Objekt x Ezra Miller, Islington Assembly Hall, September 12th

Published on 2019-10-29 00:00:00 by Joseph Fuller

I wasn’t sure that melding computer-generated, drone-like imagery with scorching sound design would work, but the pairing of Objekt and visual artist Ezra Miller transported me out of Islington Assembly Hall and into the stratosphere.

Objekt has become a beloved name among electronic music fans of all stripes. I enjoyed spotting several of his peers in the Highbury & Islington Wetherspoons before the set, as 2018’s mind-bending release, Cocoon Crush, swung a severe-but-successful left turn after the all-conquering club success of 2017’s “Theme from Q.” After eight years of touring as a DJ, Objekt decided to switch his focus to creating an immersive live show, with his intense, colorful output working in unison with visual artist Ezra Miller’s real-time generative art, mirroring his sounds with the vibrancy they deserve. As the night progressed, we were brought into a world of singing bugs, environmental catastrophe, whirring machines, and cascading patterns—each piece in tune with the beautiful, textured, and sometimes unsettling sounds that swirled around them.

Under a giant screen, Objekt and Ezra Miller faced each other, lit by the towering screen above them. After a slow start caused by technical difficulties, we were absorbed into the duo’s warped world, treated to highlights from Cocoon Crush alongside other selections from Objekt’s discography. Cocoon Crush’s more ominous soundscapes were backed by insectoid faces warping across the screen, glacial mountain spaces, and rumbling forestry, making the nigh-on biology-changing soundscapes of that album even more physical. Elsewhere, during the 2013 banger “Agnes Demise,” the track’s stomping, machine-like power was reflected with images of twisting wires, pressurized structures, and hammering metal plates. Objekt’s impressive range of genres—across breakbeat, techno, ambient, noise, and even a vocoder-aided ballad where Objekt’s vocals were performed by a towering, crooning caterpillar on-screen—were even more powerful with Ezra Miller’s kinetic visuals attached. The results were stunning: like the loudest episode of Planet Earth you’ve ever stepped into.

The set’s closing track, “Love Inna Basement (Midnite XTC)“—which Objekt claims is in fact a “lost tape” of sorts from a mysterious artist called DJ Bogdan (but is instead a reworking of “Theme from Q”)—got a gleefully daft visual palette to match its relentless raving energy. Most of Objekt’s set had the audience in head-nodding reverie, so the sight of the Islington Assembly Hall losing their collective marbles as images of animals warping into new beings were beamed onto us marked a joyous high point of the set—and a great way to end the night. “Love Inna Basement’s” refrain of “FREE YOUR BODY AND MIND” may come from a satirical slant, but when placed at the end of all we’d witnessed over the evening, it felt pretty potent. Long may this mind-bending partnership continue.

Written by Joseph Fuller