Scenes from the Left Field Experiment

• Chad Radford
• Time Wharp

The Left Field Experiment was a mellow success for a Wednesday night at 529. The club’s tiny performance space filled up quickly, but what’s most interesting about this sort of event is context. The sound being pumped out of the room’s massive sound system wasn’t really hip-hop per se, nor was it trip-hop, noise or straight up electronic music. Rather, it was an amalgamation of all these things — producer music that morphed into a continuous thread of beats and rumbling textures and samples, with no ego in the driver’s seat. ... And that’s not meant to be taken as a pejorative thing. There literally was no face, and no voice for the music to serve, at least not by any traditional means; just a continuous, stream-of-consciousness flow that shook the club from the bottom up.

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There was even a turntable set up for able-hands to scratch along with whoever was onstage performing, while a rotating cast of knob-twiddlers and button-mashers, including Time Wharp, Floyd da Locsmif, P Villa, Rekchampa and several others took turns throughout the night, mixing and nodding heads along to the rhythms. Not much of a show on stage, but a definite blast to the brain as a series of vague projections scurried across the back wall, adding yet another layer of texture to the experience.

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Naturally, it was a cool, creative scene that was meant to foster an over-all experience and community situation. Ever heard of LA’s Low End Theory club night? Left Field is sort of the same idea, and the next one is happening at 529 on Wed., Jan. 25. The lineup is still coming together, but heRobust, Ethereal and the Kill Fist are already on the schedule.

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Follow the jump for more photos.