The Italians KAM HASSAH and Claudio Rocchetti visited Malmö on the 13th, Thursday I think, a small basement venue called Borgen (the castle). Haven't been there before, seems they are more into hosting freejazz/improv or more dance-based electronica events. Nice & cosey little room with couches & stuff, will probably return. Hadn't heard Rocchetti before, and only KH I'd heard was his side of the split with HEINZ HOPF. Which is really good, so I was looking forward to this. KAM HASSAH didn't disappoint, very simple set-up with backing tapes + sampler doing almost all the work; undistorted and filthy rumbling sounds, very open and porous, building up to some kind of climax which didn't arrive because the goddamn PA couldn't handle the bass frequencies so the sound turned into shit every time it peaked, and the organizer promplty had to go up to the mixer to softly turn it down just a little bit, very carefully, which meant that he stood precisely in front of me. No sound-check? Hrm. Anyway, I enjoyed the sounds. Claudio Rocchetti was next/last, using a bit more gear... couldn't get a good grip of the music. Constantly, erratically turning & twisting all the knobs and levers on his mixer + pedals, everything was just jumping around, and he didn't have any volume to speak of either, so it felt like he was just fucking around rather than actually playing. Also, he seemed to have a lot of problems with contacts and cables glitching, sounds disappearing and all, couldn't tell if that was part of the performance or accidents with malfunctioning equipment. Would probably have been better recorded, rather than seen. He managed to get some good, angry sounds towards the end, but then it just ended, so I don't know.
The problem was that that night, there were three concerts attracting mroe or less the same crowd: besides this, Miko Vainio of PANSONIC was supposed to do a show elsewhere (but he didn't show up), and the LEGENDARY PINK DOTS were also playing elsewhere. Including the dj, bartender, + performers, there were about 14-15 people at the venue, most of which seemed to be regulars + friends of the venue rather than crowds into the music. When KH played, I was the only one standing up within 2 metres from the "stage", and when Rocchetti played, I was joined by KH. Lazy bastards sitting in a couch or lying on the floor (!!!) in the back of the venue... Lack of crowd + sound problems made the event anti-climactic but at least it took place...
