Objects or Nothingness

Sometimes referred to as armchair dance music, IDM (intelligent dance music) is the antithesis of the driving dance beats that characterize the contemporary club scene. In its quintessential form, IDM is a cerebral, fragmented type of electronica that emphasizes novel forms of sequencing and processing. Sound fragments and melodies are layered, dreamlike and evocative—meant to move the mind, not just the body. Unlike most of the electronic music heard in Shanghai, IDM demands that you listen.

Friday's performance moved from Dead J's erratic, energetic and multi-layered set, to Nara's dreamy interludes, and concluded with B6's staple minimal techno, which morphed into a dynamic collaborative between B6 and Dead J. Driving beats were interrupted by unexpected tempo changes and eccentric samples; soft, ambient melodies and textures were accented by spurts of abrasive noise.

While the sound quality at Pirates hardly did her compositions justice, Nara's visionary set undeniably stood out. Reminiscent of the soundscapes created by artists such as Mum and Four Tet, her music confronts the border between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Honest and distilled, it locates the musical in the everyday much the same way that a poet exposes the power of familiar words. Xylophones, cellos, and pianos correspond to the sound of pooling water; colliding pebbles; chimes; turning spools, while soft stillness sows the fragments together.

The beat is a slight palpitation; rarely more than a faint pulse; a punctuation; a piano; a music box; a vibration.

OOn her MySpace page, Nara indicates that her creative projects aim to "name the objects or the nothingness"—a fitting description of what her songs achieve. Her music constantly moves between the obscure and the apparent. Boundaries waver as dreamlike sequences are punctured by everyday noises, much like tangible objects jar the shifting movements of the mind.

Listening to her set is like watching a series of short films—I was not surprised to learn that she has composed soundtracks for various cinematic projects. A thousand colors come to mind in sequence; silver; red; ochre, while the naïvety of her whimsical melodies revive early memories of falling light; merry-go-rounds; the moon.

Uncanny yet comforting, Nara's dreamworld achieves what any artist can only hope to achieve: the emotions and impressions her music evoke remain long after she has left the stage.