Knights of
the knob box

Local electronic duo FM Radio Gods
wear crowns but not capes

PERFECT CONTENDERS: FM Radio Gods

by JACK OATMON

A common assumption in electronic music is that there are the groups who focus on the studio and the ones who focus on the show. The exceptions are thus widely revered, as the energy of dance music tracks is something one inevitably wants to experience in the live setting. Local duo FM Radio Gods looks set to warrant such club reverence about town. We spoke to them at the SAT before their performance at the Akarien Christmas bash.

Mirror: Tell me about winning the Roland synthesizer competition this year.

Tao-Nhan Nguyen: The key point about that contest is to show what you can do with synthesizers. Electronic music is really about making sounds that are unheard of rather than focusing on complex harmonies and scoring. So I met the vice president of Roland in a store, and he told me about the contest. In synthesizers, there are two kinds of people. There’s synthesizer guy with long hair and a cape that plays the keyboard, and there’s us. We’re not really players as much as sound design guys, playing with the knob box. I asked him if they tend to look for one kind or the other and he said we were perfect contenders and should give it a shot.

M: And how do you approach the live show? Is it something like Booka Shade or Ellen Allien?

Andrew Hamilton: When we go on stage and we do a live set, we’re not just mixing premastered tracks. We have it laid out in a way that really gives us the chance to play with the live dynamics of it. Bands like Booka Shade and Apparat and Ellen Allien, they have their whole sets from one minute to an hour mapped out. Maybe they’re doing a lot of tricks but the whole thing is pre-sequenced. We could realize that a track’s going well and extend it for another four minutes and push the timeline.

T-NN: I understand and respect that because there are so many people that are more into the studio that it makes sense to fine-tune it to the studio. But in our opinion, what you’re missing is the raw energy of the performance. Not only visually, but also in what you do. There’s a lot of potential there.