Two weekends ago we hosted another installment of our concert series Plastics Dept in downtown Los Angeles, bringing a veritable treasure-trove of live electronic music to a new location for an exciting exhibition of sound and light in motion. This time, we aimed our conceptual framing around breakbeat and drum and bass, with a particular focus on live instrumental performance, collecting a raucous quartet of acts that brought enough heat to rival our uncharacteristically unpleasant LA summer temperatures.

Descending on Boomtown Brewing that evening, I wondered what might be in store for the first Plastics Dept show to venture beyond Coaxial Arts, our so far safe-haven and all-around emporium of experimental electronic music. Boomtown was a larger space and perhaps a better fit for the low-end heavy beats sure to commence that evening. Would the cavernous quality of their industrial digs swallow each sampled break like a marine mammal of biblical proportion? Might their ready access to billiard's tables, shoot-em-up arcade cabinets, and all-you-can-throw corn hole distract dance-ready show-goers toward the warm embrace of casually competitive entertainment?

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These worries soon subsided as I watched the show come together. The Phantom Train, the local live visuals wizard who was on duty for projection that night, loaded in alongside two collaborators with multiple large projectors, proceeding to blanket the space in what seemed like a square quarter mile of delicately shimmering texture from a video synth and feedback rig. On stage, a massive pile of modular gear, desktop grooveboxes, and hardware effects towered atop folding tables like a strange and sacred cairn, partially obscuring not one, but two drumkits, portending the rhythmic revelry to come.

Settling in, the show was soon off to the races with the first act, Varial. While much of Varial's work exists on social media sharing platforms like Youtube and Instagram, they also play with relative frequency around Los Angeles, and I'm always stoked to catch another set. Opening the show that evening, Varial commanded a dizzying assortment of hardware devices, with a large 12U Eurorack rig at the center of the command station. A seriously talented performer, Varial's tunes almost never make evident the complexities in signal flow used to create them, offering a sleek and buttoned-up series of jams that are compositionally record-ready yet provide plenty of fresh surprises to keep you on your dancing shoes.

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Stylistically, Varial's set stayed firmly within the realms of breakbeat and jungle, but occasionally inflected Techno and House sensibilities as well, welcoming four-on-the-floor kicks alongside or even in lieu of breakbeats. Characterful dub vocal samples were deftly shredded through stuttering and sputtering granular repeats, with these voices offering a lively atmosphere that kept the room bouncing with glee. All the while, Varial sat behind the piles of gear with careful and focused attention, continuously introducing and reshaping sonic elements between short moments of direct crowd interaction. I can appreciate the pull toward this mode of music creation, shaping and directing the flow of signals like a complex hydroelectric dam, riding the waves of chaos and control as the beats unfold in each knob turn, beat switch, and sample drop.

Following Varial's dub-drenched performance, MX-81 took the stage, taking point above a significantly simpler set-up. Having played under other monikers, this would be MX-81's first set under the new name. Bringing together an RE-303 with a Dtronics acid distortion in tow alongside a Digitakt II, Oberheim OBX desktop, and an OTO Boum for a bit of warmth, MX-81 delivered a masterclass in pushing gear to its absolute limits, serving up an outstandingly lush and vibrant set of drum and bass, jungle, and breakbeat. It's no question that MX-81's work deserves the biggest stages imaginable—yet those that know him often find themselves begging for live performances or the rare mix sent via cloud storage link. For me personally I've considered sending a bootleg directly to the Warp Records desk myself.

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MX-81's detail-oriented programming and sound design are made apparent in the ear-tickling flourishes that spiral throughout catchy yet askew melodies. These fills, cinematic effects, and wild transformations provide consistent jolts of energy that help resist the fully slack-jawed and drooling mode of listening demanded by the highly refined production quality. Surely the Boum is pulling a lot of weight here, adding stereo glue and warmth that brings everything together, but the degree to which MX-81's set sounded like a finely tuned record stands as a testament to his ear for mixing rather than mere gear selection. While record-ready, MX-81's tunes aren't anything I've heard on record, making it all the more frustrating that there is not yet a place to revisit the music. His style sits somehow in cool and calm repose between contemporary classicalists like FFF and Tim Reaper while preserving a unique character and quirk more indicative of beat breakers on Warp and other such cohorts. Alas, I don't know if I'll ever get a MX-81 record, but I'll sure as heck keep hoping for one, because it's a sound I never want to stop hearing.

After these two exceptional hardware live sets, the folding tables were carried off to reveal the set-ups behind them, giving us a small preview of the drum-heavy fun soon to commence. I myself am one of many wandering and errant drummers who have found themselves caught adrift in a sea of knobs and patch cables, so seeing musicians able to bridge both these worlds is always a treat. In many cases, electronic music scenes and those more likely to feature a full drum kit are kept mutually exclusive—often this comes down to nothing more than show logistics like space, changeover time, and other considerations where the culturally formed norms within a scene preclude those of another, even when their aesthetic perspectives are obviously resonant and compatible. To put it simply, the DJ's don't have the time or space to watch you set up your Terry Bozzio style mega-kit, and even if they did, not being able to plug a D.I. into something "just ruins the vibe." And yet, when people can make it work, it's typically a great success, fusing the expansive sound palette of electronic production with the embodied energies of acoustic instrumentation.

Up first in the second half was the local act 2KINETIK, a bass and drums duo that performs live drum and bass... as you might expect! What you might not expect, however, is their characterful sound that seamlessly fuses Nerve-inspired, driving energy with the forwardly fun perspective of Mark Giuliana's Beat Music!—all the while retaining a timbral sensibility informed by the freak funk of Primus. It would be easy enough to chalk up 2KINETIK's bassist as delivering a masterclass in rig design, though that would betray the ways in which the gear seamlessly fades into the background during performance. Close your eyes, and 2KINETIK's huge and sprawling synth bass sounds and lush pads might fool you into thinking this is some large ensemble studio project, but instead this impressively refined set-up emerges only from four strings.

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While the production and live performance on the bass side is riveting in its own right, 2KINETIK's drummer offers much more than mere time keeping. Clearly inspired by Jojo Mayer of Nerve, the drummer delivered exceptionally precise grooves with a deep pocket, utilizing multiple snares and other dry sounds to expressively emulate breakbeat grooves on the acoustic kit. Between covers of Roni Size's classic "Brown Paper Bag" riff and original tunes that extend this core DNB sound with modern, space-grade synth tones, the band held down deep grooves indicative of plenty of time in the woodshed together. Also in tow was 2KINETIK's consistent collaborator, MC Werd, who commanded the microphone over their tunes with a flow reminiscent of old school practitioners. Together, the trio kept up a continuous energy across the set, offering an all-killer, no-filler approach without breaks.

Finally, KJ Sawka took the stage to close out the night. One of the most active and celebrated drummers in live electronic music, KJ performs with huge groups like Pendulum, where his unique hybrid kit offers a mind-blowing complement to electronic productions with a distinctly visceral edge. Notably, the venue started to fill out just before his set, anticipation ratcheting upwards as the crowd prepared for the aural feast ahead. Performing solo, KJ delivered an outstanding assortment of tunes ranging from original compositions to DNB medleys and remixes of popular songs. His kit was relatively condensed compared to the previous group, consisting of just a few basic drums, numerous cymbals, and a sampling pad placed centrally, which was ostensibly the source for much of the forwardly electronic elements in each song.

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I say "ostensibly" because over the course of KJ's performance, it was hard to parse out where the acoustic ended and the electronic began. Shapeshifting between the real and wired worlds, KJ's playing delivers the best of both without compromise. Hard hitting snares and kicks seem to emerge in perfect form, as if electronically compressed and mastered in real time, yet without the stifled and lifeless sound of samples alone. In the next moment, a breakbeat is played with expressive flow, offering a dynamic quality through carefully placed agogic accents, the sort of playing that drips with feel while remaining perfectly precise. Tucked beneath the sampling pad and affixed to the rim of his kick drum was a small microphone from Yamaha that handled much of this chimeric performance practice, weaving together the acoustic sounds with electronically triggered samples in a delightfully integrated fashion.

All told, the night was a huge success, and we are stoked to have brought the breaks and beats to Boomtown for another installment of Plastics Dept. We're already dreaming up more events for the future, so whether you're a dedicated show-goer or want to catch some music technology in action for the first time, be sure to stay tuned as we cook up new ideas for wiggling out in the world.