Scene Report: HARDWARE 04 at Process PDX

HARDWARE 04 – Enzo, Production Unit Xero, Hypersurface 303, Joel Noct, Blaix, Casual Decay, Greystar

Venue: Process PDX – 5040 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR

Previous Scene Reports at Process PDX: 7/24 Show

Not being a PNW native, the sun setting at 4:30pm will never not be a jarring and downright surreal experience. Where were you when your day passed away suddenly? Maybe knee-deep in emails, halfway through a meal, or caught in that daily illusion that time still obeys you. Then you looked up and saw nothing but darkness – sudden, absolute, disorienting darkness. Through all my world travels, nowhere else on this spinning rock have I found such a deranged balance between daylight and atmosphere as a perpetual November evening in Portland.

Every time I walk into Process PDX, it’s a reminder that Technoir will never die. I talked about the interior of this place in my last Process PDX scene report – how everything seems designed to fuck with people whose drugs are just kicking in or just beginning to wear off. But if you wander deep enough through this venue before the bombs go off, you’ll find passageways, corners, and concrete sanctuaries that feel designed for spiritual survival. Process PDX sits in the gut of an old industrial zone, surrounded by ghosts of commerce – the perfect place to survive the end of capitalism. If you were lucky enough to have a childhood filled with visits to a concrete oasis like this, when you step into this place you’ll feel right at home. There is a special kind of warmth only cold concrete can bestow upon even the darkest of hearts. It comes coupled with a kind of honesty you don’t get from drywall. This building looks like what happens when the kids never turn into Foot Soldiers in that Teenage Ninja Turtles movie and just start making weird electronic music. We’re all just kids who haven’t been sent to bed yet.

First up tonight is Casual Decay and Greystar. Their set was a little bit different than the stuff I’m used to from them – drifting in like a pair of specters with a dose of vocals wrapped around some brutally sad drones and drums. Very ghostly and honestly it was the kind of set that would have improved my high school prom by several orders of magnitude, had I actually made it past the ninth grade. Ah, anemoia, you harsh mistress. So we’ll imagine we’re at the intergalactic prom on the edge of a collapsing star system – pulsars whaling and stars exploding. Fun stuff. GEAR CHECK! Moog Sub Phatty, Novation Circuit Tracks, Hologram Microcosm delay pedal, Eventide Space reverb pedal, and the Roland E-4 Voice Tweaker vocal FX unit.

A lot of goblins here tonight. Wet Mango, Occurian, Enzo Caselnova (who’s playing later tonight) is sitting right on top of me, new MGM contributor Prof. Eww (check out their latest review) and I finally got a chance to talk to Paz, emissary of Process PDX, and she unloaded a stack of upcoming shows. One in particular seems pretty interesting. A Queer Trans Strip Night on Wednesday (11/19). A night dedicated to diversity, body inclusivity, and sensual expression. Portland earns its reputation every damn day.

Just as Wet Mango and I were talking about the perils of healthcare in this faded republic, we were both serenaded with some dark fucking music courtesy of BLAIX. Perfect timing – I always dreamed of the dread that floats around in my head having a soundtrack. Thanks, BLAIX. But more seriously, his sets are always fire, especially when they include the hint of synesthesiac sounds ala Richard D. James. So many satisfying bleeps and bloops; this venue absorbs all of it and spits it back out in a shower of sparks. Exactly the kind of discharge a place like this was built to contain. GEAR CHECK! Digitone, Digitakt and the Octatrack MKII.

Has anyone seen a pink and black wallet? If you were at the show and found it, please let me know. It’s not my wallet, but it’s definitely someone’s wallet and I need closure on this. Closure is a rare commodity in this life, and I’ll take it wherever I can find it. Speaking of that, the Sons of Aeythr are starting their set – and it was about that moment that I lost almost all track of time and space. Maybe it’s something-something Post-COVID or maybe it’s the music, all I know, is that the smoke was alive. I watched as it enveloped Production Unit Xero and Enzo Caselnova in the most satisfying manner. This is ghostly IDM at its highest register. The PNW electronic scene has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fresh albums and content, but I can never get enough releases from PUX or Enzo. If there’s any justice in this broken world, a 28-track double-sided record is already brewing for the faithful degenerates who haunt these nights. GEAR CHECK! Elektron Ocatrack, Digitone, Analog Rytm MKII and the Hologram Microcosm. Also an Allen & Heath Xone 96 mixer.

Also don’t forget to check out PUX’s new article on Micro Genre Music: What is a Groovebox?

UPDATE: The Wallet has been found!

I need to give a shout out to SLTHR for manning the recording of tonight’s show. I’m currently re-listening to it on S.P.A.Z. Radio and it sounds fantastic.

Joel Noct & Hypersurface closed out the night with a set built for movement – meat and potatoes for anyone determined to dance straight into tomorrow. By that point I was fully overwhelmed, drifting between faces, frequencies and the vibe – and while still positive and community-like, it was becoming increasingly more muddled and fluid. But I guess that’s kind of the fun of living in a dystopian future with all these strobe lights around me. I guess the blur is part of the experience. This scene report is merely an attempt to capture a tribe in motion, a tiny sliver of a fleeting civilization swaying and shimming themselves in the most harm reductive direction. Wait, I feel like I’m losing sight of what’s really important. The fucking gear. GEAR CHECK! Joel was using the Octatrack, MachineDrum and Digitakt II. Hypersurface was using a TR8x & two TD3 (303 clones). All of this running into a Mackie1604 mixing desk.

Some nights I look around these rooms – fog-soaked, strobe-battered, full of goblins and beatmakers – and think this might be the last sane outpost left in America. Outside these walls, we’re condemned to have our healthcare taken away while our labor is toyed with by sexual deviant and PDF file political leaders staggering through scandals like drunk circus animals, dragging the rest of the country behind them by the ankles. Survival in this broken republic comes down to finding the few places that haven’t surrendered to the madness. So we gather. We dance. We build a world for a few hours where no politician can touch us, where no televised scandal can seep through the bass, where the only authority comes from whoever’s at the mixer.

You can listen to this set on S.P.A.Z. Radio here: https://spaz.org/