Prefuse 73 w/ Battles
Review from the Casbah May 23rd
By Michael Parme

Upon my arrival at the Casbah, I feared the worse. "No, sir. You don't understand.I have to get in," I pleaded. The dunce standing in the doorway just shrugged his shoulders, and awaited the next wave of ticket-holding customers. "Look! I'm a journalist and I'm supposed to be reviewing this show." From the satchel hung from my shoulder, I removed a pad of paper, two ballpoint pens, a digital camera and a small tape recorder. "Sorry, you're not on the list" he said unimpressed with the bag's contents.

Although I arrived at the show during a set performed by Beans (former member of Antipop Consortium), I was too busy trying to grease my way through the door to take notice of what was going on inside. Loathing and regret had taken hold of me as I made my decision to sit outside the door. Prefuse 73 was sold out, but I resolved that it would be better to hear their set from outside the Casbah than go home and watch Logan's Run again.

Patiently, I waited for an hour. My anguish was broken by the sound of angular guitar riffs colliding into one another. Once the abrasive drumming crashed into the mix, I knew I was missing something special. It was Battles.

About halfway through the set, fortune smiled on me and I was able to make my way inside. On stage, three lanky guitarists hovered over a throbbing drum kit, their fingers hammering up and down the necks of their guitars. The sound was multifarious and complex, made even more so when members would periodically relieve their strumming hand to utilize their stockpile of keyboards and effects modules. Using odd time signatures while maintaining a sense of restraint and control in their math rock tendencies, the band weaved a compelling sonic tapestry. In one of the most hard rocking performances I've seen recently at the Casbah, Battles played with a level of strength, precision and intensity uncommon in their genre.

As they cleared the stage, my body tensed up with anticipation. I had no idea what to expect from a live Prefuse 73. Would Scott Herren (the electronica wizard behind Prefuse 73) show up alone? How would he play his songs without MCs? These were the questions I wanted answered.

Surrounded by Silence , Herren's latest release under the Prefuse 73 moniker, boasts an impressive roster of collaborators. Featuring artists such as the Books, El-P, Aesop Rock, Kazu (of Blonde Redhead) and Broadcast, the record makes what is sure to be this year's most prolific power play for indie cred. However, I was skeptical as to whether the music, stripped of its indie darling line-up, could stand up on its own in a live performance.

As Prefuse 73 began playing their first song, I was immediately intrigued by how Herren had compensated for the absence of his collaborators. First, he incorporated a live drummer who played throughout every song, adding an organic element to Herren's glitch-hop stylings. The soulful drummer, who was center stage, softened the electronic elements enough to bring the audience closer to the music.

Secondly, Herren was able to reinterpret his songs just enough to downplay the significance of the vocal track, while still capturing the essence of the song. With the help of two other guest members on stage, who were hunched like feeding insects over turntables and other gadgets, the songs took on new energy and seemed to give the artists a degree of freedom atypical of a live electronica act.

Herren also intermittenly sat down at his own drum set to accompany his drummer. As much as this may have abetted the sound, it was far more instrumental in keeping the energy of the performance from becoming stagnant There is nothing more boring in all the world than watching somebody thumb around on a laptop, and, apparently, Prefuse 73 understood that.

In the end, I was left with the same feeling I get whenever I hear a really good remix. The beauty of the remix is that it can make you aware of another person's unique approach to a piece that you may have never before considered. Listening to Prefuse 73 at the Casbah, I feel like I am now keenly aware of elements in the music overshadowed by the studio recordings. There is a latent but genuine soul hidden between those glitches, buzzes, beeps and synthesizers, and Herren's live performance extracted every ounce of it and delivered it straight to the audience.