[Igua] Mattin: Sonic Auslander

[altern]

me han pasado una review de un concierto de mattin en berlin.
la direccion original del blog
http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista

Fotos del concierto:
http://www.soundtransit.nl/mp3/macumba/mattin.ausland.sm.jpg

pense que era divertido asi que os lo pego aqui

:: Mattin: Sonic Auslander ::

Seems like the Basque "proletarian of noise" Mattin is getting press 
like mad these days. Is it because he's lived in all the right hotspots 
(London, Berlin...)? Or because he's played with all the right people 
(Campbell Kneale, Junko, Rosy Parlane, Tony Conrad, Axel Doerner, AMMM's 
Eddie Prevost, Radu Malfetti, Taku Unami...)? Or is it something else, 
something to do with persona and delivery?

To be blunt, musically there's usually only three "Mattin-modes": 
silence, feedback and noise. Or maybe some different combinations of 
these things in rapid or not so rapid succession. Still, every time I've 
seen him here in Berlin I've been stunned, and usually by the 
presentation rather than the sounds themselves. Although in person he's 
a perfectly charming and warm young man, on stage with his mirrored 
sunglasses and rigid poses, he comes accross arrogant and removed, 
perhaps something like a younger, cooler Philip Best (of Whitehouse). Or 
a noise-scene caricature of Sisters of Mercy frontman Andrew Eldritch 
(remember them???).

His recent "Body and Linux action" appearance at Ausland was no 
exception. Setting up camp in the middle of the room, Mattin stoically 
stood his ground, silent as a statue, with one hand on the laptop and 
the other holding a microphone to his unmoving lips for exactly ten 
minutes. Knowing what to expect, I pushed plugs deep into my ears while 
the rest of the audience waited patiently, whispered nervously, popped 
the tops of their beer bottles or even played solitaire on the "handy" 
during the strained pause. At the ten minute marker, a massive tone 
exploded in the room and again Mattin waited patiently (his microphone 
arm must have been throbbing at this point) the next ten minutes while 
the sound faded away.

To understand how dangerous and confrontational this strategy can be, 
consider a London show a week later. Londoners can be several thousand 
shades less considerate than Berlin audiences, and Mattin's "stand and 
not deliver" tactics were met with jeers, taunts, shouts, offers for a 
chair to sit down in and even spit. At the end of this ten minutes, 
however, Mattin played back the protests of the audience which had been 
recorded through the microphone in his (trembling?) hand. The whole 
scene changed, with the hecklers frozen in their tracks. "Thanks for 
making me look like a dickhead!" one "polite" Londoner shouted back at 
the end. 'Nuff said...