BUDDH4CL4WZ at Arlene's Grocery

When EDM (Electronic Dance Music) music was born in the late 1980s, someone could set up a table in a schoolyard, bring out a Casio keyboard and a couple of turntables, and the rave began. The keyboard would provide a choice of rhythm tracks and the player would create electronic sounds for melody lines. As the music developed, electronic gear increasingly replaced the keyboard’s dominance. Artists created music and programmed it back into the machinery. Now in its fourth decade, the line between what is played live and what is pre-programmed varies from artist to artist. One can fairly ask the question: is this a musician or a disc jockey?

Meet BUDDH4CL4WZ, also know as Andreas Robbins, who performed at Taylor Rich’s Step into Spring night at Arlene’s Grocery tonight. He produced music with software synthesizers, mixers and MIDI controllers. He sometimes touched the keypad on his laptop or twisted a dial on one of the electronic gadgets, then walked away as the music played on without his help. Halfway through his set, he was joined onstage by two rappers, once again as he stood apart from the machines producing the music. The music was energetic and danceable, although most in the audience were spectators, not dancers. While much of the music was not created live, the blur was irrelevant, as ravers heard and felt what they came to experience.