CMJ Music Marathon 2010: The Acts To See

Tuesday, Oct. 19 | Wednesday, Oct. 20 | Thursday, Oct. 21 | Friday, Oct. 22 | Saturday, Oct. 23

Jon Hopkins

FRI 10.22 [Click for full line-up]

Jon Hopkins @ Webster Hall, 7:45-8:15 p.m.
Jon Hopkins’ biggest claim to fame is probably the minute or so clip of his track “Light Through the Veins” that bookends Coldplay’s last album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. That’s sad because a minute snippet from an epic, layered, eight-minute electronic-ambient adventure of a Jon Hopkins song is like going to dinner at a four-star restaurant and leaving after the bread is served.

Lissie @ Hiro Ballroom, 8-8:45 p.m.
Elisabeth Maurus, better known as Lissie, is great at defying expectations. A Midwestern girl by birth, her debut EP Why You Runnin’ (produced by Band of Horses bassist Bill Reynolds) introduced her as a soulful folk singer.  She’s since become an adopted U.K. darling with an underground club following thanks to her collaboration with Morgan Page on the single “The Longest Road,” which landed at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs charts and earned Deadmau5 a Grammy nomination with his remix version of the song. Known to surprise her fans with covers of Metallica and Lady Gaga, what her CMJ set will bring is anyone’s guess.

Four Tet @ Webster Hall, 8:30-9:30 p.m.
There’s a DJ Shadow song called “Building Steam with a Grain of Salt” that aptly describes the idea behind Four Tet’s music: start with something simple like a drum machine beat, add a xylophone and some synth melodies one by one, and before you know it there’s this whirlwind of sounds taking over your ears.

Baths @ The Knitting Factory, 12:30-1:15 a.m.
Put some breakbeats, some chill wave, some quirky samples and some distorted vocals in a blender, then take the lid off while it’s still mixing and put your ear to the open top. That noise you hear probably sounds similar to Nosaj Thing and Flying Lotus, and it comes from Will Wiesenfeld, who goes by the name Baths.

Four Tet

Matthew Dear @ Webster Hall, 3:30-3:50 a.m.
Close your eyes and throw on Matthew Dear’s new album, Black City. Dim lighting, beads of sweat dripping down the walls, a throng of people moving in unison—these are the images it evokes. Black City sounds like the backing to a trip through a night club in the basement of a basement. Then Dear’s deep voice kicks in, like the trip from a wave of mind-bending drugs. At 3:30 a.m., this one is going to be heard and felt.