Six artists – 20 minutes sets – original electronic music. That’s the formula for Exploded Drawing, a monthly showcase of original electronic music held at Baby Blue Studios on East 12th. I got a chance to check out the 6th iteration of the recurring show on Friday and I definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to hear a sampling of what the Austin electronic music scene has to offer. This particular Exploded Drawing event had four local acts: Abboriginal, C More, BRANIAX and How I Quit Crack. Each one of the acts was vastly different. From experimental to nu jazz to glitch, this lineup spanned almost the whole variety of electronic music subgenres. Below is a brief write-up of each of the Austin locals’ sets.
Abboriginal
Mike Abb, from Abboriginal, started off the show by mixing up tracks that combined down tempo hip hop beats with vintage samples, ethereal effects and bumping bass lines. The layered beats and bass made these songs easy to groove to. Although the set was short, it was very diverse. The tracks were mainly variations of trip hop and nu jazz but Abboriginal weaved in dubstep and some sampled hip hop verses also. Towards the end of the set, Abboriginal gave the crowd a lesson on how he makes his music and demonstrated how he constructs his mixes. Check out Abboriginal’s Soundcloud page for a couple mixtapes and his original dj sets of 14+ tracks.
Abboriginal - Started Like This Son
Abboriginal - Flyer Than The Moon
C More
C More with his hip hop beats and dubstep drops made the whole crowd bop their heads and put their hands up. He dropped heavy snare and kick drum backbones with layered looped vocal samples and keyboard lines on top. The songs often got dirty with dubstep-style modulated bass and aggressive crescendos leading to cymbal crash climaxes. The talented performer layered loops on his laptop with one hand and played keyboard melodies with the other. I definitely liked C More’s instrumentals on their own but I would love to see what a skilled rapper or vocalist could do with them.
BRANIAX
Next up was Eric Archer under the name BRANIAX. Eric is an electronics designer who mods and bends circuits to his will. Check out some of his home made sound emitting devices like the “wavefucker” or the “Money Synthesizer” on his website. At Exploded Drawing, Eric kicked it back to the old school with his arsenal of custom hardware. The set of songs, filled with analog synth-sounding blips and blops, filled the small venue and really matched well with the projected visuals.
How I Quit Crack
How I Quit Crack was the last Austin act to play the mini fest and they definitely left the audience astounded. The performance consisted of dark rolling soundscapes and modulated howling vocals. The performer’s ultraviolet flowers and clothing were accentuated by beaming large blacklights. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take video of the set but below is a sample of How I Quit Crack’s show by Fader. Check it out to see the innovative performance style that How I Quit Crack brought to Baby Blue Studios on Friday.
I definitely encourage y’all to check out the next Exploded Drawing. You’ll get to hear what’s current in the Austin electronic music scene at a cool house party type event that only a small venue on the East side can offer. Ovrld will definitely keep you updated about the details of the next one.
–Dan