Sempersonic™

Another awesome guest review coming your way, this time from our boy Anand, who checked out Shigeto and Groundislava at the California Academy of Sciences on their Treasure Island Nightlife night 10/11/12. Enjoy his review and a lot of good music below!

A friend of a friend sent an invitation for a rather peculiar event I would say. He asked me and some other friends if we would like to go to an electronic music show. Not too weird so far.. at the California Academy of Sciences. What? Yes at the California academy of sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Apparently they do this kind of thing alongside dead bees from a million years ago and some fish.

CAS Indoor stage.

So there was to be alcohol, Scientific exhibits and Electronic music. This was too interesting a combination for me to let go, being an engineer & EDMer (not very many of us you see). This friend also promised to reveal to us the awesomeness that is Shigeto and boy did he live up to it!

CAS Outdoor stage | Groundislava

There was a considerable set up gap of over 10 mins and then came up the mild mannered Shigeto. I had been listening to a few of his tracks for the few days before and to me on first impression, he seemed too glitchy. I like my glitch hop with bands like glitch mob but ambient glitch i was skeptical about. This as I learnt in the 1 hour that followed was a major fail on my part. Shigeto was awesome, and thats an understatement. And all the proof I need for that statement lies in this live set http://soundcloud.com/shigeto/shigeto-live-lincoln-hall-7-10. He played very little of his glitch stuff but mixed it in to an ambient, minimal & blissfully movable set that was short and reached right to you. The crowning moment was one that I completely did not expect..
Halfway through one of his songs the dude is reaching out to a couple of sticks. Soon he was turning knobs with one hand and had some sticks in the other. And I am standing here wondering, what are u doing Mr. Shigeto! And BAM The man jumps on the drums! Yes, you heard that right. He was mixing songs and playing drums to go with it, simultaneously. Mind was being splattered all over the place.

Right through this some dude in the audience shouts “Hey do you want some Vodka?” And he goes yes please! Goes on to take a swig straight off a vodka handle and continues likeaboss!

Shigeto Drumming Bassing and everything in betweening!

Add to this an incredibly different and trippy projections by Howard Wong of All of It now. It was a really different electronic music experience.

Visual Soundscapes Exhibit near the dancefloor.

Trippy Lady is Trippy

After the all the Ruby Skye and Vessel in San Francisco this was refreshing to say the least. Pics with the artists as usual is always good but texting friends who couldnt make it, about the awesomeness of the show you are at.. thats priceless. Hope all you guys get to see these guys sometime. Peace to all!

In San Francisco Thursday 10/18? Get on the $10 guest list for Kyau & Albert at Ruby Skye, just put that Sempersonic sent you!