Venetian Snares should really need no introduction, but for those of you whose taste in music doesn’t generally include 180bpm+ chopped up jungle breaks, mutated gabba kicks and 7/4 time signatures (among other difficult to count brain hurters), this may take a little explaining.
For a long time now Venetian Snares has been considered an icon in electronic production styles, and a pioneer of the mind-melting breakcore sound. With a huge back catalogue of noisy and energetic releases on multiple labels including the legendary Planet Mu, the rave sadist of Winnipeg, Canada (see ‘Die Winnipeg Die Die Die F*****s Die’ and ‘Winnipeg Is A Dogs*** Dildo’) revisited Brighton to remind us all that it’s Monday, the week has started and we all need waking up.
Tonight Venetian Snares begins his set at a slightly slower tempo than usual, though the music is no less frenetic and it was obvious this wasn’t going to last too long. Inevitably he picks up the pace pretty quickly, and as he hammers the crossfader with precise cutting and chopping you begin to wonder how on earth this guy’s head works. Fair enough he wrote the music and probably knows it back to front, upside down, on fire and in a blender, but Venetian Snares often has us confused as to how somebody could be capable of such consistent mixing considering the odd timings in which the tracks are produced. Even some of the most talented DJs wouldn’t know where to start when mixing these glitchy, erratic beats.
As he plays through both old and new tracks such as ‘Ultraviolent Junglist’, ‘Szamar Madar’ and ‘Husikam Rave Dojo’, the crowd give all they can to keep up. Without meaning to sound patronising, or to doubt anyone’s sense of rhythm, there are parts of the set that are genuinely un-danceable. But it somehow still makes so much sense. With the night ending on a few minutes of pure noise, we leave Audio mesmerised, slightly disorientated and glad the world hasn’t ended even if it sounded a bit like it had.
Audio, Monday 24th September 2012
Words by Chris Biggs
Photo by Katarzyna Kordus
