- German producer Uwe Schmidt played a live set in New York last month that had an unintentional ironic element. The party was a collaboration between The Bunker and Red Bull Music Academy. Atom TM's newest album, HD, includes verbal attacks on the likes of MTV and the general scourge of corporatization in music, all of which made the visual incongruity at The Bunker that much funnier. Dressed in a black turtleneck and leather jacket, Schmidt's vocoded demands to "stop imperialist pop!" burst over the front room, while a box in front of the stage provided an ever-present commercial for RBMA Radio.
In what was the US debut of his new live show, Schmidt blurred severity and camp while aestheticizing the uncertain expectations of both. It was improvisational, tooling extensively with whacks and clicks while retaining discrete song structures. Schmidt appeared in his own visuals, emulating a glazed MTV star in "Empty" or blinking through the distortion of "Stop Imperialist Pop," with the line "corporate sound in Dolby surround" eliciting cheers.
Playing to a grossly overcrowded room, Bunker favorite Andy Stott beefed up the frozen coos of Luxury Problems to sleepy affect despite the droning bass, a combination some found entrancing and I found aimless. A shaker kept the barest pulse as Stott showed an admirable lack of adherence to peak-time norms, deflating tension and leaving only intimations of forward progress. Meanwhile, Patrick Pulsinger banged out a linear set in the front room that was at odds with the clenched and stuttering nature of the rest of the night.
Objekt was a marquee attraction, and by the time he came on the crowd was somewhat manageable. He opened with his own "CLK Recovery," whose rhythmic ravines and burbling sinkholes introduced a rollicking set. With few nods toward his modest back catalogue, Objekt's set was a diverse affair focusing on the oxygen-deprived textures of raw techno. As was the case with Schmidt, it had an uncompromising focus on raw grooves, generating excitement even as the effects of the Red Bull wore off.