Music of the Spheres

Friday night, as part of the Emergents music series, there was an early show at the Music Gallery housed inside St. George The Martyr Church. Although this curated series focused primarily on classical music, tonight it hosted two pop performances. The audience, sitting in darkened pews, was treated to two electronic-based but very different styles.

Jesse Futerman has been getting some notice for his sampling of Jazz music in his live mixes/jams, as well as the hardware-based sampler pad called Maschine. But given the set-up, it was difficult to see much except for a head-bopping Futerman, pushing buttons and staring at his Mac. There was an eclectic mix of samples early on but even that was backed by a standard 4-beat percussion, and the latter half was straight up oomp-oomp dance beats. Great in a night-club, but as-yet unconvincing as innovative music.

This was Maylee Todd's first head-lining show as Maloo, her chill electro-pop alter ego. Appropriate to the venue, she and her two dancers War-War were dressed in billowing white blouses. Above their heads, tethered white balloons had pulsing and revolving patterns projected onto them by Daniela Guevara, resulting in a beautiful 3D multimedia collaboration.

She sang lovelorn tunes like Downtown and Grab Your Guts, backed by her Tenori-on, a drum machine and sampler, and an assortment of effects pedals. For the occasion she debuted a more dance heavy You're Number One, and her take on Janet Jackson's groovy Go Deep. For her final song, she strapped on her hand-harp to cover her unreleased Successive Mutations, but augmented with electronic bleeps and bloops. This was music that could interest audience outside of late-night live-music venues, as heard in chants of encore after her set. But Maylee had to blushingly decline, given the current paucity of her electro-pop catalogue.