VURBan Legends

Lace 'em up, Freestyle

Publication title: Vue Weekly
Publication date: October 14, 1999
Document type: Opinion
Article author: Dave Johnston
Transcribed by: MW

Most electronic acts depend on a fat bottom end, a ton of technological gear and a wealth of engaging visuals to propel their live shows. Last week's Chemical Brothers show in Calgary was a powerful example of how engaging and entertaining the combination can be.

Vancouver's Lace is no different. He arrived on the scene in the early '90s, and his inventive live performances inspired a steady buzz across Canada, especially over the past year. Last spring, he stunned audiences at the Funtazia party at Edmonton's Municipal Airport with an intense combination of computer-driven beats and projections acting in sync.

If you missed Lace's recent appearance at the Power Plant, it would be wise to poke your head in at the Freestyle event at the Shaw Conference Centre this Saturday. Using a huge projection screen and a dual-platform computer system, Lace assembles satirical slogans, infomercial footage and news clips on the fly while also tweaking out tracks like "Sexy Kitty" and “Spy Girl" on his battery of keyboards and mixers.

Lace's best performances from the past few years have been compiled on Live Non Stop, which was released through Vancouver-based Vu-Tag Records. The tracks originated at a variety of gigs throughout Canada, including the Limelight in Toronto and Montreal's Groove Society. Even without visuals, his music pounds, making funky nods toward old-school Detroit techno and epic progressive house. It's refreshingly original, to say the least.

In Live Non Stop's liner notes, Bradley Darren Shende writes that Lace "drank way too much coffee, worked too hard and didn't get out too much." Considering the rapturous nature of his music, it seems like the formula worked.

Also appearing at freestyle is Ezra 0.5, formerly known as Ezra G. In addition to being a killer drum 'n' bass DJ, as demonstrated on his recent swing through town as part of the Kung Fu Knowledge tour, he's also a technological whiz. His Los Angeles-based Sound Design Production company has pioneered the use of surround sound in live electronic music, and has been busy developing music DVDs that take advantage of the audio capabilities reserved for movie discs. The company produced the Parallel Universe tour for New Line Cinema a couple of years back, and has been licensed to create electronic soundtracks for martial arts trailers and films. Ezra himself has scored a number of film trailers, including Jackie Chan's Dragons Forever and Sammo Hung's Dreadnaught.

He will also be releasing material through the British drum 'n' bass label Techitch, founded by Technical Itch and Decoder. So it you think your kung fu is good, you'd better meet the master.


Mixed message

In a move to curb piracy and copy-right violations, police raided two Toronto record shops last week and charged five employees with fraud, seizing 6,000 cassette tapes in the process. What makes the situation interesting is that most of the tapes were DJ mixes, and the warrants were issued based on a joint application by Toronto police and the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

The raids came as a shock to the stores' employees, some of whom told the Toronto Star that the sale of such tapes has been going on for at least 10 years, and that they don't understand why the police and the CRIA would decide to clamp down on the practice now.

Local DJ Spilt Milk echoes that sentiment. What with the proliferation of downloadable digital music and CD burners, raiding and charging shops for selling cassette tapes seems like a desperate manoeuvre by an industry unable to deal with progress.

"I felt panic when I heard about it," says Spilt Milk, a party scene fixture and host of CJSR's Catch the Beat. "Mix tapes are a good way to promote yourself as a DI. It's usually how I get a lot of my gigs out of town."

Spilt Milk's tapes, as well as those by other DJs, have been available through local retail outlets for some time, but he says he doesn't make much money from them. Most of the time, the tapes are given to friends or sent out to promoters as a calling card. Making a mix tape is hardly a threat to the industry, he argues, because DJs often alter and recombine the tracks into something wholly original. Also, tapes degrade through repeated play and duplication, thus making tape piracy a dubious priority when compared to the newer technology of recordable CDs.

“By the time you make a third copy, the quality is so bad you wonder why you bothered," Spilt Milk explains. "With CDs, the quality is already perfect, and every copy you make onto another CD is going to be the same. Tapes don't offer that. There's so much hiss and tape noise.”

If anything, mix tapes offer record labels an excellent chance to introduce new music to audiences. Since many DJs play for hundreds of people a week, a label eager to break a new track can take advantage of the DJ network of mix tapes to create a buzz. Spilt Milk can understand why some companies get nervous when they see DJs putting brand-new commercial tracks on their cassettes, thus cheating the artist out of royalties. However, he thinks the labels have bigger problems to worry about, such as on-line piracy.

"The big American labels see themselves as losing a lot of money right now," he says. "They don't know what to do. It's possible that what happened in Toronto might be a warning."

As a result, Spilt Milk figures that his colleagues should be careful when issuing mix tapes, watching who they give their tapes to and being especially wary about who they allow to sell them.

"It means that DJs will have to put a bit more legwork into promoting themselves," he says. “They'll have to do it differently."

As for the record companies' claim that they're losing money through the sale of mix tapes, Spilt Milk politely scoffs. "I buy all my records. I may get a few for free sometimes, but they usually suck."


Breaks night broken

Last week, VURBan Legends closed off with a shout to Club and Event Security for procuring a breaks club night over at Platinum Nightclub on Sundays. Well, forget it, says Samson


SEE NEXT PAGE


VURBan Legends


Continued from previous page


Chui, head honcho at the local group. It didn't go that well, and the promotion was forced out into the cold, cold night.

The same goes for Elektroplant, Def Star Production's attempt to fire up Thursday nights over at the university Power Plant bar. In the face of heavy competition from both Lush's Chemistry night and Rebar's Hard Times main floor event, the bar's electronic music night cannot draw enough interested parties, and will wrap up at the end of the month.

On a lighter note, Tripswitch and Spilt Milk have found a new home at Rebar. They've decided to move their Solid Tuesdays from the Boiler Pub downtown to the upper floor of the Whyte Ave club, renaming the night Funky Habits. The duo will spin a mix of house and breaks with the help of a weekly roster of guests—both local talents and out-of-towners.

Maybe this time, our sleepy burg will wake up and realize that there's more to this city than rock 'n' roll and two-stepping. Best of luck, dudes.