It is nice to see a Barbican crowd get its knickers in a twist - they cheered, they booed, they walked out, they demanded encores. New York, the second city to be featured in the Barbican's Urban Beats series, at least lived up to its promotion as "uneasy listening".
Composer/guitarist Jonathan Bepler's opening stutterings were taken through a laptop and layered up, combined with machine-like waves of city noise. It was too predictably structured, but the initial build-up and the final forlorn ending were particularly effective.
Then, in stark contrast, came the sweet bossa nova of Vinicius Cantuaria. It is difficult to imagine a band being more laidback without being under general anaesthetic. Not that the music lacked life. Cantuaria's approach - which goes for the whole band - is minimal, sexy, with a beautiful concentration on quality of sound over showy pyrotechnics.
Larry 7 opened the second half creating snaps, crackles and pops by shining torches on light-sensitive electronics. Difficult sounds don't have to mean difficult listening, but they rely on shape and structure. Without either, the crowd was soon indulging in ironic clapping and cheering.
Arto Lindsay came on to an atmosphere of make or break. He is spellbinding to watch. Wiry, loose-jointed and dressed like an office worker who has just slackened off in the pub, he struts and prowls. Then, as if a bolt of electricity has travelled up his arm, he spasms, attacking the guitar: twang, scrape, distort. Then he's relaxed again, singing gently in that seductive Brazilian voice. Lindsay stirred a melting pot of bossa, noise, electronics, surround sound ("driven" by Ben Rubin) and heavy funk. As guest guitarist Cantuaria held the more traditional guitar parts in place, Lindsay flew off into noisy fantasies. But while he barely played a single pitched note, his gestures were full of musicality: placed and phrased, full of feeling, sometimes intense, sometimes jokey.
What had looked like wayward programming was clarified. Lindsay took the sound elements of the evening and made sense of them all.
