Sub.merge
(curated by Helen Sloan and Drew Hemment)
The Enhanced Clubbing Experience
Cream/ISEA1998, Liverpool
Friday 4 September 1998
sound: IAN O'BRIEN, CO-FUSION (sublime records, japan), DIGS & WOOSH (diy), SCANNER, DJ WADA
interaction+visuals: D-FUSE, TRACTOR, HEXSTATIC(tbc), GREYWORLD, STUDIOFISH + OTHERS
REVIEW OF SUB.MERGE IN UK-DANCE DIGEST
Cream's polished surrounds are the last place you'd expect
your concept of an evening's aural entertainment to be
challenged. Friday's sub.merge managed to do precisely this
with its mix of electronic artists, networking media types,
and punters proper gathering to marvel at a myriad
of visual and sonic treats. That such a healthy turnout
occurred was an achievement in itself in a city whose
clubscene is often dogged by indifference - as outlined on
this list many times before.
The main room was decked out with several different
projections provided by many accomplished visual artists
such as the excellent DFuse. Scanner's dissassociated
voices provided the appropriate aural accompaniment to
visions of anonymous cityscapes.The patient atmosphere of a
darkened art gallery remained only until Digs and Woosh
from the DiY collective got the crowd grooving with a well
received set of their future jazz. A live performance by
Japanese outfit Co-Fusion kept the crowd jacking further
with their heavily percussive sound.
Prior to all this the second room had contained an
installation: "Pole" by Granular Synthesis. This consisted
of five projections of a blue hued Diamanda Galas
(accomplished avant-garde noisenik) on a hellish red
backdrop whose image shimmered and froze to a shriekish
staccatto vocal, supported by one of the loudest sub bass
drones I've ever encountered in a club. To witness this
forty five minute performance was to witness an alluring
definition of intensity itself but completely fucked your
ears in the process - braving this barrage was an
audience stuck somewhere between fascination and confusion.
This hybrid of art event and clubnight adds to a growing
list of experimental nights which along with pioneers such
as The Big Chill is changing how we perceive the clubbing
experience. Nights such as this are the only way of dealing
with what is rapidly becoming stagnant and necrophile...
this is not a call to intellectualise the dancefloor, it is
a request to increase the risktaking, by promoter and
punter alike.
Shouts to FutureSonic for making it happen and Andy
Crowther whose Spiritual Vibin' mixtape arrived, with
perfect timing, to cure a Saturday morning hangover.
Nice one!