In the world of electronic music, what’s popular now will most likely not be around in a year — or even three months. As a way of adapting to such a reality, electronic musicians have taken a new approach to the way they record and play music live.
No band exemplifies this more than the electronic jam band EOTO, from Los Angeles, Calif. and Boulder, Colo. Comprising Jason Hann and Michael Travis, the two musicians improvise with keyboard, drums, guitar and other instruments on stage while mixing them live on their laptops.
“Electronic dance music is a disposable music,” Hann said. “They can go away because a new style can come around.”
As a response to this trend, Hann and Travis record their music after one single try live. All music that is played during their concerts is played completely improvised. Not necessarily categorized as a live “jam sesh,” EOTO plays their music in a similar style to the way they originally learned: a freer-flowing expression that is clearly and simply about playing music.
“We started out that way,” Hann said while describing EOTO’s performance style. “When we first started playing, we would start playing around with different instruments around 10 in the evening and go until four in the morning.”
Such musical variation categorizes EOTO into quite a few different genres, but tonight at WOW Hall, attendees can expect to hear dubstep; a style of music incorporating multiple instruments and music types mixed in with overwhelming bass lines and drum patterns. Much like the new format improvised, live mixing style, dubstep itself is a relatively new genre that has evolved over the last decade. Starting off as a mellower, experimental genre, dubstep has become a more aggressive musical genre combined with sexy stretches that people can dance and get down to. At one moment the music can have a comfortable soothing melody and the next, a strong, almost headbanging influenced bass-line.
“It’s both sexy and headbanging,” Hann said as he explained the dubstep genre. “I had a metal head come up to me and say ‘I didn’t think I could headbang to this,’ but it’s also music people can dance and get down to.”
EOTO will be playing dubstep alongside fellow electronic musicians MiMOSA and MartyParty tonight at WOW Hall. The WOW Hall show marks the ninth show on the bands’ 11-day West Coast tour. Starting in San Diego, Calif., the tour has gone through Los Angeles, San Francisco and will finish its last two nights in Portland and Seattle.
For EOTO, the stop in Eugene at WOW Hall is a special one. This show will mark EOTO’s fourth time in Eugene and third time playing at WOW Hall.
“For me, WOW Hall feels like home,” Hann said. “Every time we’ve been in Eugene, it’s been nothing but good people.”
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