Despite being so burned out that day, I am so glad I went to this show. The three opening solo female fronted acts caught my attention for the night. It was Stacian’s night to shine with her release “Person L” full length E.P. with support from solo femme acts Lohza and Gel Set. Headlining the night was Dimentia from the hard-wired music collective, Katabatik.
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| Lohza, Gel Set and Stacian 10-7-17 Eli's |
Lohza opened the evening in front of the keys delivering uncontrived yet engaging soundscapes enchantingly lit by a modest candelabra. A slower tempo, minimal singing and less beat focused, it was entrancing without putting you to sleep. I was imagining putting this album on once I got home that night to wind down after all the dancing I was about to do. Upon getting her digital format only EP- I was happy to find it was the perfect music to do so that night, early morning, my room gently lit with candles amongst my new potted plants. “Night Bay” is well suited for your “good night mornings (1)", “Topic Hole” meditates with more earth tones, and “1987” is a perfect backdrop for an early 80’s melodrama (yeah, I was thinking Twin Peaks). Find a punk- ask them for her email, buy the digital EP.
Gel Set (LA)…. I just kept thinking of the words “lucite” and thinking of clothing made of shiny vinyl and jelly sandals. I just had to see it. Turning towards more of the electronic -beat side element of the evening, she brought brave innocence with miminal wave and moody moments that suggested down tempo dancing and swoon swaying. Although at times her live set I felt could be a little more polished (maybe technical difficulties? Hell, it is Eli’s) I was determined to get her LP as well.
I was immediately invited in to “Don’t you miss Me” with the un-fussed yet bouncing digital sounds of early Depeche Mode- A Broken Frame era and continued to be wooed by the smokey sadness of "Sexual Numerals" and taken in by the clean pops of "Bounce".
Stacian always brings the bodies out to dance in every live performance I've seen of her. "Don't worry, I'll wake them up" I remember her saying at one drowsy party, before her set. Her sound is an edgy, techno noir-wave trance and she sings with a sensual aggression channeled through a dark wave filter. Her record label, "Night School” describes her as “(Stacian) is Person L, is Oakland resident, solo artist and academic Dania Luck. Beginning in the American Mid West, Stacian has been an ongoing Bay Area concern since 2008, deeply involved in the minimal wave and underground electronic music scene. A dystopian vision of alienated humanity, broken communications and technoid mal-forms, Person L is her most fully developed full length and a leap forward from 2012’s Songs For Cadets. Moving away from the primitive Cold Wave of previous work, Person L manages to create a bleak dystopia without relying on Ballardian cliche, though still invoking concrete prisons and urban disassociation. Person L is a throbbing, murky underworld that revels in imperfections, a submersive, digital swamp bleeding through the club.”
First side of her LP allures you with lo-fi, dark-side vocals and Subtonix-y feels on the keys. The second side brings you to the steely and hypnotic mode of post -apocalyptic dance electro via two analog synths, sequencer and drum machine. Side two is less vocal and pulls you right in with the provocative first song “Dirgent” and to the perfect last song “Gnomon” with its’ keenly chosen samples. I got lost in it and that's what I wanted it to do. Good late night music. Good fucking anytime music.
Dimentia brought his knob-laden, Katabatik-ness to the mix, which I love myself some Katabatik. He opened for Front 242 the week prior! His technical intensity is on point. However, the ladies stole the show.
Thank you all for your passion! Make sure you check out all these acts!
(1) "good night mornings" is a thing my friend Richard Toomer (SF/NYC comedian and philosopher) likes to say. I can't take credit for it, but I know those days where you stay up all night to the morning and there is the perfect song for that specific moment. <3
