WHEN we (my girlfriend and I) arrived, the space was fairly empty and Dillitex was performing. It took me a few to get into the set and my surroundings, but the music was very nice. I especially liked the very last bit of his set -- felt very I-F meets Boards of Canada's Chinook!

Numbers on the Mast performed next. I really like seeing these guys and think they nicely fill a void that is missing from the Austin live music scene. (Feel free to prove me wrong on this and point me in the right direction.) Saturday night's performance was droney and chill, and I think if it were in a different setting/lighting, I would have gotten more lost in it (though it was nice to be able to see their expressions and how they interacted with each other -- and it is always nice to just watch people tweak out on tons of gear). There were some comments that the set should have been louder, but I think it worked nicely at the volume it was. A part of me feels that this sort of set from Numbers on the Mast would be best as a audio portion to a gallery showing/installation -- sound coming from somewhere off to the side that just nicely fills up the room as people go about whatever they do.

The best part about the NotM set, and one of the high points of the night, was the "second" set they did (or encore, or forced little bit, or "we're not quite ready for you to stop, the other artists are not ready yet, please do more" or whatever you want to call it). The music during this bit was much more active, colorful and rhythmic (though still noisey/NotM-ish) -- a style I was not quite expecting. I hope someone got a recording of this.

Sometime during the NotM set, the place really started to fill up with people.

DXM played a fantastic set, one that both surprised me and confirmed my thoughts that he and Kurt (Buddy System/Pedal) are two Austin artists that are going to jump to insane levels of production/quality in the very near future (opinion of course, and a biased one, as I think highly of them both, but every time I see either of them play, it gets better and better). DXM's set was nicely dancy/rhythmic, crossing into the techno (as a specific genre of 4-4 electronic dance music) sound that I love.

Andreas Tilliander; At first my reaction was "right the fuck on." The first 3 songs or so kicked my ass in that SUPER dubbed out way (think early Pole meets the more dubby world side of Freeform). I was so very impressed by the sound and production quality. And then he kept doing the same thing over and over. Every song was just too similar for me. So he lost my excitement and attention. And that’s not to say that music got worse, in fact, if I were in more of a mood to hear that exact sound for so long, I would have eaten it up. Every track was great. But hearing them back-to-back, and not in a super-fluid way didn't quite work for me. But it left me curious enough to hear more by him in the future.

I was very happy to see video/visual art during this portion of the evening, something that i think might have added to the earlier part of the show. The video, produced by Trey Smith of Numbers of the Mast, was nice and enjoyable. Some very organic, strange images.

The Buddy System closed out the night. And what can i say -- he is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists (both local and otherwise). As I mentioned above, every time I see him perform, he just gets better and better (musically). As with DXM, I have a slightly hard time categorizing or describing the music Buddy System plays (and perhaps this is why i like what they do so much) -- but I will say it is the perfect thing for fans of more rhythmic/dancy IDM, techno and experimental music to check out.

All in all, this was a great night. I hope Josh (aka DXM) decides to do more events like this, and I hope folks continue to support his efforts.

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