River of Electrons returns to Dionysian Industrial Complex with an exercise in personal archive resurrection. Chiptunes and retrocomputing references are now an established part of the electronic music scene. But Rapunzel is slightly different. As RoE explains: These short sketches and exercises were composed on a BBC Micro using the MuProc (Quicksilva Music Processor) […]
CPLX 6 : k[A]l3utun ov[E]rdriv3 – H4cking Fantasma & Outras Bruxarias do C4os
Punk is an eruption. Overthrow. A negation of social class and privilege. No Gods! No Masters! Raw, explosive energy. But energy to what? How can punk tell stories? Make histories? Build new worlds? In the 1980s and 1990s, writers such as William Gibson and Bruce Sterling gave us one answer to this question. By cross-breeding […]
CPLX 5 : Malena Stefano – Exercícios Espirituais
In performance, Malena Stefano presents a tall, thin, seemingly frail figure, nevertheless energized with a burning spiritual intensity : part Nephilim waif, part killer priest. (The first time we heard her DJ, she launched into her set with music from the Islamic State.) Live, she improvises, murmurs and sobs over glitchily pastoral electronic clouds. But […]
CPLX 4 : MC Bicho Bicha – Batidas de Animismo Futuro
A spectre is haunting the Anthropocene. The spectre of the Caribou Man. Kanipinikassikueu, who abandons the world of men to marry a wild creature of the forest, and who becomes humanity’s shape-shifting go-between, ambassador to the deep woods. It is the Caribou Master who provides the hunter with his catch. If negotiated with, with respect. […]
CPLX 3 : River of Electrons – Box
The fountainhead of the River of Electrons is a Groovesizer MK1, the eponymous “Box”, that the artist received as a present for Christmas in 2016. At the heart of the Groovesizer is a primitive Arduino board. It was made by another Brasília-based artist, Hieronimus do Vale, based on an open-sourced design and software developed by […]
CPLX 2 : Victor Hugo – LÁARÒYÈ EXU! EXU MO JÚBÀ!
Given that Exu has a sometimes fearsome reputation, Victor Hugo’s invocation of the Orixá is remarkable for its economy and subtlety. Even though the music contains expected elements such as drumming, ritual incantations and bursts of electronic noise, there is little bombast or gratuitous “exoticism”. Rather, this music is an efficient, functional mechanism to open […]
CPLX 1 : Biophillick – Mono Solar
The Mexican artist Biophillick has been in Brasilia for a relatively short time, but has already established himself in the city through a number of performances and exhibitions. Click a random link on his web-site or SoundCloud and you may catch a burst of brutal techno or blissful vaporous sampledelia, suggesting either a refugee from […]