Well this isn’t exactly how I expected to spend my Friday evening, but it’s intriguing to say the least.
Loops with Numbers is an experiment installation brought to us as part for the Red Bull Academy weekend by locally formed label and regular club night hosts Numbers.
But it’s not what you’d expect; as we enter the room an orb sits in the centre of the GoMA’s awe inspiring space with a bar to the right, with, thankfully, minimal Red Bull branding, after hearing it was all over the place for the weekend’s opening at The Art School last night.
A flyer gives us a hint at what we’re in for as Numbers artists and friends have soundtracked a three-dimensional visual that depicts “a series of ever-changing, elemental landscapes”.
The journey is to take us through the elements of fire, water, earth and air, but before things start to kick off there’s the small matter of the bar, which runs out of beer within half an hour and a clearly baffled bar staff who have resorted to offering Red Bull as a mixer for gin – but whether this is a tactic to clear more Red Bull or just a misjudgment is unclear.
As the show kicks in we’re treated to visuals that range from engrossing to somewhat puerile, a visual Mac glitch part way through the show only enphasises that this is an experiment, but although the orb on which the visuals are projected provides the centrepiece of the room, it’s the music that’s the real attraction.
It’s not your usual Numbers club affair, the soundtrack for most of the night is much more mellow and ambient, touching all corners of the Numbers roster.
Indeed, the majority of the crowd is cross-legged on the floor by the mid point of the show, still as the visuals work through the elements the music does rise to a more upbeat tempo.
This leaves us with that bizarre scenario where it could take just three people dancing to send a lazy chilled out venue into a full blown rave, but before that has a chance to happen things round up; it’s too early to start dancing anyway.
Loops as experiment is a particularly bold and clever one, the visuals in parts could be improved on and the potential of live music to go with an visual show of this style is a mouthwatering one to say the least, but a nice little warmer to kick off the weekend, shame we’re not watered enough to head straight to the dancing.
Words: Iain Dawson
