VIDEO POP: Dev/Null

Monday, October 6, 2008

Dev/Null

I've been posting a lot of girly pop lately, so it's time for something a little weirder and rougher around the edges: Dev/Null.

This blog is all about trying to introduce you to music you might not normally listen to based on the universal melodic "catchiness" that can exist across all genres. So even though this stuff will seem bizarre at first, I'd ask those of you with more traditional tastes in music to download it, play it, and give it a chance. To quote John Cage:

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

Dev/Null makes wicked music. I don't mean that in the "awesome, broham!" sense that some frattool from Pete Dev/Null's hometown of Boston might mean it. I mean there really is some sort of evil sorcery at work in his music.

Is it just masterful use of a tracker? Maybe. But his own description of his music as "high velocity drum shrapnel" gets right to the core of this sinister listening experience. After all, you tend to forget the technical wizardry at work when you hear the equivalent of a grenade detonating in your speakers, spraying metal and torn speaker silk in your face.

With imagery like that, it might not sound like Dev/Null's brand of breakcore/electronic grindcore would belong at a place like Video Pop. Not all of it does, but the tracks here do. This music, while in some ways aggressive, is about the hyper, insane melodic fun that electronic music can bring to the table.

A lot of music that falls into the breakcore genre is pathetically obsessed with trying to determine which producer is more "hardcore," which amounts to making faster beats, using more distortion, and crafting song titles that make reference to the most ridiculously violent or prurient images possible. Pretty. Fucking. Weak.

But with songs called "I Am Like Really Evil and Stuff" and "Fuck Anyone Who Wasn't Into the Stuff I'm Into Before I Was" in his repertoire, Dev/Null clearly understands the puerility of such pissing contests, and has tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Just don't make the mistake of thinking his music is a joke. This stuff is complex, intense hyperjazz. And some of it is also surprisingly catchy - just not in a Third Eye Blind or Cut Copy sort of way.

Listen to three of Dev/Null's masterworks, each one a vision of a strange, twisted pop heaven:

From 2004's E-Boyz Revenge: 230 BPM Eternal:

Dev/Null - Rave 3

Moment of Pop Bliss:
00:00.01 - Already starts off with some great pop, then...
02:15.89 - YES.

Dev/Null - Rave 5

Moment of Pop Bliss:
00:57.03 - Excellent transition from the dark pop to the upbeat stuff.

From 2008's Necrobestial Sadobreaks (available for free here):

Dev/Null - Zombie Sunset

Moment of Pop Bliss:
The pop is scattered throughout. This one's very cinematic; the only Video Pop track I could imagine successfully accompanying a zombie-killing scene from Dawn of the Dead.

Now, Venetian Snares is more or less considered the king of breakcore these days, and while he is an insanely talented and prolific producer - a true electronic composer - much of his music feels sterile and manufactured. Dev/Null's tracks, on the other hand, have a kind of homemade feel to them that I can appreciate more. Where Venetian Snares feels like a polished, assembly-line grenade, Dev/Null feels like a pipe bomb. It's audio assault with passion. (Btw, I'll be doing a post later on Blaerg, another master of catchy, complex breakcore who also departs from the pack noticeably.)

I think a large source of this passion comes from the fact that Dev/Null was originally a grindcore drummer who got into making this music because of his love of fast, hardcore music - both the rock/metal and electronic/jungle varieties - and because of a desire to create hardcore music without being constrained by the physical limitations of his body. After all, arms and legs can only move so fast before they get tired.

To quote Tom Rhea from the July 1979 issue of Keyboard Magazine:

Electronic music, for some, is an attempt to overcome human performance limitations, allowing us to play higher, faster, and louder than ever before. Synthesizers, musique concrète (especially such concrète techniques as tape manipulations), and the multi-track tape recorders are all outgrowths of this desire to extend the possibilities of music beyond human neuro-muscular skill.

This fits Dev/Null to a t.

But beyond these technical and logistical features, emotion is at the core of Dev/Null's music. "Rave 3" is a perfect example of how the intense rhythmic aggression in his music finds a perfect balance in the passion of its ecstatic melodies. Really fun and exciting stuff.

I'll finish up this look at Dev/Null with a link to a couple of old school jungle and rave mixes he put together, both of which have many moments of pop bliss. I'm also including a video I shot of him performing live at the Cock Rock Disco/Load Records CMJ showcase in 2006.

Enjoy the madness!

Dev/Null - 92-94 Old School Jungle Mix

Dev/Null - Oldskool Rave DJ Mix