Pendu Disco: Mascara, Myrrh Ka Ba, Zombelle

Blackened and blissful synthscapes, visceral neon visuals, and (as ever) a crowd well worthy of aesthetic attention made last night's Pendu Disco an ecstatic occasion. Mascara opened the show with seething distorted sounds and beats viscous and vicious: the duo's psychedelic electro grind had the expertly attired audience totally raved up. The impassioned full body commitment of the vocals inspired an infectious materiality, dispelling that whole electronica-as-the-province-of-inert-abstraction thing. There was nothing but presence and physicality in Mascara's performance. The room became an aural hothouse, with nothing but hot house, bleeding prismatic feeling bolstered by the charmingly odd technicolor jungle gym installation in Secret Project Robot and the avant evil video art on the walls by Lee Jackson. Pure synesthesia.

(Apparently I was too out of it for proper video taking, but you get the idea...)

As the night progressed, each act introduced elements that changed the sonics while the space remained electrified with the infusion of new energies. By the time the oh-so-fly Zombelle and Myrrh Ka Ba played "Pumpkin Pumpkin," their collaborative spin on Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci," my mind was officially blown. "One big broom, full of black witches," Zombelle rapped as she stalked across the stage, blue hair and sunglasses glowing in the lights. The mix of humor and straight up spooky baddassery of the track is still confounding. With a veritable who's who of witch house in the audience (according to Todd Pendu), along with the infinitely groovy scene of the evening, it was definitely one of the top parties of my summer thus far...