House of Techno Highlights February 2008

This month I'm taking a slightly different angle: in a recent interview with Hot Chip, Clash Magazine scribe Adam Park notes that Ricardo Villalobos was so averse to people playing out his music on computer speakers that he wanted a virus encoded onto the disk that would ruin the computer of anyone doing so. This isn't unique, and a member of a local electro-rock band tells me how they lost a number of backing tracks after a free software disc with a computer mag was encoded with a virus that prevented the use of their pirated copy of a music program. But that was protection against theft, and though underhand, was based on legality, not aesthetics. Villalobos is advocating the complete artistic control of his product, even in the hands of a consumer. Every soundsystem, be it my knackered old fuzzboxes, or the B&W beauties that I blew half a student loan on, reproduces music differently, and creating new EQ settings or meddling with sounds to create a unique experience is an essential right of the listener. Does Villalobos really believe that every record should be released with a serving suggestion? Why not have a best-before date to prevent him sounding retro? Or a handy recipe of lighting, social context and drug combinations to truly maximise the experience for you, the listener? Such ideas perpetuate a philosophy of artistic facism that is frankly ridiculous, and once in the hands of an individual listener, music should be theirs to do as they please. Within the limits of law.

Copyright and reproduction laws are something else entirely, and the recent closure of Pandora.com, which has essentially ended the Music Genome Project, is particularly pertinent to discussion over controlling music. Joining the vastly inferior 'social revolution' of the corporate controlled last.fm is opting for a bland, homogenised version of this unique phenomenon, despite its monopoly on online music. We'll be reporting more on Pandora in further issues, but we need a quick check in with our month's highlights, including Autechre on 1 Mar at Numbers (see preview); minimal techno from Dan Berkson and James What at OTR (Soundhaus, Glasgow, 2 Feb, 11pm-4am, £10); Swedish techno from Pär Grindvik at Sleaze (Soundhaus, 15 Feb, 10.30pm-3am, £8/£10); we bid an unfortunate adieu to house mainstay, Solescience at Cab Vol in Edinburgh on 8 Feb (11pm-3am, £4/£5); and welcome back the techno teddyboy, Andrew Weatherall to the Cab on 6 Feb (11pm-3am, £0/£2). [Liam Arnold]