aarabMUZIK Bowery Ballroom 10/31

Monday night I took a much needed break from paper writing and headed to Bowery Ballroom for the long sold out SBTRKT show.  I've been hearing murmurings about opener araabMUZIK for awhile, but really had no idea what to expect.  Kinda glad I waited, because I love surprises, and this guy fucking blew my mind.  I mean, he turned my brain into jello and then turned on the blender.  I have never gone so quickly from weird lonely awkward guy in the corner to dude jumping up and down, fist pumping with my meanest bass-face. 

The thing about seeing electronic producers live is you never really know what kind of a show your going to get.  Usually your at least guaranteed you'll hear some cool sounds played really loud.  But there's only so much stage presence and charisma you can squeeze out of a dude standing behind a laptop bopping his head, twisting knobs, ect.  What the fuck are you doing up there, I often wonder?  I don't want to get too cynical about it, because even if they're just pushing play, it can be a really good time to be in a room full of like-minded people listening to music you love, really loud.  I caught Zomby's set a couple weeks back at Glasslands and it was more or less that, and it was awesome (his indifference and persistent blunt smoking through a mask where somehow charming).  

But what blew me away about araabMUZIK was not just the beats he was playing, a mashed mix of trance sounds, breaks and wicked bass music, but that he was up there ripping the shit out of his drum machine as he did it.  I mean, the dude was producing most, if not all of the songs live.  I could have been mesmerized all night just watching his hands flurry like hummingbird wings around his MPC keypad. 

Here are some videos from other performances: 

Here's a sampling of tunes off of his 2011 release Electronic Dream