Ive decided to give up on electronic music, a friend recently told me as we were talking about its apparent decline. No one uses analog equipment anymore, nothing sounds fresh. The last truly great album I heard was Deeparture in Time. I directed him to check out two things: Ex Machina, Aril Brikhas follow-up to the aforementioned, and The Last Resort, by Poker Flats Trentemøller. Anders Trentemøller, whose remixes of Röyksopp and Moby, among others, have kept him in high demand as a live artist, makes deceptively minimalist tech-house: his complex soundscapes are constantly retooled and reworked (there are at least three versions of the lead track Moan), yet the extensive work that goes into the songs (and, by default, live performances) makes them seem surprisingly simple. Trentemøllers works belie a microcosm of sounds that, despite their repetition, never seem fully synchronous; a subtle change in pattern is blended immediately into a flurry of synth loops and raging bass. Seattleites burnt out on stale four-on-the-floor beats, and those looking to rejuvenate their interest in electronic, wont want to skip this one. With Abstract Soul.
Mon., Oct. 8, 8 p.m., 2007
