Cynics Unlimited

Quite often, the best music is discovered by accident. Local artist and longtime friend Aia asked me to videotape a concert he was promoting at the Drake Hotel. Aia was opening for Tycho, a California-based graphics artist and music producer well respected in IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) circles. IDM is a highly experimental genre that can be difficult on the untrained ear; however, Tycho’s audio-visual performance was both accessible and inspiring. The artist’s website describes his music as follows:

Tycho is the music project of San Francisco based artist and producer Scott Hansen. As Tycho, Hansen blends swirling melodies into vaguely triumphant arcs that crisscross between stuttering beats and vocal samples, creating rolling sonic landscapes that extend off into the horizon.

To my ear, Tycho manages an impressive feat in layering lush, hyper-melodic sounds capes over throttling beats without crowding the frequency spectrum. Often, the beats evolve along with the melodies and at times embrace the boom sound associated with early-90’s hip hop - yet the melodies remain intricate and soothing enough to be “chill-out” music. At times Tycho’s retro-warbling is reminiscent of Scottish outfit Boards of Canada, while other times resembling the Japanese electronica featured heavily in anime. The sum of the parts is nonetheless original.

I entered the evening not knowing of Tycho and exited a huge fan. If you like what you hear, check out his website:

http://tychomusic.com/

Technical Notes: Video segment features live performance of “PBS” by Tycho (who presumably owns all the copyrights therein). Recorded April 20, 2008 at the Drake Hotel (Toronto, Ontario) on a Sony HC3 HD Camera. First half of the video shot using night mode. Video cleaned up and edited using Sony Vegas and VirtualDub. Of course, YouTube totally decimated the output but if you would like the video posted to a different site let me know.