April 19–26, 2001

music picks| electronica

Lloop

The peak of the illbient movement may have come and gone. But Brooklyn-based WE™ furthered what DJ Spooky and the Soundlab gatherings started around the mid-’90s: a "laboratory atmosphere" based on the realisms of urban culture and city life yielding a psychedelic mesh of ambient hip-hop, beats and scratches, drum ’n’ bass, jazz, and other mind-blurring sounds and strategies. WE™’s three full-lengths lifted the illbient sound into a more palpable, pop oriented head-trip. Rich Panciera (a.k.a. Lloop) is one third of the pleasantly erratic trio and used to call Philly home before migrating north. As a solo artist, Lloop integrates DJing with live performance, using samples, loops, sequences, effects, CDs and records, all of which he interchanges and processes on the fly, deconstructing a multi-colored hybrid of trip-hop, d’n’b, and dub. Prepare to drown in groovy, laid-back chaos.

—Sean O’Neal

Thu., April 19, at Aqualounge’s Slipstate with Dev79, Charlie Brownski, and Dr. Josiah, 323 W. Girard St., $3.