UNSOUND Adelaide in quotes: Yves Tumor, Giant Swan, Nicolas Jaar, Eartheater, Ben Frost

UNSOUND Adelaide was wildly entertaining and the quotes just kept on coming, reports Mikey Cahill

UNSOUND Adelaide 2018 was freedom time.
What a remarkably well executed festival. Emphasis on executed, so long ear drums.

Let’s have fun with this, here’s the UNSOUND of music in quotes.

EARTHEATER

Overheard: “She looks like Britney Spears cool cousin circa ‘98”

Internal monologue: “Celestial screams and operatic sounds, a harp gives a Bjork Gling-Gló glint. She goes from a hip hop to dub. Shades of Basic Channel. Now it’s Sgur Ros on ZOMG setting. Flickering red hues. She rubs her lips and flicks her hands about like a rhythmic gymnast.”

NICOLAS JAAR

Heckler: “Play the classics yeah,” a disgruntled female fan. It was met by unified titters and mildly condescending laughter. It both eased the tension and ratcheted it up.

Nicolas Jaar (singing): “Imagine all the people, living in hell, it doesn’t take too much”.

Internal monologue: “This feels like I have a spider on my head, massaging my crown.” FYI: Full review at the bottom, rock’n’scroll.

Tim Shiel (post-show, ghost-faced): “I think I’ve just witnessed what the end of the world looks like ...better check my Instagram.”

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Crowd at Unsound 2015. Throwback Thriday. pic: Rob Sferco

MATMOS

Martin C. Schmidt (Matmos): “We’re not so much the appearing in the darkness likes vampire then leaving as if nothing happened type.” #ooooof #nicburn

and: “I hate Bread. The band (breaks vinyl Bread record then uses it to make music). Oh by the way I’ll talk s--- like this the whole time.”

Internal monologue: “These geography teachers are a blast. The rose-bunch percussion is a real bliss signal. And sticky tape now has one more function: music.”

GIANT SWAN

Overheard: “Alexa, define relentless.”

Unnamed industry type: “Giant Swan are like Factory Floor with charisma.”

Internal monologue: “Pop Will Eat Itself meets Romper Stomper. This is heaving and hurtling with seesaw symmetry. Nitzer Ebbs and flows.”

YVES TUMOR

Yves Tumor: “All the bootyshakers to the front! All the people sitting down are making me depressed as f---.”

Overheard: “Yo Gabba Gabba? Yo Gobbie Gobbie!”

Internal monologue: “This guy is everything. Rick James crossed with a Jurassic Park Toronto raptor. He has a butt that just won’t quit. Raunching all over stage. Sounds like TVOTR with old school RnB.”

It’s not a tumour, it’s Yves Tumor (USA) performing at Unsound Adelaide 2018. pic: Rob Sferco

BEN FROST

Overheard: “He look like a sexy Point Break extra doing the ironing.”

Internal monologue: “Shimmering entrails. Absolute dedication to his craft. Silver-foxing us all the way.”

BLISS SIGNAL

Overheard: “I need earplugs and a buttplug.”

Inner monologue: “This is gloriously loud.”

FULL JAAR REVIEW - LIVE A/V SET

St Nic has arrived. Jaar gave us a follicle dome rush at 8.13pm, 12 mins into his set.
He started with a Massive Attack-lite stutter beat with huge block letters: “STERILE, BORDER, ERA = IT WAS” A jaaring (sorry not sorry) intro.
Not his strong suit. It made more sense the next day when he explained to Tim Shiel how he was “excavating.”

Then he danced his hands across his laptop and produced some of the more esoteric, loping stuff similar to Sirens and took us into a nowhere place visually with obfuscated windows, torn white curtains behind smashed glass that loomed like featureless faces.
A borders through-line.
He went into a war torn debris vs red flower flora visual soundtracked by stressed strings, pinched cat meows, rumbling non-drums and a giant Coca-Cola monolith.

“HEH” grunted a guy at the front, humoured by the real thing.

A donkey wandered in and out of shot.

Impressively, barely anyone was filming the show.

Jaar emerged from behind the grey white smoke to croon for us towards the end of his dubby, ultimately satisfying set. How was his only live show of 2018?
He did a little waltz-dance and sang that dystopian John Lennon, sorry, Lenin line: “Imagine all the people, living in hell, it doesn’t take too much.”
Then he finished us off with knife-slice drum’n’bass.

NB: Tim Shiel was an interested and interesting moderator for Jaar’s keynote chat the next day where Nicolas “kept digging into the archaeology of words” and explained how the donkey could also mean a mule. Ahaaa.

CLAIMER: Mikey Cahill travelled as a guest of UNSOUND Adelaide.

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