Lawrence Rice dons his 3D specs at Koko.
Videocrash describe tonight's billing as an explosive audiovisual party, with all the acts on the bill providing a full video show on a cinema-sized screen while they perform. This includes Holotronica, the newest project from Stuart Warren-Hill, one half of AV groundbreakers Hexstatic.
Presented as a mix of analogue synthesisers and midi-controlled live visuals including 3D and holographic technology, it’s the reason we all get 3D glasses on entry. Dancing is definitely on the menu tonight, but it is by no means the only thing on offer. The varied crowd have already filled Koko right up to the top, as a perch on the higher balconies proves just as popular as a good spot on the dancefloor
As the lights go down and screens go up, we don our 3D specs and try and find a central spot to view the show. It is no surprise that Hexstatic have a history of designing computer games and festival visuals, and while the holographic display here tonight is rarely overwhelming, it complements the sounds very well indeed. It’s like being taken on a virtual tour of the future via an eighties gaming arcade. Hexstatic’s music gives a large and loving nod to technology of years gone by, but underneath the Space Invader samples lies a solid body of techno. The tempo ebbs and flows where needed and pulsing acid glides smoothly next to tight breakbeats and arpeggiated synth rhythms.
As the set progresses, so do the visuals, and I do actually begin to feel like I’m in Ghost in the Shell. What looks like a cross between a spark plug and the internet whirls in front of me and I lose sight of where the stage ends and the crowd begin. But this is sometimes let down by the fact that I can see crease marks in the middle of the projection screen. The only other problem is that it is just too busy to dance. There’s no aggression though; everyone here is just eager to get a good view of the action.
Plaid are the last act to perform tonight, and they are well worth waiting for. If Hexstatic transported me to the inside of an Atari, Plaid’s dark seething funk and glitch world is much more organic. The bass snarls and moans like some kind of alien battle cry, with constantly evolving melodies pouring over the top and bubbling out of the speakers as if a chemical reaction is taking place.
The two members of Plaid concentrate on their laptops and knob twiddling, while behind them projections of clouds, stark landscapes and insects saturated in vivid swathes of colour jitter across the screen. Whoever has left by this point is missing the musical highlight of the evening, but I thank them as it actually gives the rest of us enough room to dance. And dance is exactly what we do.
Words and picture by Lawrence Rice.
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