[screen cap from unartigNYC video]
The conventional story going into this show — the album release party for Aa’s new album VoyAager on Northern Spy — was that the band had returned after a lengthy hiatus to produce their first album in seven years and that it is a triumphant return. But things sort of took a detour along the way, namely in the form of a fatal computer crash midway through the set. That being said, after a few days to digest what was clearly a weird end to a show, we went back to listen to the half-show we recorded. Its ends up that the 3 song set is absolutely phenomenal, performance-wise and sound quality wise. The Aa stage set was essentially John Atkinson on electronics and vocals and a quartet of drummers. From the outset the energy in the set was stunning as the drum corps kept up with Atkinson’s frenetic soundscape. Its almost as if the laptop couldn’t take the heat from the stage. The brevity of the set gives us the opportunity to stream the whole show, and all three tracks are streaming below.
The band’s personnel seems to evolve from show to show, and now that they are out on the West coast touring, Atkinson will be reunited with band co-founder (along with Josh Bonati) Aron Wahl who now resides in Los Angeles. We expect to capture a full Aa show when they return East, but for now this mini set is a very nice taste of the excellent music they are currently producing.
I recorded this show with the Sennheiser cards mounted on a stand at the front of the stage and mixed with a board feed. The mics picked up mostly drums and the soundboard was primarily the electronics, but after a few test mixes I believe I finally found the right balance. The sound is quite superb. Enjoy!
Full Disclosure: It was announced yesterday that NYCTaper is a media sponsor of a SXSW show co-presented by Northern Spy and Baba Bing Records. This relationship with Northern Spy in no way influenced our positive review of their artist Aa. We wouldn’t have posted the recording if the performance wasn’t top notch.
Stream “Bubby”:
Stream “Rankzone”:
Stream “Postsac”:
Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.
Aa
2014-01-28
Death By Audio
Brooklyn NY
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + On-Stage Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)
Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
Setlist:
[Total Time 15:14]
01 Bubby
02 Rankzone
03 Postsac
If you enjoyed this recording, please support Aa, visit their band page at the Northern Spy website, and purchase VoyAager from Northern Spy [HERE]
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