The musical genre known as braindance might be seen as niche when compared to Taylor Swift. Yet news reports last week revealed that, in the previous month, Aphex Twin (who co-coined the term “braindance”) had 448 million YouTube listens, Taylor Swift a paltry 399 million. Such are the anomalies of digital culture.
This Southbank concert by GBSR Duo (the name derives from the players’ initials: percussionist George Barton, pianist Siwan Rhys) offered no Taylor Swift. Instead, they juxtaposed Aphex Twin and Karlheinz Stockhausen, a composer who subjected European classical music to shock treatment in the decades following World War Two. The two traded mild insults 30 years ago so the concert was billed like a prize fight, Stockhausen vs Aphex Twin. In fact, the two works performed were more complementary than antagonistic. Stockhausen and Aphex Twin: Together at Last, perhaps.
