BEFORE MIDI Consider the Space Between Performance and Playback

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXSnKjvA1pQ

Rearranged for peak-time vinyl play, live-recorded material sits at the centre of BEFORE MIDI’s Invaders, Qu’est-ce que c’est? That purpose gives the project a useful point of entry: these are performances considered not just as documents of a session, but as music to be brought into a DJ set. The relationship between those two settings is the record’s most intriguing proposition.

The telling moment comes after the recording, when the material is reshaped for vinyl. There’s a distinction between capturing a performance and deciding how it should work in a set; here, both are part of the process. That second stage puts the emphasis on arrangement without making the original performance incidental.

There’s a tension in that idea: the immediacy of playing live meets the more considered task of preparing music for a particular setting. It gives the project a mood that feels less about nostalgia than about the exchange between making a record and finding a place for it in the room.

BEFORE MIDI brings together DJ and producer Viziale and multidisciplinary composer Barabbah. Their collaboration connects two perspectives on how recorded music might move from a performance into a set, with rearrangement acting as the bridge. For DJs interested in material with a live starting point and a clear peak-time purpose, that process makes Invaders, Qu’est-ce que c’est? worth exploring.

https://www.ultrasuonirecords.com/shop/invaders-quest-ce-que-cest/