Aside from all the punk rock, folk, blues, R&B, funk, soul and hip-hop that Memphis is known for, another scene has been gaining momentum here for some time: experimental electronic music. In 2017, this crystallized more than ever with the advent of the Memphis Concrète festival (and of course, the Memphis Flyer reported on it). If the depth and breadth of regional artists dedicated to all manner of synthesized and unorthodox music was impressive then, it’s only become more so as the festival continued to be staged every year since.
Every year except last year, of course, when COVID-19 put a stop to so many gatherings. And yet, drawing on an already-established tendency to stage shows featuring small handfuls of artists throughout the year, Memphis Concrète did just that practically as soon as lockdowns became common. Smaller virtual shows popped up at the organizers’ behest in March and April of 2020, but it was no substitute for the full-blown festivals that had been staged in and around Crosstown Concourse in previous years.
Now the festival is back in force, scheduled this Friday through Sunday. But, unlike many venues that have rushed to embrace live music again, Memphis Concrète is sticking with the virtual realm. I asked one of its principal organizers, Robert Traxler, about that and other details, and it soon became clear that, true to its innovative spirit, the festival is turning its embrace of the virtual into a positive asset.
Memphis Flyer: What will the festival look like this year, as you adhere to a wholly virtual, live-streamed approach?
Robert Traxler: It’s gonna be three days, 26 artists, a variety of genres. There will be a lot of musicians with very different approaches to music that can make you think about music differently, both local and scattered around. It’s a few hours over a whole weekend. You can drop in, drop out. There’s no cost to watch the stream on Twitch TV. It’s free, but we will have links on the website where you can donate to the artists. And all that money will go to the artists.
Would you say there’s a positive side to the virtual approach?
Yes, in that we are trying to connect with as many friends in other places as possible, to make use of the streaming format. We have one person who will be playing from Ireland, Nicholas Maloney, who’s actually from Mississippi. He played the first year of the festival as Blanket Swimming. Now he’s playing under his own name, and he’s in Ireland right now. Also, instead of waiting until people can come here, let’s let them come here virtually. True, things are opening up, but it still feels weird. I haven’t made it out to a show yet. It still seems kind of on the border. Some people might especially not want to attend a festival with a lot of artists, even now.
There are a lot of artists, spanning many styles, being featured. Who would you say the headliners are for the three nights?
On Friday, we have Duet for Theremin & Lap Steel. They played in Memphis at the Continuum Festival a few years ago. They’re from Atlanta. They’re awesome and their name describes them very well.
Also on Friday, we have Disaster Trees. That’s Kim, who is Belly Full of Stars, with her husband Chris. She does a lot of ambient and drone, with a little glitch. From what I’ve heard, this new project is kind of heavy drone. Really great stuff.
On Saturday, we have Eve Maret. She’s from Nashville and does a lot of synth-pop. She can get dancy, disco-y. But she put out an album just a few months ago that is much more abstract and experimental. So she has a rich variety of sounds, usually synthesizer-based.
And Post Doom Romance from Chicago is also on Saturday. This is a newer industrial ambient project by Michael Boyd, who played with us a few years ago. In this project, he’s playing with Chelsea Heikes, and they work with both sounds and visuals. The visuals are a big part of their set.
On Sunday we have Pas Musique. He’s from New York, and he works in a lot of styles. A lot of it is kind of psych-based. Experimental noise and ambient and a whole slough of things. And there’s also Evicshen. She’s now in San Francisco, a noise artist who’s worked with Jessica Rylan, who had a boutique synth company called Flower Electronics a while back. They made all these weird little boxes that made all kinds of crazy noises. Evicshen is very noisy, but also very richly detailed and textured. It has a lot of layers. I’m excited because her stuff is really awesome.
Overall, it has a similar mix to what we’ve had in the past. Some we’ve had before, but also a lot of new people. We tried to get as many local people who hadn’t played the festival before as we could. I didn’t want to have too many of one thing or sound together. Everything’s spread around.
No doubt some fans will want to boogie to the bleeps. Which artists veer more into EDM territory?
For those who are more interested in the dance side of things, CEL SHADE is very rhythmic. Argiflex. Some of Luct Melod’s stuff veers more to EDM. Eve Maret is more rhythmic or even poppy sometimes. Window can get kind of dancy. Some kind of straddle that line between ambient and rhythmic, like Signals Under Tests or Paul Vinsonhaler.
Memphis Concrète 2021 runs from Friday, June 25, through Sunday, June 27, live-streaming on Twitch TV. Free.
