Airdrop Records, Agency & Blog

Text : Chinua Green | April 25, 2010

The Electrónica en Abril (Electronic in April) Festival is an annual electronic multimedia exhibition that assaults the Spanish metropolis of Madrid for one weekend in the first full month of spring (this year it was the 16-18 April). Electrónica en Abril takes place in La Casa Encendida (literally, ‘The Lighted House’), a bank-financed, community-oriented contemporary arts centre. Here, madrileños and visitors with an appetite for the avant-garde can run across anything from a modern art exhibit to a painting workshop for the physically disabled.

That being said, it comes as no surprise that the minds behind EeA are building a reputation for cherry-picking international artists who try to push the electronic envelope, so to speak. The festival, having just completed its eighth year, has in past editions invited the likes of Kode9 and the Spaceape, Non Standard Institute (Max Loderbauer & Tobias Freund), Ghislain Poirier, Shakleton, The Field, and The Bug.

Now before you get too excited, I will be upfront and mention that this year’s festival was one of the many victims of Eyjafjöll’s threatening volcanic ash clouds. Approximately half of the original line-up was unable to make it to Spain. I never intended on attending Friday’s show in any event, but Saturday night suffered. Berlin’s improv-meister Guido Möbius and the micro-rhythmic Aoki Takamasa (based in Paris) weren’t even able to snag a train down south in time for their performances. Lyricist Sensational was not present to accompany his partner, Spectre, onstage, which left the DJ/producer to improvise with no MC to liven up a confused-enough audience. Someone, be it the A/V crew or Spectre himself, was witty enough to unearth some footage of ice-capped volcanic peaks spewing huge clouds to project onto the oversize backdrop during Spectre’s half-show— a silver screen-sized white flag.

Spectre

However, replacements Debilorithmicos had a stellar one-hour set. The Barcelonan duo dexterously drifted through gritty hip-hop, 80’s reggae cuts, dancehall a cappellas and good helpings of dubstep wobble as if they had been booked for the show weeks in advance instead of what was surely hours. I was pleasantly surprised by their selection as well as by LCE’s ability to partially make up for the gaping Dubstep / Hip-Hop / Urban void that was ripped open by the Icelandic glacial volcano, as I feel it would have been far easier for them to conjure up a 4×4 DJ.

Nevertheless, I must point out the sound system chronically malfunctioned throughout the entire weekend, particularly the microphones. I also believe that the event organizers could have been clearer about informing the public of the schedule changes, as they announced Sunday’s changes on Saturday night at the venue but didn’t act accordingly on their Twitter account or website.

Christian Vogel

On Sunday night I caught techno veteran Cristian Vogel’s 10 o’clock set, a clear highlight in a topsy-turvy festival. Like Debilorithmicos, Vogel was schlepped in at the last moment from Barcelona. The Chilean-born DJ oozed lush, organic, looming sounds from his time-coded vinyl setup. To the disappointment of some, the 4×4 kick drum sections of his set were few, fleeting, and ended abruptly. About one-fifth of the crowd had left at least fifteen minutes early. An Austrian art major with whom I was chatting stormed out of the room, muttering that she can DJ better than Vogel. They were expecting a party, but Vogel was not even entertaining the idea. Instead, eyes trained on his computer and turntables, he tried to create an hour of tension, with sounds that swelled and dissipated like the prohibited clouds of smoke in the performance room. I won’t be as naïve as to say that Vogel was a master of his own abstractions at all times, but perhaps a keener audience would have made his moments of clarity more apparent. In this case, it seems, Madrid’s avant-garde crowd seemed more complacent with last-minute schedule changes than with an experimental performance.