Halifax's OBEY Convention is one of the city's most musically diverse festivals, in terms of the sheer volume of genres and sounds represented. Yet there's still a certain type of sound — the "loop" artist — that tends to have a particularly pronounced place among its lineup, which can pose challenges as a listener when you're reaching the end of four long days of music.
Case in point: my reaction to Dreamsploitation's set. It came the night after Noveller offered an awe-inspiring example of guitar looping's possibilities. It was followed by pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, who manages to approximate loop sounds in analog through the sheer power of his continuous technique. Stuck in my mind between those two, the hazy textures of Chuck Blazevic's guitar, woven through his laptop and back out to the audience, simply couldn't impress to the same degree. Still, those textures were decidedly pretty in their distorted tones. As the sun set through the Maritime Conservatory's large windows, Blazevic's pieces seemed to take the audience in the opposite direction, suggesting sunrise, mornings and new beginnings.
Case in point: my reaction to Dreamsploitation's set. It came the night after Noveller offered an awe-inspiring example of guitar looping's possibilities. It was followed by pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, who manages to approximate loop sounds in analog through the sheer power of his continuous technique. Stuck in my mind between those two, the hazy textures of Chuck Blazevic's guitar, woven through his laptop and back out to the audience, simply couldn't impress to the same degree. Still, those textures were decidedly pretty in their distorted tones. As the sun set through the Maritime Conservatory's large windows, Blazevic's pieces seemed to take the audience in the opposite direction, suggesting sunrise, mornings and new beginnings.
