Aphex Twin Aphex Twin + Hecker in Cracow, Day 1

Ive just come back and its midnight, but just to give you a brief overview how it went :).

First to the venue, it was outstanding. Its a huge post-industrial hall, with rusted elements on the walls, lots of stairs, old plates, hooks, etc. To get there (as its in the middle of working steel factory) they took us with the buses through the factory, crossing lots of rails, along many old industrial buildings etc.

What was interesting, was, that they have played within the crowd, in the center of the room. RDJ up on the platform, approx 5 meters above the crowd, while Hecker on the floor below, doing his noise stuff. The whole room was literally surrounded with speakers. From what I have heard and partially counted, there were more than 10 sound systems surrounding the place. And this was listenable during the gig. I was simply drowned in sound. The floor was vibrating, as it was composed from tiles joined together.

Sorry to say, but in Poland these guys are barely (visually) recognizable, so I had to LITERALLY halt RDJ with my hands while he was trying to get to the platform, to help some nice lady to get the autograph. He initially was reluctant to this idea, but eventually did it! (and i will get a copy of that :)). RDJ was simply approaching the platform through the waiting crowd and noone except just few freaks like myself did recognize him. Obviously Florian Hecker had even easier situation :).

Grant from Replhex was doing support throwing some less or more dancey tunes.

But the set began, and it was IMHO a huge shift in recent RDJ gigs. There were some rumours prior the gig that tonight it meant to be more ambient, while tomorrow more rave. And it confirmed to some extend. They start playing deep ambient stuff, lots of bleeps, strange noises, Hecker was doing his stuff a lot in the beginning. Then it took more rhytmic route, to eventually end up with some hardcore noise. After 10-15 minutes of that barely listenable stuff they got back to ambient, to end up with some soothing stuff for a goodnight. Actually from some point Florian had not much to do but sipping a glass of wine with a sound technician :). Lightworks were amazing. Unfrotunately I would not count on many video recordings (nnot to mention some good quality and lengthy ones) as there were lots of security staff around, and they were fairly quickly catching all the ppl trying even to shoot some poor photos with cellphones.

After set ended there was a bit of silence but just a bit followed by a storm of claps. RDJ was apparently quite pleased because he was smiling while going down from the platform. This time several ppl tried to get to him, and some even shook his hand, but security guys were already there, so he left the place very quickly.

I had a chance to have a short chat with Grant when he was packing some of his stuff. Asked about the Tuss we still claims its Briand and Karen Tregaskin. Overall all of these guys despite the status they got in our IDM world seems to be very modest and nice to talk. Grant confirmed tomorrow is more a rave stuff, so probably more mainstream ppl will be satisfied.

I do have a full recording of that (including Grants warmup) , but its pretty poor quality wise (96kbps, 16kHz, mono mp3). There are some nice parts, but in many places sound of recording is just killed by all those soundsystems around :) I might have post it, but after relisten on the computer.

One more interesting thing. They had a rehearsal a day before but obviously with some other tracks/mashups. And no obscure videos this time :).

Overall this was my first time with RDJ live, and im satisfied as hell. Tomorrow will be second :). Stay tuned.

Thanks, nice writeup.

interesting report. post updates plz.

  On 9/19/2009 at 5:02 AM, sneaksta303 said:

interesting report. post updates plz.

One more thing, i heard at least 2-3 'riffs' from SAWII (i dont recall yet from which exact tracks). Also some Druqks classic/ambient tracks riffs, all deeply buried under layers and layers of noise :).

I have listened to my recording, and while its entirely broken at some places, there are some that are [barely] listenable, so probably will post it today in the afternoon (if have a chance prior the 2nd gig).

After reactions on Polish last.fm shoutbox for Sacrum PRofanum I can say, than to my surprise, despite a pretty hardcore style of the gig yesterday, most of the fans are pretty satisfied. IT WAS DIFFERENT from what we used to hear from him these days. We are happy to have witnessed something a bit less dancey, and harder to take.

For dancey stuff there is today :).

  On 9/19/2009 at 6:48 AM, tomaswoj said:

  On 9/19/2009 at 5:02 AM, sneaksta303 said:

interesting report. post updates plz.

One more thing, i heard at least 2-3 'riffs' from SAWII (i dont recall yet from which exact tracks).

at about 0:20 seconds in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ThNAGPQlo

Some nice photos on that page: http://www.sacrumprofanum.pl/pl/4/0/150/laserowoambientowe-show-aphex-twina

Light works were amazing. I was near to this platform in the middle and it was so intense there.

So here it comes. Im playing my debts to this forum, for your pleasure (happy first 10 ones, i can upload it to downloads if moderators allow):

http://rapidshare.com/files/282267132/DJ_Rephlex_AT_Hecker_at_SacrumProfanum09_day1.mp3.html

Its at some places quite poor (like between 100 and 130 minute where most of the noise/hardcore stuff was played) but more ambient places are listenable :).

Im looking forward to your impressions :). Greets to all the ones that reach the angelic voices at the end.

Now I gotta run for day 2!

ps1. Aphex+Hecker start at approx minute 50 (hard to tell a bit for me :))

ps2. around 154:40 it would be me :)

  On 9/19/2009 at 6:47 PM, tomaswoj said:

 

Thanks for posting, shame about the quality, it was obviously very loud. Think the link is dead now.

upnij to jeszcze raz jakbyś mógł

  On 9/20/2009 at 6:52 PM, Indicator said:

upnij to jeszcze raz jakbyś mógł

tylko załóż darmowe konto wpierw

or maybe someone who downloaded it can upload it somewhere

really nice report, Now I love to see that autograph

Great report! How was night 2?

  On 9/19/2009 at 12:20 PM, PhonicBoyOnDope said:

  On 9/19/2009 at 6:48 AM, tomaswoj said:

  On 9/19/2009 at 5:02 AM, sneaksta303 said:

interesting report. post updates plz.

One more thing, i heard at least 2-3 'riffs' from SAWII (i dont recall yet from which exact tracks).

 

at about 0:20 seconds in

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ThNAGPQlo

Isn't that clip at 0:20 from the last track on Surfing On Sine Waves? Quino-phec? Sounds dope whatever it is. Visuals look cool, too. Kinda like the ones from Summersonic.

sounds amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9eroYZLa3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9640DY83O1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u0shpgUeQk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0We0JDS9gc

Here comes the whole audio from day1 I got. Aphex starts approx in min 40. Sorry for bad quality.

http://soundcloud.com/tomaswoj/dj-rephlex-at-hecker-at-sacrumprofanum09-day1

Can anyone ID the track at around 42 mins? the qual is obviously terrible, but would like to know.

Hi again. Here comes day 2 recording (but the quality is even worse, than for day1, so for desperates only :)):

As talking about impressions, day 2 seemed to more resemble 'standard Aphex Twin gig'. It was ultra-brutal at some points, but also had some highlights, like Stones in focus at the very beginning or Vorshobn. Unfortunately i think it was also much louder than on day 1, however the guys that did this marvelous multipart video from day2 reported, that it was much quieter just in front of the scene.

Scene was in a standard location this time, and the platform from day 1 was decomposed. What was left, was a standard sound technicsian equipment. Hecker was playing from there. All the displays were moved to the main scene.

Laserworks were even better than on day 1. This time a suprise was, that there were mirrors on lengthy sticks, all round the audience, and lasers at some point created a cage over the crowd, re-configuring itself to the rythm. All in all, lasers and lightworks were the highlights, excluding music of course. Visualizations were so-so, quite similar to day1. And they were quite disturbing at the end, with animal slaughtery, cuting the dead body of a man and eventually those hardcore japanese porn films that we used to see over last few gigs. Many ppl were leaving the show when these videos started.

One interesting thing, is that at some point we could see some private Richard photos being heavily manipulated by the VJ. So we could see for example his high school ID, or his picture with Hecker, and a table full of empty beer bottles :).

The gig ended, and most of the ppl were leaving, but some of us stayed in front of the scene, and spotted Grant, just behind the table, where RDJ had his stuff, sitting and chatting with someone, and having a smoke. As we expected, there was also RDJ hiding, so at some point, when he stood up to gather some of his equipment, to his surprise he saw approx 50 ppl staring at him (and in a second greeting him and yielding his name). I managed to take a blurry photo of him, which i will post soon :) Also a thing to note, is that during most of the hardest parts of this set RDJ was very actively nodding his head to the music, something that we did not use to see recently.

After few minutes security guys started to pushing us out of the venue. I managed to have a handshake with Florian on my way to the exit. Seemed quite surprised that someone approached him.

There was an official festival after party, with an invite only part. From what I know, RDJ and Florian attended. It was on the first floor, while on the base floor there was a regular, open after party. RDJ went down, and spend there a while. My friend's wife had a chat with him. From what I have read on one of the forums, one of the famous polish celebrities (Kinga Rusin, google for it :)) tried to pick Richard up :).

To sum up, day 1 was the highlight for me. It was more unpredictable, while day 2 was a standard 'rave-like' set. But obviously its a matter of taste :).

nvm

my stones are in focus alrite

  On 9/21/2009 at 11:19 PM, tomaswoj said:

during most of the hardest parts of this set RDJ was very actively nodding his head to the music, something that we did not use to see recently.

tell me more -- i need details -- chart wizard shit would be great.

slightly better

you can actually hear something other than corrupted bass