Gabriel & Dresden

Skate, Kevin and I, went to see Gabriel & Dresden last night at belo in downtown San Diego.
I think their music falls into the category of Electronica and maybe the sub-category of vocal trance? If you can get past the typical crowd annoyances of being at a club there's a lot to listen for and listen to in this music. The sound system covers so much frequency it almost feels like it's coming out of you rather than outside of you. When the really low frequency of the bass drum, the melodic middle, and high frequencies (which are on the edge of detection) come together it feels like total submersion. I'm not talking about being submerged in water. It's thicker than that. If you could imagine being submerged in quicksand, without the panic of course, that is how densely the music wraps around you.

Since my Aunt and Uncle first took me at age 8 to a symphony at Orchestra Hall in MN I have always found music to be a beautiful escape, whether it's improvised jazz, a big orchestra, or the work of electronica artists. The biggest difference, for me, is whether the experience is weighted more externally, internally, or some of both. Lately, I've been attending Vesper Service on Wednesdays at the First United Methodist church in San Diego. The service begins with 20 minutes of organ or piano music for meditation. only about 12 - 15 ever show up and this is a huge church with a soaring sanctuary space. You feel that you are there alone and the music is very much an inward impression.

Back to Gabriel & Dresden for a minute...in the midst of all of their fabulous beats out of nowhere they laid down a sick, SICK track of Annie Lennox's - The Saddest Day. What they did with it was stunning and since it was live I'll probably never hear it again. Saddest Day is a deep track on Annie Lennox's last album and I don't think I've ever actually heard it played on a radio anywhere. They also played their own version of Tiesto's Beautiful Things. Towards the end of the night, Skate went out to smoke and couldn't get back in so Kevin and I snagged a cab home. We live exactly across the street from each other so getting out of the cab is kind of funny when we exit left and right and keep going.

Link to Gabriel & Dresden's new Album