Music Reviews : L.A. Sonic Series Double Bill at LACE

The promise implied in experimental music frequently goes unfulfilled. Saturday evening, however, the ongoing Sonic Series at LACE produced an often chaotic, sometimes gripping, almost invariably interesting double bill.

E.A.R. Unit percussionist Amy Knoles makes new music the old-fashioned way--with interpretive passion supported by controlled technique. Her varied set revealed a quick, concentrated mind at work, as well as agile hands.

Knoles’ aggressive abilities at an electronic drum kit were showcased in Kirsten Vogelsang’s “Sunburst,” transforming rock cliches accompanied by an obsessive tape part. Greg Fish’s disorganized “A Little Light Music” mined a similar stylistic vein more ambitiously, while Mark Waldrep’s intense “Morphism IV” showed more sophisticated control of live electronic media and clearer musical direction of the percussive impulse.

The sonically dirty environment upstairs at LACE nearly obliterated Mel Powell’s expressively fastidious “Amy-abilities.” A goofy arrangement of Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase,” alas, came through loud and clear, enlivened by occasional unintentional variations.

The HUB, a five-man Bay Area collective, opened the concert, solemnly turning knobs and keying computer instructions amid a techno-rat’s nest of cables and consoles. “Hot Pig,” an inventive parody of a rock instrumental, displayed welcome humor, but for the other five numbers, the process proved almost self-caricature--repetitious, arbitrary and machine-indulgent.