The Days of Lore

Not such a letdown

Monday, December 29th, 2008 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

Live: Letdown and Biltmore Dive at Red and Black Cafe, 12.27.08

Thick piles of cables snaked up from the floor, finding their way into a bank of effects boxes and a keyboard with a sticker that read “Sad Music Makes Me Happy.” Sad music makes me happy, too, but the sight of all that gadgetry made me more anxious than anything … you never know what you’re going to get when someone has a lot of toys at their disposal.

Letdown is the moniker of Portland electro-whiz David Bolt. He knows his way around a Korg or three—but he also knows his way around a hook. Perhaps he builds his melodies first, which only increases the effectiveness of all the other bleeps and buzzes. And the melody always came through in his originals (notably “Nauseous Monster”) and a few well-chosen covers (Portishead’s “The Rip”). I found myself getting caught up in a piano line, only to have it dissipate into a rumbling drum break or a gurgling wash of synth before returning. Vocals were a nice addition to Letdown’s music (he did contribute vox in his other project The Delta Mirror), which were heavily saturated in reverb and echo. Dare I call it sad-bastard music?

Which brings me back to that sticker plastered on the front of the keyboard. Letdown’s music is sad, and beautiful, even when the songs are building into apocalyptic crescendos. He knows the power of dynamics, isolating sounds at just the right times. And as the music swelled, he never jammed copious noise into a jam simply because he could. It was well-orchestrated, like a chef in his kitchen expertly attending to his different dishes.

Opener Scott Worley—aka Biltmore Dive—kept things soft, simple and swirly. Most songs didn’t budge from ambient background noise … it kind of felt as if we’d all been invited to sit in with Worley in his bedroom. I’m glad there was plenty of beer and coffee where we were.

This is usually how I envision practitioners of electronic music: these über-smart techno dweebs with powers beyond my imagination who hole up in their bedrooms surrounded by mountains of boxes held together with cables. I’m probably only half-right. If that is the case, it was nice to hear Letdown über-smartly use his powers for good.

Photo and video by Alex Creecy

“Nauseous Monster” - Letdown

Video for “All of a Sudden”

Tags: Biltmore Dive, David Bolt, Letdown, live review, Portishead, Portland, Red and Black Cafe, Scott Worley, The Delta Mirror