I'm getting back into American Idol again, after missing five or six weeks worth of it. The Jennifer Hudson controversy is interesting, but only because the THREE best competitors ended up in the bottom three. Otherwise, this exact same thing happened with Canadian Idol, and Ruben ended up in the bottom three at around the same point last season. Jennifer could sing, that's for sure, but her personality and looks did nothing for me so I'm not particularly sad to see her go. Yes, that's a terribly sexist thing to say through words on my website high horse, but pretending that looks don't matter in a pop music competition would be even more ignorant, yes? Anyhow, I'm just one person, but obviously the voting masses have spoken, so either Jennifer's popularity had waned or her supporters figured it was in the bag and didn't bother voting (same with Fantasia's people AND Latoya's people ... a fascinating sociological study, if nothing else, damn, this web page is just full of them this week :) ).

Gloria Estefan was introduced as the queen of Latin pop, with over 70 million records sold in her career. Wait, I thought Ricky Martin invented Latin music at the 1999 Grammys? I guess not ... anyhow, last night many contestants seemed a bit off. The Latin rhythms are generally fast, and the vocal lines are filled with fast passages and a lot of notes. This leaves little space for the Whitney/Mariah histrionic trills that everyone from the auditions to the finals feels they need to throw in to showcase the versatility of their voice. Thus, all these R&B adorers are straightjacketed because they only have space to sing the notes as they are written, and without an obvious spot to wantonly show off their range they're a bit lost and their performances fall flat. Reviewing the remaining Idol hopefuls:

Fantasia . With Jennifer gone, Fantasia is the only logical winner. I'm no big fan of Macy Gray either, but Fantasia can sing, she's got personality leaking from every pore, and she's adorable.

George . The competitors and the judges clearly like his talent, energy, and obvious amiability, but he has yet to really bring the goods with his performances. He hasn't shown up with a blowaway performance to really put his stamp down on the competition. From the outset of the finals, he certainly appeared to be a top five or six level talent, but he's been treading water since then vocally.

John . He's somehow managed to get this far, and he manages to survive through tonight then he's officially got more lives than a cat. It was readily apparent that a Latin night would completely expose him as a one-dimensional crooner, and it did. He tried to expose his complete lack of stage presence by doing something downtempo, but he still couldn't pull it off. Get this guy four more months of sing and dance lessons and repackage him as Rick Astley 2004. In that sense, I'm kind of hoping for him to continue on, because there's money in a GQ-ed teen crooner, but he'll likely need to finish higher for someone to take a chance with him.

Jasmine . No Randy, it was Jasmine, not John, who had the worst pitch of the night. For my money, she should be next to go.

La Toya . All sing, no charm. The judges think so too, and I can't imagine that it's escaped the voters either. She'd better get a personality transplant, stat, because when John and Jasmine are gone, she'll be left with three sparkplugs and then it'll be quite blatant who the boring one is. She's also a lot older than the others, and it shows. I hate to label a 25-year old woman as old, but it is 2004, and there aren't many 25-year olds on the charts, and none that I can think of that didn't establish themselves before that age.

Diana . Blew away everyone last night with room to spare. She 16, and she looks it, she's bubbly, she's playfully immature, she got baby fat all over. There's nothing wrong with any of that, although if she got a record deal you just know she'd be doing the Hillary Duff "ooh, don't look at me in that way you naughty boy, even though I am being so ditzy and giggly in my tight white top" routine within six months.

International Festival Musique Actuelle. Wow.

I first heard about this festival a couple of years ago via an ad in Grooves Magazine, and I even alluded to it in the preamble to my MUTEK diary last year (re: going to "avant-garde" festivals, I was rambling (which was the point of that preamble) and couldn't remember the name).

At least I think it was Grooves, because the lineup more accurately suits the tastes of Wire, i.e. improvised music (including jazz), noise, and freeform electronics. Anyhow, IFMA is considerably more expensive than MUTEK (Passports are 2 X) higher, but the lineups are consistently top-notch and you have the option of CAMPING there in Victoriaville. Glasto for improv freaks? Obviously, my mission is clear : start making proper money so I can go to IFMA, and then continue on to MUTEK the weekend after, which is a two week music-laden vacation that would be difficult to top.

What's so special about this year's festival?
1. Acid Mothers Temple. Japan freakout psychonoise YEAH!
2. Derek Bailey and John Zorn need little introduction (in the sense that their work is so well known, even though I have heard almost none of it and am badly in need of an introduction in the musical sense).
3. Han Bennink! Dutch drum abuser extraordinaire.
4. Sam Shalabi, Fly Pan Am, Morceau de Machines (mainstays of the Montreal improv scene)
5. Pita, Tina Frank and FENNESZ (mainstays of the Vienna improv scene). And Fennesz is performing twice!! Once solo, and once in collaboration with Oren Ambarchi, Keith Rowe, and Toshimaru Nakamura, which should be out of this world.

A comforting symbol : the CBC logo is all over the website and schedule, suggesting that CBC radio will be taping and hopefully even broadcasting some of the shows.

I thought Death in Vegas were supposed to be a patchy live band? Huh? Because what I've been hearing (or rather, downloading), they ROCK LIKE MAD. Which begs the question, can you go wrong with multiple drummers? There's DIV and DM (mid-90's onward) giving their live shows a major adrenaline boost by featuring live drums over canned beats. There's the double drummer attack of the Fall, the Warlocks, and even the country-fied live edition of Toronto's Polmo Polpo. Multiple drummers rule. Is there an exception? Double guitars or keyboards can and do suck under some circumstances, I can envision two bassists not working out (although this is also nearly a sure bet, i.e. the Fall (again), Killing Joke, Trane Live at the Village Vanguard), but two drummers? Never. Ever?

At the Berlin Krafterk show, the cheers during the opening of "Autobahn" were enormous. In Toronto, the reaction was also energetic, but it is arguably Kraftwerk's best known song, so that's somewhat expected. In Berlin it was something different, something I don't think foreigners (like me) can completely appreciate. Because it's not MY highway. There is a lot to be proud of -- for at a time when Germany was overrun with British and American culture, Kraftwerk broke the mold by being a German band with a German name, singing in German about German things. But this bit of sociology is lost on many people who went to gigs in either city, so it's more than just having been there to appreciate the significance of the song. This home country advantage, isn't even something one could consciously put their finger on, for it's not like a Berliner could, even in principle, answer the question "so, were you cheering so loudly because you were paying homage to the sociological significance of Kraftwerk's trumpeting of German culture in the face of Anglophone cultural saturation, of was there another reason"?

Think about The Tragically Hip's "Fifty Mission Cap". If you aren't from Canada, you probably don't know the song. If you are, but aren't from Ontario, you probably don't give a crap about it.

The last goal he ever scored
won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another until 1962,
the year he was discovered.

Non-hockey fans won't even understand what the paragraph means. Why do people in Southern Ontario get such a kick from those lines? What is it about a song that cites a Leafs win? You could spend hours explaining the Ontarian hockey cult to a non-Canadian, even a non-Canadian Hip fan (if there are any) and they'd never quite get it. This is the best comparison to the "Autobahn effect" I could come up with (that, and Stompin' Tom's backcatalogue).

I just finished listening to Broken Social Scene's "Beehives", and allow me to say, DAMN, that's gotta be the best stopgap before the next album odds-n-sods compilation I've ever heard. For those who prefer the straight ahead rock approach of "You Forgot It In People" and felt as though that album was a bit to the left of their rock centre, "Beehives" may be a bit boring for you. But if you like rock + ambient electronic in the style of Slowdive's "Pygmalion", get this record. It's also got a fantastic reworking of "Lover's Spit" with Feist on vocals, and with "Backyards", they've made a track that puts everything on Pluramon's "Dreams Top Rock" and Guitar's "Sunkissed" completely to shame.

I picked up Appliance's 2003 release, "Are You Earthed?", which begs the question "why can't Stereolab sound like this these days?". I missed the Toronto Stereolab gig while away in Germany, and heard good things about it from the friends who did go. Stereolab remain awesome live, but unfortunately their records aren't worth the effort to me anymore.

The Appliance album is 25 % quirky, 25 % motorik, 25 % science pop and electronic squiggles, and 25 % phat groovy beats yo.

The studio version of Stereolab is stuck in a rut of 55 % quirky, 7 % motorik, 32 % science pop and electronic squiggles, and 5 % phat groovy beats yo. However, live Stereolab, despite playing almost the same songs, are 20 % quirky, 30 % motorik, 10 % science pop and electronic squiggles, and 40 % phat groovy beats yo.

The Toronto edition of Kraftwerk Live turned out to be even better than the Berlin one -- the whole show sounded tighter, with fewer down spots. I'm going to chalk it up to seeing the band's second show that night in Berlin, maybe they were tired. The speakers in Ricoh Coliseum are amazing, the pound and kick from them made otherwise missable songs such as "Expo 2000" sound exalted. Having said that, the overall experience of seeing the band was better in Berlin, because the venue was smaller (read: music and crowd was louder), I was far closer to the front (although sitting comfortably through a gig with an unobstructed view is a nice change once a while), and I was continually occupied with thoughts of "lordy, I can't believe I'm seeing Kraftwerk in Berlin and why are those echo signals depolarized so much by those misaligned waveplates, anyway"?.

An equally big moment in techno occurred this week with the release of the (almost) complete schedule for MUTEK 2004. Without delving into philosophical considerations, I was on the fence about going this year mainly due to a lack of a) time, and b) money. Then, the email with the schedule highlights sent to the MUTEK mailing list a week or so ago pushed me to the "stay home" side. The treats seemed many, but the deja vu feeling was strong.

-- I didn't realize that Richie Hawtin hadn't performed as Plastikman for nearly ten years. So that would mean that I saw one of his last performances at a rave in 1995. And half of his show last year was "Closer" material.
-- "A rare North American performance by Ricardo Villalobos", yes, rare everywhere except for MUTEK, where he has performed four times in the last three years.
-- Crackhaus (seen them), Herbert (seen him many times, including twice at MUTEK), Ilpo Vaisannen (saw him in Pan(a)sonic 1.05 times, once in 1997 and for a few minutes in 2000 before they packed up and went home because the venue wasn't loud enough. Since I doubt the Toronto promoters are too happy with him because of this, leaving the city to hear him again is a necessary condition), , , , , ,
... and more artists I wouldn't skip town for, plus many I would but I've seen already ... now for the full schedule ...

It's a bit pared down this year, although that Sunday daytime vacancy is a bit deceiving at first glance (more on this later). The chances of eating proper meals this year appears greater.

Ex-Centris 1. Chessmachine sounds intruiging, and I do love me those Ex-Centris experimental evenings.

Nocturne 1. The IDM/beatfusion/newstyleromanticfunkpop catchphrases don't perk me up to any significant degree, but that certainly can't be said for the RETURN OF SAT TO THE MUTEK VENUE AGENDA. Awesome.

Experience 1. I don't know Thinkbox Collective, but SAT in the afternoon + Free show is a sure bet.

Ex-Centris 2. This looks amazing, with the always dependable David Kristian, mayhem and noise from Vaisannen and Austria's Pure (!wow!).

Nocturne 2. Raster-Noton takes over with a lineup that wouldn't have looked out of place at MUTEK 2000. I should mention that two days into this schedule and already about five MUTEK alumni will have played, with another three after day three, and so on.

Experience 2. Poor Mike Shannon and Jay Hunsberger were the emerging stars on a SAT afternoon two years ago as well.

Metropolis 1. Plastikman, saw him in 1995, saw Richie last year, and at HMV a few weeks ago, yada yada ... BUT THIS TIME HE'S THE ONLY ARTIST ON THE SCHEDULE. This can't be, can it? There'll have to be a DJ or two to open for him, but that'll still mean 3-4 hours of Plastikman! With that kind of time to kill, will he raid his entire backcatalogue? Richie loves long sets. This just got 200 % more attractive.

Experience 3. An enticing afternoon, a true mixed bag of beats of all sorts, including another exclusive, Vaisannen's Angel project!

Metropolis 2. Here's why there's nothing happening on the Sunday: this is an all-night event! Genius!

Finale. Where's Villalobos on this schedule? Is he making a "surprise" appearance sometime on the final night? And what better way to help close down MUTEK than a collaboration between Burnt Friedman and MF'IN JAKI LIEBEZEIT. JAKI = MONEY.

Speaking of money, where did all of mine go?

Back from Germany, to a country that seems a lot more boring all of a sudden.

As expected, I utterly dominated at Dense a couple of weekends ago, walking out with about ten CD's, most of them of experimental/noise music. The bargain box is stashed away underneath the other racks, so don't miss it (even though it's not in a prominent location by the cash as it was before).
Q. You are in a Berlin music shop which is known (firsthand) to ooze and sweat awesomeness. You see a CD by a band you have never heard of. It is by the "Norwegian Noise Ensemble", and is a live recording by a FIFTEEN member collective. Viewed in the context of its miniscule price of five Euros, can this CD possibly suck?
A. No, it is impossible for this CD to suck.

.... and it is, in fact, quite amazing, a one-track seventy minute blast of pure insanity from start to finish.

I wrote previously about subsisting on my slsk "acquirements" once I tired of the CD's I brought (and even before I tired of them, heh) but there was one CD that went unlistened to right up until midway through the plane ride home. Yep, it's the CD that went unheard by mine ears for fifteen years. There never seemed to be a proper listening environment for it during my weeks there (excuses, always more excuses) but finally, five hours into a trans-Atlantic flight, with my computer battery running low (I was doing work, honest!), most of the plane sleeping off their lunch and their jetlag from the bright sun peeking in through the window covers, I FINALLY HEARD THE CURE'S DISINTEGRATION. Magic. Duh.

I see no reason why German bands such as Wir Sind Helden ( = We Are Heroes) could not have hits in English-speaking countries. Singing in German. What is it exactly about singing in English that has become a prerequisite for being taken seriously in music? American and British bands have huge hits in Germany -- among kids who have barely begun learning English and cannot understand the words. Isn't music (or at least *some* music) supposed to transcend language barriers without resorting to Macarena-style novelty (by novelty, I mean the perception in the English world, which is generally blind to all non-English hitmakers).

But that last sentence is telling ... there's nothing particular about Germany, surely there is no reason that French or Chinese or Hungarian bands couldn't have also big hits in North America or the UK or Germany. But you don't see French bands on MTV Germany. They play the usual (primarily American) hitmakers, plus their own countrypeople, just like France (I'm sure) and Canada (even though English is spoken in Canada). Once you satisfy CanCon (or DeutschCon or equivalent) plus the tastes for worldwide hitmakers, there can't be room for much else. Playlists can only be so big.

It seems as though every day night brings with it a new nominee for the title of "longest day ever". If it wasn't for all the new music I've procured via $0u1$33k, I'd probably have gone completely mental by now. The long hours, many of them by myself, spent waiting for scans to finish (I'm fourteen hours into the latest such marathon) and the overwhelming boredom of all that time alone would have sent me running for the nearest loony bin (and I'm working in the sticks, so it would have been a long run). Instead, I have an endless supply of mp3's, a fridge stocked with food and beer, and one of the greatest music threads ever to keep me company.

This ILM thread was one of most entertaining (and rapidly expanding) music "discussions" I've ever seen. Wickedly funny, artistically embarrassing (at times), and more addictive than crack.

On more serious notes, a couple of interesting file-sharing stories were released. The Canadian "file sharing is not illegal" ruling even made the NME's news banner. Of course, Canadians are taxed on all blank media whether they are used for legal or "illegal" downloading/copying, in other words, the industry assumes that everyone is going to download and just takes its royalties regardless of whether that blank CD will hold music or Worddocs. However, that doesn't seem to have been a primary issue in this particular judgement.

A study out of UNC and the Harvard Business School concluded that "illegal" downloading aids music sales. I've been writing and saying that for years, as have many other people, so hopefully there will be more follow-up studies that concur. These researchers understand that downloading creates new music fans. The math can be so simple. If you start out with 10 music fans, and two of them go download crazy and stop buying music, then according to the RIAA, that's a 20% drop in sales. They choose to ignore the benefits -- the ease of downloading and word of mouth pub it generates can easily turn 10 music fans into 20 music fans. That's twice as many people who are into music than before, twice as many people who could buy music and go to concerts and buy magazines and surf music websites. Obviously if downloading is so rampant, it means that the number of music lovers is growing. Any industry would kill for that kind of interest (not to mention that sort of attention from a youth demographic).

I don't want to beat a horse than I beat to death many moons ago and is now decomposing in a field somewhere. Screw the RIAA and let's leave it at that. If you'll pardon me, I'm going to return to my morning wake-up call of Arvo Part while the sun blinds me through a nearby window.

It seems as though I've spent the whole day on the S + U Bahn, which ordinarily would mean it was a trying day. However, I put my personal urban decay soundtrack to good use (Plastikman's "Closer") and it made all the different. Minimal, creeped out bassbin shakers roll by as the train, whose wheels make nearly no sound as they scrape along the tracks, floats by endless walls of fat-lettered graffiti, run down housing developments that nearly resemble mini shanty towns; and aisles of thin, flat warehouses lined up barrack-style.

And I am proud to report that the rumours of Dense's demise were greatly exaggerated. It's still there, and I don't know how I missed it the first time. A visit during opening hours is sure to follow.