[it has been over 8 mos & some info may be incorrect. apologies in advance,
I'm not a music reviewer, this is more story than sound -> my words.]

sun electric
berne switzerland
23.10.97


a little background: I had gotten up really early, around 8 that morning to
go ice climbing for the day. I was staying at Balmer's Herberge (that might
not even be close) in Interlocken which was one of the nicest hostels I
stayed at, it was like a ski lodge or something. they had glacier climbs,
hang gliding, & (they claimed) the worlds highest bungee. anyways, we did
that til around 5 or 6 then wanted to relax a bit. i was armed only w/ the
show dates & 2 words for each: a city name & place. for this night i had
only "23 oct - berne reitschule" to go on, which is not too much when you
think how big a foreign city can seem when you're in a rush but you don't
know how to get there. i think there were 3 or 4 shows & I wanted to go to
one but didn't know where I would be (I was studying in London & was on a
10 day break, had flown down to Italy & was working my way back to the UK)
so we had a few days to flounder on but we decided to move to the next city
& go to the show.

we got there kinda late getting to Berne tho so I didn't think I would make
it. we went to a hostel & found that it closed at midnight so I would not
be able to get back in if I went out so I headed out. luckily, the 1st
person i asked knew where it was so I headed on over around 11. (I was
impressed, there was even something in the newspaper that listed them as
"Intelligent Techno.") I had nearly 0 swiss francs (barely enough to buy a
coke for a caffeine fix later on after convincing the bartender I didn't
care that they sold brand name drinks) so I talked to the 'doorguy' about
how he viewed the american vs swiss public (pretty interesting). Tom came &
got me in, helping the story to go on a little longer. the venue was very
nice, I don't know german but from what someone said Reitschule means
"school house" or it was converted from one or something? I'm not sure but
it didn't seem like it, this place was upstairs & pretty small, a bar &
couches near the back & then the regular stage/floor area up front.
foosball even. the walls were slanted in & there were support beams going
up. seemed like someone's loft or attic. I'm not good at guessing but there
weren't that many people there definitely maybe 100 or 50? who knows but it
surely wasn't crowded which was very nice since it made the whole show feel
a little more 'homey' & personal (but bad since people were missing out on
their great music). when I came in Thomas Fehlmann was already djing. it
was not what I would have expected (from his music or what he's produced)
but it was really cool & interesting. one latin-sounding song comes to
mind. I guess it was the most recent stuff he was into, mostly drum & bass
but nothing boring & no rehashed sounding crap. it was all pretty dancey &
upbeat. his set slid right into...sun electric came out w/ guitars chugging
away on the hardcore metal they are known for while Max violently grabbed
the mike & rhetoric question-ally snarled "Berne, are you ready to rock?!"
while Tom gave the heavy metal horned goat head hand signal. unfortunately
they jumped back to their regular performance & these pictures did not come
out...

sun electric came on for an hour, then a 15 min encore (which they said was
Crystal off Present). Tom was wearing his counterfeit rolex which I had
previously captured on film in Florida. in a word: beautiful. there is no
way I can describe how good this was. for those of you who saw them w/ the
orb last summer, it was similar to that but it was recognizably different.
to me it seemed those shows w/ the orb were a little more beat-y, kinda of
like they needed to make a good impression on an american audience since
most of the crowd isn't going to be down for chilling out for $20. but this
show seemed a bit more laidback like they were just having fun & didn't
have to prove anything & there was a definite groove going. it seemed like
I heard subliminal snippets of Madonna (or maybe just a female voice, or
maybe just in my head) being dropped in everyonce in awhile, kinda like the
Beatles sample on sun electric's live album but fractions of a second. even
Eya (the song off present that squarks "ark-ay-eyaaah") that I normally
don't like that much sounded great (there was less of the annoying sample)!
the sound was mostly a mix between Present & live lp w/ older songs being
played in that style. complete intensely slublime bliss & other words don't
convey how good the experience truly was.

the only bad part was that it had to end. i got to talk to all three of
them for a bit after the show & they were extremely-nice-guys(tm). I mostly
talked to Tom, while trying to light my green baccy pipe that I had just
got in Dublin. I guess they are what you would expect from hearing their
music: funny, cool, positive, interesting, calm, intelligent, peace-loving
guys. sadly, some drunk (possibly homeless) freak hopped up on crack
cocaine (well, not really) guy decided to get rowdy. I had talked to this
nut shortly after entering where he started the conversation w/ "hey got
any hash?" I guess the bar cut him off & he got mad or something & started
throwing glasses & bottles, had to be escorted outside (I mean he was
REALLY ROWDY [a Christian guy who worked there felt convicted that he
didn't turn the other cheek, but he did what he had to do) & after a minute
Thomas yelled "He smashed our fucking winshield!" (or words to that effect)
of their rented tour van. well, a stinky hassle to deal w/ on the 1st date
of this swiss tour, but it didn't really seem to bother them, it was kinda
like "life..." I ended up leaving around 4am to go to the train station.
there were some extremely strange people there, about the kind w/ mental
problems that you would meet in a swiss train station at 5am. my friend
ended up waking up late so we missed our 5:45am train by a few min & had to
stick around til 8am, while my tired self was kicked out of various stores
for looking like a vagrant, unable to sleep.

most of the pictures from that night didn't turn out too spectacular but
the 1st one on the page & one of Thomas F look pretty cool in my opinion.
as orb fan's (& hopefully lovers of good sounds & positive vibrations) I
think it is everyone's duty to buy at least 1 sun electric album. they are
all excellent. you can't go wrong w/ any of them but I would start w/
Present or live (which is more ambient). also, their producer, Thomas
Fehlmann, is a member of the orb & they also co-authored Pomme Fritz, so
that should clue you into their influence on the orb sound. here are the
albums (all on r&s/apollo):

kitchen
aaaaaah!
30.7.94 live
Present
(the new one might be called) Via Nostra

o'locco - numerous orb mixes but I don't think you can buy it new anymore.
Eya single - this has a bunch of great mixes on it too.
(new) single on rough trade/germany w/ mixes by Plaid, The Modernist, &
    Thomas Fehlmann.