Review: Mihirangi at 303, 3 March 06
Posted by Campbell on | March 6, 2006
Ended up at 303 on Friday night. Mihirangi, who I’d never heard of before, was just starting a set out the back. When we first walked in she was midway through a song and I didn’t really pay that much attention- just aware of a lone woman on stage with a microphone fiddling with pedals with her feet and singing to a sort of world music/boom box fusion backing track.
But when the next song started I realised that her performance involves recording and mixing each track live- starting with a couple of percussion tracks, several backing vocal parts on top of that, then some kind of Maori flute made out of a bone and finishing with a song over the top of it all. All of this without missing a beat between tracks so the whole act of creation is virtually seamless. No breaks, no second takes. It was incredible to see and hear- this one woman on an empty stage weaving layer upon layer of the piece around herself and the audience.
When friends and I have played around recording stuff it’s taken hours to get a few tracks down (and even then they still sounded pretty crap!)
Don’t know that I’d buy her CDs or anything, but would definitely go and see her perform again some time.