think he is one of the key components of why this band is so good. His raspy voice adds a melancholy level to their upbeat tempos and bluesy guitar riffs. Half way through their set the lead singer gave a shout out to the Tree Shurts table where my friends and I were stationed. They dedicated their next song “All I need is a Spliff,” and burst into a funky, satirical tune about the finer things in life. It is rare to see this combination of instruments on stage these days, especially with the increasingly more popular electronic music which requires little more than a lap top and some speakers. It was truly refreshing to see a band so passionate about keeping the music alive, and pumping out some good tunes while doing so.

    Next on main stage was lespecial,the decor of which got more and more intricate every night and by LeSpecial’s set they had girls cascading down the ceiling from ribbon, neon clad hula hoopers dancing on pillars surrounding the stage and neon face painters sending people back into the crowd looking otherworldly.  I had heard great things about LeSpecial at previous festivals but never actually had the chance to stay for a whole set. They are a jamtronic three- piece band made up of guitar, drum, bass and some keys and synth on the side. When they hit the stage the crowd was immediately electrified. I often do not find myself blown away by a drummer, especially in a band with heavy bass, but I was pleasantly surprised at how intricate and in-depth the drum beats made each song. This band is definitely very in tune with each other and has a great time on stage.

    Viral Sound was a highly anticipated set of the night. The four piece band took stage and broke into a heavy electronic jam consisting of intense guitar solos and spacey drum beats. Jordan Giangreco, formerly of The Breakfast, kept the crowd guessing with funky buildups on the keys and synth. They covered a range of different songs, including a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Help on the Way”. It’s always nice to be brought back to reality by a song or two that you know, especially with a band like this that takes you to as many different musical territories as they can grasp within an hour-long set. With a first year festival you expect as many things to go wrong as possible. Most first year festivals I have encountered have been an absolute mess and this includes a lot of the larger East coast festivals of today. It takes a lot of time to perfect something that large with that amount of people in attendance. I was actually very surprised at how smoothly things ran all weekend. It is to be expected that there will be some bumps along the way, but for the most part I think Autumation could make a great home for itself as an annual, autumn festival in Upstate New York. If they let us back

  • Biodiesel with DigiMUN at Red Square, October 20th

    While JGB was rocking the Den and Australian Pink Floyd played the Palace, Red Square hosted three electronic-based acts: Biodiesel, Digimun and Albany’s own Digital Dharma. I had no expectations going into the show, other than the knowledge that both Johnny Rabb and Clay Parnell of Biodiesel are both monumentally talented individuals. Clay Parnell has been an important and well known electronic bassist on the scene for years working with bands such as Brothers Past, The Join and Philabuster. Then there is Johnny Rabb, pioneer of the free-hand technique and a drumming legend. These two joined up to walk the line of Band & DJ and create an electronic super-duo that explores the new genre of “Livetronica.”

    I was lucky enough to catch the very end of the opening act DigiMUN, which is a mash up of Digital Dharma and Mun from NYC, playing what they describe as “astrofunktronica”. DigiMUN was created after an accident involving bassist Steve Mink  and keys/synth player Eli Ramos, which left both injured and Eli in critical condition. Eli insisted that band push forward after the accident, and DigiMUN was born.

    DigiMUN is 100% improvised on the spot. Much of their influence is derived from bands including The Disco Biscuits, STS9 and The New Deal. You can tell that there is a connection between the band members, even after working together for such a short period of time. It was certainly a pleasure to be able to catch an up and coming collaboration group.

    When Biodiesel hit the stage, drum and bass began emanating outside to the parking lot. The one thing I love more than seeing a show at Red Square is seeing a show where the back room is filled to capacity with a dancing crowd. You don’t expect much when going to see a two-man band but I found myself pleasantly surprised. The hard beats and bass lines had everybody in the crowd moving. One thing that stood out to me in particular were the samples they used to break apart the heavy beats. It was a perfect mix of man and machine and created a totally different atmosphere than I had expected. You could certainly tell that both Rabb and Carnell were pouring everything they had into their work and keeping the crowd hyped.

    Biodiesel ended around 1am, relatively early but came back on for a hard hitting encore that left the entire crowd wanting more. Although I have seen Biodiesel a handful of times, it was refreshing to see such a high-powered show with a crowd to match.