Thad Anderson's "Northbound"
Some acts have specifically cited our city or its places in song, but how many have derived music from its actual physical and social context? Only one that we know of: local avant-garde composer, percussionist and UCF music professor Thad Anderson. For the March installment of the groundbreaking In-Between Series at the Gallery at Avalon Island, he debuted "Northbound," a suite structured around SunRail. For the show, he played the ambient recording he made of an entire south-to-north trip on our newest public transit option and performed composed pieces between the train stops. It was an audio-spatial voyage and a conceptual triumph.
Hijokaidan, Jeff Carey, Atsuhiro Ito
April 1, 2016, at Will's Pub
In an evening already bordering on pure sensory overstimulation on all fronts, the MultipleTap Tour – a traveling roadshow of Japanese noise legends that somehow landed in Orlando – saved a trump card till the very end. To close out the night, the pioneering noise duo Hijokaidan took the stage with Baltimorean circuit abuser Jeff Carey and lightsaber-wielding Atsuhiro Ito to engage in an ear-killing improvised jam. Standing four abreast on the stage like a sonic Magnificent Seven, the ad hoc quartet crafted and wielded an immense roar like a weapon, like a blanket, like a canvas. Visuals were stripped down to the light from Ito's "Optron" and punishing strobes that, like the audio, offered no respite or quarter. Truly astonishing.
Death, Scream Bloody Gore
May 2016, Relapse Records
Though recorded in Los Angeles, by not-yet-of-legal-drinking-age Chuck Schuldiner and Chris Reifert, Scream Bloody Gore is Florida through and through. Schuldiner was an Orlando resident for much of his life, and the blood-soaked anthems on SBG kickstarted a death metal movement that was very much tied into Central Florida. When Relapse decided to reissue this beautifully ugly document, they went all the way with stunning two-LP and three-CD box sets packed with rehearsal and demo extras, copious liner notes, varying hues of splattered vinyl and painstaking reproductions of the horror movie-worthy cover art. (They even commissioned a limited-edition bobblehead version of it.)
Lydia Lunch's Orlando takeover
Just a performance here by Lydia Lunch would've been notable enough. But last September, her visit to Orlando was practically a full-on occupation. With her famous slash and sear, the NYC No Wave icon did indeed perform – twice. In addition to that, however, she also presented a visual art exhibit at the Gallery at Avalon Island, did a reading at CityArts Factory and made a guest appearance at a special dinner event based on her cookbook (!) at Maxine's on Shine. And while she was here, she was the toast of the underground.
