Miscellaneous - Profile

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 23 / 11 / 2003

The Portland, Oregon label Audio Dregs is one of the most creatively exciting of all current electronica labels. Maarten Schiethart profiles its elusive owner, E*Rock, and Audio Dregs inspiring use of technology

Article

Electronica music, be it clicks_+_cuts, microhouse or glitch should not actually be geographically limited since anyone with a computer, and who is somehow part of a network, should be able to participate. The Audio Dregs label typically operates from one of the North-West American boomtowns, Portland, Oregon. E*Rock has run the label since 1998 after he moved from his native Akron, Ohio and left Art School which taught him some wonderful designer skills by which he's established the audiodregs dot com website as a key feature of his music label. The website first brought to my attention the animated movies of Mumbleboy. Co-operating via the internet, Mumbleboy resides in the Big Apple, and Audio Dregs' music always comes with likeminded animation. Its light-hearted style of electronica music finds a warm welcome with Mumbleboy's playful yet sometimes dead serious flash cartoons. The Audio Dregs roster includes such artists as diverse as Bruxelles' little genius Dim Dim : a remotely operating little Texan wonderboy by the name of Inkblot , and E*Rock's brother E*Vax who's just signed with XL Recordings. The label barely breaks even but E*Rock persists in maintaining the standard and in his function of Audio Dregs A&R Manager, E*Rock evidently is a keen talent spotter. His own two album releases hint at an intrinsic quality as well, with a simple, yet effective use of keyboard features. I'd be happy to be quoted in The Year 2525 as having named Audio Dregs as the late twentieth century, early twenty-first equivalent of Chopin, but I'm afraid I won't be there to witness it. On 16. September, 2003, the Nijmegen record store Waaghals celebrated its eighteenth birthday and E*Rock was there to join its festivities-For three nights as a DJ, a VeeJay and to some surprise as part of a performing trio on Saturday. Strolling along Nijmegen streets in the summer heat, I shaped up for the latter without knowing how to. You'd never expect an actual stage performance. For a brief stint there was one, in just another Nijmegen club facing competition from so many other Nijmegen clubs that only about 150 people were there. E*Rock dashed on and off the stage and left the audience insecure of a follow-up. Mumbleboy on the Flash Controls and Colleen on various instruments introduced us to an intriguing concept. The fragility of the E*Rock sound came across very well; on stage E*Rock subtly clashes acoustic instruments with hardware programming. A frontline needs to be determined, yet E*Rock does not shy off from sharing the progress. At the moment, E*Rock is reporting back in echoes about living with computer music, but only as a means to the exposition of the ultimate in Audio Dregs ; electronic music through humane composition.