Plant Syntax Diffusion ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here follows a purely personal impression of the evenings offerings. As a primer my perspective is pretty much emotional/historical in that if I am moved emotionally and the piece evokes references respecfully integrated with the odd new idea I'm likely to enjoy it. Technical condsiderations rarely move me other than when they are the centrepice of any innovative aspect of the music and are completely transparent to the lay listener.. rare, obviously. Just so you know where Im coming from. So to dispense with one aspect of the evening at first. It was billed as 'Diffusion': dynamic localisation of sound processed through 12 speakers and 12 channels.' Well there were the 12's but the level of dynamism was low as there was not really the right gear, esp the mixing desk which was a standrad desk. That that was dynamic was merely the volume dynamics of various channels assigned to various speakers attenuated in real time by the mixer/actualiser and came across as a fairly cheap effect to my mind. But you gotta start soemwhere and it was an excellent start all round. It must be said its not the start. I have attended two other events at Plant Syntax, one a multi media event uti.ising various interesting if fairly twee effects of computer based imageprojection and music and the Farmers Manual intenets feed event which was dogged by tech difficulities but which was still a success in that it was done, it happened and thats better than nothing. I return to this observation beceause until the Plant and a few other spaces... in fact I can really only thnk of one.. Hard Listening at the Musicians club... there seems no outlet for electronic music as adventurous and marginal as what was presented at those previous events and last night. End salutations. To sum up briefly all the music was in essence of an abstract nature in that there was a pretty complete absence of any regular rhythm underpinning any of it and nothing at all to be called a beat. Pulse perhaps in some pieces... but barely that. None of it would be generally termed electronica, in my understanding of the basket. So.... to the product. In order of apearance: Terry McDermott sQ^iN.cH Normandeau netochka Dugal McKinnon AntiOrp Delire Plant Syntax exists it seems as the result of the vision of Julian and Jordan who it appears endure some considerable penury in order to maintain the space in the CBD. Send money. 372-378 Lt Bourke st, Melb, 3001. isomer_stream@hotmail.com there are many web references on the programme that I cannot be bothered transcribing. Contact the Plant and perhaps they can be sent to you. You won't ask again, will you Shannon? ______________________________________________ Contributed to the Undesirable Propagation Unit by agent AlanBamford