Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Remix:Live Isn’t the Future But It Should Be

Live events. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they suck.

If you’re already a fan, watching your favorite DJ/producer rip his gear out of the studio and transport it on stage is fun, as is listening to a diva belt out her hits over an instrumental record. It’s important to you because you already like them, you already know the songs and you connect with them from a place beyond memory.

If you’re not, well, there’s really nothing more tedious than watching another person play a video game, and that’s what “live” electronic music has often become: watching a DJ get his Level 15 armor for his Half-Druid Night Elf.

“Live” performers often use gear as a mere prop: most of the action (and subsequently most of the performer’s attention) is focused squarely on the glowing rectangle in front of them.

There’s a little-known circle of hell in which sinners are packed into a club and forced to watch a man or woman furrow their brow and stare intently at their laptop — an even more dreary iteration of the dreaded DJ Serato Face.

Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Remix:Live is one of the most exciting live draws on the circuit. It’s a shot of adrenaline in a patient that is mainlining. It’s juicing up the paddles, slamming a fist down and praying for recovery. –It’s exciting, is what I’m saying, because (and this is important) in a genre where accident and chance has been replaced by the certainty of a digital trigger, Mark has only a slightly better idea of what’s coming next as you do. Just like a real “live” performance.

That’s 90 minutes, no cuts as far as I could tell, and yeah, there’s a laptop – but it’s used as a tool, not the entire fucking workshop. I’d post a counter-example but few people are willing to be filmed for an hour and a half staring at a laptop monitor (there are more boring videos on YouTube, to be sure, but they’re not charging admission).

Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Remix:Live rolls into SmartBar on Friday March 22, with John Simmons opening. Event page here; tickets here.

Previously:
Mark de Clive-Lowe: The Live Experience (Sept 2011)
Mark de Clive-Lowe: Get Started (Remixes) (Dec 2012)
Mark de Clive-Lowe: The 5 Magazine Interview (Dec 2009)
Mariella: Lovesick (MdCL Remixes) (Apr 2011)

Video Deets and Playlist:

September 2012, MdCL performed a 90 minute solo live REMIX:LIVE set on national TV in South Africa for Vuzu’s Hit Refresh show. Everything you hear is live created from nothing on the fly as it happens. Accapellas on serato on one deck, and a live production studio on the other side: Native Instruments Maschine, two Korg KP3 Kaoss Pads and a USB controller keyboard…. a completely unique set of remixes created exclusively for Hit Refresh and the SA fans. Live and direct.

1. The Why (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – MdCL feat Nia Andrews
2. Relax…Unwind (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – MdCL feat Abdul Shyllon
3. Get Started (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – MdCL feat Omar + Sheila E
4. Love Supreme (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Anga
5. Feels Like Home (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – MdCL + Ovasoul7
6. Love Will Save the Day (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Whitney Houston
7. El Dia Perfecto (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – MdCL
8. Outta Love (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Reel People feat Omar
9. Vazilando (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Oreja
10. Lovesick (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Mariella
11. Superstition (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Stevie Wonder
12. Music is the Healing Force of the Universe (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Masa Sextet feat Bembe Segue
13. Wonderland (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Alexander Hope
14. Sweat No Sleep (Hit Refresh Exclusive Live Remix) – Atjazz + MdCL