Watching one person build a song in real time out of loops, without it collapsing, is a specific kind of tension that recordings cannot reproduce — every layer has to land or the whole thing falls apart in front of everybody. That is the entire premise here: a Texas musician surrounded by hardware, constructing bright, propulsive instrumental pop live rather than triggering it. The songs are melodic enough to work as pop and repetitive enough to work as dance music, which is a narrow place to stand. He has been doing it long enough that the failures no longer happen and the crowd has stopped expecting them. Highland Park's upstairs hall has the ceiling and the floor for it. Music at 8:00 PM at 104 N Avenue 56, a Saturday. Live-looping shows draw the people who make music themselves, and that crowd asks better questions afterward.
Watching one person build a song in real time out of loops, without it collapsing, is a specific kind of tension that recordings cannot reproduce — every layer has to land or the whole thing falls apart in front of everybody. That is the entire premise here: a Texas musician surrounded by hardware, constructing bright, propulsive instrumental pop live rather than triggering it. The songs are melodic enough to work as pop and repetitive enough to work as dance music, which is a narrow place to stand. He has been doing it long enough that the failures no longer happen and the crowd has stopped expecting them. Highland Park's upstairs hall has the ceiling and the floor for it. Music at 8:00 PM at 104 N Avenue 56, a Saturday. Live-looping shows draw the people who make music themselves, and that crowd asks better questions afterward.
Watching one person build a song in real time out of loops, without it collapsing, is a specific kind of tension that recordings cannot reproduce — every layer has to land or the whole thing falls apart in front of everybody. That is the entire premise here: a Texas musician surrounded by hardware, constructing bright, propulsive instrumental pop live rather than triggering it. The songs are melodic enough to work as pop and repetitive enough to work as dance music, which is a narrow place to stand. He has been doing it long enough that the failures no longer happen and the crowd has stopped expecting them. Highland Park's upstairs hall has the ceiling and the floor for it. Music at 8:00 PM at 104 N Avenue 56, a Saturday. Live-looping shows draw the people who make music themselves, and that crowd asks better questions afterward.