NASHVILLE |DT: JUNE 24, 2011
FR: ALEXANDRA GREENBERG/JOHN OCHOA
MSO
RICHIE HAWTIN PRESENTS
PLASTIKMAN LIVE
AT ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL TONIGHT (JUNE 24) IN LAS VEGAS
AND
ELECTRIC ZOO SEPTEMBER 3 IN NEW YORK CITY
Following his historic performance at the Grand Palais in Paris for the “Red – Richie Hawtin facing the Leviathan of Anish Kapoor” event earlier this week, electronic music producer and performer Richie Hawtin returns to U.S. soil with his darker alter-ego PLASTIKMAN. Tonight, Friday, June 24, Richie Hawtin presents PLASTIKMAN LIVE for the first time ever at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas.
Later this summer, the Berlin-based artist will return to the States to bring his one-hour live experience that explores the connection between audio, visual and interactivity to Electric Zoo on Governor’s Island September 3. This will mark the debut of PLASTIKMAN LIVE in New York City. Richie Hawtin will also DJ separate sets at Electric Daisy Carnival and Electric Zoo in addition to presenting PLASTIKMAN LIVE.
PLASTIKMAN LIVE was voted the best live act of 2010 by Resident Advisor readers and also was included in U.K. tastemaker magazine MixMag’s best live dance act shortlist. Since launching March 2010 at Timewarp in Mannheim, Germany, the PLASTIKMAN show has been under a constant state of evolution helmed by Hawtin and his partners visual architects Derivative and visual designer Ali Demirel.
There is also a customized iPhone/iPod Touch application called Plastikman SYNK. Conceptualized by Hawtin and developed with RJ Fischer (http://hexler.net) and Bryan McDade (Minus), SYNK is available for free and is the official companion iPhone/iPod Touch application of the current PLASTIKMAN LIVE worldwide tour. SYNK users will participate in an experiment in audience-performer interaction aiming to blur the lines of perception and participation.
PLASTIKMAN LIVE is a fully immerse real-time interactive concept experience. It is the only show where the entire event has been created from the ground up with the artist (Richie Hawtin/PLASTIKMAN) spearheading each part of the development and vision. There is one performer—Richie Hawtin aka PLASTIKMAN–on stage employing the cutting edge and custom technology to control the entire audio/visual and lighting experience, with live real-time generative visuals (no timed coded pre-rendered video or movies) in connection with cutting edge Derivative TouchDesigner software, live control over DMX-controlled lighting (custom Ableton Live Midi>DMX solution), and real-time audience/performer interaction and communication with the custom iPhone SYNK App (The only live concert that allows the audience to control part of the show, HUD readouts, audience/performer chat client, live on stage camera feed, etc.).
"I'm very excited to bring my PLASTIKMAN show to Electric Daisy Carnival and Electric Zoo,” states Hawtin. “I am very energized by the incredible developments in the electronic scene in North America, and finally we're seeing the underground movement that I represent with my label, artists, DJing and live shows being acknowledged by the big events and festivals. This is a great moment in American music history, and I am delighted to have a platform to present my take on where electronic music is today and my vision for its future."
What can ticket-holders at Electric Daisy Carnival and Electric Zoo expect for PLASTIKMAN LIVE?
“Richie Hawtin has reinvented himself as one of the club scene’s most forward-thinking, tastemaking and technologically driven artists. His was Coachella’s most-thrilling and pop-forward dance performance. The most relevant dance artist at the festival.” – LA Weekly
“Plastikman brings a new dimension to his reputation: a harder, heavier sound with innovative technology that blurs the distinction between artist and audience, and featuring a deep bass that shook the stomach as much as any chunky, contemporary dubstep” – Flavorwire
“Plastikman is a high-concept narrative. It pushes the boundaries of real-time music performance. Like a sci-fi Wizard of Oz, it creates a futuristic environment that evokes a demonic cabaret for droids.” – ArtInfo
“Plastikman at Coachella was the holy grail of the festival. He was literally playing noise, but just when we least expected it, he dropped the funk from another dimension.” – Clubplanet
“The strength of Plastikman’s playbook, even with some cuts rivaling the age of some audience, proved a timeless draw that kept bodies moving well into the night. Hawtin administered a clinic in the classics.” – Resident Advisor
“Plastikman is accompanied by an ultra-high-tech, fully synchronized light show for which all the visual superlatives – dizzying, overwhelming, mindmelting – seem inadequate.” – Beatportal
“Plastikman’s colossal set easily ranking as the most eye-popping performance in the Detroit Movement fest’s history.” – The Detroit Press
And reviews from his recent performance at MUTEK in Canada divulge:
“By the time 12:45 a.m. rolled around, the dance floor was absolutely stuffed for the arrival of Plastikman. Once the curtain lifted, an elaborate stage show was revealed, with Richie Hawtin operating inside a giant, translucent LED curtain. The lights initially pulsed and burst in time with the music, something akin to a techno EKG. As the show progressed though, more psychedelic, old-school rave imagery was also offered up. As for the music, it was classic Plastikman, a flurry of sharp, precise, acid-tinged techno…the music was simple, clean, effective, and, most importantly, potent.”
– Shawn Reynaldo, XLR8R.com (6/7/11)
“…a stellar performance…Richie Hawtin and his creative team upgraded the show for their MUTEK appearance by increasing the frame rate of the visuals and perfecting each song, down to the millisecond, for the visually stunning, hour-long performance. Plastikman Live fully consumed the audience as they watched Hawtin standing behind a translucent screen, watching an overlay of hypnotic visuals perfectly synched to a minimal techno soundtrack.”
– Amanda Connon-Unda, SPINNER.COM (6/6/7)
“The pairing of Plastikman's dark and minimal Detroit sound with the sinister stage setup was just perfect, and the main set drew to a close with electric blue vertical lines filling the screen, animated like a giant zoetrope. This hugely impressive audiovisual set had originally been planned for MUTEK in 2004, so it must have been cathartic for Hawtin to finally realize this in such perfect fashion and to an overwhelming response from the audience. As one of the most anticipated events at this year's MUTEK, it went beyond the high expectations.”
– Vincent Poullard, Exclaim.ca (6/4/11)
SYNK is available now for free in the iTunes App Store here:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/synk/id354695489
Compatible with iPhone or iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
Also check out www.plastikman.com for photos and videos of the rehearsal and Time Warp performance, more information about the visuals contest with Derivative, the iPhone/iPod Touch SYNK application, and continuing updates of the tour schedule.
About Richie Hawtin
Artist, DJ, conceptualist and ambassador, more than anyone else in modern electronic music, Richie Hawtin has proved himself to be a true innovator. The one-man mogul behind acclaimed Techno imprints Plus 8 & Minus sends signals out all over the world from his HQ in an old fire station in Windsor, Ontario – just across the border from Detroit, the techno city of the 80’s. The signals are constantly evolving: his Plastikman persona gave Techno a unique face with a series of four ruthlessly minimal albums, while his breathtaking live sets at the Glastonbury festival and Tribal Gathering helped invent stadium techno. In 1995, the futurist Richie Hawtin was invited to show his work in Canada, in an event for the new millenium, in which the sculptor Anish Kapoor was also showing work. This was Hawtin’s first encounter with the works of an artist who has had an immense influence on his own process. Today Richie Hawtin continues to evolve and develop his music and performance skills, deftly deploying new technology in the service of his art.
Press Contact:
Alexandra Greenberg, MSO agreenberg@msopr.com
Dean Driscoll pr@m-nus.com
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