Moderat- Neumos (Seattle, WA; May 19, 2009)

I am pretty sure that most people in the US are not so familiar with Moderat. In fact, I doubt many would even know that Moderat consists of three very heavy hitters in the electronic music world. That’s because this partnership between the German-based djs Apparat (aka Sascha Ring) and Modeselektor (aka Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) hasn’t been doing too much touring as a trio. In 2003, they put together an EP called Auf Kosten Der Gesundheit but went separate ways right after it was released. It wasn’t until 2009, after both parties had experienced success all over the world independently, that the two forces came together again and released their self-titled album on the BPitchcontrol label. Both brought their years of experience with IDM, electronica, hip hop, ambient, and dubstep and created an album that takes the listener on a very haunting trip through the dark side of sound.

But as far as seeing the Moderat trio live, I thought it would be like any other typical electronic music show where the djs would mix beats and give everyone a great time. I was sorta right I guess, but underestimated the power of Moderat greatly. I walked into Neumo’s at about 10:30PM and, upon reading a queue of the night’s events on the wall, saw that local dj and opening act Nordic Soul was to start at 11:00PM, leaving the Moderat crew slotted to play at midnight. It was going to be another late work night for me.

The main room of Neumo’s was full but not suffocatingly packed like many electronic shows I have been to where it’s one big sweaty mass and its not unusual to have flying limbs of overzealous electronica fans make contact with one’s face. Onstage, there were three dj “stations” set up in front of a huge three-piece screen flooded in red light. As my eyes became accustomed to the crimson glow, I started enjoying the music booming out of the speakers, rich and bassy beats, combining dirtier dubstep with some hip hop. I thoroughly enjoyed the music, but this is where I started to get a little confused. I stood there looking at the red screen and listening to these beats for over two hours, without the slightest idea where these beats were coming from. There was no dj on the stage. Was he behind the screen? In front on the floor where I couldn’t see? Did he even show up? And no one around me could tell me either. So we all stood there, mesmerized by the red glow and at times nodding our heads to the beat.

But by 12:30PM, I was significantly more tired when the three members of Moderat, all dressed in black, walked on stage and took their places at their appropriate stations. But what followed was enough to keep me awake for another 24 hours. The first deep pulses of “A New Error” was just the beginning of an hour-long set of extremely dark and bassy tracks. The combined power of Apparat and Modeselektor is extremely intense by itself and might even scare away some people. But for me, an avid electronic music fan, it’s a dream come true when the boundaries of bass are pushed to its limit. The deeper and darker and filthier the beats are, the better. Every now and then, Moderat’s sound was broken up with pinpricks of synthesizers or occasional drumming. On several tracks, Sascha Ring leaned into the mic to lay down some vocals, but his sweet melodies were barely audible above the bass and the general noise of the venue.

All of the music was performed perfectly in synch with the elaborate imagery played on the three huge partitions that had been bathed in red light earlier in the evening. Swirling hands, running water, flowing fabrics, and computer graphics were just a few of the rich textures splashed behind the djs.* My personal favorite was a hooded character that looked a lot like a Ringwraith from Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that hauntingly jumped and glided to “Rusty Nails.” The guys of Moderat refer to their presentation as an “audiovisual declaration”; in my opinion, this is an understatement. What they put on was an overstimulating and overwhelming exclamation of sound and imagery that basically blew my mind . . . and my eardrums.

Despite my earlier confusion and boredom, the Moderat performance was enough to make me forget it. I literally just stared at the madness onstage and tried to take it all in, which is an impossible task, but one I would definitely want to try again.

*To see a sample of the imagery please check out the Moderat trailer.

DOWNLOAD: Moderat - Rusy Nails (MP3) or Follow us for more Moderat MP3s (Twitter)

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