JACQUES GREENE
Jacques Greene is the sound of stars exploding. One by one, they detonate in time with the bass drum. Their collective dust trickles down into Earth's atmosphere, smoldering in the night sky, burning out in melodic synchronicity.
Last week, Toronto-based Philippe Aubin-Dionne, otherwise known as Jacques Greene, arrived in Portland to deliver one of the most masterful live electronic sets we‘ve experienced in a long time. Performing in the back room at the intimate Holocene nightclub, Jacques treated us to what can only be described as a sonic orgasm of cosmic proportions.
As Greene released his sophomore album Dawn Chorus in late-2019 (and its subsequent deluxe edition earlier this year), we had an inkling of what to expect from a live performance. But believe me when I say that we were shaken to our molten cores.
In the vast darkness that consumed the room, Jacques Greene took to stage. As if firing up the engines of a spacecraft, the space was devoured by fog and lush, undulating synth tones crept into our being. It was intoxicating. It was comforting. It was grounding, meditative, and it surrounded each person individually as if securing them in the many seat belts found within this vessel. We were prepared for take-off.
Before we knew it, we were departing our home world and headed straight towards kaleidoscopic supernovae millions and billions of light-years away. Greene left the hypnotizing ambience back on Earth, and in its place: pummeling bass drums, hi-hats, the staccato melodies of synth samples. The crowd was lost in space. Limbs articulated, sweat poured, and amidst strobing colors the space between bodies shrank. Even gravity seemed to shake with the power of the music.
Nothing impresses us more about a live electronic set than a dynamic performer - it takes restraint not to simply unleash banger after banger. As with all things in life, there needs to be balance - an equilibrium between beautiful, ethereal soundscapes and immense, driving rhythms to make your ass quake.
Jacques Greene demonstrated this ability masterfully. When we weren't intent on letting each and every frustration vacate our psyches via collectively spastic dance we were floating in the ether, untethered from basic concepts such as time, space, and causality. Just bags of flesh swaying to and fro, existing only to be manipulated by the sound waves spewing from this space craft’s exhausts.
Needless to say, Jacques Greene has no business producing music that good. It's other-worldly.
