Jul. 21, 2010 - Issue #770: Draw It Yourself
Prevue
Plaza rock central
Local teenager experiments with electronica
Two years ago this fall, local dance-floor demolitionists Shout Out Out Out Out played a raucous free show in Churchill Square. The large, appreciative crowd doubtless went home with many fond memories, but the gig's most important legacy might be the impression it made on a single fan.Dylan Khotin-Foote, then 14, decided after seeing the Shout Outs that night that he'd try his hand at electronica. "It kind of defined that I was going to start making electronic music," he says of the show. Now entering his senior year at Ross Shepard High School, Khotin-Foote's emerging as a potential future star under the curious pseudonym of Kumon Plaza. He says his music career almost got started by accident.
"This whole Kumon Plaza thing … I didn't really mean to have it out there," he admits. He initially posted a few songs on a MySpace page to make it easier to share them with friends. From there, things took off.
"This has been a good few months," he says. "A lot of good things are happening." Good things like an an appearance on the podcast of indie tastemaker blog Pitchfork and signing to local label Old Ugly Records. Khotin-Foote also played at an Old Ugly showcase at the recent Sounds of Strathcona Festival, and will re-release his debut EP, Cliff, at Axis Cafe on Saturday.
Under the influence of a piano-teaching grandmother, Khotin-Foote got started in music early. Though he's since switched from classical to electronic, he says he still writes songs on the stand-up piano in his house.
The sound behind the hype feels strange for an Edmonton artist; cerebral electronica is the domain of Europeans with expensive sunglasses, isn't it? If so, someone forgot to tell Khotin-Foote, whose soothing synthesizers and gentle rhythms can be downright hypnotic at times. The music feels like Ratatat with no guitar riffs, or maybe Holy Fuck played backwards at half speed.
He describes his music as "Just kind of stuff to dance to, I guess, but it's not like full-out, hard-dancing kind of stuff. It's kind of laid-back."
Khotin-Foote's music also exhibits a distinct video-game vibe at times—not terribly surprising considering its author won't be able to buy beer for another two years, but novel nonetheless.
"I grew up playing a lot of video games," he says, citing the Nintendo 64 classic Ocarina of Time as a particular favourite. "I actually use a Gameboy to make a lot of my music." Inserting a hacked cartridge into the machine turns it into a four channel sequencer that Khotin-Foote liberally mixes into his psychedelic techno mix.
His long-term music goals, he says, don't include climbing the charts or even pursuing a music as his principal career. Khotin-Foote says he's thinking of becoming an audio engineer when he graduates high school next year. Still, he's interested in making music in the future.
"I'm just going to keep making music. I'm planning to do it for a long time. I really enjoy it as a hobby, and I'm getting good reception." V
Sat, July 24 (8 pm)
Kumon Plaza
With Jaded Hipster Choir and Jessica Jalbert
Axis Cafe, $7
More info about Axis Café →
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