From the Archives: Botba Live

Korg Electribe EMX

Digging through some of my old files I came across a live show that I performed in the summer of 2004.

MP3: Botba - Live at The Drake Underground - July 15/04

This was a gig that I performed under the name Botba (with my friend Soundbeast - who unfortunately passed away last year), at the Drake Underground here in Toronto. The name Botba was a tribute to Giacinto Scelsi, a composer that we had both become slightly obsessed with. Our methodologies and sounds were not really related to Scelsi at all, but hey, a little arbitrary never hurt anyone too bad.



For this gig I played Theremin, Korg Electribe Emx and my Aria Semi-Acoustic Upright Bass. We both played Yamaha Electric Piano, and Soundbeast played Minimoog, Korg Prophecy and Clarinet.


Photo by Carly Darby

Soundbeast and I spent a lot of time creating fully improvised music. All of the arpeggios and drum parts were created on the fly, never preprogrammed. I find the Korg Electribe EMX is pretty amazing for creating sequences on the fly, I start with an entirely blank patch and have a track rolling in no time.. This gig I also ran my single antenna theremin through the audio in of the EMX, allowing me to gate the theremin signal, in time with the music, using its ribbon controller.

I have another track created that same summer when we spent a long and late night in the studio. I will post it later this week. The studio track was created with a similar methodology, but because we were in the studio we had access to much more gear. As a result, you will hear Soundbeast's fantastic Cluster-like guitar sweeps. I'll try and post it tomorrow.

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