The following is a Top Live Shows preview I wrote for the current issue (Nov. 1–7) of Time Out New York. The concert in question has been postponed indefinitely due to storm- and transit-related concerns, so I'll just post it here for the time being.
Aaron Dilloway/Jason Lescalleet
Bobby Redd Project Space; Sat 3When arts journalism is your bag, quoting other critics is a weak way to make your case. Then again, it’s hard to resist repeating what the redoubtable Bill Meyer wrote in his Dusted review of Grapes and Snakes, the new LP by avant-garde provocateurs Aaron Dilloway and Jason Lescalleet: “If used stereo components could scuttle under a table and hide, you’d see a lot of emptied shelves whenever either of these men walks towards the back of the Goodwill store.” His point is well-taken: For anyone put off by one too many gigs featuring inscrutable laptoppers who could be checking their e-mail onstage, know that Dilloway (ex–Wolf Eyes) and Lescalleet are supremely physical sound-surfers whose electric-junk performances partake of punk-rock aggression and guerilla-theater chaos.
Supremely well documented by the German label PAN, Grapes and Snakes is a tactile tour de force. Burbling analog synths get manhandled, magnetic tape gets stretched and, at one point, Godzilla gets strafed by flying saucers, or so it seems. The pair come to the collaboration in prime form, each having released an aesthetic-expanding, critic-wowing double album (Dilloway’s Modern Jester, Lescalleet’s Songs About Nothing) destined to be cited among the year’s top releases. In this rare Brooklyn outing, for which presenters promise ultra-high-fidelity sound, each will have a solo set before the inevitable clash of the titans.—Steve Smith
Nov. 4 addendum: Erstwhile Records proprietor Jon Abbey indicates that this show might arrive belatedly in January, date and location to be determined. Stay tuned.
Comments