Out: Dropping some future funk sounds with Jamaica Plain's the Craters at Yes.Oui.Si

Deep impact near the MFA

By LIZ PELLY | August 2, 2011

LIVE ART There was nothing on the walls, but plenty of fresh sound in the air when the Craters hit Yes.Oui.Si.

Multi-sensory exhibition space Yes.Oui.Si (on Vancouver Street, around the corner from the Museum of Fine Arts) hosted a "Future Funk Fest" last Wednesday, just three days after the closing of their recent gallery show "Les Animaux de l'Avenir" and two days before the opening of "Reproduction," their new show of etchings, monoprints, screenprints, and other work on paper (up now through August 12). The between-exhibits space was emptier than usual — its clean white walls and exposed-brick poles are usually covered with work by local emerging artists — but that just made more room for the psychedelic sounds of three local electronic and psych-pop bands: Protozone, Pluto Moons, and the Craters.

Protozone, a new electronic trio of musicians trained at the New England Conservatory, started the night (their debut show) with some spaced-out atmospheric instrumental covers. The trio — Ben Stepner on keys/electronics, Frank Ojeda on bass/electronics, and Moses Eder on drums — played a tight set of tracks by, among others, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Ace of Clubs, and Rusty.

Next up was a more straightforward funky pop set by the Pluto Moons, a bassist and drummer from Newton, who got the crowd dancing in the bare gallery. Jamaica Plain–via–Newton four-piece the Craters — largely the bedroom songwriting project of Newton native Wes Kaplan — closed out the night with their swirling experimental avant psych-pop. They were playing with a new line-up: Ben Stepner of Protozone on keys, Zach Levine-Caleb of Pluto Moons on bass, and Luke Pyenson on drums. About 30 kids bopped their heads to tracks from the Craters' 2010 tape Teenage High School, released via JP DIY label Breakfast of Champs, plus newer songs like the soon-to-be-hit "Sunsense." (Check our On the Download blog for a video.) Details have yet to surface, but we're told the track will be included on a new release that's currently in the works.

Topics: Live Reviews , Jamaica Plain, Music, funk, More

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