The Octopus Project swung through Brooklyn for a night at The Music Hall of Williamsburg April 6 as part of their national tour. This Austin group had to miss SXSW this year since they were on tour with Devo, having landed a supporting slot after playing together at last fall’s Moogfest. But their hometown showcased the band anyway with a win for #1 Best Experimental Band and last year’s release Hexadecagon was voted #8 in Album of the Year category in The 2010 – 2011 Austin Music Awards. Octopus Project’s live performance of Hexadecagon (which refers to a 16-sided object) with an 8-channel sound and an 8-channel video system was a highpoint of last year’s festival.
The band opened with “Malaria Codes” off their 2005 release One Ten Hundred Thousand Million. This minimalist composition was a nice warm up to their experimental indietronica, which never strays from an honest, sometimes humorous, human connection. The Octopus Project composes songs that have a beginning, middle and end: they don’t just push ‘play’ on a variety of electronic gizmos. The extraordinary musicianship is amplified by an exchange of roles on stage -- from switching spots at the drum kit to play guitar or pull out different instruments, even within the same song. A stage is a very busy place for Tito Miranda, Ryan Figg along with married couple Josh and Yvonne Lambert. However, beyond a few “thank yous” between songs, the band members kept to the business of adventurous music.
NMMatterscorp YouTube Video "Music Is Happiness"