New Music Collective

April 11, 2013
8 pm (talk) / 9 pm (performance) | FREE
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
161 Calhoun Street, Charleston, South Carolina

R WE WHO R WE mixes the free theft/collage style of digital sampling virtuoso Girl Talk with the raw noise of Japanese noise artist Merzbow. Philip White’s mixer feedback, controlled through a homemade rig of circuits and low-fi electronics, conjures the sound world of legendary experimental musician David Tudor, but becomes something entirely new when fused with the production aesthetics of pop pioneer Dr. Luke. Ted Hearne’s voice—inflamed, athletic and powerfully stark, with the operatic drama of a latter day Jeff Buckley, the experimentalism of Mike Patton and party chic of Ke$ha herself—does battle with his own auto-tune. A tribute and commentary to both classic and ephemeral artists of the pop landscape, R WE WHO R WE uses pop music like graffiti uses public space, exploiting the tension between theft and tribute, like collage artist John Oswald did 30 years ago with his seminal and mischievous Plunderphonics.

This presentation is funded in part by New Music USA’s MetLife Creative Connections grant program.