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Fingers in the socket

Sperm fest aims to procreate new electronic hybrids

By James Scanlon
For The Prague Post
February 21st, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Along with laptops, Mouse on Mars is bringing its homemade electronics.
If there’s one genre of music that still has potential for massive development, it’s electronic music. The second installment of the Sperm Festival not only celebrates this, but merges live electronic music with the latest trends and advances in VJ (video jockey) technology and groundbreaking audiovisual art.
The festival got under way earlier this week with interactive installations, workshops and performances, mostly at Roxy NoD. It culminates Saturday with a four-floor music and cinema blowout at Abaton. Headliners include the German electronic outfit Mouse on Mars, UK Warp Records maestro Chris Clark and U.S. electronic music impresario Daedelus, who describes his sound as hip-hop-tronic-disco-nujack.
The Mouse on Mars duo, Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner, aims to thrill with mind-twisting tracks like “Chartnok,” “Igoegowhygowego,” “Retphrase” and “Duul,” all culled from their latest album, Varcharz. Initially inspired by krautrock exponents like Can and Neu!, as well as electro-pioneers Kraftwerk, Mouse on Mars has been busy breaking all the rules of electronica since its first tentative steps on terra firma back in 1993. Nine albums down the line, the duo has gone back to the future with Varcharz, which marks a return to their earlier, more jagged experimental side.
Sperm Festival

When: Saturday, Feb. 24, beginning at 7
Where: Abaton
Tickets: 465 Kč through Ticketpro and at the venue
For more information, check www.sperm.cz

Like quite a few of the players at Sperm, Mouse on Mars has taken a step back from the digital laptop and is using more analog equipment. Toma and St. Werner will be bringing their own instruments to Prague, a collection likely to include homemade efforts like wooden boxes stuffed with microphones.
“We are more flexible to go different ways with this setup and present the more harsh and club-friendly side of the band,” St. Werner says. “We chop up the songs more radically to construct new songs.”
Clark stays true to the original Warp Records sound, which made it a much sought-after label in the United Kingdom a decade or so ago. Clark’s latest project involves performing on a laptop computer with a live drummer at his side. Call it space-age hip-hop, or just a slice of old-fashioned percussion.
One of the main aims of the “Sperm Cinema” program is to upgrade the artistic credibility of the underrated VJ Aviorama and Black Box from Germany’s DS-X organization, which lean heavily on the artistic side of audiovisuals — as does, to some extent, Antenna UK, whose so-called “4th Installment” will contain music videos from the likes of the Chemical Brothers and, rather surprisingly, some guitar-twangers.
But the one to really keep a hallucinatory eye out for is “Pixel Pirate 2” from Austria. Around 300 movies have literally been shredded and put back together in a cut-and-paste frenzy. Expect to see an intoxicating, incongruous mix of Elvis Presley, the Hulk and Rambo.
Be bold and adventurous going to this event, and be forewarned: Anybody seen not experiencing positive vibes is likely to be ejaculated from the premises.

James Scanlon can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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