11. The Human Modular Synthesizer: The Musical Design and Live Performance of Elektro Guzzi’s Pentagonia

I use the term electronic artists to describe DJs and live acts. I describe a DJ as “a person who puts together a continuous musical program by selecting, combining, and manipulating tracks […] with two or more turntables and a mixing board” (Butler 2006: 326). For the term live act there are also other common terms, e.g., “live PA” (Butler 2006: 33, 70f., 326) or “laptop performer” (Butler 2014: 6f., 13). I use the term live act to refer to a performing artist, who “manipulates studio technology in real time to (re)create his or her own music” (Butler 2014: 13).

I understand genres as “a set of musical events (real or possible) whose course is governed by a definite set of socially accepted rules” (Fabbri 1982: 52). Brackett (2016: 6–13) discusses this much cited definition, which Fabbri reinforced several times (1999: 7; 2012: 188), in detail in the context of current genre debates.

In the following I will primarily use the term techno as a subcategory of electronic dance music. Firstly, because techno (or, less often, technoid music) is the preferred term within the musical scene focused upon within this chapter. Both the musicians and the music journalists who write about them use this term: “We’ve always […] called it techno and we still do. Because that’s where it comes from and that’s what we want” (Hammer in Breuer et al. 2018). Secondly, the term electronic dance music, especially in its abbreviation EDM, is rather associated with mainstream pop (Rietveld 2013: 2; Butler 2014: 5), while the music examined in this chapter is more associated with underground culture. Thirdly, the chapter utilizes the approach of Butler, who ascribes his study to electronic dance music in general, but consciously uses the term techno in his more detailed analysis (Butler 2006: 25). Regarding the difficulty of genre names within electronic dance music see McLeod (2001) and Lena (2012: 78).

The profile description on Facebook (without author n.d.) also emphasizes this: “The Band started in 2004, taking 5 years to shape their skills before ever entering the studio. This may explain why they have been one of the few acts so convincing that they got a tour of Japan and appearances at Barcelona’s Sonar and Berlin’s Berghain booked before any recording was even promoted.” (see also Teichs and Wick 2012, 8:28–8:32).

This process indicates why they experiment also with samplers and sequencers (e.g., the Elektron Octatrack DPS-1, Roland TR 808, see elektroguzzi 2017). They emphasize several times the importance of advancement and therefore exploring various approaches and setups, e.g., the tempting possibilities of the studio environment (Hammer in Breuer et al. 2018).

Butler describes a third type as diatonic rhythm. The fact that these do not exist here (and no other ones either) underlines the dominance of the other two types.

For detailed considerations on the 4/4 in electronic dance music see Butler (2006: 76f., 113–116).

A grouping dissonance is a “[t]ype of metrical dissonance created through the nonalignment of two or more layers with non-congruent cardinalities. The layers involved in a grouping dissonance, unlike those found in a displacement dissonance, will align at periodic intervals” (Butler 2006: 326).

The G indicates the phenomenon of grouping dissonance, the 5 and the 2 the cycles of repetition with the smaller numeral of an eight note; the 4 and the 20 refer to the numerals larger quarter notes (Butler 2006: 155–166).

In consideration of the interpretive multiplicity of temporal experience (Butler 2006), I thank Schneidewind for pointing out his bass pattern as a 5/8.

An embedded grouping dissonance is “[t]he simultaneous presentation of more than one grouping dissonance at multiple metrical levels.” An embedded grouping dissonance “arises when the cycle of a lower level dissonance is incommensurate with the meter, thereby generating a higher-level grouping dissonance that unfolds at the same time as the lower-level dissonance” (Butler 2006: 326).

I therefore speak only about a theoretical grouping dissonance.

According to this, the interruption of sequence A′ by the drums is meaningful: the adding of the woodblock in bar 34 has established a four-bar meta-plane, which is completed exactly after 48 bars and thus does not lessen but rather reinforces an orientation toward four-bar structures.

Auslander (2016) also refers to these two dimensions in a more recent explanation of the term live performance as “an event in which two sets of people (performers and spectators) are co-present in the same place at the same time.”

For the relationship between sound and movement in electronic dance music, see also Ferreira (2008).

In this regard, the intention of being a “human modular synthesizer” is relevant again: “that one can no longer reconstruct who does exactly what” (Breuer et al. 2014a, b).

On the contrary, it should be noted that the degree of electronic devices plays a crucial role due to the influence on their sound aesthetics. For example, the tactile energy is achieved by amplifying the sound through the PA and directing it to the audience and the band. Moreover, the sound engineer (FOH) also optimizes (and expands) the sound, even if he is not visible to the audience. Even if the sound originates from the acoustic instruments and is modified by electronic devices only afterwards, the resulting sound is significantly electrified by a mediatized environment.

A historically informed examination of genre definitions of electronic dance music/techno may illuminate this: Recent definitions in particular point out the growing diversity, dynamics and even the dichotomies of electronic dance music cultures (Rietveld 2013: 2; Butler 2014: 16). Therefore, it seems to be useful to understand electronic dance music as “one of the great cultural-musical hybrids of the past century” (Kirn 2011: ix) which encompasses a network of related musical styles (see Butler 2012: xii). For this reason, the term can be viewed as an “umbrella term” (Rietveld 2013: 2) for a “metagenre” (McLeod 2001: 60), to which Elektro Guzzi can be attributed.