The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 18, 1994 - 9 Lost in Vapour Space Escape into Mark Gage's electronic music outfit By ANDY DOLAN Vapour Space may not yet be a familiar name to all fans of ambient dance music, but anyone that has had the privilege of experiencing this one- man techno outfit's first single, "Gravitational Arch of 10," can attest to the fact that it is one of the most thrilling combinations of atmospheric soundscapes and dance rhythms around. In fact, all of Vapour Space's debut album, "Themes From Vapour Space," is full of the sorts of sounds and ideas that represent the most in- triguing and compelling elements of this genre of music. While the first single is less than a year old, Vapour Space's Mark Gage is certainly not a newcomer to elec- tronic music. "I've been recording for about 11 years now," Gage said. "I've got about 70 hours of material re- corded since then; some of it's good, some of it's crappy, but out of every 40 minutes of tape, there's usually these gems that crop up. For example, on 'Themes,' the opening and closing tracks, as well as 'Paradox of Time Dilation' were recorded in 1983, and I just transferred them from tape to hard disk." On "Gravitational Arch of 10," one of the most notable and exciting elements is the juxtaposition of harsh, acidic electronic screams with softer, more timid synthesizer textures, which comes together under one powerful techno-dance groove. . Gage explained that he's able to come up with tracks like this by em- ploying many different styles of songwriting. "There's no one way to go about it," he explained. "Some things will start based on a short sample that I think sounds cool, some will start based on a five-minute sample from a movie, and others might start based on a little synthesizer riff. I take real good notes when I'm think- ing about things, so a lot of times before I've even started to actually work I have a series of notes and parameters that I want to stay within for a particular piece ... and then 'I've been recording for about i years now ... I've got about 70 hours of material recorded since then; some of it's good, some of it's crappy, but out of every 40 minutes of tape, there's usually these gems that crop up.' - Mark Gage of Vapour Space some songs are just inspired by set- ting up the (equipment) differently!" Vapour Space's live show was the mood-setter for the highly successful "See The Light" tour, which also fea- tured Aphex Twin, Orbital and Moby. Gage prefers Orbital's method of uti- lizing MIDI-driven drum machines, synthesizers, and samplers on stage rather than pre-recording the set on Digital Audio Tape, as artists such as Moby have done in the past. "It's pretty volatile live electron- ics, and it's pretty easy for things to screw up!" Gage explained. "To me, though, its more powerful if I can stand behind a synth and with a tweak of a knob, I can make the whole room shake. It's a neat feeling!" "I do all of the mixing right from the stage," he continued. "I can get in and tweak gain in on the board or send things off into delays. Sometimes I'm loading new note information and turning the sequences on when I want them to start. It's pretty busy for me ... I can't do any drugs or drinking until after I'm done!" Above all, Vapour Space's music allows listeners to escape from the pressures of the real world for a while. As Gage noted, "With any art form, you're always trying to get people to think of different things. In that way, it's definitely a form of escapism." Vapour Space's music, however, is the kind of escape you never want to have to return from. VAPOURSPACE prfrms tonight at Industry in Pontiac. Doors open at 10 p.m., and Vapour Space will perform at around midnight. Call (810) 334-1999 for more informa- tion. bond QUALITY DRY CLEANING AND SHIRT SERVICE 332 Maynard St. across from Nickels Arcade 668-6335 Even if you aren't familiar with Vapour Space, you should check out this new brand of electronic dance music. ..You can count on a powerfully good show with Counting Crows By KRISTEN KNUDSEN Rolling Stone has called their al- bum "August and Everything After" one of the best rock releases of the year. MTV has honored the "Mr. Jones" video with heavy rotation buzz clip distinction. Their album has sold 350,000 copies to date and is cur- rently number lOon thecharts. Sounds 'like good news, right? Not for Counting Crows, whose very name, taken from an old English divination rhyme, refers to the flimsi- ness of life and the general feeling of disconnection from it. "A lot of the record is about failed relationships or feeling strangely un- able to feel," said pianist Charlie Gillingham. "We're disconnected from the music scene; we don't have a lot to do with what's going on right now. We're trying to do something different. I think that grunge and the different music that are happening right now are going to run their course. We were trying to make a record that essentially didn't belong in any par- ticular year or time." Still, thejangle of their guitars and singer Adam Duritz's soulful deliv- ery of his lyrics recalls such artists as The Band, Van Morrison, REM and the Cure. For this reason, some critics have called Counting Crows (which besides Gillingham and Duritz in- cludes bassist Matt Malley, guitarist David Bryson and drummer Steve It's got a certain lyric and a certain melody; we try to keep everything else out of the way and just let the song play itself. "Our music is simple, personal, uncalculated, off-hand and real sad," 'We were trying to make a record that essentially didn't belong in any particular year or time.' - Charlie Gillingham of Counting Crows to their impending success. . "I'd like us to be good enough that the record company lets us do what we want to do, but beyond that I hope that we're not so successful that a lot of critics and people are putting a lot of expectations on us," Gillingham said. Thanks to "Mr. Jones," success for Counting Crows may come sooner and bigger than they had hoped. Ac- cording to Gillingham, their next, video, for "Round Here," a slower song that tells the story of lost souls, will more accurately present the band's message of depression. He added that played live, these emotions are a lot more powerful and intense. But despite these somber overtones, Gillingham promised an enjoyable show. "I think they'll have a good time," he said. Count on it. COUNTING CROWS will appear with CRA CKER at 7p.m. tomorrow at the State Theater in Detroit. Doors open at 6p.m. Tickets were $10; sorry, it's sold out. Bowman) overly derivative, even re- cycled. But such criticism may be inevi- table, and Gillingham doesn't deny his band's influences. "Those are all great players," he said. "We owe a lot to the '80s. When we first started out we sounded a little bit more like the Cure, and then my- self and Adam come from a more late '60s, early '70s sort of sound. Basi- cally we just have the songs and we try to play just what the song wants. he concluded. According to Gillingham, "Mr Jones," about the rewards of stardom. is the "friendliest" song on the album. But in many ways it misrepresents the band. For example, Duritz changed the lyrics during a recent "Saturday Night Live" performance from "I want to be Bob Dylan and be a big, big star" to "I want to be Alex Chilton and be in Big Star." The change, like the band's refusal to release "Mr. Jones" as a single, reflects the band's resistance 4 N B wTR EE LP CETING OVER THE MDTEMHUMP? WE ARE YOUR HELP: 'OVE RH EADS '"COLOR COPIES ' REPORT BINDING " AUTOMATED SELF-SERVE - - - - - - -- - - - - m" -"""'''' '"'"''"-" 1 5th AVE. AT LIBERTY 761-9700 THE PIANO (R) - FrI: 4:55, 7:25, 9:45 Sat, Sun: 12:25,2:40,4:55, 725, 9:45 6 DEGREES OF SEPARATION (R) - Fd: 4:45, 7:10, 9:35 Sat, Sun: 12:15, 2:30;4:45, 7:10, 9:35 BARGAIN MATINEES $3.50 BEFORE 6 PM STUDENTS WITH ID $4.00 EVENINGS F EE 32 . -N Present this coupon with purchased ticket thru 3/11194 i - _ / EACH FOR AMERICA People think there are limits to what we can /t do, that its out of our reach to really change the way things are. I feel there is no linut to what we ca -oit only depends on .~ i}ou, u fli 'Offfse~llcS we I M AJOR B ILUOO T? C G1.EO~R