Maximalist Setups

Started by Balor/SS1535, September 08, 2026, 09:52:56 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Balor/SS1535

In contrast with the "less is more" thread, I'm wondering about what the largest, most complex, or generally "maximalist" gear setups have been and how they sounded.

When I saw Skin Crime recently, it was a two-man unit at a large table overflowing with gear.  I unfortunately could not see exactly what they were using, but everything seemed to have a specific purpose in the performance---and they were all controlled with some level of intention.

Distorting a Woodpecker is another project that comes to mind.  For someone who traveled cross-country to play the show that I was at, he had an insane amount of gear covering his entire table.  Though much seemed to run in the background, everything again appeared intentional despite the scale of it all.  He even brought tools for live circuit-bending!

Penon

Different kind of industrial but the topic immediately made me think of Author & Punisher:
Minimum Sentence - UK Industrial Electronics:
Youtube - Bandcamp - Instagram

Nolan

Quote from: Penon on September 09, 2026, 12:08:50 PMDifferent kind of industrial but the topic immediately made me think of Author & Punisher:


Toured with him a few years ago and a lot of his stuff is elaborately large mode controllers.

Notable maximalist set ups I've seen (and were used well): Third Organ 1997, massive amount of pedals. Putrefier played the first half of the set with him (also with a large amount of pedals)

Kazumoto Endo & Kazuma Kabuto 2016. A lot of pedals. Joystick selecting the pedal chains for quick cuts. Sounds like they mailed most of their gear from Japan to the US for the show. When I played with Endo in 2000 he only used two MacBooks.