Decibel Festival 2006

Various Venues, Seattle

September 14-17, 2006

Spanning four days, five venues, a series of panel discussions and technological seminars, multiple showcases, and nearly 90 artists, DJs, and composers, Seattle's third annual Decibel Festival looked from the onset to significantly exceed its previous incarnations in both volume and diversity. Where Decibel's 2004 debut saw the focus of the festival looking toward bringing the local Northwest electronic community into the company of nationally know acts, this year's curatorial intent was one of genuinely global inclusiveness. Much like its other significant North American companion and standard-bearer for electronic festivals on this continent—Montreal's Mutek—Decibel was an international convergence of visions, interpretations, and variations on the theme of electronic music within the intimacy and communication of a small(er) festival setting.

The first night's opening showcase was one dedicated exclusively to the Tijuana-based artists that make up the Static Discos label and collaboratively perform as the Nortec Collective. Minimalist Latin-flavored variations on techno were the sonic thread that ran through the night. Plankton Man and Fax turned in particularly refined examples of their form that glided between spare tropical atmospheres and fluid tech-house rhythms, infusing the evening with an unseasonable warmth not usually found around these parts in September.

The expansive and genre-hopping second day was the first real taste of the scope of this year's festival. Highlights in the spacious and modern theater setting of the Boradway Performance Hall included synthwork from Mr. Projectile and a particularly subtle ambient performance by Merck label artist Deru. Thomas Fehlmann, free from his longstanding collaboration with Alex Paterson in the Orb, offered up a deeply dubbed interpretation of urban sounds and downtempo techno rhythms, making it all appear as second nature. Hopping venues to the nearby Neumos club saw Seattle's own Jeff Mcllwain, a.k.a. Lusine, launching into the crisp electro-tech workouts he has become known for releasing on Ghostly International. Shitkatapult label co-founder and notorious grandstander Apparat raised the stakes to such an elevation that much of the audience was unwittingly caught up in his vertiginous scaling of stratospheric heights. With no opportunity to gain footing on solid ground, Glasgow's Alex Smoke further catapulted those present into unaccustomed altitudes with his propulsive take on minimalist techno, making for the delirious conclusion of a near perfect night.

The following two days continued in much the same format, with seated performance hall shows by day and club settings by night. The third night's Experimental Showcase began with hushed tones and abstract concrete from Seattle's Dragonseye label founder Yann Novak and label mate Son of Rose, who contributed a deft composition of laptop processing and prepared piano. The pairing of Taylor Deupree's minimalist electronic label 12k and Richard Chartier's home for digital sound-art Line was perfectly exemplified by each of their following sets. Where Charier's sound was one of intangible looming tension, Deupree seemed content in basking the audience in the warm glow of software-extended acoustic resonance.

Leaving the performance hall for the dance floor saw another Seattle mainstay, Jerry Abstract delivering the muscular knarz techno that gained him a home on Shitkatapult's Musick to Play in the Club 12-inch series. The night continued with more streamlined variations on the tech-house sound delivered by [A]pendics Shuffle, Kate Simko, and Vancouver's Robin Judge. A short jaunt to the nearby Chop Suey venue to witness the Electro-Pop Showcase found Static laying down some beautiful melodious sounds in preparation for the surrealist hip-hop antics of Anticon's Dose One and the Subtle crew, a off-kilter and refreshing conclusion to Decibel's third day.

Sunday's rather audacious and genre-spanning program began in the early afternoon with the Optical Showcase. As the title suggests, these artists have made significant forays into the intersection of audio/visual performance. Speedy J's fist appearance of the day was by turns one of multisensory ambience and abrasion, Orac label founder and Jitter software maestro Randy Jones turned in a much acclaimed of performance, and Ryoichi Kurokawa justly earned himself a standing ovation for his hyperkinetic dual-PC/dual-video-screen cross-media concert. Following in the same venue, the somewhat generically titled Ambient Showcase featured Mokira at his most refined and hypnotically abstract, a lush elegiac set by Stars of the Lid offshoot Dead Texan, and Fernando Corona's Murcof project, the latter filling the concert hall with a darkly luminescent multi-channel soundtrack of treated symphonic textures and hauntingly disembodied choral swells.

Back in the club environ of the Neumos venue for the final sets of the night, the anticipation for Bola's rare stateside appearance was palpable when entering the venue. Equal parts ambience, texture and offset rhythms, his performance acted as a perfect bridge between the showcases that came before it and the forthcoming movement on the dancefloor. Speedy J's second performance of the night was one armed with both mega-loud volume and seemingly every grand techno gesture in the lexicon of the genre, concluding this electronic audio-sensory marathon with the kind of resonating concussive thrill that sent the crowd staggering into the streets.

Jefferson Petrey
Photos: Sami Khoury