BONDAGE AND BPMs
Nov 1, 2004 12:00 PM, David Downs
Gorgeous weather and throngs of bare-chested men in leather chaps promised yet another boring Sunday in San Francisco — that is, until an ensemble of cutting-edge music technology and live acts rescued the balmy Sabbath. Stanton FinalScratch 1.5 and Ableton Live 4 software demonstrations, alongside music sets by Bonobo and Thunderball, wowed a select set of attendees at the first-ever Future Forward Music Festival on Sept. 26. The idea of uniting Bay Area artists with the latest technology spawned the all-day celebration at Mezzanine, which was just down the street from the infamous Folsom Street Fair.
San Francisco DJ Darryl Stubbs headed up the Final Scratch demo while producer Christian Kleine showed off Live 4's real-time drag-and-drop sampling and new effects. According to Stubbs, linking the two programs heralds the next level of music production and presentation. “It's a DJ's dream,” he says.
Onstage, the eclectic styles of local artists Comute, Damiak and The Genie kept attendees entertained. Most interestingly, The Genie used his nimble hands and toes to perform an astounding one-man “scratch guitar” technique, which layered distorted guitar loops through a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler. The crescendo of beats, bass, rhythm, lead, solo and effects left mouths agape and eyes unblinking. Bonobo (Ninja Tune) and Thunderball (Eighteenth Street Lounge) finished off the all-night event with big beats and trippy samples. Next year's Future Forward will hopefully rival attendance levels at similar events in Montreal and Spain, organizers say.
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