THE POT MUSIC BAR, JULY 05, 2000.

Nestled safely away from the maddening crowds of the Valley and the City, The Pot Music Bar has established itself as the venue of choice for all things experimental and electronic, and things don't get much more experimental then tonight's offerings. The debut performance of endoPHONIC was staged in conjunction with the Australian Computer Music Conference being held at QUT, and it was no surprise to see a fair number of boffin-looking types interspersed between the usual assembly of Pot afficionados. Andy from Soundhive was spinning some ambient, soundscapy tunes - a far cry from his higher energy incarnation as Ryddum Animal, but perfectly suiting the intimate vibes of The Pot.

Next up was Kettle, whose "performance" (for want of a better word) consisted of a CD of forty 15-second noise-bites put on Random Play and pumped through the PA at excruciatingly painful levels. Imagine coming down from the wildest acid you've ever had, translate it into sound, and your part of the way to describing Kettle's style. At one point I found myself struggling to speak as a high pitched droning sound reverberated through the lower part of my brain and scrambled my circuitry. Ten minutes later, Kettle held aloft his CD to rapturous applause from the crowd. In a word - straaaange.....

EndoPHONIC were advertised as "music for the inner ear - featuring the philatelic skills of Greg Jenkins (one half of pounding techno outfit F.I.S.T with Noel Burgess of Vision 4/5 fame) and the onanistic ebow of Richard Wilding". Exactly what their set had to do with stamp collecting is unclear, but I know I liked it!! endoPHONIC utilise a program called Sound Mulch, which allowed them to feed sounds through their PC and smother them in an arsenal of effects controlled by a home-made exterior mixing desk controlled by Greg. Meanwhile, Richard coaxed a series of synth-like drones out of his guitar using the ebow, taking endoPHONIC through musical realms travelled by Pink Floyd in their more atmospheric moments. When the beats kicked in, part half-time drum n' bass and part tribal percussion, all of the disparate elements were brought together. What appeared to be an exercise in formless improv proved to be far more focused and intricate than that - though improvisation was a distinct part of the endoPHONIC sound, each piece in their 25 minute set was a precisely executed musical movement.

Hopefully venues like The Pot Music Bar can continue to prosper so artists who explore less mainstream sonic territories have an avenue to present their tunes. It's a damn sight better than the bevy of commercial dance clubs which seem to be taking over our city.