Papadosio 2010-08-21

Papadosio 2010-08-21
Camp Barefoot Music and Arts Festival
Bartow, WV
(Stream or download)

I've always been a big fan of the so-called "Livetronica" movement, listening to bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9 (I posted a show of theirs back in 2008), Brothers Past, The New Deal, Particle, Club D'Elf, The Histronic, and so on. The best electronic/techno is designed to pull you in, to work you into a frenzy of anticipation during the build and the break, and then explode in that nearly orgasmic release known as "drop". When it's done well, it's like mainlining a drug. It's everything that, musically, we're programmed to react to emotionally and chemically, distilled and purified a thousand times. Livetronica combines that with everything I love about the free-form and improvisational elements of a traditional jam band, in order to form a more perfect union. It's fantastic stuff and I'm honestly surprised that it's not more popular than it is.

Livetronica, by its nature, is very well suited to live recordings, since the entire point is about the experience created for the listener at each show. If you can't make livetronica outside of a studio, you're not going to last very long, and indeed some of these bands don't even record studio albums. It's also a genre with a very taper-friendly culture, and it is very well represented on share and trade sites like archive.org. Touring is the bread-and-butter aspect of this music, and any savvy act is going to gladly trade a free live show for a new fan that's going to buy a ticket to see them the next time they come to town.



Papadosio is one of the up-and-coming groups representing the genre. Hailing from Athens, Ohio, they've been around for about four years. I actually found this show while looking to see if recent dance music icon Deadmau5 was represented on archive.org. He's not, but Papadosio has chosen to be and it so happens that they periodically do a great cover of the Deadmau5 remix of "I'm Not Alone".

Papadosio is excellent at really ranging across the different sounds of the genre. They've got a chameleon sound, for sure. At times, you'll think you're listening to Sound Tribe. The next track, you'd swear it might be The New Deal. On a cut like "On Cue", you could easily convince yourself that you're listening to Umphrey's McGee. I wouldn't honestly say that they're breaking a ton of new ground just yet, but the meld of existing styles is a very interesting one and they do quite a good job with it. This is a band that is still developing their sound and yet sounding really good as they do it. Mark my words, you will be seeing and hearing these guys on the big festival circuit quite soon, so get in on the ground floor with me. You can sound smart when they show up at your favorite fest and you are able to tell folks you've been listening to them for a while...!

This set is from a live late-night performance at the Camp Barefoot Music and Arts Festival, the late hour of their set is immediately apparent when they start out by apologizing to anyone trying to sleep. "On Cue", "I'm Not Alone", and "Eyes Have Eyes" are personal favorites of mine.

Sound quality is an A for sure, it's a super-clean soundboard recording with some crowd sound from right in the front.