A reader's response to the Electroclash Festival

by Ben Beshaw

The labeling of an artistic movement or of a musical sound almost always brings about its downfall. There are way too many historical references to site so I'm not going to start, but I do intend to elaborate. Usually, the name comes second, as a response to the media, "Yeah, great, but what should we call it?" Sure, we need to refer to a type of music somehow so people know what we are talking about. The problem is that once it has a name (especially one that isn’t in the dictionary) it turns into a marketing buzzword and an artistic crutch. Mediocre acts begin to jump on the bandwagon, riding the coattails of others’ successes. On the other hand you also have artists who may have an independent vision, but because they posses a similar sound or just because they are in the same place at the same time, they are stuffed into the box with the rest. Eventually, too many artists, labels, promoters, etc. try to get a piece of the action and the buzzword becomes a soulless cliché, building piles of novelty albums and CD compilations in the bargain bins of record stores. The genre and sound become a musical embarrassment and it takes a good ten years until it’s safe to take it off the shelf again.

You know, when it becomes retro.

Which brings us to Electroclash, the hyped-up five-day festival of electronic music that draws its influences mainly from the European new wave sounds of the late 70’s and early 80’s. I only went on Friday night so I cannot report on every one of the artists that participated. By this point anyone who cares to see Fischerspooner has had the opportunity and done so, but I apologize to all of the others for not being able to comment on their performances.

While witnessing all the latest stage routines of these established artists and newcomers, it dawned on me. In an effort to bring the personality and showmanship back into electronic music while staying safely away from that evil notion of a “rock show”, they have resorted to karaoke. In the early days of Yaz (or Yazoo, depending on where you’re from) Vince Clarke joked about this. “The whole idea is that I turn on the computer, Alf starts singing and I go off to the bar for drinks.” (The Face, May 1982). But he was just kidding!

This concept works well for some and is just short of pathetic for others. Peaches has recently “lost the band”, yet her brand of filthy burlesque and horror makes for an entertaining show and provides us with a younger Lydia Lunch set to an electro soundtrack. Adult. for some reason or other did not have their usual visual aids but managed to be refreshing in that they were the only ones not doing anything on stage. Musically however, they blew everyone out of the water and hey, stiff is their thing and they do it well. Chris and Cosey would be proud. Whoever that guy was (sorry, I’m a terrible journalist) who performed the catchy gay numbers “Soccer Practice” and “Little Raver Boy” gets two thumbs up for taking a stab at the pretensions surrounding this whole Electroclash fiasco. Although his vocal adaptation of Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel-F was just plain annoying, his inventive stage antics approached the hilarity of Vancouver’s wacky duo Canned Hamm. So congratulations to those three, but the other spotlight stealers who pranced around on stage that night either have already received too much press or don’t deserve any yet.

In conclusion, variety is an element often overlooked in any given scene. Instead of trying to pigeonhole yet another sub-genre into the already overcrowded arena of electronic music, I suggest that the scene attempt to branch out. From synth-rock acts like Servotron, Luxo-Champ and Trans Am to the electronic pop of artists on labels such as Catmobile and March records, there are a vast quantity of talented acts out there that share common musical inspirations and a similar sound. Why not capitalize on that, on bringing the different scenes together and challenging bands to match their live performances to those of other genres. To me it just seems like a better idea than exploiting one small cluster of artists and subsequently driving them into the ground…..with a clumsy moniker to boot.