Zanzibar's SXSW

Thanks to everybody who came out to the Chain Drive in Austin for Strategies of Beauty v. 2.0, the annual showcase of North Texas creative musics, this year held in Austin during SXSW for the second straight year. Special traveling guests this time around included magnificent drone sculptor/guitarist from Toronto Aidan Baker (of Nadja - pic above), and the Future Blondes, a sprawling 24th-century aggro stream-of-consciousness dance party led by Domokos of A_PINK_CLOUD and joined by Jana Hunter, members of Indian Jewelry, and Austin’s Aurora Plastics company. We were disappointed that Bay Area avant-metal left curves Wildildlife had to cancel, but were more than happy to experience nomadic Austinites Headdress and their sun-baked hallucinogenic desert psyche folk, one-man confessional postpunk clinic Daniel Francis Doyle, as well as always-solid performances from NorTex standouts Shiny Around the Edges, Mom, Florene, Emil Abraham Rapstine, and Dust Congress, stripped down to a two-piece with vibes, which may very well have been the day’s highlight.

As for the Snails, I’ll leave it up to esteemed blogger/journalist Lee Jackson, from his meaty Womblife blog:

“Next personal Dallas faves The Zanzibar Snails tear through a 30 min set of blistering deep space sonic murk that just keeps growing more intense and insane with each passing minute. The molten lava flow makes me feel as if I've been directly teleported into the heart of a red giant, time slowing to a crawl as my flesh starts to melt, and POOF, no more. Nothing. This is the end...only not really. Like an electromagnetic pulse, the Snails' shreiking electro clatter saps my camera of its remaining juice. I'm unable to document this highly visceral sonic experience. Apparently they blew a fuse so the whole groaning mass just cut out instantly. No resolution, no fade out. Nothing. The events are almost preternatural from my close vantage point.”