Saturday, June 8, 2019

Nadah El Shazly, Reduction Plan, Stefan Christenson 6/6/19 State House

The deal with the State House is that the music starts approximately one hour after they list on the website. With this in mind, one can navigate the start times of the main act. On this evening I saw all three performances. Stefan Christenson is a local knob twiddler who is part of the incestuos noise avant rock scene that includes The Mountain Movers, Headroom et. al. A lefty guitarist, SC creates noisy static-laden loops with some kind of an old lo-fi noise box then layers guitar shards over them. Occasional lyrics reminded me of the simplicity of Madcap Laughs-era Syd Barrett.
SC was joined on stage by Alexander ( aka David Shapiro) on guitar and drummer to get noisier and call themselves the Reduction Plan. A power trio of sorts, RP played one extended song sequence that showcased dueling guitars and drums.
Nadah El Shazly is an Egyptian (Cairo to be specific) electronic sound artist. I have seen her posted on some great international festivals like Le Guess Who. She played a modified keyboard with synth board and sang in her native tongue. She was joined by a young man on sax and Shayna Dulberger on standup bass. The sounds were modern and exotic, NES coaxed some middle eastern sounds from the synths. Dulberger was half the size of her instrument but was able to fling it around with ease. The sax man was understated, rhythm sax if you will, but offered good shading to the sounds. NES's 2017 release was produced by Montreal electronic wizard Sam Shalabi. Decent crowd on hand to welcome this globe-trotting artist.

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