Decaer Pinga vs Smack Music 7
Cul De Sac
Double Leopards
Tony Conrad
Subcurrent Day 3,
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
23/04/05
Page two of two

After taking some time to divide the audience with a giant silk banner, violin drone legend, Tony Conrad, took to the stage. He started the drone just after midnight, it was quite possibly the driest, grittiest noise known to man. He scraped away for about 15 mins, gradually layering the sound via his foot pedals. Then he switched to a second, more sweetly toned instrument and began sawing away again. After 20 mins you had forgotten where you were. After 30 you had forgotten who you were, your mind wandering off into inner space as the throb grew louder. If Double Leopards were possessed by their music, Conrad’s possessed the audience. After 40 mins you had been swallowed whole by the monumental scrape. You absorbed it through your pores, you breathed in time to the bow. You didn’t know how long you had been there but some important questions started to surface; Who is this and why is he doing this to me? Did I exist before this drone? Hallucinations began, you were hearing extra sounds in the overtones and harmonics; Is that a car alarm? Who turned on the radio? At an hour he put down the violins and started scraping away at a drumhead with a hole cut in it. My head was throbbing and my teeth were shaking, please let us go... At some point the drone must have ended but I can't actually remember it. I have the feeling that it will never really leave me. Even now I can still detect, at the edges of my consciousness, an angry, swarming shadow.

Of course getting under your skin is exactly what Subcurrent is about and, though I had to miss them, I've no doubt the final band of the night, Michigan's Wolf Eyes, more than equalled the nerve fraying, synapse snapping noise disobedience that characterised the festival.