Belgian Insulation

Last night I saw Styrofoam, Belgium’s “greatest” electronica artist. You might know him as the guy who occasionally plays the laptop on Notwist tours.

When I walked into the venue at the Stuk (Leuven’s cultural arts center), the first thing I noticed was that Stella was een euro sestig, so I promptly said “Een Stella, alstublieft.” When that was over, Isan went on. They’re a British duo of laptoppists who play slow music. They had been in town for two weeks “soundtracking soundscapes” for a “soundscapes exhibit” in a different part of the Stuk. How they got paid to stay for two weeks making music that is supposed to be loosely based on the inanimate objects in a room is beyond me, but they did it. And then they played music for us, and we were inanimate the whole time, too.

Then Styrofoam went on, and he was kind of chill. Instead of his original stuff, he cut up hipster songs of all sorts — from M.I.A. to American Analog Set. The crowd was not inanimate, and neither was he; but it was still very Eurodignified. I sang along to M.I.A., because I’m cool enough to know the words. Everyone was impressed, like always.