Cluster & zoviet*france: Big Water

Yesterday I went to a gig in a swimming pool with a special underwater mix - something I may never get to do again! There were loads of people in the pool, including a little toddler who threw a balloon off me and laughed as I swum about. I did a few lengths while the DJ played Ashra and Klaus Schulze etc. This was playing when I went in:

The DJ/Bands were set up on the three diving platforms at the end of the room and there were video screens and speakers above and below the water. Weirdly the music wasn't really any louder right next to the underwater speakers. I did use to know why that when I was doing A-Levels. Physics and that. As soon as you went beneath the surface the above ground music was swamped by what sounded like zoviet*france's best attempt at emulating a rainforest with electronics. All scraping, birds and insect noise. Listening to music underwater is really strange. You can't tell where the sound is coming from at all or where it's originating from, it's just everywhere. If that makes sense. z*f sounded muddy at the start until you went underwater and found all the chirrupy trebly stuff. The rhythm was under there too. I really enjoyed the zoviet*france set which lasted over an hour. Mind you, by this time I was knackered and freezing.

Unlike the sensible people I stayed in the water pretty much the whole time which meant I was absolutely freezing about two and a half hours in. Near the beginning of Cluster I had to flop around like a dying whale for a bit cos I got cramp in both calves simultaneously. So I ended up not enjoying Cluster quite as much due to my own stupidity really, sitting on the edge of the water frozen solid and unable to hear the underwater mix of their last half an hour. Although they sounded great even outside the water and dredged up loads of beats with that primitive drum sound made famous on 'Zuckerzeit'. They didn't stick to one idea for more than a few minutes at a time, hitting us with different synth burbles and some classic toytown psychedelia ( (c) Volcanic Tongue website). Listen to this and think swimming pool:

Rodelius was tinkling away on his synth above us and looking very happy indeed. Lots of people were retreating to the seats. Three hours is a long time to be in a swimming pool. The only beef I had was with the lighting, it would've been even better in dim light but I guess they had to keep the lights on for security and possible drowning reasons.

I highly recommend going to gigs with a separate underwater mix if you ever get the chance. Massive 'well done' to the AV10 people for making something that unique happen!

http://www.avfestival.co.uk/