Music Features

Booked solid

A week of deconstruction, dubstep, and drones

By SUSANNA BOLLE | October 3, 2008

The Bug

So many unusual sounds, so little time! This week there’s an array of shows featuring experimental music of all shapes and colors. It all starts tonight, October 2, with a live performance by filmmaker AMY GRANAT and electronic-musician STEFAN TCHEREPNIN at the Rose Art Museum in Waltham. So, how does one “perform” a film? Well, in Granat’s case, she projects her films (which she makes by scratching and etching directly onto the filmstock) and then manipulates and amplifies the sound of the scarred surface (the hisses, crackles, and pops) as it runs through the projector. She’ll collaborate with Tcherepnin, who will further manipulate the sounds using a classic Serge Modular Synthesizer (invented by his uncle, the famed instrument builder, Serge Tcherepnin).

Then on Saturday, venerable ribcage-rattling dubstep producer the BUG (a/k/a Kevin Martin) makes his long-awaited US debut at Good Life — he was slated to play here over the summer, but, yes, visa problems intervened. His latest album, London Zoo, features some of the UK’s finest toastmasters and vocalists, among them the amazing Jamaican-born MC WARRIOR QUEEN, who joins him here in Boston.

And on Wednesday, Sweden’s the SKULL DEFEKTS will play P.A.’s. Some of Scandinavia’s finest experimental musicians are Skulls, like Alvars Orkester’s Joachim Nordwall and former Union Carbide member Henrik Rylander. But don’t be put off by their pedigree; though they may be in thrall to droning repetition at high volume, they’re very much a rock band. Honest.

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