Events

[EXPERIMENTAL] Radio Wonderland, the experimental electronic music project by Brooklyn-based artist Joshua Fried, doesn’t just take electronic music to its natural extremes, it demolishes it entirely and doesn’t even attempt to put it back together in a familiar way. On stage Fried is dressed in a baggy suit as he wriggles around, bopping his head while he splices together bits of sentences, fragments of words, or the essence of a pop melody, distorting, shifting, and repeating these bits ad infinitum. It’s not just the choice of sample material that makes this transcend our idea of what music can be, but the way he does it physically on stage. Watch Fried sample a Rent-A-Center commercial and then pitch shift the sample with a steering wheel controller mounted on a bar stool, or use a boombox tuned to conservative talk radio as source material with which to fuck with. During his live sets, some audience members dance, as much of it eventually forms into something that approaches minimalist electronica music, but most on-lookers seem to lose themselves in it, standing still, staring, and listening. It’s a mesmerizing performance that cannot be done justice with studio recordings or even live recordings. Catch Radio Wonderland live at Mohawk Place on Wednesday, April 4 with support from hometown experimental music artists Lifemusik Mit Andre, Ay Fast, Hooked on Casiophonics, and uncertain.