.rucyl

We Love DC / Moogfest 2010 Review

Review of our Moogfest performance from Michael Darpino:

MoogFest’s venues were stretched across Asheville’s compact downtown along the ‘festival trail’. I hustled from one end down to the other to catch my first show at The Orange Peel. I had heard that this was one of the best mid-size rock clubs in the country and it lived up to its reputation. Imagine the power and accoutrements of the 9:30 Club packed into the Black Cat and you’re getting close to The Orange Peel. Being the farthest of the festival venues, the main body of festival goers had not explored the Orange Peel by the time Saturn Never Sleeps began their set of chill, improvised trip-hop.

The crowd was rather small as electronica legend King Britt began his collaboration with multi-media artist Rucyl as Saturn Never Sleeps. The project and performance featured King Britt working a small army of electronic gear to generate deep bass ambiance and lethargic electro rhythms while Rucyl countered his improvisations with hypnotic, voice-modulated, vocal repetitions. At one point, Rucyl reminded the crowd that they were in fact “making this up”; not that there was any doubt in my mind. Saturn Never Sleeps sounded too far out to be very rehearsed. Their set was like a pleasant dream during deep REM sleep. When it ended, the handful of audience members looked around at each other sharing nods and smiles. We all knew we had just shared a really special performance. I only wish it had come a little later in the night. Saturn Never Sleep’s head-trip sonics would have been even more effective on brains slightly softened by festival fatigue.