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Reviewed by
Steve Watkins
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11 June, 2000
Lowest of The Low Tour
Invisible Records -- 1998
San Francisco, California
First off, I MUST say that the Ritalin tracks played between bands were
incredible. Can't wait for the CD. Nivek sounds great, halfway between
"singing" and his old screaming self. Similar to "Asphole" (is that
how it's
spelled?) but with even MORE great bass lines, samples, and drums.
This is one of those bands to whom some people will listen and think "yeah it sounds
cool, but all they're doing is making random sounds with a lot of effects... anyone could
do that." Other people, like me, think "they must be really good at this to make
it look so easy." At the Invisible Tour stop in San Francisco, Not
Breathing created dark pulsing atmospheres and beats that grew in
intensity over their 25 minute set. The music's emotion remided me of Peter Gabriel's
soundtrack work (Passion and Birdy). The sounds themselves ranged from
heavily effected drones and beat loops, to loopy synth lines, distorted spoken word, and
live radio noise. It was a wonderful set, with just the right amount of quirkishness (is
that a word?).
Bagman. LLLLLLLL-LAME. The dancing black guy was cool for about 5 minutes. The music was standard heavy techno drum & bass. That's it.
AAAAAAAAAAA-AWESOME! This was the surprise of the night for me. The band consisted of fm
einheit himself on wierd percussion (of course) and mixer /sampler / sequencer, a
drummer, a female vocalist, a male beat-box vocalist, and a guitarist/ bassist. Their
stuff was .... I have to say it... "groovy". Pop-ish, but with a luscious dark,
powerful feel. Sooooo good.
I had seen them at a small warehouse show a few months earlier (with Illusion of
Safety and Noisegate), and they were amazing. They were only
slightly less impressive here, probably due to the difference in scale between a Fillmore
show and a small warehouse show. If you've never heard them, think of wall-of-guitar niose
/ drones ala Godflesh, add a live drummer churning out heavy tribal
beats, and add a guy on drums and sampler playing who knows what, and you'll get the idea.
Their set was basically a heavy, slowly evolving piece stretching out over 30 minutes,
with ever-increasing amounts of feedback. Pretty darn fun, I say.
Stayed long enough to figure out that it was Jared of Chemlab singing, then left. Pigface always sounds the same, but the energy of the last tour's crew was way above this one. Maybe it got better, but I'm told it didn't.