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OSCILLATION 2002 REVIEW

Music Review by efesar
Friday October 25, 2002

OSCILLATION 2002 REVIEW

Photos by efesar and Basketweaver (Fear Studios).

If the year 2002 in Albuquerque goes down in the history books for anything important it should be that this was the year of local electronic music. In August we had the EMFC. In October we had Oscillation 2002 and a totally separate festival in Santa Fe (sorry folks, I heard about it through the grapevine so I don’t know the name).

Oscillation 2002 was the second annual incarnation of the festival. It was billed as “Albuquerque’s Electronic Music Festival.” Contrasted with the August EMF event (mainly DJs spinning electronic music), Oscillation was a complete two day festival featuring 12 live bands, 5 DJs and lots and lots of sound/lighting guys. In addition to music, there was plenty to look at, with intelligent lighting provided by Jason, Eclipse and Grandma’s Music and Sound.

The first night, Friday October 18th, featured the bands Alchemical Burn, Sans Palma, Sidanik, Terrorstate, The Blacklight Zebra’s and Volkenant. All six of these bands put on a great show. Although the crowd was a little thin earlier in the evening, close to 125 people were packed into Amethyst Luna (412 Central SE) at the night’s peak during The Blacklight Zebra’s set. DJ Pvck, DJ Mello and Alan provided music between sets.

Although music was the main focus of the show on Friday night, it was also a veritable who’s-who of the fashion world and underground electronic scene. In addition to the eyeful provided by guests Justin Lindley of Flatlines provided art. His huge canvasses depict modern line art, with several black and whites dotting the walls.

Saturday night was more subdued but featured an amazing performance by local Synth Pop band Random Access Memory. Kentifyr, local synth/goth/industrial DJ, dropped everything to bring us a truly rock-star inspired performance that left the crowd screaming. Not since Depeche Mode visited Albuquerque have we heard such a swooning crowd.

The second night of the festival also featured a truly memorable performance by local soundscape artist Jeff Gburek. Accompanied by Bhutoh performer Ephia Gburek, a.k.a “The Dead Girl on Stage”, the performance captivated the crowd and provided a visual delight. Bhutoh is a Japanese dance art that apparently involves very subtle movements that express powerful emotions.

Other musicians to perform that night were Brian Botkiller (who thankfully played, though he suffered a broken knee at the hands of a madman the night before the festival), consumeobeybreed, and inerex. Although Distorted Frequency was slated to play, they unfortunately cancelled. In their place was an impromptu glitch-ambient-noise band made up of members of Alchemical Burn, inerex and consumeobeybreed. Friday night’s DJ lineup included DJ Boggs, DJ Mello, Gleecraftgirl and Richard.

The price was right, the CDs were free (until they ran out) and the mood was definitely underground. Building upon the foundation that this festival created last year, the promoters once again proved that Albuquerque is not as one-sided (musically) as some totems claim (hint: “Henny”).

Complete pictoral coverage is available here. Links to the artists web sites are also available on that site.
1 comment(s)
sigh... i wanna perform again (by v0sh 21 years ago)
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This article was added to our database on October 25, 2002, and the article's information was last updated 21 years ago. efesar is responsible for keeping this article's information up to date. This page has been viewed 5833 time(s).
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