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review : gate to moon base alpha ~ Making my first venture up to the Philadelphia Ambient Consortium's "Gate To Moon Base Alpha" series last night, the first thing I noticed was that the stage was surrounded by several upside down chairs. Nothing like a mystery or two to spice up an evening of electronic music, eh? After a while this mystery was solved, as our wonderful host (I missed his name and several other things he was saying), attired in orange coveralls and wearing large green sunglasses, explained that the upside down chairs were protecting us from some mysterious disease transported by a stage crashing asteroid. This caused immediate concern. After all, The Ministry of Inside Things had just performed from the "unprotected" side of the chairs. Hey now! Sure enough, the host of the universe's best radio show, Chuck van Zyl, along with Peter Gulch and Art Cohen were immediately put into quarantine after their one hour set. But I will give the guys credit for putting on a great show considering that they were, all the while, being consumed by alien bacteria. Much of the set consisted of The Ministry's "Outer Limits", a piece which has evolved nicely through the years. Yea, I've always had a weakness towards any music that incorporates samples of singing spring peepers, but, horny frogs aside, any fan of old style Tangerine Dream would surely have enjoyed the performance. An advertised possible vegetarian buffet never showed. Our host, removing his sunglasses for effect, explained why the veggies weren't to be, but his vocalizations were being directed to the other end of the room at the time and all I could hear was the guy snoring next to me. I did volunteer to head back to my rural home area and butcher a cow. No one acted like they heard this. Sandwiched into the evening of sets was David Talento, solo, performing his project called "Music for Isolation Tanks". Much of the set consisted of prerecorded vocal samples mixed with David's ambient compositions, not space music per say, but surely chock full of great musical moments. Parts reminded me of a wonderful John Adams piece called "Christian Zeal and Activity", which I played immediately upon returning home and milking my cow. Last, but not least, came Saul Stokes, Popular Mechanic's Electronic musician of the year and Hypnos recording artist. I had unknowingly planted myself right next to Saul's homemade equipment entourage, never realizing that it wasn't some abstract heavily wired Christmas tree, which fortuitously afforded me a close handed view of his set. Saul is such an intense performer! (I hung a tree ornament from his back pocket and he didn't notice). His set sure reflected this intensity, also offering us the most beautiful musical moments of the evening. All were invited to bring their own instruments next time around.   Soma611 -- (as posted to The Spacelist)   18 December 1999

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