August 21, 2015

Friday night live at Transistor: solo improvised electronica from Charles Mantis and Max Abstrax. Sound by Jon Monteverde.  

Charles Mantis is the project of trumpeter Gerald Bailey featuring his beat-forward, sensual, anti-tech electronic music. For his set at Transistor he will premier a short ambient piece featuring the Hum Volt Drum R Drum, drones on multiple cassettes and trumpet.

Visit Gerald on Soundcloud.

Also available: previous Charles Mantis Transistor performances from:
September 28, 2012
May 18, 2012

Max Abstrax, aka Max Andrew Davis, is a DJ, electronic music composer and teacher of DJing and music technology to Chicago’s high school-aged youth through Chicago’s After School Matters program. Max was playing piano at an early age and listening to folks like Peter Gabriel, Thomas Dolby and Frank Zappa. He started messing with synths in middle school, buying a Roland D50, and began collecting Orb, Aphex Twin, and Nine Inch Nails albums. The synth addiction flourished and today his music results from all things alive with circuits, wires, knobs, little flashing lights, living in little square bodies of plastic and metal. His compositions are purposefully complex, with themes and sections appearing once, only to move onto another idea completely. There are often many ideas inside one piece, challenging listeners, and oblivious to the short-term attention-span masses. Drum machines, samples and loops churn and change. Max was thrilled to be asked again to perform at Transistor, and he stuck to the rig he has used in the past: an Ableton controller, laptop, and his Critter & Guitari Pocket Piano mini analog synth. But this time the Pocket Piano had a new friend… a bit of a bully… DSI Mopho.

Visit Max Abstrax on Soundcloud.

Also available: Max Abstrax Transistor performances from:
August 30, 2013
November 16, 2012