musical tomfoolery with laptops and samples

Every year, Ether showcases some of the more interesting ways of making music and described in this instance by Tim Exile as "musical chaos" with his unique brand of electronic production, combining organic, freestyle sampling style with filters and effects to create catchy loops and beats.

Less of a gig and more of a performance or showcase of how to play with sounds, Tim's show is technically very impressive. Armed with a pair of laptops, keyboards, microphones, switches, synth pads, drum machines and enough samples to shake a big stick at, plus dodgy yellow T-shirt/purple jacket combination, Exile quickly throws together tracks ranging from happy hardcore, drum and bass, dancehall and house as he darts around adjusting his gear.

Audience participation played a big part of the show, in particular as the public had been asked to send him samples to play with during his set, leading to the inevitable introduction of funny and weird sounds to form tracks with and even invited some kids come on stage to help produce beats for a short mix. Suggestions for what samples to search for also meant that the tracks produced were often quite unique, although the side effects of this meant that sometimes the arrangements were very hit and miss and not to everyone's liking.

His laptops and gear did suffered several issues and needed time to reboot, meaning that the music progressed in a jerky, stop-start fashion, although he took the jokey heckling in his stride, almost as if he was playing to his friends in a bedroom studio and this lead to some great exchanges between the audience and performer.

However, I couldn't help but feel that the Purcell room on the South Bank was not the best environment for this kind of performance. I did expect the format to be more of a standard music gig or set, rather than an extended performance-cum-demonstration hybrid, similar to the workshop he had lead earlier in the day. Exile would have benefited from being able to put together longer tracks for a dance hall or crossfade samples into tracks that would flow together, more akin to a DJ-set or mix.

This shouldn't detract from the event itself – Tim Exile is loud, impressive and full of laughs and to a budding electronic musician such as this reviewer, it's good to see how other people are able to make music.

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