I got this track from live electronic duo Sistine Criminals from a friend of a friend, who also happens to be a member of their cult following in NYC. When I looked into them more, I started thinking about what an interesting collision of worlds. Torch is currently the drummer of the nationally touring live jamtronica Conspirator and Aaron Burnett (or "BURN" as he's often called) was a member of renowned jazz artist Esperanza Spalding's band. So it would seem that Torch introduced Burnett to electronic music, but when I reached out to them for an explanation I found out that it is the complete opposite.
Clearly, there's a lot of history between the duo and Sistine Criminals is that conceptual electronic group that only comes along once in a great while. They make the audience wonder, "Is this a pre-recorded track or are they actually playing this live?" But therein lies the aim of the group, to create live electronics that sound like a DJ, loop-based music with improvisation and pre-developed elements that create that very illusion. It's a refreshing change from the current industry climate of high energy EDM and glow-sticks that we strive to not overload ourselves with here at EARMILK. Because in the end, it's about whats real and what comes from years of experience with live instrumentation before an artist has even discovered Ableton.
"Due to our backgrounds in Jazz and Classical music, our main goal for the past 10 years studying electronic music has been to learn and absorb the vocabularies of each of our favorite genres and to try our best to capture the sound, feel and vibe." Torch said, "In electronic music and DJ culture, there’s always some 'press play' involved, but everything in our set up is being played and triggered in real time. It's very common for us to create a setlist only minutes before we hit the stage and other times (if we’re up to the risk) there is none."
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